Saturday Times 24323 (Sep 5th)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 23:33. Another tricky-but-entertaining puzzle in a long run of good Saturday offerings from the Times. This is what I get up for on a Saturday morning – witty clues, sometimes tortuous wordplay and almost a pangram too (no Q though).

Across
1 RECAP – RAP (flak) around EC (city).
4 NEWSGROUP – (wrong use)* + P(age).
9 CARETAKER – T(hat) A(ll) K(ids) inside CAREER. Definition is “Acting”, as in caretaker manager of a football team.
10 OCCUR – OUR around CC (chapters).
11 ORYXES – O.R. (men) + SEXY reversed.
12 ESTIMATE – Hmm, not sure. Is this just a cryptic definition, or am I missing something. I think it just about works as a cryptic def, but this setter is devious. Complete nonsense! I’ll try again.
12 ASPIRATE – AS (when) + PIRATE (knock off). I really should have got that, as KNOCK OFF was a quintuple-definition answer in the Jumbo I blogged last week.
14 GAME BIRDS – Cryptic definition based on three types of game. A grouse is a game bird, ruff is a bird but also a card game (as well as another word for a trump), and chicken can be a game to see who loses their nerve first.
16 SNAFU – U(nited) FANS reversed.
17 BAYED – AY in BED, one of those where there’s no inserticator in the clue until you solve it. Perfectly fair though.
19 SUEZ CANAL – LAZE US around CAN, definition “cut through Egypt”.
21 ACROSTIC – “across tick”
22 GROTTO – ROT inside (got)*
25 TWINE – TINE around W(ith)
26 TRIUMVIRI – U in TRIM + V (see) + IRI(s). Not a word you come across every day, but I knew it from my Latin O-level as we studied the original triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus.
27 ROGAN JOSH – G(ang) in ROAN + JOSH (kid).
28 LOG ON – LOGO + N(ame).

Down
1 ROCK OF GIBRALTAR – ROCK (surprise) + (for big)* + ALTAR.
2 CARRY – CAR + RY
3 POTHERB – POTHER (a lot of smoke) + B(urning). Stuck this in from the definition and checked later.
4 NIKE – KIN rev + E. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, Victoria is the Roman equivalent.
5 WARD SISTER – RD + S(on) + IS, all inside WATER.
6 GOODIES – GOO (sentimentality) + DIES (fails).
7 ONCE AGAIN – (Ocean)* + GAIN (advance).
8 PERPETUAL MOTION – (Um no toilet paper)*. Brilliant fun anagram.
13 PROSCIUTTO – PRO (old hand) + (is cut)* + TO
15 MAYERLING – MAY + LINGER with the ER (royal) moved to the centre. Devious wordplay for a word I didn’t know, and the last one I got. It’s the name of a ballet written in 1978, about an incident where the crown prince of Austria was found dead with his mistress in a hunting lodge. Oh, OK…
18 DISCERN – S(ucceeded) in DICE + RN.
20 CARAMEL – CAR (trolley) + A MEL(on)
23 THING – G(ood) after THIN. Definition is “cup of tea”, as in the phrase “that’s not really my cup of tea”.
24 FISH – F1 (motorsport) + SH (not a word).

20 comments on “Saturday Times 24323 (Sep 5th)”

  1. Linxit, how about ASPIRATE for 12A? Parsing would be AS-PIRATE; AS=when; PIRATE=knock off; and “roughly speaking” is definition.

    I too detect a well known setter here. Absolutely first class puzzle full of invention, trickery and humour all encapsulted in the laugh out loud PERPETUAL MOTION. Thanks Anax if it is indeed you.

  2. Lovely puzzle, packed with novel inserticators. Do I detect the hand of a friend of ours here?

    I’ve lost my copy of the puzzle but I think I had a ? against estimate.

    1. Yes, I was tempted to list them out at the top but forgot in the end. I had:

      jacket, enter, enthralling, (asleep = in bed), nurses, walls, wrapped, in, carrying, hugged by, having (x) in.

  3. I also had ASPIRATE at 12. PERPETUAL MOTION was a crack up as well as a cracking clue. MAYERLING was my last in, and it sent me on a Google hunt of an event I had never heard mention of, despite scores of movie versions of it, apparently. Conspiracy theories abound as to what exactly happened in the hunting lodge. I thought 14 was a little off the pace, but with clues like the aforementioned 8 and TWINE, FISH, etc who’s complaining?
    1. Apologies to setter, I’ve just properly read linxit’s comments on 14 and realized I didn’t understand its subtleties. I wholeheartedly withdraw any half-hearted aspersion cast in its direction. I just thought it was ruff = game and chicken = birds, which might work if English was a language with no plural noun forms.
  4. Sorry, but I’m not a fan. There is some nice stuff – 8dn has an amusing ambiguity and there are some other good clues, but I also found much to dislike. Mayerling- please! At 17ac the definition is horrible and so is “asleep” meaning “insert in BED”. What is a newsgroup? 12ac and 14ac make absolutely no sense to me. I really don’t follow this setter at all and didn’t see much fun in it I’m afraid.
    1. Don’t apologise! I really don’t believe a setter exists who brings untold joy to 100% of solvers – each of us has a different approach/sense of humour, and that applies to solvers as much as setters.

      It so happens that I don’t match your preferred flavour. That’s OK, honest! What’s important is that there are enough crosswords in The Times which appeal to you to make you want to keep solving them.

  5. i thought this was an excellent crossword, possibly coloured by the fact that i finished without aids. 8d really should be in the pantheon of lights!
  6. Thanks – I’m pleased that no offence was taken as none was intended. As you say, my view is simply an expression of personal taste; you should be pleased that I seem to be in a minority (possibly of one!) and that a lot of solvers obviously enjoyed it very much. It’s a bit like art – if everyone likes it it’s probably not worth doing!
  7. Great fun, another in a series of excellent Saturday puzzles. Unfortunately, I can’t remember/find the time I took. I do remember that 15D MAYERLING was last in and last understood. Hard to pick a COD, perhaps 22A GROTTO. I also spotted what I took to be a setter’s signature/description of the puzzle.

    Tom B.

  8. Re “Mayerling”: Some comments seem to imply that this was far too obscure. But for me it was one of the first in. Not obscure at all. Cricket on the other hand…. Surely the beauty of the Times Crossword is that it assumes a general knowledge across a wide range of subjects – including European history and ballet!
  9. Mayerling is hardly new, but is a well-known ballet from the 19th century by Franz Liszt, performed on TV here a few years back, and a story I’ve seen dramatized also on British TV. I didn’t have a problem with that, but got stuck on ASPIRATE. (I’d guessed ESTIMATE and see I was at least in good company.) Nothing unfair about this puzzle; it was excellent.

    John in USA

Comments are closed.