i Cryptic Crossword 4143 Tees

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳

An enjoyable puzzle from Tees brings us to the end of the working week. This was a pleasing and satisfying solve with a good mix of clues: some very accessible, others requiring more work, and a few words from the dustier and less-frequented corners of the dictionary to both keep us on our toes and expand and enrich our vocabulary.

In particular, I constructed the word for impregnate at 1ac from the word-play and had to check that someone else more authoritative than me had made it up before (they had indeed, I was pleased to say). I also checked up that the other word I constructed was a guide to fingering – not the sort of thing you want to google – and was interested to read a bit about that. The musical instrument at 20d and the trimming at 1d I have come across before in Crosswordland.

One clue came very close to being Unfair, in my opinion, which was 4d, This spake Zarathustra. The ancient Persian language, whilst fairly defined, is not really in one’s list of top ten extinct tongues, and neither is the Roman goddess referenced in the likewise clear word-play one of the more popular ones. Cluing one obscure word with another obscure one shouldn’t be encouraged. This did not detract, however, from a rewarding solve.

My Clue of the Day is 17ac, where equivocal meanings are exploited nicely to misdirect: “Display of balance – something pronounced on slope? (4,9)”.

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/17/independent-10508-tees/

i Cryptic Crossword 4420 by Morph

Difficulty rating (out of five) ⌛⌛⌛⌛

It is a long rime since I tackled a puzzle by Morph, and I may not have been on his wavelength today as I felt I was making heavy weather of it,  and I expect that some of you will manage much better. However there were some super clues and I hope we will not have to wait so long for his next puzzle.

1a seemed obvious, followed by 5d, entered on a hunch, which worked. So with two 15-letter answers in the friendliest of grids within seconds, was this going to be solved in record time?  I soon  found out that it was not, though thoroughly enjoyed the time spent. 17a LEAPT out quickly, but only ages later did I see why and enter it. Likewise I spent a long time on 9a until I thought of the obvious AB DO MEN!

There were three I did not know, but was able to eventually  work out with online help: the spirit at 23d,  HG Wells’s Doctor at 20d and the crossing slow cooker, though the latter was rather an inability to recall. In 20d, I share the slight misgivings of the FifteenSquared blogger about the C for canine (about which I also complained yesterday, but today it is my only niggle).

From so many excellent clues, I have a shortlist of three delightful PDMs from which to select my Clue of the Day. The delicious misdirection of a COLD SNAP at 16; 27a where the crossing upside-down mushroom at 24d showed that the home might be a COTTAGE. But the best was finding my way after being lost at 13d:

“Travel north towards rising sun beam, having deviated from course”.

The word plays and interesting comments can be found at:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/16/independent-10481-sat-16-may-2020-by-morph/

i Cryptic Crossword 4141 by Hob

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳

An enjoyable, pretty breezy puzzle from Hob this Wednesday, and one that was over in a jiffy here at least. I don’t trouble myself with the parsing of a clue if I don’t need to, and will admit that loads went in with a bit of a shrug, the parsing being more fiendish than the well flagged answer. There’s a Nina, courtesy of the PM referenced in the middle of the grid, that will have either left you feeling stirred, or alternatively muttering something about war mongers and war crimes, depending on your disposition. I will admit too that I wouldn’t have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out on the other side.

CoD? I’ll go with 20d – “Piece of cake not even found in deli, not even by end of June (6)”.

All the answers and parsing of the clues can be found in Fifteensquared’s blog from June 2020:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/18/independent-10509-by-hob/

Inquisitor 1854 Force Fields by Karla

May the 4th be with you. The force was not strong with this one, as your humble blogger had succumbed to the lurgy. Maybe that one, or not, but there’s a lot of it about, lots of different things, actually. The upshot is the same – a chair in the garden, and a general feeling of not really being able to cope.

Oh yes, it was the Bank Holiday weekend, as if to add insult to injury.

