This was harder than most Saturdays. Thankfully, not to compare with the Thursday before. My last two in were 5dn and 15ac, neither of which was fearsome enough to frighten the horses! My last parsed was another clue, 12dn.
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 | Small part detached, dropping very loudly (5) |
| CAMEO – CAME OFF [detached], dropping FF [very loudly]. A clever wordplay device! |
|
| 4 | Half said dumpy children invented hairy giant (9) |
| SASQUATCH – SA [half SAID] + SQUAT + CH [children]. | |
| 9 | Fifty soldiers occupying small island, threat to constitution? (7) |
| AILMENT – L[fifty, Roman numeral] + MEN, occupying AI⁁T. | |
| 10 | Electronic component shortened range that gun penetrates (3,4) |
| AND GATE – GAT [gun] penetrates AND⁁E [Andes range, short]. | |
| 11 | Intriguing representation of Acropolis in art (14) |
| CONSPIRATORIAL – (ACROPOLIS IN ART)*, representation of. | |
| 14 | Plenty without power welcoming current mildness (6) |
| LENITY – LEN⁁TY [plenty, without P] welcoming I [symbol for electrical current]. Not a familiar word, but easy enough to accept. |
|
| 15 | Settlement agreement banks scrap (8) |
| DEFRAYAL – DE⁁AL banks (holds) FRAY [scrap]. | |
| 17 | Due to bra bust not easily moved (8) |
| OBDURATE – (DUE TO BRA)*, bust. | |
| 19 | Like binary code, cheap in LA (3-3) |
| TWO BIT – a cryptic hint. Binary arithmetic uses only zeros and ones. In the US, “two bits” means 25 cents. | |
| 22 | Computer came up with specialised Eastern stuffing that family eats? (8,6) |
| MACARONI CHEESE – MAC [computer] + ARO⁁SE [came up] with NICHE + E stuffing. | |
| 24 | Chap heard something of particular interest, delivering kit (7) |
| MAILBAG – MAIL [MALE, heard] + BAG [of particular interest: “that’s my bag”]. Read the definition as “kit for delivering”, of course. |
|
| 25 | Mining area on hard ground loaded with diamonds (7) |
| RHONDDA – RHON⁁DA [(ON HARD)*, ground] loaded with D. | |
| 27 | Lasted longer than external broadcast lacking animation? (9) |
| OUTSTAYED – OUT [external] + STAYED [broadcast, sounds like STAID] | |
| 28 | Clue one answers today? (5) |
| THREE – a cross-reference to 3dn, which strangely didn’t help me get the answer to that clue! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Random throw of the dice upset minister (10) |
| CHANCELLOR – CHANCE [random] + LLOR [ROLL, upset]. | |
| 2 | Minute dash is added into pigment for tanner (7) |
| MELANIN – ELAN [dash] is added into M⁁IN. | |
| 3 | Anybody taking drugs at rave? (3) |
| ONE – ON E [well known party drug]. | |
| 4 | Put down boiling pot where icy rings persist (6) |
| SATURN – SAT [put down] + URN. | |
| 5 | Series of voyages found wrecks in prime locations (4,4) |
| STAR TREK – START [found, as in found a business] + REK [2nd, 3rd and 5th letters of wREcKs] (2, 3 and 5 are prime numbers, of course; a device that setters have now added to their kitbags.) |
|
| 6 | Shaded plants Thrower treated with dung (11) |
| UNDERGROWTH – (THROWER DUNG)*, treated. | |
| 7 | Traditional brewer still brought over bottles for each boy (3,4) |
| TEA LADY –TE⁁Y [YET, brought over] bottles A [for each, as in “a pound a dozen”] + LAD. At first I assumed “each” would give EA, which left me trying to fit in another E somewhere. D’oh. |
|
| 8 | List contents of shed then sell (4) |
| HEEL – contents of sHEd + sELl. | |
| 12 | Much-loved animal with book, into trespass somewhat? (5,6) |
| PETER RABBIT – PET [much-loved animal] + B into ERR A B⁁IT [trespass somewhat]. It took ages to see the wordplay, especially as I didn’t realise it’s an all-in-one! Lovely. |
|
| 13 | Hot Aga nearly everybody attending stands round (3,3,4) |
