Monday 6 September 2021

Five-Clue Cryptic (#3365)

Most of this was straightforward, although 1d required knowledge of ENS, a term from metaphysics meaning "being or existence in the most general abstract sense" (Collins online).  It's not in the Concise Oxford, and although I've come across it in the wordplay in a couple of full-size cryptics, it seems rather obscure for the Five-Clue.  I thought 4d had the best surface, and I liked the anagram at 3/5.

 

Concise (#3365)

I momentarily thought of BASIL for 1a before realizing that THYME was more likely for the pun, and indeed it proved so, combining with STABLE for "times table".  8a looked as though it might be A LOT, but the crosser from 6d revealed it to be A FEW; which is the better synonym for "several"?  I got stuck for a while in the SE corner because I could see that 11d started OVER- but couldn't get the rest, and I didn't know that PECAN could be a tree as well as a nut.  Once I'd sorted those out the rest came easily.

Codeword (#3043)

Y, C and N given.  Once again finding the E (12) proved the key to the puzzle, with the S (24) following soon afterwards and then SERIOUSNESS down the middle.  AQUA, another Codeword favourite, appeared in the NE corner; I didn't know it was an English word, but the Concise Oxford defines it as "the colour aquamarine".

Cryptic by Hypnos (#3301)

Link to idothei (blogged by Saboteur)

Link to Fifteensquared (Jul 2017, blogged by Simon Harding)

 

 

This was a fairly straighforward puzzle until I reached the last six or seven clues, dotted all over the grid, which took me about as long as the rest of the puzzle.  I think Saboteur was right to give it three stars on idothei.

 

My favourite today was the laugh-out-loud 6d, which referenced two of my favourite entertainers: can't get much better than that!  Others that I particularly enjoyed were 18a and 17d, although the latter was slightly spoilt by cluing an adjective (ASSORTED) with an adverbial phrase ("in varied fashion").  I hadn't heard of the novel in 10d but was able to piece it together from the wordplay.

I managed to drag Stefan EDBERG out of the back of my mind for 19d, but then needed Crossword Solver for 26a, where I hadn't heard of the cocktail.   The bit that really held me up was the NE corner; after checking that ANDORRA really was a principality, it took me ages to put together EATERY and then come up with THREAD.  The latter is supposedly a double definition, but isn't the meaning "set of online postings" simply an extension of the meaning "continuous theme"?  I thought it was bordering on a straight clue.

Last in was 11a, for which I'd originally pencilled in ADIEU.  It turned out to be rather a neat clue, though not the fitting end I'd hoped for!