i Cryptic Crossword 1679 Morph
June 27, 2016
Morph on a Monday? There’s no real theme or nina, but I’m guessing 5d and the start of a certain tennis tournament might have been contributing factors. Anyway, despite being an old Saturday prize puzzle, this was one of Morph’s easier offerings, so ideally suited to a Monday morning. I did get myself in a bit of a pickle in the NW corner when I lobbed in GAMES UP, but there was no way 2d was going to be .M.F was there?
Lots of ticks by the clues, and a few question marks I probably could have resolved myself but left to Fifteensquared to do so. COD? 18d – ‘Universities are rivals on paper before Hammersmith? (8)’.
All the answers and more can be found here:
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
Nice crossword – enjoyed that. I have eight ticks today, which is an exceedingly high score, so well done Morph. In addition to the worthy COD, 13 and 19 particularly appealed to me.
Phew, glad you two found it an “easier offering”; I struggled with the NW corner.
No, I didn’t say that. 🙂 It did seem to me that it was well within Cornick’s “Goldilocks Zone” though.
With four to go I was all set for a glowing comment for a terrific puzzle, but came unstuck on the NW corner and 22d. So I find myself in agreement with both Andy and dtw42… and filled with admiration for jonofwales who I suspect, despite my daily ritual of doing the i, is still quite a bit better at solving these things than I am!
You didn’t witness the muttered curses and furrowed eyebrows that accompanied the solve. 😉
COL (that’s chuckle out loud)