There were some improbable answers here (… is that really a word?) Luckily, they were easily constructed from wordplay! Otherwise, not too tough. How did you do?
Note for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is for last week’s puzzle, posted after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on this week’s Saturday Cryptic.
Definitions are in bold and underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | French writer of Antigone adapted following Moliere’s lead (9) |
| MONTAIGNE – M [Moliere’s lead] + anagram, adapted: (ANTIGONE). We saw this writer recently, so he went in quickly! |
|
| 6 | Course for royals held in Victoria’s cottage (5) |
| ASCOT – hidden (held). | |
| 9 | Noble artist and author lacking time for boastful adventurer (5,10) |
| BARON MUNCHAUSEN – BARON [a noble] + MUNCH [the artist, Edvard] + AUSTEN [the author, Jane, lacking T] The real-life Baron von Münchausen was (semi-)fictionalised as Baron Munchausen, without the umlaut. |
|
| 10 | Church is replacing sanctum’s interior division (6) |
| SCHISM – CH + IS replacing the interior of SanctuM. | |
| 11 | What might go into pumpernickel or dry bloomer, it’s said (8) |
| RYEFLOUR – sounds (it’s said) like WRY FLOWER. Never heard the word, but the answer was obvious. |
|
| 13 | Make well disposed pair tiptoe around (10) |
| PROPITIATE – anagram, around: (PAIR TIPTOE). | |
| 14 | Reportedly out and proud? (4) |
| BOLD – sounds (reportedly) like BOWLED. Today’s cricket clue. |
|
| 16 | Country’s head is late queen (4) |
| RANI – IRAN [a country] with the I (its head) late in the answer. | |
| 17 | Partner about to return free ticket with story about cold (10) |
| ACCOMPLICE – AC [about, returning] + COMP [free ticket] + LIE about C. | |
| 19 | Pegasus, say, and what it does for one it supports? (8) |
| HORSEFLY – HORSE [Pegasus, say] + FLY [what it does]. A horsefly can land on (be supported by) any horse, not necessarily Pegasus. |
|
| 20 | Rumour king perhaps is entertaining a knight (6) |
| CANARD – CARD [a playing card, a king perhaps] entertaining A + N. | |
| 23 | Total wizard coda to Schoenberg keeps Transfigured Night showing brilliance of Proms season (6,9) |
| SUMMER LIGHTNING – SUM [total] + MERLIN [the wizard] + G [“coda” to SchoenberG] keeping an anagram, transfigured: (NIGHT). | |
| 24 | Field of fruit — beginning to be harvested (5) |
| RANGE – ORANGE, with the beginning harvested. | |
| 25 | Symbol or a Greek letter that’s second to last? I don’t know (9) |
| IGNORAMUS – SIGN [symbol] + OR + A + MU [Greek letter], with S [second] moved to last. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Apricot sweet initially made exclusively by our shop (5) |
| MEBOS – first letters (initially). Never heard of it. A South African sweet. |
|
| 2 | Old PM on rural island, one of ours far from London? (15) |
| NORTHCOUNTRYMAN – NORTH [old PM] + COUNTRY [rural] + MAN [island]. | |
| 3 | Who questions a number being taken up on credit mostly (8) |
| AGNOSTIC – A + SONG taken up+ TICk, mostly. | |
| 4 | Disused spot acquired to accommodate university (4) |
| GOUT – GOT to accommodate U. “Disused” signals “archaic meaning”. |
|
| 5 | No one raised putting in blubber part, one in process of scrambling? (10) |
| ENCRYPTION – NONE [no one] backwards (raised) holding (putting in) CRY + PT + I. | |
| 6 | Italian place Mafia left in a mess (6) |
| AMALFI – anagram, in a mess: (MAFIA L). | |
| 7 | Am monopolistic, sadly, about society and world view (15) |
| COSMOPOLITANISM – anagram, sadly: (AM MONOPOLISTIC S), including S for society. | |
| 8 | Kentish Town school losing opening game (9) |
| TONBRIDGE – eTON losing its opening + BRIDGE [the game]. | |
| 12 | Take one flower as told, it’s yellow and in a jar (10) |
| PICCALILLI – sounds (as told) like PICK A LILY. | |
| 13 | Buyer of a lot of neat alcohol right after a drink (9) |
| PURCHASER – PURe [a lot of NEAT] + CHASER [drink, right after another]. | |
| 15 | Spot small dish (8) |
| SPLATTER – S + PLATTER. | |
| 18 | Worship always incorporated into religious teaching (6) |
| REVERE – EVER incorporated into R.E. | |
| 21 | Magistrates closely follow points (5) |
| DOGES – DOG [closely follow] + ES [two compass points]. | |
| 22 | Past name for Stravinsky ballet (4) |
| AGON – AGO + N. Another NHO for me. More musical or scholarly types may differ. |
|
One DOGE is more than enough! Ha!
