Saturday Times 24233 (May 23rd)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
12:33, so not too difficult, but a good puzzle nevertheless. I had one minor quibble with 9A, otherwise sound surface readings throughout and a few very good clues.

Across
1 MISFIELD – M.I.’S FIELD, where M.I. stands for Military Intelligence. The definition is nothing to do with false passports etc though – it’s a cricket term, cover being a fielding position.
9 ABORTIVE – (vibrato)* + (voic)E. Strange choice of anagrind – I think perhaps “unsound” would have improved the surface (and been a better anagrind anyway).
10 SCREW-TOP – CREW in STOP
11 POMANDER – PONDER around MA. Good clue – I always think of my late grandmother when I see the word “pomander” for some reason, although more for the clove-studded orange variety.
12 MEDICAMENT – PREDICAMENT with the PR (pair) swapped for an M.
14 DIDO – “Dai” + “dough”. Legendary queen of Carthage. One of the texts I had to study for Latin O-level was Virgil’s Aeneid, so I was familiar with her.
15 MACHETE – (Teach me)*
17 WESTERN – “WE STERN” is (sort of) the opposite of “you bow”. Quite an innovative clue, but definitely of the “get the answer, then figure out how it works” variety.
21 LYNX – “links”. I wasn’t aware lynxes were renowned for their eyesight, but Chambers gives an adjective “lyncean” meaning “lynx-like; sharp-sighted”.
22 MOUNTEBANK – BANK (rely), on = next to (often used when switching the order around, as it doesn’t imply which one comes first) MOUNT(i)E
23 PREDATOR – PREDAT(e) + OR
25 THORACIC – HORAC(e) inside TIC
26 NEPALESE – NEE around PALES. A pale is a limit as in the phrase “beyond the pale”.
27 RELIEVED – E(nergy) inside RELIVED.

Down
2 IN CAMERA – double definition.
3 FIENDISH – FISH around (END + I). One of the difficulty categories for Sudoku – first mention in a Times crossword?
4 EATS – SEAT with the S dropped to the bottom.
5 DAPPLED – APPLE inside DD (a big bra cup size). One that made me smile.
6 COMMITMENT – COMMENT around M + IT
7 WILDLIFE – the answer could be a cryptic indication of “file”.
8 WEAR DOWN – DOWN (a chalk hill in SE England) under WEAR (a river in NE England), so it’s highly unlikely that the surface reading would be possible!
13 ANTIMATTER – A + (TIM in NATTER). I’m sure the physicists at CERN would disagree with the definition part.
15 MILLPOND – MIND around LL + PO. The ubiquitous cryptic river returns.
16 CONTEMPT – CONT(e) around TEMP.
18 TABULATE – TABU + LATE
19 RINGSIDE – RING + SIDE
20 QUARTER – clever double definition. “A small piece of” and “deadly action after draw”, as in “hang, draw and quarter”.
24 COWL – W(ife) inside COL.

3 comments on “Saturday Times 24233 (May 23rd)”

  1. 32 minutes for this, so it was one of my better recent efforts. No quibbles. No queries.
  3. My main memory of this crossword was trying to do it on a plane while an infrquent flyer sat next to me, staring at my crossword and interrupting every answer with “how do you get THAT from THAT”, a slight explanation, and “I would NEVER have gotten that”, then back to staring at my grid like it was the last profiterole in the pile.

    I think her head exploded when I finished (to a fan club of “Well done, what will you do now?”), smiled, and went to my next print-out, Listener 4035.

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