Cryptic Puzzle

Six and One

Six and One

By Tom Toce

I wasn’t sure it could be done, but here is the last in our rolling a seven series, six and one. I’m happy to say that there’s less junk in the grids than I feared, one abbreviation I wish I could have avoided. (Cryptic puzzles generally don’t involve abbreviations or other forms of crossword-ese.) Everything else is playable in Scrabble, except for a straightforward proper noun. There is one unusual word, though maybe not to Brits.

The clues are arranged by rows and columns, but the diagram for each clue is left for the solver to determine. The hints provide the correspondence. Numbers appear in the grids as they ordinarily would, but you don’t need them. Ignore punctuation, because I do.

Thanks to Eric Klis, Bob Fink, and Jerry Miccolis for test-solving and editorial suggestions.

Across

First row

  • Between the third and the sixth of November, tree parts with leaves
  • Take the pot with average holding, deuces wild

Second row

  • Confident in later arrangement
  • Shorter corridor for Henry V

Third row

  • Cold opens a steer’s wound
  • Charles’ll consider overdubbing tracks

Fourth row

  • Engineer consumed by trigonometry
  • Trysts must end at 3, idiot
  • Meth clients dropping acid?

Fifth row

  • Crazy hard–and crunchy, maybe
  • Tending to angle in inappropriately

Sixth row

  • Buck’s wife is made of money, I’m told
  • One mortified by earlier version of Kindle, perhaps?

Seventh row

  • Doctor twists bandages
  • Cuts getting resistance from waitstaff

Down

First column

  • Missions make mistakes and confess, at last
  • Agreed on supporting Seattle’s embattled

Second column

  • A résumé rewritten to standard

Third column

  • Person overlooked and sore?
  • Little pantomime on the outskirts of Charlotte’s promenade

Fourth column

  • Val flipped over John
  • Caisson rolling to gambling parlors
  • Have a bad reaction to deliveries arriving late

Fifth column

  • Transcribing Fitzgerald’s notes and getting mournful poems
  • Ruler’s coverup after war turned

Sixth column

  • Salvager finally took in a classic mink one winter

Seventh column

  • Removes billboards from projects?
  • Messy place starts to look elegant, really, and sumptuous for hairdressers

 

 

Previous Issue’s Puzzle—Five and Two

Across

First row

  • AMERICA—Hidden in “bedlam, Eric: adapt”
  • UPDATED—Anagram of “Dude, Pat”

Second row

  • EGO—Outside “Embargo”
  • MAVEN—M (“the fifth of Glenmorangie”) + (H)AVEN (“unopened Port”)

Third row

  • ORIGAMI—ORI(GIN) (“Cut short at the outset”) + AM + I
  • EFFORTS—T (“time”) inside “offers” anagrammed

Fourth row

  • LIE—Double definition
  • TAS—reversal of “Sat”
  • UNCARED—Anagram of “durance”

Fifth row

  • NITRATE—Terrible homophone of NIGH (“closely”) + TRAIT (”characteristic”)
  • EXCLUDE—Anagram of “deluxe” around C (“center”)

Sixth row

  • TAR—Double definition
  • EDGER—Inside “wizened geraniums”

Seventh row

  • SUSPECT—Anagram of “upsets” around C (“Cuba’s leader”)
  • SUDSERS—SU (reversal of US from “We brought back”) + anagram of “dress”

Down

First column

  • AMOUNTS—Pun on A-MOUNTS (“first-class steeds”)
  • USELESS—Double definition

Second column

  • FIX—Double definition
  • MARNI—Anagram of “I am RN”

Third column

  • DEFECTS—Double definition
  • EVICTED—EVITED (“Sent on-line party invitations”) around C (“a hundred”)

Fourth column

  • REGARDS—REDS (“Socialists”) around reversal of RAG (“contemptible issue”)
  • AGO—A + GO (“fling”)
  • LAP—reversal of PAL (“comrade”)

Fifth column

  • TORTURE—Homophone of TORCHER (“arsonist”)
  • IN A RAGE—Anagram of “rain” + AGE (“date”)

Sixth column

  • METER—METIER (“field of work”) – I
  • TAD—Double definition & literally

Seventh column

  • ABIDERS—Anagram of “sidebar”
  • DESSERT—Homophone of DESERT (“Fail”)

 

Solvers

Very few solvers used the hints, so I’m not showing the breakdown.

Jina and Michael Accardo, Steve Alpert, Anthony Amodeo, Dean Apps, Jack Brauner, Bob Campbell, Lois Cappellano, Daniel Clark, Todd Dashoff, Mick Diede, Dave Dougherty, Deb Edwards, Bob Fink, Mendy Friedman, Bruce Fuller, Phil Gollance, Ruth Johnson, Jason Helbraun, Mike Henley, Pete Hepokoski, Wade Hess, J & J Holloman, Paul Ivanovskis, Joe Kilroy, Eric Klis, Paul Kolell, Mike Kosciuk, Ken Kudrak, Ben Lynch, Michael Manos, Dave McGarry, Jerry Miccolis, Jon Michelson, Becky Moody, Jim Muza, David and Corinne Promislow, Alan Putney, Daniel Rhodes, Jay Ripps, Dan Schwallie, Bill Scott, Andrew Shewan, Zig Swistunowicz, T. O. C. E. (Josh DenHartog and Sean Donohoe), Betsy and James Uzzell, Jim Wickwire, Arlene Woodruff, Michael Zurhellen

 

TOM TOCE is a senior manager for actuarial services with Ernst & Young in New York and is a member of the Jeopardy Hall of Fame. Solutions may be emailed to him at Thomas.Toce@ey.com. In order to make the solver list, your solutions must be received by July 31, 2019.

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