45:45 with two, count them, pink squares!
It was such a pity not to finish this fabulous puzzle correctly because I felt outsmarted from the start but chipped away and still fell short. First impressions were that it would be witty, elegant, and hard – at least I was not mistaken there. Having got a few answers all around the outside of the grid, leaving me with a great white space in the centre, it felt like I was being drawn in towards some light at the end of a tunnel. Lack of general knowledge and a bit of recklessness did me in.
I am very hopeful that our more erudite and practised contributors will have had more success, and enjoyed the journey to boot.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Two ponies traversing island, running freely (6) |
| LIQUID – L (fifty) QUID (two ponies, i.e. 2 x £25, unclear etymology) containing (traversing) I (island). | |
| 4 | Barge afloat, but with no hint of underdeck? (8) |
| FLATBOAT – anagram of (barge) AFLOAT + BuT, minus the first letter of (with no hint of) underdeck – &lit. | |
| 10 | Putting daughter in charge, pack lunch for the kids? (9) |
| FEEDSTUFF – D (daughter) in FEE (charge) and STUFF (pack). The kids are those of the caprine ilk. | |
| 11 | Rat, heartlessly put in sack, turned and bit performer (5) |
| EXTRA – RaT without its middle letter (heartlessly) in AXE (sack), all reversed (turned). | |
| 12 | Glider advanced beyond ring road (7) |
| BUZZARD – A (advanced) after BUZZ (ring, on the telephone), then RD (road). This was the second of my errors, having misspelt 2dn. With an ‘s’ in third place, and no hint of caution, I guessed ‘bustard’ as the only bird (and crossword-suitable word) that would fit. The golden rule, which I hope to learn soon: if you can’t parse it, it’s probably wrong. | |
| 13 | Pawn to be exchanged, only for men to get into scrape (7) |
| HOSTAGE – STAG (only for men) contained by (to get into) HOE (scrape). | |
| 14 | Old damp blankets left for youngster prowling after dark (5) |
| OWLET – O (old) and WET (damp) contains (…to blanket) L (left). | |
| 15 | Divine petite guide losing heart (8) |
| MINISTER – MINI (petite) + STeER (guide) without its middle letter (losing heart). | |
| 18 | Ace singer-songwriter dropping round for a break (8) |
| ABEYANCE – A (ace) + BEYoNCE (singer-songwriter) replacing (dropping… for…) ‘o’ (round) with ‘A’. | |
| 20 | Person who settled down here to fish (5) |
| ANGLE – double definition. | |
| 23 | Horse gets to Fence 1 … horse almost falls (7) |
| NIAGARA – NAG (horse) containing (to fence) I (one) + ARAb (horse) minus the last latter (almost). | |
| 25 | Joke about having run away from ordeal of marriage (7) |
| NUPTIAL – PUN (joke) reversed (about) + TrIAL (ordeal) minus the ‘r’ (‘run’ away). | |
| 26 | US player discarding clubs on turning over card (5) |
| JOKER – JOcK (US player) minus (discarding) ‘c’ (clubs) = reversal of (turning over) RE (on). | |
| 27 | Intimate admonition to first couple overheard? (9) |
| INSINUATE – sounds like (overheard) “in sin you ate” (admonition to Adam and Eve, first couple). | |
| 28 | All women objectified strapping boxer (8) |
| TOTALITY – TOTTY (women objectified) containing (strapping) ALI (Muhammad, boxer). | |
| 29 | Someone bothering about the teaching of religion? (6) |
| PRIEST – PEST (someone bothering) containing (about) RI (religious instruction, the teaching of religion) – &lit. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | This may keep you afloat if you live around south of lake (8) |
| LIFEBUOY – IF, then YOU + BE (live) reversed (around), all under (south of ) L (lake). | |
| 2 | What for Guatemalan flag’s filling empty spot up (7) |
| QUETZAL – QUE (‘what’ in Spanish, for Guatemalan), then the central letters from (…’s filling) fLAg with ZiT (spot) minus the middle letter (empty) with all of that reversed (up) – &lit. This is the bird that appears (in an otherwise empty spot) on the Guatemalan flag, and also gives its name to the country’s currency. I could see how the clue worked, but did not know the necessary stuff, and plumped for ‘quetsal’, thinking ’empty spot’=’st’. | |
| 3 | On the spot where scripture’s penned by saintly itinerant (9) |
| INSTANTLY – NT (scripture) contained (penned) by an anagram of (itinerant) SAINTLY. | |
| 5 | Sheds and banks of earthen works by abandoned sinister property (4-10) |
| LEFT-HANDEDNESS – anagram of (works) SHEDS AND + first and last (banks) of EartheN, after LEFT (abandoned). From the latin ‘sinister’ (left) and ‘dexter’ (right). | |
| 6 | Nancy’s very bored by sun making hair curl? (5) |
| TRESS – TRÈS (‘very’ in Nancy, France) containing (bored by) S (sun). | |
| 7 | Starting to argue is violation of decency (7) |
| OUTRAGE – anagram of (starting) TO ARGUE. | |
| 8 | Endpoint of serialist composer’s journey (6) |
| TRAVEL – last (endpoint) of serialisT + RAVEL (composer). | |
| 9 | Uncompromising and on time, stage grips out to lunch after play (14) |
| FUNDAMENTALIST – DAIS (stage) on T (time), containing (grips) MENTAL (out to lunch), all after FUN (play). | |
| 16 | One carving up outside of writing implement? (9) |
| SHARPENER – SHARER (one carving up) containing (outside of) PEN (writing implement) – & lit. | |
| 17 | Set the bell swinging around noon (8) |
| HELLBENT – anagram of (swinging) THE BELL containing (around) N (noon). | |
| 19 | Leader to bring fraud group together (7) |
| BRACKET – first letter of (leader to) Bring + RACKET (fraud). | |
| 21 | Lower gear for cycling club (7) |
| GRIMACE – RIG (gear) moves the last to first (for cycling) + MACE (club). More usually spelled ‘lour’. | |
| 22 | Vacuous idiot claiming he’s joking, turning off and on printer (6) |
| INKJET – first and last of (vacuously) IdioT, containing (claiming) the reversal of (turning) every other letter from (off and on) hE’s JoKiNg. | |
| 24 | American river flowing out of range of hearing (5) |
| AURAL – A (American) + URAL (river flowing out of (mountain) range). | |
29:34, but with some beard-scratchers. Looking forward to seeing the full parse — thanks in advance!
Undone, as predicted.
Watched Cracking the Cryptic in awe.
Done a week later, after three or four sessions. Total time 64’15”. A glorious puzzle. I was so glad at the very end to see through the BUZZARD-BUSTARD conundrum. I’d almost convinced myself there’d been a misprint, then suddenly realised that an empty spot got be Z-T as well as S-T. The gliding bustard oxymoron was what stopped me making the false biff. Bustards are famously ungainly, so it just couldn’t be! Many thanks for a lot of fun.
I wish The Australian would somehow amend its unsynchronised printing of the Cryptic to showing Friday puzzles on Saturday, to allow more leisure for solving. Currently they appear on Thursday, due to some holiday gaps in the past.
On reading this blog and speculation about difficulty, if decidedly tough could The Times move them to Saturday, to allow more time for non-neutrinos?