This went quickly, until I hit traffic with the last two clues, both involving church matters. Does that mean something? Meanwhile, a special mention to the arithmetic lesson! 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:
-
- 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 | Traditional support for female team has finally become muddled (4-6) |
| SIDE SADDLE – SIDE [team] + S [haS, finally] + ADDLE. | |
| 6 | Block group of pipes in lodge (4) |
| STOP – three (!) meanings. Learn something new every time: a stop can be a group of organ pipes. Read about them here. |
|
| 9 | Scholarship abandoned by Republican tendency (7) |
| LEANING – LEARNING abandoned by R. | |
| 10 | Work in sonar converting higher-frequency emitter (7) |
| SOPRANO – OP [work] in S⁁RANO = (SONAR)*, converting. | |
| 12 | Some men from Asia possibly embracing golf (10) |
| CONTINGENT – CONTIN⁁ENT [Asia, possibly] embracing G [golf, in the phonetic alphabet]. | |
| 13 | A husband getting answer that’s surprising (3) |
| AHA – A + H + A. | |
| 15 | One trying to get copper coin from the past (6) |
| TANNER – sunbathing hint. A tanner was sixpence before decimal currency. | |
| 16 | On which bishop sits in cape sporting a red hat (8) |
| CATHEDRA – C [cape] + (A RED HAT)*, sporting. One of my problem clues. I didn’t remember the name of the bishop’s seat, although I’m sure we’ve seen it before. |
|
| 18 | Begin to understand polar explorer not starting working forwards (6,2) |
| COTTON ON – SCOTT [Robert Scott, not starting] + ON [working] + ON [forwards, as in “press on”]. Neat clue, giving us “on” in two distinct ways. |
|
| 20 | Perhaps Elgar’s Enigma’s beginning with D minor? (6) |
| EDWARD – E [Enigma’s beginning] + D + WARD [minor]. | |
| 23 | What’s two-thirds nine? (3) |
| SIX – either just simple arithmetic, or I’ve missed something! Usually, it’s the second of those. Aha … IX [Roman numeral 9] is two-thirds of SIX. Brilliant. | |
| 24 | What can improve smile a test photo misrepresented (10) |
| TOOTHPASTE – (A TEST PHOTO)*, misrepresented. | |
| 26 | Very small kangaroo uncovered inside the womb (2,5) |
| IN UTERO – MINUTE ROO, uncovered. | |
| 27 | The very thing involving new and improper trespass (7) |
| INTRUDE – I⁁T [the very thing!] involving N + RUDE. | |
| 28 | Left EU, taking up current place (4) |
| LIEU – L [left] + I [electrical current] + EU. | |
| 29 | Clergyman replacing verse with frequency. I’m hesitating, it’s a big ask! (10) |
| REFERENDUM – REVEREND replacing V with F + UM [I’m hesitating]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Half of capital raised without assistance (4) |
| SOLO – OSLO, with half the letters backwards (raised). | |
| 2 | Go slowly guarding old cavalryman (7) |
| DRAGOON – DRAG ⁁ ON [go slowly] guarding O. | |
| 3 | Woman drinking beer with resolve in party game (4,3,6) |
| SPIN THE BOTTLE – S⁁HE [woman] drinking PINT [beer] + BOTTLE [resolve]. | |
| 4 | Water creature gun dog disturbed (6) |
| DUGONG – (GUN DOG)*, disturbed. | |
| 5 | Where one might bet star wants girl around (3,5) |
| LAS VEGAS – LAS⁁S [girl] around VEGA. | |
| 7 | Expensive article, it is elevated in the Pope’s headdress (7) |
| TIARAED – DEAR [expensive] + A + IT elevated. One of my last two in. I had no idea Popes wore a tiara. Apparently they don’t these days; see here. |
|
| 8 | Prompt to include godless American biased information (10) |
| PROPAGANDA – PRO⁁D [prompt] to include PAGAN [godless] + A [American]. | |
| 11 | Pact held with Tibet mobilising for violent conflict (7,6) |
| PITCHED BATTLE – (PACT HELD TIBET)*, mobilising. | |
| 14 | Shop merchandise even now not moving (5-5) |
| STOCK STILL – STOCK [stock merchandise] + STILL [even now]. | |
| 17 | Second to none, but strangely unvarying (8) |
| MONOTONE – MO [second] + (TO NONE)*, strangely. | |
| 19 | Send a message on river quality (7) |
| TEXTURE – TEXT [send a message] + URE. | |
| 21 | Stagger about with stone for top of rampart (7) |
| ASTOUND – AROUND with ST for R. Same trick as 29ac. | |
| 22 | King entering Polish site for pilgrims (6) |
| SHRINE – R entering SH⁁INE. | |
| 25 | Steering wheel of hard wood (4) |
| HELM – H + ELM. | |
Lot’s of cleverness in this one.
