This was mostly straightforward and I completed it in 39 minutes. How did you get on?
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Riddler cross after hips broken by Batman, finally (6) |
| SPHINX | |
| Anagram [broken] of HIPS + X (cross), containing [broken by] {Batma}N [finally]. The Riddle of the Sphinx is from Greek mythology and was supposedly put to to all those who passed through Thebes. The riddle is: What has one voice but goes on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening? |
|
| 4 | Glass boat (8) |
| SCHOONER | |
| Two meanings | |
| 10 | Beach vehicle, due to bear north, full of problems (4,5) |
| DUNE BUGGY | |
| DUE containing [to bear] N (north), BUGGY (full of problems). I lost time here on my first thought, SAND YACHT, but I had to give up on it. | |
| 11 | Carry out crooked payment for union (5) |
| DOWRY | |
| DO (carry out), WRY (crooked). There are variations, but historically this was most usually a payment from the bride’s family to the groom. | |
| 12 | Returns to an irregular galactic body (7,4) |
| NEUTRON STAR | |
| Anagram [irregular] of RETURNS TO AN | |
| 14 | Musical more popular in Uruguay at first? (3) |
| PIU | |
| P{opular} + I{n} + U{ruguay} [at first], Più is simply the Italian for ‘more’ but is frequently met in musical directions e.g. Più mosso (more movement – faster) | |
| 15 | Support Times on position trader takes on market (5,2) |
| STAND BY | |
| STAND (position trader takes on market), BY (times). One tends to think of market stalls rather than stands, but I don’t see this as a problem. | |
| 17 | Poet fooling around endlessly (6) |
| LARKIN | |
| LARKIN{g} (fooling around) [endlessly] | |
| 19 | Inter Milan’s leader bet on getting beaten (6) |
| ENTOMB | |
| Anagram [getting beaten] of M{ilan’s} [leader] BET ON | |
| 21 | Block board game piece (7) |
| COUNTER | |
| Two meanings | |
| 23 | Bit of needlework in gallery shunned by European (3) |
| TAT | |
| TAT{e} (gallery) [shunned by European]. Lace-making. A special type of needle is used, blunt and with a large eye for making loops. | |
| 24 | Show fairy strange god (6,5) |
| PERIOD DRAMA | |
| PERI (fairy – in Persian mythology), ODD (strange), RAMA (god – Hinduism) | |
| 26 | Island not featured in Scream film (5) |
| SHREK | |
| SHR{i}EK (scream) [island not featured] | |
| 27 | Room left for launch zone (9) |
| SPACEPORT | |
| SPACE (room), PORT (left) | |
| 29 | Ancient way of cooking lard is OK (4,4) |
| SILK ROAD | |
| Anagram [cooking] of LARD IS OK. This was a trade route extending from China to the Mediterranean. | |
| 30 | Person at academy exhibits work (6) |
| SONATA | |
| Is hidden in [exhibits] {per}SON AT A{cademy} | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Take action to welcome Europeans and Africans (8) |
| SUDANESE | |
| SUE (take legal action) containing [to welcome] DANES (Europeans) | |
| 2 | Back uniform for religious adherent (5) |
| HINDU | |
| HIND (back), U (uniform – NATO) | |
| 3 | Centre of upside-down cake (3) |
| NUB | |
| BUN (cake) reversed [upside-down] | |
| 5 | Keen kiosk gets rid of last sparkler (7) |
| CRYSTAL | |
| CRY (keen), STAL{l} [kiosk] [gets rid of last]. Perhaps this is why the setter didn’t use ‘stall’ at 15ac. | |
| 6 | Boss to get the drinks in? (5,6) |
| ORDER AROUND | |
| ORDER A ROUND (get the drinks in) | |
| 7 | Fresh tear in cheap paper (9) |
| NEWSPRINT | |
| NEW (fresh), SPRINT (tear – run) | |
| 8 | Guy ran off in piece of sci-fi literature (3,3) |
| RAY GUN | |
| Anagram [off] of GUY RAN. ‘Piece’ is American slang for ‘gun’. |
|
| 9 | Business with a commodity initially embraced by millennials? (6) |
| AGENCY | |
| A, then C{ommodity} [initially] contained [embraced] by GEN Y (millennials). I know nothing of such things, but I understand this covers births from early 1980s to around 2000. | |
| 13 | Flower and wine stolen before game (3-3,5) |
| RED-HOT POKER | |
| RED (wine), HOT (stolen), POKER (game) | |
| 16 | Gold character left uncovered (2,7) |
| AU NATUREL | |
| AU (gold), NATURE (character), L (left) | |
| 18 | Mike stops to make a meal in the afternoon (5,3) |
| CREAM TEA | |
| M (Mike – NATO) is contained by [stops] CREATE (make), A | |
| 20 | Italian city’s expression of gratitude for drinks supplier (7) |
| BARISTA | |
