This was fun, pitched at our expected Saturday level. I did puzzle a bit over 20ac, and struggled with the parsing of 14dn! 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 | Stop following God as a result of war (11) |
| DEVASTATION – DEVA [an Indian word for “God”] + STATION. | |
| 7 | Eats in mess, mostly (3) |
| HAS – HASH, mostly. | |
| 9 | Proficiency of priest swimming in river (9) |
| EXPERTISE – (PRIEST)*, swimming, in EX⁁E. | |
| 10 | Phosphorus-containing fossil fuel, a product from trees (5) |
| COPAL – CO⁁AL containing P. | |
| 11 | Desire to capture back state capital (7) |
| YEREVAN – YE⁁N to capture REVA [AVER, back]. It’s the capital of Armenia. |
|
| 12 | Foot race primarily held in summer? (7) |
| TROTTER – R held in T⁁OTTER. | |
| 13 | Name English lake after dog (5) |
| LABEL – LAB [dog] + E + L. | |
| 15 | Ancient nursing home for those tweeting with sincerity (9) |
| EARNESTLY – EAR⁁LY nursing NEST. | |
| 17 | Scowled more than drunk lodger at University (9) |
| OUTGLARED – (LODGER AT U)*, drunk. | |
| 19 | Put introduction to investing in mail (5) |
| POSIT – I [introduction to Investing] in POS⁁T. | |
| 20 | Is prepared for flight, following projections (7) |
| FLEDGES – F [following] + LEDGES [projections]. I am vaguely uncomfortable about this. Shouldn’t “is prepared for flight” end in a D, not an S? |
|
| 22 | In the morning, Mike consumes seaweed mixture (7) |
| AMALGAM – AM [morning] + M [Mike, in the phonetic alphabet] consumes ALGA [seaweed]. | |
| 24 | Oscar overwhelmed by failing ability to speak (5) |
| VOICE – O [Oscar] overwhelmed by V⁁ICE. | |
| 25 | Canaries flying across India cause a great fuss (5,4) |
| RAISE CAIN – (CANARIES I)*, flying. | |
| 27 | Type of music — a subsection of garage (3) |
| RAG – hidden (a subsection). | |
| 28 | Concerning baby smell is evocative (11) |
| REMINISCENT – RE + MINI + SCENT. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Outstanding fight cut short (3) |
| DUE – DUEL, cut short. | |
| 2 | Malicious individual quietly entering German square (5) |
| VIPER – P enters VI⁁ER. “Vier” is German for “four”, the square of two (or should that be “zwei”?) |
|
| 3 | Shrink to hear the confession of Liberal (7) |
| SHRIVEL – SHRIVE [to hear confession] + L. | |
| 4 | Fruit from Spain area decomposed (5,4) |
| ASIAN PEAR – (SPAIN AREA)*, decomposed. Looking at the enumeration, I was tempted to biff NASHI PEAR, which it turns out is the same fruit! |
|
| 5 | Clumsy writer upset during sex (5) |
| INEPT – PEN upset, during I⁁T. | |
| 6 | Nearly drink wine and die (7) |
| NECROSE – NECK + ROSÉ. I knew “necrotic”, so the answer was plausible. |
|
| 7 | Home Secretary welcoming two primates, one from the south, in disorder (9) |
| HEPATITIS – H.⁁S. welcoming EPA [APE, from the south in this down clue] + TITI [another primate – see here]. That sort of disorder. |
|
| 8 | The Sun, and associated entities, thus stop claiming Scandinavian close to apoplexy (5,6) |
| SOLAR SYSTEM – SO⁁STEM claiming LARS [a Scandanavian] + Y [close to apoplexY]. | |
| 11 | Feel very bad about vulgar complaint (6,5) |
| YELLOW FEVER – YEL⁁FEVER [(FEEL VERY)*, bad] about LOW [vulgar]. | |
| 14 | Heavy defeat in round eight rankles initially (9) |
| BATTERING – BATT⁁ING [in, at cricket] round ER [Eight Rankles, initially]. A clue to be admired! |
|
| 16 | Notice one stops helping transmission (9) |
| RADIATION – AD + I stops R⁁ATION [helping]. | |
| 18 | King bathes for one week in stockings, perhaps (7) |
| LEGWEAR – L⁁EAR bathes EG + W. An unusual insertion indicator. |
|
| 19 | Penny films musicians (7) |
| PLAYERS – P + LAYERS. | |
| 21 | Start to recruit lowest of the low guards for meeting of rival pushers (5) |
| SCRUM – SCUM [lowest of the low] guards R [start to Recruit]. I like the definition! |
|
| 23 | Favour good competition (5) |
| GRACE – G + RACE. | |
| 26 | Fan of VAT being raised (3) |
| NUT – TUN being raised, in this down clue. | |
This was doable but reasonably challenging with some points of admiration but quite a few MERs. Note and share bloggers comments on 20ac and 21d.
Thought 28ac REMINISCENT clever. Also warmed to 25ac RAISE CAIN.
Amongst other things, not keen on 6d NECROSE meaning cell death. Also, not so fussed on ‘vier’ (four in German) for square (four sides make a square I guess). And of course the ongoing sexual misconduct of ‘it’ in 5d INEPT.
