Summer on this side of the world, and nothing here to stress anyone watching the Sydney New Year’s cricket test! 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 | Top politician crossing lake with an agricultural worker (9) |
| PLOUGHMAN – PM crossing LOUGH + AN. The “G” from 3 down told me which sort of lake we wanted! |
|
| 6 | Garden pest a Greek character finally identifies (5) |
| APHIS – A + PHI + S (finally, identifieS). | |
| 9 | Passage from a place like Sheppey? (5) |
| AISLE – A + ISLE (Sheppey is off the coast of Kent). | |
| 10 | Tropical tree sheltering English king twice in battle (9) |
| NASEBERRY – NASEBY (battle of Naseby, 1645) sheltering E + R + R.
NHO naseberry, but: Manilkara zapota, commonly known as sapodilla, sapote, chicozapote, chicoo, chicle, naseberry, nispero, or soapapple, among other names, is an evergreen tree native to southern Mexico and Central America. |
|
| 11 | Some thought it a nice vessel once (7) |
| TITANIC – a hidden answer, and a touch of irony! | |
| 12 | Wax lyrical in this way visiting east Tyneside region (7) |
| ENTHUSE – THUS visiting E+NE. | |
| 13 | Financially sound PC spoke resoundingly about that heartlessly (6-8) |
| COPPER-BOTTOMED – COPPER (PC) + BOOMED (spoke resoundingly) about TT (ThaT, heartlessly) | |
| 17 | Healthy walk conforming to government policy (14) |
| CONSTITUTIONAL – definition plus cryptic hint, although I feel a government’s constitution is somewhat more than mere policy! | |
| 21 | Nothing knocked back a lot of keen descendants (7) |
| LINEAGE – NIL knocked back + EAGER. | |
| 23 | English playwright keeping old dog (7) |
| POINTER – PINTER keeping O. | |
| 25 | Stew made by idiot in church office (9) |
| CASSEROLE – ASS in C.E. + ROLE (office). | |
| 26 | A male crew in an Asian capital? (5) |
| AMMAN – A + M (male) + MAN (crew). | |
| 27 | Attractive second husband involved in home improvements (5) |
| DISHY – S+H involved in DIY. | |
| 28 | One entering offers third of beef to marinade (9) |
| TENDERISE – I entering TENDERS+ E (third [letter] of beEf). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fee covering part of play rehearsal (8) |
| PRACTICE – PRICE covering ACT. | |
| 2 | Attack where film stars may be working (5) |
| ONSET – the actors are ON SET (two words). | |
| 3 | Naivete displayed by politician meeting head (9) |
| GREENNESS – GREEN + NESS. | |
| 4 | Married sailor outside home in charge of hired vehicle (7) |
| MINICAB – M+AB outside IN+I/C. | |
| 5 | Brought up a new perfume in early stages of development (7) |
| NASCENT – A+N backwards (brought up) + SCENT. | |
| 6 | Scope of opening move, no good to begin with (5) |
| AMBIT – gAMBIT. | |
| 7 | Formidable woman’s uncle shakily penning article (9) |
| HERCULEAN – HER + CULEN (UNCLE, shakily), penning A (an article). | |
| 8 | Adapted Tamworth accommodation was the tops (6) |
| STYLED – STY (accommodation for a Tamworth pig) + LED (was the tops). | |
| 14 | Outlook for vocal piece that’s turned up on island (9) |
| PROGNOSIS – PRO (for) + SONG, turned up + IS (island). | |
| 15 | Found damaged gate in Rio (9) |
| ORIGINATE – anagram, damaged: (GATE IN RIO). | |
| 16 | Chap from Irish county eager at first to tour North Carolina (8) |
| CLARENCE – CLARE (the county) + E (Eager, at first) to tour N.C. | |
| 18 | Vessel Cabot hired regularly when travelling (7) |
| ICEBOAT – anagram, when travelling: (CABOT -I-E-). The IE is “hired”, regularly. | |
| 19 | Goodness knows how many men put out consuming drug (7) |
| UMPTEEN – anagram, out: (MEN PUT E). E, as usual, is the drug. | |
| 20 | Easy-going police department supporting port authority (6) |
| PLACID – CID supporting PLA (Port of London Authority). | |
| 22 | Doctor abandons hanging fabric — it’s imitation (5) |
| APERY – drAPERY. | |
| 24 | Speeds upset US opera, initially proving inappropriate (5) |
| TEMPI – MET upset + PI (initial letters). | |
Isn’t the definition of 10ac tropical tree? Nice puzzle with parsing relatively easy. I was watching the cricket at the same time so “Lazy hazy days” is an apt comment.
Yes, it is. Thanks.
15:08
NHO Sheppey, but that hardly mattered. DNK NASEBERRY, but I knew the battle, so no problem. Biffed COPPER-BOTTOMED, parsed post-submission. Haven’t looked at today’s yet, but I hope it’s not as easy as this was.
I agree this was easy – my fastest Saturday time ever! I must have been on the wavelength. Most of the answers are a bit pedestrian, except for naseberry, which I NHO and had to get from the cryptic. The right answers kept popping into my head – I remember reading meat stew and thinking casserole just from those two words.
Time: 15:55
18 minutes is probably my fastest time for a Saturday puzzle also. NASEBERRY has come up a few times before, most recently in a QC in January 2023, and in 2020 in a puzzle blogged by me.
15 minutes. My only unknown was NASEBERRY, but I just about remembered the battle of Naseby so I managed to get it.
Thanks branch and setter.
FOI Onset
LOI Naseberry
COD Originate
Easy-peasy, with but NASEBERRY new to me. Whizzed through before the coffee-pot went cold.
37 minutes. The top half took ten minutes but I struggled in the SE. TENDERISE and marinade are quite vaguely connected, I don’t think of Jordan as Asian (though it is) and I spent too long trying to justify CLAREMAN for 16d. Thanks branch.
Easiest Times xword ever, must have taken <5 mins. Get a grip!
Quick, this one. I had heard of sapodilla and chicle, but not naseberry. Fortunately it didn’t matter..
I managed to finish this with only a couple of checks (NASEBERRY and AMMAN) along the way so I know it must have been very easy for seasoned solvers. Most of my time was spent on STYLED as I’d forgotten Tamworth was a pig 🙄 The rest flew in. Many thanks branch.
Thank you for the blog.
Good point about 17ac. And I suppose some governments’ policies might not always be CONSTITUTIONAL: leading to court cases etc.
I didn’t know “port authority” = PLA in 20d. But I see this has appeared a couple of times in recent years. Interestingly, I couldn’t find it in any of the other broadsheets’ crosswords – although it has come up in the (London) Evening Standard puzzles.
4:56. A rare sub-5 on a Saturday, earning me 58th place on the leaderboard! To be fair I’m sure a lot of these ‘neutrinos’ are just entering the answers after solving on paper to enter draw.
12.41
Quick for me as well. Never mind a range of difficulties but maybe this was a bit Monday-ish.