Solving time: 10 minutes
Nothing to scare the horses here I think, but how did you all do?
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | With embarrassed look, see ship manoeuvring at entrance to harbour (8) |
| SHEEPISH | |
| Anagram [manoeuvring] of SEE SHIP, then H{arbour} [entrance] | |
| 5 | Linger behind tedious person (4) |
| DRAG | |
| Two meanings | |
| 8 | Sanction program run at London cricket ground (8) |
| APPROVAL | |
| APP (program), R (run), OVAL (London cricket ground). The spelling of ‘program’ helps us with the first bit of wordplay. | |
| 9 | Unaccompanied part song bringing great delight (4) |
| GLEE | |
| Two meanings. ‘Glees’ are unaccompanied part songs from 18th century England not dissimilar from madrigals. | |
| 11 | Discourage careful eater, initially itching to quit (5) |
| DETER | |
| D{i}ETER (careful eater), [i{tching} initially to quit] | |
| 12 | Talk about port vehicle (7) |
| CHARIOT | |
| CHAT (talk) containing [about] RIO (port) | |
| 13 | Servant shortage disheartened Emily (6) |
| LACKEY | |
| LACK (shortage), E{mil}Y [disheartened] | |
| 15 | Bad luck, using criminal circles (6) |
| HOODOO | |
| HOOD (criminal), OO (circles) | |
| 18 | At the outset so confident, relying on one’s generous ethos — not this guy’s! (7) |
| SCROOGE | |
| S{o} C{onfident} R{relying} O{n} O{ne’s} G{enerous} E{thos} [at the outset] | |
| 19 | Sweetheart from Florida with armlet oddly selected (5) |
| FLAME | |
| FL (Florida), A{r}M{l}E{t} [oddly selected]. Elvis sang about one of these in 1961. | |
| 21 | To some extent share a productive harvest (4) |
| REAP | |
| Hidden in [to some extent] {sha}RE A P{roductive} | |
| 22 | Homeless wanderer’s saga with new introduction and promise (8) |
| VAGABOND | |
| Saga becomes VAGA [with new introduction], BOND (promise) | |
| 23 | Tired, with no energy, making one cautious (4) |
| WARY | |
| W{e}ARY (tired) [with no energy] | |
| 24 | Newly relive the French morning call for soldiers (8) |
| REVEILLE | |
| Anagram [newly] of RELIVE, then LE (‘the’ in French) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Clubs cutting footwear leads to malicious talk (7) |
| SCANDAL | |
| C (clubs – cards) contained by [cutting] SANDAL (footwear) | |
| 2 | One living abroad formerly — with a light touch (5) |
| EXPAT | |
| EX (formerly), PAT (light touch) | |
| 3 | Owner’s torpor ripe for change (10) |
| PROPRIETOR | |
| Anagram [for change] of TORPOR RIPE | |
| 4 | Look through some prose, archaic (6) |
| SEARCH | |
| Hidden in [some} {pro}SE ARCH{aic} | |
| 6 | Republican, with help from others, made comeback (7) |
| RALLIED | |
| R (republican), ALLIED (with help from others) | |
| 7 | Visitor speculated, we hear (5) |
| GUEST | |
| Sounds like [we hear] “guessed” (speculated) | |
| 10 | Arrived to collect old university standard in disguise (10) |
| CAMOUFLAGE | |
| CAME (arrived) containing [to collect] O (old) + U (university) + FLAG (standard) | |
| 14 | Pirate’s surprised expressions on air (7) |
| CORSAIR | |
| CORS (surprised expressions), AIR | |
| 16 | Do revue, fantastic — that should have happened sooner (7) |
| OVERDUE | |
| Anagram [fantastic] of DO REVUE | |
| 17 | More than one chap, expert, providing this threat (6) |
| MENACE | |
| MEN (more than one chap), ACE (expert) | |
| 18 | One dramatically tamed in Shropshire town — not half! (5) |
| SHREW | |
| SHREW{sbury} (Shropshire town) [not half]. With reference to the Shakespeare play. The town is pronounced ‘Shrowsbury’ – ‘shrow’ to rhyme with ‘crow’. | |
| 20 | Island area’s first levy (5) |
| ATOLL | |
| A{rea’s} [first], TOLL (levy) | |
Slowed down by 9a glee and 6d, rallied.
21 mins…but then a dnf as I spelt 24ac “Reveille” wrong.
A nice puzzle overall. Nearly put “Applauds” for 8ac but couldn’t see the homophone and then realised it was “Approval” – very clever.
Only knew 9ac “Glee” from the TV programme (not that I ever watched it of course)
FOI – 11ac “Deter”
LOI – 6dn “Rallied”
COD – 15ac “Hoodoo”
Thanks as usual!
Learning how to do cryptic crosswords is new to me, I only started doing them in July of this year. I did this one in record time for me, just over 47 minutes. I know I am part of the SCC and may always be but I was excited to do it that quick. Sometimes I think I am at a disadvantage because I live on the other side of the pond. British phrases, people, and geography stump me often.
COD: CAMOUFLAGE
Thanks so much to this website and the people who post here because it provides another resource to help me learn.
Rebus_
Welcome, Rebus, and congratulations on your achievement!
Keep up the good work! You’ve been doing these puzzles for 3 months – I’ve been doing them for 47 years! (Okay, I started a precociously early age!)
Your comments about the “Britishness” of several types of clues is well made. I know if the boot was on the other shoe, I’d be struggling with baseball terminology, state capitols, mountain peaks and so on. If you’re really keen, get the appropriate lists on-line and swot them up!
Thanks, I have been doing word puzzles for decades but never got cryptics. Cricket terms and Cockney rhyming slang are tough also. I am slowly picking all these things up.
Well, as you probably know, we have three US bloggers here – Plusjeremy, Guy_du_Sable, and me. The UK stuff is a long, hard road, but we did catch on after a few years.
Yes, I did see there are others from this side of the pond. Great to meet y’all.
Slow to stat, very fast middle, then hit CHARIOT, GLEE, DRAG and RALLIED. CHARIOT let me in. All green in a surprisingly fast 13.
5:11 late this afternoon. Chauffeuring and painting a fence, on what may have been possibly the last warm sunny day of the year up here, took up most of the day.
Some Monday rustiness in evidence today e.g. 18 d “Shrew” where on the first visit I was thinking of Lion or Tiger as well as Shrewsbury, which confused matters until the Bard came to my rescue.
Another neat and very fair puzzle from Hurley. COD 22 ac “vagabond”.
Thanks to Jack and Hurley
22:58
Easy at first but a struggle on the right hand side. Had to guess REVEILLE and do an alphabet trawl for LOI GLEE.
My dismal run continues with a DNF. NHO glee in this context and thought 9ac was sole. This seemed to parse with the s from song and ole for great delight. Having put this in, I then toiled for 10 mins over 6dn before realising that I had made an error. Eventually had to look up 9ac and then got 6dn (didn’t we have this word last week?). This left me hugely deflated as I had been flying and was well outside SCC territory. A bad day after the struggles of last week.
Many thanks for the blog.