Sunday Times 5216 by Robert Price

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

11:51. A mostly straightforward puzzle from Robert this week, but with a few slightly trickier bits.

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.

Across
1 Sexist receives backing of legendary primate
BIGFOOT – BIGOT containing a reversal of, er, OF. Other bigots are available!
5 We shout with glee regularly in pubs
BAWLERS – BA(W, gLeEe)RS.
9 Uniform for Nato service vessel
URN – U (Uniform in the Nato alphabet), RN (Royal Navy, service).
10 Fine subordinate found by senior winemaker?
ELDERFLOWER – ELDER (senior), F, LOWER [shudders].
11 Artisan curries prepared as appetisers
CURTAIN RAISERS – (ARTISAN CURRIES)*.
13 Swollen nut, say, turned in grease
ENLARGED – EN, LARD containing EG reversed. In printing and typesetting, an en is half the size of an em and also called a nut.
15 Knotty subject almost ending in feud
MATTED – MATTEr, feuD. As someone who is regularly called upon to deal with matting in the fur around my dog’s ears I don’t think of it as quite the same thing as knotting, but it’s close enough.
17 Marry in church after short divorce
SPLICE – SPLIt, CE.
18 Go and look — one’s entitled
LIFE PEER – LIFE (go, energy), PEER.
20 Odd habits etc incite cries to change
ECCENTRICITIES – (ETC INCITE CRIES)*.
23 Action by cartels focusing on damage
PRICE FIXING – CD, ‘damage’ here meaning cost.
24 Garden footwear with scratched edges
HOE – sHOEs.
25 Queen wearing fake ring, briefly in power
CONTROL – CON, T(R)OLl. I’m not sure CON and ‘fake’ are quite the same thing.
26 Suits and ties
MATCHES – DD, the second definition here meaning ‘marriages’. Neat!
Down
1 Sad case, half-cut, eating mostly comfort food
BLUE CHEESE – BLUE(CHEEr), caSE.
2 Voting process officer picks, not taking sides
GENERAL ELECTION – GENERAL, sELECTIONs.
3 Final letter to the Corinthians
OMEGA – CD.
4 Vintner forced to accept five hundred for set meal?
TV DINNER – (VINTNER)* containing D (500). ‘Set’ here is a noun, not an adjective.
5 Treasurer is part of a joint role originally
BURSAR – BURSA, Role. ‘A small fluid-filled sac that reduces friction between movable parts of the body, esp at joints’. Today’s new word.
6 Poison plant raising energy seizes stream
WOLFSBANE – reversal of E, NABS, FLOW.
7 Old king with the hard edge redressed
EDWARD THE EIGHTH – (WITH THE HARD EDGE)*.
8 God that’s flipping painful!
SORE – reversal of EROS. A very simple but delightful clue.
12 They should get what’s coming to them
ADDRESSEES – CD.
14 Noise on organ sounded criminal
RACKETEER – RACKET, homophone of ‘ear’.
16 Learner in his Mini suffering lack of belief
NIHILISM – (L HIS MINI)*. Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism…
19 A legal test by an upper chamber
ATRIAL – A, TRIAL. I’m slightly unsure about the use of the word ‘by’ here. Perhaps meaning ‘via’?
21 House not started, last of that block
INGOT – bINGO, thaT.
22 Saga still seen online?
EPIC – or E-PIC.

One comment on “Sunday Times 5216 by Robert Price”

  1. I ended up with a typo for GENERAL ELECTION after a leisurely but very enjoyable solve. Sorry, this is probably what you mean, but I suppose ‘by’ in 19d is to turn ATRIUM into the adjective ATRIAL as in a “left atrial contraction” = a “contraction by the left atrium”.

    I liked the top and bottom rows, though little ones can be pretty handy (think 1986) too!

    Thanks to Robert and keriothe

    Reply

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