Puzzle 13 Recipes on request I
Time to unhitch the safety net. Feel free to peek at the ‘Recipes on request’ box below each set of clues for any clue’s formula in the next six puzzles. But test your nerves—and nous—before you do.
1 Card-game jabber? (5)
4 Cyclist clipped big kerb (5)
7 A man won heart by extent of defoliant (5,6)
8 Must split before small rebellion (6)
9 Token golf shot (4)
12 Total love for Japanese wrestling (4)
13 Live-in nanny suggests gold earrings? (2,4)
15 Vital finance for Astle start-up of the brain? (11)
16 Heard to gather in West Africa (5)
17 Did boy cut oxygen supply to old lady? (5)
DOWN
1 Actor Neill’s peak-climbing on TVs? (7)
2 Condition where you need to take something? (11)
3 Eye part of turret in Alhambra precinct (6)
4 Sent up boring poet (4)
5 Warm, heated drink spilt (4-7)
6 Paddle in sound for fish eggs (3)
10 Leaves players reeling? (7)
11 Singly pierced U-boat? Brilliant! (6)
14 War dance that makes shaky guts (4)
15 Travel north after forest’s initial driving hazard (3)
Recipes on request I
ACROSS:
1 double definition
4 deletion x 2
7 charade
8 deletion/charade
9 double definition
12 charade
13 pun
15 charade
16 homophone
17 deletion/anagram
DOWN:
1 reversal
2 pun
3 hidden
4 reversal
5 anagram
6 homophone
10 anagram
11 container
14 code
15 reversal/charade
Puzzle 14 Recipes on request II
Three cheers if you solve 11-across without peeking. Easily the hardest clue in the grid.
1 Observed mail price fluctuating (9)
8 Tricky topic of eyes (5)
9 Hindi area essentially! (5)
10 Empty promise of upper crust? (3,2,3,3)
11 Figure outlines curve in joint inflammation (6,5)
14 Skimmed firm diagram (5)
15 Names for ‘semesters’? (5)
16 Fruit crate repacked to fill square (9)
DOWN
2 Dull substance reduced (5)
3 Prone to going, visiting Africa maybe? (11)
4 Flower originally held for me and dog? (5,6)
5 Range across Arabian Desert (5)
6 Tricky topic creating wedge? (3,6)
7 Rap star turning wet and sneaky (5,4)
12 Thanklessly notable 13-down, perhaps (5)
13 Eavesdropped unproductive court figure (5)
Recipes on request II
ACROSS:
1 anagram
8 anagram
9 hidden &lit
10 pun
11 charade/anagram/charade
14 deletion
15 double definition
16 anagram/container
DOWN:
2 deletion
3 charade
4 charade
5 hidden
6 pun
7 anagram
12 deletion
13 homophone
Puzzle 15 Recipes on request III
Spoonerism, code, homophone, &lit—there’s a full rollcall of recipes in this grid. But which clue obeys which formula?
1 Boundlessly harsh way back for London XI (7)
7 Each aunt I’ll organise to see things (11)
8 Free ladies sent off base? (6)
9 Tropical getaway regularly insulted (4)
11 Report: ‘Look for bloke in turban’ (4)
12 Releases Spooner’s ducks? (4,2)
14 Tolkien’s setting art, cryptically (6-5)
15 Sketch harbour fish (7)
DOWN
1 Anxious Pearl would somehow bandage kid’s head (3,6,2)
2 Drunk thoroughly exploited (6)
3 New city written up in detective fiction (4)
4 Deceives protagonists botching art, say (5,6)
5 Short ladies keep spaces pure (9)
6 Monsters demolished Beth’s home (9)
10 Fragment—remote?! (6)
13 Starts to suffer loneliness under racial insult (4)
Recipes on request III
ACROSS
1 deletion/reversal
7 anagram
8 charade/deletion
9 alternation
11 homophone
12 spoonerism
14 rebus
15 charade
DOWN
1 anagram/container
2 charade
3 reversal/charade
4 charade/anagram
5 deletion/container
6 anagram
10 anagram &lit
13 code
Puzzle 16 Recipes on request IV
If setters are allowed to pick a favourite within a puzzle series, then here’s mine. Put your brain in 15-down.
