Saturday Times 25155 (5th May)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Sorry for the delay with this – I got back later than expected and was too tired to even think about it! Anyway, solving time 19:45, although with the top half completed in about 3 minutes I was hoping for a really fast time.

Across
1 CROSS-DRESSER – CROSS (upset) + DRESSER (wardrobe assistant). In panto, the ugly sisters are usually played by men in drag.
9 TWEET – Cryptic definition. I’ve never bothered to subscribe, but 140 million users can’t be wrong, eh?
10 SEMAPHORE – SORE (aggrieved) around MAP (plan) inside EH (what about it?).
11 LARBOARD – LARD (fat) around BOAR (swine). The old word for the left-hand side of a ship.
12 UNISON – IS ON (scheduled to happen) after (j)UN(e).
13 PRESSING – double definition.
15 DIMMER – and another one.
17 SUBTLE – BUSTLE (support for a woman) with BUS (charabanc) reversed.
18 UNBELIEF – (I feel bun)*
20 TANNOY – TAN (beat) + YON (that) reversed.
21 HEAVY-SET – HEAT (cook) around V(ichyssoise) + (yes)*
24 CLIMB OVER – COVER (insurance) around LIMB (branch).
25 PANEL – hidden reversed inside “stolen apparently”.
26 GRAND LARCENY – GRANNY (matriarch) around (cradle)*.

Down
1 CAT-FLAP – (flat)* inside CAP (top).
2 ONE-ARMED BANDIT – BANDIT (outlaw), ONE ARMED (given weapon) – I suppose, otherwise I can’t see how “ONE” is accounted for in the wordplay. Still, first one in, I suspect for nearly everybody.
3 SET-TO – OTT (over-the-top = ridiculous) + E(ngland) + S(cotland), all reversed.
4 RESTRING – REST (break) + RING (something curved).
5 SUMO – SUM (problem) + O(ld).
6 EXPENSIVE – EX (old) + PENS (writers) + I’VE.
7 HOUSEMAID’S KNEE – HOE (weed) around (undies makes)*
8 TENNER – sounds like “tenor”. Charles Darwin appears on the back of a £10 note. In case you were wondering, on a fiver it’s Elizabeth Fry, and on a £20 note it’s Adam Smith.
14 SALOON BAR – SOON (promptly) around AL(e), + BAR (outlaw).
16 INTEGRAL – (h)INT (clue less hard) + LARGE (jumbo) reversed.
17 SHTICK – STICK (verbal abuse) around H(usband).
19 FATALLY – FAT ALLY, opposite of a slight adversary?
22 VIPER – VIP (notable) + ER (royal).
23 AVON – NOVA (star) reversed, runner = river.

14 comments on “Saturday Times 25155 (5th May)”

  1. …who bunged in subtle without fully parsing it and sketch from the definition. I have spent all week trying to make something of e?n?o? without success until bongos occurred to me (beat = bong and so reversed … I know it doesn’t really work). That didn’t help with 17 down though. But would never have got that – an unknown word to me.

    Thanks for putting me out of my misery!

    J Calverley

  2. Not so easy here. I took 50 minutes with ages spent on LOI at 8dn. I hear of SHTICK regularly from an American friend so no problems there.

    I can’t see a better explanation for ONE at 2dn; a slightly unsatisfactory clue in an otherwise excellent puzzle, I think.

    There was fuss over BUSTLE elsewhere somewhat hampered by not being able to discuss it openly at the time. I really couldn’t see what there was to discuss.

  3. Also enjoyed this greatly despite coming up short after 69 minutes with SUBTLE put in on the literal alone but nothing entered at the ‘other’ 17, where I was just totally flummoxed. Perfectly fair clue, agreed, but my COD to TENNER. Same dissatisfaction over ONE [ARMED].
  4. I’d totally forgotten I hadn’t finished this puzzle until last night, after I went to file away yesterday’s seemingly much easier one!

    I never got ONE-ARMED BANDIT, SUBTLE, or TANNOY. Must remember my beating, charabancs, and thats.

  5. Around 20 minutes for this.
    I don’t think there’s anything wrong with 2dn: I just read it as a phrase, with “one” as in “someone”. So “one arms the bandit” = “the bandit is armed”, usw.
    I put in SUBTLE and figured it out post-solve. I’d be surprised if anyone figured it out on the spot.
    1. Not from the UK, but I deduced the existence of an ELT bus.

      I kid you not – there is one.

      Thank heavens for crossing letters.

  6. 35′, with 8d my LOI; I haven’t been to the UK for a dozen years, but somehow I finally managed a vague recollection of Darwin’s face (now someone’s going to tell me he wasn’t on the note back then). 9ac must be the giveawayest of all giveaway clues, although 15ac comes fairly close; thank heaven for small favors. Like I suppose everyone else, it took me forever to justify BUSTLE. I also felt it a bit odd to refer to a bustle as support for a dress, although it did do that; it was the dress that was designed to accommodate the bustle.
    1. I’ve lived in the UK all my life and the only face I remember from banknotes (other than HMQ, of course) is Sir Isaac Newton who used to be on Pound note before it was abolished. And even that, only because he was pictured with what appeared to be a bar of Toblerone on the table in front of him and people who didn’t know better used to asked why this was.

      The clue to BUSTLE referred to ‘support for a woman’ rather than ‘support for a dress’. I’m afraid I don’t see how the dress being designed to accommodate the bustle detracts in any way from the role that the bustle fulfilled.

      1. I’m intrigued, Jack, especially since I remember this note best too, though not the ‘bar of Toblerone’. What was it? An instrument?
          1. Thanks. I will attempt to be more observant in the final video round of Friday night’s quiz!
      2. I wonder if it was my eyes that failed me in reading the clue, or my memory in trying to recall it; neither would surprise me.
  7. As a UK/US citizen I was completely done in by Darwin. DNF. Bank notes don’t spend a lot of time in my possession anyway. Once I got it I had visions of what would happen in large areas of the USA if his image were to be found on a ten-spot. Funny, except not.

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