Saturday Times 24131 (24th Jan)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 15:00 exactly. Some easy clues, but there were quite a few lesser-known meanings of common words, and of course 20A was pretty obscure (to me at least).

Across
1 BURSAR – SA (sex appeal) inside BURR.
4 SWAN LAKE – (ankle was)*
10 AS FOLLOWS – and indeed arsenic does follow gallium and germanium in the periodic table.
11 CITES – CITIES with an I removed.
12 DUNSTAN – S inside DUN and TAN.
13 AIR FARE – A1 next to RARE, with F(ine) inside. Definition is “price for alternative”, referring back to the surface reading.
14 SIREN – RE (Royal Engineers) inside SIN.
15 ABDICATE – ACID reversed + (retor)T, all inside ABE
18 GOVERNOR – hidden inside “rulinG OVER NORthern”, &lit. I would have preferred a “perhaps” at the end, but I think these days that’s been shortened to just a question mark.
20 GOSSE – GO SSE. The father and son in question were naturalist Philip Henry Gosse and author Edmund Gosse. The latter also wrote a famous(?) book called Father and Son. Never heard of either of them, but easy enough to get from wordplay + crossing letters at the end.
23 INGRATE – GOING RATE with no GO.
25 STRAYED – R in STAYED.
26 RONDO – (chancello)R + ON (working) + DO (party).
27 COUNT DOWN – ref. the C4 programme. I haven’t seen it since Carol Vorderman left, but I suspect as long as Susie Dent is still in Dictionary Corner most crossworders will be happy! (followers of the Crossword Centre messageboard will know what I mean)
28 CHANDLER – C + HANDLER. Originally a candlemaker, but more often now a dealer in specific goods, e.g. a ship’s chandler.
29 WEEKLY – “weakly”.

Down
1 BLANDISH – BLAND-ISH, as in not very full of taste.
2 REFINER – IN inside REFER, using a second less common meaning of advert as a verb.
3 ALL AT ONCE – A(nswer) + (Lancelot)*
5 WASH-AND-BRUSH-UP – WAS HAND (used to labour) + BRUSH UP (to revise).
6 NICER – N + ICER
7 ATTRACT – TA (Territorial Army) reversed + TRACT.
8 EASTER – S(on) inside EATER
9 MOUNTAIN RESCUE – Ben = Scottish MOUNTAIN + (secure)*
16 CIGARETTE – (great)* inside CITE
17 READ-ONLY – REALLY with DON replacing the first L.
19 ORGANZA – OR (gold) + N(ow) inside GAZA (strip).
21 SHYLOCK – Y(outfu)L inside SHOCK. The pound-of-flesh-demanding moneylender in A Merchant of Venice, who also makes an appearance in this week’s puzzle.
22 CITRIC – C + 1 + TRIC(k).
24 ALOUD – sounds like “allowed”, definition is one of the several zillion meanings of “out”.

8 comments on “Saturday Times 24131 (24th Jan)”

  1. I found this rather run of the mill and devoid of talking points apart from the peculiar 20A. When I solved it I thought it was a bad homophone (from “say”) for “goes SE” but can see that GO SSE suits just as well although a bit precise plus I’m not sure Eastbourne is SSE of London – it depends what you call London, I guess. No matter, who these people were I have no idea and why any of us should expect to know that Gosse Junior wrote a book called Father and Son quite escapes me. I think the only way you solve this clue is to get all the checking letters and guess – not very satisfactory.

  2. I’d written “Poor for a Saturday” and for two clues queried what the definition was. Linxit has cleared that up for out = aloud in 24 (which I think is stretching things a tad) but I can’t see how “it made a bit of a splash” can be a definition of wash and brush up.

  3. I agree 5 is very poor.

    Jimbo and I had already exchanged messages about 20 and I had hoped that we might both have been missing something about “London to Eastbourne” but it seems not. I have to say this is one of the most ridiculous clues I have ever seen in a Times daily cryptic, or even a Saturday puzzle which sometimes pushes the boundaries. In order to be fair to the solver an obscure definition requires clear wordplay, or vice versa; to have both as obscure as this is plain stupid. I solved it eventually and worked out the reasoning, so it didn’t beat me, but I just think it’s bad.

  4. ditto, ditto, ditto

    Mostly too easy for a Saturday (or any day) and two quite ridiculous clues.

    Hurrumph.

  6. Another for dressing up, though I hadn’t heard of either expression. The name Gosse (the father) wasn’t familiar to me but his Omphalostic idea was (and possibly still is)standard fare in Philosophy 100, so I should have. Turns out very few took it seriously in 1857 either. Another straw man to demolish. It seems a pity he is more remembered for this (and his son’s personal attack) than his work as a naturalist. Rather like David Attenborough doing a series on UFO’s. None of which excuses the clue.

    To atone for my stupidity I’ll give BLANDISH a gong for COD.

  7. Can’t remember a time but don’t remember feeling troubled by either of the “ridiculous” clues. SSE from central London to the coast probably misses Eastbourne by 10m or so, but I doubt anyone would have been happier with “Normans Bay”. Gosse passes the old bookshop test – never read a copy, but remembered the title and author’s name from old browsing.
    1. I understood the GO SSE construction; where I got hung up was the definition. “Father *or* son” wouldn’t have bothered me, though it kills the surface.

      And [go]INGRATE makes so much more sense than I(N.G.) + RATE. Thanks for that!

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