CranberryFez

Pumpkin carved with Gorillaz logo

Happy Halloween 🎃

Given the surface you'd think "in the auditorium" would be the go-to indicator

Is it the cruciverbalist's favourite cuckoo? 😜

Cryptic crossword No 2,783 · MyCrossword Solve Cryptic crossword No 2,783 on MyCrossword. 15x15 grid with 36 clues by Fez. Published Thu 23 Oct 2025. Features annotated solutions and special instructions. Free to solve online.

A trip to the cinema with the new Fez, sample clues:

Put last of shopping into blue plastic bag (5)
Clothes, not Pete's but ... (4)
Declared Bible was wrong (7)

On Raider's blockbuster @mycrossword.co.uk

www.mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2783

Copy of new Unch magazine, with a 'not bothered' greyhound Roger in the background

Yay, just arrived, a post-lunch Unch!
Really impressive layout & looking forward to solving 😁

(Note for anyone brave / foolish enough to attempt my Cranberry puzzle: barred thematics usually have a title that relates to the puzzle & may even provide help ... and the title here should be "Unch #1")

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Maybe something with DEMON*? "Working girl turned into cow by angry demon ..." (if it's an Across clue for the "by") ... a def is quite tough though!

hmm the brackets there disrupt the "DOMEnica half-dead" I'd say, just commas would work (but not the "near" link!) The ONIO bit is very nice though 🙂

Yeah it took me a while to be convinced by "with" *both* ways but I think it does the job as either def "having" wp, or wp "presenting" def. But neither in sense of "alongside". (And not really bi-directional - like "and", say - so wouldn't like double-def "def1 with def2")

"... made out casually"?

Nice ... but surely the "Olympic honcho" in the 'What got you stumped' section is Seb COE = CO as a homophone. Not only is CO as "commanding officer" a huge stretch as "Olympic honcho", it'd make the homophone something like "WIL-SEE-OH"!

Oh yes "musical lady" would be fine I think, she's definitely that - but I think you'd need to be careful that "crazy" specifically applies to the upper-case stage name (whether Beefheart could be *just* a lower-case "captain", I'm less sure!)

I guess it's arguable, but the key reference here is to the capitalised stage name - "crazy" would be unfair unless applying to the particular stage persona (else we could be looking for any lower-case "lady" with potentially offensive "crazy") ... I reckon the Captain similarly needs a capital too.

Just to emphasise any possible confusion 🙂

Nice ... does Lady need capitalising though?

Muzzle = gag, as @simonpegg.bsky.social (not *that* Mr Pegg, btw!) explains

Loopy from Pegg, again (4)

(Ref. @simonpegg.bsky.social:
"I've started doing a lot of cryptic crosswords of late, and have just stumbled across a doozy of a clue.

Presented here for your own frustration:

'Muzzle a cuckoo' (4)")

Presumably El Sereno (Oldie), Orense (FT) - Jeremy Mutch

Yeah, I'd *personally* prefer something on those lines, but as "Gujurati leader" does literally mean "leader of/from Gujarat" I guess it's ok/justifiable in a whimsical way even if a two-step process ... if it had been "Great leader ..." that would be another matter!

(Actually I'll withdraw any objection to 1d ... not keen on that G but justifiable especially given the super surface)

Mutch fun, indeed. Not sure what the "from" is doing in 25a, past tense "surrounded" a tad jarring in 13a, and the first synonym in 1a seems more than a stretch to me. And though lovely surface and 'gettable', I'm not *quite* convinced by 1d. But v minor pedantry, great stuff overall!

Indeed, apologies. This is criminal rubbish (4)

(which of course may then be seen as overly whimsical or downright inaccurate... that's another question)

[Devil's advocate mode again] If something is 'criminal', it's in a criminal/deplorable state. Is the NHS in a deplorable state if it's presented as SNH? Criminal SHN = NHS? I can see the objection, but also the defence ... I think it *can* be worked out without just relying on precedence/convention

I have that theory of everything in draft, but the publishers aren't biting yet

I like "preposterous" as a reversal - but admit I'm not really sure why it is restricted to Down clues (although I'd only use it that way, simply because of precedence ...)

Via Chambers, "must" as an adjective can be "in a (dangerous) state of frenzy" [for some male animals eg elephants] deriving from Persian/Hindi "mast"=intoxicated. I don't think I've ever encountered it as an anagrind though!

ha, well a 'riddle' is *designed* to confuse - a 'clue' otoh should "say what it means". More like an *illusion* - it looks like one thing (surface) but looked at in the right way is *unambiguously* something very different. A Duck-Rabbit. And if the Rabbit don't actually look like a rabbit ... ! 😜

Hmm, the rocks are *likely* to be disturbed / jiggled around but that's not what the "travelled" bit describes - you'd need "disturbed" or "jiggled around" to describe that particular property. 'Gettable' may make for a fun 'riddle' or 'dingbat', but misses the point of what a 'clue' is!

(Not that I'm overly keen on it, btw ... just playing devil's advocate!)