Thanks, setter. This may have given you all a relaxing Saturday. It was very smooth, I thought, until I got blocked by the last two clues – “particular” at 14dn + “conflict” at 18ac. Did you all do better?
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 | Move shy baby bird (7) |
| GOSLING – GO [move] + SLING [shy]. | |
| 5 | Foreign gent kept secret goal vague (7) |
| HIDALGO – HID [kept secret] + (GOAL)*, vague. | |
| 9 | Caustic story read aloud (3) |
| LYE – “LIE“, read aloud. | |
| 10 | Posturing prigs, ever so woke (11) |
| PROGRESSIVE – (PRIGS EVER SO)*, posturing. | |
| 11 | Emperor’s head on Indian coin that’s red or blue (8) |
INDECENT – IND + Emperor + CENT.
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|
| 12 | Following male out of gloomy bar (6) |
| FORBID – F [following] + M out of MORBID. | |
| 15 | Brandy and stuff knocked back (4) |
| MARC – CRAM, knocked back. | |
| 16 | Starred in role of terse kid running amok (10) |
| ASTERISKED – AS [in role of] + (TERSE KID)*, running amok. | |
| 18 | Cloddish, half-cut soldiers bored by dealing with conflict (10) |
| DISHARMONY – CLODDISH, half-cut + ARM⁁Y bored by ON [dealing with]. | |
| 19 | Steal bed for infant (4) |
| CRIB – two meanings. | |
| 22 | Girl is more stylish without clothes (6) |
| LASSIE – CLASSIER. | |
| 23 | Extremely optimistic hints about end of road blocks (8) |
| OCCLUDES – OC [extremely OptimistiC] + CLU⁁ES [hints] about D [end of roaD]. | |
| 25 | Mature dons take up books for relief (11) |
| ASSUAGEMENT – AGE [mature] dons ASSU⁁ME [take up] + NT [books]. | |
| 27 | Character returned from rendezvous (3) |
| ZED – reverse hidden (returned, from). | |
| 28 | Stalemate is very close (4,3) |
| DEAD END – DEAD [very, as in “dead accurate”] + END [close]. | |
| 29 | Cover for privates in unknown war zones (1-6) |
| Y FRONTS – Y [unknown, of the algebraic type] + FRONTS [war zones]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Element of impudence irks us mildly at first (7) |
| GALLIUM – GALL + IUM [Irks Us Mildly, at first]. | |
| 2 | Small loan increases after start of expensive diets? (11) |
| SLENDERISES – S + LEND + RISES after E [start of Expensive]. | |
| 3 | Motorway reportedly congested after current collision (6) |
| IMPACT – M [motorway] + PACT [PACKED, reportedly], after I [electrical current]. | |
| 4 | Heavens opening in Oslo amid abnormally dense smog (8,2) |
| GOODNESS ME – O amid (DENSE SMOG)*, abnormally. | |
| 5 | King ate sandwiches with vigour (4) |
| HARD – HA⁁D [ate] sandwiches R. | |
| 6 | Private Eye probing today’s dire Orwellian state? (8) |
| DYSTOPIA – P.I. probing (TODAYS)*, dire. | |
| 7 | Wreath that is left upside down (3) |
| LEI – I.E. + L, upside down. | |
| 8 | Element of Nabucco Verdi dramatically exaggerated (7) |
| OVERDID – hidden (element of …). | |
| 13 | Thirteen nameless financiers drop off last of bullion (6,5) |
| BAKERS DOZEN – nameless BANKERS + DOZE + last of bullioN. | |
| 14 | Class liable to break up around noon in particular (10) |
| PERNICKETY – P.E. [exercise class] + R⁁ICKETY around N. | |
| 17 | Teasing is unpleasant at home time (8) |
| BADINAGE – BAD + IN + AGE. | |
| 18 | Law lord upset fat dunce (7) |
| DULLARD – DUL [LUD, upset] + LARD. | |
| 20 | Mersenne ultimately enthralled by non-prime numbers too (7) |
| BESIDES – E [MersennE, ultimately] entralled by B-⁁SIDES. We’re taking about the A and B sides of single recordings. The A side is the song (number) expected to sell … so, the “prime”. Ho Ho! We’re definitely not talking about Mersenne primes. Far too abstruse a concept! |
|
| 21 | One putting coat on quietly afterwards (6) |
| PLATER – P + LATER. | |
| 24 | Denied lacking heart for action (4) |
| DEED – DENIED, lacking heart. What it says is what you do – rip its hear out! | |
| 26 | The main largely aquatic mammal (3) |
| SEA – SEAL, largely. | |
31 minutes for all but DISHARMONY and PERNICKETY, then another 22 minutes to finish them off.
