Times Cryptic 29202 – Sat, 12 April 2025. Poetry the notion

Author   branchPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

The poetic qualities of 2dn went over my head, I’m afraid! Still, fun to sort it out. I took ages to see the paring of 8dn, too. 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 Leading actor isn’t shifting sets about (6,2)
STARTS IN – STAR + anagram, shifting, of (ISNT).
5 West London area to deposit money from East? (6)
PUTNEY – PUT [deposit] + YEN from East.
Yes, the yen is money from the East, but “from East” is acting as a reversal indicator here.
9 Doctor that is most unlikely to bow (8)
RIGIDEST – RIG [doctor] + ID EST [that is, in Latin].
10 Phone left in lady’s chamber (6)
BLOWER – L in BOWER.
12 Moderate and Liberal stand in studio (5)
EASEL – EASE + L.
13 Shower parts I put in leaked by sinks (9)
RAINDROPS – I put in RAN [leaked] + DROPS [sinks].
14 College pinks trashed bars sounding well hammered (12)
GLOCKENSPIEL – anagram, trashed: (COLLEGE PINKS).
18 Deporting, for instance, stopped by unknown power courts preserve (12)
EXPATRIATING –EG stopped by X [unknown] + P [power] + ATRIA [courts] + TIN [preserve].
21 With nothing to eat, glum pony chewed knotweed (9)
POLYGONUM – anagram, chewed: (GLUM PONY), eating O [nothing]
23 Fish on front of barbecue turning black? (5)
BRILL – GRILL, with the front turning black (B).
Easy to guess the answer. Elusive wordplay!
24 Latterly wandering Serpentine’s banks and Long Water (6)
SENILE – SE (SerpentinE’s banks) + NILE [a long “water” in Africa].
25 Old Americans remain married in retirement out of the public eye (2,6)
IN CAMERA – INCA [old Americans] + ARE M retired.
26 Boil what little supporters brought over (6)
SEETHE – EH [what?!] + TEES [little supporters, in golf], all brought over.
27 Row eight in this? (4,4)
BOAT RACE – just a cryptic definition, I think.
Down
1 View team at the Oval taking five for one run (6)
SURVEY – SURREY, taking V for R.
2 Quinquireme of Nineveh, say, bringing back some ivory so gracefully (6)
ARGOSY – backward hidden answer.

So many unknowns here:
I didn’t know “quinquireme”, but it was easy to guess it was a ship, like a bireme or trireme, but obviously with 5 banks of oars.
I would have guessed “argosy” was a quest, by analogy with “odyssey”, but no: it means a large merchant ship.
And, finally, I NHO the Masefield poem!
3 Regularly flooded expanse at all fit for development around delta? (5,4)
TIDAL FLAT – anagram, for development: (AT ALL FIT), around D [delta].
4 Brief noisy disturbance below in street (12)
INSTRUCTIONS – IN + ST + RUCTIONS.
6 Greek character switched on light without guidance (5)
UNLED – UN [NU=Greek letter, switched] + LED [light].
7 Maiden invigorating after man of gravity (8)
NEWTONIC – NEW [maiden] + TONIC.

Someone making their maiden appearance is new, certainly. Can anyone offer a sentence where NEW and MAIDEN are interchangeable?
8 Drinks that are long absent from US domestic market? (4,4)
YARD SALE – YARDS OF ALE are long drinks.

Remove (absent) OF [FROM, as in “memories of/from times gone bye”].
11 Entertaining music’s tempo not affected with dodgy bar right before (12)
DIVERTIMENTO – DIVE [dodgy bar] + R [right] + TIME [tempo] + NTO [not, affected].
15 Use abrasive cleaning spray on son with bother (9)
SANDBLAST – S [son] + AND [with] + BLAST [bother!].
16 Members standing by one who is lying? (8)
BEDPOSTS – again, just a cryptic definition, I think. I struggle to think of bedposts as “members”.
17 Foolish new couple spurning wife’s wealth (8)
OPULENCE – anagram, foolish: (NE COUPLE).
The anagram letters are spurning W [wife].
19 Director’s business upset alpha males in charge (6)
CINEMA – A + MEN + IC [in charge], all upset.
20 Part of France that’s almost too wonderful (6)
ALSACE – ALSO [too, almost] + ACE [wonderful].
22 Fool from Sydney in hospital after big party (5)
GALAH – GALA + H.

27 comments on “Times Cryptic 29202 – Sat, 12 April 2025. Poetry the notion”

  1. Thank you for the blog.

    The top and bottom lines of the puzzle can read “Starts in Putney, see the Boat Race”, which was taking place the next day. (Sunday 13th April 2025: Oxford vs Cambridge boat race on the Thames between Putney and Mortlake).

    24ac. In the surface-reading, I hadn’t heard of (the) “Long Water”. Apparently the Serpentine (lake) in Hyde Park becomes the Long Water to the west in Kensington Gardens.

    2d. I didn’t know Cargoes by John Masefield, but I found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbgP6LBVBk4 (from 1:50) where Joanna Lumley gives a good introduction and reading of the poem.

  3. 41 minutes. The complicated parsing for EXPATRIATING and DIVERTIMENTO took some sorting out, as did the ‘Shower parts’ and ‘bars sounding well hammered’ defs. The ‘Quinquireme of Nineveh’ poetic reference went over my head too, though I must have heard the poem sometime as I did recognise the last verse. Now you mention it, I can’t come up with a convincing substitution of NEW for ‘maiden’; “first” as in “maiden voyage”, but that’s not the same. Someone will probably help out.

    There’s another appearance of the event referred to in the top and bottom rows across the centre of the grid.

