Solving time: 54 minutes
I found this hard work but enjoyable and very inventive in places . Some of the blog was quite hard to write too.
Following an email I wrote to Mick Hodgkin a couple of weeks ago about an experiment he’d tried using AI to solve cryptic clues, I got a mention in last Saturday’s Times Puzzles Newsletter. Here’s the link if anyone’s interested. It’s in the Puzzle Talk section about half way down.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Squirm with embarrassment initially about Republican (6) |
| WRITHE | |
| WITH + E {mbarrassment} [initially] containing [about] R (Republican) | |
| 5 | What goes over goalie’s head annoyed pub (8) |
| CROSSBAR | |
| CROSS (annoyed), BAR (pub) | |
| 9 | Fetish involving India and its martial art (3-5) |
| JIU-JITSU | |
| JUJU (fetish) containing [involving] I (India – phonetic alphabet) and separately ITS. I think it’s a little unusual for separate insertions not to be indicated as such in the wording of the clue. SOED: juju – a charm, amulet, fetish, or idol of some W. African peoples. |
|
| 10 | Noah’s craft finally disappeared in a desert for its resting place (6) |
| ARARAT | |
| AR{k} (Noah’s craft) [finally disappeared] contained by [ in] A + RAT (desert). According to the Bible, Noah’s Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat now located in modern-day Turkey. | |
| 11 | Optimist that is swallowing what’s periodically in tabloid (8) |
| IDEALIST | |
| ID EST (that is) containing [swallowing] {t}A{b}L{o}I{d} [periodically] | |
| 12 | What’s upset Lakeland, losing a lake town there (6) |
| KENDAL | |
| Anagram [upset] of L{a}KE{l}AND [losing a lake]. Separate deletions this time (cf. 9ac)! Kendal is a town in the vicinity of Lakeland, officially called the Lake District National Park. It’s famous for its mint cake. | |
| 13 | Expedition as made by river in London? (8) |
| ALACRITY | |
| À LA (as made by – in the style of ), then R (river) contained by [in] CITY (London?) | |
| 15 | Gemstone’s old, needing polish put back (4) |
| OPAL | |
| O (old), then LAP (polish) reversed [put back]. SOED: lap – polish with a lap – a rotating disc for cutting or polishing gems or metal. The answer was obvious but I needed to look up ‘lap’ afterwards to understand the wordplay. | |
| 17 | More than one cyclone runs out of force (4) |
| LOWS | |
| {f}LOWS (runs) [out of force – f]. Collins: low (meteorology) – an atmospheric low-pressure system; cyclone. Another clue that gave me problems. | |
| 19 | Is meal, no, for cooking? (8) |
| SEMOLINA | |
| Anagram [for cooking] of IS MEAL NO. ‘Is meal, no’ because semolina is not classified as meal as its made from wheat which meal is not. ‘For cooking?’ because semolina would usually be cooked prior to serving. I was getting nowhere with this until the checkers forced me to consider the anagram. Collins put me on to wheat not being meal. | |
| 20 | Coat woody plant after removing bark? (6) |
| REEFER | |
| {t}REE FER{n} (woody plant) [removing bark]. Another troublesome one. I suspected ‘reefer’ (a coat worn by sailors) quite early on and realised I’d need to find letters to go at either end, but I was unable to make sense of the wordplay until I used aids post-completion. I had overlooked the possibility of a two word expression. | |
| 21 | Such as semicolon, dash and closing parenthesis come into play (8) |
| EMOTICON | |
| Anagram [play] of COME INTO. If you write the said punctuation marks you get ; – ) an example of an emoticon aka a smiley. Note: I’ve inserted spaces to prevent WordPress turning it into an emoji like so 😉 |
|
| 22 | Biblical figure, one involved with Leah and Jacob primarily (6) |
| ELIJAH | |
| Anagram [involved] of I (one) LEAH J{acob} [primarily] | |
| 23 | The Spanish isle and Gibraltar the French appropriate (8) |
| ELIGIBLE | |
| EL (‘the’ Spanish), I (isle), GIB (Gibraltar – informally), LE (‘the’ French) | |
