Phil Jordan, Sawbill and I are continuing to produce our series of Weekend Quick Cryptic crosswords. We take turns, publishing one a fortnight, and this week it's Sawbill's turn.
You can find a link to the crossword here and the answers below.
Feel free to leave any comments or questions here as you would do on
TfTT
.
You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.
Before looking at the answers, if you would like some additional help, click the label below.
Hints and tips...
Some hints and tips:
- In 10A "child" could also have been clued as "minor" and is one under care.
- 17A and 5D are cryptic definitions.
- In 7D "orbit" is a facial feature.
And click on this label to get the solution.
Solution and explanation of the answers...
Definitions
underlined in bold italics
, (
Abc
)* indicating anagram of Abc,{deletions} and [] other indicators.
Across
1 Helped get gins, bizarrely, to give up alcohol? (4,3,6)
SIGN THE PLEDGE – (Helped get gins)* [bizarrely].
8 They plunder on sea trip? Possibly (7)
PIRATES – (sea trip)* [possibly].
9 New honour left inside with earl, say? (5)
NOBLE – N (new) and L (left) inside OBE (honour).
10 Pull child back (4)
DRAW – WARD (child) reversed -> DRAW.
11 Protest by Left is hard to defeat completely (8)
DEMOLISH – DEMO (protest) L (left) IS H (hard).
13 Metal some at first dislike (6)
SODIUM – First letter of Some, ODIUM (dislike).
14 Enclosed as written (6)
PENNED – Double definition.
17 Passing mention (8)
OBITUARY – Cryptic definition
19 Take a look at battle on Western Front (4)
VIEW – VIE, first letter of Western.
21 Material only ordered after November (5)
NYLON – N (November in the phonetic alphabet) (only)* [ordered].
22 US State district briefly features in song (7)
ARIZONA – ZON{e} (district) without the last letter, [briefly], in ARIA (song).
24 Receiver and headset I still played with (9,4)
SATELLITE DISH – (headset I still)* [played with].
Down
1 Drain juice (3)
SAP – Double definition.
2 Royal Navy involved in protection of fish (7)
GURNARD – RN (Royal Navy) in GUARD (protection).
3 Gallery is rubbish at end of June (4)
TATE – TAT (rubbish) and last letter of JunE.
4 Festival's originally expensive and changes rates (6)
EASTER – First letter of Expensive, [changes] (rates)*.
5 Capital chap? (8)
LONDONER – Cryptic definition.
6 Occasionally missing drum beat in Emirate (5)
DUBAI – Alternate letters, [occasionally missing], of DrUm BeAt In.
7 I picked up dark image ... it's seen in orbit? (3,6)
EYE SHADOW – EYE sounds like I, SHADOW (dark image).
10 Somehow missed one US state capital (3,6)
DES MOINES – [Somehow] (missed one)*.
12 Over September, October and November could be an umlaut? (8)
AUTUMNAL – [could be] (an umlaut)*.
15 African capital where Ian got up before Rob and me (7)
NAIROBI – IAN [got up] -> NAI, ROB, I (me).
16 Designer in marina swimming (6)
ARMANI – (marina)* [swimming].
18 Some water I collect around start of lunch (5)
INLET – I NET (collect) about first letter of Lunch.
20 Be diabolical climbing (4)
LIVE – EVIL (diabolical) [climbing] -> LIVE.
23 Tree was hard inside (3)
ASH – Hidden in wAS Hard.
1 Helped get gins, bizarrely, to give up alcohol? (4,3,6)
SIGN THE PLEDGE – (Helped get gins)* [bizarrely].
8 They plunder on sea trip? Possibly (7)
PIRATES – (sea trip)* [possibly].
9 New honour left inside with earl, say? (5)
NOBLE – N (new) and L (left) inside OBE (honour).
10 Pull child back (4)
DRAW – WARD (child) reversed -> DRAW.
11 Protest by Left is hard to defeat completely (8)
DEMOLISH – DEMO (protest) L (left) IS H (hard).
13 Metal some at first dislike (6)
SODIUM – First letter of Some, ODIUM (dislike).
14 Enclosed as written (6)
PENNED – Double definition.
17 Passing mention (8)
OBITUARY – Cryptic definition
19 Take a look at battle on Western Front (4)
VIEW – VIE, first letter of Western.
21 Material only ordered after November (5)
NYLON – N (November in the phonetic alphabet) (only)* [ordered].
