Is it just me, or is this weather starting to get a bit frightening? Chained to a radiator, life on hold, what else can a guy do but concoct another cryptic crossword especially for Lucy…
CLUES
ACROSS
1 Remote toytown worry: a dumb void built (6,8)
7 Got a fountain pen? Lord, that’s old hat! (9,6)
8 Top class? Not in France. Here it’s like one in 5 (5)
9 Another 2 on ledger (5)
12 Random stab: all Cardiff’s foundations are rubbish (7)
13 Same decrepit prize field (4)
14 4 at last to wear award (4)
16 Abel was heroic and sophisticated, bar none (7)
17 Hand over nothing, dude. Period. (5)
18 Ironing, keen for company (5)
20 Re toilet sex case: kinky staples in Gabalfa (9,6)
21 Heard I hesitated at 6? No bull, was half cut by a car park! (8,6)
DOWN
1 In painful labour, twin boys due (7,7)
2 For patients, deliverance when no-one around (8)
3 From good street (4)
4 Say pharmacists were murderers… (10)
5 Nero at his fiddle, holding court (5)
6 Behead the ref! Right, sorted out! (Alien Grangetown way) (8,6)
10 Waters 100 floppy pansies in rescue operation (7,3)
11 Funny noise is no laughing matter? (5)
15 Shops late, gave no reason (8)
17 Architecture in brief: dumb cowards skipping and backsliding (1,1,1,1,1)
19 Tongues pussy in annexe 17D (4)
Just three to go…….
8, 11 and 16?
Not quite; 11,16 and 18. Your new one looks particularly tortuous 🙂
Nobody got it within the permitted time limit that I forgot to mention, so here are the answers (which should help with the latest crossword):
ACROSS
1 Mavrid Woodbury
7 Callaghan Square
8 Ainon
9 Heath
12 Ballast
13 Maes
14 Ivor
16 Epicure
17 Roman
18 Guest
20 Excelsior Estate
21 Adelaide Street
DOWN
1 Michael Michael
2 Velindre
3 Dogo
4 Despensers
5 Roath
6 Hereford Street
10 Caspian Sea
11 Clack
15 Valegate
17 RWCMD
19 Mews
OK, explanations:
ACROSS
1 Anagram of ‘worry a dumb void’ (‘built’ tells you to anagramise) gets this awful Cardiff suburb
7 Write the peer James Callaghan + retro word for old fashioned and you have a place with a fountain
8 A1 (top class) + non (‘not’ in French) = Splott’s Ainon ‘Court’, as referenced in 5 down
9 Heath Ledger and a hospital like 2 down
12 Anagram (‘random’) of ‘stab all’ – Cardiff’s moors are covered in it
13 Anagram (‘decrepit’) of ‘same’ – only joking, I’m a big supporter of the National Eisteddfod
14 4 (IV) + last letters of ‘to’ and ‘wear’ = award named after Novello
16 Epic + urbane minus ‘ban’ (bar) = epicure. I have mentioned Abel Magneron, the gourmand chef of the Big Windsor, in a blog last year (Absent Friends) – yes, I know this is obscure
17 Hand (right – ‘r’) on O (nothing) and man (dude). Historical period
18 Guest Keen, iron manufacturers
20 Address of Staples in Gabalfa, arrived at by an anagram (‘kinky’) of ‘re toilet sex case’
21 You need 6 down first. ‘I delayed’ sounds like ‘Adelaide’, add ‘Hereford Street’ without the Hereford bull. Adelaide Street has the Mermaid Quay carpark along its eastern side
DOWN
1 Name of Cardiff Labour councillor
2 Hospital – anagram (‘around’) of deliverance without ‘ace’ (‘no-one’)
3 Anagram of good – Pontcanna street
4 The murderous lords of Cardiff sound the same as ‘dispensers’
5 Roath has a Court, a word held within ‘neRO AT His..’
6 The ref beheaded = heref + anagram (‘out’) of r+sorted + ET (alien)
arrives at a Grangetown ‘way’
10 C (100) + anagram (‘floppy) of pansies within AA (rescue operation) = waters
11 I wanted a near impossible clue in the middle of the grid. You would have to intuit that I saw Boyd Clack perform live recently and didn’t laugh once
15 Anagram (‘no reason’) of ‘late gave’ = out of town shopping mall
17 Within ‘dumb cowards’ going backwards and alternately (‘skipping’) is the acronym of architectural showpiece the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
19 Language (‘tongues’) of a cat. Castle Mews is part of the RWCMD (17 down)