I was helped here by knowing a number of things I’ve only met in crosswords. Newer solvers may want to take some of those on board.
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 | Characters in this pub breaking a wobbly table (8) |
| ALPHABET – A + PH [pub; public house] breaking L^ABET [TABLE, wobbly]. “This” refers to this puzzle, of course. The caret marks the text insertion point. |
|
| 5 | Film director’s sources reported (6) |
| WELLES – sounds like (reported) WELLS [sources of water]. Orson Welles: more here. |
|
| 10 | Welcome subject of discussion? (5,2,3,5) |
| SPEAK OF THE DEVIL – cryptic definition. | |
| 11 | Under oath, exhausted, admitted to offence (5,2) |
| SWORN IN – WORN admitted to S^IN. | |
| 12 | Beastly male duck turning in fast time (7) |
| RAMADAN – RAM [beastly male] + ADAN [turning NADA: nil, nothing. A duck at cricket].
This time, not Lent. Ramadan is a Muslim fast. |
|
| 13 | Street location’s place to a certain river’s east (8) |
| SOMERSET – SET [place] to the east of SOME R. Last one in. I didn’t know there is such a town, let alone where! |
|
| 15 | Seek ornament with engraving (5) |
| CHASE – double definition; both verbs. | |
| 18 | King on fantastic British bitter (5) |
| ACERB – ACE [fantastic] + R [king] + B [British]. | |
| 20 | Liberal in Crown dependency rebuked youngster (3-5) |
| MAN-CHILD – MAN [the Isle of Man is a Crown dependency] + L [Liberal] in CHI^D [rebuked]. | |
| 23 | Ambition shown by learner nurtured by the German engineer (7) |
| DAIMLER – AIM [ambition] + L [learner] nurtured by D^ER [“the”, in German]. Coincidentally (or not), the engineer was German, too. |
|
| 25 | Marker pens keep record of Rhineland city (7) |
| COLOGNE – CO^NE [marker, like the ones used on roads] pens LOG [keep record]. | |
| 26 | Rebel woman’s English protégé cut down in kidnap? (8,3,4) |
| HEREWARD THE WAKE – HER [woman’s] + E [English] + WARD [protégé] + HEW [cut down] in T^AKE [kidnap]. Without these crosswords, I’d have no idea this person was a rebel! |
|
| 27 | Stink surrounds second one putting on act (6) |
| POSING – PO^NG surrounds S [second] + I [one]. | |
| 28 | Archdeacon and defaulter reportedly prolonged dispute (8) |
| VENDETTA – VEN [archdeacon] + DETTA [sounds like DEBTOR, reportedly]. The idea that debtors are necessarily defaulters produced an MER. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Support band member missing intro (6) |
| ASSIST – BASSIST, missing intro. | |
| 2 | First page about Homer stimulated influential output (9) |
| PHEROMONE – P^ONE [first page] about HEROM [HOMER, about]. I suspected the partial anagram, but took quite a while to see where to get the other four letters. |
|
| 3 | Quiz expert grasping point with suspicion (7) |
| ASKANCE – ASK A^CE [quiz expert] grasping N [compass point]. | |
| 4 | Delicate foxtrot involved in line dancing (5) |
| ELFIN – F [Foxtrot, in the phonetic alphabet] involved in EL^IN [LINE, dancing]. | |
| 6 | Death tally rising — no hospital present locally (7) |
| ENDEMIC – END [death] + EMIC [CHIME rising, with no H]. | |
| 7 | Wild clip’s content with short film (5) |
| LIVID – content of CLIP + VID [short VIDEO]. | |
| 8 | Novelist in South Africa to remain alive for now (8) |
| SALINGER – S.A. + LINGER. J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye. |
|
| 9 | Traitress going for hotel chain? (8) |
| SHERATON – SHE-RAT [traitress(!)] + ON [going]. | |
| 14 | Dismal end for beggar: nothing in hat (8) |
| SOMBRERO – SOMBRE + R [end for BEGGAR] + O [nothing]. | |
| 16 | Orchestra sacks leader! Great man, and loyal! (9) |
| ALLEGIANT – HALLE [this orchestra] + GIANT. A useful orchestra for crosswords! |
|
| 17 | Is obliged to cross road in difficulty (8) |
| HARDSHIP – HA^S [is obliged] to cross RD + HIP [in]. | |
| 19 | Old PM in undisguised triumph (7) |
| BALDWIN – BALD [undisguised] + WIN [triumph]. | |
| 21 | Weapon to keep animals together outside a pound (7) |
| HALBERD – H^ERD outside A + LB [pound weight]. | |
| 22 | Long-dead Roman disrupted seance (6) |
| SENECA – anagram, disrupted: (SEANCE)* | |
| 24 | Died in a Murdoch’s embrace in Elba? (5) |
| IDRIS – D in I^RIS. This Elba, of course. And this Murdoch. |
|
| 25 | Smart female copper Bond supports (5) |
| CUTIE – CU [chemical symbol for copper] + TIE [bond]. | |
Didn’t understand SOMERSET at all until I thought that maybe there is a town called ‘Street’ there and looked it up to find it’s a large village in the parish of Somerset, now I know. Liked SPEAK OF THE DEVIL for the clever ‘subject of discussion’ in the clue. Relied on the wordplay for DAIMLER. HEREWARD THE WAKE went in after nearly all the checkers were in but it did ring a distant bell from somewhere. I took ‘this’ in the clue for ALPHABET to be simply that, letters in an alphabet. Thought SOMBRERO was neat. NHO of the orchestra in ALLEGIANT.
