Saturday Times 24329 (12 Sep)

linxit19th September 2009 at 9:43 AM10 September 2025Weekend Cryptic

Solving time 10:27. A bit of light relief for me after the strain of blogging a run of really tricky Saturday puzzles. Still, there was not much wrong with this apart from being at the easier end of the spectrum, and 26A was brilliant.

Across
1	HEAVENLY BODY – double definition, cryptically referring to topless models appearing in the pages of certain tabloids.
9	AMASS – AS (when) around MAS.
10	TELEPHONE – (help)* + ON (acting) inside TEE. “Use this” is a bit weak as the definition though.
11	SPACE AGE – SAGE around PACE.
12	FRIDGE – F(ine) + RIDGE
13	TEETHING – cryptic definition.
15	AURORA – hidden in MinotAUR OR Ariadne
17	OFF PAT – OFF + PAT
18	COME INTO – C + (emotion)*
20	SONATA – SON AT A
21	PUNDITRY – IT in DR, all inside PUNY
24	FETTUCINI – CUTTE(r) reversed in FINI.
25	BLISS – Sir Arthur Bliss, and the saying “ignorance is bliss”, which is originally a phrase from the poem Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College by Thomas Gray.
26	UNTHINKINGLY – UNTHIN + KINGLY. Easily my COD – made me laugh anyway.

Down
1	HEADSET – DEAD SET with the first D changed to H.
2	AT A RATE OF KNOTS – (a tanker too fast)*. The word “thus” at the end prevents it from being a true &lit, but it’s still a good anagram.
3	ENSUE – ENSU(r)E
4	LITIGANT – (a tilting)*. Nice use of “courtly” there, taking us back to the Age of Chivalry.
5	BALD – first letters of “Blunt And Lacking Delicacy”.
6	DEPARTURE – double definition.
7	GOOD-FOR-NOTHING – turn OUT into GUT by replacing O for G.
8	GENEVA – (avenge)*
14	HEARTBURN – HEAR (try) + TURN (fit of illness) around B(ergamot).
16	LOCUTION – O + CUT inside LION (the international rugby team is the British Lions).
17	OSSIFY – first and last letters of “OwnerS ShanghaI FactorY”.
19	ODYSSEY – O(ld) + DYE around SS + Y(ear).
22	DUBAI – DUB A1
23	HIGH – “Hi!”

6 comments on “Saturday Times 24329 (12 Sep)”

dorsetjimbo says:

19 September 2009 at 11:29 AM

Yes, an easy one after a good run of Saturday puzzles. I also choked on my toast as I tried to laugh and eat at the same time with our favourite Tudor monarch.

Your respite hasn’t lasted very long Linxit. Today’s is altogether much tougher!
vinyl1 says:

19 September 2009 at 12:59 PM

The one that gave me trouble was ‘off pat’; in the US we say ‘down pat’. Fortuntely I had learnt ‘at a rate of knots’ from previous puzzles.

I do admit that ‘unthinkingly’ amused me as well, although it took me a surprisingly long time to come up with.

Now Sir Arthur Bliss, there’s a composer you don’t hear of every day. I wonder how many solvers could name a work by him? I can only think of the incidental music to ‘Things to Come’.
kororareka says:

19 September 2009 at 1:25 PM

Another vote for UNTHINKINGLY as a cracker, but also AT A RATE OF KNOTS and GOOD-FOR-NOTHING. The latter held me up for some time because I marked the grid 5-3-6 and couldn’t think what to make of the clue except violin strings were made of gut, so GOODY-OWN-STRING was about all that would fit. Strangely, I had never heard of that expression. Also was puzzled by TELEPHONE, which I think was my 2nd last in, along with BALD. You could see I was having a bad day.
1. vinyl1 says:
  
  19 September 2009 at 7:01 PM
  
  I vaguely remember putting in ‘good-for-nothing’ based on the literal, but I can’t remember if I saw the cryptic or not.
  
  That’s the trouble with these week-later blogs, it’s just not fresh in your mind any more.
jon88 says:

19 September 2009 at 3:22 PM

I’m told that the clue for 10a was supposed to be connected to 9a (When to ring mothers collect …), and so should have started “… use this”.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I gave UNTHINKINGLY an 11.
kororareka says:

20 September 2009 at 4:08 AM

Thank you for that; 10’s connection with 9 would make much more sense of it. Knowing that the online version has trouble reproducing ellipses at the start of a clue, I should have been more alert to the possibility. On any other day, I may have been.

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