Phil Jordan, Sawbill and I are continuing to produce our series of Quick Cryptic crosswords. We take turns, publishing one a fortnight, and this week it's Phil's turn.
Before looking at the answers, if you would like some additional help, click the label below.
Hints and tips...
- The doctor in 10A is a TV character
- The actress at 3D was Canadian and died in 1979. She starred in Pollyanna (1920), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), Little Annie Rooney (1925), My Best Girl (1927), Coquette (1929; her first talking picture), The Taming of the Shrew (1929), and Kiki (1931)
- 1D is the old name of various dry white wines from Spain and the Canaries.
Across
1 Unfortunate demise nearly begins
for supporting players (7)
SIDEMEN – (demise)*
[unfortunate] and first letter of Nearly.
5 Man from
Norwich - a poet (4)
CHAP – Hidden in NorwiCH -A Poet
9 Cried out for a drink
(5)
CIDER – (cried)*
[out]. Nice one, Phil. My favourite.
10
Unspecified person always follows doctor (7)
WHOEVER – WHO
(time-travelling doctor) EVER (always).
11 Show luggage - in these?
(7,5)
DISPLAY CASES – DISPLAY
(show) CASES (luggage).
12 Miraculously reveals
soldier wrapped in coats (6)
MAGICS – GI (soldier) in MACS (coats).
13 Move in
favour of famous footballer cut short (6)
PROPEL – PRO (in
favour of) PEL{e} (famous footballer) without the last letter.
16 Pole not skating in front of
initially rude adjutant (5,7)
STAFF OFFICER – STAFF
(pole) OFF ICE (not skating) and first letter of Rude.
19 Active and
heavily attended (2,5)
IN FORCE – Double
definition.
20 Make changes
- at noon? (5)
AMEND – Double definition,
the second a cryptic hint – AM END. Geddit?
21 Time for an American
to take a trip? (4)
FALL - Cryptic definition.
22 Extremely neat
African dictator takes part in trial (7)
TIDIEST – IDI (Amin;
African dictator) in TEST (trial).
1 Get rid of dry
white wine (4)
SACK – Double definition.
2 Avoiding
acting to accommodate head of BBC? (7)
DODGING - DG
(Director General; Head of BBC) in DOING (acting).
3 Barmy army choose to cross old
movie star (4,8)
MARY PICKFORD – (Army)*
[barmy], PICK (choose) FORD (cross).
4 Cardinal
not used to island (6)
NEWMAN – NEW (not
used) MAN (island; Isle of Man).
6 In Perth I've sustained a nasty
rash (5)
HIVES – Hidden in PertH I’VE Sustained.
7 Inspection
of South American country's metal (7)
PERUSAL – PERU’S
(South American country’s) AL (chemical symbol for Aluminium).
8 Can recondite construction be closely
forced together? (12)
CONCERTINAED – (Can
recondite)* [construction].
12 Dog's
mother's spat (7)
MASTIFF – MA’S
(mother’s) TIFF (spat).
14
Creeped out to arrive earlier (7)
PRECEDE – (Creeped)*
[out].
15 Have a bearing on a
very loud medical procedure (6)
AFFECT – A, FF
(fortissimo; very loud) ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy; medical
procedure)
17 Allowable? Not at first -
that's shocking (5)
AWFUL – {l}AWFUL
(allowable) without the first letter.
18 Upgrade
mixed diet (4)
EDIT – (diet)*
[mixed].
Well, that was quite a challenge, Phil, very clever! I went off on a lot of false tracks- four or five for US stumble time and HOCK instead of SACK. DISPLAY CASES and MAGICS were hard too and also the anagram for demise. The head of BBC suggested B, instead of the not known DG. CONCERTINAED! Never spent so long cracking an obvious anagram. NEWMAN and MARY PICKFORD were favourites. Overall a great battle- had lots of fun but picked up some bruises too -thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks. CONCERTINAED took me a while too when test solving for Phil. Gald you enjoyed it.
DeleteGreat puzzle. Had to look up Show to get DISPLAY, a bit feeble of me. Otherwise all OK, after a big last anagram struggle with CONCERTINAED which is a funny looking word.
ReplyDeleteLiked STAFF OFFICER, MASTIFF, PERUSAL, NEWMAN. Luckily no problem with MARY PICKFORD, as I was able to drag her up from the murky depths of my memory.
Thanks vm, Phil and John.
.
Forgot to sign Countrywoman
DeleteThanks. Glad you enjoyed it. Yes I thought it was a funny looking word when I test-solved for Phil too.
DeleteFor the very first time - absolutely the very first time - I am going to confess I did not enjoy one of the weekend specials. I thought there were rather too many clues where I went "Really?" and put the answer in with a shrug. Sidemen is not a word I have ever heard before, Magics for miraculously reveals is a stretch, Staff officer for adjutant surprised me (is not a staff officer one of general staff rank, ie full colonel and above?), In force for heavily attended was another stretch definition for me, Fall for time is very loose, I could not parse Dodging (though it is fair enough seeing the blog), I had never heard of Mary Pickford, cluing ECT as a medical procedure is highly specialist knowledge, and as for Upgrade = Edit, if only all edits were upgrades!
ReplyDeleteThat is more Weekend Special clues to ponder over than for a very long time, possibly than for the whole of the previous 100. Clearly not my day at all, as my time of 19 minutes (my longest for a completed weekender ever by some way) shows. I'm sure it is a classic case of "It's not you, it's me" ... but I was surprised.
Many thanks Phil and John, and on to the next!
Thanks Cedric. It's great to see you comment as if it was a Times Quick Cryptic and share your niggles about some of the clues. Sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as usual. I shared a couple of your concerns when editing Phil's crossword, but didn't think they were worth requesting a change to the clue... a bit of a stretch now and then is part of the preparation for the 15x15 world, which we are trying to do in the spirit of the Times Quick Cryptic.
DeleteThanks Cedric - you've always been very generous in your praise of my earlier efforts, and that makes it easier to accept your criticism this time. There are less comments overall than on most of the puzzles I've compiled, and possibly some have kept their counsel rather than risk offending me - and I'd rather have honesty. I have to confess to having had concerns about IN FORCE myself, but I'm very surprised that you hadn't encountered MARY PICKFORD who was involved in setting up United Artists.
DeleteWe really enjoyed it. Lots of pdms, some very good clues, Cods display cases, whoever. A real treat. Thanks. Chris and Francesca.
ReplyDeleteJust got round to this. Not as tricky as I first supposed but took a while to get into the rhythm. Got misled with 10a as probably starting with MO and only afterwards saw Dr Who... Lots of nice clues eg 9a. 11a. 13a 16a 20a. 21a 22a. 2d. 3d racking my brains for Mary who? 4d was dredged from somewhere or other. 7d. 12d. 13d. So a very different take from Cedric S.
ReplyDeleteHave to admit, this defeated me and was probably one of the trickiest Weekend QC's I can remember. Didn't help that I DNK Mary Pickford and made a pigs ear of 8dn "Concertinaed" which impacted quite a few other clues. Never mind - I will have to do better on the next one.
ReplyDeleteJamesEd46