Time: 36:00
Not the Boxing Day toughie we anticipated, but a nice puzzle to savour in a 9dn fog to distract yourself from the 26ac, and once all the wine has been 23dn-ed.
This appeared effortless on the part of the setter, but contains some very clever little bits that I enjoyed and admired in no particular rush. Sadly, I now have little else to do today…
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cryptic method, so clue giving little away (5-7) |
| CLOSE-MOUTHED – anagram of (cryptic) METHOD SO CLUE. More familiar to me as ‘close-lipped’. | |
| 9 | High pipe still cold and loo out of order (7) |
| PICCOLO – PIC (picture, still) + C (cold) + an anagram of (out of order) LOO. A woodwind instrument with a relatively high pitch/range. | |
| 10 | Pants take up entire laundry (7) |
| HOGWASH – HOG (take up entire) + WASH (laundry). | |
| 11 | Big shot reportedly put hole in ship’s side (9) |
| STARBOARD – STAR (big shot) + a homophone for “bored” (put a hole in). | |
| 12 | Rush to seize protestor munching sandwiches (5) |
| STORM – hidden in (… sandwiches) proteSTOR Munching. Now is the time to admit I had a typo in the fourth letter of this one, but I knew what I meant. | |
| 13 | Where riders may be introduced by heartless groom? (6) |
| PRENUP – cryptic definition. Riders (as in clauses, or corollaries) might be added to this legal agreement made between soon-to-be bride and groom. | |
| 14 | Drop into New Delhi bar opening in capital (8) |
| HELSINKI – SINK (drop) contained by (into) an anagram of (new) dELHI missing its first (bar opening). | |
| 17 | Chance I had to open Molière’s grave? (8) |
| ACCIDENT – I’D (I had) contained by (to open) ACCENT (Molière’s grave-accented ‘e’). | |
| 19 | Act as a prisoner’s guiding light (6) |
| BEACON – BE A CON (act as a prisoner). | |
| 22 | Shift for one female prison officer without conflict (5) |
| DRESS – warDRESS (a female warden, or prison officer) missing ‘war’ (without conflict). Neither word was completely familiar to me, and this was my LOI. | |
| 24 | Butcher at the farm? It follows (9) |
| AFTERMATH – anagram of (butcher) AT THE FARM. | |
| 25 | Meaningless like one three by itself (7) |
| ASININE – AS (like) + I (one) + NINE (3 times by itself). | |
| 26 | Get rich from tip put in mug (5,2) |
| CLEAN UP – LEAN (tip) contained by CUP (mug). | |
| 27 | Creative exploring dreams, possibly making Radio 5 all ads (8,4) |
| SALVADOR DALI – anagram of (possibly making) RADIO V ALL ADS. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Something you do to feed after due date? (7) |
| LACTATE – ACT (something you do) contained by (to feed) LATE (after due date). &lit. | |
| 3 | Trapped by falls, start to swim then leap (9) |
| SNOWBOUND – first of (start to) Swim + NOW (then) + BOUND (leap). | |
| 4 | Low note, fiver perhaps (6) |
| MOOLAH – MOO (low) + LAH (note). | |
| 5 | Easy to see runs wanted for hundred in ground (8) |
| UNHIDDEN – ‘r’ (runs) deleted from (wanted for) HUNDrED IN then anagrammed (ground). | |
| 6 | Secondary schools that boy’s going round superficially goodish (5) |
| HIGHS – HIS (that boy’s) containing (going round) the outermost letters of (superficially) GoodisH. | |
| 7 | Soldier bore with American thug sharing a cell (7) |
| DRAGOON – DRAG (bore) and GOON (American thug), written so that the ‘G’ shares a cell in the grid. | |
| 8 | Maybe open expensive wines, taking one aboard for Agnes (12) |
| CHAMPIONSHIP – CHAMPagnes (expensive wines) with I (one) and ON SHIP (aboard) in place of (for) ‘agnes’. I think this must not refer to The Open, but to the type of championship that could just be open to non-professionals. | |
| 9 | Upright piano slipped, tuner maybe coming after dinner? (12) |
| POSTPRANDIAL – POST (upright) + P (piano) + RAN (slipped) + DIAL (tuner maybe). | |
