Saturday Times 24060 (1st Nov)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
No solving time noted down this week – I had 15 minutes to spare before going out last Saturday, after which I was less than half way through it. When I got back I needed another 20 minutes or so to finish it. Some very good clues though – 13D is brilliant. Well, they’re all good actually (with the possible exception of 17D, see below). The great thing about blogging the puzzle is that you get to dissect each clue later (in my case a week later), and you see things you missed when you were solving. You get to appreciate the setter’s skill in finding convincing surface readings that consist only of wordplay + definition, and nothing else. Oh, and this one was also a pangram.

Across
1 CRUSH – C(ar) + RUSH
4 KICK-START – cryptic def, although you could say it’s literally true!
9 LIFELINES – LI(on) + FELINES
10 MOCHA – MO (little girl, i.e. diminutive for Maureen) + H(ot) inside CA (about).
11 MUTTON – MUTT + ON (= being cooked)
12 PEROXIDE – O(ld) inside (expired)*
14 IN THE ROUND – I, N, (due north)*
16 ZINC – middle of amaZINgly, + C(old)
19 NOEL – NO(v)EL
20 CENTIMETRE – TIME inside CENTRE, bird being Cockney rhyming slang (bird-lime = time) for a prison sentence.
22 TIME LORD – TIM + (older)*. Dr. Who is becoming quite a popular subject for cryptic clues these days, but I don’t think you’ll find this answer in any dictionaries.
23 ARGALI – GAL in (air)*. I knew this one, having researched types of sheep for a Listener puzzle back in the summer (Terminal Suspension by Schadenfreude, no. 3986). First one of his I’d managed to solve, too.
26 BANJO – N + JO(b) after B.A. (one learnèd).
27 EQUIPMENT – QUIP + MEN inside E.T.
28 ANASTASIA – STASI inside AN + A + A (three articles). I immediately thought ALEXANDRA (which also has three articles, and who was also done in by the Bolsheviks). Anastasia was her daughter.
29 RUDDY – RUD(e) + DY(namite).

Down
1 COLUMBIAN – BIA(s) inside COLUMN. For BIAS = bulge, think of a bowling ball (bowls, not ten-pin).
2 UNFIT – F in UNIT.
3 HALLOWED – (churc)H + ALLOWED.
4 KIND – KIN (= one’s own) + D(rama)
5 CASHEW NUTS – CUTS around AS HEWN.
6 SIMOOM – MOO + M(editerranean) + IS, all reversed.
7 ARCHIVIST – I + VIST(a) underneath ARCH (= chief)
8 TRACE – T + RACE
13 MORE OR LESS – take OR away from MORE to get ME. To refresh people’s memory, the clue was “Just about me?”
15 THEOMANIA – THE OMANI A(rea).
17 CHEMISTRY – H.E. + MIST inside CRY. Maybe the weakest clue – pipe for CRY is a bit loose, and the definition is only hinted at by the &lit-ish surface reading.
18 IMPROPER – i.e. IMP-ROPER, someone who ropes an imp.
21 ALL-OUT – U(nited) in ALLOT.
22 TIBIA – A + 1 + BIT, all reversed.
24 AMEND – AMEN + D(ictionary). Although the link-word and definition could also be wordplay for the answer (A(re) + MEND). Was that deliberate I wonder?
25 CUBA – HECUBA minus H.E.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 24060 (1st Nov)”

  1. Many thanks for your kind words linxit – much appreciated.
    BTW, hand on heart I can tell you this was accidentally pangrammatic. I had an email mentioning it earlier this week and was convinced the sender was referring to the wrong puzzle.
    Wonder if any other setters have compiled a pangram without realising?
  2. 5 Dn I initially got by seeing “chew nuts” around “as”, but was not comfortable with it. With the anagram of “when” staring at you, this one can start to play tricks with your brain.

    As for too many specialist knowledge plus cryptic, surely this is pretty well the definition of a Times crossword! The eternal question is at what point does the specialist bit become too specialist to be reasonable. I feel that the more the checking letters restrict the possible answer (and increase the chance of a successful guess), the more arcane that answer can be.

    Simoon I knew, and therefore – to me – is general knowledge. Hecuba and argali I did not know, and therefore – to me – are specialist knowledge.

    Did not time it, but enjoyed it even though I had to resort to reference books (for the unreasonable specialist ones only of course).

    COD 17 for the sneaky use of pipe, (Nothing to do with my uni major)

  3. Just under 30 minutes for this on Sunday night after a weekend away. SIMOOM comes up in the Times puzzle from time to time.
  4. I enjoyed this, SIMOOM and ARGALI from wordplay (I couldn’t finish Terminal Suspension), I got a chuckle out of PEROXIDE, CHEMIST and ZINC appearing in the one crossword.
  5. I agree with linxit – a splendid puzzle. I thought all the clue good and where the answer was obscure the wordplay made up for that, which is exactly how it should be. Funny about the setter not realsing he had included all 26 letters. I wonder what the probability is of doing that? No, I must resist going there!
  6. Having just worked through this in 100 minutes – with a few cheats in the bottom half at the end – I’d say this is deserving of consideration for the archival Hall of Fame. The ‘just about me?’ clue is athing of considerable beauty.
  7. Failed to notice the pangram, and to appreciate the wordplay of CASHEW NUTS and MORE OR LESS but still managed to finish with the unknown ARGALI because of fair wordplay. Thanks Linxit and Setter.

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