| ALL THE RAGE – ALL THER⁁E stands round AG [AGA, mostly]. | |
| 16 | Stone mistakenly topped with iron (8) |
| STRONGLY – ST [stone] + WRONGLY, topped. | |
| 18 | Awful place to get RSI, said writer daily (7) |
| DIARIST – sounds (said) like DIRE WRIST. | |
| 20 | British usurer that goes round making cuts (7) |
| BLENDER – B + LENDER. | |
| 21 | Hunter recalled room full of sleeping children at home (6) |
| NIMROD – DORM [room full of sleeping children] + IN, all recalled (backwards). | |
| 23 | 1000 live round boxes? (4) |
| AMMO – AM [live, as in “I am at no. 23”] + M [Roman numeral for 1000] + O [round]. | |
| 26 | Section of roof tiled again and again (3) |
| OFT – hidden (section of). | |
35 minutes but I used aids a couple of times e.g. to find AND GATE, NHO. I missed the parsing of PETER RABBIT, including the all-in-one definition which on reflection is brilliant given Peter’s propensity for trespassing on Mr McGregor’s land and eating his vegetables.
Tough in places but enjoyable – three sessions – helps to have breaks.
Particularly liked 19ac TWO BIT, 7d TEA LADY once I saw the ‘yet’, 18d DIARIST, and 21d NIMROD – had VHO this one.
Not so much 22ac MACARONI CHEESE and 16d STRONGLY.
AND and NAND gates were familiar to me, and interesting to see ‘bigfoot’ make another appearance so soon.
Had to verify 14ac LENITY and research RHONDDA to fit the clue.
Had to come here to see how clever the 12d PETER RABBIT clue was.
Thank you setter and branch.
49 minutes. A big thumbs up from me for this one; satisfying to solve without being too much of a slog. I missed the cryptic def element of the excellent PETER RABBIT &lit, but there was plenty of other tricky wordplay to keep us entertained for SASQUATCH (second appearance this month as noted by Mayfair- maybe there’s something to the myth after all), MACARONI CHEESE and ALL THE RAGE among others. I also liked the AMMO &lit and the amusing surface for OBDURATE. The icing on the cake was the 3d/28a double act for THREE, my LOI.
Thanks to Bruce and setter
This took ages. I never figured out how PETER RABBIT worked, more’s the pity. LOI DEFRAYAL; all I could see was BETRAYAL for the longest time. Note that 19ac is hyphenated, TWO-BIT, an adjective meaning ‘insignificant, cheap, or worthless’ (ODE). I liked STAR TREK & especially THREE.
I agree that this was definitely on the harder side for a Saturday. Three issues which verged on the somewhat unfair …
A random abbreviation ( a bugbear of mine ) in 4a- ‘Ch’ for children
A cross reference in 28a which could be anything
The reference to prime locations in 5d which just annoyed me !
As ever, when you fail to finish, grievances will out…
in 5d
It didn’t occur to me when solving but I think you may have a point about ‘ch/children’. It’s one of those ‘only in Chambers’ abbreviations. Collins and the Oxfords don’t list it. The only other place I found it is at Collins online under ‘American English’, citation #6 of 10, taken from Webster’s which is not a source for Times crosswords. Technically the setter is covered by Chambers, but it’s so rare as to be a bit dodgy in my view.
I did not comment on these things as I am too wordy on this forum as it is.
I suppose the latter two can be seen as technically clever, but as U say a bit obscure.
Hey, this is a Times cryptic.
77 minutes. Tough but very much enjoyed the challenge. Found DEFRAYAL, MACARONI CHEESE, MAIL BAG, STRONGLY, DIARIST rather hard going. Completely missed the wordplay for PETER RABBIT, thinking the whole thing just an elaborate CD – it will now have to share COD (and possibly COY) with STAR TREK. Thanks setter and branch.