Saturday Times 24777 (19th Feb)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 24:20, which makes this one a bit harder than average. A really good puzzle though, full of inventive and witty definitions and clever wordplay – some of which I hadn’t worked out until I came to do the blog!

Across
1 PIGSTY – PITY around G(eneral) S(ecretary).
4 FLIP-FLOP – FLIP (scaled-down version of blast, i.e. a very mild expletive) + FLOP (bomb, like an unsuccessful film). Great clue.
10 SPOT-CHECK – SPOT (spy) + CHECK (threat on (chess) board).
11 ROWER – ROW (racket) + ER
12 GENTEEL – GEN (book, Genesis) + TEE (space for driver) + L (one being instructed). Sneaky use of two meanings of driver in the wordplay, but perfectly fair. Having said that, I’m not too keen on “book” to indicate an abbreviation of one of the books of the Bible, but it’s a fairly common practice.
13 IN A WORD – (Darwin so)*, minus the “Origin” of Species.
14 APPRO – hidden in ChAP PROducing.
15 NOONTIDE – O (cipher) + N.T. (books) + I’D, all inside (one)*.
18 PUFFBALL – PUFF (boost) + BALL (slug).
20 SICKO – hidden reversed in alternate letters of “fOlK‘s ChInS“.
23 QUAFFED – QUA (as) + F(emale) + FED.
25 MUMBLES – M.B. inside MULES.
26 IDAHO – HAD reversed inside IO (one of Jupiter’s satellites).
27 A BIT THICK – HABIT (practice) + TICK (second), with the H moved along to be inside TICK. I only figured out how this worked while writing the blog this morning.
28 TOENAILS – “tone” AILS.
29 PHOTON – P(ressure) + HOT + ON (leg side in cricket).

Down
1 POSTGRAD – LENINGRAD (the name of St Petersburg from 1924-1991), with LENIN (his ruler) replaced by POST (piece of wood).
2 GROWN-UP – “groan” + UP (cheered).
3 TICKED OFF – TICKED (as correct answers are) + OFF (not working).
5 LIKE IT OR LUMP IT – (pike out till rim)*. Obviously an anagram, but it took me ages to work it out.
6 PARKA – (S)PARK + A. Muriel Spark, novelist probably best-known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I didn’t even know she was dead!
7 LAW LORD – (a word LL)*, the L’s for Liberals.
8 PARODY – P(lane) + AY (always) around ROD (staff).
9 DECLINE AND FALL – DECLINE (refuse) + AND (on top of) + FALL (sink). 1928 novel by Evelyn Waugh.
16 TEST MATCH – TEST (ordeal) + MATCH (something a striker must handle).
17 FORSAKEN – wingers, i.e. first and last letters, of FilipinO ReviewS AttacK ExploitatioN.
19 UNAWARE – UNA + W(ith) + ERA reversed.
21 CELLIST – C.E. + L(ead) + LIST (slate, a preliminary list of parliamentary candidates). A new meaning of slate for me.
22 SQUINT – SQUIT (a nobody) around N(ame).
24 FLORA – FLOOR A (first storey) with only one O in it.

21 comments on “Saturday Times 24777 (19th Feb)”

  1. 46 minutes, a hefty chunk of which devoted to 24 and 28. I dithered for what seemed like forever between Fiona and Flora, since I couldn’t think of a good reason for either, until it finally clicked. Like linxit, I only parsed 27 some time after getting it. 27 gets my COD, although there were a number of good, challenging clues besides: 28, 23, 24, 17.
    But I’m afraid I still don’t get the ‘flip’ of ‘flip-flop’.
    1. Kevin.
      When I was a youngster, BLAST was a frowned upon curse. FLIP was a much more acceptable thus “scaled down” version.
      I have a memory of a Kenneth Williams line from “Round The Horne” which went something like “Damn blast and drat ye who disturb ye riddler’s sprat”.
      Mike, Skiathos
  2. Thanks, Tzaneria. I had rather inferred that from linxit’s blog, but I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that one actually uttered, ‘Ah, flip!’ Seems hardly worth while losing one’s temper.
    1. Most often heard in “flippin hell” a euphamism for coarser language used in front of women to avoid them fainting. I remember my grandfather sticking a pin in his thumb when removing winkles from their shells and saying this only to get a right roasting from my grandmother for swearing in front of me!
      1. OK, ‘flippin’ I can recognize, may even have heard; but that doesn’t sound like a ‘scaled-down version of “blast”‘. Or rather, the clue didn’t call for ‘flippin’. After all, Jimbo’s grandfather, in suppressing ‘Blast!’, didn’t substitute ‘Flip!’.
  3. I’m waiting for the Antipodean-themed crossword. Then we can have “thong” or even “jandal”. And instead of “blast” we could have “strewth”! Nice clue, though, as linxit says.
    Thanks, linxit, for explaining “A bit thick”. I thought it had something to do with the “Henry” in the clue as in a “Hooray Henry” is looked on as “a bit etc”.
    Did like 1d, too. Took me ages to get it.
    Lastly, to continue Tzaneria’s Round the Horne theme, my favourite line was from one of Kenneth Horne’s introductions. He said that the Governors of the BBC had asked the writers to take the double-meaning out of the script…but they hadn’t specified which meaning.
    1. “Strewth” probably a contraction of ‘God’s truth’ as in ‘zounds’ (God’s wounds) to get around using the Lord’s name in vain. See also “geez” which is self-explanatory.
      Lots of others. Anyone?
  4. 45 minutes until I became bogged down in the SW corner which I found impenetrable and had to resort to aids. Didn’t understand about 10 of the clues and I’ve lost interest in them by now. My brain is half dead at the moment after wrestling with today’s offering. I wish difficult puzzles could be a bit more entertaining. It happens occasionally but it’s the exception rather than the rule.
    1. Finished correctly after an age, as I hope I did yesterday, though I’m not sure about one answer. I’m not well placed to comment on the enjoyment value of this puzzle (the comment on my scribble pad is ‘Hard’ and my memory is too short), but I thought yesterday’s puzzle was both challenging and very entertaining.
  6. Excellent puzzle that lasted through toast and two cups of strong coffee. Quite excited to discover that at least one Times setter has discovered The Origin of Species.
    1. I did it for you Jimbo 🙂

      Surprised so few people ever seem to have said “Oh flip!” instead of oh er something stronger even than “blast”.

  7. Just under the half hour mark for this one. Quite tricky. Thanks for the explanation of FLIP FLOP: I couldn’t figure it out.
  8. I think I was at a double disadvantage for this clue, not only lacking ‘flip(ping)’ in my dialect, but also in having parents who felt no need to use euphemisms. (And my grandmother, although deficient in English, had quite a repertoire of Russian and Yiddish expressions.)
  11. Kevin, FYI, I’ve just started a thread on censorship in the Times CC General Forum, as per our comments there on words being asterisked out.
  12. 15:40 for an exceptionally fine puzzle with lots of clever ideas. I particularly liked the “Origin of Species” clue (to IN A WORD).

    The setter’s explanation of “flip” is exactly how I use it, when I’ve started to say something stronger and then decided at the last moment to tone it down. Thinking about it I suspect I normally use “fizzle” for the same purpose – I expect my meaning is clear even if the word is not in general use as an expletive. (Hm! “flipwit”? “fizzlewit”? Possibly.)

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