Here in Australia, the period around Christmas and New Year is for lazing in the sun and idly following the cricket score. (Apologies Congratulations (!) to you English readers about that.) This puzzle was perfectly suited to that lifestyle! It had a few rather unfamiliar answers to be constructed from wordplay, but it all came out. 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 | World of busy American composer? (7) |
| COPLAND – COP [busy, slang for a police officer] + LAND [world, more or less]. I might have been tempted to put an E in his name, without the clue to guide me. |
|
| 5 | Composition offered to include everything (7) |
| BALLADE – B^ADE [past tense of “bid”] to include ALL. | |
| 9 | Order starter you finally eat using crackers (9) |
| AUGUSTINE – anagram, crackers: (U EAT USING)* St. Augustine, of course. That sort of order. |
|
| 10 | Fine steak not one dressed well (5) |
| FRUMP – F + RUMP. | |
| 11 | Badenoch’s team follow case (6,7) |
| SHADOW CABINET – SHADOW [follow] + CABINET [case]. | |
| 13 | Black fish in hotel, skinned, well past prime (8) |
| OBSOLETE – B + SOLE in O^TE [hOTEl, skinned]. | |
| 15 | One, a snooty sort, coming back in little plane? (6) |
| BONSAI – I [one] + A [in the clue] + SNOB [snooty sort], coming back. A plane tree, as a candidate for bonsai. |
|
| 17 | Rat no ingredient for an omelette? (3,3) |
| BAD EGG – hint. | |
| 19 | So doctor’s about to crack clue: the last (8) |
| HINDMOST – DMOS [SO MD, about] to crack HIN^T [clue]. | |
| 22 | Expert agrees, running scheme to benefit workers (6-7) |
| PROFIT SHARING – PRO [expert] + FITS [agrees] + HARING [running]. | |
| 25 | Indeed drink is said to become very cold (3,2) |
| ICE UP – sounds like (is said) AY + SUP. | |
| 26 | Means of clarifying one’s in with good girl (9) |
| ISINGLASS – I’S + IN + G [good] + LASS. The definition confused me! I was thinking of the “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”: The wheels are yeller, the upholstery’s brown,
The dashboard’s genuine leather, With isinglass curtains y’ c’n roll right down In case there’s a change in the weather But, AI tells me: Isinglass is a clarifying agent from fish swim bladders, used in brewing and winemaking to make drinks clear by making yeast and particles clump and settle, resulting in smoother flavor. Historically, it was also a term for mica (a transparent mineral) and a durable clear vinyl for boat windows, though these are distinct from the fish-derived gelatin. It’s a form of collagen processed from sturgeon or other fish, used to create a gelatinous solution for fining. |
|
| 27 | Enormous mountain woman tempted others (7) |
| EVEREST – EVE [woman, tempted] + REST [the others]. | |
| 28 | Related to dance, this needs feet moving (7) |
| TREADLE – anagram (to dance): (RELATED)* | |
| Down | |
| 1 | China’s leader conned the country (4) |
| CHAD – C [China‘s leader] + HAD [conned]. | |
| 2 | Famed steed learned to drink drinks when mounted (7) |
| PEGASUS – SUP [to drink] drinks SAGE [learned], all backwards (mounted). | |
| 3 | Bewildered? Take a satnav round periodically (2,3) |
| AT SEA – alternate letters, backwards, from tAkE a SaTnAv. | |
| 4 | Country club entertainer: two charged with attack (8) |
| DJIBOUTI – DJ + I^I [two] charged with BOUT. | |
| 5 | Draw line into sand: this to lighten the load? (6) |
| BLEACH – L into B^EACH. That is, a load of washing. |
|
| 6 | Vital factor in story about female initiate (9) |
| LIFEBLOOD – LI^E about F + BLOOD. | |
| 7 | Former pupil in slander with case dropped by us (7) |
| ALUMNUS – ALUMN [cALUMNy, with case dropped] + US. | |
| 8 | Elaborate clothes right for being abroad (10) |
| EXPATRIATE – EXPAT^IATE clothes R. | |
| 12 | Award one fails to win? (5,5) |
| BOOBY PRIZE – cryptic definition. | |
| 14 | City ace in Essex town returned bonus from US (9) |
