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Author   JohninterredPosted on 28th June 2024 at 2:05 AM28 June 2024Categories Quick Cryptic
We have a sparkling quick crossword from the late Felix today with several characteristically witty clues. Favourites for me were 8A, 14A and the laudable motto at 20A. In all it took me a bit over target at 6:04, but I didn’t mind that.
Furthermore, it being a Felix puzzle, we probably have a Nina. I think I’ve found it, but it is a bit mysterious. Have I missed something or seen something that isn’t meant to be there? Further thoughts welcome.
There is the word NINA staring us in the face in row 3 and that got me wondering if it was part of a sentence. This is what I think the message is in among the across answers: “So here is a Nina on an equine, yet it is a paradox“. You have to turn down into 8D to complete “equine”. Is it addressed to “Tim” who appears before the “on”? If so who is Tim? I decided that was probably not part of the message. Meanwhile what is the paradox?
With a bit of googling I came across the ancient Chinese white horse paradox “When a white horse is not a horse”. Read about it here.
Have I found it? Or am I imagining it? The Chinese paradox leads me to ask… “When is a Felix Nina not a Nina?” It’s a shame we can’t ask him.
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled “The City? Great! You said when?”, which is a clue (answer 6 letters) to the theme, here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 106 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Defiant remark from drunk present (2,5) |
| SO THERE – SOT (drunk) HERE (present). | |
| 5 | Light contact from moving skis (4) |
| KISS – (skis)* [moving]. | |
| 7 | Swindler pinching girl’s large gun (6) |
| CANNON – ANN (girl) in CON (swindler). | |
| 8 | Arguing continuously? (2,1,3) |
| IN A ROW – Double definition, the first a cryptic hint. Nice one. | |
| 9 | Witnesses experiment, one with funds (11) |
| TESTIMONIES – TEST (experiment) I (one) MONIES (funds). | |
| 10 | Mission to go wrong, in addition (6) |
| ERRAND – ERR (go wrong) AND (in addition). | |
| 12 | Sparkler in use, weirdly, around Quebec (6) |
| SEQUIN – Q (Quebec in the phonetic alphabet) in (in use)* [weirdly]. | |
| 14 | Agree three letters with number inside for reading out (3,3,2,3) |
| SEE EYE TO EYE – SEE (c) EYE (i) TO (2) EYE (i). Sounds like 3 letters C C and I with a number 2 inside. What fun! | |
| 17 | Be undecided as doctor about one article (6) |
| DITHER – DR (doctor) about I (one) THE (article). | |
| 18 | Japanese entertainer’s portion of wage is halved (6) |
| GEISHA – Hidden in waGE IS HAlved. | |
| 20 | Live, I hesitate to say, for drink! (4) |
| BEER – BE (live) ER (I hesitate to say). | |
| 21 | Soldier dropped at party by ten? That seems impossible! (7) |
| PARADOX – PARA (soldier dropped) DO (party) X (ten). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Is a play regularly seen in Cheltenham? (3) |
| SPA – Alternate letters of iS aPlAy. The ? indicates that Cheltenham is a definition by example. | |
| 2 | State in USA: it’s wild (7) |
| TUNISIA -(in USA it)* [wild]. | |
| 3 | Listlessness of some in jacuzzi unnerving, on reflection (5) |
| ENNUI – Reverse hidden in jacuzzI UNNErving. | |
| 4 | Their job may be to correct abuse of steroid (7) |
| EDITORS – (steroid)* [correct]. | |
| 5 | Knows how army kit is: primarily this colour (5) |
| KHAKI – Initial letters of Knows How Army Kit Is [primarily]. | |
| 6 | He’s in hose, busily polishing footwear! (9) |
| SHOESHINE – (he’s in hose)* [busily]. As the dictionary says, “(the act of) polishing footwear“. | |
| 9 | Entry barrier to alter appearance, we hear (9) |
| TURNSTILE – TURN (alter) STILE, sounds like STYLE (appearance). | |
| 11 | Outing presumably not a stumble in the dark (3,4) |
| DAY TRIP – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. Ho ho. | |
| 13 | Doubted that French wine’s found around India (7) |
| QUERIED – QUE (that in French), I (India in the phonetic alphabet) in RED (wine). | |
| 15 | Alien female’s solvent (5) |
| ETHER – ET (Alien) HER (female) | |
| 16 | Big cat finally running inside bank (5) |
| TIGER – Last letter of runninG in TIER (bank). | |
| 19 | Bewitch bloke with 5 across (3) |
| HEX – HE (bloke) X (kiss; the answer to 5 across). | |
Just over 7 minutes for me. Lots of fun stuff here, especially the CI2I one. I was confused why Quebec was just Q since it is usually QC…then I remembered the phonetic alphabet.
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I finished this in under 10 so either I’m on the mend or this was very easy.
I thought it was looking at a pangram but it wasn’t.
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10:55. Great puzzle- really enjoyed SO THERE, TURNSTILE, SEE EYE TO EYE, and TESTIMONIES. John, I think you have to ignore the S in it’s to make TUNISIA anagram work.
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Oops. Thanks. Corrected.
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8.30, nice puzzle, liked SO THERE and CI2I and TURNSTILE once I realised it wasn’t THRESHOLD which fits in many places even though it doesn’t actually make sense. John I’ll take your word for it about the Nina, that’s quite a complex bit of puzzle unravelling. I’m not at all au fait with the identity of setters and was unaware that Felix is sadly no longer with us, but the online version says it is by Corelli. I might be missing something…
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Yes Corelli appears online but my printout has Felix. Not to worry though since both Corelli and Felix were pseudonyms of the late Richard Rogan and he set devious Ninas / themed puzzles using both names.
10 minutes.
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I didn’t bother with the Nina, and didn’t even parse quite a few of the clues. I started to put in testifiers, saw it was too short, and switched in mid-stream to testimonies. Shoeshine, dither, kiss, paradox – they all went smoothly in.
Time: 8:50
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