    Thanks to Bruce and setter

    1. Collins has ” inexperienced; untried; unused; new; fresh” .. but only in the US English, not British English.

  4. The trick with Row 8 made this a most memorable puzzle.
    I didn’t know the Masefield poem either, but “Quinquireme” looks like the word for a vessel with five banks of oars that it is.
    Chambers has only quinquereme, but Chambers lists this as an alternative.
    BEDPOSTS seemed odd as members to me too.

    1. Yes, I spotted row 8 was; very neat.

      I think I’ve come across MEMBER used architecturally as a strut or piece of timber or just simply a part. That’s the only way I rationalised this clue.

      Looks like QUINQUIREME must have been a misspelling that founds it’s way into a few dictionaries. Merriam Webster refers to it as “less commonly”.

      1. Typo alert, Richard. It’s interesting that QUINQUIREME is in the OED as an alternative spelling, but drilling down it appears the citation that got it listed was Masefield’s 1934 poem!

        2. Hmmm, I guess that’s poetic licence- John Masefield doesn’t put the e in where we expect it in Quinquireme(since five is quinque in Latin), but then shoves that e into Cargoes.

          1. “Caegoes” is the standard plural, sans “e” being “alternative,” substandard.

  5. I struggled with this for 80 minutes but eventually gave up and used aids for POLYGONUM and GALAH. NHO either of them. As the answers intersected I should have thought to look up GALAH first as it would have given me the final checker for the anagram of GLUM PONY and a better chance of working it out.

    I agree with all who have commented about ‘members / BEDPOSTS’.

    I don’t see ‘Row, eight in this’ as a satisfactory definition of BOAT RACE. Unless we are talking fours, there need to be 16 rowers to make a race of it – plus coxes who also play their part.

    I got the poetic reference at 2dn immediately and spotted ARGOSY as a reverse hidden but I was distracted for a moment by CARGOS also being hidden and reversed in the clue as I knew that to be the title of the poem although Masefield spelt it with an E.

  7. 98m 07s
    Thanks, Bruce, but I completely missed the Boat RaceNina!
    Like Jack, I was distracted by CARGOS in 2d, forgetting that Masefield spelt the word with an E. However my distraction was more than momentary.
    I’m now going to attempt today’s puzzle but Friday’s cryptic knocked me sideways; it was so difficult and has dented my faith in being able to complete a cryptic. Anyway, “I’m going out. I may be some time…”

  8. Glad to see I’m not the only one who missed the Nina!

    – Not really a fan of STARTS IN – is that a phrasal verb you see very often?
    – Took a long time to get GLOCKENSPIEL as it’s a tricky anagrist
    – Guessed the vowels correctly for POLYGONUM
    – Had no idea about any of the references for ARGOSY so just trusted it was a reverse hidden
    – Didn’t parse YARD SALE

    Thanks branch and setter.

    FOI Survey
    LOI Polygonum
    COD Opulence

    1. I hear STARTS IN often enough. Especially, though, as part of “(don’t) start in on me.”

  9. Like Jackkt, I found this just too difficult to complete. Unlike him, I gave up with only 9 clues completed, although I did get ARGOSY, POLYGONUM and GALAH, though not knowing the ‘fool’ sense of it, only the bird. With a Nina like this, and the crossers in the middle, it’s hardly surprising that the clues were tricky as the setter was so hampered by the selection of letters required! With a few more clues in I might have persisted, as there was nothing innately unfair, except perhaps maiden being ‘new’ rather than first. I really should have got 1D, but had forgotten the Oval was Surrey’s ground and was thinking generic cricket. All credit to the setter for beating me soundly and thanks to Branch for the explanations.

  11. The reason why the wordplay in 23ac is elusive is, imo, because ‘on’ is needed only for the surface reading. It isn’t needed for the wordplay, and its inclusion suggests a different cryptic structure (fish + B = turning black).

    1. I agree. It has to be brill but couldn’t see why. Just looked up why a Nina is. I hadn’t spotted but great fun when you see it

  12. Gave up in the end with GLOCKENSPIEL and SENILE. All fair enough after the event. Thanks to all for pointing out (and setting) the Ninas. Great stuff.

  13. Gave up in the end with GLOCKENSPIEL and SENILE outstanding. All fair enough after the event. Thanks to all for pointing out (and setting) the Ninas. Great stuff.

  14. The only NHO was ARGOSY but thinking about Argo was helpful, though the words are surprising not cognate. I knew both meanings of GALAH, a good candidate for an answer in the ‘highbrow lowbrow’ round of House of Games.

  15. I gave up on my last two. 23a and 16d. One I could guess at but couldn’t parse. The other completely baffled me. Even though the clue left me cold, it was not being able to think of a word to fit the 4 crossers that was like some kind of slow torture. Never understood BOAT RACE. No idea wherei dragged POLYGONUM from but sounded like it could be a thing. Narrowly avoided putting Mall in the US shop. Liked SENILE and SANDBLAST.

  16. DNF after 45

    Just couldn’t get BEDPOSTS despite numerous alpha trawls. Not a great cryptic IMO as if you don’t know that meaning of “member” there isn’t really another way in.

    Problem with the Row 8 thing is that I saw it was both the obvious meaning relating to rowing and also was that row of the grid but tried to make more of the latter thinking it was the cryptic meaning we were meant to have not seen rather than the other way round. For me the best cryptics are when there is one v obvious meaning but the answer comes from a more subtle reading. When you see ‘em you know ‘em. But I’m probably just moaning about that particular type of clue again.

    Liked the theme generally though.

    Thanks Bruce/setter

  17. Instead of BEDPOSTS I guessed LEGPULLS (LEGS = “members” PULL = “standing”) which meant my only option for 24ac was LONELY. Like a flatfooted defender who has just bought a dummy from Antoine Dupont, I can only salute my conqueror.

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