Saturday Times 26508 (3rd Sept)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 13:46. Quite UK-centric in places, but nothing too difficult. I can’t remember now what slowed me down. Maybe just took a while to get the brain into solving mode.

Across
1 Composer of royal line, one appearing in Dickens (7)
BERLIOZ – ER (royal) + L(ine) + I (one), all inside BOZ (pseudonym of Charles Dickens, e.g. Sketches by Boz, his first published work).
5 Headgear that’s even better (4,3)
FLAT CAP – FLAT (even) + CAP (better).
9 Attention seeker: large and crude? (3)
OIL – OI (attention seeker) + L(arge).
10 English town centre is redesigned with rec (11)
CIRENCESTER – (centre is, rec)*. Largest town in the Cotswolds, which nobody knows how to pronounce for sure!
11 Favour, having won the Ashes, maybe holding party on return (4,4)
GOOD TURN – GOT URN (having won the Ashes, maybe) around DO (party) reversed. Not something the Aussies have done for a while (had a party after an away win, I mean). Sorry, obligatory dig, couldn’t help it ;-). What’s remarkable at the moment is that after 134 years the scores are currently level – 32 series wins apiece with just 5 draws.
12 Instance of driving fast stream to a higher level (4-2)
BURN-UP – BURN (stream) + UP (to a higher level).
15 Make lace article so long (2-2)
TA-TA – TAT (make lace) + A (article).
16 Cross following bargain that disguised covert charge (7,3)
STEALTH TAX – X (cross) after STEAL (bargain) + (that)*.
18 Daughter and I in difficult times badly treated (4,4,2)
HARD DONE BY – D(aughter) + ONE (I) inside HARD (difficult), BY (times).
19 A bishop – and from the east, too (4)
ABBA – A + B(ishop), in two directions. Nothing to do with a Swedish pop group, but a brilliant &lit, as Chambers tells me this is the word for a bishop in the Syriac or Coptic Orthodox Church (so definitely from the East – at least from where I’m standing).
22 Girl volunteers to assume position of director (6)
THELMA – TA (Territorial Army, volunteers) around HELM (position of director).
23 Airport ID check of men confused by this revelation? (8)
STANSTED – if Stan’s Ted, who the hell is Andy? I’m confused. Fun clue though! It’s London’s third airport, mainly used by low-cost carriers such as RyanAir.
25 Standard piece many Americans need for cars? (7,4)
PARKING LOTS – PAR (standard) + KING (piece, chess) + LOTS (many). Definition’s a bit contrived to fit the surface I thought.
27 Hairstyle with no front or back (3)
FRO – AFRO (hairstyle) minus the first letter. As in “to and fro”.
28 It’s specially applied with a waxy strip (7)
TAXIWAY – (it, a waxy)*. Definition as in “airstrip” I suppose.
29 Footballers not coming back on at any time (7)
EVERTON – NOT reversed, next to EVER (at any time). Football club based in Liverpool. I hope they get relegated (I’m a Saints fan and they nicked our manager Ronald Koeman). I’ll forgo the rant I was about to type…

Down
1 Bore believed to possess tip of copper (7)
BROUGHT – BOUGHT (believed) around (coppe)R. A “tip” of a word can come at either end.
2 Mathematics principle extremely useful, therefore tossed about (4,2,5)
RULE OF THREE – (useful, therefore)*. I’m no mathematician, but I’d heard of it. I’ll let Wikipedia explain it.
3 Some pathetic niggle, the wrong way to provoke (6)
INCITE – hidden reversed in “pathetic niggle”.
4 Love sailor’s “unfit for duty” designation? (4,6)
ZERO RATING – ZERO (love) + RATING (sailor). I think this is to do with tax, i.e. something with a zero rating doesn’t have any VAT or duty.
5 Music from play: Bruckner’s fifth (4)
FUNK – FUN (play) + K (5th letter of Bruckner).
6 Promotion match gets you fit (8)
ADEQUATE – AD (promotion) + EQUATE (match).
7 Poisonous gas: time to find shelter (3)
COT – CO (carbon monoxide, poisonous gas) + T(ime).
8 Substitute for Crystal Palace, possibly to contract muscles audibly (7)
PERSPEX – sounds like “purse pecs” (contract muscles).
13 No way to attack, after raising one stick (3,1,3,2,2)
NOT A BIT OF IT – TO + FIT (attack), after I (one) + BATON (stick) reversed.
14 Talk broadcast in its entirety that top breeders dig? (6,4)
RABBIT HOLE -RABBIT (talk) + HOLE (sounds like “whole”, in its entirety).
17 Maid I’ve corrupted with disapproving attitude (1,3,4)
A DIM VIEW – (maid I’ve)* + W(ith).
18 Husband on getting lift heads to popular club? (7)
HOTSPOT – H(usband) + TOPS (heads) + TO, both reversed.
20 Like unknown soldier, holding military award etc (3,2,2)
AND SO ON – ANON (like unknown soldier) around DSO (Distinguished Service Order, military award).
21 Eastern river reportedly cut off from land (6)
ENISLE – E(astern) + sounds like “Nile”.
24 My blog put up, periodically offensive (4)
UGLY – alternate letters of “my blog put”, reversed.
26 Boy‘s touching kiss (3)
REX – RE (touching) + X (kiss).

