i Cryptic Crossword 2017 by Commoner
July 26, 2017
A new setter to mark puzzle 2017, Commoner seems to have been a once-a-month Sunday compiler for a couple of years back in 2013-15. You can read the full blog from his first outing at Fifteensquared here. So no Dac on a Wednesday, no JonofWales, and the blog’s going out before 9 – better check the world’s still spinning on its axis and the sun came up.
An enjoyable puzzle, when I saw an unfamiliar name I wondered if I’d be able to finish and do the blog over breakfast… I needn’t have worried – this was a continental rather than a full English. No quibbles, a sprinkling of ticks, one new word (hands up who else had the plant at 12d as their last one in) and the following as my COD:
20a Wickedness shown by masculine aggression – not displaying it at first (11)
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
A nice diversion for a wet Wednesday morning. I don’t remember the Scarecrow as a Batman villain and I needed the setters explanation to understand the overcomplicated 3d but the answers were pretty obvious once a few checkers were in and yes LOI 12d.
JoW is still here, for the moment at least. 🙂 An enjoyable stand-in for Dac, on the easy side I thought. Couldn’t parse 3d in common with many over on the other side, and thought 17ac was a breath of fresh air.
For 3dn, I understood all but how the final R was indicated; 12dn wasn’t quite last in (that was most of the NW corner) but it was near the end and I had to look it up. Thankfully I *was* familiar with the Batman villain (memorably played by Cillian Murphy in ‘Batman Begins’) – that was one of my first ones in, I think.
Quite a surprise, but rather a pleasant one as it turned out. 3d went in with a shrug, but having read Commoner’s explanation it does seem a bit Flash Harry. Plenty to enjoy elsewhere though, especially 17ac. 12d was a write in, actually, but I have no idea how I come to have that nugget of botanical information tucked away. It’s certainly never come in handy before.
Are you here tomorrow, Jon, or have I got my weeks mixed up?
I am here tomorrow. It’s Cornick who’s got his weeks mixed up. 🙂
Oops! Diary keeping not my strong point. Next week it is (hangs head in shame).
What is this? Three complete in a row! New word of the day? Yes, that shrub with yellow daisy like flowers, which is used to make absinthe. Apparently…