There were more than the usual number of cryptic definitions in this one. In a completely different clue, I loved the reference to Louis XIV. Thanks, setter. How did you all 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)* with the anagram indicator in italics. A ^ symbol indicates where text is to be inserted.
| Across | |
| 1 | Follow westbound taxi finally stuck in traffic (8) |
| TAILBACK – TAIL + BAC [CAB, westbound] + STUCK, finally. | |
| 5 | Shun Dutch artist, losing resistance to whiskey (6) |
| ESCHEW – In ESCHER [the artist], lose R, add W. | |
| 9 | Roll article probing oil giant (3) |
| BAP – A [article] probing B^P. | |
| 10 | Terrible rains, vacate trailer park (7,4) |
| CARAVAN SITE – (RAINS VACATE)*, terrible. | |
| 12 | One shelled out 100 Euros up front for pressure group (10) |
| GREENPEACE – GREEN PEA [one {to be} shelled] + C [100, Roman numeral] + Euros up front. | |
| 13 | Staff uniform: list of options (4) |
| MENU – MEN [staff] + U [uniform]. | |
| 15 | One enabling record broadcast? (6) |
| STYLUS – cryptic definition. The first of four CDs. | |
| 16 | Universal, endlessly expandable tool (7) |
| UTENSIL – U [universal] + TENSILE [expandable, endlessly]. To me, it seems a bit of a stretch (pun inended) to go from “tensile” to “stretchable” to “expandable”! |
|
| 18 | Golf club restaurant overlooking East River (7) |
| BRASSIE – BRASSERIE, overlooking E+R. Wikipedia says a brassie is just a No. 2 wood. How mundane! |
|
| 20 | Modest Charles Lawrence? (6) |
| CHASTE – CHAS [Charles] + T.E. [Lawrence of Arabia]. | |
| 23 | Python moved sideways after shedding skin (4) |
| IDLE – SIDLES, shedding skin. Eric Idle. One of those Pythons. |
|
| 24 | In which there’s a rush to mate? (5,5) |
| SPEED CHESS – cryptic definition. CD no. 2. | |
| 26 | Gangrene to spread following introduction of awful defoliant (5,6) |
| AGENT ORANGE – A [introduction of Awful] + (GANGRENE TO)*, spread. “Awful” is wordplay not definition, but it’s an apt description of how the defoliant was used. |
|
| 27 | Heavyweight tabloid regularly suffering losses (3) |
| ALI – alternate letters of tAbLoId. | |
| 28 | Restaurant tidier after cancelling New Year (6) |
| EATERY – NEATER cancelling N + Y. I liked the “lift and separate” of New Year. |
|
| 29 | Caught symptom of plague eating starters of yesterday’s frozen iffy seafood (8) |
| CRAYFISH – C + RA^SH eating starters of Yesterday’s Frozen I |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Island nation possessing major airline (6) |
| TOBAGO – TO^GO possessing BA. | |
| 2 | One million reportedly importuned government advance (7) |
| IMPREST – I + M + PREST [sounds like “pressed”]. | |
| 3 | In which Auntie delivers the news? (3,7) |
| BBC ENGLISH – cryptic definition. CD no. 3. | |
| 4 | It’ll make a tidy pile? (6-7) |
| CARPET SWEEPER – cryptic definition. CD no. 4. | |
| 6 | In a nutshell, Louis XIV lost (4) |
| SUNK – Louis XIV was the “Sun King”. We might whimsically abbreviate that to SUN K. | |
| 7 | She’ll come into property via hotel, Ireland’s No 1 for staycations (7) |
| HEIRESS – H + EIRE’S + S [no. 1 for Staycations]. | |
| 8 | Sadly, wife over end of marriage completely (8) |
| WOEFULLY – W + O + E [end of marriagE]+ FULLY. | |
| 11 | Very poor arcane clue about depleted uranium — it sucks (6,7) |
| VACUUM CLEANER – V [very] + ACU^CLEANER [ (ARCANE CLUE)*, poor] about UM [depleted UraniuM]. | |
| 14 | Rolling over in the sack, when topless, such very lewd behaviour (10) |
| DEBAUCHERY – DEBA [ABED, rolling over] + SUCH [topless] + VERY [ditto] | |
| 17 | Bind by duty, albeit go easily (8) |
| OBLIGATE – (ALBEIT GO)*, easily. An unusual anagram indicator. |
|
| 19 | Frail mentally, concealing indisposition (7) |
| AILMENT – hidden. | |
| 21 | Gifted group produced megahit (3,4) |
| THE MAGI – (MEGAHIT)*, produced. | |
| 22 | “Look up to Cockneys” said prophet (6) |
| ISAIAH – at a stretch, might sound like “EYES HIGHER“, as said by a Cockney, who drops the aitches. | |
| 25 | Cause disturbance in prison (4) |
| STIR – a triple definition! | |
This seemed to us to be a more conventional Tiimes cryptic – some challenge but doable and enjoyable.
