22 down was a puzzle all of its own, and finally a delight! How did you all 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.
| Across | |
| 1 | Wicked dresses are slightly reduced, second-hand (9) |
| VICARIOUS – VICIOUS dresses ARe. | |
| 6 | A Greek character’s a pest (5) |
| APHIS – A + PHI’S. Also known as an “aphid”. |
|
| 9 | A confused thinker progressing by leaps and bounds? (11,4) |
| GRASSHOPPER MIND – a cryptic definition, I suppose. Didn’t know the expression. |
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| 10 | Puzzler, one claiming victory with answer, ultimately (6) |
| SOLVER – SOLE (one) claiming V + R (answeR, ultimately). | |
| 11 | Toast moved behind blubber in freezer (8) |
| CRYOSTAT – CRY (blubber) + anagram (moved): TOAST. | |
| 13 | Two girls, note, fit together perfectly (10) |
| TESSELLATE – TESS + ELLA + TE. | |
| 14 | Mount regularly beaten, nag (4) |
| ETNA – regularly bEaTeN nAg. | |
| 16 | Four-fifths of extremely popular London area (4) |
| SOHO – SO HOt. | |
| 17 | Cocky type later horsing around aboard boat (5,5) |
| SMART ALECK – RTALE (anagram, horsing around, of LATER) aboard SMACK. | |
| 19 | Scarves: fifty Elizabeth squeezed through mangles (8) |
| MUFFLERS – L (50, in Roman numeral) + E.R. squeezed through MUFFS. | |
| 20 | Condition like this that’s avoided is case of malaria (6) |
| ASTHMA – AS (like) + TH (THis, that’s avoided IS) + MA (case of MalariA). | |
| 23 | Old Roman king in truth done with Iraq, up for revolution (7,3,5) |
| TARQUIN THE PROUD – anagram (for revolution): TRUTH DONE IRAQ UP. It looked like it should be an anagram, and the “Q” somehow made me think of “Tarquin”. It fell out from there, although I didn’t remember anything about him. |
|
| 24 | Small door that chain’s locked up (5) |
| HATCH – hidden (locked up). | |
| 25 | I’d suggest giving that a title — anything? (3,4,2) |
| YOU NAME IT – cryptic hint. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Nerve shown where gambler may have gone for audition? (5) |
| VAGUS – sounds like (for audition) VEGAS. Read about the vagus nerve here. |
|
| 2 | Royal corgis regularly in caps? (7,3,5) |
| CHARLES THE FIRST – when abbreviated, he might have been C.R. I = alternate letters of CoRgI. Of course, since he was the first, he didn’t need the “I” at the time! |
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| 3 | Non-alcoholic brew uniting cider drinker and her creator? (5,3) |
| ROSIE LEE – pop culture references, the first of which I knew: ROSIE LEE is CRS (Cockney rhyming slang) for tea. And, Cider with Rosie is a 1959 book by Laurie Lee. | |
| 4 | Whoops, terraced houses on the rise? (2-2) |
| OH-OH – HO = house. Take two of them, one beside the other (terraced), backwards (on the rise). | |
| 5 | Retailer adapted to pressure (10) |
| SUPERSTORE – anagram (adapted): TO PRESSURE. | |
| 6 | Manner over deception, cooler (3-3) |
| AIR-CON – AIR (manner) + CON (deception). | |
| 7 | A waiter yet to serve? (4,2,3,6) |
| HEIR TO THE THRONE – a slightly obscure cryptic definition. | |
| 8 | Terrible housing rated badly, head off (9) |
| SIDETRACK – SICK housing DETRA (anagram, badly, of RATED). | |
| 12 | To an absolute degree, hot drink (4,6) |
| PLUM BRANDY – PLUMB + RANDY. | |
| 13 | See if striker works in game (4,5) |
| TEST MATCH – take “test” as a verb, to get the cryptic hint. | |
| 15 | Girl stealing drink pocketed lot? (8) |
| MARSUPIA – MARIA contains (stealing) SUP (drink). Trickily, “pocketed” is part of the definition – an order of mammals that nurture their young in pouches. I am reluctant to suggest this, but there may be a slight problem with the definition. It seems the animals are “marsupials”. The “marsupium” (pl., marsupia) is the pocket itself. |
|
| 18 | Slip off in English town (6) |
| SLOUGH – two meanings, a verb and a proper noun. | |
| 21 | Check passage that’s blocked by unmentionables, primarily (5) |
| AUDIT – ADIT blocked by U. | |
| 22 | M (or seemingly D!) — or U once? (4) |
| THOU – I think it’s two definitions, plus a cryptic hint: 1) M is the Roman numeral for [one] THOU[sand]. 2) THOU is also an archaic form of “you”, written U when texting of course. 3) The hint? The rest of the clue was a puzzle, until the penny finally dropped! THOU is half of THOUSAND=1000, so arithmetic gives 1000/2=500, represented in Roman numerals as D!! |
|
75m 30s but used aids to get MARSUPIA so SWOL.
