There were definitions here of widely varying lengths – ranging from six words down to a single letter! Nice work, 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 | Monkey about, turning up with mate mostly (8) |
| CAPUCHIN – CA [circa=about] + PU [UP, turning] + CHINA [mate, mostly] | |
| 5 | Digital picture snapped minutes ahead of Associated Press (6) |
| BITMAP – BIT [snapped, as in “snapped back at”] + M [minutes] + A.P. | |
| 10 | Vetoed president accepting Democrat after Foreign Office resistance (9) |
| FORBIDDEN – F.O. + R [resistance] + BID⁁EN accepting D. | |
| 11 | Provide food Charlie consumed with queen (5) |
| CATER – C [Charlie] + ATE [consumed] + R [regina]. | |
| 12 | Leaves unstarted a long time (4) |
| AGES – PAGES, unstarted. | |
| 13 | Competence shown by area division head (9) |
| ADEPTNESS – A + DEPT + NESS. | |
| 15 | Old and proper affable, not Conservative (10) |
| PRIMORDIAL – PRIM [proper] + CORDIAL [affable, not C]. | |
| 17 | Hand round sherry (4) |
| FINO – FIN [hand] + O [round]. NHO “fin” meaning “hand”, and only dimly remembered “fino”. |
|
| 19 | Royal servants ignoring the aged herald (4) |
| OMEN – YEOMEN, ignoring YE. | |
| 20 | Desperate triad thugs reorganised (10) |
| DISTRAUGHT – (TRIAD THUGS)*, reorganised. | |
| 22 | Having no illusions on the subject of boxer’s personal quirk (9) |
| REALISTIC – RE [on the subject of] + ALI’S [the boxer’s] + TIC [quirk]. | |
| 24 | Mock enemy soundly (4) |
| FAUX – “FOE”, soundly. | |
| 26 | Cold comfort initially in what editor says for my chance (5) |
| OCCUR – C [cold] + Comfort initially, in O⁁UR. The suggestion seems to be that our editor uses the royal “we”. I’m not sure why. |
|
| 27 | Varsity team arrived shortly before game (9) |
| CAMBRIDGE – CAME [arrived, shortly] + BRIDGE [the game of games]. | |
| 28 | Maybe one slothful bowler lacking power (6) |
| SINNER – SPINNER, lacking P. | |
| 29 | Shopper carrying item between two halves of beer (8) |
| BETRAYER – TRAY [item for carrying] between BE⁁ER. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Be annoyed with husband wasted in restaurant (4) |
| CAFE – CHAFE, with H wasted. | |
| 2 | Protected avian Progne with rail fence repositioned (9,6) |
| PEREGRINE FALCON – (PROGNE RAIL FENCE)*, repositioned. Progne, I learned, is a genus of birds, but doesn’t include this one. Progne are various New World martins. |
|
| 3 | Nick succeeded with fresh way to get ball on the green (4,4) |
| CHIP SHOT – CHIP [nick] + S [succeeded] + HOT [fresh]. Not to question the definition, but some might see chip shots as a way to get the ball in the bunker? |
|
| 4 | I assist over underpinning home (5) |
| INDIA – IN [home] + AID over. One-letter definitions are a delight! |
|
| 6 | Prompt included just what’s needed before end of line (6) |
| INCITE – INC [included] + IT [just what’s needed!] + end of LINE | |
| 7 | When women get gifts, sure thing to be exchanged in the next 24 hours? (9,6) |
| MOTHERING SUNDAY – THERINGSU [(SURE THING)*, to be exchanged] in MO⁁NDAY [the next 24 hours after Sunday]. | |
| 8 | Tot rum shop flogged here? (10) |
| PORTSMOUTH – (TOT RUM SHOP)*, flogged. | |
| 9 | Socialise with European in trendy bit of country (8) |
| INTERACT – E in IN + T⁁RACT. | |
| 14 | Hysterical cry stopping United practising (10) |
| UPROARIOUS – ROAR [cry] stopping U + P⁁IOUS. | |
| 16 | What can finish up in pack split into cubes (5,3) |
| DRIFT ICE – RIFT into D⁁ICE. | |
| 18 | Picked up very much lighter walker? (8) |
| WAYFARER – sounds like (picked up) WAY FAIRER. | |
| 21 | Broach support on church (6) |
| PIERCE – PIER + CE. | |
| 23 | Hollow boiler perhaps losing one energy (5) |
| COMBE – COMBI [boiler, losing I] + E [energy]. I didn’t know of “combi boilers”, but it was easy to guess. |
|
| 25 | More or less mean approach (4) |
| NEAR – three meanings: approximately; miserly; come close to. | |
We found the clueing in this one 29544 to be a bit more tricky than last Saturday’s 29538 that was completed in less than 2 hours and more admirable also.