Took a moment to see the Louis IV reference before the penny SUNK on 6d. Also a moment to twig to the supremely talented Eric IDLE 21ac.
Deeply admired the use of multiple cryptic clues as referred to by branch.
We posted less than 2 hours which is speedy for us, but I guess some will find this puzzle too easy. I disagree.
Thank you setter and blogger.
31 minutes. Once again a bit of light relief in comparison to yesterday’s (16th Jan) Friday toughie. I was glad of the crossers for ISAIAH, both to get the correct ‘prophet’ and to spell his name properly. I wasn’t keen on the crossing cryptic defs at 3d and 15a but I suppose I would say that as they were my last two in by some margin.
Favourites were STIR and the attention paid by our setter to domestic cleanliness.
Thanks to branch and setter
DNK TAILBACK, IMPREST. I had some trouble parsing ISAIAH, since the only pronunciation I knew was ‘iZAYah’. COD SUNK.
My COD, like Kevin’s, was SUNK.
A quite memorable clue.
48 minutes but with 22dn omitted as I just noticed this morning. I realise now that I was never going to solve it because I had an incorrect checker in place. Although I’d indicated the answer to 27ac as A{b}L{o}I{d} when I marked up the clue, I had written ALE in the grid.
The subtlety of SUN K was lost on me so although I had the correct answer I was baffled by its workings. A bit too indirect perhaps?
Excellent crossword
39 minutes. Enjoyable puzzle with excellent surfaces. Got IMPREST from wordplay, had to check meaning. Re use of ‘easily’ as anagram indicator, I accepted it as a development from ‘easy’ = ‘loose’ (as in ‘an easy fit’ relating to clothing, for example).
COD to ISAIAH as a splendidly comical use of Cockneyspeak.
After yesterday’s nonsense, this was a welcome reminder as to how a good crossword should be – challenging, a mix of straightforward and tricky clues generating a pleasant feeling of achievement.
Anticipating what the expert solvers might say, we don’t want ‘easy ‘ puzzles, but ones that stretch us without getting into the realms of the unfathomable.
Let’s see, come next Friday, if anyone is listening.
Crayfish, seafood?
Yes. In everyday speech it just means ‘edible fish and shellfish’. I don’t think many people would object if they saw trout on the menu of a seafood restaurant. Collins confirms: ‘food prepared from any fish’, although it does say (a bit judgementally IMO!) ‘loosely’.
32 mins. Clever, witty, pitched about right. Nice one. I like CDs, the Pythons and DEBAUCHERY is always welcome.
IMPREST has been used before and one of our number explained it but all that stuck in my head is “something financial”.
I read STIR as a DD with “Cause disturbance” as one half.
Thanks both.
I’m staying with a triple:
1) STIR trouble, or CAUSE trouble.
2) cause STIR/DISTURBANCE
3) STIR/PRISON.
Nice thought, though! You almost had me wondering if “CAUSE DISTURBANCE” counted as a fourth!
22d reminded me of a joke a young curate told to the choirboys of our local church (when I was 7): “How did Isaiah get his name? Because one eye’s …..”
I suspect that’s more widespread than I thought back then – “there are no new jokes”
15 minutes with no real issues, though I couldn’t have told you beforehand what IMPREST means.
Thanks branch and setter.
FOI Caravan site
LOI Carpet-sweeper
COD Isaiah
9:12, but with yet another typo: VACCUM CLEANER.
I liked this one, apart from the CDs, which I found a bit clunkingly obvious. CARPET SWEEPER did need a few crossers mind you: I haven’t seen one of those for at least 40 years.
Late to the party but I thought this one deserved a comment. Enjoyed it a lot, especially the Sun King reference for SUNK. Thought it a bit odd that we should have both VACUUM CLEANER and CARPET SWEEPER in the same crossword which prompted me to look for some kind of Nina. I knew IMPREST as some sort of loan but that’s about all. Liked the critic STYLUS. Stupidly, I failed to see BBC ENGLISH even though saw it must be BBC something. COD to GREENPEACE with ‘one shelled out’, liked it.
Thanks B and setter.