I found this easier than some Saturdays. Biffers may have had a good time. Thank you, 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 | Break the French ram (3-2) |
| LET UP – LE [“the”, French] + TUP [ram]. | |
| 4 | Tossing Crime and Punishment, not working hard (9) |
| MERCILESS – MERCI [(CRIME)*, tossing] + LESSON [punishment, as in “let that be a lesson to you”, without the “ON” (not working)]. You have to “lift and separate” the title of the novel. |
|
| 9 | Fruit and honey seen in High Noon, eg (4,5) |
| OGEN MELON – MEL [honey] seen in OGEN⁁ON [(NOON EG)*, high]. | |
| 10 | Reject relish from a development stage (5) |
| PUPAL – LAP UP [relish], rejected. | |
| 11 | Disconnected state after Jamaican music (6) |
| ALASKA – À LA [after the style of] + SKA. | |
| 12 | Butler in fiction, not quite 17, disregarding duke’s bombast (8) |
| RHETORIC – RHETT [Clark Gable, in Gone with the Wind] + DORIC [17 across, without the D]. | |
| 14 | Puts off securing vessel or vessels (9) |
| DECANTERS – DE⁁TERS securing CAN. | |
| 16 | Non-human intelligence on transgressions against God, here? (5) |
| SINAI – A.I. on SIN. Mount Sinai is where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, so you could read the whole clue as definition, perhaps. |
|
| 17 | Ancient dialect of US capital taking over Rhode Island (5) |
| DORIC – D⁁C taking O + R.I. I knew this as an architectural style, but I now know it was also a dialect of ancient Greek. |
|
| 19 | Declines ice cream cake (4,5) |
| DROP SCONE – DROPS + CONE. | |
| 21 | Noble verse that’s followed by “lives matter” (8) |
| VISCOUNT – V + IS + COUNT. | |
| 22 | Stick with announcement from someone who’s 23 (6) |
| IMPALE – I’M PALE, as the ashen one at 23d might say. | |
| 25 | Spirit that’s invalid and regularly ignored (5) |
| NAIAD – every second letter of INVALID AND. | |
| 26 | Fashion designer – male, unknown in Scotland – choosing to leave shop (5,4) |
| JIMMY CHOO – JIMMY [Scottish address for a man you don’t know] + CHOOSING, leaving the SING [shop]. This fashion house. | |
| 27 | Unimportant artist entering base (9) |
| IGNORABLE – RA entering IGNO⁁BLE. | |
| 28 | Beau Bridges acted — and yet … (5) |
| DANDY – hidden answer (bridges). Another case where you need to “lift and separate“. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Renaissance man playing odd arcane violin (8,2,5) |
| LEONARDO DA VINCI – (ODD ARCANE VIOLIN)*, playing. | |
| 2 | Opponents of US with American motif (5) |
| THEMA – bridge scorers have two columns: “we” and “they”. So, THEM [not us] + A. | |
| 3 | Supply large amount of blood for Halloween staple (7) |
| PUMPKIN – PUMP [supply large amount] + KIN [blood]. | |
| 4 | Hybrid shoe (4) |
| MULE – two meanings. | |
| 5 | Weak creature, he’s to what extent to be in charge? (3,3,4) |
| RUN THE SHOW – RUNT + HE’S + HOW. | |
| 6 | Goad that is pressing fairly soft part of elephant briefly (7) |
| IMPETUS – I⁁E pressing MP + TUSK, briefly. | |
| 7 | Best opera wants you observing each part’s body language (9) |
| ESPERANTO – each part’s body: bESt oPERa wANTs yOu. | |
| 8 | Receive me, mostly exercising ability to forget inconvenient things (9,6) |
| SELECTIVE MEMORY – (RECEIVE ME MOSTLY)*, exercising | |
| 13 | Dull radio presenter on outside broadcast where promotion will be missed (4-3,3) |
| DEAD END JOB – DEADEN [to dull (a sound)] + DJ + OB [outside broadcast]. | |
| 15 | Irish can’t reform Catholic? (9) |
| CHRISTIAN – (IRISH CANT)*, reform. | |
| 18 | Dish of food left on the counter (7) |
| CHOWDER – CHOW + RED [leftie] on the counter. | |
| 20 | Maybe Pet Sounds’ first poster includes Mike Love predominantly, yes? (7) |
| SAMOYED – S [first letter of Sounds] + A⁁D [poster] including M + O + YES. | |
| 23 | Grey arsenic in that case, unopened (5) |
| ASHEN – AS [chemical symbol for arsenic] + THEN [in that case, unopened]. | |
| 24 | Nancy’s friend Oliver perhaps avoiding leader (4) |
| AMIE – JAMIE, unopened. Jamie Oliver is the chef. Nancy, the town, is in France. | |
67 minutes is more than double my target solving time but I can’t recall now why it took me so long. My printout shows very few workings and I had no queries other than a reminder to check MEL as a honey, which if I ever knew, I had forgotten, but I was in no doubt as to the validity of OGEN MELON.