26 comments on “Saturday Times 26508 (3rd Sept)”

  1. Struggled with this – well over my 30m target at 55m. And a DNF to boot as I couldn’t get near ENISLE (never come across it before and trying to think of a river -INASEE anyone?). Not sure why I struggled; wavelength thing I guess. Thanks for the blog.
  2. Nice steady solve, I enjoyed 23ac but thought it sounded a little bit contrived.

    You make UK-centricity sound like a fault, Andy! … you obviously voted remain 🙂 … but I prefer to see a bit of local character retained, myself, in this global society

    I wasn’t familiar with the “rule of three,” which to me sounds like a rather high-falutin’ description of a very basic arithmetic manoeuvre. I mean (to update the Wiki example) if x metres of cloth costs y pence, you can see at a glance that z metres will cost X/Y x Z, you don’t need a special rule for that!

      1. ?

        If Xm costs Yp, then 1m will cost Y/X and any length Z will cost Y/X x Z .. simples.

        (X/Y above was a typo)

        .. the Wiki entry makes it seem very complicated

          1. Ah yes, of course … d’oh!

            Drapers (do they have such things still?) used to have one built into the counter top

  3. I persevered to a full 45 minutes, almost three times my par score, only to discover that it was of barely moderate difficulty, judging by the usual suspects.
    Does anyone know how to get out of “tough solve” mode when it just isn’t?
    2. You obviously haven’t tried today’s?

      I just gave up with shedloads to solve and looked up the answers. Thank goodness I didn’t waste my life trying to complete it.

  4. Spent a long time before finally getting this out. Expected level of difficulty for a Saturday, but even if it was a struggle there were many good clues such as ZERO RATING, OIL, BERLIOZ and my favourite STANSTED. Didn’t know 21 and hadn’t come across the term at 16, but wordplay helped both.

    For me at least, tough but worth the effort.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  5. 39 minutes. The answer to 23 was biffed and the eventual explanation seems a bit tenuous. Okay as a one-off, but setters, please don’t include this sort of thing too often. Needed J for a pangram.

    Edited at 2016-09-10 08:04 am (UTC)

    1. I wrote at the time that 23 was either brilliant or punch the screen terrible. I’m still not decided, though you have to admire the setter’s chutzpah for even trying it.
      1. And I replied thinking you meant 19ac! Sorry. I didn’t think 23 was either, although I tend to prefer clues where the wordplay is useful, rather than something you have to reverse-engineer after biffing the answer.
        I did enjoy this one though.

        Edited at 2016-09-10 08:38 am (UTC)

  6. My biggest concern on STANSTED was how to spell it! STANSTEAD looked better so STAN and TED had to wait a bit longer for take off.

    COD 21dn ENISLE as I got it early in the play.

    I was about 35 mins.

    And now the mighty reds will put the ‘noisy neighbours’ to the sword.

    horryd Shanghai

  7. There is a village called Stansted in Kent, not very far from me.. the local pub has a number of stories about bemused travellers with suitcases wanting to know where to check in..
  8. Nice puzzle. Thanks Andy. How DO you pronounce the un-spellable Cotswolds town?
    And, can someone help me with bore = brought ?

    Edited at 2016-09-10 12:04 pm (UTC)

    1. If your bear something you carry or bring it, so if you bore something you carried or brought it.

      On the town, Andy has put a link. I was taught to say it as “sister” but have also heard of “sisister”. It seems now accepted that its okay to say “siren-sester” as its spelling might suggest.

      Edited at 2016-09-10 01:12 pm (UTC)

      1. I am quite old and for the last 25 years have lived within 10 miles of “siren sester” as it is universally pronounced. For the first few years of my life it was pronounced “cor in i um”,
  9. I found this an accessible test for a Saturday and after getting stuck in was able to complete it fairly quickly (i.e. within a day).
    I guessed Enisle, unknown, but clear from the clue.
    All the English geography was known to me so Stansted went in but am still puzzled how it works -are there several Stans and one Ted?
    Enjoyed it and a good test for the aspiring solver -unlike today’s which I have spent 15 minutes on and have put aside as too hard. And now to the Manchester derby. David
  10. Went to school fairly near Cirencester, so no problem there. I thought the RULE OF THREE must be that any number divisible by 3 also has the sum of its digits divisible by three. Not some trivial algebraic identity. I biffed STANSTED and never got how the rest of the clue was meant to work. Maybe “Kubrick is Heath” would have made it clearer.
  11. This was a pangram for us, having 25a “ parking joes “ , joes being many Americans , and these joes also needed to park one’s car in the crammed parking garages in places like New York!

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