Thanks B and setter.
This was a reasonable challenge but not as entertaining as most Saturdays (including today’s). Except for maybe 10ac SPEAK OF THE DEVIL, there were no real standout clues to admire, more than a fair share of arcane GK required and a little discontent.
In 12ac, yes a RAM is a ‘beastly male’, but NADA backwards for ‘duck’?
13ac SOMERSET finally twigged and looked up, and the NHO 26ac HEREWARD THE WAKE. Similarly the 16d HALLE orchestra. Thought the first name ‘daily double’ for 24d IDRIS a bit much. 25d CUTIE for ‘smart female’, hmmm?!
Nice to see Orsen mentioned – a personal favourite: ‘The Third Man’ including for the haunting zither theme.
Thank you setter and branch.
It’s ADAN backwards that’s NADA that’s “duck.”
Yes, perhaps I should have said NADA equals ‘duck’, inverted.
Unusual synonym at best.
Well, you see, it’s short for “duck’s egg,” which is clear enough for zero.
Isn’t ‘nada’ in fact a Spanish word for nothing ? And I played cricket anyway.
¡!Si, amigo! Nada=nil=zer0=”duck’s egg”=”duck”
I don’t know much about cricket, but this has been in crosswords alot!
Btw – it’s Orson (Welles). Were you by any chance remembering the old-school comedian’s film director Orsen Cart?!
It’s a fair cop gov’ner . . . and droll !
BTW, not really fussed on Citizen Kane. (Hope I have spelled that correctly. If one is to criticise, one must be correct.)
25:53. Somehow I managed to remember most of the required GK such as the ‘Rebel’ at 26a and the crossword words such as VEN for ‘Archdeacon’ at 28a. ALLEGIANT was an NHO though and was my LOI, not helped by being stuck on [B]AND for ‘Orchestra sacks leader?’. Favourite was the SHE-RAT ‘traitress’.
Street in SOMERSET known for a few reasons, including as the home of the desert boot.
Thanks to Bruce and setter
Slow, found it a bit tricky. Baffled by LOI SOMERSET, didn’t think it might be a town. HEREWARD THE WAKE appeared within the last year or two – I remembered that, but not his name. No MER at DEFAULTER as an example of a debtor not a synonyn, but then it needs a ? or a “perhaps” as a DBE.
Was amazed that there’s a town called STREET.
I thought SOMERSET was very neat. I’ve visited it a few times. Pleased to have remembered HEREWARD THE WAKE from school history lessons in the 1960s. He held out in the Isle of Ely, which it was before the fens were drained. You wouldn’t recognise Ely as an island now, though still called that.
46:24, but needed cheats at the end, for SHERATON. I was convinced “hotel” was Hilton, or H. She-rat, very clever. Also needed help with WELLES, as I had discounted him for only having 5 letters.
I got “street location” =SOMERSET, quite quickly, I had just been there earlier this year. Nice Shoe museum, and it’s just by Glastonbury.
HEREWARD THE WAKE guessed, and couldn’t parse HARDSHIP or CHASE. Didn’t really like SPEAK OF THE DEVIL.
CUTIE for smart female is just how James Watson perceived Rosalind Franklin, as the excellent Times Obituary recalled last week, day of the puzzle I think.
For once, the wordplay “in German”=Der helped cue up the answer, since Gottlieb Daimler was in fact German. And very nice to have “Rhineland” to help find the city. Made that clue almost too easy.
Didn’t think of Iris Murdoch (thought murdoch was a species of the flower!), and guessed it from that mountain in Wales. Only twigged Idris Elba as I re looked at the clue after writing it in. COD for the misdirection.
