Times Cryptic 29112 – Saturday, 28 December 2024. Turn the calendar.

After the toughie the week before, we ended 2024 with a “regular” Saturday. 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.

Across
1 Light sleeve unknown in khaki wearers? (4,4)
LAND ARMYLAND (light, as a bird or plane) + ARM (sleeve) + Y (algebraic unknown).
During World War I, Britain had a Women’s Land Army; young women worked on farms.
5 What transmits uniform string sound (6)
UPLINKU + PLINK (like a banjo!).
9 Unemployed remain unchanged, getting something for nothing (4,4)
FREE RIDEFREE (unemployed) + RIDE (remain unchanged, as in “let it ride”).
“Getting” is just a link word, I think.
10 Disguise the nature of surrounding Zulu country (6)
BELIZEBELIE surrounding Z.
12 Understand secure subjects given by guru (3,3,7)
GET THE MESSAGEGET (secure) + THEMES (subjects) + SAGE (guru).
15 Parry’s Requiem initially covered in a review (5)
AVERTR (Requiem, initially), covered in A + VET.
16 British speak up about opening of chemical plant (9)
BUTTERCUPB + UTTER + UP, about C (opening of Chemical).
17 Clean screen for protection of readers? (4,5)
DUST COVERDUST (clean) + COVER (screen).
19 Feasible idea when introducing nitrogen is one doomed to failure (5)
GONERGOER (feasible idea) introducing N (chemical symbol for nitrogen).
20 Charge for revolutionary soldiers before time for reconciliation (13)
RAPPROCHEMENTRAP (charge; “did he beat the rap?”) + PRO (for) + CHE (revolutionary) + MEN  (soldiers) + T.
22 Summary of betting odds with exchange of vocal elements (6)
PRECIS – apparently vowels are “vocal elements”, although a quick web search didn’t give me convincing support for that. Perhaps this entry from Wiktionary will do:

vocal (plural vocals)

  1. (phonetics) A vocal sound; specifically, a purely vocal element of speech, unmodified except by resonance; a vowel or a diphthong; a tonic element; a tonic.

Anyway, exchange the vowels in PRICES to produce the answer.

23 Don helps to fill this freshly-made slab cake (5,3)
BLACK SEA – anagram, freshly-made: (SLAB CAKE). Here “Don” is the river, not a university type.
25 Mule, perhaps one in a horse race (6)
RUNNER – Two meanings. The first could be a drug runner.
26 Jockey reported winning, bagging Cheltenham’s first trophy (5,3)
RYDER CUPRIDER UP reportedly, bagging C (Cheltenham‘s first).
Down
1 Red flag is flying round end of bayou as protection for swimmers (10)
LIFEGUARDS – anagram, flying: (RED FLAG IS U).
2 Born in endless want (3)
NEEendless NEED.
3 Missed kick, as one may observe on a blistering day? (3,4)
AIR SHOT – “AIR’S HOT”, one might say.
4 Moving volume with Emma abroad — yes, primarily (6,6)
MADAME BOVARY – anagram, moving: (V EMMA ABROAD Y).
I think this qualifies as an &lit. The whole clue is a good enough description of the book’s plot, I gather!
6 Forward matter involving FA official in March (7)
PREFACEREF in PACE.
7 I’m a jockey caught in situation and changing colours (11)
IRIDESCENCEI RIDE (that is, I’m a jockey) + C (caught) in SCENE.
8 Like enthusiastic? That’s got it (4)
KEEN – hidden (that’s got it): liKE ENthusiastic.
11 Secretly represented colliery seat (12)
ESOTERICALLY – anagram, represented: (COLLIERY SEAT).
13 Who might improve avenues, getting green routes in order (4,7)
TREE SURGEON – anagram, getting in order: (GREEN ROUTES).
14 Light mood with papa hiding return of illness (6,4)
SPIRIT LAMPSPIRIT (MOOD) + P, hiding LAM (return of MAL: sickness, as in “mal de mer”),
18 Fancy island church (7)
CAPRICECAPRI + CE.
19 Site of old massacre showing delight welcoming new business (7)
GLENCOEGLEE welcoming N + CO. It happened in Scotland in 1692.
21 Nearly all reject incentive (4)
SPURSPURN.
24 Fire mostly in cavity (3)
SACSACK.

