Times Cryptic 29358 – Sat, 11 October 2025. Defied to define the limits.

Author   branchPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

One clue has a device I didn’t quite understand. Otherwise, business as usual. Thanks to the setter. 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. With the luxury of a week to do the blog, I can expand on how the wordplay works, so instructions copied from the clues to explain the wordplay are shown thus. Anagram material is (THUS)*. A ^ symbol indicates where text is to be inserted.

Across
1 Bite on cup-holder (5)
CHAMP – cryptic hint: the champion might hold the cup.
4 Musical comedy really riding on score that’s a failure (4,4)
DUCK SOUP – DUCK [score that’s a (dismal) failure] + SO [really] + UP [riding].
A Marx Brothers movie.
8 Bad language changing? (14)
MISTRANSLATION – cryptic definition. Worth a smile.
10 Tamper with car to miss social outing (9)
OSTRACISM – anagram, tamper with: (CAR TO MISS)*
11 Echo before long coming round in loop (5)
NOOSE – E [echo, in the phonetic alphabet] + SOON [before long], all backwards (coming round).
12 Battery charge you’d say result of mobile phone use? (6)
SELFIE – sounds like (you’d say) CELL + FEE.
14 Prevented from wobbling, small camellia stopped (8)
STEADIED – S + TEA [camellia] + DIED [stopped].
17 Soldier recalled evergreen old lover (8)
RIFLEMAN – RIF [FIR, recalled] + LEMAN [lover, archaic].
18 Typewriter’s roller behind back of ribbon with page in front (6)
PLATEN – P [page] + LATE [behind] + N [back of ribboN].
20 Very boring article crammed with endless sport (5)
AWFUL – AWL crammed with FU [FUN, endless].
22 One supported man in court getting fine dropped for parking (9)
DEPENDANT – DEFENDANT [man in court], with F dropped for P.
24 Man of Grieg’s genre who jazzed? (6,8)
GEORGE GERSHWIN – anagram, jazzed: (GRIEGS GENRE WHO)*
Gershwin and Grieg were both composers and pianists, although of different eras.
25 Eg chisel on front of shelf also going far right (4,4)
EDGE TOOL – LEDGE TOO, with the front letter going far right.
26 Take as given the cause of sub-postmistresses’ convictions? (5)
POSIT – the P.O.’S  I.T. problems infamously caused sub-postoffice operators to be falsely accused of fraud.
Down
1 Encouragement for selected pupils to start being productive (4,2,6)
COME ON STREAM – COME ON [encouragement] + STREAM [selected students].
2 Equally disposed resource (5)
ASSET – AS [equally] + SET [disposed; definition 2. in Chambers].
3 Four cracks in each pot spread right across (9)
PERVASIVE – IV [Roman numeral 4] cracks PER [in each] + VAS^E [pot].
The caret shows the text insertion point.
4 Exhausted German’s no party tops (4,2)
DONE IN – DO [party] tops NEIN [German word for “no”].
5 Reduced state of 16 friendly relations which might lead to ruin (8)
CALAMITY – CAL [home state of San Diego, 16 down] + AMITY.
6 Vexatious occupation — wrong keeping it up? (3-2)
SIT IN – SI^N keeping TI [IT up].
The caret marks the text insertion point, but IT/TI works equally well whether it’s “up” or “down”, so the “up” is really only there for the surface of the clue.
7 Sky viewer with unearthly interest in golf is out playing (9)
UFOLOGIST – anagram, playing: (GOLF IS OUT)*
9 Following urge, that woman rows back from statement in court (4,8)
HERD INSTINCT – HER [that woman] + DINS [rows] + T [back from statemenT] + IN + CT [court].
13 Oddball went and died after eccentric life (4-5)
LEFT FIELD – LEFT [went] + D [died] after FIEL [anagram, eccentric, of LIFE].
15 Chilean author failing to finish drink completely (3,4,2)
ALL ENDS UP – ALLENDE failing to finish + SUP.
16 City that is defined by smooth travel (3,5)
SAN DIEGO – SAND [smooth] + I.E. [that is] + GO [travel].

This is the clue that puzzles me. What is “defined by” doing here?

At a stretch, to define something might be to specify its limits. So, “IE” is limited/defined by “SAND” + “GO”, apparently. Better ideas welcome!
19 Attraction of a ring in your ear? (6)
APPEAL – sounds (in your ear) like A PEAL.
21 On reversing, chunk taken from integral bumper (5)
LARGE – backwards (on reversing), hidden (taken from).
23 Where large dam was built almost entirely with spades once (2,3)
AS WAS – the ASWAN dam in Egypt, almst entirely, with S [spades].

15 comments on “Times Cryptic 29358 – Sat, 11 October 2025. Defied to define the limits.”

  1. I think the clue for SAN DIEGO is perfectly fine, works just as you say, and is not a device we haven’t seen before. SAN D(IE)GO

  2. Wot Guy said about SAN DIEGO.
    I biffed POSIT; I only vaguely knew of the post office scandal, didn’t know it was IT-related. I liked DEPENDANT.

