An easy Saturday for me. Luckily the unfamiliar native American had come up earlier this month, generously spelled out on that occasion. I enjoyed the whimsy at 9, 19 and 27 across. Thanks to the setter! How did you all get on?
Notes 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.
Clues are blue. Definitions are underlined. (ABC)* means anagram of ABC, with anagram indicators italicised.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fix outside of broken boat: get fuel here (4,3) |
| PEAT BOG – PEG=fix, ‘outside of’ (BOAT)*. | |
| 5 | Depraved Republican’s off to arouse a Liberal (7) |
| BESTIAL – BESTI(R)=arouse + A + L. Obviously, R=republican is ‘off’. | |
| 9 | Unresponsive pet given a pick-me-up (9) |
| CATATONIC – give that CAT A TONIC, please. | |
| 10 | Compare plant on rocks to some ears? (5) |
| LIKEN – some would pronounce LICHEN the same way. Yes, yes – we know others wouldn’t! | |
| 11 | Journalist runs into alleged adulterer (13) |
| CORRESPONDENT – R in CO-RESPONDENT. I suspect this was a legal concept, no longer relevant in the era of no-fault divorce? | |
| 13 | Wind around island makes for poor hearing (8) |
| MISTRIAL – the MISTRAL is a Mediterranean wind. Insert an I. Not just a poor hearing, but an aborted one! | |
| 15 | Capital transfixed by leaders of general workers in industrial action (2-4) |
| GO-SLOW – OSLO in G(eneral) + W(orkers). | |
| 17 | Native American western at famous corral on location in California (6) |
| LAKOTA – L.A.= a location in California + AT (the) O.K. (corral), all backwards (‘western’). I was glad I’d seen the answer recently! | |
| 19 | Drug dealer using speed sustains damage (8) |
| PHARMACY – HARM in PACY. | |
| 22 | Crossing one game with another (7,6) |
| PONTOON BRIDGE – two card games. | |
| 25 | Making call, I land (5) |
| INDIA – when making a radio call, I=India in the NATO alphabet. | |
| 26 | Traumatic to increase crossword output? (9) |
| UPSETTING – UP=increase + SETTING=crossword output. Up your pace, Mister Setter, sir! | |
| 27 | Art working for a while perhaps to create a storm? (7) |
| TEMPEST – I think this is a hint using the archaic second person singular form of the (non-archaic) verb “to temp”: I temp, thou TEMPEST, he temps! | |
| 28 | Follower found back in society locale (7) |
| ACOLYTE – hidden, backwards. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Expressed full agreement (4) |
| PACT – first of two homophone clues: sounds like PACKED (‘expressed’) | |
| 2 | Criticises a revenue-raising measure on radio (7) |
| ATTACKS – sounds like A TAX (‘on radio’) | |
| 3 | One gripping beer half-heartedly (5) |
| BITER – BIT(T)ER is the beer. | |
| 4 | Grey not satisfied with girl’s embrace (8) |
| GUNMETAL – UNMET ’embraced’ by GAL. | |
| 5 | Muscle oil giant’s keeping in reserve (6) |
| BICEPS – B.P.’S ‘keeping in’ ICE=reserve, as of demeanour. | |
| 6 | Brilliance of older puns lost (9) |
| SPLENDOUR – (OLDER PUNS)* | |
| 7 | Knew reworked Breaking Bad as resource for writer to draw on (7) |
| INKWELL – (KNEW)* in ILL. Newer solvers make a mental note: “writer” is likely to be a pen rather than a person in crosswordland. | |
| 8 | Why tangles developed between ends? (10) |
| LENGTHWAYS – (WHY TANGLES)*. An obscure definition. | |
| 12 | Legal details of right in case of short measure … (5,5) |
| SMALL PRINT – put R in SMALL + PINT. | |
| 14 | … reason being to restrict supply of beer (9) |
| RATIONALE – RATION + ALE. | |
| 16 | Fetching gift from cleaner’s mother (8) |
| CHARISMA – CHAR IS + MA. You need to read “cleaner’s” as a contraction for “cleaner is”, not as a possessive. | |
| 18 | Dog and mink scrapping for territory (7) |
| KINGDOM – (DOG MINK)* | |
| 20 | I agree, shame when leader’s lacking pleasant disposition (7) |
| AMENITY – AMEN=I agree + (P)ITY. | |
| 21 | Popular Muslim ruler seeing off an attack (6) |
| INSULT – IN=popular + SULT(AN). | |
| 23 | Repeat song endlessly: nothing can end it (5) |
| DITTO – DITT(Y) + O. | |
| 24 | It’s no go for tech firm to survey inappropriately (4) |
| OGLE – (GO)OGLE. | |
12:16 (putting me at 104 on the leaderboard; the neutrinos are out in force on weekends)
Easy, indeed, although I didn’t twig to ‘making call’. ‘Fetching gift’ struck me as a poor definition for CHARISMA. And we’ve had essentially the same clue for RATIONALE a couple of times already; time to relegate the word to the QC (where it’s probably been already, too).
