This was a delight, but a challenge. Clever wordplay fitting smoothly into the surface readings of the clues, uncommon words, slippery definitions!
Thanks to the setter. I was struck by how many ways they found to tell us to lose a letter!
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 | Having a flutter with very becoming female — it could serve one well (7) |
| AQUIFER – AQUIVER: V becoming F. | |
| 5 | Flower bed covering short borders can save hours (7) |
| JONQUIL – JOHN + QUILT. Two different deletion indicators in this clue, with more to come later: save H, short of T. | |
| 9 | Taxi meter running for additional minutes (5,4) |
| EXTRA TIME – anagram, running: (TAXI METER)* | |
| 10 | Partner’s corny part has endless cracks (5) |
| COHAB – HAS cracks [corn] COB. This time, HAS is endless. | |
| 11 | Bound to fire unspecified number in shoot (5) |
| SPRIG – SPRING. And this time, we fire the N. | |
| 12 | Navy say wartime captive’s held by Polish resistance (9) |
| SHIPOWNER – POW held by SHINE [polish] + R [electrical resistance]. | |
| 14 | Last cowboys perhaps protected by exercising prior agreement (14) |
| PREARRANGEMENT – REAR [last] + “RANGE MEN” [cowboys, perhaps] protected by P.T. | |
| 17 | Odd bits of ability Society considers quirky? (14) |
| IDIOSYNCRASIES – anagram, quirky: (AIIY S CONSIDERS)* A-I-I-Y is the odd bits of ABILITY. S is for Society. |
|
| 21 | Tissue daughter’s stuffed into nose when cycling a mile (9) |
| ENDOSPERM – D stuffed into ENOS [NOSE, cycling] + PER [a] + M [mile]. NHO of this, but the helpers were kind. |
|
| 23 | Queen bearing pens for writing (5) |
| PROSE – POSE [bearing] pens R [queen]. | |
| 24 | American with cereal chucking one bowl over (5) |
| AMAZE – A MAIZE. Yet another way to lose a letter: chucking ONE. | |
| 25 | Sensual relations written about in Flaubert? (9) |
| GUSTATIVE – TI [IT, written about: the crossword setter’s standard euphemism for “relations”] in GUSTAVE. If I weren’t writing the blog, I’d have just taken it on trust that this was Flaubert’s given name, as of course it is! |
|
| 26 | Hors d’oeuvre with gin for male in swingers’ bar (7) |
| TRAPEZE – MEZE [a Greek or Turkish hors d’oeuvre] with TRAP [gin] for M. | |
| 27 | Scottish island wanting English sailor to commandeer ship (7) |
| SKYJACK – SKYE [wanting E; another lost letter] + JACK. An aeronautic rather than a maritime ship. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Hostile states European supports (6) |
| AVERSE – AVERS + E. | |
| 2 | Unqualified successor to do lines for speaker (7) |
| UTTERER – RE [the note after DO] lines UTTER [unqualified]. | |
| 3 | Female called, about to leave Calais in LeShuttle? (9) |
| FRANGLAIS – F [female] + RANG [called] + CALAIS with CA [about] to leave.
The question mark warns us LeShuttle is a definition by example. |
|
| 4 | Recovering, control steady drinking in party (11) |
| REINSURANCE – REIN [control] + SURE [steady, as in “a sure hand”] drinking in ANC [the South African political party]. The definition is really “re-covering” – what an insurer does through, you guessed it, a reinsurer. |
|
| 5 | US fighter plane taking time to circle round (3) |
| JOE – JET taking T[time], to circle O [round].Yet another way to lose a letter. | |
| 6 | One’s bagged triangle piece — a passage from Smetana chorale (5) |
| NACHO – hidden. | |
| 7 | Make distracted husband in loveless marriage empty garage (7) |
| UNHINGE – H in UNION [marriage, loveless] + GARAGE, empty. This time losing letters on an industrial scale. | |
| 8 | Free time put aside for book by learned person (8) |
| LIBERATE – LITERATE, with the first T [time] put aside for B [book]. | |
| 13 | Unclad Roman lady entertains backward people (11) |
| IGNORAMUSES – SIGNORA, unclad, + AMUSES. | |
| 15 | Simple pawn forced into working years and years without any rights (4-5) |
| EASY-PEASY – anagram, working: (YEARS YEARS)*, without any Rs [rights], and with P [pawn] forced in. | |
| 16 | Prisoner behind main means of escape (4,4) |
| LIFE RAFT – LIFER + AFT [behind, in the main]. | |
| 18 | Harry and Ian touring island where Notre Dame is located (7) |
| INDIANA – anagram, harry: (AND IAN)*, touring I [island]. The football team, not the cathedral. |
|
| 19 | Peculiar pieces of ear discharge upset nurses (7) |
| EXOTICA – EXA [AXE (“you’re fired”), upset] nurses OTIC [of ear]. | |
| 20 | Cover teacher facing hell in the East End (6) |
| BEDECK – B. ED facing HECK [HELL, losing the H in the traditional way]. | |
| 22 | Weeds spread around root of brassica (5) |
| SWEDE – anagram, spread around: (WEEDS)* | |
| 25 | Egg on anorak finally wiped (3) |
| GEE – GEEK. | |
This was more challenging than recent Saturdays – with some amusement but also some questions. Had to come here for ‘sIGNORa’ in 13d.