And as if in a fever dream too, about lunchtime when I like to be getting a bag of chips a glance into the living room would confirm that a relative we’d not seen in the flesh in about ten years had just “popped around”, with consummate timing.

All of which is to say that strange things were afoot at the Circle K.

Karla then, to mop our fevered brows. Force fields of a different kind, ones which were COBBLERS, CLAPTRAP, SLIPSLOP, not to mention RHUBARB.

Had you heard of the Rhubarb Triangle? I hadn’t, but they’re forced in certain necks of the wood, so they say. Somewhere northish I think, my geography really not being up to it.

But still, we had misprints telling us to change CARBS to BARBS, and letters we didn’t need giving the towns which mark the limits of the triangle which wasn’t one associated with stranger goings on. Or is the aforementioned quite strange enough?

All of which was as sweet and lovely as the CRUMBLE highlighted, so we should thank Karla for keeping us duly diverted.

Oh yes, we have a triangle in Wales too. The Dyfed Triangle.

i Cryptic Crossword 4140 by Phi

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳

It’s a Tuesday, it’s theme day, and it’s Phi, which means that it’s one you won’t have spotted. 18ac’s from 25/26 is what you were looking for, of which there are several apparently in the grid. Of course, I hear you cry. Never mind, we could still enjoy a puzzle that was three quarters pretty straightforward, with something a little chewier to the NW corner, which will have favoured those of us who start somewhere near the bottom right of the grid. A couple of oddities in the aforementioned corner, but you should have got there with a little thought.

CoD? For me it was 6d – “Dutch produce line in skilful fight with English (9)”.

All the answers and parsing can be found in Fifteensquared’s blog from June 2020:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/19/141494/

i Cryptic Crossword 4139 Nitsy

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳

This was a very pleasing and satisfying start to the new working week. All over a little too soon for my taste, but one of the joys of the Independent / i  crosswords is the nice variety we get, and after a few chewy puzzles, here is an accessible one for balance.

There were no unfamiliar words which necessitated a trip to the dictionary and no parsing problems which detained me for too long. I was rather puzzled by the cryptic definition for the ballet dancer, my last one in. I tend to think of R&J as a play rather than a ballet (although I am well aware that it is indeed one) so was easily led down the wrong path for a while. I thought there might be something going on, but my research (i.e. a bit of random googling) didn’t reveal anything of note.

I loved the Cheddar cheese clue. I thought Marry was nicely done. Clue of the Day, though, is 1d. Humour, misdirection in the surface reading and all at no expense to impeccable word-play: “A bicycle’s broken – no riding in this state(8)”.

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/21/independent-1582-by-nitsy/

i App Cryptic Crossword S0127 by Silvanus

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳⏳

As is noted on the other side, this offering by Silvanus is a mix of easier and tougher clues. Unfortunately, as I’m busy today, I was hoping for something more like the former and less like the latter, and as as result swiftly ran out of time and hit the “Solve Puzzle” button. I suspect this was also because, as per the original blogger, there were several clues I was struggling with the parsing for – CROWN and RADIO both spring to mind, though glancing on the other side there seem to be more than the usual number of question marks in the blog. But how did you get on?

CoD? I’ll go with 12ac – “… transport that’s highly regarded by guy motoring organisation retired (5,3)”.

All the answers and parsing of the clues can be found in Fifteensquared’s blog from May 2020:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/04/independent-10470-by-silvanus/

i Cryptic Crossword 4138 by Serpent

Difficulty rating(out of five): ⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳

I found this considerably more difficult than yesterday’s, which also received 5 egg-timers for difficulty but then both Monk and Serpent ( a pair of Mathematics professors) have reputations for being among the most challenging – and brilliant – setters in the Independent stable. There was an ingenious gimmick (I don’t know if strictly speaking it’s what we normally call a Nina) whereby every entry in the entire grid – all 32 words – contained the letter Y and the grid itself contained four black Ys symmetrically positioned round the centre. That’s a vey nifty idea to start with and a pretty phenomenal bit of grid-filling to pull off. I guess that in 2020 lockdown allowed for such time-consuming feats!