I had no idea what ‘red’ was doing in 11ac and can’t recall hearing the expression cited to justify it.
Very good stuff, generally.
I wrote, sang and played a protest song in my Philadelphia squatter days called “Every Red Cent.”
Anti-capitalist, dig?
“Well, I never wanted to help anyone kill,
I’m sure it’s not what anyone meant.
But there’s blood on every dollar bill,
There’s blood on every red cent.”
La Monte Young, indirectly or even directly, first turned me on (tuned me in) to Mersenne primes, whose harmonic series avatars played roles in a series of trippy sine-tone installations and a couple (only two!) of historic performances by his Theatre of Eternal Music Big Band, never equaled or surpassed to this day, and never commercially released on record.
This was a really cool clue!
This last Saturday was (for us) conventional and enjoyable. Challenging but not much to complain about. Still better than some weeklies, but did yesterday’s.
Here particularly liked 23ac OCCLUDES, 20d BESIDES, 6d DYSTOPIA, and (after consideration) 3d IMPACT and 14d PERNICKETY.
Guy has already covered the ‘red’ cent question, and that word helped me.
Today’s going at a furious pace (for us tortoises) and may crack the hour.
Thank you setter and branch.
‘Today’s Orwellian state’. The setter sharing his or her insights into modern Britain?
Top clue. Very good puzzle all round.
48 minutes plus three more to parse LOI PERNICKETY (never liked PE). COD the excellent BESIDES – another contender for COY.
Defeated by PERNICKETY.
I can only really post on Saturdays as I’m perpetually 3 days behind everyone else!
A late comment may not get widespread coverage, but some will see it .. I see every comment made to my blogs, whenever. we have some Antipodean solvers who get their crosswords in a Sydney paper about three weeks behindhand!
Presume U are running from a newspaper. My friend and I used to do the Times in the Australian newspaper but now do (approx) 4 pound per month online subscription.
Certainly helps with learning process.
Yes, disharmony and pernickety held me up for a while too.
And I have never, and would never, “slenderise.” I would slim. I had heard of red cents, but no idea what that would mean, if anything.
I found this on the easier side except for my LOI, PERNICKETY which took me quite a while to see and although I was sure the definition and crossers left no doubt, I couldn’t parse it for the life of me, so thanks, Branch, for the explanation. I also never understood the significance of ‘red’ in 11a. In fact, it seems to be there purely in order to confuse, as it doesn’t add to the meaning in any way, at least for non-US solvers. I didn’t look up the NHO Mersenne, as it wasn’t necessary for the answer, but wow, what a cracker of a clue now I’ve accessed Branch’s link! That’s not to say there weren’t other brilliant clues as well – I liked Y-FRONTS, DISHARMONY, ASTERISKED – in fact there wasn’t a lame clue in there.
Well the red suggested to me the cent rather than any other coin.
I always enjoy Saturday puzzles ( often more than the weekday ones) and this was another good ‘un.
I thought SLENDERISES for diets was a bit of a stretch and non prime numbers for B-sides was also pushing it a bit – goodness knows what the post vinyl generation would make of it.
Yes, have to agree with U on the general sentiment and those particular comments.
15:12. Good chewy one. I’m familiar with red cents, the only unfamiliar thing in fact was SLENDERISES, which Collins says is North American.
17.07
Liked it muchly. Those two also my last ones but once -ARM[RE]Y was clearly nonsense the answer presented itself
Thanks setter/Bruce
15 minutes. Didn’t understand how INDECENT worked and couldn’t quite believe that SLENDERISES is a word, but no issues otherwise.
Thanks branch and setter.
FOI Sea
LOI Pernickety
CODs Forbid / Bakers dozen
21’38”. . . Rather late in the day, but in case anyone’s reading … thanks, that was great!