Admired the direct but tricky SHIPOWNER 12ac, the economic 8d LIBERATE, the innovative 15d EASY PEASY, and complete 14ac IDIOSYNCRASIES.
Does the word GUSTATIVE 25ac somewhat originate with Flaubert?
Not so fussed on the Yoda speak in 23ac PROSE and 2d UTTERER. Presumed (GI) JOE was the meaning of ‘US fighter’ in 5d – which might have been a bit much without the generous nature of the rest of the clue.
For 5ac, if one is going to be US about the toilet, would it be a good idea to include the words ‘with US’ between ‘borders’ and ‘can’ in the clue.
Also a bit of a stretch to refer to aircraft as ‘ship’s for 27ac SKYJACK. Are ‘peculiar pieces’ EXOTICA? Well not really, but OK.
Thank you setter and branch.
I rather like Pevsner’s use of CURIOSA (sing. CURIOSUM) in his Buildings of England architectural guides – one example being the skull of Archbishop Sudbury (executed 1381) “preserved in the vestry” of the church of St Gregory, Sudbury, Suffolk.
Phew! After three hard ones (Wed 13/08 – Fri 15/08) I was hoping for some respite but it was not to be. Too many difficult ones and unfamiliar or rare words to list and I was only saved by the second Q of the double pangram which enabled me to get the previously impenetrable NW corner at the end. Not impossible though and worth persevering with.
Thanks to Bruce and setter
For once, I actually noticed the pangram. Not that it was a double, though!
Very hard, and much more challenging then most Saturdays (just finished today’s in less than 1 hour)
I was barking up so many wrong trees.
I knew GUSTAVE, but never saw IT=relations (on my pet peeve list). GUSTATIVE not an easy word either. I really dislike “Queen bearing pens” for PROSE, when it is really “bearing pens queen”, English word order is Subject-Verb-Object.
And what the Heck is SkyJack? Surely the word is HiJack for an aeroplane, other usages such as carjack follow but who says SKYJACK? I always thought a scissor lift was called a skyjack.
Who is JOE? Why is he a US fighter?
JONQUIL NHO.
Liked EASYPEASY, a favourite expression of my daughters, and still used in the family.
COD FRANGLAIS
Was the setter US by any chance?
You many be right, Mayfair, since the ODE has: ship – North American English
an aircraft.
I put in my notes ‘US setter?’ Particularly when I got down to SKYJACK!
Collins and ODE agree that hijack can involve seizing any vehicle whereas SKYJACK is plane specific. ODE dates hijack from the 1920s and SKYJACK from the 1960s.
I spent more than 90 minutes on this over two sessions and was still unable to finish without resort to aids. Another puzzle as discussed here yesterday with too many clues containing obscure usage or wordplay for my taste, and another I don’t propose to pick over in any detail as I have lost too much time to it already.
Well said, jack.
I’m so glad to see this comment and yesterday’s discussion. I’ve been feeling for months now that the slow progress I had been making, the building confidence and competence, had gone into rapid reverse. And, yes, that feeling of, Is it just me? This puzzle was so far beyond me it would be laughable if it wasn’t so demoralising. It feels like there’s no point in even trying them now. Why put yourself in the ring against a heavy-weight just to have your lights punched out? I don’t like to criticise the compilers, but I wonder if they get a bit carried away with their own cleverness sometimes and overlook the ordinary try-hard hobbyists. We’re not all championship level. But I love doing crosswords, and I do enjoy being challenged – within reason. Can you/anyone recommend a UK newspaper that has a cryptic at the level where this one used to be, one that’s enjoyably brain-stretching rather than beating one black and blue?
