You’d have gone faster on this one if you just biffed in the likely answers and didn’t sweat the tricky parsing. 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. Wordplay instructions copied from the clues thus. Anagram material (THUS)*
| Across | |
| 1 | Awkward task involves delays — time to provide support for Jack? (9) |
| FLAGSTAFF – FAFF involves LAGS + T.
I’d have thought “faff” means “dither”. Chambers agrees. Collins is silent. OED says “{spend time in} ineffectual activity”. Wiktionary however supports the setter: (noun) “an overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.” Meanwhile, the earworm: Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winona … Get your kicks on Route 66! |
|
| 6 | Catching cold, fancy a hot drink (5) |
| COCOA – COO catching C [cold] + A. | |
| 9 | More quit without one right answer (5) |
| EXTRA – EXIT without I [one] + R + A. | |
| 10 | Contemporary, incomplete body of knowledge shows ignorance (9) |
| NESCIENCE – NEW [contemporary, incomplete] + SCIENCE [body of knowledge]. | |
| 11 | Two supporters — part of Rovers? (3,4) |
| FAN BELT – FAN [supports a team] + BELT [supports your trousers]. Rovers = cars, not a football team. | |
| 12 | Flat’s interior unfinished — overwhelmed, I start to panic (7) |
| INSIPID – I + PANIC overwhelmed by INSIDE. | |
| 13 | Refreshing our stock in May and November makes for extensive range (5,9) |
| ROCKY MOUNTAINS – anagram (refreshing): (OUR STOCK IN MAY N)*. The N is for November. | |
| 17 | Group ferrying wounded using elastic to protect ear, missing a bit (9,5) |
| STRETCHER PARTY – STRETCHY to protect EAR, missing A + PART [bit]. | |
| 21 | Brilliant line worker receives award (7) |
| LAMBENT – L + ANT receives MBE. | |
| 23 | Instrument popular with Italy’s premier composer (7) |
| BELLINI – BELL [instrument] + IN [popular] + I [Italy’s premier]. | |
| 25 | Southern Irish contingent a vital part of wine tasting event (9) |
| CORKSCREW – CORK’S CREW would be from the south of Ireland, to be sure. | |
| 26 | In two areas, what about Democrat being in front? (5) |
| AHEAD – HE [eh?, about] in AA [two “areas”] + D [Democrat]. | |
| 27 | Pick up clock around noon and head for station (5) |
| SENSE – SEE [“clock”] around N+S. | |
| 28 | Food and wine colleague’s keeping very quiet (3,6) |
| RED PEPPER – RED [wine] + PEER keeping PP. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Having no set outline available for months (8) |
| FREEFORM – FREE [available: are you free, Mr Grace?] + FOR + M. | |
| 2 | Conservative and Liberal leaving Essex town for part of London (5) |
| ACTON – CLACTON. | |
| 3 | Increase that’s down to poor middle management? (5,4) |
| SPARE TYRE – cryptic definition. | |
| 4 | Article not equivocal about natural food colouring (7) |
| ANNATTO – A [article] + NTO [anagram, equivocal, of NOT] about NAT. | |
| 5 | Following deposit, one’s charged — look (7) |
| FASHION – F [following] + ASH [deposit] + ION [something electrically charged]. | |
| 6 | Fast food joint in Lewis? (5) |
| CHIPS – HIP in C.S. [Clive Staples Lewis: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]. | |
| 7 | Implement refusal to enter staff room at the outset (3,6) |
| CAN OPENER – NOPE to enter CANE + R [ROOM, at the outset]. | |
| 8 | Upload negatives, inverted and cropped in programme (6) |
| AGENDA – backwards (inverted) hidden (and cropped). | |
| 14 | Is able to cross a river in this? (9) |
| CATAMARAN – CAN to cross A TAMAR. | |
| 15 | Designation of court where, twice, plea is changed, inhibiting start of trial (9) |
| APPELLATE – anagram (is changed): (PLEA PLEA)*, containing (inhibiting) T [start of TRIAL]. | |
| 16 | Calmly evacuated ship — danger, primarily, lies within part of engine (8) |
| CYLINDER – CY [CALMLY, evacuated] + D [DANGER, primarily] lies within LINER [ship]. | |
| 18 | Food supplier from hotel leaving that place in vehicle (7) |
| CATERER – TERE [THERE, with H leaving] in CAR. | |
| 19 | Barged in front — directed outside behind back of queue (7) |
| ELBOWED – LED [directed] outside BOW [front] behind E [back of QUEUE]. | |
| 20 | Son needs trousers (6) |
| SLACKS – S [son] + LACKS. | |
| 22 | Result of being soused regularly? (5) |
| ENSUE – every second letter (regularly) of BEING SOUSED. | |
| 24 | Frost over vessel circling point south of Island (3,2) |
| ICE UP – CUP circling E [East, a compass point] south of I. “South of” = “below” in this down clue. | |
Had this all fully correct and parsed, then for some reason ruined any competition chances by entering LAMBERT for LAMBENT in 21ac.
