Times Cryptic 29346 – Sat, 27 September 2025. Anchors aweigh

21 comments on “Times Cryptic 29346 – Sat, 27 September 2025. Anchors aweigh”

1. 47:43
   Not at all smooth sailing for me, evidently, although I can’t remember why. I never did figure out how HAVOC and HAVE IT BOTH WAYS worked. COD to the latter now that I know.

2. 41 minutes. Not such smooth sailing for me either – I was hit by a 40 knot sou’wester straight after leaving port. Anyway I stayed afloat and once the panic had settled I managed to finish. I parsed most of the clues, but was confused by ‘Jumble’ (definition v. anagram indicator) at 1d and at 17a was so pleased at seeing the ‘-itti-‘ in ‘witticisms’ that I missed the same thing in ‘splitting’. ORGANON was barely remembered from one previous appearance somewhere in crossword land years ago; the wordplay didn’t help to make it any easier. COD to HAVOC.

   Thanks to Bruce and setter

3. How did I do? Not very well- thought it one of the trickiest Saturdays for a while and whoever wins the prize ( assuming no cheating) thoroughly deserves it.

4. We completed this one in agreement with blogger. It was very clever and quite entertaining in places. Had to come here for full appreciation of 17ac HAVE IT BOTH WAYS and for some reason did not fully parse 16d AS ONE MAN (‘celebrity’ = NAME?). As well as 17ac, also admired 5d CHERISH and 8d ELEVEN for clean innovation. Honourable mentions 12ac IMPLORE and 13ac LOCAL AUTHORITY. Thought 10ac OBEDIENCE clue could have been worded with ‘Following rules’ first without destroying the deception, understand maybe why Yoda for 20d ASLANT.
   Other slight misgivings not worth mentioning.
   Thank you setter and branch.

5. 61 minutes resulting in a ‘BHW’ comment on my print-out – Bloody Hard Work. I never did figure out the parsing of THOREAU. I probably enjoyed most of it until I got bogged down.

6. Í thought canal would have been a better answer for 9 ac. But of course it didn’t fit. Didn’t get swarm. Clever once explained.

7. Two goes needed.

   – Didn’t parse HAVE IT BOTH WAYS
   – NHO THOREAU but it looked plausible and had E and the elements of ‘author’, so in it went
   – Also NHO ORGANON so trusted the wordplay

   Thanks branch and setter.

   FOI Rehearsal
   LOI Thoreau
   COD River

8. Like ChrisLutton, two goes needed – 80 appreciative minutes in all, some intriguing stuff. I too couldn’t parse 17ac (apart from the definition) and didn’t properly realise the role of ‘divorced’ in 1 dn. Not come across ORGANON before. COD was going to be RIVER (very nice example of clue type) but will now have to give it to 17ac. Thanks branch and setter.

9. DNF defeated by ORGANON after about an hour. On using aids to find that one I felt that despite being a NHO it was all fair and gettable so didn’t spoil a tough but enjoyable solve.
   Thought of RIVER early on but took a while to accept it could be as simple as that.
   I know AFTERNOON was an easy one but I rather liked it. Thank you branch and setter.

10. 53 minutes WOE. I clicked submit and while I was wondering why THOREAU was right I realised that TAKE IT BOTH WAYS wasn’t. Thanks branch.

11. Not too hard I think.
    17a Have it both ways, never saw IT/TI so thanks branch for pointing it out.
    4d Thoreau, I confuse this name with a TV personality who writes as well, but not sure who. This one has come up before. I missed the E AUTHOR trick, so another wasted on me.
    5d Cher-ish, ho-ho! I love Uxbridge.
    19d Organon, cheated. Clever. Too clever for me.

    1. Paul Theroux? Oh wait, rather his son Louis Theroux.

       1. YES! Thanks.

12. I was attempting this one whilst on a train to Marseille. One of those amazing coincidences that probably happens every week to someone solving the crossword, but eerie nonetheless.

    Choppy waters for me, 19d in particular.

    Thanks for the blog branch and the puzzle psychic setter!

13. No one has mentioned Bacon’s Novum Organum, but I found having heard of this work very helpful, although you do have to translate into Greek. It did completely not get the cryptic to having it both ways, but my answer was correct, and there are no pictures on scorecards.

    Time: 42:30

14. DNF, could not tune into this at all. Only bottom half just about completed.

    1. Similar here, after first go of 43 mins, all the bottom half completed and none of the top! Eventually finished next day.

15. Spent a lot of time here, got it done but surprised this morning to see two pink squares for TAKE IT BOTH WAYS, which I think still works.

    — FOI LOCAL AUTHORITY, but quite a long time with a blank grid.
    — The SCHEMATIC anagram was tough, had to write that one out. Great anagram, clean nine letter swap with letters all moving about.
    — RIVER seemed a poor clue, left that one in pencil.
    — Needed Thesaurus for SWARM, although I did have the SM.
    NHO ORGANON
    — Always forget celeb=name, as in AS ONE MAN
    — “Group” is challenging to find a synonym for, like the famous “set” which has the longest dictionary entry. This time it was “sort” in CONSORTIA
    — COD ELEVEN, but was LOI.

16. Thank you for explaining 4d THOREAU.
    2d HAVOC, I also found complicated. Was V’s “killing” S, an indication for V replacing S?

    Thank you for the clear and interesting blog. Though I think in 27ac the red formatting would be better without the strikethrough.

    1. Oops. Accident. Thanks.

17. As others have said, bottom half completed with not too many hassles ( except for AS ONE MAN) , and not certain of RIVER, though a great definition. Liked many of the inventive definitions, even though they took me a while to to spot, especially HAVE IT BOTH WAYS – which I didn’t. LOCAL AUTHORITY first in, and a slow but steady solve thereafter. CODs to AFTERNOON and ELEVEN.

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