Saturday Times 25005 (Nov 12) – Times for The Times

Solving time 18:25. I had a bit of a hold-up due to a wrong answer in the NW corner, but otherwise this was fairly straightforward, with no science or literature and only one obscure word.

Across
1	KEEP – double definition.
4	HOW’S TRICKS – W(ith) + S(on) inside HOT (intense), + RICKS (back pains)
9	WARRINGTON – WARRING (struggling) + TON (a great deal). I wasn’t helped by putting in WORKINGTON in at first. Something to do with my aversion to work I suppose…
10	PULL – LL (lines) + UP, all reversed.
11	CITRUS – IT inside CRUS (vineyards).
12	IMAGINED – “I’M AGIN ED”.
14	NAVY – VAN reversed + (walkwa)Y.
15	WHOLEFOODS – WOODS (bowls) around HOLE (jam, as in predicament) + F(ine).
17	MILLSTREAM – I’LL STREA(k) inside MM (two mile), definition is just “race”.
20	TART – T(h)A(t) + RT (right).
21	UNMOVING – double definition.
23	SWEDEN – DE(bt) inside (news)*.
24	GAGE – AGE (get on) with G(overnment). I vaguely knew this, probably from a barred-grid crossword, but it’s an archaic meaning and should at least have been indicated as such in the clue.
25	TRANSPUTER – (TU partners)*.
26	SUPER-DUPER – i.e. someone who dupes a super(intendent).
27	NETT – NET (score) + T(ime).

Down
2	EXAMINATION – EX (old) + AMI (mate in Longchamp) + NATION (race).
3	PORTRAYAL – (s)PORT (display minus the first letter) + R.A. (artist) + LAY (put) reversed.
4	HANDSAW – HAND (worker) + WAS reversed.
5	WITHIN ONE’S GRASP – W(omen’s) + (pension rights a)*. Very unlikely-looking anagram fodder that slowed me down a bit on this one. In the end I got it from crossing letters and worked out the anagram later.
6	TINWARE – (in water)*
7	CHURN – CH(a) + URN.
8	SALAD – D(aughter) + ALAS, all reversed.
13	ENDORSEMENT – E(uropean) + MEN inside N(orth) DORSET.
16	ON THE TURN – (hunter not)*
18	TWISTED – double definition.
19	MISUSER – MISER (one near) around US.
21	URGES – hidden reversed inside “towns, eg Rugby”
22	MUG UP – MUG (set upon) + UP (at university).

7 comments on “Saturday Times 25005 (Nov 12)”

83 mins while waiting for my flight at Ben Gurion Airport. Nice puzzle – I especially liked the two multi-word clues with apostrophes. WARRINGTON took me back to Grandstand and Eddie Warring lending his quixotic pronunciation at falsetto to those exotic sounding (to a southerner’s ears) northern places, of which Warrington, Wigan, St Helens, Castleford and of course Hull Kingston Rovers (pronounced something like ‘Ull Kingston H’Roowvers) will long live in the memory. Back to Frank.

40 minutes, so not too bad for me on a Saturday. GAGE and TRANSPUTER are words not in my every-day vocabulary.

For me the town at 9ac will for ever be pronounced VORRINGTON, the home-place of Vladivar Wodka.

Thanks, linxit, for pointing out the anagram in 25ac. That’s where I went wrong. And thanks also for IMAGINED and PORTRAYAL.

I took 35:22, entering 12ac last without fully understanding it, so thanks for the explanation.

I do agree that GAGE is a bit unfair, even though I think it’s “obviously” the second component of mortgage.

15:34 here – with tiredness making me slower than I should have been.

Possibly, like me, the setter hadn’t realised that GAGE is actually “archaic” – giving me the sort of feeling I get when I see something from my childhood in a museum!

Think yourself lucky that 9ac wasn’t W-R-I-G-O-; I’ve come to grief in the past by putting WORKINGTON instead of WARRINGTON, so I’m ready for it nowadays.

I found this quite tricky: 26:26. I’m not really sure why looking back at it. I slowed myself down by typing TINWEAR, which is a fashion concept I could see Lady Gaga going for. You heard it here first.

In the world of computing, the TRANSPUTER is also pretty archaic, having last seen the light of day in the early 1990s.

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