Several general knowledge unknowns here, for me at least. 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 | Chaos often associated with Eton? (4) |
| MESS – cryptic hint. Eton mess is a dessert. | |
| 3 | Teaching system — fools can get transformed with it (5,3-2) |
| TONIC SOL-FA – anagram (transformed): (FOOLS CAN IT)* I got this from the anagram, and dimly remembered musical terminology. |
|
| 10 | Cleaner embarrassed how the settee got very close to the fire? (7) |
| CHARRED – CHAR + RED. The definition is, what happened to the sofa in that position. |
|
| 11 | Writer is entertained by papers lying about literature? (7) |
| DIARIST – DI [ID=papers, lying around] + IS entertained by ART [literature?]. I assumed the question mark was there to flag that literature is a definition by example of art. |
|
| 12 | A stuffed sausage which will stop you getting wind? (7,8) |
| DRAUGHT EXCLUDER – cryptic definition. Nothing to do with your digestion! |
|
| 13 | Dark times with no lights with oil heartlessly withheld (6) |
| NIGHTS – withhold OL [OIL, heartlessly] from NO LIGHTS. | |
| 14 | One French knight competed, making no one resentful (8) |
| UNENVIED – UNE [one, in French] + N [knight, in chess notation] + VIED. | |
| 17 | Doctor originally learnt about in outskirts of Hull (8) |
| HARTNELL – anagram (about) of (LEARNT)* in HL [outskirts of HULL]. William Hartnell was the first actor to play Dr Who. I didn’t remember the name, but recognised his face at once. |
|
| 18 | Call into question feminine credo (6) |
| BELIEF – BELIE [call into question] + F. | |
| 21 | Foreign ministry reported European new in role came across (5,10) |
| STATE DEPARTMENT – STATED [reported] + E [European] + N [new] in PART / MET [role / came across]. | |
| 23 | Like a good port in winter, not very chilled (3-4) |
| ICE-FREE – two definitions, or a definition plus a hint. | |
| 24 | Hero showing what it took to make his name? (3,4) |
| DAN DARE – he was a 1950s science fiction character, whose surname was spelled D-AND-ARE. Cute! | |
| 25 | Considerable brilliance which is used in moderation? (5,5) |
| HEAVY WATER – HEAVY [considerable] + WATER [brilliance: “a diamond of the first water”]. This was my LOI. I suspected at once that “used in moderation” meant “used to moderate something”, not “used in limited quantities”, but only when the helpers gave me the answer did I realise the thing being moderated was a nuclear reaction! |
|
| 26 | Returned to the old island (4) |
| EYOT – TO YE, returned. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Staff assume Alexander’s home (7) |
| MACEDON – MACE + DON. | |
| 2 | Raised taxes irritate City (9) |
| STAVANGER – STAV [raised VATS] + ANGER. It’s a port in Norway. |
|
| 4 | Queer fish, it is eaten by seabird taking the head off (6) |
| ODDITY – IT is eaten by NODDY [seabird], taking the head off. | |
| 5 | Popular golf cancelled in the US over wage fixing system (8) |
| INDEXING – IN [popular] + DEXIN G [G + NIXED, over]. OED confirms “to nix” is mainly North American English. |
|
| 6 | Exhausted with strain after minutes in function — it takes gall to keep working (5,9) |
| SMALL INTESTINE – M [minutes] + ALL IN [exhausted] + TEST [strain, perhaps as in “that will test/strain the friendship”], all in SINE [trig function]. Just the “L” from 12ac was enough to let me biff this. |
|
| 7 | One accommodated by fat landowner (5) |
| LAIRD – I accommodated by LARD. | |
| 8 | Prevaricated, not wanting page changed (7) |
| ALTERED – NHO PALTERED [prevaricated], but the wordplay is kind. | |
| 9 | Happy with opening in good time (6,3,5) |
| BRIGHT AND EARLY – synonyms of HAPPY + WITH + OPENING [as in, the opening rounds at Wimbledon]. | |
| 15 | I can time railway travel plan (9) |
| ITINERARY – I + TIN + ERA + RY. Assemble as instructed. | |
| 16 | Ingredient used in cosmetic salon stripped several bare (4,4) |
| ALOE VERA – ALO [SALON, stripped] + EVERA [SEVERAL, bare]. The same wordplay device, two different ways. |
|
| 17 | Cannabis and heroin the man’s hidden in tree (7) |
| HASHISH – H [heroin] + HIS hidden in ASH. | |
| 19 | Healthy types beginning on training equipment (7) |
| FITMENT – FIT MEN + T [beginning on TRAINING]. | |
| 20 | Gang member that is under court? (6) |
| YARDIE – YARD + I.E. I was stumped by this until I searched for synonyms of “court”. At best a word dimly heard of! |
|
| 22 | Scotsman’s gone from 1990s dance scene (5) |
| ARENA – MACARENA. That’s a few times recently that our Scottish gent has been MAC, not IAN. |
|
Had a couple of bad experiences this week with the daily cryptic, but the last few Saturdays have all been doable and entertaining.
Stumbled at 19d with FITTEST rather than FITMENT – which is obvious in retrospect from parsing although only vague recognition of the result.
Had to come here for a couple of parsings which branch has done in style – particularly for WATER being diamond ‘brilliance’ (educational) – which had me puzzled (no pun intended), and the extra for D AND DARE 24ac.
