i Cryptic Crossword 4420 by Morph
May 16, 2024
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/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Good to see Morph again. Well worth the wait. 1a certainly opened things up quickly and after that all nicely chewy yet tractable until LOI AFRIT which was got from the wordplay with the word ‘frit’ dimly recalled.
Great puzzle, solved in more like three of those egg-timers. LOI here too was AFRIT, which took a large chunk of that time!
With a busy morning ahead of me, when I saw this was from Morph, I decided to keep it until the evening. I’m glad I did, as I was able to savour and enjoy it – and take the time to ensure I would fully parse everything. Consequently, a delightful evening solve!
Only AFRIT (my last in, too) necessitated an Internet check, but I did divert to look up Dr Moreau, which I knew about, but couldn’t quite place.
I loved PUMPKIN.
I read ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ 40 years ago and it still gives me nightmares!
😮
Congratulations to anyone for whom AFRIT was NOT the LOI! I enjoyed this a lot, although there were quite a few I got right without necessarily being bothered enough to untangle the parsing. Shameful behaviour, I know…
And I often use a Bain-Marie in the kitchen, although I wouldn’t describe it as a slow cooker. Heigh-ho.
Agreed that a Bain-Marie isn’t necessarily a slow cooker; I use mine to prevent sauces getting burnt. For things like casseroles I use a proper slow cooker.
And I don’t see any shame in not bothering to fully parse an answer if it’s obviously correct – for me the objective is to complete the grid; seeing the parsing is a bonus.
Count me I as one who failed to parse 4dn. I find it discombobulated to be 90 odd percent sure I have the correct answer while having to do contortions to see if it could be something else. In this case the blogger on 225 beer magnet, at least spared me the “is it just me?” feeling. His mention of being ruled by whispers from the back room of no. 10 brought back vivid and unwelcome memories of 2020, not helped by the current inhabitants. More shouting than whispering but with the same feeling that those supposedly in charge, lack competence.
If my memory serves me right, the 2020 occupant of No 10 was the same as now, because the person who was then supposed to be in No 10 needed the larger space of No 11 to accommodate his ego….