Considering the above the entries were remarkably free from obscurities. I managed to get nearly to the end without recourse to electronic help, but just couldn’t see TYPO in 26d – not twigging that ‘attributed to’ was a hidden indicator. Chambers Word Wizard to the rescue. But oh this was slow today. Lots of very clever clues, although often the parsing had to be worked out in retrospect having guessed a word that fitted the crossers and definition.

The real star of the show was the grid and its fill, but I have to choose a CoD… I thought the clues for PECCARY and ANY OLD IRON were very amusing, that the clue for NEW YEAR was very clever, enjoyed SYNTHESISE and EPISCOPY but this is my choice:

8d Squabble over right to take on non-professional course developer (10)

Here’s the link to John at Fifteensquared:

www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/28/independent-10491-by-serpent

i Cryptic Crossword 4137 Monk

Difficulty rating(out of five): ⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳

This was a very chewy challenge. I suspect that some solvers may have thrown in the towel without completing it. Speaking for myself, I relished this, finding it engrossing and very satisfying as each intricacy coyly revealed its hidden secrets.

For example in the clue for Dish at 1d, we had to translate to French, separate, insert and delete, to find a word assimilated from the Mexican. That’s a lot of work for one six-letter word. Or the Death at 14d, where we had to have solved another clue (2d), then apply that clue to each of three words and take their new initial letters (a complicated way of cluing the second letter in each word). There were plenty of others where one needed to carefully unravel the clue.

Only one clue had me reaching for the dictionary to check on an unfamiliar word, the old stone at 24d. I did wonder, however, whether Our Younger Solver would have any idea what was going on in 13ac, where one needed to know a now obsolete way of sending an urgent message (which usually meant bad news) from the days before home phones, never mind mobiles. I suppose the transport system used in the word-play is making a comeback…

It’s an unusual grid, for no reason that I can see, having wondered if we would get a nina in the perimeter. Neither did the pangram I suspected emerge. There is, however, a mini-theme with three pairs of synonyms.

From among so many contenders, my Clue of the Day is 21d, which seemed initially mysterious in both word-play and definition but then lucidly precise in word-play and merely nicely allusive in definition: “Appendix with questions brings something to mind? (2,3,2)”.

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/06/independent-10499-by-monk-saturday-puzzle-6-june-2020/

i Cryptic Crossword 4136 by Eccles

Difficulty rating (out of five) ⌛⌛

They didn’t find too much to say about this puzzle on FifteenSquared, and neither can I, as it was all pretty good, as we expect from Eccles, with nothing exceptionally brilliant or nasty, little too difficult or too easy. I started as usual in the NW corner and worked by way round to LOI KEYSTONE, which is probably a Marmite clue. The COPS just about gave the answer away very early on when I also correctly guessed the wordplay. But only when I eventually entered it, did I see the connection. As a Southerner, I did not know BARM, so that went in unparsed. I have heard of a PIEBALD horse, so the unknown 5a was easy to guess with a few crossers.

There was a good mix of anagrams, insertions and other clue types, though I recall no homophones. I liked the two cunning hidden clues, one reversed, which might have delayed me on another day. I have a weakness with music after the 1960s so thank Eccles for a band I had heard of at 1a, though I did not know it was Aussie.

Because of my opening comment, it was not easy to identify my Clue of the Day, but I particularly liked the insertions of ARRANGE and SENSATION, the two years in ANNOYING and probably the only EUROPEAN (or African, American or Asian) to end in D, but settled for the subtracted letter at 14@, a type of clue that often foxes me:

What happens in autumn, but not at first, to earwig (9).

To FifteenSquared for all the wordplay and comments, including some about the absence of 10a humour in this puzzle:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/27/independent-10490-by-eccles/