Saturday Times 25191 (16th June)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
A fairly average 14:13 for me, although I got off to quite a slow start and was surprised how little time had passed when I stopped the clock. Other times I think I’ve raced through it and find it’s taken 20 minutes. No idea what that goes to show.

Didn’t like 11ac, sorry setter. I was also going to say nasty things about 21dn, but that was due to my ignorance until I did a bit of Googling while typing this up.

Across
1 RACISM – (as, crim(e))*
4 RAMSGATE – RAM’S (computer memory’s) + GATE (a logic circuit). A seaside town in Kent.
10 STRINGENT – SENT (made to go) around TRING (Chilterns town).
11 AWAIT – TIAWA (cwown) reversed. Gwoan!
12 SOAKING – SO AKIN (very similar) + G(allons).
13 OLD BEAN – definition and cryptic definition. A phrase still regularly used by Henry Blofeld, and probably nobody else!
14 OCEAN – O(xygen) + C(l)EAN
15 TIGERISH – (rights, ie)*
18 COHERENT – COT around HERE, N(ot).
20 MACHO – where MACH 1 is the speed of sound, MACH 0 must be stationary.
23 ARTEMIS – I (one) + MET (experienced) + R.A. (artist), all reversed, + (princes)S. Greek goddess of hunting, equivalent to the Roman Diana.
25 MUNDANE – M(arried) + UN (French for “a”) + DANE (European).
26 HEIST – T(ime) removed from THEIST (religious type).
27 EXCUSABLE – (because XL)*
28 RYE-GRASS – sounds like “wry” + GRASS (singer, i.e. informer).
29 FERRET – hidden reversed in “counter–reformation”.

Down
1 RESISTOR – RES(olution) + IS (represents) + TOR (rocky high ground).
2 CORKAGE – cryptic definition.
3 SENTIENCE – I (self-reference) inside SENTENCE (self-contained expression).
5 A STRONG STOMACH – cryptic definition, although I wasted a bit of time trying to work in an anagram of “organ’s” and something.
6 SHARD – SHAR(e)D
7 AMADEUS – MADE in AUS. Film about Mozart, which I remember as the first I watched with my future ex-wife.
8 EXTANT – (s)EXTANT
9 WEIGHTLESSNESS – cryptic definition
16 REMINISCE – RE (concerned with) + MINIS (short skirts) + C.E. (Anglicans).
17 MOVEMENT – double definition.
19 OUTLIVE – OUT (published) + LIVE (as it happens).
21 CLAMBER – C(onstant) + LAMBER(t). At first glance a clue that just looks bad, but I couldn’t believe the Times would stoop so low, so I Googled him. Constant Lambert was a composer, which makes the surface reading quite good. Tony Sever’s probably heard of him, but I certainly hadn’t.
22 WASHER – WAS HER.
24 MOTOR – MOT (annual car safety test) + OR.

10 comments on “Saturday Times 25191 (16th June)”

  1. 39′, quick for me for a Saturday. LOI 23ac or 24d, I can’t remember which. Thanks, linxit, for explaining OCEAN, which in retrospect I should have parsed, since Tring is one of those few British towns I can remember the name of, although I didn’t know where it was, or where the Chilterns are, for that matter. Unlike linxit, I did know the name Constant Lambert, but couldn’t remember who he was, which misled me, slowing me down a bunch. COD to ARTEMIS.
    1. no shame in that Kevin, not many over here would know where the Chilterns or Tring are either.. I did, only because I walked along the Ridgeway once
  2. I quite liked 11ac. It seems to me that puns and crossword clues often have a great deal in common; and with puns the more awful they are, the better. And when you have been doing crosswords for nearly fifty years, any clue at all that prompts a reaction is a good one!

  3. 26 minutes with 14ac (unbelievably) my last in.

    TRING has come up several times before, usually clued as ‘Hertfordshire town’ I believe, a distinction it shares in crosswordland with Ware. Tring’s larger neighbouring stations on the commuter route to London, Berkhamsted and Leighton Buzzard have also appeared.

    The composer was no problem for me as I have a recording of his (probably) most famous work, the ballet suite ‘Horoscope’.

    Didn’t know the logic circuit. Enjoyed the fun at 11ac.

    Edited at 2012-06-23 09:11 am (UTC)

  4. 54 minutes. Nothing much to note apart from what I thought was a typo at 11. Unlike Jerry, even if I were to do these for another 50 years (which would qualify me for a telegram from the queen, if she still does such things), I’d still find it tiresome and a little sophomoric. Had trouble at 3dn, where I essayed sentiment and sensitive before seeing the light.
  5. Completed this morning – as usual a week late. I like to come to this blog fresh, as it were. An enjoyable 25 minutes. 11a elicited a groan but seemed fair enough. We’ve had Mr Lambert before but I’d heard of him anyway and, besides, the answer was just a play on his name and nothing more. Had a bit of a giggle at WASHER.
  6. 12:15 for me, slowed by making heavy weather of 28ac (RYE-GRASS) where I’d initially wasted time trying to justify RYE-BREAD and then found difficulty getting it out of my head.

    No objection to 11ac – this is a long-standing setter’s ploy, which led immediately to the answer without even time for a groan.

    All sorts of reasons for knowing about Constant Lambert. He composed The Rio Grande, one of my favourite pieces of music, and a great sing. I have happy memories of performing it with the East Riding Youth Choir, and always hoped that I’d get another crack at it later on when I was singing with the LSO Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir – but sadly never did. Literary types may know him as the inspiration for Hugh Morland in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time. Balletomanes will certainly know him as conductor for the Camargo Society and musical director of the Vic-Wells Ballet (and for having had an affair with Margot Fonteyn). Even those more interested in the world of pop music may have come across him as the father of Kit Lambert.

  7. This clue was very good in my opinion. For a long time I was confused because L is an abbreviation for lambert in Chambers and I was trying to see how amber = diminished. The bad joke at 11ac is fine, surely. As Tony Sever says, a long-standing setter’s ploy.

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