Category: AS Specials

Yes, it’s my first attempt at a themed crossword, a theme which should be of interest to pretty much all of you. So don’t waste a Wednesday on another DP when you can have yourself the rarest of beasts: a themed AS special.

Feel free to regale, criticise or just plain ignore the crossword.

All starred clues are a 15-across and do not feature a definition.

All hashed clues feature within their respective answers a particular 15-across that has silently and nonchalantly infiltrated many other 15-acrosses. As such, the sneaky 15-across within the hashed clues’ answers is left unclued.

ACROSS
1. 15-acrosssorca-51 (9) *
6. Weightless spirit quietly energetic for canine 23-across (2, 3)
9. Stentorian donut stunned first conjunction (7)
10. Capture last triumph, bauble of high birth (7)
11. Singular command from the same book (4)
12. Blared cryptically: holding Yellow Pages range or clean shaver (5, 5)
15. Make out crap rhyme (6)
16, 24. Undermine catch? (8, 4)
18. Offering endless wind instrument (8) #
20. ‘Luckless bastard’ said loudly (6)
23. Expecting Chéri’s essential part encapsulated by saying “Arthur — cut!“ (6-2-2)
24. See 16-across
27. Abbreviated approval to fish activated (7) *
29. Spirits everywhere thought to shorten cartoon style with belief system marker (7)
30. Destruction engulfs November scrape (3-2)
31. Precisely! The person turned her tone on (4, 5)

DOWN
1. Red chief state (5) *
2. Not completely dead on arrival (7) *#
3. Sly affirmative to old city in addressee’s possession (4)
4. Point out daily is back to front (6) *
5. Transport 10^-6 (clear dishes) (8)
6. Second-rate interferes with perfection (3) *
7. Irrational encompasses a 21-down hit (7) *
8. Organised talk near Flanders (9)
13. Sunbathe soundly (6) *
14. Loud porn-star glow (6)
15. Idiot generator produced exemplar Vulcan (9)
17. Figure out trigonometric function on time: about noon (6, 2)
19. 5-across (7) *#
21. Cover round-about (7) *
22. Get vomit to a bin (6)
25. Hack edges off American three-piece (5) *
26. Regularly lit as yellow in opening section (4)
28. Pop is one such expert (3)

Update: The clue for 11-across has changed since I first posted this crossword. As Rupert points out in the comments, the original clue for 11-across, which I had clued as Capture last triumph, bauble of high birth, is inaccurate.

Further update: The clue for 12-across has also changed since I first posted this crossword. RB pointed out that the original clue, Readable jumble holds ultimate love for clean shaver, had a mistaken anagram.

In the comments you’ll find the answers and explanations to the recent AS crossword.

Enjoy.

I’m off to Norway, Finland and Estonia for a few weeks on Friday, and I leave you fine people with one of my own cryptic concoctions to have a crack at or just ignore.

Solutions and explanations will be posted some time before I leave the antarctic climes for the arctic.

ACROSS
1. Rapper Chuck mixed up with crazy Satanic elixirs (8)
5. Modern prolixity cut by just over half is definitely an example (6)
10. One less painter god (5)
11. More than one mobile exhibit has do preparations between fights (9)
12. Overly masculine bastard heard standing over a limitless number (7)
13. Third part-providential, peremptory refusal out of order during mating season (7)
15. Star moment: inebriated Roos captain skewered amusing Bob (9)
16. Inappropriate any which way you look at it (3, 2)
17. Right championship (5)
19. Without top-grade rams, llamas munched on magnums and suchlike (5, 4)
21. Grave words: computer industry aphorisms drop by two thirds — record first (7)
22. Separatist revolutionaries, no? (7)
24. See within intellectual belief in God leading to stern rule (9)
26. Old war account gets to the core of kill Jim made (5)
27. Want to reverse fatherhood? (6)
28. Contradict approximately first two articles in Bern (8)

DOWN
1. Rebel territory north (3, 2)
2. Well-aged king fit IT mess around boring, routine flavour (5, 6)
3. Starters bag copies (7)
4. Riot scared rich, disturbing the source of cinematic power (9, 5)
6. Springfield short to criticise cleaner (7)
7. Pride: from weed to wed? (3)
8. Outback sites at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 2000-2008? (9)
9. Fixer who pays child support? (11, 3)
14. Links bury franchises (11)
15. Impetuous hotelier, for example (9)
18. Drug war essentially sours charm (7)
20. Originally from NSW, quick group at the shady end (3, 4)
23. Jack’s not even in the US somewhere (5)
25. Middling passion fruit paste: dodgy (3)

If you want the answers to the latest AS Special, they’re in the comments below.

