Saturday Times 24353 (10th Oct) – Times for The Times

Solving time 22:12. Another one lately that’s probably taken me longer than it should have. I got the two 15-letter entries straight away and had it half finished in about 5 minutes, but then just dried up and had to grind out the rest one by one. A few tricky answers in there, but nothing really obscure.

Across
1	BED-HOPPER – HOPPER (hop-picker, Kent being famous for its hops) next to BED (plot of ground).
6	REITH – H(ard) + TIER all reversed. Lord Reith was the first Director General of the BBC.
9	AUSTERE – A U(-bend) + “steer”.
10	CLACTON – CL(ass) + ACT ON. It’s actually Clacton-on-Sea but I won’t quibble.
11	TYLER – (deb)T + RELY rev. Wat Tyler was leader of the English Peasants’ Revolt.
12	SUPPLIERS – SUPPERS around L1.
13	AQUATINT – (pu)T inside A QUAINT.
14	RING – hidden in “TrieR IN Germany”
17	MAID – M + AID
18	COLONIST – ON IS(land) inside COLT.
21	SINHALESE – S(ocialist) + INHALES + E(astern).
22	FIGHT – H(usband) + (gift)*
24	INEXACT – (income tax)* minus OM (Order (of Merit)).
25	HARRIER – If you change the middle letter you could have HARDIER. I’m pretty sure I’ve got it the right way round, but I had to give it some thought.
26	NOTED – NO + TED. Ted Heath, former British prime minister and big band leader.
27	PARASCEND – P(ower) + (a dancer’s)*

Down
1	BEAST – BET (flutter) around AS (like)
2	DISILLUSIONMENT – (millions United’s)*
3	OVERRATE – double definition, one cryptic. The over rate in cricket is the number of overs bowled per hour. Teams can get fined if they take too long.
4	PRESSING – PRES + SING
5	RECIPE – alternate letters of “fRiEs ChIpPiEs”.
6	REALLY – RE-ALLY
7	IN THE FIRING LINE – double definition, one cryptic.
8	HINDSIGHT – same again. Have we got a standard term for this type of clue? DCD perhaps? There are four in this puzzle alone.
13	ADMISSION – double definition.
15	TOGETHER – (d)OG inside TETHER.
16	BONFIRES – FIR inside B(ritish) ONES
19	HAZARD – A,Z in HARD
20	SENT UP – I’d count this as a DCD, as there’s misdirection in the second to make you think of the Greek God rather than the NASA mission.
23	TIRED – RETIRED minus the last letters of “horroR moviE”.

5 comments on “Saturday Times 24353 (10th Oct)”

Another one coffee and a piece of toast Saturday puzzle in which the double definitions began to grate a little.

The reference to hop picking stirred memories. Most hop pickers were casual labour from the East End of London and my grandmother used to talk about “goin’ ‘oppin'” – an annual pilgrimage to earn some extra (probably untaxed and undeclared) money

vinyl1 says:

17 October 2009 at 4:06 PM

“Now hopping’s just beginning,
We’ve got some time to spend.
We’ve only come down hopping
To earn a quid if we can.

Chorus (after each verse):
With a tee-i-ay, tee-i-ay
Tee-i-ee-i-ay

Every Monday morning
Just at six o’clock
You’ll hear them hoppers calling:
“Get up and boil you pots!”

Early Tuesday morning
The bookie he’ll come round
With a bag of money
He’ll flop it on the ground.

Says, “Do you want some money?”
“Yes sir, if you please,
To buy a hock of bacon
And a lump of mouldy cheese.”

Now here comes our old measurer
With his long nose and chin
And his ten-gallon basket
And don’t he pop ’em in!

Now hopping is all over
All the money spent
Don’t I wish I’d never done
No hopping down in Kent.

I say one, I say two,
No more hopping I shall do.
Tee-i-ay, tee-i-ay
Tee-i-ee-i-ay

Two cups of coffee and a bowl of muesli. I did have a problem with how to spell Sinhalese until I realised it had inhales in the middle. I think the only other thing that gave me pause for thought was Clacton, probably because it does not sound right without the on-sea.

DDs & DCDs were the first type of clue I learnt to look for after the anagrams and hidden words – I rather like them and liked this puzzle which kept me quiet for almost half an hour. As I often find with long central downs the RH half yielded first. I put harrier too after much inner debate.

10:30 or so for this one – just right as a championship warm-up.

The def and cryptic def clue type is a classic example of why just seeing how the clue makes sense is more important than attaching the right label – many people discussing clue types barely mention these.

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