I struggled with the grape-treading clue. Otherwise, a very enjoyable Saturday outing. 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 the wordplay:
-
- where explanations are necessary, wordplay fodder – synonyms and the like – appear in [square brackets]
- wordplay instructions appear thus
- anagram fodder is (THUS)*, with the anagram indicator in italics
- a ^ symbol indicates where text is to be inserted.
| Across | |
| 1 | Group returning after spring floods (6) |
| SPATES – SPA + TES [SET, returning]. | |
| 5 | Having something oily manufactured in self-contained unit (7) |
| POMADED – MADE in PO^D. | |
| 9 | Speed up what grape-treaders do (4,2,3,5) |
| STEP ON THE JUICE – strange clue, for two reasons. I know the expression “step on the gas”, but I don’t recognise this version. And, if I may quibble, grape-treaders step on grapes, not juice. But, I got there eventually! | |
| 11 | Footballers in Europe struggle with selection process maybe (9) |
| INTERVIEW – INTER [Italian football club] + VIE + W [with]. | |
| 12 | Sailor comes in drunk — one on foot? (5) |
| SABOT – AB in S^OT. It’s a French clog. |
|
| 13 | A youngster suffering setback in stage of biological development (4) |
| PUPA – A PUP, suffering setback. | |
| 14 | Grace appears to hide wrinkles? (10) |
| SEEMLINESS – SEEM^S [appears] to hide LINES. | |
| 18 | Not working to hold line, causing deviation (10) |
| DEFLECTIVE – DEF^ECTIVE to hold L. | |
| 20 | My cathedral city with saint forgotten (4) |
| WELL – WELLS, with S forgotten. | |
| 22 | Office worker in US thus assumes control of X (5) |
| STENO – S^O assumes TEN [X, the Roman numeral]. | |
| 23 | Blood beginning to pour with a frenzy around hospital department (9) |
| PARENTAGE – P [beginning to Pour] + A R^AGE around ENT. | |
| 25 | Have chap insert pipe wrongly — what you get with learning on the job? (14) |
| APPRENTICESHIP – (CHAP INSERT PIPE)*, wrongly. | |
| 26 | Hesitant approach of amateur painter, maybe covering that place inadequately (7) |
| DITHERY – DI^Y [approach of amateur painter, maybe] covering THERe, inadequately. | |
| 27 | Famous biochemist first to sequence nettle (6) |
| SANGER – S [first to Sequence] + ANGER. So famous, but I’d never heard of him. He won the Nobel Prize twice! |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Vessels lean, capsizing in period where progress is halted (3,4) |
| PIT STOP – POTS + TIP, capsizing. | |
| 3 | Exercises embraced by seaman to become thinner (5) |
| TAPER – PE embraced by TA^R. | |
| 4 | Aware male’s dividing opinion (9) |
| SENTIMENT – M dividing SENTI^ENT. | |
| 5 | Nameless dupe must keep quiet? Bah! (5) |
| PSHAW – P^AW [nameless PAWn] must keep SH. | |
| 6 | Splendid Scot has joke, one being taken in (8) |
| MAJESTIC – MA^C has JEST+I taken in. | |
| 7 | Minimal flow ending in dead river in northern England (7) |
| DRIBBLE – D [ending in deaD] + RIBBLE. I took on trust that the Ribble was a river, and checked later. It seems to be famous for the size of its tides, with tides that run at 4 knots (5 mph; 7 km/h) and a tidal range at the mouth of the river of 30 feet (9 m) during spring tides! |
|
| 8 | Dirty revolutionary, over time, was domiciled (5) |
| DWELT – LEWD revolutionary + T. | |
| 10 | Plain hat worn by troublemaker (6) |
| LIMPID – L^ID worn by IMP. | |
| 15 | Make vicars agitated excluding American Nonconformists (9) |
| MAVERICKS – (M-KE VICARS)*, agitated, excluding (one) A. | |
| 16 | One preserves church book with page missing (6) |
| SALTER – PSALTER, with P missing. | |
| 17 | Italian seaport’s migratory birds gathering around mid-autumn (8) |
| GENOVESE – GE^ESE, gathering NOV [around mid-autumn]. The seaport is Genoa. The ’S in the clue is part of the definition, since the required answer is an adjective. |
|
| 19 | Cinema left abandoned, shelter for a Greek character (7) |
| FLEAPIT – FLE^T [(LEFT)*, abandoned] shelters A+PI. | |
| 21 | Avoiding temptress, like one against being ensnared (7) |
| EVASIVE – EV^E [temptress] ensnares AS+I+V. | |
| 22 | Southern district of city, green area (5) |
| SWARD – S + WARD. | |
| 23 | Foolish requirement for infant’s bedroom? (5) |
| POTTY – cryptic hint. Does the potty actually need to be in baby’s bedroom? | |
| 24 | Car manufacturer losing sales ultimately in first month (5) |
| NISAN – NISSAN, losing an S. I remembered that Nisan was a month in the Hebrew calendar. I didn’t know it was New Year. | |
I had not heard of SANGER either, which was my LOI although not too hard to get from the wrodplay especially with all the checkers.
My mother was from Lancashire, and my grandparents continued to live there, so no problem with the River Ribble. Nearby Southport beach is so flat that the 30 foot of tide at the mouth of the Ribble translates into the water going out 2.5 miles (you can’t really see it from the promenade) and then coming all the way up to the sea wall.
My time seems to be 5 hours which I think means I must have got stuck and then come back to it later, although I don’t remember any particular difficulties.
58 minutes of enjoyable solving. Like Bruce I didn’t know SANGER, my LOI as he crossed with my only other unknown, NISAN.
I looked hard at November as mid-autumn as surely it marks the end of it, but apparently it’s correct astronomically.