Ever so slowly, I’ve put a clue or two away and made myself a crossword. This one should be easier than the last one I made, which was too hard, but not so easy that it’s a walkover.

Anyway, have a crack if you’re interested and the prospect of a DH tomorrow fills you with indifference:

ACROSS

7. Seeing part of each meal out of order (6)
8. Philanderer turned harlot into nymph (8)
9. Cultural group X reportedly in Catalonia (4)
10. Thrice do entries bamboozle Hatters (10)
11. “Exemplary echidnas stake eight!” report headlines reassuringly state (9)
13. Follow speeches from the last to the first (5)
15. Be last to raise twice: English die splits the middle (5, 2, 3, 4)
18. Ringmaster heard Kenny left the arena (5)
20. Inveigles Spooner, on a poorer wage, to head south (9)
24. Flower punch to last too long (10)
25. Second person’s essentially hurt by Rocky, yes? (4)
26. French Fleming?! (8)
27. Net embraced fashionable fork twenty years ago on computers (6)

DOWN

1. View what promo left behind (6)
2. Move slowly to Bern (4)
3. Replete with sorrow, confused men fault at length (9)
4. Fasten together strips for internal support (5)
5. Golfing standards taking a turn for the worse? You can say that again (6)
6, 14. See 14 down (8)
8. Spiker smashes first five clearly (5)
12. First 17-down energised for two or more 17-downs (3)
14. See 6 down (9)
16. Novel Scotch John’s French relation (8)
17. He-man’s sister lost sibilance to an apportioned 12-down (3)
19. Drug binge confession of liveliness (6)
21. Light-fingered lord sheds pet vulgar line (5)
22. Consider the same stereo’s dials to pause sound (6)
23. Nature lover’s union success (5)
25. Northerner’s pull (4)

In the comments, you’ll find the solutions to the crossword I made recently.

Feel free to criticise, praise or ignore.

Another spate of hubristic madness has seen me attempt another crossword. I’ve even stolen one of RC’s ideas and included a new type of clue for the modern age.

Mine can’t be too much worse than a DH, so if you’ve a cryptic urge tomorrow…

ACROSS
1. Its they’re only mistaken musiic title (9)
6. Ostentatious style a core trait of Dublin Guinness drinkers (5)
9. Pardon the blind Cartesian sum at home asking why (7)
10. Extraordinary nitrogen reduction scheme (3-4)
11. Supplementary energy target diminished public transport (5)
12. Man to make model tennis player (3, 6)
13. Alternative vow on the phone to He-man figure (3)
14. Prize capsicums are cooked to perfection without salt (7’1, 3)
16. Sis doubled lacerating first lashes (4-7)
18. First person to needle long-gone writer (3)
19. LA folks at museum point to low-grade Cola (3, 3, 3)
21. 000 (5)
23. Sauce a form of relief inside meal container south of the border (9)
24. Wizard’s home reversed acid’s distorting the celestial bands (7)
25. Concise (5)
26. Forward-looking fans issue profanity on short notice at visitors short of breath (9)

DOWN
1. Speak clearly of what was once spoken (5)
2. Weakened spirit dwells within stolen hymns thinned of over 1000 pages (7)
3. Gilligan and the Skipper mended limbs (9)
4. Heavens: Saints kick twenty behinds! (3)
5. Full moon cooked eggs in style (9, 2)
6. Poet forbid Simpson rerun (5)
7. Nonsense positive in rap on first private ton (7)
8. Hereditary nihilistic generation usually friendless (9)
12. Travolta aversion immune to buttering up? (11)
13. A hot run around waiting on Tim to overdo things (2, 3, 2, 2)
15. Statistical knavery by the German Biggs (9)
17. Timbale beat signals ho-hum section (4, 3)
18. Delayed Sam’s tumultuous life story concerning organic material (7)
20. Brutish: no laidback shack (5)
22. Cleans up abridged Springfield sitcom in the first instance (5)
24. Spot Zidane a couple before time (3)

You’ll find the solutions here.