Times Cryptic 29130 – Sat, 18 Jan 2025.

Right, said Fred … no, not the Bernard Cribbins song. 29ac refers to a Friedrich: great thinker from the 19th century; in fact, two of them appear in the one clue! Lovely.

For the rest, easy enough, I thought. 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 Interruption from Asquith, ignoring question rudely (6)
HIATUS – anagram, rudely: (ASqUITH), ignoring Q=question.
4 Short of energy, recommend drinking a sugary drink (8)
ADVOCAATADVOCATe, short of E=energy, drinking A.
10 Kind of mean old setter stopping to make a fortune, almost (9)
GEOMETRICO (old) + ME (setter), stopping GET RICh.
11 Seaside resort around west end of Hudson Bay (5)
NICHENICE around H.
12 Composer’s right tucking into case of vintage port (2,5)
LE HAVRELEHAR, with his rightmost letter entwined with (right tucking into) VE (case of VintagE).
13 Prevented rogue journalist inhibiting second one (7)
IMPEDEDIMP + ED inhibiting [restraining] ED (the second journalist).
14 Undertake long journey cycling in US city (5)
FARGOGO FAR, cycling.
“Cycling” is a device we have seen often recently.
15 Are greedy banks hard to stimulate excessively? (8)
OVERHEATOVEREATS banks H.
18 Perhaps “Napoleon” is deliberately written thus in my article (8)
CORSICANCOR (my!) + SIC (is deliberately written thus) + AN (article).
20 New decoration absorbing fifty grand (5)
NOBLEN + O.B.E. absorbing L.
23 Harry is immoral, following socialite around (7)
BEDEVILEVIL following BED (DEB, around).
25 Shrewd way to maintain yearly spectacle for Sky viewer (3-4)
FLY-PASTFLY (shrewd) + ST, to maintain P.A. (yearly).
26 Rascal’s opening toy boxes, provoking a wry smile (5)
DROLLDOLL (toy) boxes R (Rascals opening).
27 Pass back to part of pitch into which crosses go? (6,3)
BALLOT BOXBALL (pass, in football) + OT (TO, back) + BOX (part of pitch, in football – again).
The “crosses” are those on voting papers.
28 French scorer and World Cup winner Bayern regularly snubbed (8)
MESSIAENMESSI (Lionel Messi, won 2022 World Cup) + AEN (bAyErN, regularly … thank you setter!)
I welcomed the help with spelling.
29 Thinker Friedrich Nietzsche, returning drained, begins to work (6)
ENGELSEN (NietzschE, drained and returning) + GELS (begins to work, as in “the plan is starting to gel”.)
Happy coincidence that Nietzsche and Engels were both “Freds”. The “Fred” in the clue is to define Engels. Nietzsche is only there as wordplay.
Down
1 Tall story capturing female’s extravagant ways (4,4)
HIGH LIFEHIGH + LIE capturing F.
2 A different answer by a different lady? (7)
ANOTHERA (answer) + NOT HER (so, the other lady).
3 You uttered sense about tangled vine, not green? (9)
UNENVIOUSU (“you”, uttered) + NOUS (sense) about ENVI (anagram, tangled, of VINE).
5 Some dialogue in winter time, as well as preceding period in US novel (7,3,4)
DECLINE AND FALL –  LINE (some dialogue) in DEC (winter) + AND (as well as) + FALL  (precedes winter).
A novel by Waugh, unrelated to The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (in 6 volumes!).
6 Admit I’m hurt over witticism taken the wrong way (3,2)
OWN UPOW + PUN taken the wrong way.
7 Source of music containing a boring song in idyllic setting (7)
ARCADIA – nested like Russian dolls, we have: CD (source of music) containing A, boring ARIA.
8 In essay, absorbing conclusion (6)
TRENDYTRY absorbing END.
9 Nice bar Corelli composed is utterly resistant to harmonisation (14)
IRRECONCILABLE – anagram, composed: (NICE BAR CORELLI).
16 Time after a match away from home? (9)
HONEYMOON – cryptic definition. Nice!
17 Maybe chop chop with these tips for minimising expenses and charges (8)
MEATAXEStips of Minimising Expenses And + TAXES.
The definition is: things that chop meat., to make lamb chops for example. But, I struggled to explain the “S” on the answer! The “S” is clearly there in the wordplay, but a “chop chop” sounds to me like a MEATAXE, singular. Edit: Thanks to Peter W’s comment for clearing up my confusion.
19 Not even a tech giant provides opportunities for factotum (3,4)
ODD JOBSODD (not even, as a number) + [Steve] JOBS.
21 Beginning to bluster and blither, one’s prickly (7)
BRAMBLEB + RAMBLE.
22 Word used in footnoting current book doctor cut up (6)
IBIDEMI (symbol for electrical current) + B + IDEM (MEDIc, cut, up=backwards).
24 Flipping unwell? I see it’s parts of the intestines (5)
VILLIILL + I +V, all flipped.
NHO villus (pl. villi): One of the numerous vascular projections of the small intestine.

18 comments on “Times Cryptic 29130 – Sat, 18 Jan 2025.”

  1. Thank you for the clear explanations.

    For 17d, I think if the definition is “Maybe chop chop with these”, then that gives the plural. (As opposed to “Maybe chop chop with this”).

    And just a little typo in the introduction: Bernard Cribbins (final vowel “i”, not “e”).

  2. A typo in the intro, Bruce, 29ac not 20ac.

    DNF. 42 minutes including 5 minutes thinking about 10ac before giving up and resorting to aids. NHO GEOMETRIC mean.

  3. I parsed MEATAXES differently at the time but not sure about it now. The first five words of the clue can also be parsed thus: Maybe chop (MEAT), chop with these (AXES). It’s like the definition also works as wordplay as well as the other wordplay ‘tips for Minimising Expenses And charges’.
    A fun crossword but had to use aids for a couple, ENGELS, GEOMETRIC.

    Thanks B and setter.

  4. Thanks, branch. I liked the Honeymoon and the Ballot Box, and I’m sure it will please the setter to know that I spent too much time sorting the 19th century Freds out in my head.

  5. Ended up in the mire in the bottom RH corner. Couldn’t parse 17d and didn’t
    understand 29a. Thanks for the explanations, all is clear now.

    1. Same here, DNF, bother.
      Oddly 17d Meataxes weren’t in my Cheating Machine, so added as one & two words.
      Totally lost on 29a Engels.

  6. The Duke of Gloucester, on being given Gibbons’s vol. 2, was graciously pleased to comment, ‘Another damned thick square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Mr. Gibbon?’

  7. Don’t remember any major problems with this, though I didn’t realise MEATAXES was one word.

    Thanks branch and setter.

    FOI Ballot box
    LOI Engels
    COD Honeymoon

  8. Thank you for the explanations.

    One that still foxes me is 24 down. I see that “Flipping unwell? I..” yields “illi”, but why does the remaining “…see (it’s)” connote “v”? Anyone?

  9. Two caused particular problems – 10a, where not familiar with the term as a mean and saw RIC in isolation, without the GET, so took some time to work out. LOI was 17d. I had – E-TAXES, but couldn’t see the missing letters until I came back to it later, possibly the next day.

  10. 45 minutes. I liked this a lot — not too hard, but not trivial, and with several very good clues. Among the ones that made me chuckle were ANOTHER and HONEYMOON. MEATAXES did take a long time to sort out, until I saw what “minimising expenses and” was doing and found the direct definition in it. Thank you, setter!

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