The general consensus (somewhat backed by data) is the easier puzzles appear early in the week. Saturday (being a prize crossword) seems more variable. A valid approach is to look at the Snitch before you start, so you can decide if you wish to proceed (Snitch not available on Saturdays of course).
For the high Snitch days, I just read the blog to see what I might have plausibly got, to learn some new techniques, to admire some top quality clues and to feel relieved I didn’t burn an hour being “beaten black and blue”.
The Quick Cryptic is a great place to get familiar with the Times style, and benefits from having a blog and Snitch rating.
As in “GI Joe.” A common phrase before it was a doll, it would seem?—Collins has “joe” defined as “US a GI; soldier.”
Yes, “Queen bearing pens” is Object-Subject-Verb, but this can happen in English—just ask Yoda!
Together with the other ‘usual’ complications, does make solving a little unfair though.
I remember this took two sessions, on two days. I vaguely remembered MEZE, from somewhere.
Normally finish Saturday puzzles, but this one completely defeated me .Anyone who managed to complete this (without aids and outside help!) fully deserves to win the gift voucher.
Well, we spend the time to solve the clues – sometimes using aids for synonyms or GK – so we enter the comp (unashamedly).
But U might be pleased to note that a lot of luck is required to be selected and even after several often successful months we are yet to contribute to the British deficit.
Slippery definitions indeed. I was only entering a few at each sitting all weekend. I couldn’t write in AQUIFER because I couldn’t see how it fitted and I couldn’t write in JONQUIL because I could not parse the damn thing. I actually thought SKYJACK was cleverly smooth and I also liked the ‘swinger’s bar’. Definitely hard though and puts one’s weekend under a cloud somewhat. Thanks branch.
Normally I give up after 45-60 mins but this was an enjoyable struggle so persevered to a finish in 1h 25m in one sitting with no aids. NHO GUSTATIVE or the INDIANA town and “plane” rather than “ship” in 27a would have been kinder.
Everything was so involved that I took an age overthinking the simple SWEDE until the crossers brought me down to earth.
Saturday is the right time for this sort of puzzle when it can, if preferred, be savoured in bits over the w/e. Thanks branch and setter.
Tough, and I had a pink square, thanks to 19d. I made this EROTICA, not really understanding the clue, but guessing at an anagram of EAR around OTIC. So near, but yet so far.
Managed just 12 clues in the first hour (six ac and six dn) but stuck at it, being ever more impressed with the quality of the clues – ingenious wordplay fitted into entirely credible surfaces. At this level it is an art form, and this was quite a work of art.
Thanks, branch, for parsing of 2dn – I had reckoned ER = successor (as indeed she was to her predecessor), which left ‘to do lines for speaker’ as an improbably wordy definition. Completely missed the music reference.
I spent at least two hours in all – very enjoyably – and had 1, 5, 14 and 26 of the ac clues and 19 dn as favourites with 5 ac COD by a short head.
Simon Anthony on his blog when doing the really difficult Friday puzzles that we have been having recently says keep them coming. He likes the difficulty and I can’t really see why anyone should complain about difficulty standards becoming higher, as they seem to be for The Times nowadays. There are plenty of rather easier crosswords around, like The Times early in the week, the Times Quick Cryptic, probably The Guardian early in the week, maybe Everyman in The Observer.
For the record I thought this was excellent and took 83 minutes. Made no notes grumbling about anything, simply wrote v.g. and my time.
Two goes needed, with some unknowns.
– Relied on wordplay to get the unknown JONQUIL and ENDOSPERM
– Don’t think I’ve ever come across COHAB before
– Trusted that Flaubert’s first name was Gustave to get GUSTATIVE
– Had no idea how TRAPEZE worked, not knowing meze
– Took ages to see how JOE worked even after I got it
– Saw the Notre Dame ‘trick’, if you can call it that, though I didn’t know it’s in INDIANA (as an aside, I’ve often thought that France would be fully justified in declaring war on the USA on the basis of how Americans pronounce Notre Dame).
Thanks branch and setter.
FOI Averse
LOI Jonquil
COD Exotica