Saturday Times 24119 (10th Jan)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Sorry, I’ve spent the day battling with a dead PC, and in the end gave up and had to go out and buy a new one. Still restoring my data at the moment, but I’ll try and post the blog tomorrow.

Sun 8:49am – OK, here goes. 22:49, quite a tough one with some unusual words that would make for a pretty high-scoring game of Scrabble! No pangram though, as the setter failed to find anywhere to put a Q in. 13 multi-word entries, however, including 6 hyphenated. That must be close to a record.

Across
1 WELL-PLACED – nice clue, from the nursery-rhyme:

Ding-dong bell
Pussy’s in the well.
Who pulled her out?
Little Tommy Stout.
6 BUMP – double def.
8 FISH-FARM – SH + F(ollowing) + A, all inside FIRM. At first all I could think of was STUD-FARM, but the hyphenation put me off sticking it in as a guess, so I waited for more crossing letters.
9 FAXING – NIX rev. inside FAG.
10 ROOD – ROO + D
11 HARD-DONE-BY – DONE + B(ook) inside HARDY.
12 HIT FOR SIX – cryptic def + straight def. There’s a turn-up – an obvious cricket reference with no mention of cricket in the clue!
14 SCARY – S(pying) + CARY (Cary Grant, the actor).
17 NAIRN – IR (Inland Revenue, boo hiss) inside NAN (Indian bread for mopping up curry).
19 POLEAXING – (lean ox, pig)*
22 PLAY POSSUM – (asylum, Pop’s)*
23 OPUS – hidden reversal in “messeS UP One’s”.
24 HIJACK – “HI, JACK!”, you might say if you were dealt one (and you were a bit, um, weird).
25 INSIGNIA – (1 gains in)*
26 ZEST – alternate letters of “aZtEc SiTe”.
27 ELEVEN-PLUS – ELEVEN +. “Mainly abandoned test” is the definition, but I’m 45 and didn’t have to sit it in 1974, as it had already been abandoned back then.

Down
1 WAFER-THIN – (with fear)* + N. Took me a long time to see the anagram fodder here – just didn’t look likely.
2 LAST OUT – L.A.’S TOUT
3 LEATHERY – (hat)* inside LEERY.
4 COME RAIN OR SHINE – R.A. inside COME IN (shelter), then O.R. (men) + SHINE (stand out). Tricky wordplay which I’ve only just fully worked out.
5 DAFYDD – FAD rev. + (m)Y + DD (daughters). Welsh equivalent of David.
6 BOX AND COX – BOX (package) + AND (with) + COX (director on board). I’d heard of this expression, but never knew its meaning. “Two people who never meet, or who alternate in a place, job etc”, says Chambers. Interestingly, it’s from a play called Cox and Box in which two men rent the same room by night and day respectively. I wonder why the reversal? Just for the sake of alphabetical neatness perhaps.
7 MINIBAR – i.e. MINI-skirts are BARred.
13 FOR MY PART – FORM + Y + TRAP rev.
15 YUGOSLAVS – GUY rev. + OS + LAVS.
16 LET ME SEE – Double def. “The setter” is usually ME (when it’s not a dog).
18 ALL-TIME – (me, a lilt)*
20 IMPANEL – A, N(ew) inside IMPEL.
21 COOKIE – 1 inside COOK + E, not exactly &lit but definitely self-referential.

20 comments on “Saturday Times 24119 (10th Jan)”

  1. 36 hours for me, hadn’t heard of “Box and Cox”. 27 across last to go in.

    Liked 5d (cos I’m Welsh, I wonder how many overseas solvers got that), 21d & 24a (surely “appropriate” means to steal in this clue?)

  2. This excellent puzzle was an onion in a petunia patch. About 40 minutes to solve. The puzzles both before and after it were a mainly dull, easy affair.

    I loved 1A and took ages to understand it. I did take the 11+ and think they still do in parts of London. Thanks to the setter for giving us some good fun.

  3. Dedication above and beyond, Linxit. It would have been a great pity to see this one pass unheralded. Reading some of the clues again brought a smile to my face. I’m with Jimbo in nominating 1A as COD, and also in liking 27, albeit a long way from my experience. I’m reliably informed that the results came on either pink, yellow or white paper, which were handed out ceremoniously, with all attendant knowing the implications of the colour. I didn’t know the job share implications of Box & Cox. To me they are a pair of statisticians, famous for the Box-Cox transformation, amongst other things. I wonder how they fared at school.
  5. 12:58 for me for a very enjoyable puzzle. Like others, I was particularly taken with 1A once light had dawned.
  6. Nothing to add really. I have a big tick and an exclamation mark in my notes so this was a good one.

    Just a question as I haven’t lived in the UK for more than one year in the past 30. Selective grammar schools still seem to exist under some educational authorities (my old school does), so presumably the eleven-plus (or some similar exam) must still exist in those areas?

    1. The eleven plus still exists in Northern Ireland and at the time of writing it was unclear what its future was to be
  7. This is so late that I won’t be surprised if nobody notices this, but in 14ac (Grant after start of spying given to spook) how does spook = scary? It seems to me that spook is either a noun or a verb, and scary is an adjective. Or is it ‘given to spook’? In that case how does this = scary? It all seems very loose to me, but no doubt there’s a perfectly simple explanation.
  9. Great to see there are other people in WA suffering through the Times xword – about six weeks late that is. Maybe The Australian waits till it’s out of copywrite so it can print them for free? We thought George (glheard) was the only other Aussie doing them!
    cheers Beth an Fiona
    1. Just realised the time sig on posts is UTC (=GMT).
      Thought you guys in the E. States must get the Oz the day before!
      Hello also to Beth and Fiona.
      Yep it’s a bugger being so far behind the real Times.
      There’s no copyright prob though.
      The Oz is a Murdoch paper and could easily run in sync — or more so.
      But now that you can get the real Times online, I guess Rupert and co want their pound(s) of flesh.

      Ragaman

  10. What a fun offering for a Saturday 10 years ago.

    My FOI was Dafydd at 5d. It is one of the Welsh equivalents of David but the city named for Wales’s patron, Saint David’s, is Dewi Sant – derived from an older form Dewydd apparently.

    My POI was HIJACK at 24a which helped me to identify Captain James Cook’s ships biscuit COOKIE at 21d for my LOI.

    Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable time and to Linxit for forking out for a new computer so he could post the blog.

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