I think PICCALILLI must’ve come up before, but I NHO MEROS.
55m 13s
My notes don’t say so but I remember using aids on a few occasions here especially as some ofthe words were a tad odd. For instance, I still don’t understand SUMMER LIGHTNING: Brilliance of Proms season.
What is?
I know GOUT as something I have to take meds for but not the meaning here: disused spot.
At least my step-daughter, the Sri Lankan born Rani, gets a mention here!
Thanks, Bruce
I also wondered about SUMMER LIGHTNING but assumed its a reference to the Proms season at the Albert Hall which traditionally takes place in the summer. If so, it’s a little weak, I felt.
GOUT as spot was unknown but I think ‘disused’ indicates an archaism so there’s no reason why I should know of it.
46 minutes.
Thanks, Jack. Yes, I think ‘weak’ is appropriate.
ODE has sv ‘gout’: 2 )literary) a drop or spot of something. I’ve seen ‘gouts of blood’.
Thanks, Kevin.
Yes, it was gouts of blood that convinced me too.
I thought SUMMER LIGHTNING was very neat. The whole clue appears to be about the coda to Schoenberg’s most famous composition (Verkläte Nacht) being performed in an amazing way at a BBC Proms concert. Yet it turns out to be a summer weather phenomenon.
This week I was definitely on the setter’s wavelength (doesn’t happen often) with all the musical references. AGON was a write-in.
I got a lot a pleasure from this puzzle.
I forgot that Pegasus is a winged horse…
I struggled with the Baron Munchausen and Encryption crossers (had been trying MUNT as the artist). Apart from that it all went OK with Mebos and Agon hadving to be taken on trust.
DNF, defeated by BOLD (where a silly COSMOPiLITANISM scuppered me), HORSEFLY (very confused by it all) and PICCALILLI.
– Didn’t know MONTAIGNE the writer but the name sounded plausible
– NHO MEBOS so trusted the wordplay
– Same for AGON
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Tonbridge
I couldn’t get the writer at 1a until I wrote out the anagrist, then it jumped straight out at me. Despite working on many Proms seasons I was also a bit confused by the reference at 23a, as the main concerts are indoors at the RAH. However, there are also a number of open air ones around the country, and I assume that is what the setter is referencing. Liked 2d and 12d – is the latter a chestnut?
The Proms season is the summer, irrespective of where the concerts are held!
13:09. I liked this one. DNK MEBOS of course but I did know AGON. I thought I didn’t know GOUT: I didn’t think of blood.
SUMMER LIGHTING is the name of one of my favourite Wodehouse books.
Well I was slow. I saw MEBOS and GOUT straight away but they ended up going in last. I didn’t know the former and didn’t know that meaning of the latter. I had forgotten MONTAIGNE so the anagram proved elusive and the BARON was someone I might have heard of. So I did the only thing I could, start with DOGES and spread upwards. Homophones can be annoying but I liked BOLD.
Thanks both.
20.01
Loved this one and hesitant to disagree with very respected bloggers I thought SUMMER LIGHTNING was (wait for it) brilliant as was 1ac.
Thanks Bruce and clever setter
NHO AGON or MEBOS like a lot of others, nor that meaning of GOUT. But the wordplay was so direct I just put them in confidently. I wasn’t sure about SUMMER LIGHTNING since I don’t think I’ve ever heard the phrase, and after submission when I looked in Chambers it had never heard of it either. But overall not too hard.
Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning
And Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely frightening
Not for the first time I was grateful to Philip Larkin – the train that bore him southwards past the Whitsun Weddings is described as “shuffling gouts of steam”.
Thanks branch and setter.
Thanks, B. I knew Agon, but had to wordplay into Mebos and Gout. I translated “supports” as refering to a horsefly living off biting its a horse and drinking some blood.
Yuk. Good wholesome crossword where I confidently entered the first few known: MONTAIGNE, ASCOT, AMALFI and TONBRIDGE. Then slowed tho a trot with the homophones: RYEFLOUR, BOLD, etc. Enjoyed and almost finished, apart from DOGES and the second part of HORSE???.