In addition to his ‘normal’ crossword Exit offered us a 13×13 puzzle “just for fun”.
A PDF of the handout can be found here: Exit 2 @ York 2018 .
If you prefer solving this crossword interactively, click here .
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
Please, scroll down to the very end of the blog to find the completed grid of this (once again) plain puzzle, i.e. no theme etc.
| Across | ||
| 6 | CARDIAC | Hearty greetings often the first clue (though not here) (7) |
| CARD (greetings) + I AC (1 across, often the first clue in a crossword ….) …. but indeed not here because it is 6ac! Oh, and please do not tell a footballer who was a bit naughty that CARD = ‘greeting’. |
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| 7 | INSET | Attending class on pupils’ day off? (5) |
| IN (attending) + SET (class) On a day when staff on a school have an ‘inset’ (i.e. an internal training) the pupils usually have a day off. |
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| 9 | PIN-UP | Short measure of beer costing more for admired person (3-2) |
| PIN[t] (measure of beer, shortened) + UP (costing more) | ||
| 10 | MEDIATE | Editor and setter in China to resolve differences (7) |
| ED (editor) + I (setter), together inside MATE (china, lower case!) | ||
| 11 | ASTERN | Upset – in tears – one is missing at the back (6) |
| Anagram [upset] of IN TEARS minus I (one) | ||
| 13 | ROAST | Nothing in returning emperor to criticise (5) |
| O (nothing) inside reversal [returning] of TSAR (emperor) | ||
| 15 | SINEW | Function with muscle (5) |
| SINE (function, in mathematics, Anglified) + W (with) | ||
| 17 | SILVER | Sister ingests vile mixture of metal (6) |
| SR (sister) around anagram [mixture] of VILE Exit’s intention was to have an adjectival definition. Others may perhaps see ‘in’ just as a link word. |
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| 20 | EN SUITE | Guarantee Romeo gives way for sex in hotel accommodation, say (2,5) |
| ENSURE (guarantee) with R (Romeo, NATO alphabet) being replaced by IT (sex) Rooms en suite. |
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| 21 | AMBER | A medal, right – in resin? (5) |
| A + MBE (medal) + R (right) Here ‘in’ is a link word. |
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| 23 | SPEED | Gonzalez, perhaps, not unknown for amphetamine (5) |
| SPEEDY (Gonzalez, remember our little mouse?) minus Y (unknown) Immortalised by Pat Boone in 1962 . |
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| 24 | RHUBARB | Expressed regret for unkind remark in vague muttering (7) |
| Homophone [expressed] of RUE (regret) + BARB (unkind remark) Those who know me will probably expect me to say something about the use of ‘for’. I won’t. |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | WREN | Take in big city bird (4) |
| R (take, a favourite in Crosswordland, recipe) inside WEN (big city, London) Hooray, here’s another one for Pierre!  |
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| 2 | HIPPIE | Short pachyderm that is a 16? (6) |
| HIPP[o] ( pachyderm, shortened) + I.E. (that is) Some hippies were surely ‘weirdos’ (see the answer to 16d) but …. |
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| 3 | ICEMAN | Mummy whose arrival O’Neill playfully announced? (6) |
| Double / Cryptic definition definition Firstly, Ötzi, the mummified body found in a glacier in the Italian Alps in September 1991. And secondly, a reference to Eugene O’Neill’s 1939 play The Iceman Cometh. |
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| 4 | TINDER | Row about North Dakota fire-starter? (6) |
| TIER (row) about ND (North Dakota) | ||
| 5 | ESCALATE | Increase key activities, initially in the evening (8) |
| ESC (key, on a computer) + A[ctivities] + LATE (in the evening) | ||
| 6 | CEPS | Requirements briefly raised for mushrooms (4) |
| Reversal [raised] of SPEC (requirements, frequently used abbreviation of ‘specification’) | ||
| 8 | TWENTY | Relieved oneself in totally vacant private bathroom, say (6) |
| WENT (relieved oneself, I can smell it when typing this) inside T[otall]Y The definition is a bit indirect and refers back to clue 20(ac) which had ‘en suite’ as the answer. |
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| 12 | SINISTER | Left bend? (8) |
| Double definition And not a bad one, methinks. |
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| 14 | USHERS | Somewhat ridiculous, her sister’s attendants (6) |
| Hidden answer [somewhat]: ridiculous her sister’s | ||
| 16 | WEIRDO | Party below dam is an unconventional sort (6) |
| WEIR (dam) + DO (party) | ||
| 17 | SHEARS | Cutters here, we’re told, in empty shipping lanes (6) |
| Homophone [we’re told] of HEAR inside S[hipping lane]S | ||
| 18 | LEAGUE | French article on fever in society (6) |
| LE (article, in French) + AGUE (fever) | ||
| 19 | DRAB | Dull and backward poet (4) |
| Reversal [backward] of BARD (poet) | ||
| 22 | BIAS | Prejudice putting bismuth before arsenic (4) |
| BI (bismuth, Bi, atomic number 83) + AS (arsenic, As, atomic number 33) | ||
I tackled this one after Exit’s no. 1 and found it to be trickier, with six clues that I either didn’t fully understand or didn’t understand at all: 6a CARDIAC, 7a INSET, 3d ICEMAN, 8d TWENTY, 12d SINISTER and 17d SHEARS. Of these, I really should have got SHEARS from the wordplay, but I don’t think I would ever have ‘got’ the other five, despite filling them in correctly. I wasted time on CORDIAL for 6a (it means ‘hearty’ in a literal and not a whimsical sense!) until I found nothing to go where ICEMAN belonged.
My failures on these clues rather took the shine off this puzzle, but the explanations in the blog thankfully support its general soundness. I would take exception only to 8d TWENTY, in which I would not have pulled that particular trick of an indirect definition.
I winced a bit at the definition of 2d HIPPIE, but for this occasion I’ve no complaint about that. In 24a RHUBARB I noticed what Sil noticed (the word ‘for’), and I thought one way of justifying its presence in the surface would be to prefix two words to the clue as follows: ‘Heard to express regret for unkind remark …’.
I would like more of Exit’s puzzles like his no. 1, and I am keen to read other solvers’ views of this no. 2.
Thanks again to Exit and again to Sil.
Thanks Exit and Sil
The first time that I’ve had a go at one of the S&B puzzles and after choosing the little 13×13 one, found that size doesn’t matter – this one took as long as some of the bigger grids. Got it out in the end with only WREN and ICEMAN not being fully parsed on coming here. That whole NW corner was quite tough.
Noticed the nina of WHITE ROSES and that did help with most of the top down clues.
Will now have a crack at some of the others. Hope that all who attended the gathering thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Bloody hell (or whatever), Bruce, I didn’t notice that!!
Haha …most times, I don’t see them – and certainly not in time for them to help !! 🙂