Liked 10ac SOPRANO, 3d SPIN THE BOTTLE, and after consideration 15ac TANNER.
Not as fussed as blogger on 23ac SIX. Had SEX initially (latin for 6) but did not like it. Later, with crossers confirming most letters, noticed the imbedded roman numeral concept.
Had to look up Bishop’s seat 16ac CATHEDRA based on estimated meaning, and then parse the clue.
A few minor gripes also but nothing that interfered with overall enjoyment.
Thank you setter and branch.
Okay with CATHEDRA, what with ex cathedra pronouncements, but TIARAED was new, evoking images of cross-dressing pontiffs. Well, there’s a thought.
21:58
In case you haven’t seen this before, here’s another episcopal clue to give food (or drink) for thought:
Strong drink makes bishop up for it (6)
No, a new one to me. Quite good
40 minutes. The two ecclesiastical clues caused problems for me too. Despite the (in retrospect) simple wordplay, I was only able to get CATHEDRA from the term “ex cathedra”, as mentioned by ulaca. LOI was the NHO TIARAED (BTW I think the def is ‘in the Pope’s headdress’) which I constructed from wordplay and crossers.
An enjoyable puzzle with lots of good clues. My favourites were the triple def STOP, the ‘higher-frequency emitter’ for SOPRANO, the clever SIX and the small but perfectly formed OSLO.
Thanks to Bruce and setter
Thanks re definition. Fixed.
SIX absolutely brilliant. I didn’t get the wordplay. TANNER is the second time I’ve seen this clue recently. I have a feeling this setter also sets on of the weekend Telegraph crosswords such is the reuse of answers between the two
No undue problems with this. I just assumed a CATHEDRA was why cathedrals were so called.. TIARAED, an ungainly word. I agree the “in” is part of the def.
Must be a bit dim as I still don’t understand the point of SIX. I wrote in the answer to the question in the clue and moved on.
9=IX=2/3 SIX = 2/3 9
Thereby proving 6=9 and hence the clue is a falacy
I couldn’t have put it that way myself…
37 minutes, with a number of those spent on LOI TIARAED. Am I the only one to think that the triple def for STOP is spoilt somewhat by the necessary inclusion (just for surface sense) of ‘in’?
Otherwise, nothing too taxing. Just the thing after a day spent clearing the outhouse and a large garden storage box – who on earth needs 30-odd empty compost bags?
COD to SOPRANO for nice definition. Also admired the perfect surface for SOLO.
We make our own compost (and also leaf mould) and need at least that many bags quite regularly!
Good for you – the little we’re able to make goes straight on the veg beds!
DNF, back in OWL club with TINNER rather than TANNER (didn’t pick up on the sunbathing hint and guessed that there might have been a coin known as a tinner, given that money can be tin).
– Missed the cleverness of SIX
– Don’t think I parsed IN UTERO either
– NHO DUGONG so I had to guess the missing letters
– Knew about papal tiaras, but still struggled to get TIARAED
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Six
Sorry, I’ve tried and tried and just don’t understand the SIX clue. I obviously see that 6 is two thirds of 9 and I also see that IX is two thirds of SIX but isn’t that saying that 9 is two thirds of 6? The clue says ‘What’s two-thirds nine?’.
I think it’s a bit like a double definition:
(1) the number SIX is two-thirds of 9 – simple arithmetic
(2) the word SIX is [one-third S and] two-thirds IX – cunning cryptic
Enough. It’s doing my head in too
The trick is to make allowance for the Yoda-esque grammar.
What is 2/3 [of] 9? 6!
Isn’t IX 2/3 of SIX? Yes!
You’re not alone, Wil. Even if there’s clever logic to it that we’ve both missed, I don’t see the point of a crossword clue to which the answer is so obvious from the surface reading. The majority of solvers will just write it in and move on.
I needed to understand that logic to be sure the answer wasn’t SEX as mentioned by Mayfair above.