In 29544 did admire 4d INDIA as a deceptive and simple clue.
Thanks to the blogger for providing ‘yeomen’ to better explain 19ac OMEN and also for NHO over here ‘combi’ for 23d COMBE.
B offered up 7d MOTHERING SUNDAY which seems bit strange all round.
Think 6d INCITE is a particularly agregious use of IT which has not appeared outside crosswordland since the time of Clara Bow.
Not sure about 14d UPROARIOUS as ‘hysterical’.
Not fussed on FIN for ‘hand’ – even in crosswordland.
Will not be doing today’s due to pressing other priorities -so you will be spared my outlier thoughts next week.
Thank you setters and branch for both Saturdays.
The IT in 6d has nothing to do with sex.
That may well be a correct call – in which case I was adding much more colour than what was intended in ‘it’ for ‘just what’s needed’.
33:23
I biffed MOTHERING SUNDAY & COMBE, never parsed them. ‘Desperate’ struck me as a poor definition for DISTRAUGHT. I liked INDIA.
No problem with OCCUR: the royal ‘we’ is also the editorial ‘we’.
I think I’ve seen ‘fin’ for ‘hand’, probably in Dickens. My English-Japanese dictionary marks it as archaic.
35 minutes is good going for me on a Saturday so I think of this as being quite easy. I remember ‘combi boilers’ from my childhood but hadn’t thought of them since and didn’t know how to spell the word (not that it mattered here).
I missed the wordplay in DRIFT ICE and had the clue down as being a bit dodgy, but now it has been explained I think it’s very good indeed.
1 hour. Found some of this hard going – half the time spent on last ten clues. Guessed at NHO BITMAP. COD MOTHERING SUNDAY.
For 3d I think you mean CHIP [nick]
Thanks.
Quite a few of these were biffable once some crossers were in, and I didn’t find many problems, although a MER at fin=hand, though I note it’s archaic (I seem to remember the expression ‘shake a fin’). I didn’t know CLIP SHOT for what was obviously a golf clue, but it wasn’t difficult to work out. A nice, not too taxing puzzle, all parsed.
27ac. CAMBRIDGE. I think the definition is “Varsity team”. Otherwise “team” doesn’t appear in the wordplay. There will probably be others that know more about this, but I think it refers to the “Varsity match” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varsity_Match . Rugby (union) match between the two teams: Oxford and Cambridge.
3d. CHIP SHOT. As you’ve underlined: this definition is seven words!
7d. MOTHERING SUNDAY. I wondered about “the next 24 hours” meaning “Monday” on a Saturday puzzle! I see now that the question mark at the end of the clue meant something more unusual – the wordplay relying on the solution.
16d. DRIFT ICE. I also missed the wordplay on this – thought it was just a cryptic definition. Thanks!
Thanks. One of two typos I corrected but clearly didn’t save!
9:58 but I got ‘chafe’ and ‘chaff’ mixed up.🤦🏻♂️
I seem to be making a lot of silly errors recently so I’m a bit relieved I was in good company with this one. D’oh and double d’oh!
DNF, with a guessed AIDO rather than FINO – I didn’t know the sherry or that fin can mean hand. No other issues.
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Uproarious