Thanks, Bruce, for your thoughts, particularly on THOU.
Elsewhere I liked CHARLES THE FIRST and ROSIE LEE.
1d VAGUS came up as a question in The Times Daily Quiz recently so that fell into place.
Not too bad here. I finally remembered Cider with Rosie, so I was able to get Rosie Lee even though I had no idea of the literal. Cryostat was another one that went in from the cryptic alone. I had never heard of the grasshopper mind, but that seemed like the most likely solution, and it was. Everything else was pretty simple, although Charles the First and heir to the throne were rather quotidian.
Time: 40 minutes
CRYOSTAT! Far-out!
Seemed a worthy challenge, though nothing was very convoluted, once you got on the right track. A bit of a royal theme here, glad to remember TARQUIN.
I liked 22d, but could have done without the exclamation point, which I saw as an I for too long. It’s not necessary.
I’m afraid you’re right about MARSUPIA.
48:53
DNK ROSIE LEE although I did know (from here) the book; used aids to get LEE. DNK GRASSHOPPER MIND, TESSELLATE. Couldn’t figure out CHARLES I. I liked VICARIOUS, PLUM BRANDY, & MARSUPIA.
In my view the wordplay reference to ROSIE LEE with the 1959 is in itself a rather cryptic reference and to get Rosie Lee one has to take the word Rosie from the book title and the Lee from the author surname and put them together. It in no way leads to the answer ROSIE LEE and is most unfair. Even using aids it is extremely difficult to produce the reference.
44 minutes. Very inventive with some obscurities but fair ones as I was still able to work out the answers.
22dn (THOU) was brilliant, and I thought ROSIE LEE was too, but then I knew the necessary references and maybe I wouldn’t have been so keen if I hadn’t. The only ‘cider drinker’ of note that crossed my mind other than Rosie was Adge Cutler, but I didn’t imagine he’d be likely to turn up in a Times crossword.
I’m still in two minds about HEIR TO THE THRONE. In one way it seems clever but on the other hand I feel that a cryptic definition should contain at least one word a little more specific to the answer. I suppose the Monarch serves, but so does everyone else who holds a public office.
I think there is a problem with 15d. marsupia, the plural of marsupium, is merely a zoological term for pouches. The technical term for marsupials is marsupialia. I cannot find a dictionary that permits marsupia to mean marsupialia. Surely it can’t be right to permit marsupia to be used as a metanym?
On the plus side THOU and ROSIE LEE were inspired..
Yes, Bruce addressed that in the blog. It was news to me.
I thought there was some equivocation expressed in the blog.
I think he was just being tactful.
Chambers specifically includes the order MARSUPIALIA in its definition of MARSUPIUM, so the setter is correct (in the crossword sense).
Not marsupium, but under marsupial. At least that’s how it appears in the digital version. I’ll my printed copies later.
Ah so that’s what the “or seemingly D” meant!!! I got the U bit but couldn’t work the rest out. How stupid of me!!
Just like Jack, I took 44 minutes.
Hard work but fun.
I did know Cider with Rosie was written by Laurie Lee; I think I even read it, but it would have been hard to guess. I didn’t remember the CRS for tea, indeed many CRS attributions are made up as jokes I am sure.
Tarquin only came to me because of the Q, as it did for our esteemed blogger. I hadn’t realised there were 2 Tarquins, had to look them up to find the Proud.
10a Solver was a long time coming to me.
19a Muffler seemed a bit contrived because of needing to assume ER from just Elizabeth.
THOU was great.
Unfortunate confusion between MARSUPIA and MARSUPIALIA.
Stuart Maconie wrote an autobiography of his experiences as a music journalist that he called “Cider with Roadies”.
Way off the wavelength, took forever with a break for breakfast in between. Very clever, and slightly obscure in places. Never heard of grasshopper mind, couldn’t figure the D in THOU, thank-you branch. Knew of Cider for Rosie but not who wrote it, so an error guessing Rosie Lea for the known (spoken but not written) CRS.
Perhaps Chambers gives the Setter an out on MARSUPIA. Its definitions of MARSUPIUM include both the pouch and the order Marsupialia.
1. Relating to a pouch or to the Marsupialia
2. Of the nature of a pouch
3. Of the Marsupialia.
Me, I had no idea what marsupia meant.