i Cryptic Crossword 4149 Wire
May 24, 2024
Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳
That was fun! I really enjoyed this puzzle once I spotted what was going on. It just goes to show that a crossword doesn’t have to be challenging to be entertaining. I certainly love a chewy puzzle – which this wasn’t – but I appreciate too a crossword that is put together with wit and thought and with an eye for amusing the solver. There’s nothing over-clever about any of the clues, there’s no recourse to obscurities, there’s no too-tightly knotted word-play. But there is a density to the theme here which made it fun. I’m not entirely sure how many thematic references there are altogether, but they are as dense as the darkest forest.
Only three clues occupied me for more than a moment, the chopper at 8ac, the fruit at 9ac and the Cutter at 16ac. In each case I hesitated over rather than struggled with the word-play.
My Clue of the Day is the thematic one of 20d: “Red cloak left in fright close to forest (7)”.
Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/28/independent-on-sunday-1583-by-wire/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
That was a joy to solve, loved it, even though the full extent of the theme only became apparent when I’d finished. After a slow start, I filled in the grid clockwise from the NE corner, ending in ⏳⏳ time. SAW BLADE was the only clue where I wasn’t sure of the parsing as I don’t think I’ve come across B for ‘barrels’ before. My LOI was MEWS, one of those pesky 4-letter answers with no initial letter that are so often my undoing.
Favourites were EMMET and SCARLET.
I quiver with dread at those four-letter ones, but this one came straight away (astonishingly).
I did not like the look of the grid and cid not know the American term at 1a, though the SHAKE bit was obvious, so did not get off to a flying start, but the answers came steadily and in spite of some delay in the SW corner, completed in a little over one timer. As Saboteur writes, plenty of wit and nothing obscure. Apart from CoD I liked BLACK EYE, SLIP ROAD and ERRATUM.
I was not thinking about any theme, and the closest I got when solving was, towards the end when, entering LUPIN, I thought “there’s something going on here”, but unfortunately then concentrated on getting the puzzle finished rather than pursuing my thought. However, I appreciated the puzzle even more when the theme was mentioned on 225, although it came out in dribs and drabs and it appeared that few of them had actually spotted it when solving, as they failed to mention AL DENTE (“to the tooth” in Italian) which I would have thought was the most important themed answer.
Thanks Wire, great puzzle.
Paper arrived somewhat late today (after I’d started work … good job I’m WFH these days) so have only just finished it. Maybe ⌛⌛½ here. There felt like something themish going on but I couldn’t quite put my finger on exactly what. Couldn’t parse 9a (the ‘trail’ bit eluded me); otherwise fine – although unpicking WOODSMAN took a while.
A slightly more mixed reception here. Favourites were pdm with LUPIN, the extremely excellent RAISIN and the highly amusing TROLLOPS. However I didn’t like SHAKEDOWN (homophone > unknown word) couldn’t parse SAW-BLADE (barrels = B?) and thought both WOODSMAN and EMMET were very hard.
I see the theme now you’ve pointed it out Saboteur, but in common with most in 2020 it passed me by during the solve unfortunately.
Interestingly, looking at Cornick’s comment, I struggled with both WOODSMAN and EMMET (though I would have expected him to have got the latter quickly 😉 ), spending a large proportion of my solve on those two alone. The rest went in with little ado, with the theme of course missed. Finished just within the one egg-timer, and duly entertained for the duration.
Enjoyable throughout. After 25 mins I was left with 8a (woodsman? Can’t parse), 3d and yet to parse sawblade (I have now, thanks to the comments) … nice theme, nice clueing, nice!
I thought everyone outside Cornwall thought EMMET (the Cornish language word for ant) was just our word for a tourist so yes, surprised to see it clued as it was.
Yes, I got EM+MET very quickly from the wordplay, but had to google the meaning before I understood the reference to six-footer. Loved the clue though.
I wasn’t expecting a theme, so didn’t look for one and although I had a vague idea that something was happening I couldn’t pin it down. No matter, it was an enjoyable puzzle and all solved without help. I think the two egg-timer rating’s about right.
We managed in 2 timers here too. We enjoyed this and as a puzzle for a sunny bank holiday Saturday ( which is when we are solving) it was perfect! We had a few tussles along the way but nothing too chewy. 19a made us laugh and there was much other fun to be had here. I think the sense of a theme glimpsed and suggested fits the whole notion of something nasty in the woods lurking! If intentional, it was brilliance! Looking forward to attempting Cornick’s offering tomorrow having resisted reading the blog when we came to comment on this.
Downloading videos from y2mate