Saturday Times 26040 (7th March)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
The last two weeks have been hard work for me, and I’ve hardly touched a crossword (the pile is mounting up, although I did manage to clear some of the backlog over the last couple of days). Can’t honestly remember much about this one, other than the goof with BELLETRIST mentioned below.

Across
1 One involved in brewing some hot drink (8)
SMOOTHIE – I (one) inside (some hot)*
6 A botanical garden’s told to charge (6)
ACCUSE – sounds like A KEW’S.
9 Group of soldiers disheartened in the dark (4)
UNIT – UNLIT (in the dark) without the middle letter (“disheartened”).
10 Detective with girl that may be seen in bed (4,6)
BUSY LIZZIE – BUSY (detective – crossword slang) + LIZZIE (girl). Another name for Impatiens.
11 Serb with little novel could be elegant writer (10)
BELLETRIST – (Serb, little)*. This messed me up, as I stuck in LIBRETTIST without counting the number of I’s, T’s and L’s! Anyway, this should have an extra T in my book, although both spellings are acceptable apparently.
13 Representative of victory in retreat from Mafeking (4)
NIKE – hidden reversed in Mafeking.
14 Judge recollected routine property settlement (8)
JOINTURE – J(udge) + (routine)*.
16 Call for extremely large part of gramophone (6)
NEEDLE – NEED (call for) + L(arg)E.
18 Jacket’s back on book after much delay (2,4)
AT LAST – (jacke)T next to ATLAS (book).
20 Pardon a scoundrel outside pub (8)
ALEHOUSE – EH (pardon) inside A LOUSE (scoundrel).
22 Area as seen in the shade (4)
AQUA – A(rea) + QUA (as).
24 Rickety vehicle upset some when reversing (10)
RATTLETRAP – RATTLE (upset) + PART (some) reversed.
26 Entertainers can’t spread crackers (3-7)
TAP-DANCERS – (can’t spread)*
28 Syrian city switching leaders for resistance (4)
OHMS – HOMS (Syrian city) with the first two letters swapped.
29 Coppers possibly dress differently (6)
CHANGE – double definition.
30 Very unusual cards I found in novel (8)
FREAKISH – A,K (cards) + I, inside FRESH (novel).

Down
2 Starter in mess with an excuse for a vegetable (9)
MANGETOUT – M(ess) + AN + GET OUT (excuse). Not sure in what context “get out” can mean “excuse”. Ah, got it. A get-out (e.g. clause) might be an excuse.
3 Old sailors often held up bird (7)
ORTOLAN – O(ld) + RN (sailors) around A LOT (often) reversed.
4 Cover for nun may be established custom (5)
HABIT – double definition.
5 Pirate turning up endlessly in river (3)
EMS – SMEE (pirate, Captain Hook’s bosun in Peter Pan), reversed and last letter removed. A German river.
6 Without warning Arthur initially, Lancelot is false (3,2,4)
ALL AT ONCE – A(rthur) + (Lancelot)*.
7 Artist at Green Gables, perhaps, wasting hours? (7)
CÉZANNE – CHEZ ANNE (at Green Gables perhaps), minus the H for hours. Ref. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery.
8 Lizard with small thing to be ironed out? (5)
SKINK – S(mall) + KINK (thing to be ironed out).
12 Loose one succeeding without a cent (7)
INEXACT – I (one) + NEXT (succeeding) around A C(ent).
15 Complete East African party brought in, it’s said (9)
UTTERANCE – UTTER (complete) + E(ast) around ANC (African party).
17 Monks with small chum in holiday location (3,6)
LAS PALMAS – LAMAS (monks) around S(mall) PAL (chum).
19 Lack of inhibition in desert (7)
ABANDON – double definition.
21 Unconscious butcher’s prognosis (7)
OUTLOOK – OUT (unconscious) + LOOK (butcher’s).
23 Put down drink, scratching head (5)
QUASH – SQUASH (drink), minus the first letter.
25 Cotton wool is lethal to some extent (5)
LISLE – hidden in “wool is lethal”.
27 Sprite with oddly neglected sex life (3)
ELF – alternate letters of “sex life”.

15 comments on “Saturday Times 26040 (7th March)”

  1. Found this a tough one. Missed out on MANGETOUT (excellent now it’s explained) and JOINTURE (never heard of it despite having a law degree!)

    Thanks for the blog Andy – hope the missus is OK and that things are easing for you.

  2. 19:25. 11ac held me up too because I put in BELETTRIST at first. It looks very wrong to me without two Ts in the middle, but I’ve never heard it before so what do I know?!
    I didn’t know the river but I know Smee all too well, having suffered various versions of Peter Pan over the last couple of years, including one at Richmond Theatre where Captain Hook was played by the Fonz. Happy days.
  3. 27 mins. I had brain freeze again and spent the last 7 mins on the AQUA/QUASH crossers. Count me as another who wanted 11ac to be “librettist” until I checked the anagram fodder. Once all the checkers were in place I entered BELLETRIST and when I went to my Chambers post-solve I was glad to see it was one of the acceptable spellings of the word. Like Keriothe I knew “Smee” so EMS went in confidently, although I had either forgotten or didn’t know the river.
  4. 16.14 so no great trouble with this. the EMS river features in one of my favourite books – erskine childers’s riddle of the sands. there’s also the name of the spa town bad ems, which always used to make me giggle although i suppose it’s no funnier than bath. a JOINTURE was the provision for the widow, along with the dower house, in marriage settlements among moneyed families back when. now it seems to be covered by pre-nups – or not if current headlines are to be believed.

    i hope mrs. linxit is doing better. i’d be happy to temp for you andy this time next week if that would help.

  5. Re 28a until you have the checking letters could the answer be homs or ohms -ie can it be read as take ohms, switch the letters and you get homs?
    1. I don’t think so in this case, as to me the word “for” in the clue points to the definition.
  6. This was yet another in a long and continuing run of difficult solves for me, and once again I needed to resort to aids at the end for BELLETRIST though I had vaguely heard of it. Uknowns were SKINK, AQUA (as a colour without ‘marine’), ‘Homs'(only needed for explaining wordplay as OHMS was obvious).
  7. I actually was involved in barring an entail (must have been one of the last) when I was a trust solicitor in London in the early 1980s. My client was a baronet whose father had barred the entail when my client was 21 and he was doing the same so that he could divide the spoils with his own son. My client showed me the letter he had received when he was 21 and carefully preserved with the words, “I want you to read this but I know you charge £60 an hour, so read it quickly”. Those were the days…(£60 an hour!)
    1. Sorry, that was me. Sue Sweeper (out of plaster and making good progress – how are you Olivia?)
      1. where were you? i was briefly at Farrers one summer aged 20ish in the early 70s before taking the bar exam. someone in the mail room sent the then lord elphinstone the remains of a jam sandwich and i was the unfortunate one to field the ensuing phone call. glad to hear you’re doing ok. i’m still encased. 2 weeks to go and counting.

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