Not so tricky. It took a while to see 9, and 11 had a term I didn’t know, but it all worked!
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 | Fruit spread and fruit jam (9,6) |
| BUTTERNUT SQUASH – BUTTER [spread] + NUT [fruit] + SQUASH [jam]. | |
| 9 | Communication system originally mixing ogham, runes and minute lines (5,4) |
| MORSE CODE – Mixing + Ogham + Runes + SEC [minute] + ODE [lines]. | |
| 10 | One of two parents shedding clothes (5) |
| OTHER – mOTHERs, shedding clothes. | |
| 11 | Guy with racing tip in Shanghai? (6) |
| KIDNAP – KID [guy] + NAP. I didn’t know this meaning of “nap”. Apparently it’s a racing tip purporting to be a sure thing. |
|
| 12 | Obscure English boozer west of Clapton? (8) |
| ESOTERIC – E [English] + SOT [boozer] + ERIC. | |
| 13 | Author beginning to talk playwright round (6) |
| NESBIT – Talk + IBSEN [playwright], all backwards (round). | |
| 15 | Lack of moisture in canned sardines (8) |
| ARIDNESS – (SARDINES)*, canned. | |
| 18 | Like a fool, Nemo perhaps loses faith at first (8) |
| CLOWNISH – CLOWN FISH loses F [faith]. | |
| 19 | Lying around in bedsit, arguing for nothing (6) |
| GRATIS – backwards hidden answer (lying, around). | |
| 21 | Writer probing another badly flawed protagonist (8) |
| ANTIHERO – I [the writer] probing ANT⁁HERO [(ANOTHER), badly]. | |
| 23 | Tremble after one becomes a slave (6) |
| THRALL – THRILL, after I becomes A. | |
| 26 | Praise tax cut on back of The Times (5) |
| EXTOL – E [back of thE] + X [times] + TOLL, cut. | |
| 27 | Vanguard at this point moved fast, according to Spooner (9) |
| SPEARHEAD – HERE SPED, according to Spooner. | |
| 28 | Non-European club playing? Impossible to say (15) |
| UNPRONOUNCEABLE – (NON EUROPEAN CLUB)*, playing. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Rustic family under awful pressure (7) |
| BUMPKIN – BUM [awful] + P [pressure] + KIN [family]. | |
| 2 | Weary and embarrassed after sex on the rebound (5) |
| TIRED – TI [IT (sex), on the rebound] + RED. | |
| 3 | Height of joy, taking possession of electric vehicle (9) |
| ELEVATION – EL⁁ATION taking possession of EV. | |
| 4 | Not one satisfactory corner (4) |
| NOOK – NO [not one, as in “no taker”] + OK. | |
| 5 | Regularly target a certain prize (8) |
| TREASURE – TRE [TaRgEt, regularly] + A + SURE [certain]. | |
| 6 | Ring you and cry after Question Time (5) |
| QUOIT – Q [question] + U [you] + OI [cry, for attention] + T [time]. | |
| 7 | Loathsome earthborn mutant (9) |
| ABHORRENT – (EARTHBORN)*, mutant. | |
| 8 | Vacuous hippy breeds furry animals (7) |
| HYRACES – HY [hippy, vacuous] + RACES [breeds]. | |
| 14 | Drinks with leading baseball player (9) |
| SHORTSTOP – SHORTS [drinks] + TOP [leading]. | |
| 16 | Unknown quantity of concealed heroin (4,5) |
| DARK HORSE – DARK [concealed] + HORSE [heroin]. | |
| 17 | Coffee sample from cafe’s press officer (8) |
| ESPRESSO – hidden (sample from). | |
| 18 | Each university fellow introduces something going over one’s head (7) |
| CHAPEAU – CHAP [fellow] + EA [each] + U. | |
| 20 | Spot policemen cycling on Greece’s borders (7) |
| SPLODGE – SPLOD [PLODS, with the S cycling to the front] + GE [the borders of GreecE] | |
| 22 | How do you do Shakespeare play without leading pair? (5) |
| HELLO – OTHELLO. | |
| 24 | Fighter pilot knocked back British bitter (5) |
| ACERB – ACE + RB [BR, knocked back]. | |
| 25 | Reportedly shot seabird (4) |
| TERN – sounds (reportedly) like TURN. | |
17:55
DNK nap, but didn’t need to. I biffed a bunch, parsing post-submission. I knew of Nemo the fish; my GK did not include knowing his species.