I flew through most of this, but stalled on the last two, which needed a “penny drop moment” and an alphabet trawl. 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. Wordplay instructions copied from the clues thus. Anagram material (THUS)*
| Across | |
| 1 | Usual dancing with partner becomes weird (12) |
| SUPERNATURAL – anagram (dancing) of (USUAL PARTNER)* | |
| 9 | Jack to set about member of pack (5) |
| TAROT – TAR (sailor, aka jack) + OT [TO, set about]. I assumed “jack” was a playing card for a while. |
|
| 10 | Life perhaps encapsulating one’s feeling (9) |
| SENTIENCE – SENTENCE (of the custodial kind; life, perhaps) encapsulating I. | |
| 11 | Beginner shocking The Open, the last to qualify (8) |
| NEOPHYTE – anagram (shocking) of (THE OPEN Y)*. The “Y” is the last to qualifY. | |
| 12 | Measurement of flow obstructed, except for border (6) |
| AMPERE – HAMPERED, except for border. Ages since I’ve seen “ampere”, not just “amp”! It is named after French mathematician and physicist André-Marie Ampère. |
|
| 13 | Dark grey check a head of Legal accepts with a bow (8) |
| CHARCOAL – CH [check] + A + L [head of Legal] accepts ARCO [with a bow; a musical instruction]. It took me a while to realise where the “O” came from!. |
|
| 15 | Crazy ignoring British fruit (6) |
| ANANAS – BANANAS, ignoring B. Alphabet trawl needed. I knew this as the French word for “pineapple”. I didn’t know it was in English use. |
|
| 17 | A group of notes sounding in harmony (6) |
| ACCORD – A + CCORD [sounds like CHORD]. | |
| 18 | Dish topping in summer month: evaluation’s not good (2,6) |
| AU GRATIN – AUG [summer month] + RATING, not G [good]. | |
| 20 | Odds against strike making front-page news (6) |
| SPLASH – SP [starting price odds] + LASH [strike]. | |
| 21 | What created substantial issue in small period of prosperity? (4,4) |
| BABY BOOM – BABY + BOOM. | |
| 24 | Taking action in court to secure millions, in case judge does this (7,2) |
| SUMMING UP – SUING [taking action in court] to secure MM [millions – two of them] + UP [in court]. | |
| 25 | Collect tips from all members and shop stewards (5) |
| AMASS – first letters (tips). | |
| 26 | Patron’s complaint involving new player (12) |
| BENEFACTRESS – BEEF involving N + ACTRESS. This was my PDM. I finally saw the answer from the helpers, aided by the assumption it ended in -TRESS. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Hellish doomed ship: appeal to replace it after turning turtle (7) |
| SATANIC – TITANIC is the ship. Replace TI [IT, after turning turtle] with SA [Times crossword-speak for “sex appeal”]. | |
| 2 | Place for advertising what Nelson was given? (8,6) |
| PERSONAL COLUMN – cute cryptic hint. | |
| 3 | Heave weight off unfortunate character (5) |
| RETCH – WRETCH, with weight off. | |
| 4 | Dog again regularly tails suspect (8) |
| ALSATIAN – anagram (suspect) of (AAN TAILS)*. The AAN is AGAIN, regularly. | |
| 5 | Laments dropping first two vases (4) |
| URNS – MOURNS. | |
| 6 | Turkey, mainly, is raised in Romania strangely (4,5) |
| ASIA MINOR – SI [IS, raised] in an anagram (strangely) of (ROMANIA)*. | |
| 7 | Test player on European anthem (14) |
| INTERNATIONALE – INTERNATIONAL + E. | |
| 8 | Shows, not top class but riotous fun (6) |
| REVELS – REVEALS [shows] without A [top class]. | |
| 14 | Girl, virgin, quietly leaves for church (9) |
| CHRISTINE – PRISTINE, where P leaves for CH. | |
| 16 | Vegetable is capital, cut up in lots of water (5,3) |
| SUGAR PEA – PRAGUE [capital, cut, up] in SEA. | |
| 17 | Birthplace of Saint Basil regularly claims one in three saints (6) |
| ASSISI – AI [Basil, regularly] contains (claims) SSIS [one, in SSS]. | |
| 19 | Unbeatable opponent’s opening in match is seen to come to grief (7) |
| NEMESIS – anagram (to come to grief) of (M IS SEEN)*. | |
| 22 | Agreed about area and temperature that is needed for brewing (5) |
| YEAST – YES about A + T. | |
| 23 | Harry losing place shivers (4) |
| AGUE – PLAGUE losing PL. | |
Completed this correct and pretty much totally parsed, but still no luck on the draw.
Thought this was not really easy but doable (no time worth mentioning), with some nice touches.
2d was cute. 10ac SENTIENCE and 21ac BABY BOOM might also be thought double meanings?
Surely SA and IT have been done to death – along with TON for style or fashion (but not here).
Saw the dog immediately from crossers with a (genuine) MER – as I guess these days it is an acceptable name for a German Shepherd.
Had to come here to parse ARCO for ‘with a bow’, and (the more obvious?) PLAGUE for ‘harry’.
Thank you branch and setter.
Also thought ANANAS was in French use only for pineapple but it had to be with ‘bananas’ minus British. Didn’t know the meaning of ‘Arco’ in CHARCOAL but ‘dark grey’ and checkers left no doubt. Failed to spot BENEFACTRESS and missed the complaint/beef clue which would have helped. Liked the wordplay for SATANIC with the switched ti/sa. PERSONAL COLUMN came after thinking Nelson’s Column. I only ever knew ALSATIANs for the dog before moving to Oz where they are German Shepherds. Liked the test player and ‘E’ for INTERNATIONALE. Slowly getting used to seeing ‘S’ for Saint, as I have always assumed it would be ‘St’, so COD to ASSISI.