| 24 | Perhaps copper worker is after material (8) |
| SERGEANT | |
| SERGE (material), ANT (worker). ‘Copper’ is a police officer who be a sergeant. | |
| 25 | Match ends of telomere in germ cell (6) |
| GAMETE | |
| GAME (match), T{elomer}E [ends of]. In my attempt to find the answers I made this far more complicated than it was. A telomere is defined as ‘either of the ends of a chromosome’, which fits rather nicely with the wording of the clue. | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Work to support two gods denying a fall from heaven? (8) |
| RAINDROP | |
| RA + INDR{a} (two gods) [denying ‘a’], OP (work) | |
| 3 | What’s erected at regularly-visited Jumna by prince? (3,5) |
| TAJ MAHAL | |
| AT reversed [erected], J{u}M{n}A [regularly-visited], HAL (prince, at least according to Shakespeare). I’ve underlined most of the clue as I’m not sure what the definition is. The Taj Mahal was erected at Agra which stands on the River Jumna and it’s certainly regularly visited. I don’t think the prince is part of it. | |
| 4 | Free additional note with one hundred invested (9) |
| EXTRICATE | |
| EXTRA (additional) + TE (note) containing [with…] I (one) + C (hundred) […invested] | |
| 5 | Pushback from result of bad shop fitting? (15) |
| COUNTERMOVEMENT | |
| A cryptic hint suggests COUNTER MOVEMENT | |
| 6 | Witchcraft is unfortunate outside church (7) |
| SORCERY | |
| SORRY (unfortunate – e.g. a sorry state of affairs) containing [outside] CE (church) | |
| 7 | Composer gets over a setting of part of War and Peace (8) |
| BORODINO | |
| BORODIN (composer), O (over). The battle of Borodino is a central theme in Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. | |
| 8 | Hardhearted laws succeeded — around half of them (8) |
| RUTHLESS | |
| RULES (laws) + S (succeeded) containing [around] TH{em} [half] | |
| 14 | Rear seal for making garments (9) |
| TAILORING | |
| TAIL (rear), O-RING (seal – e.g. a washer) | |
| 15 | Old poem, for instance source of Home Thoughts, from Abroad? (8) |
| OVERSEAS | |
| O (old), VERSE (poem), AS (for instance). The definition refers to the title of a poem by Robert Browning that begins: Oh, to be in England Now that April’s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England—now! |
|
| 16 | What’s in decanter I ordered earlier? (8) |
| ANTERIOR | |
| Hidden [in] {dec}ANTER I OR{dered} | |
| 17 | US city can regularly dig some use of old-world language (8) |
| LATINISM | |
| LA (US city), TIN (can), {d}I{g} S{o}M{e} [regularly] | |
| 18 | Long wait around where some have crashed when travelling? (5-3) |
| WAGON-LIT | |
| Anagram [around] LONG WAIT. I took forever to see what was going on here. This is a sleeping car on a train, so where people can ‘crash’. | |
| 19 | Leak part of cross-reference (7) |
| SEEPAGE | |
| SEE PAGE (part of cross-reference). Only ‘part’ because it would normally be followed by a page number. | |
21.27 with LOI reefer which I knew to be a jacket and worked the tree part out which was enough for me. DNK anterior but saw the hiding place. Other than that not much to add apart from thinking nothing came close to Domain from yesterday to induce the giggles.
Missed the hidden. 16d, so dnf.
Thrown by the understated synonym of cyclone, the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of a hurricane. I doubt many in Florida would agree they’ve just been through a bit of a low.
L(large)ER at a treefern defined as woody. Quite the opposite, they are ferns. The “logs” resprout from the base because they solely consist of roots. So neither woody nor indeed trees .
Much to enjoy in this: I had no problem with the GK, as REEFER, WAGON LIT , GAMETE, ARARAT and KENDAL all known. Only NHOs were BORODIN and JIU JITSU spelled with that extra I. Was initially unhappy that I didn’t complete it, but on reading the solvers’ comments I now feel a bit happier. Yes it was tough, but fair, with EMOTICON and RAINDROP my CODs.