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 my 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:
- The theme is "Brass", from the phrase "Where there's muck there's brass", but the word has multiple meanings - a type of musical instrument, cheek or insolence and a slang word for money, all of which feature in the grid.
- In 5A ignore the capitals - in the cryptic reading vat is not a tax.
- In 9A the "old music maker" is an old brass instrument, a precursor to 1A.
- 19A is a triple definition.
- In 20A you need the chemical symbol for Aluminium.
- In 1D the abstainer is a teetotaller.
- You may not know the word at 3D or 10D but just follow the instructions to assemble the answers.
- 6D includes a reference to a Monty Python film.
- In 16D the football team to equally have been Aberdeen.
- 19D is a sound-alike clue - the answer sounds like a type of big cat.
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 This can be blown by robot men, perhaps? (8)
TROMBONE – (robot men)* [perhaps].
5 VAT on a large instrument (4)
TUBA – TUB (VAT, the container not the tax) A.
8 Perhaps Pavarotti was originally the ENO Romeo (5)
TENOR – First letter, [originally], of The, ENO R (Romeo in the phonetic alphabet).
9 Dismiss objection of old music maker (7)
SACKBUT – SACK (dismiss) BUT (objection). A precursor to the trombone.
11 Cheek or another part of face (3)
LIP – Double definition.
12 Praises log fires I engineered (9)
GLORIFIES – (log fires I)* [engineered].
13 Currency Office of Government Commerce initially saved from clerical clothing (6)
DOLLAR – Remove OGC (standard abbreviation for Office of Government Commerce) from D{og-c}OLLAR.
15 A wafer - can one really not eat this for starters? (6)
CORNET – Initial letters, [for starters], of Can One Really Not Eat This.
18 Impudence of British impetuosity (9)
BRASHNESS – B (British) RASHNESS (impetuosity).
19 Brass metal can (3)
TIN – Triple definition. TIN like BRASS is a slang word for money. See also 21A and 22A.
20 Hi-tec aluminium alloy is environmentally friendly (7)
ETHICAL – (Hi-tec Al)* [alloy], using the chemical symbol for Aluminium.
21 Horn I played for money (5)
RHINO - (Horn I )* [played].
22 Cash coming from swindle (don't tell anyone) (4)
DOSH - DO (swindle) SH (don’t tell anyone).
23 Deceivers, we hear, are fast movers (8)
CHEETAHS – Sounds like, [we hear], CHEATERS.
1 Gossiped about story covering abstainer beginning drinking (7)
TATTLED – TT (teetotaller; abstainer) in TALE (story), and first letter of Drinking.
2 Some grown-ups make a confession (3,2)
OWN UP – Hidden in grOWN-UPs. Rather easy, but my alternative of “Confess to cryptic clue for “now””, was maybe a bit too tricky.
3 Like a chart of pressure readings except with no illustration (11)
BAROGRAPHIC – BAR (except) O (0; no) GRAPHIC (illustration).
4 One who doesn't appear to eat contents of bowl (2-4)
NO-SHOW – NOSH (eat) and middle letters of [contents of] bOWl.
6 He came from central Italy - I'm not sure he wasn't the Messiah (7)
UMBRIAN – UM (I’m not sure) BRIAN (he wasn’t the Messiah) – a reference to the film Life of Brian.
7 Part of the choir visiting cathedral to sing (5)
ALTOS – Hidden in cathedrAL TO Sing.
10 Oriental style of one in trousers on lake (11)
CHINOISERIE – I (one) in CHINOS (trousers) on ERIE (one of great lakes).
14 Hates those LA pants (7)
LOATHES – (those LA)* [pants].
16 All but the goalie of Milton Keynes football team could injure these (7)
TENDONS – TEN (all but the goalie of the eleven) DONS (Milton Keynes football team). Achilles tendon injuries can be nasty and an outfield player is more likely to get one.
17 The Law redistributed valuable possessions (6)
WEALTH – (The Law)* [redistributed].
18 About to tuck into unhealthy food (5)
BREAD – RE (about) in BAD (unhealthy).