| LAGNIAPPE – L.A. + A in EPP^ING returned. I got this from the wordplay, and vaguely suspected I’d met the word before. It can mean a tip in Louisiana. |
|
| 16 | Who might have double trouble in Bow? (8) |
| BIGAMIST – a cryptic definition. It only made sense when I was reminded that in Cockney Rhyming Slang, “trouble & strife” = “wife”. |
|
| 18 | See codes I cracked with key (7) |
| DIOCESE – anagram, cracked: (CODES I)* + E [musical key] | |
| 20 | Alert to possible danger in riotous Durango (2,5) |
| ON GUARD – anagram, riotous: (DURANGO)* I looked at the enumeration and immediately thought EN GARDE. Not helpful! |
|
| 21 | Top saint rises above king in triumph (1-5) |
| T SHIRT – TS [ST, rises] + R in HI^T. | |
| 23 | Fire set here one that won’t start (5) |
| INGLE – SINGLE that won’t start. | |
| 24 | Man for example lives on lake’s shores (4) |
| ISLE – IS + LE [LAKE’s shores]. | |
I thought the reference to Bow in 16d might refer to the Bow Street magistrates court, as bigamy is against the law.
Lagniappe was new to me , but parsed so in it went with fingers crossed.
Thanks for the information about ISINGLASS.
22mins
24:12 but
I managed to mistype INGLE, giving me two errors.
A LAGNIAPPE as I understand it is a little something the shopkeeper gives you as a thank-you for buying something; a bonus, as it were, not a tip. [On edit: I see Collins also gives ‘gratuity’ as a meaning; news to me.]
I had all but four or five answers after 20 minutes but this counts as a DNF as I failed to get BIGAMIST and felt very foolish for having missed the CRS reference when I eventually used aids to find it.
I consoled myself with a gold star for working out the unknown LAGNIAPPE which I was very surprised to find exists when I checked the dictionary after the event. I have since found that it appeared here once before, in 2020, when I also didn’t know it.
DNF. With 2 left I did construct LAGNIAPPE but disbelieved it, looked it up and was so annoyed by the obscurity that I gave up. That was my loss because I missed out on BIGAMIST which, using aids, turned out to be one of the cleverest and best clues I’ve seen in a long time. COD and probably month.
Tougher than recent Saturdays but interesting. Thanks all round.
25 minutes.
– Had to trust the wordplay for the unknown ISINGLASS
– Likewise for the unlikely-looking LAGNIAPPE
Thanks branch and setter.
FOI Chad
LOI Isinglass
COD Augustine (loved the definition)
LAGNIAPPE and LAGNIPPAE were equally unlikely contenders for a term unlikely to be understood even by the vast majority of Americans, so I felt this was as unfair as an obscurity clued by an anagram, but otherwise the puzzle was satisfying and had some great surfaces and very few obvious write-ins.
My thanks to branch and setter.
Not too hard I thought.
4d Djibouti, I hadn’t noticed it was a country, I rather thought it was just a port. Wrong.
14d Lagniappe, NHO, had to check it was for real. I probably said much the same last time it appeared, or maybe I didn’t solve it.
Dad used to make his own beer so I knew about 26a isinglass.
Never thought about CRS for 16d Bigamist, so the clue seemed a bit weak. But it is really good!
LAGNIAPPE – what the hell?
50 minutes, challenging. LAGNIAPPE NHO or NRHO (R = recently, which probably means this century!) – got it from wordplay.
Guessed at BIGAMIST – had no idea what ‘in Bow’ (or ‘in bow’) was doing. Being a Londoner by birth, I’m usually up to speed with CRS references, but this sailed full-masted over my head. Thanks, branch, for the (obvious) explanation!
COD between COPLAND and BONSAI.
I believe another use for isinglass was for fixing (making smudge-resistant) artists’ pencil drawings before modern-day fixatives. A potential disadvantage of isinglass in this respect is its hygroscopic nature.
My version of BIGAMIST was one tying the knot hence Bow. Just an additional thought.