Saturday Times 24371 (Oct 31)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 10:11 over a pint while the missus was getting her face threaded. There were a couple I put in on faith though – 9D and 20A had to be checked in the dictionary when I got home. Some great definitions made it an enjoyable solve – I especially liked “Crash site” and “Vanishing cream lover”, but there were others too.

Edit: On seeing the first couple of comments, I’ll have to add “one mistake”. Damn!

Across
1 GRAFFITO – (gift of)* around R.A., &lit although not a very good one. Perhaps “Unwanted gift…” might have been better.
5 WEBCAM – WEB (trap) + CAM (the River Cam, which runs through Cambridge, on which the male students attempt to impress their girlfriends with their amazing sense of balance).
10 OUR MUTUAL FRIEND – the wordplay’s a bit out of order, but it’s all there. MUTUAL (building society) next to OUR (by us used) + END (to close) after FRI (day). Definition is just “work” (the 1865 Dickens novel).
11 POOH-POOHED – HOOP HOOP rev. + ED
13 CHAV – CHA (refreshing cup (of tea)) + V
15 RIPOSTE – (1, POST) inside RE
17 LEOFRIC – as I live in Coventry, “Earl whose wife rode barely” gave it away immediately and I put in LEOFRIC (husband of Lady Godiva) straight away without looking at the wordplay, just briefly wondering what Richmond was doing there. Of course, it’s just a hidden word clue – “within miLE OF RIChmond.”
18 PARVENU – PAR + VENU(s), &lit.
19 REJECTS – RE-ERECTS, with ER replaced by J
21 ROUÉ – ROU(g)E
22 ALL-NIGHTER – ALTER clothes (contains) L + NIGH
25 SHILLY-SHALLYING – SHILLING around (SHALL inside two Ys)
27 LAYERS – (musica)L + AYERS (Ayers Rock in Australia).
28 PLAY BALL – P + LAY + BALL

Down
1 GROUPER – double definition.
2 AIR – triple definition? Resort to/make public/broadcast. I can’t think what else resort could be doing there, but neither can I quite marry up any of the definitions of resort and air satisfactorily.
2 AYR – sounds like “air”. Thanks to kororareka for putting me right. It never occurrred to me that Ayr was a resort. My Scottish geography is pretty hopeless.
3 FOUR-POSTER – (to use for PR)*. Brilliant definition, as aforementioned.
4 TRURO – odd letter of “ToRn Up RoOt”. Definition is “See”, as it has a cathedral.
6 EZRA – Z in ERA. Ezra Pound, American poet.
7 CHESHIRE CAT – (1 catches her)*. Another great definition.
8 MEDEVAC – E(uropean) VAC by MED.
9 ALVEOLAR – (overall a)*. I knew this was an anagram straight away, but couldn’t make sense of it until I had all the crossing letters, and even then only out it in as no other combinations made a word. It’s a consonant formed by putting the tongue against the roots of the upper teeth, like a T or a D for example.
12 OPPORTUNITY – OP + PORT + UNIT + (happ)Y
14 CONJUGALLY – CON + JUG ALLY
16 EQUALISE – 23 with a point docked becoming 1-ALL. Good clue.
18 PARASOL – 0 + L after PARAS (regiment dropped).
20 STRIGIL – RIG inside STIL(l). Got this from the wordplay, last one to go in. I think the definition’s a bit off though – it’s defined as a skin-scraper rather than a rubber in Chambers.
23 NIALL – (za)NI(er) + ALL. No doubt an easy one for our blogger Mr. MacSweeney (nmsindy).
24 BLUR – BLUR(b)
26 IDA – A DI reversed. Makes a change from the usual definition “operatic princess”, but the G&S opera was based on the poem The Princess by Tennyson.

17 comments on “Saturday Times 24371 (Oct 31)”

  1. I see my copy has ticks all over the place, and reading your comments I remember why. A truly masterful work. Your 10 minutes is an impressive time. Mine would have been at least an hour longer. Too many candidates for COD, but 1d has to be a strong contender.

    At 2d, I had AYR, as in the Scottish resort sounding like AIR.

  2. I also had AYR at 2D, definition=resort + homophone of “air”

    I think GRAFFITO appeared in the Mephisto published the next day – what chance that? Altogether a higher calibre puzzle this one with some great definitions and wordplay. What a Saturday puzzle should be. At the time I felt “work” was a bit thin as a definition at 10A but it seems OK to me now – different mood I guess.

  3. Absolutely brilliant puzzle, I too had ticks all over the place. Despite the head-start with 23 (which is not, I trust an &lit…), it took me a very enjoyable 62 mins.
  5. Oops. A little research shows that either medevac or medivac is the same thing.
    Sorry for my previous comment.
    Barbara
    1. As you say, both spellings, MEDEVAC and MEDIVAC, are used, but here it must be the former for the wordplay to work. It was one of two clues where care over spelling was needed. At 1ac I initially and carelessly entered the more common plural, GRAFFITI, which of course doesn’t fit the anagram, only later spotting my error. I wonder if anyone else did the same?
  6. Ditto all the above. It’s a long time since I put as many ticks against clues. Half an hour of pure solving pleasure, so thanks to the setter for a Grade a puzzle.

    COD .. the vanishing cream lover. How neat is that!

  7. I wasn’t able to finish this off without resort to aids. Several unknown words and wordplay I didn’t manage to grasp.
  8. Agree with all the comments above re the excellence of this puzzle. One of those where it seemed a sacrilege to attempt any sort of speed time, the clues being so good, and the solutions so satisfying when they came, that they demanded to be sniffed, sipped and then mulled over like a fine wine. That said, Linxit’s 10 mins seem to me supernaturally fast. Today’s puzzle was almost in the same class, I thought.
    1. …who’s still kicking around and drops in frequently to see what’s what – just not getting enough free time to solve at the moment.

      Thanks for complimenting today’s puzzle Mike (’tis mine). I mention it now because, frustratingly, I’m getting good old 404 when I try logging in – anyone else suffering the same?

      I’ve got the paper version but want to send the filled in grid to some overseas friends as their nicknames appear in it. Before you ask – no, there’s no way you could spot them; very unusual nicknames and they’re split up in the grid!

      1. I too was getting the green parrot and 404. Eventually got in by deleting cookies and using Internet Explorer. It was a further 24 hours before Firefox would connect.

        Thanks for a great puzzle.

      2. Thanks for a great puzzle. About a week ago I got the dreaded 404 error page several times in a row when trying to log in. I told the technical people at The Times about it, and they sent back some not hugely helpful advice about avoiding “cached pages/favourites to access the site”. In due course, the glitch righted itself, as it usually does, and has not reappeared since. I know that others have had similar problems recently.
  9. Very enjoyable crossword. Can’t remember my time, certainly over 20 mins. 7D CHESHIRE CAT was my favourite but there are loads of excellent clues. I was born very near Ayr and have some sympathy with Linxit – ‘resort’ is not the first thing that comes to mind, although I think it used to have (still has?) a Butlins.

    Tom B.

  10. 23:28 in my post-holiday catch-up. Now looking back at the grid trying to see those nicknames but in vain. Slightly assisted by reading about 17A on the Times club bulletin board, but it didn’t help much!
  11. I don’t recall how long it took, but I’m happy to say that the Times computer picked out my entry as a winner! And it was my birthday too!
  12. Does this slang word (unfamiliar to me) really mean “coarse chap”? Dictionary.com defines it as “the lower class; uneducated and ignorant people”.

    John in USA

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