It’s not that neutrinos are out in force, it’s because Saturday and Sunday are Prize Crosswords. Those of us who solve on paper rather than at a computer upload our completed grid for submission, though I don’t submit during the week and have no interest in the leaderboard. Nor do I try to submit as fast as possible, like the neutrinos – my submission time is around 4.40 or 4.50, which is around the time of the fastest real solvers on the easier puzzles. Just thought you should know…
Just under an hour. FOI:CORRESPONDENT
LOI: GUNMETAL COD to BITER. Couldn’t fathom definition for LENGTHWAYS. Admired UPSETTING,OGLE, and BESTIAL too. Thanks for parsing TEMPEST- very clever!- plus rest of blog.
Sitting Bull was a Lakota chief. They just sold his rifle, used at Little Big Horn, for $132,000 at an auction in Cincinnati. Maybe we should add Arts and Antiques to Ninja Turtling?
Oh, the puzzle, sorry. It looks like I did solve it, but there is no time on my copy. It couldn’t have been that hard, but I think I was tired and went to bed, and finished the next day. I’ll have to start earlier…
It’s surprising what one can learn on this site! I suppose we should add “Little Big Horn” to the list of mass shootings in the US…..?!
46m 11s. Very few notes other than “OK”. Thank you, Bruce, for PHARMACY and TEMPEST. I do like your conjugation of ‘temp’ although I might have said ‘he tempeth’!
Thou mightst well be right. My head hurteth!
🤣
Your explanation for tempest really made me chuckle. Couldn’t work out how art came in to it at all
😀
Art as a verb!
49 minutes average for me for a Saturday.
FOI 6dn SPLENDOUR
LOI 1dn PACT
COD 4dn GUNMETAL
WOD 9ac CATATONIC
I wanted 1ac to be FIAT BOX (fix outside broken boat) but it wasn’t to be!
FI speak- Box! Box!
36 minutes. LAKOTA should have leapt to mind but took some teasing out; otherwise I found this easy.
I would never dare to call a crossword easy, but I didn’t have any particular difficulties with this one, completing it in an average 50 minutes or so. Not sure I’ve got a COD but the simplicity of 22ac appealed. Thanks to setter and bloggers for the usual entertainment.
Just under the half hour. I forgot that INDIA was used for I in the NATO alphabet, but I parsed the rest. LAKOTA (what colour mountains are you taken back to there?) must have been known through Sitting Bull. No stand-out clues for me, but I’ll give COD to CHARISMA. Thank you B and setter.
Fewer BESTIAL avians so
Your CORRESPONDENT would like to know
Have they finally cracked
Joined our anti-bird PACT
Or have twitchers just given UP SETTING?
Don’t count your chickens!
Just over 28 minutes, Liked INKWELL and CHARISMA. LIKEN was good too. Thanks setter and Bruce.
A steady 15.38, with a hold-up before entering LAKOTA, which I think I’ve heard of, preferring DAKOTA, whose blue hills (thanks BW) I did know about. That sorted, and loving thou TEMPEST, a pleasant Saturday.
Z: Black Hills of Dakota, as per Doris Day!
I didn’t find this as easy as some did taking 18:30 and had to look up the Native American at the end. I did enjoy TEMPEST and INDIA. I also liked UPSETTING, which was referenced by the setter, our new puzzles editor, in last weekend’s Times Puzzles newsletter. (See here).
36:37. Mostly straightforward. I did like CATATONIC. I struggled with LAKOTA. If I can post a clip, here’s Doris Day for those who want to know the colour of the hills
https://youtu.be/p59nrGixAYY
17.19
What Boltonwanderer said.
Enjoyable Saturday fare
Didn’t get the TEMPEST thing but didn’t worry about it and laughed when I read the explanation
Thanks everyone
13:07. Nothing of note to say about this one. Loved the TEMPEST clue.
Have just turned on Royal Ascot and there is a horse running in the 2.30 pm race called Lakota Sioux not fancied at 33- 1 . It’s just gone into the stalls. [Exciting race-the horse came third, worth an each way bet].
Lakota is a word I had never seen in my life before last Saturday.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Not too difficult. FOI KINGDOM so took a while to get going.
LOI BITER -could that be right?
David
Sitting Bull was a Lakota Sioux!
One hour and after reading the blog all correct so I’m happy with that.
My FOI was CATATONIC.
I had several I hadn’t fully parsed:
BESTIAL: I had the A and L but not BESTIR.
MISTRIAL: my LOI on reflection I did understand.
LAKOTA: was an NHO and a lucky guess. I didn’t even think of ‘western’ as a reversal.
INDIA: again on a re-read I did see.
TEMPEST: BIFD and would never have seen the wordplay.
46 minutes, fairly straightforward. Fortunately I didn’t think too long about some of the clues or it would have taken me somewhat longer (CORRESPONDENT and INDIA, for example). LOI was LAKOTA, for which I painfully had to work out the wordplay.
Expressed full agreement (4) -> PACT
I think this clue is wrong. Something can be expressed without using sound. As my thoughts are being expressed in this comment, for example.
There should be an indication that “packed” is being expressed using sound: “on the radio”, “audience perceives”, etc. etc.