Saturday Times 24257 (Jun 20)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 36:10, although it wasn’t THAT difficult really. The online version was a copy of puzzle 24247 until the Monday, so I had to go out and buy the paper last week. I was in town, and solved it in a very noisy pub, so concentration was hard to come by. Having said that, it was a pretty tough puzzle in places, but nowhere near as good as the one two weeks earlier.

Across
1 BETRAY – BET + RAY. I thought opinion was a bit of a stretch to define bet, but it’s there in Chambers.
4 SPLENDID – SPLE(e)EN + DID.
9 REDRESS – double def, one for RE-DRESS.
11 IMPASTO – IMP + AS TO
12 FARAD – FAR + AD. A unit of electrical capacitance, named after Michael Faraday.
13 ELABORATE – A(rea) inside ELBO(w), + RATE.
14 CONSTITUTE – (TITS + NO) reversed inside CUTE.
16 LAMB – M inside LAB(rador).
19 DEMO – hidden in “proviDE MOmentum”.
20 TOURNAMENT – TOUT (advertise) around RN (service) + AMEN (ending in prayer).
22 HORSEWHIP – (shower)* + HIP.
23 TASTE – STATE with the first letter “taken to heart”, i.e. moved to the middle. Great clue.
25 KITCHEN – C inside KIT + HEN.
26 CARDIFF – (RD + 1) inside CAFF.
27 MORALIST – LIST (lean) next to MO (second) + R.A.
28 FLUKEY – FLU + KEY.

Down
1 BAREFACED – REF, ACE inside BAD.
2 TUDOR – O.R. (“other ranks” = soldiers) underneath (s)TUD.
3 ANECDOTE – CD,O inside A,NET,E. I only put this in when I had all the checking letters, and it took a bit longer to get the wordplay.
5 PHILANTHROPIC – HI in PLAN, then HR in TOPIC.
6 EMPLOY – (maypole – a)*
7 DISPARAGE – S inside RAPID rev, AGE
8 DROVE – D + ROVE. A “follow the instructions literally” clue, which added about 5 minutes to my time at the end trying to justify it or think of an alternative.
10 SWEET NOTHINGS – (song with tense)*
15 NUMERATOR – ME inside RUN rev, A TOR. The figure above the line in a fraction. The one below is the denominator.
17 BUTTERFLY – B(owled) + UTTERLY around F(requency). Here’s a skipper.
18 PASTORAL – PAST + ORAL.
21 LETHAL – LATEL(y) rev. around H(earts).
22 HOKUM – HUM around OK.
24 SHIRK – SH + IRK (get, as in irritate).

11 comments on “Saturday Times 24257 (Jun 20)”

  1. A good puzzle, which made the website foul-up a shame.

    I can’t remember much of the detail but I suspect the difficulty just came from good original clue-writing with little resort to crossword clichés.

    At 1A, Collins has bet=opinion with the example: my bet is that you’ve been up to no good

  2. This one gave me endless problems with barely half of it completed after an hour. I then resorted to every aid available just to get it finished as I wasn’t enjoying the experience. On reflection I can’t say why it was so difficult to solve other than I wasn’t on the setter’s wavelength.
    1. I had forgotten this was the one where the web-site fouled up so I did the puzzle later than usual and after doing the Jumbo, so my brain was not as fresh as it would usually have been. That’s my excuse anyway!
  3. This for me is what a Saturday puzzle should be like. No, its not quite in the league of the one in mid-month but it is still a very good, original puzzle that demands the real concentrated attention that many can only manage at the weekend. Because of the foul up I recall I did it on the Sunday (along with two Mephistos – there having been a similar cock-up with them) which caused some wifely muttering. I had no queries or serious quibbles – my thanks again to the blogger who put the clues and grid up.

  4. 17:33, though it felt longer – I wasn’t on the right wavelength either, and took two and a half minutes just to get off the mark.  Last in were 24dn (SHIRK), 28ac (FLUKEY), and finally 23ac (TASTE), which I hadn’t understood until linxit’s explanation.

    I think “crushing” is a dubious container indicator (21dn LETHAL).  Otherwise, I found this an unusually sound puzzle, with some complex but satisfying wordplay.

    Clue of the Day: 27ac (MORALIST).

  5. The trend towards having intelligent puzzles on a Saturday continues. This took up too much of my Saturday morning. I finished with the intersecting Anecdote/Constitute and then got Splendid. My quibble with the clue for Splendid is that I think the wordplay should indicate how many of the Es are to be removed. Also, in 12, I can’t see Far as a synonym for Much or Much beside…I can’t think of a sentence where one would replace the other.

    I didn’t understand the wordplay for Taste until I saw Linxit’s explanation. My favourite clue was for Flukey.

  6. Bold arbiter, expert in exit:
    wordplay is ref ace in bad.
    Please explain why ‘bad’ = ‘exit’
    Barbara
  7. For a relative beginner to cryptics, this took most of the week! Mind you, so did ‘Everyman’ 6 months ago- I now finish that lunchtimes on Sundays.

    I liked ‘FLUKEY’ and ‘TASTE’

  8. This made me do a double-take too, but then I thought of e.g. “far the best” and “much the best”.  Will that do?

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