Saturday Times 24137 (Jan 31)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 20:25 – a bit on the slow side, but this was quite tricky in places (I seem to remember…looking back on it now I can’t see where I got stuck).

Across
1 DAMAGED GOODS – DAM + AGED + (dog so)*
9 AFTER – (r)AFTER
10 METHADONE – MET HAD ONE, MET being short for the Metropolitan Police.
11 EARPHONE – EARP + HONE. I suppose “work on” can equate to sharpen…
12 CARNAL – (waite)R inside CANAL.
13 SPIFFING – S(on) + PIFF(l)ING.
15 DIVING – double definition, in football “diving” means pretending to be fouled, as perfected by Jurgen Klinsmann and practised by practically every player in the Premiership!
17 DRY ICE – DRY + ICE (= rocks as in “whisky on the rocks”, something you’ll never hear a Scotsman ask for). Liked the definition, “old disco release”. I suppose Health & Safety won’t let them any more.
18 LISTLESS – nice cryptic definition for the wordplay.
20 SLEEVE – always useful in emergencies when you haven’t got a hankie! Remember when records used to come in sleeves rather than jewel cases or digipaks?
21 BLACK TIE – BLACK + TIE
24 SAVILE ROW – (rucku)S + A VILE ROW. “Fitting way” is a neat definition.
25 VALID – V(essel) + A LID.
26 RECORD PLAYER – could be a description of Shane Warne, but it’s another type of spinner required.

Down
1 DIAPERS – REP in SAID, all reversed.
2 MATERNITY LEAVE – (relative yet man)*.
3 GIRTH – (right)*
4 DOMINANT – double definition. A dominant note is “the fifth above the tonic”, whatever that means!
5 OATH – OAT + H(eroin).
6 DRAMATIST – DRAM + A(r)TIST
7 COINCIDENTALLY – COIN + CID, then TALLY underneath EN (a printer’s measure).
8 JET LAG – JET (black) + LAG (prisoner).
14 FACE VALUE – ACE (fine) + VA (state) inside FLUE.
16 WILLOWED – ILL inside WOWED.
17 DESIST – (cassi)S inside DEIST.
19 SLENDER – S + LENDER.
22 CAVIL – CAVI(ty) + L, “object” being used as a verb.
23 ARNO – hidden in “TamAR NOrmally”. River in Italy, not Cornwall.

13 comments on “Saturday Times 24137 (Jan 31)”

  1. Got about half here with a couple of mistakes in 1d and 11a that on inspection only fitted half the clues.
    Didn’t get 4d which as a musician of 32 years is appalling: the tonic note is the key you’re in and the fifth means five notes up in the scale. So the dominant in C major is G (C,D,E,F,G) and in G is D (G,A,B,C,D). Why can I understand that and not the rest of the clues??!
  2. A straightforward puzzle solved from NW to SE corner just steadily plugging away – about 25 minutes. Nothing remarkable or troublesome. I do think Saturday puzzles should be a little spicier. We had a run of good ones but now we’re back in the land of the bland – as witnessed by today’s which is even easier than this one.
    1. Maybe you’re just getting too good at them, Jimbo! I can’t say I found this one, nor this week’s Saturday puzzle, particularly easy and if they regularly gave me more trouble than these did I might be discouraged from bothering with them. But if it’s the quality of cluing that’s the problem, then that’s another matter of course.
      1. It’s strange Jack but since I’ve been participating in this blog and particularly since I’ve been blogging the daily cryptic and Mephisto I have “got better at it”. I think I had become stale and very lazy. The blog has brought me back to close to how I used to be years ago – still not quite as fast but certainly more accurate.

        Particularly on a Saturday I like clues that are not just mundane run of the mill stuff but have a little piquancy.

        I have been unable to get into the Times Crossword site today. Is it just my turn or have you also had trouble?

        1. I have been granted a magic pass to the Crossword Club, Jimbo, which expires on Wednesday, and I have had no difficulty accessing it today. I doubt today’s ST puzzle would detain you for more than 3 minutes. I finished it in 12, solving every clue on first reading.
  3. I was held up mightily by putting (l)INTEL at 9, thinking intelligence could arrive by post, which rather queered Old Trafford (my NW pitch). Couldn’t make 3 work at all, which should always ring alarm bells that you’ve been an idiot. Other than that no major difficulties. I’m with you in thinking SAVILE ROW, DRY ICE and LISTLESS were clever and also liked DAMAGED GOODS & SPIFFING. And I second Jimbo’s motion on today’s.

    The fifth plays a dominant role (no pun intended, ha!) in the cycle of fifths, so beloved of Bach and other Baroque composers and Country & Western musicians (change key!), without which we wouldn’t have the even or well tempered scale we have today. My scales are always on the angry side these days. Age and C&W music (is that not an oxymoron?) will do that to you.

  4. I hadn’t written a general comment about this which I guess means there wasn’t much to say.

    I didn’t fully understand the wordplay to 9 and 22 until coming here so thanks Linxit.

    I put a smiley face against record player for being a fun clue, but gave dry ice my COD for the neat definition.

  6. Don’t know much about football, but thought maybe RIDING would be unsportsmanlike, so got that wrong.
  7. 45 minutes here with 15ac unsolved. I know very little about soccer and I’m tempted to cry “Foul” at this one because the checking letters leave too many possibilities.

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