Suspect this is not due to some subliminal ‘lambert walk’ (a song and dance) but rather poetic justice as ODE has both LAMBERT – a unit of lumens per cm squared (or some such) and LAMBENT meaning (you guessed it) brilliant.
My actions not ‘brilliant’ by any measure, NHO either term and, incidentally as we all know from a corrollary of Murphys Law, quantities are always in the most useful units eg. speed in furlongs per fortnight.
Lots to admire in this Saturday’s: 11ac FAN BELT was not hard but economical and cute. 3d SPARE TYRE and 5d FASHION economical, clever and at least slightly amusing. But COD for me strangely was 24d ICED UP.
MERs for COO as ‘fancy’ (per se) in 6ac, and NOPE for ‘refusal’ 7d.
I suppose one can forgive BOW for ‘front’ in 19d because of the hint of context from the meaning ‘barged in’.
Apologies for long rave.
Compliments to setter and branch.
I also messed up, mistyping APPELATEE and not noticing. As is so often the case, I don’t remember anything significant a week later although I do remember finding this pretty easy. I used to think Saturdays were hard since they were a prize puzzle, but these days Fridays are usually harder, and sometimes a LOT harder.
I imagine the policy is not to make the competition puzzle too hard or they won’t get so many entries and that could suggest to the powers-that-be a decline of interest in their activities.
It never occurs to me to enter the competition because I rank myself as amateur here, but my sister, who keeps me company, won twice in the same month. Impressive or a reflection of how many people do enter?
I’m surprised the Saturday and Sunday puzzles still offer prizes as it’s so easy to search the answers nowadays- but good for those who remain honest about their endeavours!
And a nice surprise when the parcel arrives. I assumed it was because as a newb to submitting online I was one of the few not to have won yet.
A couple of late responses following recent server errors:
Times comps would appear to be for everyone to have a go.
Personally in context I regard researching GK and synonyms – particularly checking – as not cheating. But going to a site that just provides the answer is pointless and reprehensible if U compete with the results.
Also Casey’s sister must be awful lucky – depending on how she enters and selection criteria used by Times.
Again apologies for long post.
32:57
DNK Clacton, or Acton. I wondered about FAFF, too. I took ‘pick up’ at 27ac to be a homophone indicator, which cost me some time. I liked FAN BELT.
46 minutes. I had no problem with the required meaning of FAFF.
NHO APPELLATE which is making its first appearance here.
Didn’t know NESCIENCE either. It has appeared twice before, 6 years ago in a Jumbo I didn’t tackle, and 11 years ago in a 15×15 when I also didn’t know it.
Clacton has come up a few times, but ACTON many times more. We have discussed it with reference to being only quite a small part of west London yet having no fewer than seven railway stations with ACTON in their names.
Nothing too tricky here but held up by ANNATTO which I’m sure we’ve had many times but I wasn’t sure about the abbreviation for natural. Nor did BELT come readily as a ‘supporter’ but I guess it is.
Thanks both
Contemporary = NOW or NEW? Guessed right for the NHO answer.
BTW, this website is still horribly slow and gets HTTP 500 errors. I know others have reported it but it makes posting a bit of a FAFF.
Thanks as always.
An hour, all fully parsed except 6dn – the penny dropped about 1/2 hour later, so COD there. Also liked 11ac (eventually), the 8dn hidden word (which I should have spotted sooner) and 14d. Like others, have always assumed a faff was something tiresome but not necessarily awkward or difficult.
Tried commenting yesterday but couldn’t – thanks to those who’ve helped resolve the site issues!
DNF this one, back in OWL Club with ANNETTO rather than the unknown ANNATTO (didn’t know ‘nat’ as an abbreviation for ‘natural’ and might have had Amoretto on the brain).
– Was tempted to bung in BEANSTALK for 1a (‘support for Jack’!) until I figured out FLAGSTAFF
– Relied on the wordplay for the unknown NESCIENCE and LAMBENT
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Cocoa
Fast for me, and very rewarding, as my ‘guesses’ (biffs) proved right, starting with the jocular FAN BELT. NHO ANNATTO, so that held me up a bit, or, I’m ashamed to say, NESCIENCE, but the clever noun/verb switch for 7d was amusing and worth a PDM. 13a also straight in, as I’m now able to think of mountains when the word ‘range’ appears; and my COD would have to be STRETCHER PARTY for its misdirection.