| 15 | Van at this point drove too fast for Spooner (9) |
| SPEARHEAD – “hear” (at this point) and “sped” (drove too fast) Spoonerised. | |
| 16 | Painter perhaps made an entrance out of sight (2,6) |
| IN CAMERA – IN CAME RA (Royal Academician, perhaps a painter, made an entrance). Literally ‘in chamber’, where a judge might hear sensitive information in private. | |
| 18 | King checks and changes roll of film (7) |
| CREDITS – CR (Charles Rex, King) + EDITS (checks and changes). | |
| 20 | New French designer clothes, medium (7) |
| CHANNEL – N (new) which CHANEL (French designer) contains (clothes). | |
| 21 | Plaster didn’t come off, I’m surprised to hear (6) |
| STUCCO – sounds like (to hear) “stuck” (didn’t come off) and “oh” (I’m surprised). | |
| 23 | 10 second abridged Shakespeare? (5) |
| SWILL – 10ac (HOGWASH). S (second) + shortened name of WILLiam (Shakespeare?). | |
If you’ve little else to do today, don’t forget there’s a Boxing Day Jumbo!
13ac also UP (where riders may be) after PR(e)EN
Now I see it, thanks. Just biffed it.
Thanks for the reminder. See my post below; given what’s on offer elsewhere today, that sounds like a very attractive option!
And there’s also the “Quick” Cryptic, which is shaping up to be a SNITCH-buster.
…and my < href="https://reinterred.blogspot.com/2025/12/weekend-quick-cryptic-145-boxing-day.html" target = "_blank">Boxing Day Weekend Quick Cryptic.
That’s Boxing Day Weekend Quick Cryptic.
Yes, I can still do html manually.
Fun! Hello, Dalí!
PRENUP is very clever. Riders may be “UP”(meaning mounted on a horse—in Collins online but from Webster, American) and that comes after (is introduced by) PR[-e]EN, heartless “groom.” (Oh, I see Nigel beat me to it.)
LOI CREDITS.
I, too, saw there was more than a cryptic definition going on in prenup. However, I biffed championship with bothering with the cryptic, which was probably something complicated – it was. At least I parsed postprandial after biffing it. I was left in the end with asinine and credits, both very clever. However, I would hope that the credits don’t take up an entire reel!
Time: 37:34
I think “roll” here means a list of the people, not a synonym for reel.
‘credits roll’ is a thing
I was also expecting a tough one today since it is Boxing Day and also a Friday. My only holdup was at the end where it took me far too long to get HELSINKI. At 3D I thought NOW=then was a bit of a stretch, not that it held me up. I totally missed how clever PRENUP was, just filled it in from the definition and checkers.
Gave up at 30′ missing CREDITS. Simply didn’t think of that kind of ‘roll of film’. All else enjoyable! Judging by ulaca’s comment, I’ll save the QC for a serious attempt this evening!
A leisurely stroll through this one brought me home in 36 minutes only a few minutes over my target half-hour. A much needed boost to my confidence following my disaster at the hands of today’s QC setter.
My only query of was CHAMP for Champagne which I have never met before (always Champers, surely?) and I can’t find in any of the usual sources.
It is champ(agnes), Jackkt. Champ is just what you are left with after removing Agnes, and doesn’t have to be a proper word ..
Thanks. Silly me!
49 minutes. Finished with (for me) a rush so could have been even slower. I liked the LACTATE and PRENUP &lits, though I have to admit I only saw that the latter was more than “just” a cryptic def after submitting. Missed the parsing of CHAMPIONSHIP and wasn’t entirely convinced by the definition but I suppose it’s OK.
By the way we’ve had it relatively easy at The Times today. Here are the setters for today’s cryptics in the other London papers:
Independent: Nimrod
FT: Io
Guardian: Enigmatist.
Notice any connection?
Not to mention Elgar in the Telegraph!