  3. 68 minutes, held up by the parsing of several: DUCK SOUP (parsed wrongly as regards UP), HERD INSTINCT (got it eventually) and EDGE TOOL (not really understood). Regarding the latter, I don’t like ‘on’ as a link word between definition and wordplay, and if you’re required to move the front letter of something to the other end (far right) then the ‘something’ should be a single word – if not, how many words are acceptable (two as here, three, four …)?
    Liked AWFUL and GEORGE GERSHWIN, but COD to SELFIE.

  4. Lost my copy, but I parsed SAN DIEGO as Guy says. Found this tricky and off-wavelength, so had some help from Mr Ego, who supplied several of the answers I was stuck on for an eventual finish. Liked AS WAS. Couldn’t parse EDGE TOOL, so thanks for that, Branch. NHO that or COME ON STREAM, so all in all, a less than satisfying puzzle.

  5. Completed ‘correctly’ but not really enjoyed.
    Liked 3d PERVASIVE for clean complication, 4d DONE IN for simple neatness, and not sure about 12ac SELFIE.
    Did not like 26ac POSIT for arcane reference, 2d ASSET for stretch synonyms, and thought 20ac was in fact AWFUL. 9ac HERD INSTINCT a stretch on a couple of levels.
    8ac MISTRANSLATION surely does not qualify as a cryptic clue?
    I think ‘defined’ in 16d SAN DIEGO means ‘enclosed’.
    Apologies for any crossings, I will read later.
    Sorry setter. Thank you branch.

  6. Did this on the train on the way back from the Championship, and despite the 1.5h+ journey, for a while I thought I wasn’t going to finish in time. Felt like the hardest puzzle of the day almost, not including the 3rd semi-final puzzle, which I haven’t attempted yet. And I couldn’t see CHAMP so I went for CLASP, which almost made sense but didn’t really.

    I still don’t quite understand EDGE TOOL. I can see Front of “shelf also” going far right – L going far right in “LEDGE TOO” – but what’s the ‘on’ doing?

  7. No recorded time but about 45-50 minutes. EDGE TOOL mystified me until I had the D and E crossers; I’d initially put in an unparsed HAND. I didn’t get the reference to the recent events in the UK in POSIT, despite having seen the TV dramatisation here earlier this year. Favourite was the GEORGE GERSHWIN clue.

    I must be missing an obvious explanation, but is AWFUL the correct part of speech for ‘Very’? I can only think of the grammatically incorrect use as in “He’s an awful/very good player”, but there must be a better, grammatically correct example.

    Thanks to Bruce and setter

    1. Collins gives ‘very’ as an informal synonym for ‘awful’ in both British and American definitions. I feel like it’s more common in America, but I don’t think I’d be phased if I heard a fellow Brit using it either.

  8. Done 1hr 12 mins
    Guessed Duck Soup from the Marx brothers didn’t know it was a musical.

    Thought POs IT was brilliant, not controversial, just factual.
    NHO PLATEN, or LEMAN ( that really looks obscure)
    Got SAN DIEGO via the reverse cross reference of CAL. Was considering Las Vegas as my 3,5 pick.
    Didn’t parse AWFUL, even though saw FUL(l) for endless crammed. Not a great definition.
    But needed aids for PERVASIVE, saw IV for four but couldn’t see vase=pot.
    Could not parse AS WAS.

  9. This puzzle regularly contains answers where you think “is that really a word?”, but ufologist takes the biscuit.

  10. Thanks Bruce for the blog and the parsing of POSIT – had to be but didn’t see PO’s IT at all . Now my favourite clue.
    Didn’t have any difficulty with AWFUL for very – sounds more US than the British “awfully” but I remembered one of my favourite songs and was quite content:
    “There may come a time
    When a hard-boiled employer
    Thinks you’re awful nice
    But get that ice or else no dice!
    He’s your guy
    When stocks are high
    But beware when they start to descend,
    It’s then that those louses
    Go back to their spouses
    Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”

  11. Thanks to branch and setter.
    14a Steadied. I did know that tea is a close relative of the camellia flower, but only because I read that on my tea caddy. I thought that was obscure GK, but that’s just because I know nothing about plants.
    25a Edge tool. Is this a thing? Wiktionary marks it as archaic.
    16d San Diego. I didn’t pause but it is a bit odd.
    23d As was. Aswan leapt out at me but the parsing took a while.

  12. DNF in 32.49

    Another CLASP even though it felt (very) wrong. I was also completely discombobulated by the dam clue putting in a mombled AL WAS thinking that was the name of a place but not understanding the “once” bit. I’ll blame tiredness after a family party – I certainly need to blame something!

    Otherwise GEORGE GERSHWIN was fantastic in what I thought/agree was really quite a tricky offering.

    Thanks Bruce and setter,

  13. Two goes needed.

    – Not familiar with DUCK SOUP
    – NHO PLATEN
    – Was glad that the A in DEPENDANT was a checker

    Thanks branch and setter.

    FOI Noose
    LOI Platen
    COD Mistranslation (as a translator myself, it had to be!)

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