Time: 24′. I don’t much like solving with a timer running, but I tried it here just to check … still true! Hard to say without comparison data, but this felt like a middlish time for me.
12dn had a new take on the “Spooner” meme, and 13dn brought back memories of a former Aussie Prime Minister promising to show their real self. 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 | Do avoid that hot sauce (3,3,7) |
| CUT THE MUSTARD – CUT [avoid] + THE MUSTARD. | |
| 9 | Live in effectively brand-new tower (7) |
| MINARET – ARE [live] in MIN⁁T [brand new: “in mint condition”]. | |
| 10 | Earlier group taken through Yosemite now back (3-4) |
| ONE TIME – backwards hidden answer (through, back). | |
| 11 | Rose’s bed maybe quiet and springy (9) |
| SHRUBBERY – SH [quiet!] + RUBBERY. | |
| 12 | Valued bijou scratched in odd places, reproduction you hear (5) |
| AUDIO – the even letters (scratched in odd places) of valued bijou. | |
| 13 | Gong with two sides, neither having echo (3-3) |
| TAM TAM – TEAM twice. | |
| 14 | Curse, stuffing one’s weight in bikini? (8) |
| SWIMWEAR – SW⁁EAR [curse], stuffing = I’M [one is] + W [weight]. The “stuffing” directive seems a bit backwards! |
|
| 16 | Light speed and Mach one confused Native American (8) |
| COMANCHE – C [the speed of light] + (MACH ONE)*, confused. Very neat juxtaposition of the speed of light and the speed of sound! |
|
| 18 | Instructed party returned small batch of shares (3,3) |
| ODD LOT – TOLD + DO, all returned. | |
| 21 | Horribly bright — you are to wear hat (5) |
| LURID – U + R to wear L⁁ID. | |
| 22 | Belligerent type of friendly against Germany (9) |
| WARMONGER – WARM+ ON + GERmany. | |
| 24 | Hollow stick, one where it’s icy? (3,4) |
| SKI POLE – SK [SticK, hollow] + I [one] + POLE [where it’s icy]. I am not sure ski poles would be hollow, but the rest can stand as definition! |
|
| 26 | Blue-collar employer snubbed brave politician (7) |
| FACTORY – FACe [to brave, snubbed] + TORY. | |
| 27 | During shivery semifinal it’s almost zero (13) |
| INFINITESIMAL – IN [during] + (SEMIFINAL IT)*, shivery. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | French philosopher quietly barred from college grounds (5) |
| CAMUS – CAMPUS, with P barred. | |
| 2 | Puzzling pieces of square brown mass (7) |
| TANGRAM – TAN + GRAM. | |
| 3 | Giddy bachelor showered, taking maiden’s place in seraglio (11) |
| HAREBRAINED – HAREm, with B + RAINED taking the place of M. | |
| 4 | Reflecting less concern (6) |
| MATTER – cryptic hint: a matt surface reflects less. I had to reflect more than a little to get this, even though the answer was clear! | |
| 5 | Arctic hunter broadcast cry of distress around north (5,3) |
| SNOWY OWL – S⁁OW [broadcast] + YOWL around N. | |
| 6 | One speed if short of power (3) |
| ACE – pACE, short of P. | |
| 7 | Peter out first on deck, totally calm abandoning ship (7) |
| DWINDLE – Deck + WINDLEss, abandoning SS. | |
| 8 | American blues fan daughter converted to Cream (8) |
| DEMOCRAT – D + (TO CREAM)*, converted. The reverse to the UK: Democrats are blue, Republicans are red. | |
| 12 | Spooner’s bred ’ackneys etc for the military (5,6) |
| ARMED FORCES – “farmed ‘orses”. The first time I’ve seen the suggestion that Rev. Spooner might just misplace one letter, rather than swap two of them. | |
| 13 | Ill-judged time to show more of the real you? (8) |
| TACTLESS – T + ACT LESS [show the real you]. | |
| 15 | Italian greeting chief heard order in Chinese (4,4) |
| CHOW MEIN – sounds like (heard): CIAO + MAIN. | |
| 17 | Drink from craft baby bottles (7) |
| MARTINI – M⁁INI [baby] bottles ART [craft]. | |
| 19 | Gap between seats Romeo spread with girl’s clothing (7) |
| LEGROOM – (ROMEO GL)*, spread. | |
| 20 | Commercial imperative the very thing academic is superior to (6) |
| PROFIT – PROF [academic] above (superior to) IT [that’s it! the very thing]. | |
| 23 | Outside the church, troops brought round for the king (5) |
| ROYAL – LAY + OR, all backwards (brought round). | |
| 25 | Two blood types primarily form clot (3) |
| OAF – O+ A [blood types] + Form. | |
I’ve never used a ski pole that wasn’t hollow, although maybe professional racers use carbon fibre ones are solid. I finished all correct but as usual cannot remember much about a puzzle I did a week ago. I do remember enjoying it and finding it fairly easy (as Saturday puzzles seem to be these days).
Was amused by “stuffing one’s weight in bikini.” It’s that time of year!
The blue = Democrat / red = Republican color scheme became the rule in the US media only in 2000 (a mere 26 years ago, kids). It makes some sense to me, although the definitively leftist publication I have made my home (well, employer) for well-nigh 40 years has adopted red as the predominant color of its website, as has the estimable Jacobin, for perhaps obvious reasons (why I wear a red tie on May Day, comrades). I won’t go any further into this here (sustaining the cool—blue—attitude recommended for nonpartisan comments).
Just done this morning and hard enough for me at 49 minutes. I had trouble with SNOWY OWL, ROYAL, MATTER and the Spoonerism among others and TAM-TAM was a NHO, though looked right. Shows how much I know about food, but I always thought CHOW MEIN was pronounced as “chow mean”, so that was another unparsed. I liked the misdirection inherent in the ‘American blues fan’ def.
Any hints for the “former Aussie PM promising to show their real self”? Initials JMF perhaps, but I may be off the mark.
Thanks to branch and setter
33:14
I biffed several, and never did parse LEGROOM & ROYAL.