Saturday Times 24317 (Aug 29)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time – not recorded for some reason. I normally note it down next to the grid, but I obviously forgot. I recall it being quite tricky though, maybe >20 minutes.

Across
1 MATTER OF FACT – MATT (dull) + ER (monarch) + OFF ACT (cancelled performance).
8 EXTINCT – EX (old flame) + C(old) in TINT.
9 LONG ARM – LONG (be impatient) + ARM (prepare). I thought this was a bit loose, but just about OK.
11 ROOKERY – OK (well) in ROE (eggs) + RY (line). This seems to indicate ROE in OK rather than the other way round, and for a while I thought the the OO was the eggs.
12 GLAZING – G(reen) + LAZING (in middle of lounge). One of the definitions of light is “a vertical definition division of a window”. Can’t believe I put “definition” there.
13 GIDDY – alternate letters of “Lynda doing” reversed.
14 OFF SEASON – OF SEA’S (Marine’s) + ON (leg), around F (forte = strong).
16 ROSCOMMON – ROS(e) + COMMON
19 POWER – REP around (no)W + O, all reversed. Deceptive use of punctuation there!
21 UNACTED – (duet can)*
23 YORKIST – “You’re kissed”. Fails the strict homophone test on pronunciation as well as emphasis. The red rose was (and still is) worn by the Lancastrians, hence the v.
24 DIDICOI – DID + CO in II (pair from Rome). One of five spellings given in Chambers for this word for a tinker (i.e. not a true gypsy).
25 HEIGH-HO – E (drug) inside HIGH HO(use). There was an article in the Times last week about this word, which has just re-entered the new Collins Dictionary after coming back into fashion on social networking sites. Heigh-ho…
26 MULLIGATAWNY – (glumly await n)*. Yum.

Down
1 MITFORD – FORD with MIT (German for with) above. Apposite clue, as the Mitfords were well-known Nazi sympathisers.
2 TANNERY – double definition, the first rather dubiously cryptic, “TANNER-Y”. Nah…
3 ENTRY FORM – ENTRY + FORM
4 OFLAG – OF LAG. A P.O.W. camp for officers (German Offizierslager).
5 FAN BASE – FAN + BASE
6 CRAZIES – (size car)*
7 MERRY-GO-ROUND – MERRY + GO + ROUND
10 ME GENERATION – REGENERATION with the R replaced by M. Chambers says “the generation either of the 1970’s, typically self-absorbed, or of the 1980’s, typically greedy and materialistic”.
15 FANCY THAT – FANCY + THAT. “Goodness!”
17 SPANDAU – SP (odds) + AND + AU (ends of VictorianA yoU). Finally closed in 1987 when Rudolf Hess died. Blimey, was it really that long ago?
18 OPTICAL – (pit coal)*
19 PURVIEW – UP rev. + RV (Revised Version) + I.E. + W(ide).
20 WEIGHTY – W (point) + EIGHTY (several score).
22 DYING – (cage)Y inside DING.

10 comments on “Saturday Times 24317 (Aug 29)”

  1. One incomplete answer: Help!
    Fitting light green opening in middle of lounge? (7)
    I have: g _ a _ ing

    Barbara

    1. OK, I’ll put you out of your misery. It’s GLAZING. I’ve just started writing the blog post now, so come back in an hour or so for the explanation 🙂
  3. Another enjoyable Saturday puzzle, for which I can’t recall my time. I too noticed that HEIGH-HO was topical – defined as ‘that’s life’, I think. To be fair to the Mitfords, they weren’t all Nazi sympathisers.

    Tom B.

  5. Had lots of fun doing this with “a friend” last Saturday. Too many beers involved for a stopwatch! We got stuck only on the DIDICOI/SPANDAU pair. As to the former, the MacOED has: “a gypsy; an itinerant tinker”. On checking elsewhere, I found it refers to a gypsy who is not strictly Romany. As to the latter: connected with 4dn?
  6. I failed on 4dn and 12ac.
    In case I’m not the only dummy who didn’t see it, my take on 12ac is: “light” = “a pane of glass”, therefore “fitting light” = glazing (present participle). “Lounge” (COED (n) 2) = “a period of lounging” (eg “just having a short lounge on the sofa”).
    What I found hard was trying to separate “fitting” and “light” (which don’t really seem to belong together), and wondering what to make of “middle of lounge” (the letters UN perhaps?)
  7. An interesting and quite difficult puzzle that doesn’t give rise to a great deal to talk about. Unless I’m mistaken yesterday’s is a different kettle of fish – a really good challenge.

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