A gentle offering from Falcon, suitable possibly for explaining how cryptics work to beginners?
This was a very straightforward puzzle with several easy anagrams and a few unimaginative clues that were pretty much “write ins” (in particular the double definitions at 14ac and 7dn, and the clues at 26ac and 21dn).
The two long down clues were also write-ins, which gave a lot of “ins” to the across solutions.
I didn’t like 16dn, (see below), but there were some good clues hidden among the otherwise average ones (3dn, 19dn and 22ac were my favourites).
Thanks, Falcon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LIFEBOAT | End of college scarf stuck in elevator – I may come to the rescue (8) |
| (colleg)E + BOA (“scarf”) “stuck in” LIFT (“elevator”) | ||
| 5 | ESCORT | Guide English class comprehending chapter (6) |
| E + SORT (“class”) “comprehending” C(hapter) | ||
| 10 | TONIC | Medicine to take shortly (5) |
| TO NIC(k) | ||
| 11 | LEYLANDII | Fast-growing conifers ideally spread round end of garden facing one (9) |
| *(ideally) “around” (garde)N + I (“one”) | ||
| 12 | AS YOU WERE | Military command generating woe, year US got involved (2,3,4) |
| *(woe year us) | ||
| 13 | BYRON | Romantic poet in past, one thrown out of club (5) |
| BY (“in past”) + (i)RON | ||
| 14 | DIRECT | Steer straight (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | MARITAL | Altar? I’m nervous of marriage (7) |
| *(altar im) | ||
| 18 | PILATES | System of exercises I found in full-page book illustrations (7) |
| I in PLATES (“full-page book illustrations”) | ||
| 20 | PAUPER | Very poor person for all to see in tabloid? (6) |
| U (“for all to see”) + PAPER (“tabloid”) | ||
| 22 | EDICT | Clubs in correct order (5) |
| C(lubs) in EDIT (“correct”) | ||
| 24 | MARCH HARE | I attended the Hatter’s tea party to protest before race (5,4) |
| MARCH (“protest”) + HARE (“race”) | ||
| 25 | WITHERING | Scornful humour by male fronting band (9) |
| WIT (“humour”) + HE (“male”) + RING (“band”) | ||
| 26 | APART | A component in pieces (5) |
| A + PART | ||
| 27 | YEOMEN | Guards allowing nothing in country (6) |
| O (“nothing”) in YEMEN | ||
| 28 | ENTRANCE | Cast a spell on the way in (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LETHAL | In trouble, thallium toxic (6) |
| Hidden in “troubLE THALlium” | ||
| 2 | FUNNY GIRL | Strange young woman, but musical (5,4) |
| FUNNY (“strange”) + GIRL (“young woman”)
Funny Girl opened on Broadway in 1964, and was made into a movie starring Barbara Streisand. |
||
| 3 | BECAUSE IT’S THERE | Reason given for climbing Everest, as written on gaudy tee shirt (7,3,5) |
| BECAUSE (“as”) + *(tee shirt)
Reputed to have been said by mountaineer George Mallory. |
||
| 4 | AILMENT | Complaint got from working in metal (7) |
| *(in metal) | ||
| 6 | SCARBOROUGH FAIR | Yorkshire resort with clean air (11,4) |
| SCARBOROUGH (“Yorkshire resort”) + FAIR (“clean”)
Scarborough Fair is a traditional English ballad, which was also released as a single by Simon & Garfunkel after their version featured in the classic film, The Graduate. |
||
| 7 | ORDER | Discipline class (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | TRIANGLE | Ravel describing right current for a musical instrument (8) |
| TANGLE (“ravel”) “describing” R + i (“right current”) | ||
| 9 | LYCEUM | My clue involved a college (6) |
| *(my clue) | ||
| 16 | THEN AGAIN | On the other hand, the angina developed (4,5) |
| THE + *(angina)
I think this is intended to be an anagram of “the angina”, but the letters of “the” appear are just “given” in the clue. |
||
| 17 | SPEEDWAY | Serious upset in power sport (8) |
| <+DEEP (“serious”) in SWAY (“power”) | ||
| 19 | SUMMIT | Top executive employing 2,000 (6) |
| SUIT (“executive”) “employing” MM (“2,000”) | ||
| 20 | PARAGON | Model in quiet Spanish region (7) |
| P (“quiet”) + ARAGON (“Spanish region”) | ||
| 21 | CENTRE | Recent changes in core (6) |
| *(recent) | ||
| 23 | INTRO | Start of abbreviated number trio made a mess of outside (5) |
| N(umber) in *(trio) | ||
*anagram
Someone at work asked me yesterday if I could show them how to ‘do’ cryptic crosswords, so I’m going to print this one off and see how far we/they get.
Thanks to Falcon and Loonapick too
Thanks Falcon & Loonapick
16 dn is better if seen as a charade of THE and *(ANGINA). Rather like 10 and 26 ac which contain TO and A in both clue and solution.
Psmith@2
I did treat it the way you suggested, but THE is just given, with no wordplay, which, in my view, is unsatisfying. The other two to which you refer are shorter, so not quite as bad, although I did highlight one of them in my preamble.
Thanks Falcon and loonapick
Second last backlog puzzle from this period of time … and also found it pretty straightforward – not as easy as he can be though, believe it or not.
Last one in was YEOMEN even though I’ve seen that clue before.