Saturday Times 24395 (Nov 28)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 16:10.

I’ve been called in to work at short notice this morning, so won’t be able to do the blog now. It will appear either this evening or tomorrow morning, depending on when I get back.

Luckily the boss isn’t here and the hardware hasn’t turned up, so I reckon I can do the blog and get paid for it today. I hope he doesn’t read this! As I mentioned last week, I was on for a pretty quick time here and just got held up at the end on the last three clues, which took me an age to get (relatively speaking). One for Jimbo to enjoy – no music or literature, and two (14 & 19) that could be classed as “Science”.

Across
1 ANTIBES – ANTI + BES(t). Jet-setters resort in the south of France, so the surface suggests just the opposite.
5 CAPRICE – CAP (better, verb) + RICE
9 STEAMSHIP – (mist as he)* + P
10 REFIT – REF + IT. Don’t like this clue – oldest cliché in the book and a laboured surface.
11 SPENDING MONEY – SPY around all of (ENDING + M (his boss, perhaps) + ONE).
13 WINDMILL – ILL (misfortune) after WIN + D(a)M
15 HUMANE – “hue” + “main”. This was one of the three I got stuck on. Very deceptive wording (for me at least).
17 TRENCH – N inside CERT (banker) reversed + H(ard). I tried to see a river here, and was totally stuck until I got 18D.
19 FILTRATE – TART rev inside FILE.
22 HEAD OVER HEELS – (Eve has led hero)*
25 APISH – hidden in “chAP IS Hugging”
26 PERMANENT – P.E. + (MAN inside RENT)
27 KINGPIN – KIN + GP + IN
28 DITHERY – D.I. + THE(o)RY

Down
1 APSE – A + E.S.P. rev.
2 TREASON – (par)T(ner) + REASON
3 BOMBE – alternate letters of BlOoM’s BeEn.
4 SCHEDULE – C.H. inside ELUDES rev/.
5 COPING – double def.
6 PARAMOUNT – (up at manor)*
7 INFANTA – FAN inside IN + TA
8 ENTRY LEVEL – ELEVE(n) + L around N, TRY
12 SWITCHBACK – WITCH + B(achelor) inside SACK
14 MICROCHIP – R in (comic)* + HIP (with it).
16 WITHERED – WIT + E in HERD
18 EVASION – I SAVE rev. + ON. This was another one I got stuck on at the end. With the E from 17A still missing, I was looking for something meaning preserve starting with TA, and the whole meaning some sort of enclosure ending in TION. Took maybe 5 minutes to sort it out.
20 AUSTERE – ST + ERE underneath AU
21 DEEPEN – PEN under DEE
23 EXACT – AXE rev + CT
24 STAY – double def.

5 comments on “Saturday Times 24395 (Nov 28)”

  1. Enjoyable puzzle which I found on the easy side. 25 mins, and quite a lot of that working out the last two which crossed, FILTRATE and WITHERED. COD ANTIBES.
  2. About 25 minutes for me also. A straightforward average Times puzzle really but as linxit says minus the poet, the composer and the obscure Hardy character. It was the inclusion of MICROCHIP and FILTRATE that lifted the science count in the November clue topic analysis to be equal with music and religion. I appreciated the “perhaps” in SPENDING MONEY and liked the structure of both it and ENTRY LEVEL.
  3. After exactly an hour I still had 15ac outstanding and other things to do so I used a solver to complete it.
  4. 12:09 for me, with HUMANE taking a few minutes at the end when tiredness was beginning to set in after doing the rest of the week’s puzzles at a sitting.

    No music or literature? Definitely a bummer as far as I’m concerned – but at least the weekly TLS puzzle provides some compensation (usually on both scores).

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