This seemed like the hardest Saturday puzzle for a very long time! Throw in several answers that I’d never heard of or barely remembered, and some trick definitions. Definitely a struggle for me! Those with better local knowledge may find it easier. How about you?
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 | Astonishing attention shown by Bishop Wareing, ultimately leering at nurses (4-8) |
| MIND-BOGGLING – MIND (attention) + B (bishop) + OGLING (leering) nursing G (wareinG, ultimately). Phew! | |
| 9 | Adult in pound store ejecting English dog (5) |
| LAIKA – A (adult) in L (pound) + IKeA (the furniture store, ejecting E). The USSR launched Laika into space in 1957. Not a happy ending. |
|
| 10 | Rope peer into dancing, including foxtrot (4,5) |
| REEF POINT – anagram, dancing, (PEER INTO F). NHO this expression. It’s a sailing term – a rope attached to a sail. |
|
| 11 | View affirmation cardinal welcomes (8) |
| EYESIGHT – EIGHT (a cardinal number) welcomes YES. | |
| 12 | Crazy Horse enters wide circle (6) |
| WHACKO – HACK (horse) enters W (wide) + O (circle). | |
| 13 | Mother feeding deadheaded plant raises quality of Narcissus (8) |
| EGOMANIA – MA feeding BEGONIA. | |
| 15 | United defeated, gutted when crushed by blow (6) |
| WEDDED – DD (DefeateD, gutted), crushed by WEED (blow). It seems “blow” can mean marijuana in the UK or cocaine in the US. | |
| 17 | Hound half of graduates lapped by runner (6) |
| SALUKI – ALU (half of ALUmni), lapped by SKI (runner). Saluki are sighthounds, hunting visually more than by scent. So, unlike labradors! |
|
| 18 | Catching echo, paces across middle of Wesleyan churches (8) |
| STEEPLES – STEPS catching E (echo) and, separately, LE (middle of wesLEyan). | |
| 20 | Report on short walk (6) |
| RETURN – RE (on) + TURN (a short walk, as in “a turn around the block”). | |
| 21 | Devil always takes register before operating (8) |
| APOLLYON – AY (always, as in “for ever and ay”) takes POLL (register) + ON (operating). I had to check this meaning of “poll” for the blog after solving. |
|
| 24 | Ruminant wicked husband — but not wife — kept in filth (9) |
| PRONGHORN – RONG H (WRONG H, but not W), kept in PORN. It’s a ruminant known as the American antelope, although it’s technically not actually an antelope. |
|
| 25 | Cane son roughly when drinking whiskey (5) |
| SWISH – S (son) … ISH (“roughly”), drinking W. | |
| 26 | Superior Theresa, fantastic in role (7,5) |
| STREETS AHEAD – REETSAH (anagram, fantastic, of THERESA) in STEAD (role, as in “I’m here in his stead”). I spent some time trying to make STREETS APART. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Author to a greater degree pens story (7) |
| MOLIÈRE – MORE pens LIE. | |
| 2 | Loonies in plot foolishly skirting universal environmental problem (5,9) |
| NOISE POLLUTION – anagram, foolishly, (LOONIES IN PLOT), skirting U. | |
| 3 | One pursuing punch up involving hot takeaway dish? (5) |
| BHAJI – I (one) pursuing BAJ (JAB, up) involving H. My problem was where to put the H! The crossing letter answered that. |
|
| 4 | Composer, singer who mostly improvised (8) |
| GERSHWIN – anagram, improvised: (SINGER WHo). | |
| 5 | Customer saving skin, right? (4) |
| LIEN – CLIENT, saving skin. | |
| 6 | Miser pinches rolls round here intermittently (9) |
| NIPCHEESE – NIPCHSE (anagram, rolls, of PINCHES), round EE (hErE, intermittently). | |
| 7 | One way to end up below Arsenal? (10,4) |
| PICCADILLY LINE – cryptic definition. I of course had no idea that there is an Arsenal tube station, or that it’s on this line! Obvious to the locals. |
|
| 8 | Novelist initially attending party, being picked up after 02:00 (6) |
| ATWOOD – A + TWO + DO picked up. | |
| 14 | Inventor of unintroduced brand fitting in speech (9) |
| ARKWRIGHT – MARK + WRIGHT (homophone of RIGHT). | |
| 16 | On reflection, can old indulged animals hurry? (4,2,2) |
| STEP ON IT – TIN + O + PETS, all on reflection. | |
| 17 | Writing self-contained epitaph needs time (6) |
| SCRIPT – S.C. + R.I.P + T. | |
| 19 | Cast entertaining unknown new clubs in timely agreement? (7) |
| SYNCHED – SHED entertaining Y (unknown) + N + C. | |
| 22 | Rabies checked by mounting embassy legislation (5) |
| LYSSA – hidden in (checked by) backwards (mounting) embASSY Legislation. | |
| 23 | Fish alone (4) |
| SOLE – two meanings. | |
81 minutes over several visits. I did find this really hard but it was a satisfying finish. PRONGHORN, NIPCHEESE, REEF POINT, APOLLYON and this meaning of SWISH were all new to me. I hope to see APOLLYON again with a pirate clue. Thanks branch.