Had to look up 11ac YEREVAN to fit clue. Also ‘titi’ the other primate for 7d and to confirm ‘shrive’ meant take confession to fit 3d SHRIVEL. In 14d I thought the ’round’ would be batting in baseball, but ‘in’ makes more sense.
Still not doing this in under an hour.
Thank you setter and branch.
Four is a square number, as in two times two… As is nine (3 x3) and sixteeen etc.
Well, I had not heard that terminology used before, but I guess we engineers only use mathematics in a rough manner.
It’s another of those crossword misdirection staples, though it’s more normally nine, and in English rather than German!
Perhaps not nein ?
In baseball the batter is up, whereas in cricket the batter is in.
Apparently though, the net suggested that each time at bat was a ’round’ (baseball and rounders ?).
When I played cricket there was more emphasis on who opened or was first drop.
Apologies for late comment – time diff.
I found this difficult, although I can’t remember why, but my LOI was BATTERING, which I couldn’t parse. I didn’t see a problem with FLEDGES: the bird fledges/is prepared for flight in 2 weeks. If it was FLEDGED, ‘Is’ would be superfluous. I likedEARNESTLY & NUT.
I took FLEDGES as the meaning of fitting the feathers to an arrow.
Lots to like in this with a few unknowns thrown in; YERAVAN, SHRIVE. Didn’t know of the pear but the anagrist left little doubt. Like BATTERING. SOLAR SYSTEM took longer than it should. Enjoyed the clue for SCRUM. NHO of COPAL but again the wordplay gave the answer.
Thanks B and setter.
Liked your alternative meaning for FLEDGES, but ‘is prepared’ would have to be ‘prepares’. Took me back to childhood back-garden archery with homemade (by Dad) bow and arrows!
48 minutes with YEREVAN and TITI unknown but neither prevented me finding the answers for long.
Having read the blog earlier on my phone, when I came to my PC to comment I was ready to say I saw no problem with FLEDGES, but having dug out my copy I note I queried it myself at the time. Now Kevin’s example above has dispelled any lingering doubts I may have had about it.
54 minutes. Rather hard going, but a good challenge. BATTERING my COD, and LOI too once I’d had the cricketing PDM. Agree with Kevin re FLEDGES.
I’m still at the early stage where I often don’t manage to finish a whole grid, so I was particularly pleased to solve this one in its entirety, although my time was slightly over the hour.
Definitely guessed a few without fully understanding the wordplay, so thank you for the detailed breakdown.
I’ve not been a regular solver for many years now, but still enjoy an occasional Saturday effort and come here to learn the current tricks. Here today because I still can’t see where the EG in Legwear comes from. King Lear, yes, W for week, yes – oh, I get it as I write – “for one”. Must remember – not a single word in any Times clue should be wasted.
I liked this – a very doable Saturday one, but with enough oddities to flex the brain muscles. NHO COPAL or NECROSE, and ASIAN PEAR didn’t ring any bells, though none stretched credibility like Monday’s WATUSI dance! I pondered FLEDGES, but like Kevin, realised it worked and the answer came quite quickly after eliminating staircase synonyms from the running! DUE and VIPER were very useful for the trickier 1a as Deva became apparent. I failed to parse LOI LEGWEAR, which is not that difficult. I think I was quite sleepy by that time!
20 minutes.
– Not familiar with COPAL, but the wordplay was helpful
– Find it hard to imagine ever using OUTGLARED in a sentence
– Only know RAISE CAIN thanks to these crosswords
– Had to trust that there is such a thing as an ASIAN PEAR
– Knew necrotic without having come across NECROSE
Thanks branch and setter.
FOI Has
LOI Fledges
COD Scrum
This was really quite easy for a Saturday puzzle. I knew copal was something, but I wasn’t sure what. Yerevan I know as a rug-trading centre, and necrose seemed likely enough.
Time: 24:58
25:36. Nice chilled Saturday. There were a few tricky bits: NHO COPAL but easy wordplay, TITI(!), NECROSE, the dodgy FLEDGES and VIPER taking it a level of abstraction beyond the norm but otherwise user-friendly. So much so that I recommended it to QC’ing OH. She disagreed, each to their own.
Enjoyable, thanks branch and setter.
My thanks to branch and setter.
Didn’t finish this due to having other things to do, but did start it.
I am with you branch on 20a Fledge(s)(d), now I see OK but because of that I never saw 21d Scrum either.
7d Hepatitis, NHO Titi, but in Cheating Machine.
8d Solar System, surprised to not find this in CM, added.
11d Yellow Fever ditto.
I misremembered ‘deva’ as the name of a particular Hindu god rather than a generic term but no matter, this had a Goldilocks level of difficulty. I was surprised to see no mentions of ‘top’ referring to a (possibly sloppy) blowjob for the SLOPPY JOE clue on Thursday btw. Wiktionary even lists ‘sloppy toppy’ as a phrase. I’m in the camp of solvers who’ve NHO ‘sloppy Joe=jumper’ but HHO ‘sloppy Joe’=sandwich FWIW.
I enjoyed “home for those tweeting” = NEST in the wordplay for 15ac EARNESTLY.
But that’s about as far as my ornithological knowledge goes, so thanks all for the discussion/explanation of 20ac FLEDGES.