GIANT CROSSWORD
CRYPTIC
Choose between cryptic and quick clues to tackle the Giant crossword – both lead to the same answers.
ACROSS 12
Become very enthusiastic and throw the darts too high (2,9)
13 Smart, identifying
the tree (6)
14 Two names for a coat (6) 16 Unstable to start
off with, rock (4)
17 Putting back on and wearing anew.
It’s foreign (9)
18 In case there’s little
time in class (5)
19 A female would
have dumped (4)
20 Say yes – competent
and pleasant (9)
22 In no doubt as to what
“exculpate” means (5)
23 A rest and a quick meal (9) 27 Luxuriates in with cries of delight, totally submerged (7)
30 Went off to have ours
amended by the editor (6) 31 Provide a drink for,
in France (4)
32 A new father, he’s
clumsy (5)
35 A bird act, you say (4)
36 Explodes just as
one leaves (4,3)
38 Plunge right into, but
it’s very little water (4)
39 Free when tight (7)
42 The coloured boy, in the
return, has the edge on (6) 45 Small weed? Wrong.
It’s a vegetable (5)
46 Put the key men
into for a bit (7)
47 Take out a tie (4)
48 Left, by the little devil,
with a sore foot (4)
50 Perfume a man might
buy for his girlfriend (7)
52 It’s a boy, all right (5)
54 A container to take the
meat and stuff back (6)
56 Change the dates round
again, my love (7)
57 Surge out satisfactorily (4) 59 Becoming boring and
a pain, I’ll turn in (7)
61 With a fast pace, beat (4) 64 Take off on a small
journey (5)
66 The cat comes back
for a d-drink (4)
67 Thought it goes
back in time (6)
69 Taken by force from the
others, we’d grasped (7) 72 Earning, on arriving (7,2)
73 He lay, covered on bed (5) 74 Losing one’s footing
on snow – falling (9)
79 Still try (4)
81 Wanting to be near to
him is natural (5)
82 Mostly thin – unnaturally. I
mean to change that (2,3,4) 83 R-rabbit about the
clothing (4)
85 Relaxed when one had got
things straightened out (6) 86 Loving the carer (6)
87 Receive jointly at
the party (3-8)
DOWN
1 After you put on
public display (4)
2 Cutting even a key to
enter, to get back on (6)
3 The gun, yes, is
Russian, lady (6)
4 The pounds Carlos
converted right into (7)
5 Cooked for the man
I brought in (5)
6 Always prepared to give – and prepared to receive (4-6)
7 A drink from the buffet (5) 8 Meet requirements to be
a tailor’s assistant (7,2)
9 A blanket for the officer (7) 10 Say it’s OK – a
gentle animal (4)
11 Backs, in the trials (8)
15 Post, as usual, to
guard the sick (6)
21 When talking big,
does irritate (5)
24 Permanently opposed
to evil (3,4)
25 Gloomy, untidy room she
is disheartened by (6)
26 Jump free (6)
28 Old-looking but not plain,
at the stationer’s (5)
29 Wave the joker (3)
33 Is caught, perhaps, but
one extricates from (4,3)
34 Mum can’t squeeze
in, you grasp (6)
37 Time to run away quick! (5) 40 A flash that will frighten (5) 41 What you could play
but forbear from? (7)
43 Miss the green (5)
44 Buckled or broke,
though sturdy (6)
46 A fight over parking
cars; silly (5)
49 Keen on the painting, I
got a friend to seize (7) 84 Pipe up “It eats grass” (4) 51 Hard when one’s
anxious? (6)
53 There’s bitterness
over the quantity (6)
55 Measures the man (5)
58 Lady Godiva was an
intellectual (4-6)
60 Fish “83” left unfinished (3)
62 English family about
to tidy up (5)
63 A desire to find out more about the strange object? (9)
65 Feeling one’s arousing an
emotional response in (8)
68 Do your best to chew over the contents of the contract (6)
70 That’s before I got mother
in to enliven things (7)
71 Trouble begins when I
enter in reverse (7)
75 Being at the time of life
when you become boss (6)
76 Gets blazing when
one lands on (6)
77 Right opposite! (5)
78 Not many had watched
seizing victory in (5)
80 In that case, will have a
hard time concealing it (4)