Saturday Times 24030 (Sep 27)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 17:14

I thought I was on for a fairly fast solve last Saturday, but then got bogged down for the last 5 minutes or more in the bottom left-hand corner. PASHTO was the last to go in, when I finally twigged the wordplay.

Across
1 BAGHDAD – H(orse) + DAD after BAG.
5 NOVELLA – NOVELL(o) + A, ref. Ivor Novello.
9 OFT – F inside OT (Old Testament). Makes a change from clueing it with just “Books”.
10 CASTING VOTE – two meanings, one as a verb, one as a noun.
11 COTTON ON – double def.
12 ZENANA – AN A after ZEN. The equivalent of a harem, but in India.
15 IVES – I’VE + S. American composer Charles Ives.
16 PRIEST-HOLE – P + hoteliers*
18 SMOKING GUN – SMOKING + GUN
19 FLIT – L in FIT
22 PASHTO – ASH inside PTO (please turn over). The official language of Afghanistan.
23 MARATHON – (RA + THO) inside MAN. The Battle of Marathon was fought between Greece and Persia in 490BC.
25 INCANTATION – CANT inside 1 NATION
27 ULM – alternate letters of MUsLiMs.
28 GODSEND – or GOD’S END
29 TONNEAU – TONNE + A + U (middle letter of “reinsUrance”). Well, a tonne is 2204 lb., I wouldn’t class that as “thousands”, but I’ll let it pass as the surface reading is so good, using alternative meanings for both cover and pounds.
Down
1 BRONCHI – CH inside robin*.
2 GO TO THE DOGS – Walthamstow was one of our top greyhound stadiums, but it closed on the 16th August this year. Still, with the lead time for published crosswords, the setter couldn’t have known that.
3 DOCTOR – C(ool)in DOT + O.R. (other ranks = men). From Chambers, “in some warm countries, a cool sea breeze conducive to health”.
4 DISCOURAGE – DISC + OUR AGE
5 NEIL – E inside NIL
6 VIGNETTE – V1 + “sounds like nyet”
7 LEO – E (last letter of Rome) inside LO. There have been 13 popes called Leo, the last one of which died in 1903.
8 ACETATE – ACE + TATE
13 A DOLL’S HOUSE – which is a play by Henrik Ibsen.
14 SECULARIST – (cult arises)*
17 PITTANCE – PITTA + N(i)CE
18 SAPLING – SAILING with the first I replaced by a P.
20 TINAMOU – hidden in “nesT IN A MOUnd”.
21 TANNIN – TANNIN(g)
24 BAWD – W in BAD. Madam in the sense of brothel-keeper.
26 COD – C.O.D. = cash on delivery, and joke is one of the many varied meanings for COD other than fish that you’ll find in the dictionary but never use outside a crossword!

7 comments on “Saturday Times 24030 (Sep 27)”

  1. Surely more than one thousand requires the plural – thousands? I don’t see the problem.
  2. I thought Walthamstow was a bit obscure. Greyhound racing is very much a minority sport and why should somebody who has never lived in London be aware of Walthamstow Dogs? I don’t like the way they use these off beat parts of London as if they were common currency. If they did the same things with Cardiff, Belfast or Edinburgh I bet there would be some dissatisfaction expressed.
  3. A spelling disaster spoiled the top left corner – “BAGHDAD” – making the Fremantle DOCTOR impossible to see. Moral: if the last answer doesn’t work, try forgetting about one of its checking letters at a time.
    1. Peter,I made exactly the same mistake and I live in Perth (Australia!) where the Fremantle Doctor is very welcome in the summer. Had to resort to the self-kicking boot.
      Ann H
  4. Quite a fun one – on the easy side but with plenty of interesting subject matter for the geographically amused. My FOI was BAGHDAD – luckily entered correctly to pave the way for the Freemantle Doctor (or the Cape Doctor if you’re in Kaapstad). My LOI was Madam at 24d – not ill received at all.

Comments are closed.