Times Cryptic 29352 – Sat, 4 Oct 2025. Wot dat u suid?

Author   branchPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

I had no idea what a suid might be. But, the answer makes perfect sense!

Thanks to the setter. 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. With the luxury of a week to do the blog, I can expand on how the wordplay works, so instructions copied from the clues to explain the wordplay are shown thus. Anagram material is (THUS)*.

Across
1 Very hungry birds eating enough to fill four (8)
RAVENOUS – RAVEN^S eating OU [enough to fill FOUR]. The caret indicates where text is inserted.
6 Clued unknown without English? Nought in that lacking definition (6)
CLOUDY – O [nought] in CL^UED [without E for English] + Y [an algebraic unknown].
9 King Charles, initially an enthusiast with energy (6)
CANUTE – Charles initially + A NUT [an enthusiast] + E [energy].
10 Accessory OK for car when travelling (4,4)
ROOF RACK – anagram, when travelling: (OK FOR CAR)*
I saw the whole clue as definition, and all but the first word as wordplay.
11 A thousand fish in bottom of boat (4)
KEEL – K [a thousand] + EEL.
12 Heedless group is talking nonsense (10)
BLITHERING – BLITHE + RING.
14 One in Saint Kitts hotel is nervous (8)
SKITTISH – I [one] in S. KITT^S + H.
16 What may be created for safari jacket with trimming (4)
PARK – PARKA, trimmed.
18 Think highly of wasting no part of the day (4)
HOUR – HONOUR [think highly of], wasting NO.
19 Predicted men meeting alien in cave (8)
FORETOLD – OR [men] + ET in FOLD [to cave]
21 Insulator circled it, breaking down around end of anode (10)
DIELECTRIC – anagram, breaking down: (CIRCLED IT + E)*. The final E is the end of ANODE.
22 Child outside runs to go with small steps (4)
TROT – TOT outside R.
24 Tree — good number in African country area (8)
MAGNOLIA – G + NO in MA^LI + A [area].
26 The French capital for its inhabitants turned unscrupulous (6)
AMORAL – LA + ROMA [Rome, for its inhabitants], all turned.
27 Difficult situation requiring quiet brilliance (6)
PLIGHT – P + LIGHT.
28 Serious disagreement with no overseas involvement (8)
DOMESTIC – two meanings.
Down
2 Quickly get father into cool (5)
APACE – PA [father] into ACE [cool!].
3 Quit real ale if bottled — having no distinct edge (11)
EQUILATERAL – anagram, bottled: (QUIT REAL ALE)*
“Bottled” as in “drunk”.
4 Cook too much, perhaps to stir round in grease? (8)
OVERBOIL – I’m not confident about this, but here it is:
VERB [perhaps, to stir: a definition by example] + O [round] in O^IL [grease].
5 Easy to understand where doctor heads to start his round? (15)
STRAIGHTFORWARD – a bit of a chestnut. The doctor, running late, goes STRAIGHT FOR WARD!
6 Hat the man kept under counter mostly (6)
CLOCHE – HE under CLOCK mostly.
7 Blade cutting head off pig (3)
OAR – head off BOAR.
8 Condor let to fly free (9)
DECONTROL – anagram, to fly: (CONDOR LET)*
13 Unchanging regarding trivial acknowledgements of debt (11)
REPETITIOUS – RE [regarding] + PETIT [trivial, in legal jargon] + IOUS.
15 Wise guy presently in sporting gear completely (4-2-3)
KNOW-IT-ALL – NOW in K^IT + ALL.
17 Publish what professional prospector makes? (8)
PROCLAIM – PRO [professional] + CLAIM [what prospector makes].
20 Putting carbon in added to rising time to model clay (6)
SCULPT – C [carbon] in S^ULP [PLUS, rising] + T.
23 Creature is certainly a tailless suid (5)
OKAPI – OK [certainly] + A + PIG tailless.
As mentioned, I had no idea that “suids” were the pig family!
25 Unexpected problem getting rid of second badger (3)
NAG – SNAG, getting rid of S.

23 comments on “Times Cryptic 29352 – Sat, 4 Oct 2025. Wot dat u suid?”

  1. 31:09
    I have no notes on this one, other than a DNK at DIELECTRIC (and, of course, ‘suid’). I couldn’t parse OVERBOIL; Bruce’s reading works, although I can’t say much for the clue. Bruce, you have 2 typos: a superfluous N at CANUTE, and it’s caret not carat.

  2. This one completed, and mostly OK with some amusement but also possibly a little naughty.
    Liked some of the relatively simple stuff in this one: 1ac RAVENOUS, 12ac BLITHERING and 14ac SKITTISH. Noted the bloggers uncertainties.
    Not quite sure about: 28ac DOMESTIC as ‘serious disagreement’. Also, FOLD for ‘cave’ in 19ac and R for ‘runs’ in 22ac. Yes, I know some will say that the latter is one of many standard things in this ‘crosswordworld’.
    However, my understanding (and ODE’s) is that EQUILATERAL 3d means ‘equal sided’ not ‘no distinct edge’.
    That said, thank you setter and branch.