Goodness, yet another one! After spending a ridiculous amount of time on the Nimrod, I know when I’m beaten so I think I’ll wave the white flag and pass up on the others.
Middle range for me today, not hard but not easy either .. no problem with describing the Open Championship as a championship, seems fine to me.
“Open” in this context typically means that both amateurs and professionals may take part. When Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam, he was an amateur, so the four “major” championships involved were the Opens and the Amateur Championships of the US and the UK. He could not compete in the US PGA Championship, which is now one of the four majors in the modern Grand Slam, which no-one has yet achieved.
A secondary meaning is geographical: my late father in law was Closed Amateur Champion of the Isle of Man, open only to players based on the island. Had it been an “open” competition amateur players from anywhere could have taken part.
25.42 for the enjoyable Boxing Day puzzle, particularly liked PRENUP and HOGWASH.
Thanks William and setter.
14.05
Excellent puzzle, only one biff required (CHAMPIONSHIP).
Didn’t spot the & lit in LOI PRENUP, very clever!
COD SALVADOR DALI
18.21
Nice puzzle. Liked SALVADOR DALI. Thanks Setter/William.
Enjoyable 30′. Didn’t get the Agnes deletion. so biffed CHAMPIONSHIP. SW corner last to yield but all very good and quick enough to finish before I go visiting children.
Thanks William and setter
28.16 If not a Friday toughie, at least a clever Friday tricky, with excellent clues throughout, though I personally have never been known to LACTATE even when my sprogs were delivered. I took long enough wondering what Agnes was doing in 8d, not least because she doesn’t look like the bottom end of champagnes in isolation. I admit to not seeing the rest of the brilliant PRE-NUP, and after spending too long going though my limited French equivalents of grave realised I didn’t need to. 3 by itself again took time to process.
I’ll venture Radio 5 (live) might be better being all ads than running Test Match Special overnight. MCG must be counting the cost of losing 3 days revenue.
Merry Boxing Day all: don’t forget as well as the bank holiday Jumbo, there’s also the infuriating Ponder on the Times site (why not on the Club?) and The Listener from 4 this afternoon. Should take your mind off wondering what to do with all the uneaten sprouts.
20 minutes, just pleased to have succeeded after two near misses in the past 2 days! PRE-NUP my LOI. Thanks for parsing UNHIDDEN which was hidden from me!
Very pleasant solve. Thanks to setter and blogger.
DNF .Gave up at plus 40 and pressed reveal for dragoon. Not helped by thinking hood was the American thug and, to be honest, didn’t understand the answer till revealed on here.
Bah, humbug!
22:38. Quite tricky, but some nice PDMs when I unravelled the clues. Nice to see a reference to my late Aunt Agnes, RIP, whose funeral I was at last week. Thank-you William and setter.
47:36 LOI ACCIDENT, also COD for Molières grave.
The spooner clue was a bit clunky today, but liked PRENUP and DRAGOON (“sharing a cell” is a new device I’ve not seen). And now I’ve seen the parsing of LACTATE I like that one as well. NHO WARDRESS, was trying F+ warDEN.
Jolly good puzzle, I thought, and just about to finish in 25 minutes when I ground to a halt with only 13a remaining, with P*E*A* waiting to be filled. None of the 9 possible words seemed to fit the bill. Then realised I had SNOWBOARD instead of SNOWBOUND in at 3d, for no good reason, (repeating the BOARD of 11a?) and saw PRENUP as soon as. I liked AS I NINE and HOGWASH among others.
My thanks to william_j_s and setter.
Well a lot of this was easy a quite a bit wasn’t.
14a Helsinki, biffed.
5d Unhidden biffed.
8d Championship biffed, though I did see part of champagne, never noticed Agnes and wondered what she was doing.
16d In Camera biffed.
18d Credits, nice to see His Maj making an appearance.
15’12”, a good start to what will now be several days of crosswording.
PRENUP is a brilliant clue, which I got from wordplay before definition.
The picture on the updated front page really sums up the Ashes.
Thanks william and setter.