| BARI’S (Italian city’s), TA (expression of gratitude). A city port I learned from crosswords only recently. | |
| 21 | Church exam for singers (6) |
| CHORAL | |
| CH (chucrh), ORAL (exam) | |
| 22 | Secret police’s period of inactivity (6) |
| STASIS | |
| STASI’S (secret police’s). This came up clued with reference to the STASI in my blog last Tuesday and since then I have also seen it in a Guardian puzzle. Can we put it back in its box please? | |
| 25 | A foreign greeting set up another? (5) |
| ALOHA | |
| A + HOLA (foreign greeting) reversed [set up]. Hola is Spanish for ‘hello’. The definition ‘another?’ refers back to ‘foreign greeting’. Aloha is Hawaiian for ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ which accounts for the question mark after ‘another’. | |
| 28 | Introspective music contributing to pensive mood (3) |
| EMO | |
| Hidden in [contributing to] {pensiv}E MO{od}. My AI assistant advises that Emo music is a genre of rock music that is characterized by its emotional and often confessional lyrics. | |
17 mins. I think I’ve slowed up recently, otherwise this would have been a PB. As an example, took me a second run through to see the RAY GUN anagram. My wife got me to do some kind of weird hand mode to check for Alzheimer’s and apparently I’m ok. Phew!
Under an hour after lunch.
LOI LARKIN.
Another enjoyable puzzle.
David
Blast i would have set a two-day combined best and a pb today were it not for Sphynx! No doubt tomorrow’s will be a stinker. Thanks all
Would have been a PB but I was also part of the AU NATURAL club. Absolutely kicking myself as I knew the correct spelling.
Usually I don’t finish in one sitting but today was an exception which made a nice change.
FOI SPHINX
LOI SONATA (pleased that it was another hidden in the end)
COD ENTOMB (lovely surface)
23.58 with a typo, SIDANESE. I struggled in the NE (PIU was new) and with LOI SONATA. Thanks Jack.
17:56, making it my fifth fastest solve ever.
Held up at the end by PIU, where I was trying to thing of a musical, rather than recalling knowledge from grade 5 theory of music (an exam passed nearly five decades ago) and by SONATA, where I wasn’t looking for a hidden.
Thanks Jack and setter
20:25 for my fastest ever solve of the biggie. At around 16mins, I just had SONATA, ENTOMB and NEWSPRINT/PIU (NHO) to do. The latter two of which I was tentative until I eventually saw tear=sprint.
A strange bit of synchronicity with SPHINX – I literally watched a Youtube with Batman being set this riddle by Riddler just a couple of days ago … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXKYQvP0zQ0
And the SILK ROAD had come up in the book I was reading this afternoon.
Had a go after tip from the QC puzzlers and finished in about a hour after a couple of guesses and some head scratching. Pleased as punch! NHO EMO.
15’45”. Probably fastest ever. Didn’t know Bari or red-hot poker.
14’02”, all very straightforward once I’d spotted the error of SAND BUGGY. Many thanks
I wish I’d run the clock because I think that was under 10 minutes – they went in as fast as I could write the answers. Definitely my fastest ever.
I did the crossword this evening after two beers in an Italian restaurant. Must have helped!
22 minutes plus one more for proofreading. I found this very easy and … very boring. Repeating answers and ideas that have occurred in a number of recent puzzles contributes to that. My LOI was SHREK (for which I needed the crossing K), and RED-HOT POKER, as a flower, was my only unknown. The wordplay was not very playful in most cases.
17:58
Nice and quick.
I liked ENTOMB and SHREK.
I got PIU by accident thinking that it was a musical piece, but my subconscious had munged together Pié and Jesu, which is a sacred work. Luckily, PIU was the answer
Easier, and quicker, than today’s QC. Go figure. Invariant
18:47. One of my top ten fastest. Very nice
Our second fastest at 20:07!
Started off at a canter, finished off hobbled in the south ! Decided not to overthink, and biffed my way merrily around the grid until I got to PERIOD DRAMA, where nothing came to mind as a synonym for fairy (gasp). The flower is well-known to me, but I was looking for a river, and didn’t see the extra hidden in SONATA. So, a puzzle in waltz-time: quick quick slow. Enjoyed it immensely, as the clues were clever; COD CREAM TEA.