Unlike the Thursday that followed and today’s, found this cryptic doable and enjoyable. Shared the blogger’s feelings about 9ac. After consideration, quite admired 21d EVASIVE, 5ac POMADED and several other clues.
Not sure what the purpose of ‘painter’ was in 26ac DITHERY and had to look up SANGER to fit the clue. Another Yoda in 4d SENTIMENT and not sure that ‘plain’ is really LIMPID 10d, or 19d FLEAPIT for an abandoned cinema – yes I know it’s in the ‘crossword world’ bible.
Thank you setter and branch.
I too wondered about LIMPID = ‘plain’ until I found that, as well as being descriptive of pools of water, it can also be applied to writing, eg prose.
Re purpose of ‘painter’ in DITHERY : some sort of DIYer is needed, because ‘amateur’ can be used in a non-DIY sense (eg amateur musician). The setter has chosen ‘painter’ (house, not fine art!) to be ‘covering that place inadequately’, and ‘maybe’ is needed because a DIY plasterer or carpenter (with timber cladding) could also be ‘covering that place’.
STEP ON THE JUICE doesn’t quite work does it, for the reasons stated above and the American influence spread to STENO which caught me out. Still, a good puzzle and FLEAPIT brought back childhood memories of trips to the cinema – I doubt whether that word has been used since the 1960s as I’m sure VUE and ODEON would attest!
Had no problem with Sanger, of which the eponymous institute exists close to Cambridge. Juice for petrol shouldn’t cause British speakers a problem. I do quibble about Nov being equated to mid-autumn which runs Sept-Nov.
Astronomical autumn runs from the autumnal equinox (21-22 September) to the winter solstice (21-22 December). So by that measure the middle is 5-6 November.
Apparently, the September equinox most commonly occurs on the 22nd or 23rd. Looking at my stationery, this year they have “Autumn begins” on 23rd September.
(Never noticed any of this before!)
Another Sanger-knower here.
Traditionally, mid-Autumn is around 5 November unless you’re in the Met Office, so that’s OK. Autumn finishes, perhaps surprisingly, on 21 Dec.
No problem with STENO, as its foreign usage is clearly stated.
I have occasionally stepped on the gas in my younger days, but never to my recollection on the juice, in that context. Yes it starts off being grapes that are trodden, but (and I have once or twice trodden grapes) I assure you there is plenty of juice involved.
Yes, a messy business.
Clearly Chambers is operating on seasons north of the border 😉
My forethought in settling in Kent has paid serious dividends, over the years ..
47 minutes. Quite tricky – took a while to get SEEMLINESS (even though I’d got SEEMS), SALTER (even though I’d thought of Psalms) and WELL (too fixated on Ely).
I’m another SANGER unknower, but easy enough from wordplay.
November = mid-autumn? Yes, depending on which system you use.
STEP ON THE JUICE fine by me – there will be juice aplenty, and juice/gas = petrol is familiar.
Re POTTY, the clue does state ‘infant’ rather than ‘baby’, which suggests an achieved level of training in use of said receptacle.
COD between APPRENTICESHIP and PIT STOP.
The long across clues went in quickly, which was helpful, but I had COMELINESS for 14a which sort of works, and held me up until MAVERICKS set me right, though I’m not sure if that works any better as a synonym for grace. I also began with SIMPLE rather than LIMPID, wondering why sle was a hat! Didn’t know SANGER, but the crossers suggested the answer. GENOVESE was another tricky one, as I failed to fit OCT or TU in – that’s deliberate obfuscation, as autumn would have served perfectly well. Also didn’t know STENO, but it was clearly indicated. My LOI was FLEAPIT, but also my COD.
I had COMELINESS for a while too, it really messed things up!
Apology for late comment – time differences. Yes, we had comeliness initially too, which I think actually works better for meaning.
We enjoyed this, thank you Setter, and also enjoyed the blog, thank you Bruce.
My COD was “STENO” which brought back memories of seeing the film “Grease” in our local FLEAPIT (actually very clean). In the film the character Frenchie is seranaded by Teen Angel (Frankie Avalon) with the song “Beauty School Dropout” and advised to return to high school:
“If you go for your diploma
You could join a STENO pool.
Turn in your teasing comb and
Go back to High School”.
Sage advice which I obviously still remember!
15.25, with a fairly significant COMELINESS-induced hold-up.
I don’t recognise the expression at 9ac but I defy anyone to tread grapes without getting their feet wet!
I have heard of SANGER sequencing, although I’m a bit vague on exactly what it is.
My 1998 Chambers has STEP ON THE JUICE (under the entry for “juice”). Possibly the phrase might become more common with electric cars.
Hadn’t appreciated about astronomical vs meteorological seasons. But looking at a Rymans calendar, a Countryfile calendar, and a WH Smith diary, I see they all say that autumn begins on 23rd September this year, then winter on 21st Dec.
It an old expression. I remember it from my youth. Not heard it in recent times. The sort of thing I’d say and my daughter look at me blankly.
It an old expression. I remember it from my youth. Not heard it in recent times. The sort of thing I’d say and my daughter look at me blankly.
Definitely wouldn’t use gas as that’s US.
DNF, defeated by the unknown STENO.
– Couldn’t have told you what POMADED means
– Like one or two others it seems, had COMELINESS before I saw that SEEMLINESS worked better
– Went on a long trawl of cathedral cities before I got WELLS
– NHO SANGER or NISAN so trusted the wordplay for both
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Salter
My thanks to branch and setter.
A doable puzzle.
9a NHO Step on the JUICE. Added to Cheating Machine.
22a Steno, I know what it means but a bit surprised to find it in The Times crossword.
24a Nisan forgotten, but I do know of a fictional campervan called a Nissan Dormer. I’ll get my coat.
27a NHO Sanger and looked him up.