16 comments on “Times Cryptic 29112 – Saturday, 28 December 2024. Turn the calendar.”

  1. I don’t know how long this took, but I think it took some time. NHO the composer Hubert Parry; evidently he never wrote a Requiem. I suppose vowels are vocal elements, but then so are consonants.

    1. But he did write a rather famous coronation anthem, “I was glad” and of course the music to William Blake’s “Jerusalem” (yes, I know Blake didn’t call it that). He’s also a very important figure in British music development of the 20th century as a teacher to Vaughan Williams, Holst and many others.

  2. I’ve read Madame Bovary and have to say that it is indeed a “moving volume” but the rest of the clue does not seem to capture anything of the book’s essence, although, yes, the title character is indeed named Emma. So maybe the setter somehow thought it did. Too bad, really, that Emma couldn’t go abroad. Of course, it could be just a pun on the title, if you take “abroad” as “a broad” in the old, somewhat crude, American sense, although “Madame” expresses more than that.

    1. I’d have thought that France counts as abroad. In Woody Allen’s story (‘The Kugelmas Incident’, if I recall correctly), she winds up in New York.

          1. I took “abroad” as just meaning “out and about”. Didn’t she move to a different town in the book?

            1. Her husband relocates his business and their residence to a more bustling burg because he thinks maybe all she needs is a change of scenery… (sigh). She plots once to run away with a guy whose heart wasn’t really in it. She had her last extramarital fling in Rouen (been a while since I read this) but didn’t move there.

  3. 39 minutes and much easier to solve than to parse. I finished with the following unparsed or not fully understood and never got round to revisiting as I had a backlog of Jumbos to deal with: UPLINK, FREE RIDE, PRECIS, SPIRIT LAMP and IRRIDESCENCE – although ended that -ENSE so I now find had an error that stopping to parse might have sorted out.

  4. I seem to remember having to look up UPLINK in Chambers. Otherwise it seemed a puzzle I enjoyed solving unaided.

  5. – Needed the wordplay for the unfamiliar UPLINK
    – Didn’t understand the ‘ride’ part of FREE RIDE (not sure I’ve ever heard ‘let it ride’ myself)
    – Biffed PRECIS
    – Just about remembered MADAME BOVARY, helped by the checkers

    Thanks branch and setter.

    FOI Nee
    LOI Precis
    COD Black Sea

  6. I couldn’t work out 8d KEEN. Very good – hidden within the double definition.

    Thanks for your research on “vocal elements” = “vowels” in 22ac.

    I had found that a similar device appeared 5 years ago. However in that case (on a busier Wednesday blog), it elicited several interesting comments because one of the vowels to be changed was silent, so wasn’t a “vowel sound”.

    15ac in https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/times-27249-one-for-the-record

    …anyway, that isn’t a problem with today’s PRICES –> PRECIS.

  7. Doing this a day late and very grateful for the blog. Didn’t see the hidden in KEEN and therefore struggled and failed to get UPLINK. Happy to solve the rest of the puzzle although needed blog to parse PRÉCIS. AIRSHOT made me smile. Many thanks branch.

  8. Never gave Madame B a thought, even though one of my favourites ( but I didn’t have enough checkers, having not solved LAND ARMY yet). Liked GET THE MESSAGE (FOI) and BLACK SEA, for its devious definition. Had to look up RAPPROCHEMENT ( too convoluted ) and KEEN ( missed the hidden!). Some iffy definitions , like remain=ride, esoterically=secretly, but otherwise quite doable.

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