The Age Cryptic by LR #20,381

It's great to have LR back. There's usually a bit of playfulness and whimsy to be had. This was an interesting grid because there were so few down clues, and there were four long phrases. It made sense to tackle the across clues and get as many cross letters in place for the phrases to be easier to identify. Even saying that, it's impossible to resist looking at down clues once an across is entered.

2D and 15A took me a long time to crack and blocked up the whole left side for a while. Once I got them the rest came in easy time - for me that's about 4 hours. One day I'll get into that 1-hour club.

My kids like to take my red pens. I don't know why. One will probably be drawing hearts on things, the other, dripping blood from fangs. Either way, no matter how often I buy them their own supplies, they steal mine. So my cheats, 9A and 13A are in green. I'll have to buy cheap pens and leave them around as stealable so the kids will leave my beloved Uniball Visions alone.


1A - Way to queue for matchmaker's paperwork (6,4)
We want a "way to queue" that's like a "matchmaker's paperwork?" SINGLE FILE.

7A - Freezing fish around 50 (4)
"Freezing" is our definition and we want a "fish" = COD to go "around" the letter L, the Roman numeral for 50. COLD

9A - ... yet waiter dropped iodine in beverage (5,5)
I got the second word easy enough "Waiter dropped Iodine" means to remove the letter I from "waiter" = WATER but couldn't guess what the full name of the "beverage" was and didn't understand "..." meant STILL for STILL WATER.

10A - Deer eats little killer spiders' heads (4)
We are looking for a type of "Deer" and at the other end is our clue signpost "heads" saying to look at the first letters of the other words. "Eats Little Killer Spiders" for ELKS.

11A - Concerning...petrol station seconds away from inrush to water supplies (10)
A charade clue so I'll show the breakdown: "Concerning" = RE, "petrol station" = SERVO (that took me a while, damn Aussie slang) then it's "seconds away from InRuSh" saying to take every other letter from "inrush" so RE+SERVO+IRS as a word for "water supplies" RESERVOIRS.

12A - Lisping Peck family (4)
Definition is "family" and a "Peck" is a KISS but we want to say it like we're "lisping" so it's KITH. Sneaky making Peck capitalised, so we'd think Gregory, right?

13A - Drew Morphett Finally Single: Journalist (4)
I did Google "Drew Morphett" and saw he was a sports newscaster. I couldn't see where this was going until I got the answer key. I think it's "MorphetT finally" means take the last letter T, "single" = I and "journalist" = ED (is that for editorialist?) all together for TIED as a synonym of "DREW" and it really has nothing to do with Mr. Morphett.

14A - Soldiers turn to personalities for autographs (10)
"Autographs" is our definition. "Soldiers turn" = GIS in reverse so SIG and "personalities" = NATURES for SIGNATURES.

15A - Imbeciles plan a destructive section of roads (10)
I struggled with this and had cross letters in place before I remembered - when in doubt don't forget hidden words. Scanning forwards and back, there it was: "imbecilES PLAN A DEStructive" meaning our definition is "roads" and our solution ESPLANADES.

19A - First cousin has every phone (4)
"First cousin" = C the first letter of "cousin" and "has every" = ALL for CALL, a word for "phone"

20A - Huge English film (4)
"Huge" is the definition and we want the E from "English" and "film" = PIC (camera film, I'm guessing) for EPIC.

21A - Fearful response when Moe's pubs go broke (5,5)
"Fearful response" is the definition and "Moe's pubs go broke" is fodder+anagrind. Mix the fodder to get GOOSE BUMPS the symptom of a "fearful response."

22A - Condiment from can on duck (4)
We want a "condiment" from "can" = MAY and "duck" = O (Zero to O akin to goose egg) to give MAYO.

23A - Model rants on neckwear injustices (10)
I liked this clue. It was great to get all the bits and have the answer revealed. It's a charades clue and revealed like this: "Model" = T, "rants" = RAVES and "neckwear" = TIES put together to get a synonym for "injustices" TRAVESTIES.

24A - Kid's Doctor spoke to god (4)
Some clues I get a real thrill out of getting right. I looked at this and thought, "god" is lower case so it might be an old god we're looking for. I thought "spoke to god" might be PRAY. Then "Kid's Doctor" and why is Doctor capitalised? What is the abbreviation for a paediatrician? Then I thought "Well, if not medical Doctor, it could be Dr. Seuss." and what if "spoke" was a homophone indicator - Bam! it was there. SEUSS = ZEUS. (Even though I don't say those two exactly the same)

25A - Dressmaker in ocean has mass anxiety (10)
Charade clue again and our definition is "Dressmaker" I'll break it down: "ocean" = SEA, "mass" = M and "anxiety" = STRESS put together for SEAMSTRESS.

