Times Cryptic 29370 – Sat, 25 October 2025. American oblivion.

Author   branchPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

Fortunately America wasn’t my special subject! Several clues in this one featured facts about the USA that exposed gaps in my knowledge.

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 show how to get the answer appear thus. Anagram material is (THUS)*. A ^ symbol indicates where text is to be inserted.

Across
1 Middle of slit appearing in clear blind (9)
OBLIVIOUS – LI [middle of SLIT] appearing in OB^VIOUS [clear].
6 With periodical exceptions, admen pitch intensity (5)
DEPTH – alternate letters (with periodic exceptions) of ADMEN PITCH.
9 Objects primarily seen in dashes? (7)
SPEEDOS – O [Objects, primarily] seen in SPEED^S [dashes].
For the purpose of the all-in-one definition, read “dashes” as “dashboards”.
Thumbs up for the setter.
10 Obsess about problem splitting United (7)
CONSUME – C [about] + SUM [problem] splitting ON^E [united].
11 Mark discussed pop music (3)
SKA – sounds like (discussed) SCAR.
12 Steer towards capital of curtailed fighting — it’s near the end of the list? (6,5)
OXFORD COMMA – OX [steer] + FOR [towards] + D.C. [capital] + O [Of, de-tailed] + MMA [mixed martial arts].

 

See here to read more about an Oxford comma, serial comma, or Harvard comma. The last comma in the previous sentence is an example of the device in the wild, I think – and leads nicely into the first American thing I didn’t know!
14 Crazy promotion following introduction of Microsoft Excel (6)
MADCAP – AD [promotion] following  M [introduction of Microsoft] + CAP [excel].
15 Rejected civil engineer still delighted (8)
ECSTATIC – EC [C.E., rejected] + STATIC.
17 Drink case of Lucozade; after that is boring wine (5,3)
ROSIE LEE – LE [case of LucozadE] after I.E., all boring ROS^É [wine].
Cockney rhyming slang: Rosie Lee = tea.
19 Sort of home next to its opposite (2,1,3)
IN A WAY – IN [home] next to AWAY [the opposite of home].
22 A curt memoir about place where people get fired if they’re late (11)
CREMATORIUM – anagram (about): (A CURT MEMOIR)*.
A devious definition.
23 Alliance after beheading — one of several for Henry VIII? (3)
ACT – PACT after beheading.
25 Where Helena is finally seen wearing make-up, mostly the wrong way (7)
MONTANA – N [finally SEEN] wearing MO^TANA [ANATOMY mostly, the wrong way].
Of course, I didn’t know the capital of Montana is Helena!
27 Hot air balloon’s initial brilliance at Cape Canaveral (7)
BLUSTER – B + LUSTER [the American spelling of “lustre”, as used at Cape Canaveral].
I thought the name was changed to Cape Kennedy. Well, yes it was; but it was changed back in 1973!
28 Severe pain infiltrating alien country (5)
EGYPT – GYP infiltrating ET.
29 Alert journalist welcoming agreement to embrace joy (5-4)
EAGLE EYED – double nesting: GLEE inside AYE inside ED.
Down
1 Love unchanged for band formed in the 1990s (5)
OASIS – O + AS IS.
2 Lure fish to surface downwind (7)
LEEWARD – DRAW EEL to surface (so, going upwards in this down clue).
3 Shot movie with a cadre — and this? (5,6)
VIDEO CAMERA – anagram (shot): (MOVIE A CADRE)*
4 What cuts across if you become inflexible (6)
OSSIFY – hidden.
5 Get rid of career event (4,4)
SACK RACE – SACK [get rid of] + RACE [career].
6 God originally ignored Babel (3)
DIN – ODIN.
7 Drop goodness, in part (7)
PLUMMET – LUMME [goodness!] in PT.
8 Richer hay deployed to make pyramid? (9)
HIERARCHY – anagram (deployed): (RICHER HAY)*
13 10 data manipulated with confusing cruelty (3-3-5)
CAT AND MOUSE – anagram (manipulated): (CONSUME DATA)*
“Consume” is the answer to 10 across.
14 Wise partner increasingly snubbed bank (9)
MORECAMBE – MORE + CAMBER
16 Set off to see outside of college (8)
DETONATE – DATE outside ETON.
18 Back library deprived of content without compassion (7)
STERNLY – STERN + LY [LibrarY, deprived of content].
20 Loaded question about dubious tale (7)
WEALTHY – WHY about EALT [anagram of TALE].
21 Liner organisation behind transatlantic court action, probing Titanic (3,3)
BIN BAG – NBA [basketball, obv, played on courts in U.S.] probing BIG.
24 Beat it, turning and looking embarrassed (5)
TIRED – TI [IT, turning] + RED.
26 Landscapes possibly no longer exist (3)
ART – an archaic form of “ARE” or “IS”.