22 US State district briefly features in song (7)
ARIZONA – ZON{e} (district) without the last letter, [briefly], in ARIA (song).
24 Receiver and headset I still played with (9,4)
SATELLITE DISH – (headset I still)* [played with].
1 Drain juice (3)
SAP – Double definition.
2 Royal Navy involved in protection of fish (7)
GURNARD – RN (Royal Navy) in GUARD (protection).
3 Gallery is rubbish at end of June (4)
TATE – TAT (rubbish) and last letter of JunE.
4 Festival's originally expensive and changes rates (6)
EASTER – First letter of Expensive, [changes] (rates)*.
5 Capital chap? (8)
LONDONER – Cryptic definition.
6 Occasionally missing drum beat in Emirate (5)
DUBAI – Alternate letters, [occasionally missing], of DrUm BeAt In.
7 I picked up dark image ... it's seen in orbit? (3,6)
EYE SHADOW – EYE sounds like I, SHADOW (dark image).
10 Somehow missed one US state capital (3,6)
DES MOINES – [Somehow] (missed one)*.
12 Over September, October and November could be an umlaut? (8)
AUTUMNAL – [could be] (an umlaut)*.
15 African capital where Ian got up before Rob and me (7)
NAIROBI – IAN [got up] -> NAI, ROB, I (me).
16 Designer in marina swimming (6)
ARMANI – (marina)* [swimming].
18 Some water I collect around start of lunch (5)
INLET – I NET (collect) about first letter of Lunch.
20 Be diabolical climbing (4)
LIVE – EVIL (diabolical) [climbing] -> LIVE.
23 Tree was hard inside (3)
ASH – Hidden in wAS Hard.
Nice one thank you. Steady chug for me with very few easy, but none inaccessable. (Except gurnard, which I parsed immediately, but didnt know the fish). Amazingly (as I am a Chemistry graduate) Sodium was loi - dead simple in hindsight!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I try really hard not to use obscure words in either the clues or answers.
DeleteA very nice puzzle, which I think (if my time of 9 minutes dead is anything to go by) was at the easier end of your range. A couple of instances where my go-to rule that 2 word clues are often DDs led one astray, as neither 17A nor 5D complied. Last two were OBITUARY, and then AUTUMNAL where I needed the second U checker to see how the clue worked.
ReplyDeleteDes Moines appears to be like London buses, no sign of it at all then two in two days (it was also in Saturday's QC by Hurley). And STILL no definitive word on how it is pronounced and how many of the Ss are sounded - though consensus seems to be edging towards Deh Moin.
Many thanks Sawbill for the puzzle
Cedric
Thanks Cedric. I have given a lecture in Des Moines and heard it pronounced several ways.
DeleteWas slow on a few today i.e. EYE SHADOW, VIEW and looked up metals for SODIUM.
ReplyDeleteThanks vm, Sawbill. Some fun clues like OBITUARY,!
Countrywoman
Thank you. OBITUARY was fun to clue.
DeleteYes, OBITUARY was excellent. EYE SHADOW, INLET, VIEW and SIGN THE PLEDGE also stood out for me. Learned about the GURNARD and the actual meaning of metal.("Metalled" roads use to puzzle me too) Thanks, Sawbill, much appreciate your productions!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I couldn’t resist the orbit for eye shadow or the fighting on the Western Front.
DeleteLovely! Thanks Sawbill. COD to Obituary for me 😄
ReplyDeleteZak
Thanks, Zak
DeleteThoroughly enjoyed this but no idea of time as we were eating lunch and I managed to boil the marmalade past its setting point as well. Duh Smallholder
ReplyDeleteThank you from one setter to a jam setter
DeleteOne of those lovely puzzles where I was totally stuck and then finished in a flurry. Learned a fish. Loved view once I saw what was going to.
ReplyDeleteThanks. GURNARD is not the prettiest fish
DeleteGood fun this evening. Bamboozled by 19a but struck lucky with VIEW. Couldn't parse 10a as DRAG so had to rethink to DRAW. In my visits to Des Moines, no S ever seemed to be pronounced; interesting you differ...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Andrew
DeleteThanks very much. Quite chewy. Seemed completely stuck, but then somehow everything came in to view!
ReplyDeleteLots of good clues, Cod obituary.
Thanks, both. I like 'everything came into VIEW'.
ReplyDelete