Actually suggest that 23ac is a triple meaning: a good harbour (port) is, a good port (drink) is (in winter), and ‘not very chilled’ is (for anything).
Wondered also whether 8d could be FALTERED without the F for folio.
On the other hand wondered about ART for literature in 11ac and thought 12ac amusing but maybe a little weak. Takes all kinds to make a puzzle!
On the Scotsman aspect, whatever happened to Jim or Jimmy?
Complements to the setter and branch.
Ditto 19d. FITMENT is not a word I’m familiar with, so never suspected it. I use FITTING, which I see is listed in Chambers as one meaning for FITMENT. I ended up with FITTEST.
25a WATER=BRILLIANCE NHO but guessed the answer correctly
24a Wordplay eluded me on this one as well.
Not a good result for me this week, however the blog has been illuminating. Thank you branch and it’s fair to say that I enjoyed everything else about this puzzle.
I also put in FITTEST; NHO FITMENT (ODE marks it (Brit.)). Also DNK ‘palter’ or HARTNELL.
57.24 I couldn’t make any sense of DIARIST. SMALL INTESTINE went in last. I would never have heard of TONIC SOL-FA if it weren’t for the regular do-re-mi clues in the crossword. Thanks branch.
50 minutes. What a bizarre choice of definition for CHARRED! I had no idea what was going on with HEAVY WATER so it was fortunate that at least I’d heard of it. I was going to say NHO ‘palter’ before and was surprised to find it has come up several times, including a QC.
And, to my dismay, I find ‘palter’ is in my ODE and is specific to the meaning.
Don’t know how I missed it.
One of the hardest Saturday puzzles in a while with some of the stretches mentioned above barely acceptable ( water..palter..) As for 7a, in what context is a stuffed sausage used as a draught excluder?!
I presume U have occasionally seen the fabric sausages people sometimes put at the inside bottom of doors; and U were just asking the question for effect.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Excluder-Self-Adhesive-Draught-Insulator-Stopper/dp/B08QG213MJ
Stuffed, sausage-shaped material.
Sausage dogs feature prominently in the draught excluder designs available on Amazon. Also snakes, and that’s what we called them in our family.
William Hartnell known but I didn’t make the connection. NHO paltered, wouldn’t have said heavy water was a moderator, rather a fuel source: deuterium and tritium? Will have to investigate… Later: heavy water was used as a moderator. Live and learn.
Otherwise tricky but enjoyable. 10ac was a bit strange, had me wondering if the SETTER considered us solvers to be the SETTEES, but no.
DNF, defeated by HEAVY WATER as I didn’t know water=brilliance.
– Didn’t parse INDEXING
– Had to trust that a YARDIE is a gang member
– NHO paltered, but ALTERED had to be
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Dan Dare
Did this last Monday, a very hot afternoon when incapable of anything more active – not surprised that it took 74 mins.
A good deal of lateral thinking required, eg 23 ac and 25ac among others. Off the top of my head, I’m pretty sure Wodehouse had Bertie Wooster refer to at least one of his acquaintances as “a diamond of the first water”.
10ac becomes obvious if you insert the missing comma between ‘got’ and ‘very’.
Hadn’t realised the parsing of D AND ARE in 24ac! Thanks, branch.
COD between 17ac and the clever wordplay (combined with a good surface) of 16d.
A really well-constructed and challenging puzzle.
Yet again, one wrong, I had FITTEST for FITMENT, a word I never really heard of.
Pleased to get TONIC SOL FA early on, which I had never heard of and thought I had just made it up. I still don’t get the business with the sofa in the CHARRED clue.
YARDIE, LOI needed help from a crossword dictionary. I liked DAN DARE, but was making up extremely unlikely superhero names until I cracked it. Good clue.
Incidentally I was at EYOT House, on one of the Thames Eyots yesterday, for a G&S festival. My first visit to an EYOT, in spite of coming across them frequently here.
I read CHARRED as ‘how the settee got when very close to the fire’ but it was a bit convoluted
Sounds lovely
Well, I did learn a lot today, so many thanks for the explanations branch 😆 Didn’t understand what was going on in DAN DARE (nice), NHO palter, and didn’t know water in that context, or indeed what heavy water is used for (I do now!). Revealed FITMENT along the way which I could have got with a little
perseverance. Biffed INDEXING (no clue as to parsing). I did actually quite like the cumbersome CHARRED and also DRAUGHT EXCLUDER which I biffed straight away. Thanks so much for sorting it all out branch. Thanks to setter too – very enjoyable.
Another Saturday another clue eluded me. I had heard of DAN DARE and that is the extent of my knowledge. I gave up on it being an anagram of ‘his name’ when the D of YARDIE appeared but tortured myself for far too long with this possibility. Had to come here to decide if this wasn’t just a dodgy clue.
I can’t see what settee is adding to 10a. 13a was also strange. Knowing all the people who have played The Doctor seemed a long way from General Knowledge. ICE FREE doesn’t quite work. If a drink doesn’t have ice in it, it isn’t chilled at all. I seem to be the only person who knows nothing about nuclear science. Had no idea where EARLY came from in 9d. Do we need queer to have fish? All a bit of a bother.
Thanks for your efforts to educate me branch.