25 comments on “Times Cryptic 29370 – Sat, 25 October 2025. American oblivion.”

  1. 49:25
    Biffed MONTANA, never parsed it; ditto for OXFORD COMMA (DNK MMA). It took me a while to remember SPEEDOS (in the US, they’re a brand of swimwear). It took me another while to realize what Cape Canaveral was doing. DNK ROSIE LEE.

    2. The “Speedos” brand of swimwear originated in Sydney, Australia. But, speedo is a standard term for speedometer in UK and Australia.

  2. There was so much clever and entertaining in this one that I need to be circumspect in posting. There was also a little naughtiness, I believe.
    Liked 19ac IN A WAY for directness, 22ac CREMATORIUM for clever clue – admired despite my age, and 2d LEEWARD for smooth surface.
    Forgave setter on seeing blogger’s explanation of ‘dashes’ 9ac, but reservations about the US content in 25ac MONTANA and 27ac BLUSTER. Also did not pick the Brit slang in 7d PLUMMET, and thought an indicator might have been fairer for ROSIE LEE 17ac.
    Looked up the OXFORD COMMA 12ac – which was a bit too complicated in parsing as well.

    Does anyone know why the Times is not providing the correct daily crosswords with the newspaper at online publishing? Hopefully I will be able to get today’s later/tomorrow.

    As luck would have it therefore, on Thursday last, we ended up doing the Wednesday last – a Comp qualifier. It took two hard sessions but we got everything except 18ac HEADHUNT. We also fell for both ‘Y’ traps (21ac and 28ac) – silly because the parsing/clues were clear.
    Thank you setter/s and branch.

    1. The crosswords go live on the website at midnight UK time, or thereabouts. Maybe it is a different time, where you are?

      1. Just gone on that site now, and the correct Sat cryptic is now up (and downloaded).
        Midnight UK when each new electronic edition is published is 9 am here.
        Last couple of times, the newspaper was dated correctly but with day before’s puzzle.
        Thank you for responding though.

        1. It’s 11am here when it’s midnight in the uk. They had daylight saving removed last week as well as our daylight saving going on makes the extra two hours.
          I’m in Victoria and print the puzzle every day at 11am without issue.

  3. A DNF. Faced with MAD_A_ for 14a at the end, which I couldn’t get straight away, I just bunged in MADMAN for ‘Crazy’ as a noun so unsurprisingly up popped a couple of pink squares. OXFORD COMMA also unparsed; I don’t remember seeing MMA for ‘fighting’ before and would never have thought of it. HELENA as the capital of Montana – I wish I could say otherwise but learnt today, forgotten tomorrow.

    Thanks to Bruce and setter

  4. Enjoyed this lots. Loved CREMATORIUM for the people who are late, and SPEEDOS, brilliant all-in-one. OXFORD COMMA was another stand-out even if it was a bit convoluted, but saw MMA quickly. Assembled ROSIE LEE from the wordplay but knew it anyway. Nice to see Eric make an appearance again for MORECAMBE. Didn’t know ‘lumme’ but PLUMMET wasn’t too difficult for ‘drop’.
    Thanks B and setter.

  5. Done in 47:45, only aid was to add to my list of four letter wines. I had Hock, Asti, Vino and Port, but forgot about Rosé, for the unknown ROSIE LEE. There are loads of slang words for tea, and I’ve never heard this. Parsing ok, but IELE fitted the checkers in two places.

    I had “seen in dashes” as “seen in races” which is where SPEEDOS are often seen. Couldn’t parse PLUMMET, so needed the blog then Lummee!