Yeah, a tough one. I stuck with it, but finished reminding myself to check the blog for how “weed” means “blow.” Thanks!
I wondered the same thing. Different modes of, well, relaxation in the States anyway, if that’s the allusion.
I nearly abandoned this one, but eventually completed it only to submit it with one typo. 7dn was the cause of much of my grief. I couldn’t shift a potential footballing reference so had DISQUALIFY SIDE lightly pencilled in for far too long.
96m 53s but had to use aids for APOLLYON, NIPCHEESE and LYSSA. Thanks, Bruce, for explaining those plus others such as WEDDED and STREETS AHEAD. I had no idea about the connection with ‘weed’.
Far too many obscurities (words, meanings, dodgy synonyms) in one puzzle to be enjoyable. I was using aids quite liberally by the end just to get it out of the way.
Ditto! 😱
Over an hour and a cheat to get PICCADILLY LINE. I knew Arsenal was a tube station, but not what line it is on.
I’m not really sure the clue works. Okay, you end up below Arsenal by finishing in the table below them, but that has nothing to do with the underground system. Okay, it’s meant to be allusive, but I still don’t dig it. And I DO have a propensity for digging ones I don’t get!
The tube line goes under Arsenal, because it is underground when you travel on it.
DNF in around 50 mins
Left with S_L_KI at the end. Thought graduates might be being used in a verbal sense and alumni never occurred. Probably associate the word with school or work though no reason to limit it.
Otherwise very hard though I did parse them all apart from SCRIPT and RETURN. Positing SCRIPT and getting the P finally allowed me to see the right sort of filth.
Thanks Bruce and setter
10a Reef Point; felt the need to check it exists. Had forgotten again what it was in the course of just 7 days, perhaps a record.
DNF 12a Whacko; failed to split wide and circle.
21a Apollyon NHO, looked it up.
26a Streets Ahead; spent a while mangling the letters here, eventually twigging “stead”.
6d NHO Nipcheese. Looked it up to confirm.
7d Piccadilly Line. If I got to Arsenal it was because I had fallen asleep en route. Odd place for it as the ex-Woolwich club has abandoned this place as well.
8d HHO Margaret Atwood, but she wasn’t in Cheating Machine and didn’t occur to me; Stroud didn’t work.
22d DNK Lyssa=Rabies, despite having an injection for it because of being a Customs officer.
I finished in 49:49. I remember double-checking PRONGHORN and REEF POINT in google afterwards. LOI was WEDDED. I thought PICCADILLY LINE was clever.
94 minutes. Lots of new words and senses to contend with which made things difficult. All eventually in with the help of def or wordplay, with RETURN my LOI. I liked PICCADILLY LINE.
Thanks to Bruce and setter
I wouldn’t have finished at all if I hadn’t allowed myself to check unknown words I’d constructed from the clues on the fly just so that I’d have confidence in (or could erase) crossers I’d need to construct OTHER answers to OTHER words I wasn’t familiar with from their wordplay. Nice blog, branch
I do use aids to help Nd I don’t record time s usually takes me several goes at it. But I was pleased that I worked out everything and eventually understood all the clues .. love coming here to check up once I’m have finished. Usually at least one clue needs explaining but not this time. Thanks for the blog.
This toughie defeated me, even after using aids nipcheese and streets ahead were unsolved.
At least this workout gave me a reason to stay inside during pre monsoon humidity.
Thank you setter and blogger.
Nah
Just appalling. I am nowhere near very good, but I’m nowhere near as bad as this made me appear. Way too many obscure terms, and ridiculously clumsy and convoluted clues. More than enough disincentive to simply stop trying. If the last several clues were insanely obscure and difficult, why waste time trying any more? I’ve been attempting these every week for nearly two years now, and this has to be one of the worst I’ve seen.
Well I liked it
Was hopelessly stuck with about 11 left, came back to it a day later and they fell like dominoes
Of course I needed to check that some words actually existed after I’d come up with a solid parsing but that’s not cheating, is it?
Maybe in The Championships, but I’ll never be troubling those
That’s what I love about these, you think there’s no possible way you can get anywhere near finishing and then, with a little tenacity, you surprise yourself, and still learn – even after 60 years
That’s a sense of achievement that just doesn’t come from banging out a few Quick Cryptics and the easy Dailies
This one WAS hard, but gettable with a little resolve and determination which is a combination that the setter deserves credit for
That said, don’t make these too frequent