Click here to read about the origin of this series of crosswords.
A brief history of the origins of these crosswords for those who are new to them. As a blogger of the Times Quick Cryptic Crossword on Times for The Times every other Friday, I have often had comments on the blog bemoaning that The Times only provides a Quick Cryptic on Mondays to Fridays. When I finally gave up work at the end of February last year, I decided that I would try my hand at compiling crosswords. It was with some trepidation that I published, in May, the first of these Weekend Quick Cryptics to fill the gap. Well it seemed to go down well so I did another. And then my fellow crossword solver and commenter on Times for the Times, Phil Jordan, volunteered to produce some too! So now we alternate, publishing each new crossword via my Friday Quick Crossword blog. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.
This time it is my turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword. As is hinted at by the title, there is a bit of a theme.
You can try and solve the crossword interactively here on MyCrossword or here on crossword.info. As usual you can download a PDF to print which you can find here. Alternatively you can copy and print the image below. Comments and queries welcome here or with the solution post (which also gives tips on some of the clues). I will react to any comments or queries as soon as I can.
As an added bonus this week there is a quiz round on fish. Can you identify the 25 fish here?
You can find some hints for the perplexed and the solution here, and an index to the complete series of crosswords here.
Thank you, John. I really enjoyed this puzzle after a very tough week on the QC front! Finished it, all parsed, well within my 20 minutes target at 13:40. I needed a bit of a morale-boost and got it!
ReplyDeleteI have a question re your fishy quiz, which was great fun. I had PUFFER where you have ROACH. I had no doubt about my answer but can't work out how yours is reached. MM
Hi. Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed the crossword. As for the quiz round (from our family quiz last weekend)... Yes Puffer is definitely a better answer for that one... I see a roach is the butt of the cannabis joint after it is smoked, not the joint while it is being smoked. Can you tell I've never smoked one? Lol.
DeleteNor me... which would explain my confusion. Thanks for the explanation! MM
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