    Liked “Wise partner”, and the tough “where Helena is found”. The only Helena’s I could think of was of Troy, or in Midsummer Nights Dream. But I do know my stare capitals, even the obscure ones. Of course MASCARA looked like fitting, although make-up is in the middle of the clue. I also thought of SLAP. LOI STERNLY.

    Couldn’t parse OXFORD COMMA, I was expecting one to appear in the clue itself. Here’s my attempt
    City, mark, and the very thing appearing here (6,5)

  6. Good challenge, and really liked OXFORD COMMA,but two irritations..
    1] ROSIE LEE..last heard of in the 1950s
    2] Couple of obscure abbreviations ( at least to non-Americans) -NBA and MMA

  7. 52 minutes, all parsed except the MMA in OXFORD COMMA. Enjoyable puzzle with some well-disguised definitions. Held up by ROSIE LEE (thinking it must be some kind of ALE), DETONATE, and MONTANA (LOI); also BINBAG – which my wife, who has neither time nor inclination for cryptic puzzles, guessed before I did (but couldn’t parse). Despite the ingenious complication of other clues, my COD is IN A WAY for its very neatness.

  8. No undue problems with this except for the capital of Montana, which I thought unfair. Helena is smaller than Maidstone…

  9. 16:06. Quite tricky, and I managed to type ROSIE LEA.
    I’ve always disliked the OXFORD COMMA and never use it.
    I have learned something new about Australian/UK time zones today!

  10. Another MADMAN. I was a bit slow-brained that day taking longer to spot MORECAMBE than MONTANA, state capitals being quiz chestnuts. Even the omnipresent Eton took ages. Thanks for explaining SPEEDOS.

  11. I failed to parse CONSUME, despite seeing SUM and couldn’t understand OXFORD COMMA, as I’ve not heard of MMA. A MER at GYP for severe pain and SKA being described as pop music, though the answer was easy enough. LOI MONTANA – this was bifd and post-parsed, as I realised what the definition was, and that it had to be a place somewhere in the States. I particularly liked BLUSTER, with Cape Canaveral, and ECSTATIC.

  12. SPEEDOS works with either parsing and neither it nor MMA are remotely Americanisms. I got all of these fairly quickly except for CONSUME which I failed to think of. Like the band ‘Vampire Weekend’, I’m not a fan of the Oxford comma (https://youtu.be/P_i1xk07o4g?si=4ZU76xyULYGUwmTX). HELENA was a write-in from the GK.

  13. 26.06

    Trickiesh and/but enjoyable. MORECAMBE was very good and the surfaces of a few others were very nice/witty (ROSIE LEE and MADCAP). Should have twigged MONTANA sooner as I’m sure Helena has appeared in the TV series Yellowstone, of which I’ve recently watched a few episodes (set in Montana).

    Thanks Bruce/setter

  15. My thanks to branch and setter.
    This one had it’s moments.
    12a Oxford Comma. Full cheating for this one. Never parsed it either. NHO Oxford nor Harvard C nor mixed martial arts.
    25a Montana, cheated NHO Helena, Montana. (Actually I have a list of state capitals so must have seen it if not registered it.)
    1d Oasis, DNK they were 1990s, looked up to confirm.
    21d Bin Bag, NHO NBA so could not parse.

  16. DNF, defeated by MONTANA, not knowing that its capital is Helena and not thinking of make up=anatomy.

    – Didn’t know that ROSIE LEE is CRS for tea, but it sounded plausible as a drink
    – Never come across lumme before, but PLUMMET had to be

    Thanks branch and setter.

    COD Crematorium (loved the definition!)

  17. A few problems for me here: don’t know why, but I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition for the well-known to me ROSIE LEE, so look up. Also the second half of MADCAP wrong ( I shoved in MADMAN – didn’t equate excel with cap), and NHO Helena, MONTANA, which I thought was a rather unfair clue, also for the equation of ‘make-up’ with ‘anatomy’. Had ‘cut and dried’ in 13d for quite a while ( couldn’t parse of course), but it was the product of rushing. 🫣. Otherwise thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, COD CREMATORIUM for the lovely wordplay.

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