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 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 4133 Tees

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳

This was an enjoyable crossword for our Bank Holiday Monday. It was, I think, a little tougher than Tees typically is, but still accessible, as most of my hold-ups were in the parsing, rather than the guessing, as it were.

Only one visit to the dictionary was necessary, to check that the word I guessed for a stop at sea was correct. A google was required to confirm the Peter Sellars film, which I vaguely knew, but which I felt needed a quick check. I spent a bit longer on the internet before I gleaned something about hares and their forms. Something to drop into the conversation at the next supper party I’m not invited to

I made one mistake entering “buckaroo” at 17d for I’m loaded, remembering the children’s game,  and deciding to try to work out the word-play for stolen later. This seemed to be confirmed by for your country, but it made immense ungettable, prompting a most necessary rethink.

One clue elicited a frown; the certain notes spelt with an E rather than an I didn’t seem quite right, although of course it is.

We had a couple of nicely-done anagrams with whole-clue-as-definition qualities to them. In a rare moment of indecision I shall nominate 1d and 17d as joint Clues of the Day.

“Distubed night – drug please! (8, 7)”

“Cast made moral sentiment the focus here? (9)”

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/25/independent-10488-by-tees/

i Cryptic Crossword 4131 Alchemi

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳

This was a bright and breezy crossword which was a pleasure to solve. A little less challenging than I have come to expect for a Friday, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

There were a few midly obscure bits of vocabulary. We had the trees at 14d. I think I have come across this before, probably in another crossword, but I’m more familiar with it (in the singular) as the forename of the writer of detective stories, Marsh. This was clued in a friendly way, even if the surface reading puzzled me. We had the old word halt at 4d. There was the Roman house(hold) god at 13ac. This I knew in the plural form, so it just required the briefest of checks. But both of these  were also clued accessibly, and with helpful crossing letters.

One bit of parsing detained me, which was 7d, where I was left wondering how pears might be redundant, before realising it was East rather than South that needed moving.

My Clue of the Day is 5d. It is a long anagram, but with a very smooth surface reading, no small acheivement: “Golf club trashed in anecdotal yarn (5,3,7)”.

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/23/independent-10487-by-alchemi/

i Cryptic Crossword 4127 Tees

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳

Most of this very enjoyable puzzle was solved very readily, but there were a few places where I got a bit stuck, and so I ended up with a ⏳⏳⏳ solving time, rather than the just less than ⏳⏳ I seemed to be heading for. Perhaps I’m just not on form, and perhaps you will have done better.

One clue which caused a bit of a frown to appear was the old-school sort. The answer seemed pretty clear from the definition and the crossing M and A (in my solve). However, I did think that having both the Scots chimney and the collection of anecdotes in the same clue seemed a little iffy. I suppose both words are not uncommon in crosswordland, but are very rare in ordinary speech (although I can’t say I’m all that familiar with Scots as she is spoken). This is, however, a minor criticism, in a satisfying puzzle. One or two other words were also rare ones, like the shield and, crossing with it, with the lights out. Whether the steak is rare I will leave others to judge (🙂). I did wonder whether Our Younger Solver will have got the reference to Billy Bunter, or heard of the dessert, which I don’t think I have seen in decades, but which was the centrepiece of celebration teas in my childhood, usually formed in the shape of a rabbit, nestling in grass made from chopped-up green jelly. They were simpler times…

I liked the one less than flexible and the advancing years, however, my Clue of the Day is 6d, which is simple, but with such a well-written surface reading: “Italian agreement reversed by the French -in Ireland? (4)”.

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/20/independent-10484-tees/

i Cryptic Crossword 4125 Eccles

Difficulty rating (out out five): ⏳⏳⏳

Three egg-timers for difficulty, but five stars for enjoyment! This crossword was a pleasure to solve from beginning to end. In particular, the surface readings – so important in a good cryptic – are all very plausible, often entertaining, often full of misdirection. Just what a crossword is all about.

We have some great mental images: a queen assaulting a shopkeeper, drug-dealing clergy, a suspicious-sounding package found in a caravan, a bar with mainly mediocre spirits on sale, someone preparing bananas and custard…  I’m sure you have your own favourites. I’ve got ten clues with ticks or ☺ against them, so I won’t list them all. All done without stretching any definitions beyond recognition, with no word-play so convoluted that it was hard to unpick, and no vocabulary from the less-frequented recesses of the dictionary. There were one or two homophones or assonances, all sounding convincing to me, although I am aware that opinions differ on this most contentious of issues. All in all, a delight!

I loved the sixteen people arrested at a famous French landmark, but from among many contenders, my Clue of the Day is the simple but amusing 24d: “Deer and cow noises echo (5)”.

