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 with the clues click the label below.
Hints and tips...
Here are a few hints and tips.
- In 8A the amount of paper is 24 sheets (now often 25) of the same size and quality.
- In 20A the forces are police forces.
- The General in 22A commanded the Union army in the American Civil War.
- In 21D “Cycling” is the effect of writing the word in a circle and starting at a different letter, still going in the same direction.
And click on this label to get the solution.
Definitions
underlined in bold italics, (
Abc
)* indicating anagram of Abc,{deletions} and [] other indicators.
Across
1 Naked except for tie in the end (4)
BARE – BAR (except for) + last letter of tiE [in the end].
4
Card some sent around for colleagues (8)
COMRADES – (card some)* [sent around].
8
Got a lot of paper, we hear, before drawing begins (8)
ACQUIRED – A + CQUIRE sounds like QUIRE (lot of paper) [we hear] + Drawing [begins].
9
Regularly email them about small thing (4)
MITE – Alternate letters [regularly] of eMaIl ThEm.
10
Moan as Ferrari, say, requires a bit of petrol (4)
CARP – CAR (Ferrari, say) + first letter of [a bit of] Petrol.
11
Relation travelling from the east (8)
ORIENTAL – (Relation)* [travelling].
12
Get rid of whisky (6)
SCOTCH – Double definition.
14
Beer on the way back? Edward is happy (6)
ELATED – ALE (beer) [on the way back] -> ELA + TED (Edward).
16
Possessions correctly left out over time (8)
PROPERTY – PROPER{l}Y (correctly) without the L [left out] around [over] T (time).
18
Small joint in vessel (4)
SHIP – S (small) + HIP (joint).
19
Past deliveries (4)
OVER – Double definition, the second referring to cricket deliveries.
20
Global forces (8)
INTERPOL – Cryptic definition.
22
In general, go down slope (8)
GRADIENT – DIE (go down) [in] GRANT (famous general). General Ulysses Grant was commanding general of the Union army in the American Civil War and 18th President of the USA.
23
Back of seat on public transport's broken (4)
BUST – Last letter [back] of seaT [on] BUS (public transport). Note that “on” in an across clue in A on B means B then A, hence hear BUS then T.
Down
2 Old chair refurbished by a craftsman originally (7)
ARCHAIC - A + (chair)* [refurbished] + first letter of Craftsman [originally]. A by B, like “on” in 23A, means B then A, hence (chair)* by A means A + (chair)*.
3
Provide joke online? (5)
EQUIP – E + QUIP. A bit of whimsy. An online joke might be an e joke.
4
Short, short dog (3)
CUR – CUR{t} (short) [short].
5
Profession helping with issue (9)
MIDWIFERY – Cryptic definition, referring to “issue” = “child”.
6
Country song about soldiers (7)
ARMENIA - ARIA (song) [about] MEN (soldiers).
7
More old paintings put up (5)
EXTRA – EX (old) + ART (paintings) [put up] -> TRA.
11
White rose develops in a different way (9)
OTHERWISE – (White rose)* [develops].
13
Reached a point with red tape coming first (7)
TAPERED – TAPE [coming first] + RED.
15
Newspaper people I sorted out (7)
EDITORS – (I sorted)* [out].
17
Traveller runs across (5)
ROVER – R (runs). + OVER (across).
18
Remove stunted bushes (5)
SCRUB – Double definition.
21
Small child cycling over the top (3)
TOT – OTT (over the top) [cycling] -> TOT. “Cycling” is the effect of writing the word in a circle and starting at a different letter, still going in the same direction.
1 Naked except for tie in the end (4)
BARE – BAR (except for) + last letter of tiE [in the end].
COMRADES – (card some)* [sent around].
ACQUIRED – A + CQUIRE sounds like QUIRE (lot of paper) [we hear] + Drawing [begins].
MITE – Alternate letters [regularly] of eMaIl ThEm.
CARP – CAR (Ferrari, say) + first letter of [a bit of] Petrol.
ORIENTAL – (Relation)* [travelling].
SCOTCH – Double definition.
ELATED – ALE (beer) [on the way back] -> ELA + TED (Edward).
PROPERTY – PROPER{l}Y (correctly) without the L [left out] around [over] T (time).
SHIP – S (small) + HIP (joint).
OVER – Double definition, the second referring to cricket deliveries.
INTERPOL – Cryptic definition.
GRADIENT – DIE (go down) [in] GRANT (famous general). General Ulysses Grant was commanding general of the Union army in the American Civil War and 18th President of the USA.
