Saturday Times 24018 (Sep 13)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 22:08

My solving times for Saturday puzzles have been getting worse and worse lately (with today’s taking even longer), but I don’t think it’s because my solving skill is waning, rather that the puzzles have been getting more fiendish. Still, it’s not false difficulty made by using obscure words, just very good clueing. Well, I wrote that earlier this morning, intending to say a bit more about the puzzle, but now I’m running late and have to get ready for the Listener 4000 dinner in Birmingham this evening, so it’s just brief explanations of how the clues worked. Hope to see a few familiar faces there, and maybe a few new ones. I’m intrigued to find out what Dave Tilley will be wearing! (see here for details).

Across
1 BESIDES – B + (r)ESIDES
5 PLUMMET – PLUM + MET
9 IGNOMINIOUS – (s)IGN + I(sland) inside OMINOUS
10 LET – double def, the first one is from tennis.
11 EXEUNT – EXE + nut*, stage direction that all should leave the stage.
12 BESTRIDE – BEST + RIDE
14 SOCIAL SCIENCE – (Iconic seals)* + C.E.
17 PARENTHETICAL – PARENT + HEAL around TIC. Definition is “intervening”, which is perhaps a bit loose.
21 RING MAIN – sounds like “wring mane”.
23 SPOT ON – POT in SON
25 TIE – TIE(r)
26 UNDERLINING – IN (opposite of “out”) inside UNDERLING
27 FOUNDER – double def, “Institution’s former” and “collapse”.
28 GINGERY – GINGER(l)Y
Down
1 BAILEY – (Lie by a)*. This was the external wall of a feudal castle.
2 SUNLESS – S + UNLESS
3 DOMINICAN – DO MINI CAN. Whenever I see “in order” in a clue I think “monks or nuns”.
4 SANE – N inside SAE (stamped addressed envelope).
5 PROPENSITY – OPENS IT inside PRY
6 UPSET – P “in USE” + T
7 MILLION – ION following MILL
8 TATTERED – TATT(l)E + RED (= warning to stop)
13 PATHFINDER – (fen hid trap)*
15 INCEPTION – C in INEPT + 1 ON
16 APERITIF – TIRE PA rev + IF
18 RONDEAU – 0 in (under a)*.
19 LATTICE – L + ATTIC + E
20 SNUGLY – GUN rev. inside SLY
22 MOULD – not exactly a double def or a cryptic def. More of a straight def with a cryptic hint.
24 CRAG – C + RAG

8 comments on “Saturday Times 24018 (Sep 13)”

  1. You’re right about the increasing difficulty and sophistication of recent Saturday puzzles, linxit (today’s – 24,024 – was beyond me and eventually sent me to the solving aids).

    This one took me 41 minutes. I singled out 3 clues: UPSET (I love devices like that busy = ‘in USE’), INCEPTION and the unutterably Machiavellian UNDERLINING – that’s a brilliantly concealed definition.

    22 MOULD is a little weak, but it’s the only slight dip in a first rate crossword.

  2. I didn’t have a dictionary with me when doing this but on my return looking up “mould” was on my list of tasks. Chambers gives two quite distinct definitions: a wooly growth (= cause of discolouration); anything formed in a mould, especially a jelly. So I think double definition is OK. An interesting puzzle overall.
  3. Will be interested to get the US feedback on ring main at 21 Ac. I believe the UK is about the only place that uses them. Certainly will get you a blank stare in NZ.

    17 Ac OK by me. A parenthetical comment in an intervention in a narrative.

    1. Correct. Never saw it before, last clue filled in and I had to look it up in Chambers, although I had identified the likely homonyms.
  4. I suspect (and desperately hope) that you are right about increasing difficulty. The alternative does not appeal. Indeed the screws seemed to me to be given an extra turn during all of last week.
  5. 35 minutes for this one but I was left with four unexplained, 5d, 9, 15 and 17 which I didn’t bother to return to once the last light had been filled.

    Today’s was a puzzle of two halves. I completed the bottom half in 30 minutes and spent as long looking at the top half with little progress. Eventually I resorted to books and on-line assistance.

  7. This one was tricky mainly because of some sneaky literals. For example, at 21a, I don’t have a problem with wring sounds like ring but WRING = EXTRACT is a bit of a stretch? I am quite sure it is justified in a dictionary or two somewhere. This sort of thing slows down completion of the puzzle – something I don’t mind too much at all.

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