Saturday Times 24269 (4th July)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 26:03. This was a game of two halves for sure, with some really intricate wordplay and unfamiliar definitions of familiar words sprinkled in among some fairly easy and straightforward clues. The NE corner held me up the most, with 6A, 10A and 8D last to go in. I didn’t help myself when I put in ….TOPPEN in 8D, racking my brains for types of pen when I should have been studying the wordplay. Those three added ten minutes to my time.

Across
1 HARD CHEESE – HARD + CHEESE (Derby). The “bad luck” meaning is possibly unknown abroad. It’s said as an interjection, not as a synonym for misfortune.
6 HALF – HAL (Prince Hal, see e.g. Henry IV, Part 1) + F(ollowing). Definition is “a drink”, e.g. a half pint of beer. Mine’s a pint.
9 SCIENTIFIC – SIC (so) around (nice, fit)*.
10 PAIL – A,I (second letters of Jack and Jill) inside P,L (last letters of atop hill). A very good &lit clue, where the answer seemed almost too obvious but the wordplay took a long time to see.
12 RECEPTIONIST – RE + (nice post it)*. Nice easy one to spot, went straight in.
15 OVERSPILL – (l)OVERS + PILL (ball). First of the unfamiliar definitions (for pill), but in Chambers it’s the main one.
17 SKIMP – M inside SKIP (green director, i.e. captain of a bowls team). I knew that one.
18 OVERT – (c)OVERT. Take a letter away from its opposite. Not sure how to classify this clue – semi-&lit?
19 PLATITUDE – P + LATITUDE. I didn’t know bromide could mean this, but it comes from the use of bromides as sedatives.
20 HIPPOPOTAMUS – HIP (knowing) + POP (dad) + (ma’s out)*.
24 OATH – (l)OATH. Nice easy one, although I usually spell loath without the A.
25 KINGFISHER – KING + (RA)F + IS HER.
26 ECHO – hidden in “screECH Owls”.
27 WELLINGTON – WELL IN G(raceful) TON.

Down
1 HASH – HAS (eats) + H(ot)
2 RUIN – I in RUN
3 CONVERSATION – A + T(ime) inside CONVERSION. It seems most barns still standing in the British countryside have now been converted into luxury homes.
4 ELITE – E + LITE (low calorie)
5 SCINTILLA – TILL inside (Incas)*
7 AVARICIOUS – O + U inside (caviar is)*
8 FELT-TIP PEN – FELT (was aware of) + TIE (restriction) around PP (pages) + N (unspecified number).
11 CONSTITUTION – double definition.
13 MONOCHROME – MO (second) + NO (number) + C(ell) + R in HOME. Not sure what the surface is supposed to mean.
14 FEVER PITCH – (viper)* inside FETCH
16 IMPROVISE – I + M(arried) + IS in PROVE. I didn’t know that meaning of vamp.
21 ANGEL – double definition. The Angel, Islington was originally an inn, but now refers to that whole area.
22 SHUT – SHUT(e). Nevil Shute, author. I read most of his books when I was younger, as my dad had all of them.
23 WREN – another double def. to finish, the second slightly cryptic.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 24269 (4th July)”

  1. You may have done this before, but may I propose ad hoc nominations for where cruciverbalism has crept into the mainstream press, however obscure or hackneyed. I suspect this may become more commonplace over time, and cant help thinking it is a logical progression given journalism’s love of “bad puns” and convoluted word play.

    Perhaps they can be rated from 1 (bad pun) to 10 (complex cryptic).

    The reason this sprung to mind this morning was the headline in the sports section referring to Monty Panesars one time ability to collect “turner prizes” which I thought worthy of mention. I would give that a solid 7 out of 10 on the grounds of inventiveness.

  2. I can’t remember much about this except being mystified by skip=green director and the surface of 13. Thanks for the explanation of the former. Vamp=improvise is mostly heard (or perhaps not these days) in the phrase “vamp till ready”, which a piano accompanist would do whilst performers recomposed themselves, particulalry in reference to the Music Hall or Vaudeville. Improvise is a bit strong; from my understanding it mostly consisted of a thumping oom-pah left hand.
  3. This was quite demanding but not particularly interesting. I put in Pail and Skimp without understanding the wordplay. Last in were three 4-letter words. The wordplay for Hash, Shut and Wren was fairly uninspiring. I also found the wordplay for Monochrome quite clumsy.
  4. My third completed Times puzzle (had to resort to Bradford though). I thought 6 a neat little clue. Took ages to get FELT TIP PEN.

    I like the Saturday puzzle- more time to work on it!

  5. Quibbles – queen’s husband not necessarily king, and the legal system in the UK is not based on a constitution.
  6. Oops, slip of the finger. Corrected now.

    Well done with the time, I found it one of the harder ones.

  7. This is 24269.

    23 minutes for me. A PB for any recent puzzle and probably for all time on a Saturday.

  8. 8:47 for me. (This was the last of the week’s six puzzles done in a single session averaging under 8 minutes, with 9:07 (for Tuesday’s puzzle) my slowest time – something I haven’t achieved for ages!)

    A pleasant, straightforward puzzle, with 11A (PAIL) an easy choice as my COD.

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