BUST – Last letter [back] of seaT [on] BUS (public transport). Note that “on” in an across clue in A on B means B then A, hence hear BUS then T.
Down
2 Old chair refurbished by a craftsman originally (7)
ARCHAIC - A + (chair)* [refurbished] + first letter of Craftsman [originally]. A by B, like “on” in 23A, means B then A, hence (chair)* by A means A + (chair)*.
EQUIP – E + QUIP. A bit of whimsy. An online joke might be an e joke.
CUR – CUR{t} (short) [short].
MIDWIFERY – Cryptic definition, referring to “issue” = “child”.
ARMENIA - ARIA (song) [about] MEN (soldiers).
EXTRA – EX (old) + ART (paintings) [put up] -> TRA.
OTHERWISE – (White rose)* [develops].
TAPERED – TAPE [coming first] + RED.
EDITORS – (I sorted)* [out].
ROVER – R (runs). + OVER (across).
SCRUB – Double definition.
TOT – OTT (over the top) [cycling] -> TOT. “Cycling” is the effect of writing the word in a circle and starting at a different letter, still going in the same direction.

A rare DNF on the Weekend Specials, as I confidently put in OTT for TOT, and then could not think of what went in 20A. The OTT/TOT clue is one of those one can read either way - there is a very similar one in today's QC - and they always cause me problems, compounded this time by INTERPOL being far from obvious and a clue I'm not sure I'd have got even if I had got the coin toss of 21D right. Before then I had struggled with ACQUIRED and GRADIENT, the latter put in from checkers and not parsed, so clearly not my day today. Many thanks Sawbill for the work out.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cedric, as always. 'Cycling' clues are not my favourite but I couldn't resist it for OTT/TOT clue
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, couldn't parse GRADIENT but with all the checkers and the definition there wasn't anywhere else to go. Otherwise all the trouble was in the NW where ACQUIRED took an age to reveal itself - became fixated on scREAMed - and before that EQUIP where 'ejest' fitted and sort of worked if you ignored the defintion. CUR was a great clue - baffling until it made total sense. Best of all my 14 year old daughter watched over my shoulder and got ELATED before me - and appreciated TOT. Good work Sawbill!
ReplyDeleteThank you (and your daughter). 14 was about when I started getting interested in cryptic crosswords.
DeleteThanks for a great QC Sawbill. Like Cedric started with OTT before realising nothing sensible worked for 20A. Eventual PDM with GRADIENT. Enjoyed the misdirection in many of the surfaces. COD EQUIP.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It’s lovely to see which clues solvers enjoy.
DeleteFrom Countrywoman. Good puzzle. Took me a while to get started - FOI a dubious TOT! But then I got going with a dubious BARE and a confident ARCHAIC. I liked ROVER, MIDWIFERY, ACQUIRED, among others. Yes, COD EQUIP.
ReplyDeleteThanks vm , Sawbill and John.
Thank you. I quite liked BARE but am happy to take EQUIP as COD. I liked it too.
DeleteHello from SomeRandomChap and many thanks to Sawbill and John for an enjoyable distraction from fretting about my swollen hand and arm from a wasp sting, yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI found this quite challenging, but eventually made it to the home straight only for my horse to refuse at the last. Cryptic definitions often bamboozle me and I never got anywhere near INTERPOL, despite 6-7 minutes dedicated work on it at the end.
I also confidently entered OTT and had to correct it later on. Maybe I should have realised that the solution wouldn’t be an acronym, but I still think it fits the clue better than TOT.
Many thanks again from Mr R on a soporific day down here in West Sussex.
Sorry about the wasp sting. Thanks for the feedback on the crossword
DeleteGreat puzzle. I also misparsed 22ac “Gradient” thinking the “general” element had something to do with “I grant you..” No matter - got there anyway. Only other issue was initially putting “Post” for 19ac until I realised none of the other intersecting clues made sense.
ReplyDeleteJamesEd46
Thanks James. I never thought of POST.
DeleteWe found this quite tricky but managed to get there, phew. Another post here! Much to enjoy, Cod tapered, honourable mentions to equip and midwifery. Thanks very much Chris and Francesca
ReplyDeleteThanks both. I'll try to make the next one a bit easier.
DeleteThanks Sawbill. I thought this was harder than usual but none the worse for that.
ReplyDeleteAll completed without looking at the hints but a lot of time spent trying to work out INTERPOL which I had wrongly assumed was a double definition.
I also had OTT at first.
Liked ACQUIRED and the cross with EQUIP was very neat.
Thanks Ian
ReplyDelete