    1. ODE sv domestic (noun) (informal) a violent quarrel between family members, especially husband and wife
      sv R (cricket) (on scorecards) run(s)
      If the sides of a figure are of equal length, the figure has no distinct edge.

      1. Thank U for that Kevin.
        Agree the first two are just me being picky and probably incorrect.
        Would be grateful for Ur reasoning on equilateral.

        1. I agree with Kevin – ‘distinct’ in the sense of ‘different’ implies that if the sides are not different, then all must be the same i.e. it’s equilateral.

          1. OK, I can see that. Not sure I like it.
            Looks like I’ve got a complete set then – picky and incorrect.
            Quite an achievement.

  3. I parsed OVERBOIL exactly the way branch did. DIELECTRIC is a neat clue. As one who spent his youth repairing and making valve radios the terms dielectric and anode occurred frequently. Dielectric being one of the insulating layers of a capacitor.

  4. 45 minutes, no aids and no queries, so I guess this goes down as a slow but steady solve.

    Bruce, how do you insert the caret sign? I was trying to do that some weeks ago when I decided I wanted indicate insertion points but couldn’t get it to work like you have. In the end I opted for the tilde sign (~) which I shall probably keep to now, but I’d be interested to know.

    1. The caret, ^, is among the numeric symbols on the keyboard. I think it looks better as a subscript.

      1. Thanks. Yes, I’m familiar with the key ^ but how do you get it to appear as subscript and smaller as in your blog?

        1. In the formatting ribbon in the editor, there’s a format button with a subscript option.

  5. DIELECTRIC NHO, so grateful for the anagram. Suid also not known, but will remember for the future. Luckily, not required knowledge to solve, as OKAPI was fairly obvious. It took me a while to get into the puzzle, but once the back was broken, I just worked my way through. It certainly helped that more of the crossers were consonants. For that reason I found AMORAL tricky, particularly since I wouldn’t associate it with unscrupulous, but it’s a great clue., one of many, in fact. I liked BLITHERING, though I’d normally say blathering for talking nonsense – I associate ‘blithering’ with ‘idiot’!

  6. 20.01

    Exactly what alto_ego said on BLITHERING. Great word.

    DNK DIELECTRIC but had the checkers.

    Liked ROOF RACK.

    Thanks Bruce and setter.

  7. 38 minutes. Add me to the list of those who didn’t know DIELECTRIC but it seemed a reasonably safe bet. I was slow to get STRAIGHTFORWARD, so deciding to lazily just bung in 12a from the def gave me the options of BLATHERING (as mentioned by alto_ego), BLETHERING and BLITHERING until I bothered to make the effort of looking at the wordplay. I don’t know that I’ve ever come across DECONTROL before; I’m not a big fan of it as a word for ‘free’ though it’s undoubtedly in the dictionaries.

    Highlight was OKAPI – a favourite crossword land animal with the bonus of an interesting new word in the clue.

    Thanks to setter and Bruce

  8. Thanks to branch and setter.
    Not too hard, I didn’t know what a suid was either. I never noticed that I hadn’t completed 18a Hour, so DNF. Sad.
    12a Blithering; I like a good blither.
    8d Decontrol, no I don’t like it either.

  9. 32 minutes. It was quite straightforward for a Saturday. DECONTROL was new and I supposed a suid must be a pig. Thanks branch.

  10. 20 minutes.

    – Took a while to see that ‘clued’ in 6a was actually required as part of the answer to get CLOUDY
    – Couldn’t have told you that a DIELECTRIC is an insulator
    – Can’t recall ever seeing DECONTROL before
    – Didn’t know what a suid was in the clue for OKAPI

    Thanks branch and setter.

    FOI Nag
    LOI Cloche
    COD Foretold

  11. 47 mins. COD PARK which I had for too long as SARI.
    Re side/edge in EQUILATERAL – I don’t think the sides of a figure on paper (triangle, square, hexagon etc) would ever be referred to as ‘edges’, and EQUILATERAL is mainly known for its use in geometry?

  12. 50 mins, no errors
    Spent a long time on the difference between BLITHERING and BLATHERING. Eventually STRAIGHT FORWARD broke the tie.
    Struggled with the parsing of OVERBOIL, which remained in pencil until all four checkers appeared.
    NHO DECONTROL, but I guess you can put DE- in front of just about any verb.
    The definition of EQUILATERAL confused me, I only heard of the mathematical meaning.
    The “enough to fill four” yielding “ou” strikes me as an odd device.
    Very clever “lift and separate” needed for King Charles, and nice to see Canute with his proper English name, can we have Boadicea back as well?
    SCULPT was LOI as once I saw OCELOT I couldn’t unthink starting with a vowel.

    Knew DIELECTRIC from my old electronics tinkering days. Also remembered an old joke “What do you call a Welsh electrician?”

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