Cryptic: On!
◆◆ · By wisprabbit · Published 2022-12-28T12:55:02.903Z
Constructor's Note
A themed cryptic crossword. You don't have to spot the theme, but it might help.
I tried to make this easier than usual, since it's the holiday season. But I'm no good at judging difficulty, and I know there are still a few bad words. Figuring out the theme will help with one or two of the nasty ones; you have my permission to use dictionaries and wordfinders for the rest.
I set myself a challenge in 2022 to publish a puzzle every Wednesday, including a monthly cryptic crossword. This is the last one. I'm very pleased with my work and I hope you like it too.
I post crosswords and logic puzzles on my Twitter:
https://twitter.com/wisprabbit
Checking for previous play data...
1A
One who cavorts by wren and carp, cavorting without whiskey (7)
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Across
- 1AOne who cavorts by wren and carp, cavorting without whiskey (7)
- 5APerhaps a cheating athlete could be more brilliant (5)
- 10AMilitary thrust against ape which has been sent ahead of publication (7, 4)
- 11AAmong Us uses this slang word (3)
- 12ABent cad very disheartened (5)
- 14AMade sauna complex until everybody gets sick of it (2, 7)
- 15AText “are you Ziggler?” to the most famous (and most radiant) of nine in this grid (7)
- 17AFatal to us, in our devastation (7)
- 19AFolded from small to medium to flattened (7)
- 21AVogue writer is crazy about North America (7)
- 23ATrading bloc failure to swallow an American soldier, one who pays tribute to the dead (9)
- 25AHold papers for a divine matchmaker (5)
- 26AH from Steps of throat? (3)
- 27ALosing head, refuse to have the last word, thanks to volcanic eruption debris (11)
- 29AFox English with “5+9” (5)
- 30ABritish literature, Buddhist philosophy and German flash? (7)
Down
- 2DVicar in glow-up missing amplifier (3)
- 3DOlder woman heads off Newark and North New York (5)
- 4DFlash sale yet to give up something that can be batted (7)
- 5DSounds like you dug deep after party – is that okay? (2, 3, 4)
- 6DSmall model without an entourage (5)
- 7DContinues producing files for job applications (7)
- 8DBallet performer has a nasty disease which makes head dead (6)
- 9DOne who puts on something during a terrible party? (6)
- 13DFree German (European) found in mountain spur (5)
- 16DCitrus colour is meagre without a line reforming around (4, 5)
- 18DAdmit writing a clue for the New World Order? (3, 2)
- 19DPlaywright to strike something from a to-do list on the radio (7)
- 20DAthlete who might destroy hope, say (6)
- 21DRelating to a union of arm and tail, both reconstructed (7)
- 22DFrom the mountains of South American; found in Rio Grande, anyway (6)
- 24DRubbery fabric retuned by “unknown” (and other collaborators) (5)
- 25DBusiness encountered something in the Sun’s orbit (5)
- 28DFormerly known as Skinned Knees (3)