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:
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- 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 [chip] + 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. | |