Feeling a bit lethargic after yesterday’s overindulgence, I made hard work of this one. I started off well enough with CLOSE MOUTHED, MOOLAH, HIGHS, SNOWBOUND and LACTATE. After that I went off the boil. Took ages to see CHAMPIONSHIP, SALVADOR DALI, HOGWASH and HELSINKI. Eventually dredged up the remaining answers with UNHIDDEN LOI. 37:53. Thanks setter and William.
24:30 min – a very tidy puzzle with some excellent clues completed at a seasonably leisurely pace with no quibbles.
41 minutes in one I think I found harder than others with the left hand side holding out. If I could have constructed POSTPRANDIAL quicker it would have been.
Started a bit later today with The Guardian holding out for a long time. I was expecting this to be a John Henderson puzzle given he has set everywhere else today. Very thankful it wasn’t (unless he was in a forgiving mood)
LACTATE being an easy winner for COD
Thanks blogger and setter
One instead of Agnes took me FOR EV ER. Highly amusing clue, but still was dunderheaded after yesterday! What refuge this puzzle provides. Thanks all! Cx
I thought PRENUP was quite brilliant and this together with CHAMPIONSHIP and LACTATE shows why The Times is so good. DRAGOON I couldn’t quite parse because I thought American gave A, rather than being descriptive of the thug. In the early 70s in Games and Puzzles magazine someone who set for a Birmingham paper was explaining this nice device, which I hadn’t seen since until now. Although I was struck by the quality of the crossword it didn’t make me any faster: 65 minutes.
Abandoned ship after about 10 minutes, and came back an hour later. I’m sure it wasn’t actually as hard as I made it seem.
FOI PICCOLO
LOI ASININE
COD HELSINKI
TIME 17:08
59:48 which means I was 12 seconds short of my self-imposed time limit. SW corner caused a fair amount of delay with CREDITS LOI. COD for me was BEACON
I don’t often do the 15sq but it offered a good way of detaching myself from the throng. I enjoyed this in fits and restarts and made no attempt to time it. I won’t list my clues of the day but there were many. It is interesting to see how people here reacted to the excellent QC today.
Thanks for your help with parsing, William, especially the clever CHAMPIONSHIP.
21:41
COTY: (Clue of the Year) PRENUP. Brilliant!
Not too hard. Managed to get my last two while watching the football results.
POI PRENUP -very good clue.
LOI SNOWBOUND. Took me ages as I had HOP and BOUND leading to Shopbound ( trapped in Boxing Day Sales?).
Enjoyable puzzle.
David
8:41. No dramas, quite a lot of biffing. I don’t usually do the quickie but I’ll have a look today.
I think you’ll find it easy, K. It all seemed perfectly fair to me.
This one took me 40 minutes. I found it hard going but this was mainly due to my state after Christmas and Boxing Day festivities. I was surprised to finish it! A lot of very amusing clues. I think the one to HOGWASH was my favourite – so neat. Thanks to Setter and Blogger.
Like the QC earlier, a slow solve but ultimately a successful one, with only Championship unparsed. Several potential CoDs, including Pr(e)en-up, but the nod goes to Beacon for the smile (or more accurately, snort). Invariant
Mr Ego and I did this together, so difficult to say whether it was easy or not, as we often succeed with completely different clues in getting in first. Liked the cross-reference to HOGWASH in SWILL and HELSINKI. I’d have been quicker if I’d got POSTPRANDIAL earlier on, as the whole right-hand side was finished first. Thought SALVADOR DALI was clever, but PRENUP, ASININE and actually, too many to mention were great clues. Thanks to setter for a fun end to Boxing Day.
Wardress is the female form of warder. We have prison warders in Britain, wardens are the American equivalent of our governors. The clue doesn’t work with “warden”.
Forgot to post yesterday. Technical DNF as I needed help from my brother to get PRENUP (and even then we didn’t see the ingenuity of it – brilliant clue!)
– Like William, I’m more familiar with ‘close-lipped’ than CLOSE-MOUTHED
– Didn’t fully see how LACTATE worked
– Failed to work out what Agnes was doing in the clue for CHAMPIONSHIP
Thanks William and setter.
COD Prenup