Thanks B and setter.
19:28
I don’t remember this, and have no notes on my copy, other than that the setter reverses ‘to’ in 9ac, ‘it’ in 1d, and ‘is’ in 6d. I don’t think I knew ANANAS was an English word.
‘ananas’ is at least a very unusual word which has incidentally appeared in a Times cryptic recently.
These and other ‘crossword world’ specials are not admirable additions to traditional expectations for these puzzles IMO.
30 minutes on the nose. Nice and easy, especially for a Saturday!
Collins has ANANAS as C17 and the OED cites its first English usage as 1613, so it’s hardly new to the language. The poor old setters can’t win, they are criticised for straying slightly from the norm but also for deploying traditional devices such as SA / IT for ‘sex appeal’!
I’m not even sure one can refer to SA as a Times Crossword device. Chambers lists sex appeal for SA, 2nd definition. I’m certain I’ve heard it used this way in regular speech.
Interesting use of the phrase ‘turn turtle’ in 1d. Turned would have worked and been more accurate whereas turning turtles has more an element of rendering something useless as in literally turning a turtle upside down. From that of course it can be applied to a boat being capsized. I don’t object to its use here, just makes the worldplay a fraction more devious.
I actually enjoyed this week’s puzzle very much.
Thanks, Richard, I didn’t mean to suggest it’s a Times invention nor in any way invalid, just that there are complaints here every time it turns up. Eton for ‘school’ is another one.
I was thinking more of branch’s reference to Times crossword-speak.
By the way I notice you often cite the OED do you have online access? If so is there a way to get a subscription at a reasonable cost to the amateur? I have the original book version in 12 vols and the second version in 20 vols but they’re a tad inconvenient to cart around the house.
My library (Surrey) used to give free online access, which I used all the time. I month ago they stopped, as their budget had been cut.
Hi, Richard, many contributors here have free access to the OED online via their local library so that’s the first place to start. Register there if you haven’t already and explore their online offerings.
Unfortunately my local authority withdrew the OED some 10 years ago. What I have discovered recently though is that limited access is available free without registration here: https://www.oed.com/. You won’t always see the full entry but it will give definitions, first date of use etc and sometimes instances of usage. For example the entry for ‘ananas’ is very basic (probably because there’s not much to say about it) but the one for ‘bananas’ (pl) has a lot more to offer when you click on the ‘View entry’ button.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the pointers. I will follow up.
And don’t mention MIT for college.
Fair bit of biffing and post-parsing on this with a few taking ages for the PDM. The very simple 7d took far too long, for instance, as I was over-thinking it. ASSISI was clever, but I already had the initial A, so not difficult to construct. Liked BABY BOOM.
All complete, but forgot ARCO for bowing.
SA=IT is tiresome and neither are used by anyone under 60. And yes, I complain about it every time it crops up.
COD CHRISTINE
Well, my friend and I are well and truly north of 70 and never used these.
Have only heard of ‘it’ in regard to Clara Bow.
Not really trying to setter bash, but rather to encourage clever and entertaining cluing that avoids bad synonyms, and really arcane references or structures without reasonable hints.
This is with full acceptance of the traditions of greek, latin and historical references in this space.
Probably this is also the attitude of other more experienced posters – that may go without saying.
17.19
Really enjoyed this. Fun, light and a consistent doable standard with some tricksy bits in there.
Liked NELSONS COLUMN and thought ASSISI was particularly good, needing the lift and separation in the correct place.
Ps Love to see Merlin commenting on his pet BEEF but as SA and IT come up so often in puzzles I have rather forgiven their non-appearance in real life. After all that is hardly unusual for some of the bonkers words we see from time to time!
Thanks Bruce and setter
17:32, but put SENTIMENT, which messed up 7d and 8d too.
My first proper go at a Saturday Cryptic. Pleasantly not too hard. Even the NHO NEOPHYTE came up all green.
24.24 Very much easier than last week though I didn’t notice my unaccounted for O in CHARCOAL. Finished with TAROT and SATANIC. Thanks branch.
16:09. I never like to miss an opportunity to moan about SA/IT but here it’s indicated by ‘appeal’, which is fair enough. For balance though I will moan about AU GRATIN, which is an adjective.
DNF, with a silly IMPEDE rather than AMPERE.
– Didn’t parse CHARCOAL
– ANANAS isn’t just the French word for pineapple – most other languages use it
– Have heard of a sweet pea but not a SUGAR PEA
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Baby boom
Ananas is the name of the genus containing pineapples, so is arguably valid for that reason (though ‘ananas’ without a capital ‘A’ is also an archaism). Never heard of ‘sugar pea’ either.
Very gentle although 10a and 13a were unparsed. So thank you. Liked the topping dish.
Started off at a goodly pace, so was lulled into thinking this was going to be a tad easier than it proved. Setter threw me off more than once by hiding the definition in plain sight ( eg it took me ages to get ALSATIAN when I was looking for an adjective for ‘suspect’.). NEOPHYTE bunged in as a NHO, also missed the ‘test player’ meaning, which left me staring at ?U/ ?R???N for the dish topping, and it didn’t look right! Liked BABY BOOM ( despite entering WELL for the second word , having a mental image of a gushing oil well for “substantial issue”. Hey Ho…. Much to enjoy though.