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/10/independent-10502-eccles/

i Cryptic Crossword 4115 Loglady

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳

To be clear to any visitor wondering whether or not to tackle this crossword: most of it I would have rated at about ⏳⏳ to ⏳⏳⏳. However the NW quadrant was so difficult that I very nearly gave up. Had I not been on blogging duty, I dare say I would have done, because the enjoyment was ebbing away. As it was, I needed so much help – scouring lists for inspiration, reading the nth definition of a word in the big dictionary –  that I might as well have just got the app up and clicked on “Reveal Word” for the last few.

Most of it was enjoyable enough. I particularly liked the snap at 18d, and my Clue of the Day, 15d: “Travel back and forth, discovering what’s out there (4,5)”.  Outside the NW section, I struggled rather with the computer game, which seemed not quite right as a definition, and likewise with at twelve o’clock, also a bit of a stretch, I thought.

So, alas, not a satisfying solve for me. It was a relief to discover on Fifteensquared that I wasn’t alone. The setter puts in an appearance in the comments. To his credit, he takes it on the chin.

Oh, well.  There’s another one tomorrow…

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations:  https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/11/independent-10503-loglady/

i Cryptic Crossword 4113 Bluth

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳

Only just into ⏳⏳, I must say. Probably really only ⏳ if you take out the time I spent looking for the J and double-checking in my quest for a pangram.

This was good fun, which is what a crossword should be. Its our  second puzzle from Bluth, and he is, on the basis of these two, a welcome addition to the gang. It was set at an accessible level. There’s nothing truly obscure, and the word-play was all unpicked without too much trouble. That ‘sticklebrick’ grid, with less than half the answers having the initial letter crossing with another answer could have made for a much more challenging solve. A pleasure to solve, and satisfying to complete.

An eyebrow rose over the our Scottish, but it soon went down again. And I did wonder whether Our Younger Solver would know about the Sinclair C5. If not, she or he may have been mystified enough to consult the internet.

That was a favourite of mine, alongside the boxer and the get going. I loved the punning large snake. My Clue of the Day, though, is 21d for its simple construction and amusing surface reading: “Perhaps Tarzan wants one to be a passing acquaintance of Simple Simon (6)”.

Our setter puts in an appearance in the comments in the 225 blog from first time round. Quite a few appearances, actually, very generously engaging with the solvers. You might spend longer reading the comments than you did solving the crossword. Here’s the link: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/06/independent-10472-by-bluth/

i Cryptic Crossword 4109 Skinny

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳

An enjoyable and satisfying solve to start the working week comes to us courtesy of Skinny this morning. All over a little too soon for my taste, this crossword won’t have detained all but the most novice of solvers for too long. There is no obscure vocabulary and the word-play is not so tightly knotted that it can’t be unpicked readily. And the surface readings – so important in the joy of a crossword – are all plausible, and often amusing. A pleasure to solve – provided you are not disgusted by the dropping in 16d.

There is a light theme; six answers giving three pairs for flavours of crisps. I’d noticed a sort of food thing emerging, but the precise theme became clear only when I got my Last One In – It’s said to raise a smile – making the pair in the first column leap out.

My Clue of the Day is 3d for its entertaining surface reading: “One may grow up a little bit camp at first (10)”.

Here’s the link to Fifteensquared. It’s worth looking at the comments if you care about words and their meanings (I assume that as crossword solvers you do at least to some extent). The excessive in 11ac has been a recent bugbear. And I’m glad to read that I am not waging a one-person crusade to use coruscating correctly…

Independent 10,482/Skinny

i Cryptic Crossword 4107 Monk

Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳

I really enjoyed this puzzle. True, it was tough. But it was very satisfying to solve. It was well worth picking away at – by the end I had no unresolved parsing issues, as even the Saw at 4d yielded its delights, after mystifying me through the duration of my solve.

I needed to check on the tongue at 2d. Although rather obscure to all but experts in Dravidian languages, it was clued very helpfully with a hidden inclusion, and the crossing letters left no room for doubt. A good example of the unwritten rule: easy clues for obscure answers (and conversely, commonplace answers can have the trickiest clues).

I frowned a little at the use of pix from pictures – and also at put from force.  These two crossing entries were one corner where I was detained even longer than elsewhere. However, the answer of long, old was familiar – my old English master, decades ago, frequently used it pejoratively to describe essays he deemed too long-winded, and I have remembered it ever since. The seabird was remembered from some documentary on television, too.

I did think that we were in line for a pangram when the X went in, having already got the Q and the J. But there’s no Z. And no C, either. So pangram it isn’t.

There is a nina (or something like that). It’s based on very groan-worthy puns relating to the Yorkshire Dales. Since homophones are the most contentious of issues in Crosswordland, I hesitate to comment further. Fifteensquared will enlighten and amuse you. Or enrage you.

My Last One In, the Saw, could easily have been my Clue of the Day. However, I am nominating my First One In, 14ac, because it combines a neat anagram with an entertaining surface reading: ” Extinct life form on Uranus – stray hybrid (13)”.

Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/04/16/independent-10455-monk/