19 Catch big cat in subarctic forest (5)
TAIGA – TIGER (big cat) sounds like TAIGA.
Bit out of my comfort zone with some of the definitions this week, so the aids had to come out for the instrument and the style and I can't parse 13a or 7d. Great fun though, thanks John!
ReplyDeleteNo wait - I can do 13a!
ReplyDeleteAnd 7d - it was right in front of me!
DeleteLOL. Glad you got there in the end. I originally had OGC in the clue for 13a, but some of my test solvers couldn't remember the UK government department. Well it did only exist from 2000 to 2011, I learnt when I googled it. It shows how well I keep up with government and politics!
DeleteExcellent crossword John. I shall use it with my u3a group. I got an error when cutting and pasting the website for answers etc that came up at the end of the crossword but there was no problem with 'here'
ReplyDeleteI hope your group enjoy it. Let me know how they get on.
DeleteEnjoyed seeing both NOSH and DOSH! UMBRIAN, TENDONS, DOLLAR, and BAROGRAPHIC were also favourites-thanks, John, as always.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I had fun with the various meanings of brass in compiling. NOSH, DOSH, UMBRIAN, TENDONS and DOLLAR were among my favourites too. BAROGRAPHIC was a word I would rather not have had to clue :-)
DeleteMissed that I DNF DOSH. Forgot to go back and check. Also struggled with unknown TAIGA. More difficult than usual today, or at least I found it so. Other LOsI BAROGRAPHIC, CHINOISERIE, needed your hint for SACKBUT (COD), TENDONS (football team outside my GK.), UMBRIAN (Python??) (or perhaps from NE England without sound of the sea).
ReplyDeleteBut thanks vm, John.
Countrywoman.
One person's GK... Sorry you found it tricky. The Python reference is to the film Life of Brian.
DeleteI mean NW England!
ReplyDeleteCountrywoman
Completed in 11 minutes but WOE - BARiGRAPHIC, with an I for the O. DK either version of the word word so a straight guess, and I thought "except with no illustration" could be BAR I (one or a) GRAPHIC. "Bar no graphic" didn't make as much grammatical sense ...
ReplyDeleteAs a brass player (trombone in my case), really liked the theme and 1A! Many thanks John
Bad luck on BAROGRAPHIC but I think if it was spelt with an I, I would have clued it as "except with one illustration". Glad you enjoyed the theme and good to know you are a trombone player. Did you know that Pete Biddlecombe, Sunday Times Crossword editor is a trombone player too?
DeleteDid enjoy this - chuckled at 6d - and held up by confidently inserting HUSH for 22a along lines of hush money... this made food finding difficult until solidly working on the mechanics of the clue.
ReplyDeleteQuestion - how does this site align with the same crossword on MyCrossword? Hope I am not out of line in asking... simply confused - as is often the case.
Thank you for the challenge and the explanations.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it, This site is my personal blog and where I have published these crosswords from the start, along with crossword.info, which comes with the Crossword Compiler software I use. But crossword.info is a bit clunky and when I came across MyCrossword I adopted it as an alternative way of publishing crosswords with rather good online solving support. They should all be aligned, but my editing tool remains Crossword Compiler even though MyCrossword provides good support for crossword setting.
DeleteThank you. So, for comments - best to post here? You certainly fit much into your life! Inspirational.
DeleteThanks for thus. We struggled with some of the clues, but it was good to see the explanations. We also had Hush but I had heard of taiga. Put in Umbrian as a concise description of Central Italy, beginning with U, but didn't understand the Messiah bit.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Maybe Life of Brian doesn't count as General Knowledge for some, but it's a great film!
DeleteI’ve been saving this for a rainy day but ended up doing it on a sunny one.
ReplyDeleteNicely stretching, lots of fun and all solved and parsed without using your hints this time.
Too many lovely clues to name them all but the stand outs for me were UMBRIAN, DOLLAR, BREAD and TAIGA.
Thanks John, your efforts are appreciated.
Thanks Ian. Glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteFull of good things, and a good workout for us. 6 down may be clue of the Year so far. Dollar very neat. Enjoyed the theme. Thanks very much.
ReplyDelete