Saturday Times 24813 (2nd April)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 14:02. Not a particularly difficult puzzle, but the surface readings were very smooth throughout, which occasionally made parsing the cryptic elements harder. COD to 24ac, but 1ac and 26ac also deserve a mention.

Across
1 FRANCIS DRAKE – S(ucceeded) inside F(ollowing) + RANCID (bad) + RAKE (inclination). Well, the Spanish considered him a pirate anyway!
8 MEANDER – MEAN (low) + RED (rose perhaps) reversed (from the east).
9 REPROOF – REP (salesman) + ROOF (covering).
11 EXPRESS – double definition. “Air” as a verb, as in “to air an opinion”.
12 GRANITA – hidden reversed (about) in “chitchAT IN ARGument”.
13 SIDES – IDE(a) (thought mostly) inside S,S (saints).
14 LIMELIGHT – LIME (green) + LIGHT (land, as in to touch down).
16 REMAINDER – (aim)* inside RENDER (present).
19 AMIGO – AGO (back) around MI (note). No indication that it’s a foreign word, but I suppose it’s well-known enough not to require that.
21 BOLSHIE – BOSH (rubbish) around L(ake), + I.E.
23 ANTENNA – (neat)* + N(ew) + N.A. (not available).
24 EXCERPT – C.E. (church) + R(ight), behind X (cross), all inside E(astern) + PT (part). Not a word wasted there! Excellent clue.
25 ARSENAL – ARENA (field) around S(mall), + L(arge). Definition is “stock”.
26 MILTON KEYNES – MINES (sources) around LT (officer) + ON (referring to) + KEY (vital).

Down
1 FLAPPED – LAPP (Scandinavian) inside FED (government agent).
2 ADDRESS – ADD (join) + (p)RESS (crowd, not soft – i.e. lose the P).
3 CHRYSALID – C(onservative) + (is hardly)*.
4 SPROG – S(econds) + PRO (for) + G(ood).
5 RAPHAEL – H(orse) inside LEA (meadow) + PAR (standard), all reversed.
6 KNOWING – NOW (at present) inside KING (head of state). Definition is “arch”.
7 IMMEASURABLE – M(ass) inside (album I erase)*.
10 FRACTIONALLY – ACTION (influence) inside F (loud) + RALLY (meeting).
15 MARMALADE – AL (nearly ALL) inside MADE (created), after MAR (damage).
17 MALACHI – MALI (country) around ACH(e) (endless pain). Writer of the last book of the Old Testament.
18 INHERIT – IN (at home), + TIRE (weary), H(ard) reversed.
19 ARTISAN – IS inside (t)ARTAN (cloth, short of time).
20 INNINGS – SINNING (acting immorally), with the first letter moved to the end.
22 EATEN – E(nergy) + A + TEN.

11 comments on “Saturday Times 24813 (2nd April)”

  1. 45′, with one error: 4d, where I–and I expect, a number of others–put in SPRIG, hoping that somehow ‘good’=’prig’. Never heard of ‘sprog’; and I expect there will be some non-UK solvers who hadn’t heard of Milton Keynes, or of ‘bolshie’ in the required sense.As a San Francisco boy, I was familiar with Sir Francis–he discovered the bay–but the lack of ‘Sir’ made it a bit harder to get.(He was always Sir Francis Drake to us schoolchildren.) COD to him anyway–and he was a pirate, you know, just one with a license. I also quite liked 14ac, 24ac, 25ac, 26ac,and 18d; as linxit says, there were a number of beautifully smooth surfaces.
    1. Interesting. Didn’t know of the Blair-Brown connection but we lived in Catania for 3 years and granita was/is a very popular summer dessert there.
  4. 62 minutes on the club timer, held up by FRACTIONALLY, where the scientific sense of action as ‘influence’ eluded me for a long time. As a Drake myself, Sir Francis, once claimed as an ancestor, and never, never a pirate, was first in!
    2. I suppose it all depends on one’s perspective, doesn’t it. If one were Spanish perhaps…. History is written by the victors, of course, though the pending court hearings in London into the alleged torture of former Mau-Mau prisoners might change that. I presume you have seen the replica Of The Golden Hind by the Thames. I think that walk, one that we’ve taken from London Bridge tube to Tate Modern, (for lunch) is one of the most fascinating in the capital. Along the way you pass Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market, the Golden Hind replica, the old Clink prison, the Globe Theatre, M’Lord Foster’s wobbly bridge and the odd pub or two.
  5. Did this this morning and found it quite difficult. Held up in the SE because I had SINNING instead of INNINGS. I’ll have to take ACTION=”influence” on trust. I’m not familiar with any context where that holds. But FR******ALLY didn’t allow any other options.I knew SPROG because I once covered classes for a teacher who had habitually referred to them as “sprogs”. The kids asked me what it meant so I had to look it up for them. FRANCIS DRAKE was my first in. My COD. 44 minutes.

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