1 No more shooting boater, possibly cut in snare (5,1,4)
8 Strike put out field event (6,5)
9 Current event arranged online (2,4)
10 Slight rolls to the west (4)
12 Dressing might demo bottom (4)
14 Fellow gets licence to kill penguin (6)
17 Summer Ale so intoxicated dashing chap? (6,5)
18 Gathering habit (10)
DOWN
2 Rambo romantic at heart when on edge (2-3)
3 Kicking drawing, say (6)
4 Bohemian bash going topless (4)
5 Repeated lecturer and nurses (5)
6 He lends money to Spooner’s card-game with muscle (10)
7 Slyly use chemist notepaper? (5,5)
11 Frog-kick initially okay after head sagged (6)
13 Red Sea nation blasted enemy (5)
15 High-powered duck getting dry when moving north (5)
16 I duplicated viral video (4)
Recipes on request IV
ACROSS
1 charade/container
8 charade
9 anagram
10 reversal
12 charade
14 charade
17 anagram
18 double definition
DOWN
2 charade
3 homophone
4 deletion
5 hidden
6 spoonerism
7 anagram
11 charade/deletion
13 anagram
15 reversal/charade
16 charade
Puzzle 17 Recipes on request V
Commonly in Cryptopia, ‘I’ denotes ‘me’, or vice versa. Though across my puzzles, when I say ‘I’ that could signify DA, my puzzle-page by-line. PS: 4-down is tough.
1 I get paunch—that’s a fact (5)
4 Loquacious pig added to large hubbub (5)
7 Flip logical bits out (2,9)
8 Humdrum bum occupies vacuous day (6)
9 Meat full of vitamins? (4)
11 Commentator’s spots to stretch (4)
12 Chest of audible flu sufferer maybe (6)
14 Expecting sign isn’t, for example (11)
16 Female 17-across in retiring … (5)
17 … advantage, like planned (5)
DOWN
1 Enjoyed drudge, oddly (3)
2 Pill-mixing insane—abandoning a sport? (5,6)
3 Grinder’s second Swede? (6)
4 Dash upset writer’s innards (4)
5 Queasy feeling is close to numb, say—quickly passes (11)
6 Devil cruel if provoked (7)
8 Tonally deaf—is it shortfall? (7)
10 Caught stabbing gloomy rocker with a prankster’s cry (6)
13 Giant peddler in East End (4)
15 Macadamia maniac (3)
Recipes on request V
ACROSS
1 charade
4 charade
7 anagram
8 container
9 charade
11 homophone
12 homophone
14 double definition
16 reversal
17 charade
DOWN
1 alternation
2 charade/anagram/deletion
3 charade
4 manipulation
5 charade
6 anagram
8 homophone
10 container/charade
13 homophone
15 double definition
Puzzle 18 Recipes on request VI
There’s a reason this one wraps the series. In a word: ouch. But remember, if pain persists, every recipe is in easy reach.
1 Indulged, rested lives, given food around one (9)
6 UK pal possibly scoffing ex-PM (4,7)
7 Sit still, editing video’s end on TV mode (2,3,4)
8 Fuel-coated skirts made womanly (9)
11 Ex-PM found with pot and shades, we hear (5,6)
12 He’d assert changes for dental chairs’ features (9)
DOWN
1 Aloof trawlerman’s stall? (11)
2 Hair boutique putting aside capital for true gripper? (5)
3 It slows a ship down to pick up woman on ship (5,6)
4 Start distributing rations as evacuating (5)
5 Sir ends imbroglio, clothing dweeb in formal wear (6,5)
9 Mum orbited key island (5)
10 Traces trigonometric curves in auditorium (5)
Recipes on request VI
ACROSS
1 charade/container
6 anagram/charade
7 anagram
8 container
11 charade/homophone
12 anagram
DOWN
1 charade
2 manipulation
3 homophone x 2
4 deletion/anagram
5 anagram/container
9 container
10 homophone