Saturday Times 24413 (19th Dec)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Well, nice to be sitting at home writing this up, as it’s my first Saturday off in December (and tomorrow will be only my second Sunday off. So what, you might say, but as my job involves a 2½-hour commute each way you can understand why I’m feeling a bit relieved. Anyway, I solved last Saturday’s puzzle on the train last Sunday, but my phone’s battery was dead so I couldn’t time it accurately. Around 25 minutes though I think, as I found it quite hard to finish, and had one of those panicky ten-minute spells where nothing would come to me. Got there in the end though, which is better than I did on Thursday in 45 mins.

Across
1 CLIP JOINTS – CLIP (speed) + JOINTS (spliffs). Illegal strip clubs which offer free entry, then charge a fortune for watered down drinks and “service”.
6 HEAP – (c)HEAP
9 OFFICE GIRL – OFFICER + L(ength) around G.I. (private). I’m not too sure how “employs” can be used as an insertion indicator.
10 ACHE – hidden inside preACHEr, but how does “inspires” mean “hides”? It would work as an insertion indicator, but not here.
12 LINE OF BATTLE – N.B. around A FOE reversed, all inside LITTLE. One I put in quite early, but it took me ages to figure out the wordplay afterwards.
15 PANETTONI – (tea in pot + N)*, the N coming from the last letter of Italian.
17 EMMET – E(legan)T around MME (short for Madame, or French woman). Dialect word for an ant, which is what the Cornish call tourists.
18 CRAKE – R in CAKE. Dundee Cake is a rich fruit cake often served at this time of year. Another name for the corncrake or rail. Chambers says it’s also a crow or a raven. Whatever.
19 FOREIGNER – FOR (supporting) + N in EIGER.
20 PHOTOMONTAGE – HOT (stolen) in POM (Brit, Aussie slang) + O (ring) + (agent)*. Another one that took ages to figure out, because I saw “stolen ring” and got HOT O, then saw (agent)* and got the answer, but couldn’t explain how PMO could mean Brit.
24 OVID – DIVO(rced) rev. Horrible clue, but O_I_ for poet is a giveaway, and you can work backwards from there.
25 LOCOMOTION – COMO inside LOTION
26 EYED – (movi)E + YE’D.
27 PROPHETESS – OP inside (the press)*

Down
1 CHOW – “ciao”.
2 IFFY – IF + F(r)Y.
3 JACK-IN-THE-BOX – cryptic dd. The first half refers to some card game or other, although I’m not sure which one. I didn’t understand the wordplay to this until just now, although I got it from the second definition and enumeration. First one to go in.
4 INGLE – (d)INGLE, although I got it by thinking IN GLE(n), and wondering how “died out” can mean “last letter removed”.
5 THRIFTIER – [H(usband) + RIFT] in TIER.
7 EXCITEMENT – EX (old) + CEMENT around IT.
8 PRECEPTORS – RE inide (prospect)*. We had some of these at my grammar school, as the head teachers of each House.
11 WATERING HOLE – ATE + RING, inside WHOLE.
13 SPACE PROBE – (copper base)*
14 ANTAGONISE – ANT (insect) then IS inside A, GONE.
16 OFF-COLOUR – OF + FC + 0 + LOUR
21 TROOP – POOR T(ime) reversed.
22 PINE – P.E. around 1 N(ew).
23 ONUS – SUN + O reversed.

10 comments on “Saturday Times 24413 (19th Dec)”

  1. I thought this reasonably difficult.

    At 3D I think “Jack in the box” simply means the cards have been removed from their box to deal them but the Jack has been left behind, hence the deal is incomplete.

    I’m with you on 9A “employs” and particularly 10A “inspires” both of which are loose. Nice puzzle outside of those two.

    1. Inspires in the breathing sense, “taking in.” Perhaps “takes in” for employs as well? “Takes on” would be better, but doesn’t indicate insertion. Stretchy.
      1. … better as it pertains to “employs,” not better for the clue. (That didn’t make it worse, did it?)
  2. I find 9a beyond the pale, actually. And the more I look at 10a, the less I like it: I’m fine with using ‘inspire’ to mean ‘include/take in’, but then one is inserting ‘ache’ into ‘pre_r’ not ‘preacher’, just as one inserts ‘GI’ into ‘office_r’. And is ‘snatched’ (20a) OK as a sign to insert ‘hot’ into ‘pom’?
    1. Preacher takes in ACHE, as it has ACHE inside of it. There is nothing questionable about this.
  3. 9ac: COED has “keep (someone) occupied” and Collins offers “retain”. The Latin derivation is implicare: to enfold. Seemed okay to me at the time.

    19ac: I didn’t even think about this one, assuming that “inspires” meaning “takes in” as one would gas or air into the lungs, covers it. I don’t have a problem with it. I think we need to allow setters a little room for manoeuvre on insertions, anagrams etc otherwise things would become very dull with the same safe indicators being used time and again.

    3dn: I’m sure Jimbo’s explanation is the correct one. The only card game I know that could have a Jack in the box is cribbage in which the crib, made up of cards discarded by the players for later scoring by one of them, is referred to colloquially as “the box”, hwever this circumstance would not be the result of an incomplete deal.

    I took 45 minutes to complete this without resort to aids and I had to check the meaning of only one word following completion (PRECEPTORS at 8dn). Not bad for me for a Saturday puzzle especially compared with 24418 which took me 70 minutes before I gave up and used a solver on the last three clues.

  4. There is a Poirot story that relies on a card being left in the box resulting in an incomplete deal in a bridge game enabling the sleuth to solve the case. Shame it didn’t occur to Agatha to use the jack.

    sidey

  5. Unexceptional crossword, by which I mean I can’t remember it upsetting me though I am inclined to agree that 9ac is a bit 2dn. 10ac seems fine to me.

    Miscellaneous comments are the observation that any region that has a special word for “tourist” should be treated with caution, as indeed I do Cornwall. Cornwall and mid Wales are the only places I’ve ever been where the inhabitants made me feel unwelcome. Also are clip joints actually illegal? I am a good boy and wouldn’t know..

    My security software dislikes this site today and tried to stop me viewing it. I think it might be something to do with spyware in the advertising banner(s)

    1. In Dorset tourists are known as grockles and in the summer one can see locals walking around in T-shirts that say “I’m not a grockle”. I’m not aware that tourists are made to feel unwelcome – some local economies here depend upon them to a major extent – but when a usual 10 minute journey takes 30 minutes some uncomplimentary remarks may be made in the privacy of ones own car.

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