2D - Originally winning (2,3,5,5)
I got this after a few cross letters were in place. Double definition: IN THE FIRST PLACE.

3D - Apple seeing old iCloud errors (6,9)
I kept coming back to this and thinking the words were odd. I had thought about the Google wayback machine, but that wasn't going anywhere. After a few cross letters where in place I saw the answer but still needed to solve the clue to be sure. Definition is "Apple" and "errors" is an anagrind. I had to put "Seeing old iCloud" next to GOLDEN DELICIOUS to be sure they were anagrams.

4D - Former spouses view sex disdainfully! (2-5)
Well, that's a prudish surface. "Former spouses" is our definition, then I noticed "view sex" was conveniently 7-letters and "disdainfully" could be an anagrind. Mix the fodder to get EX-WIVES.

5D - Latest craze is batting with flimsy head guard (2,5)
I had this but thought it wasn't enough to be 100% certain of my answer. I even discarded it as an option at one point because I couldn't parse the clue. "Latest craze" is the definition and I  think "batting" = IN, "flimsy" = THIN and "head Guard" means take the G as head letter of "guard" making our answer  IN THING. I spent too long looking for synonyms of "helmet."

6D - Amateur as I appear, I possess much of northern hemisphere! (7)
A clue that rhymes, how lovely! It is a riddle and also a hidden word clue. The word "appear" was a hint as was "possess" and looking closer we can see "amatEUR AS I Appear" reveal itself EURASIA as our antipodean land mass.

7D - Ogle Summer at the till? (8,7)
This took me a while, even with the cross letters. I'd guessed on the second word with all cross letters in place, but took longer for the first word. I had to think of "Summer" as a person and not a season to get CHECKOUT COUNTER as a place one "ogles" that's a "till."

8D - Enjoy the audience being quick? (4,3,8)
I needed help from Google here as it's not a phrase I'd use as it's very British. I resorted to using One Across for the last word and thought "Like the Flappers?" didn't really make much sense. Then "audience" made more sense to me and I got LIKE THE CLAPPERS. I'd never thought much about that phrase. I'd assumed "Clappers" were irons or handcuffs and those who "go like the clappers" or "from the clappers" were running away from the police.

16D - Cancels generation about top mark on exam, almost (7)
I'm not sure how this is parsed. I guessed "Cancels" was the definition and went with a thesaurus and cross letters. "About" is one of those words that has multiple uses as a signpost. "generation" = GEN - and we need to reverse it. So is "about" an anagrind? A reversal? General word meaning to screw about with letters in any way to make it fit? "Top mark" = A and "exam, almost" = TEST -T. Put together it's: NEG+A+TES for NEGATES. It's the first part I'm not solid about. I mean with!

17D - Commotion surrounding on/off switch of model (7)
One of my last in and with all cross letters I made a guess with "model" as the definition and the Simpson's episode "Lisa's Rival" with that The Telltale Heart diorama. DIORAMA, but I don't understand the parsing. I can see the inside is an anagram of Maori surrounded by DA, There's a designer  DIOR over the award ceremony AMA. With more needling I guess "commotion" could be DRAMA but IO as on/off? Inactive/operational? I might go have a look at the buttons on things to see.

18D - Distorters of food pins (7)
I think, I may be developing that kind of brain that sees things in words. I laughed at this clue when I read it and I immediately wanted to find a word that meant "Someone who hates cakes" for "distorters." Perhaps I see far too many cake pins on Pinterest. Those who diss tortes are not what we're after, although it was a merry path to skip along. No we want a word that means both to distort something and also is a "food pin" SKEWERS.

That was great fun. I even managed to get through The Guardian's Rufus puzzle, which I'll put up late tonight or early tomorrow. I have Girl Guides to run tonight which I hope will be fun - you never know what the kids' moods will be like. These girls all want to race about and exhaust themselves. I'm supposed to do a bit on relaxation and how to calm oneself as part of being healthy - how to manage stress and quiet the mind, but I think they'll be offended. So it's a small bit of that followed by Simon Says and a song about jelly beans. Ending with fresh pineapple and jump rope.