Saturday Times 24221 – here at last!

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Sorry about the delay in posting this – it really was a case of circumstances beyond my control, and I’m now finally making time for it after midnight on Monday. I was quite pleased with my 12:53, as I didn’t get the wordplay on some clues until well after I’d solved it, and probably wouldn’t have bothered looking if I wasn’t blogging it!

I’ll try to complete it in the morning, falling asleep at the keyboard now…

Across
1 SCAPA FLOW – SLOW (thick, as in level of intelligence) around CAP A F(ine). Our chief naval base during both World Wars, up in the Orkneys.
6 VOCAB – O(ld) inside V.C. + A B(ook). Unusual for an abbreviated word to appear as an answer without some sort of indication.
9 GET ONE’S SKATES ON – the wordplay gives us GET ONE’S SKATE + SON.
10 ARDOUR – A + R(un) + DOUR
11 MUTUALLY – TUM (Corporation) rev. + U (acceptable) + ALLY.
13 SWITCHBACK – SWITCH (stick) + BACK (rugby player). Could be just the position (the team are split more or less fifty-fifty between forwards and backs) or it could break the rules and refer to Neil Back, the former England player.
14 ASTI – A + STI(r)
16 APSE – APE around S(ummer).
17 SUBLIMINAL – (In a bill, sum)*
19 LEAD UP TO – A D.U.P. inside LET O(ld). Tricky wordplay which I explained more fully in the comments earlier.
20 BRAHMA – BRAHM(s) + A.
23 WALL STREET CRASH – CRASH (impact), on = next to, the order irrelevant, W + ALL + STREET.
24 GATOR – odd letters of GiAnT bOaR. Another abbreviation not mentioned. Tch!
25 SHUDDERED – UDDER inside SHED.

Down
1 SIGMA – Sophocles being a Greek, and SIGMA is a Greek S, even if it does look like an angular E (Σ).
2 A STUDY IN SCARLET – in Cluedo, you’d have to have “Miss Scarlett in the Study (with the lead pipe)”, so transposing an article doesn’t really work as a solution. The answer is a famous Sherlock Holmes mystery, in fact the first he appeared in.
3 ANNOUNCE – ANN + OUNCE.
4 LASH – L(iberal) + ASH.
5 WAKE-UP CALL – somewhat troubling cryptic definition, again explained more fully in the comments.
6 VATFUL – VAT + FU(e)L. Is there really such a word? I can’t be bothered to go and check.
7 CASTLES IN THE AIR – (inertia the class)*.
8 BUNNY GIRL – BUNNY (like cake perhaps (groan!)) + R, L (hands) around G(rand) 1.
12 ABOUT-TURNS – (An outburst)*
13 SCALLYWAG – SC + ALL + Y + WAG
15 EMBRACED – CAR rev. in EMBED
18 QUASAR – AS in QUAR(t)
21 APHID – P.A. rev + HID
22 ZEBU – hidden in “seiZE BUs”

11 comments on “Saturday Times 24221 – here at last!”

  1. I have a question about 13 – how do you get SC from ‘that is’? Is this an abbreviation that I haven’t come across before, or am I misreading this wordplay entirely?
    1. Sorry, I will put something up eventually. Circumstances outside my control etc…

      Anyway, SC is short for scilicet, which is Latin for “that is”, so you’re spot on with the wordplay.

  2. If you’re still taking requests, could you please parse 19a To prepare for a party hire out old houses (4,2,2) and 5d Come round, in more than one sense creating alarm (4-2,4)? Thanks.
    1. Sure, no problem.

      19A LEAD UP TO

      Def. To prepare for, a party is A D.U.P. (Democratic Unionist Party), “housed” by LET + O (hire out old). Very nasty wordplay, which I only figured out after solving.

      5D WAKE-UP CALL

      Cryptic definition I think. A wake-up call is something you ask hotel reception for in the morning, but in a figurative sense it can also mean a warning to change one’s ways before it’s too late. There’s something missing though, as “Come round” at the start clues WAKE UP, but there’s no indication for CALL (which is why I think it might just be a CD, unless I’m missing something).

      1. 1. Holy cats! Somebody direct me to a list of UK abbreviations specific to the Times puzzle.
        2. It was that second use of CALL that was hanging me up as well.
        1. This certainly seems one abbreviation too far, especially as it’s not in Collins or COED. But Chambers has it.
      2. The lights have long since gone out on this one, but there’s nothing missing in this clue: CALL is the second sense of “come round” referred.
  3. Hi,

    Just doing cryptic from a week ago and stuck on 22d. We think it is MENU, BEAU or PERU but have no idea why!

    David

    1. It is ZEBU – which is hidden in the clue and is a large African or Asian species of cattle (with humps on their shoulders). The word “occupants” tells you the word is hidden.

      I have a request for assistance in understanding 18 d.
      I’m sure it’s pulsar (a star that radiates) but the cryptic part please?

      Thanks in advance
      Adrian

  4. I am listening currently to the Complete Sherlock Holmes audio book compiled and read by Stephen Fry so 2d A STUDY IN SCARLET could have been a write-in only I waited until all the crossers agreed with that conclusion as I could not, and still can’t, figure out exactly how the clue works? Maybe only Holmes himself could work it out?

    A nice steady solve with FOI 1a SCAPA FLOW – where my late father-in-law was stationed in the Navy during WWII – and LOI the pesky APHID at 21d.

    Thanks to setter and LINXIT for the blog.

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