A good straightforward puzzle. Straightforward is written a compliment here. One of the joys of solving and blogging is the variety of puzzles on offer. Some are filled with new cluing ideas: sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes the setter just sticks to the tried and tested. I like them all. Thank you Chalmie.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RELIED | Counted on priest dressed as cardinal? (6) |
| ELI (priest) in RED (dressed as cardinal) | ||
| 5 | NIGERIAN | Doctrinaire Gingrich backing part of country (8) |
| found inside (part) of doctriNAIRE GINgrich reversed (backing) | ||
| 9 | WRITHING | Twisting and turning script impresses Henry (8) |
| WRITING (script) contains (impresses, like a press gang) H (Henry) | ||
| 10 | VEILED | Going round Europe, horrible daughter has face covered (6) |
| E (Europe) inside (with…going round) VILE (horribe) then D (daughter) | ||
| 11 | DEARLY | Very much depressed in the end, getting old (6) |
| depressseD (in the end) with EARLY (old) | ||
| 12 | ECSTATIC | City still very happy (8) |
| EC (City of London, postal code) then STATIC (still) | ||
| 14 | CHASTISEMENT | Beating regularly ahead, so tries to stick around (12) |
| every other letter (regularly) of aHeAd So TrIeS inside (with…around) CEMENT (to stick) | ||
| 18 | SAY SOMETHING | Hints May’s ego ruined by reply! (3,9) |
| anagram (ruined) of HINTS MAYS EGO | ||
| 22 | CRACKPOT | Mad drugs (8) |
| CRACK and POT are two drugs – a nice clue! | ||
| 25 | UNTIES | Frees cricket teams to part ways with business (6) |
| coUNTIES (cricket teams) missing (to part ways with) CO (company, business) | ||
| 26 | AS MUCH | Are new chums the same? (2,4) |
| A (are) then anagram (new) of CHUMS | ||
| 27 | LEAVE OUT | Don’t mention what could be caught on holiday (5,3) |
| OUT (what could be caught, in cricket) following (on) LEAVE (holiday) | ||
| 28 | ON THE WAY | Worrying why no tea is coming (2,3,3) |
| anagram (worrying) of WHY NO TEA | ||
| 29 | ESTHER | Book describes the Royal Guards (6) |
| found inside (guarded by) describES THE Royal – book of The Bible | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EARNED | End in doubt after attention was paid (6) |
| anagram (in doubt) of END following EAR (attention) | ||
| 3 | INTERACTS | Deals for certain work emptying tanks (9) |
| anagram (work) of CERTAIN then TankS (emptying, no middle letters) | ||
| 4 | DAIRY FARM | A large number hold service up for food supplier (5,4) |
| MYRIAD (a large number) contains (hold) RAF (one of the armed sevices) all reversed (up) | ||
| 5 | NEGLECT | Regularly inveigh against the French court’s indifference (7) |
| iNvEiGh (regularly) with LE (the, French) and CT (court) | ||
| 6 | GIVES | Heads for generous investor, vaguely expecting some presents (5) |
| first letters (heads) of Generous Investor Vaguely Expecting Some | ||
| 7 | RAITA | God one thanks for yoghurt dish (5) |
| RA (good, exclamation) I (one) TA (thanks) | ||
| 8 | APERIENT | Son of Welsh queen that’s initially nervous taking laxative (8) |
| AP (son of, Welsh) ER (Elizabeth Regina, queen) IE (that is) then first letters (initially) of Nervous Taking | ||
| 13 | TOE | Sensitive appendage regularly stroked (3) |
| regular selection from sTrOkEd | ||
| 15 | STIPULATE | Lay down tulips, frantically worried (9) |
| anagram (frantically) of TULIPS then ATE (worried) | ||
| 16 | MIGHTIEST | “Could” draws in the most powerful (9) |
| MIGHT (could) contains (with…in) TIES (draws) | ||
| 17 | HARRISON | Ford salesman’s negative reply – breathe evenly turning it all over (8) |
| NO SIR (negative reply) then every other letter (evenly) of bReAtHe – Harrison Ford, actor | ||
| 19 | OAK | Allowed one to enter wood (3) |
| OK (allowed) contains (with…to enter) A (one) | ||
| 20 | TOTALLY | Quite short friend (7) |
| TOT (short, drink) then ALLY (friend) | ||
| 21 | SECURE | Watch keeps dog safe (6) |
| SEE (watch) contains (keeps) CUR (dog) | ||
| 23 | COUGH | Complaint about ring – I hate it (5) |
| C (circa, about) O (a ring) then UGH (I hate it) | ||
| 24 | PSHAW | Rubbish quiet playwright (5) |
| P (piano, quiet) SHAW (George Bernard Shaw, playwright) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Enjoyed this but failed to parse ESTHER, which is very embarrassing. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks for the explanations.
I found some of these tough.
2d: I just can’t think of an instance where “paid” and “earned” are interchangeable synonyms. Could you enlighten me?
re 17d Benjamin Harrison was the American president.
john @3 – yes, I got that all muddled up. Fixed now.
Thanks PeeDee, very kind.
Kevin @2: the definition is “was paid” not “paid”. I earned/was paid £500.
All straightforward as you say, but I found some clues a bit tricky.
Btw there’s a typo in the blog for 11ac – ‘eary’ should be ‘early’. I take ‘early’ to mean ‘old’ as in, for instance, architecture, where ‘Early English’ signifies something between the Norman and Gothic periods, hence something old.
Thanks, Daedalus and PeeDee
Many thanks!
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee
Did this on the day but only got around to checking it off now. Agree with the sentiment with regard to the difficulty or not of puzzles – and that a more straightforward crossword can generate as much enjoyment in the shorter time to complete as the more difficult and brain teasing ones do.
This one happened to be in the medium range of time solving for me with a few clues holding me up at the end, including the cleverly disguised HARRISON and the trickily defined COUGH that were my last two in. Thought that the word play for OUT in 27a was very good as well.
AP as a part of a Welsh name (meaning ‘son of’) was new learning.