Saturday Times 25777 (3rd May)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time a dismal 26:11, when I finally got around to it on Thursday night. I’ll blame tiredness, as going through the clues again now I don’t see the difficulty. Not much else to say, so on with the puzzle…

Across
1 What’s represented by mus or xis not a current issue (4,6)
BACK NUMBER – cryptic indication in the answer, probably easier than intended as I doubt if many people failed to spot the reversal of the Greek letters in the clue.
6 Speaker’s full agreement (4)
PACT – sounds like “packed” (full).
10 Allow no time at all for worker to rise (7)
EMPOWER – TEMP (worker) + TOWER (rise), both without the T.
11 One animal clipped before another on farm – it occurs twice a year (7)
EQUINOX – EQUIN(e) (one farm animal clipped) + OX (another).
12 Man shooting on street bags one more stiff (9)
STARCHIER – ARCHER (man shooting) next to ST(reet), around I (one).
13 Lacking in interest nowadays, and spirit (5)
DRYAD – DRY (lacking in interest) + AD (nowadays).
14 Country home beyond mountain (5)
BENIN – IN (home) after BEN (mountain).
15 Secondary fencing involved man coming round with cutting equipment (9)
LAWNMOWER – LOWER (secondary) around [(man)* around W(ith)].
17 Embarrassed, left abandoning colonist’s best friend? (3,6)
RED SETTER – RED (embarrassed) + SETTLER (colonist), minus the L for left.
20 Last five of nine-month term in French city? (5)
NANCY – take the last 5 letters of PREGNANCY (nine-month term).
21 Veteran squaddie not taking sides (5)
OLDIE – remove the first and last letters (the sides) of SOLDIER. I’m sure an identical clue appeared elsewhere last week.
22 Electrical devices consumer introduced to theatres (9)
REPEATERS – EATER (consumer) inside REPS (theatres).
25 Choir travelling round North on British Airways (7)
BRONCHI – (choir)* around N(orth), next to B(ritish).
26 Metal I’d identified primarily pinched by one suspect (7)
IRIDIUM – I’D + I(dentified), inside I (one), RUM (suspect).
27 Walk back without beginning to cry (4)
YELL – ALLEY (walk), minus the first letter and reversed.
28 One enterprise going west with wicked witch around? (5,5)
WHITE MAGIC – I (one) + GAME (enterprise), all reversed inside (witch)*. &lit, as the definition is the whole clue.

1 Bishop withdrawing praise (5)
BLESS – B(ishop) + LESS (withdrawing).
2 Led like Batman catching train – Robin’s first to go (9)
CAPTAINED – CAPED (like Batman) around TRAIN, minus the R.
3 Identity removed for Queen in secret after latest PR event (4,10)
NEWS CONFERENCE – CONFIDENCE (secret) with ER (queen) replacing ID, all after NEWS (latest).
4 Bellicose poet of ancient times (7)
MARTIAL – double definition, the second a Roman poet famous for his satirical epigrams. We were a given a few of the less lewd ones to translate in O-Level Latin.
5 Strange bore in river rising – it does so at surprising times (7)
EYEBROW – (bore)* inside WYE (river) reversed.
7 Simple refusal stops a bit of bother (5)
ANNOY – NO (simple refusal) inside ANY (a bit of).
8 Team in trade adapted my way of stuffing goose etc (9)
TAXIDERMY – XI (team) inside (trade)* + MY.
9 To support ace intellectual I’m adopting singular orthodoxy (14)
FUNDAMENTALISM – FUND (support) + A(ce) + MENTAL (intellectual) + I’M around S(ingular).
14 Itinerant trader‘s youngster in Cumbria? (6,3)
BARROW BOY – double definition. Barrow (or Barrow-in-Furness to give its full name) is a Cumbrian seaport.
16 On the way down, holding up angry looking vagrant (9)
WANDERING – WANING (on the way down) around RED (angry looking) reversed.
18 Stain bottom of post with gloss, not top (7)
TARNISH – (pos)T + VARNISH (gloss), minus the first letter.
19 To provide fresh cover for agent isn’t common (7)
REPAINT – REP (agent) + AIN’T (isn’t common).
22 After reflection ruler imprisons old slaver (5)
DROOL – LORD (ruler) reversed, around O(ld).
24 Shrub from south porter originally removed from college grounds (5)
SUMAC – CAMPUS (college grounds) minus the P for porter and reversed (from south).

11 comments on “Saturday Times 25777 (3rd May)”

  1. 35-40′; slowed myself down by dumb things like looking for an IX in 8d. Didn’t know where Barrow is, but the checkers settled matters. I couldn’t parse 10ac; stuck on ‘ant’, and never thought of ‘tower’. There were some lovely surfaces, e.g. 5d, 20ac, 25ac, although I think my COD would be 9d.
  2. 24 minutes so a very rare sub-Andy and a confidence boost after yesterday’s travails. Didn’t quite get withdrawing=less but see it can just about pass the substitution test in phrases such as 500 pounds less tax. Sumac as well as oldie (similarly clued) have turned up recently, which helped the time. My favourite was DROOL.
  3. 17 mins. NANCY was my LOI after WANDERING. I liked the clue for EYEBROW.
  4. Dozed off in the first session with about half the clues solved. Struggled to finish on resumption the next day. No overall time but far too long.
  6. Managed to get this one out eventually, in between other weekend activities. Pleased with that, as I now seem to be completing the Saturday offering more often than not. Is the Saturday one generally a bit easier than the weekday puzzles, or is it just that I’m less mentally drained than I am on a weekday evening after 12 hours of cat herding?

    Did not know SUMAC, but managed to work out it had to be that from the checkers and wordplay – LOI.

    COD for me was BARROW BOY – raised a chuckle. It also triggered memory of an Australian mate who was struggling to recollect the name of (what turned out to be) Barrow-In-Furness, and came up with “something like wheelbarrow on fire…”

    Edited at 2014-05-10 10:57 pm (UTC)

    1. I thought this was at the easier end of the spectrum, but in general I don’t find the Saturday puzzles to be easier/harder than any other day of the week. Like you say, though, how frazzled you are mentally can play a big part in your crosswording performance so it may well be that weekday evenings aren’t your peak solving times. Have you thought about reshuffling your life to take this into account? 😉

      SUMAC crops up every few months or so (in the Times and other daily cryptics) so is worth remembering.

      1. Thanks for the observations.

        You’d make a splendid “life coach”: with unerring aim you have gone straight to the heart of the matter!

        I have tucked SUMAC away for future use. I suspect it could also be invoked with some kind of “reverse Albert” type of clue…

  7. A fairly easy go of it but wrote in DROLL by mistake on submitting. No more typos I sware.

    Edited at 2014-05-11 03:47 am (UTC)

  8. Is RISING doing double-duty in the clue for 5 dn? You have the definition underlined as “it does so at surprising times” which, to me, doesn’t seem to define eyebrow.

    Rob

    1. I see what you mean, but my interpretation is that it’s not so much doing double-duty as being referred back to by the definition, which is a subordinate clause in the surface reading.

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