“Fast time”, “Street location”, both very clever.
Defeated by 15a where I put Crave for CHASE. – still don’t understand why the latter = ornament with engraving .
Otherwise, a reasonable challenge.
ODE sv chase2 : engrave (metal or a design on metal)
45:27
Can’t remember what made me so slow, but my last three–SOMBRERO, DAIMLER, SOMERSET–came almost simultaneously.Halfway remembered HEREWARD, but had to check to see if he was the DANE; he wasn’t. Somehow knew of IDRIS Elba. I like HARDSHIP.
62 minutes, all parsed – hard work.
MER for me re the definition for SOMERSET. It is intended as: The location of Street, which should be shortened to Street’s location – and adding a third apostrophe to an already rather inelegant surface! ‘Street location’ implies for me a shortening of: The location of something in/at Street.
Liked the whimsy of the surface for ELFIN – a line dance involving a foxtrot (and a delicate one)!
COD HEREWARD THE WAKE.
47 mins. I remember SOMERSET as a wonderful PDM. COD.
Despite living in Ely many years ago I not only forget the “See” device every time but also seemingly this HtW connection.
Not sure why this one took so long. Thanks setter and branch.
Not easy, but noticeably easier than some we’ve had lately, I thought. I know that brand names appear now and then and always have, but somehow it seemed a bit strange to have Sheraton baldly named as a hotel chain. Straightforward advertising that could be a new source of income for The Times, perhaps?
Amazing how little we know, about Hereward. We know more about Boudicca, over 1,000 years earlier.
I’m reading a book called “In search of the Dark Ages,” surprisingly interesting. Currently I’m somewhere between the two. King Arthur, anyone?
This took us quite a time, but well worth it for some lovely PDMs along the way. HEREWARD was bifd and post-parsed – I didn’t know he was a rebel; SOMERSET was another PDM. I loved IDRIS, one of the stragglers, as I was thinking of the wrong Murdoch (the Dirty Digger) and the wrong Elba (the island) – the crossers finally gave me the answer – quite brilliant clueing! Also, I had no idea he was also a DJ – thanks for the pointer, Branch. WELLES and SALINGER, embarassingly, were the last two in.
70 minutes. The bottom half was quite quick but after forty minutes I still had only three in the top half. Then everything but SOMERSET came in a flurry. I saw it fitted but it took me another twenty minutes to realise it was the answer. And I used to live near Street. Thanks branch.
37.38
Sluggish, especially as STREET was straight in. Still don’t really get SPEAK OF THE DEVIL (it’s what you say when you see someone but why a subject of discussion? But me and cryptics – an uneasy relationship at best).
The WAKE bit took too long, and ALLEGIANT was LOI after finally understanding HALLE. But I did swerve the CRAVE trap.
Great puzzle/blog
It’s short for “speak of the devil and he’s sure to appear”*. It’s what you say if someone turns up while you’re talking about them.
* That’s how I learned it. The internet disagrees about the wording.
My thanks to branch and setter.
I don’t remember having any problems with this, but I do have a query or two.
1a Alphabet, I thought I don’t understand the clue but I think I know the answer.
10a Speak of the devil. I’m not sure how much of this clue is def. It is sort-of a welcome. Not sure what the rest of the clue is doing.
13a Somerset. Have heard of Street. Clarks shoes is there and they were once a customer of ours although I wasn’t involved in their account.
16d Allegiant NHO this word but the clue was OK. I was cross with myself for how long it took for me to think of the Halle.
24d NHO Idris (Elba). HHO Iris Murdoch. Felt the need to look up Elba. HHO King Idris of Libya, but that didn’t help. Had a colleague called Idris (surname) and that didn’t help either.
25d Cutie, cute clue.
Didn’t note down my time, but I remember struggling to complete this, with a few unknowns.
– Didn’t know the second meaning of CHASE
– Had heard of HEREWARD THE WAKE without knowing he was a rebel
– Relied on wordplay for the unknown SHERATON and HALBERD
Thanks branch and setter.
FOI Cologne
LOI Halberd
COD Alphabet
Tried Herewake the wild or variations on that theme for a while – couldn’t quite recall where the wake went. Nice crossword.
Knew Street but does some = certain?
Some=certain?
The Cambridge Dictionary online is easy to get at from the keyboard, and includes this example:
Meaning: particular but not named or described.
Examples:
– Do you think war is justifiable in certain circumstances?
– Certain members of the audience may disagree with what I’m about to say.
Thank you, very helpful. Query withdrawn!
the SHE-RAT beat me, and I plumped for CHARLTON. Great clue in retrospect, grr.