Saturday Times 24454 (Feb 6th)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 16:33. The bottom left was troublesome, with two guessed answers confirmed later (26 & 29), but luckily all the crossing downs were easy. Apart from that it was a fairly straightforward solve.

Across
1 WADHAM – WAD + HAM. I hadn’t really heard of this Oxford college until the day before I solved the puzzle, but I’d just started reading An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. The blurb goes something like “…educated at Wadham College, Oxford, the author has worked as…”, so it was fresh in my mind.
5 DOGSBODY – double def, one whimsical.
9 AGE GROUP – AGE + GRO(w) UP. I didn’t know a cohort was specifically an age group, but according to Chambers it’s used as such in statistics.
10 RUGGED – double def, rug being slang for a wig. Definitely not RAGGED this time!
11 OSTEOPATHY – (say, to the op)*. Cracking anagram &lit.
13 THOR – hidden in “gianT HORse”. Norse god of thunder.
14 HILT – L in HIT.
15 APOCALYPSE – CALYPS(o) inside A POE.
18 BEACHY HEAD – ACHY inside BEHEAD. A chalk headland on the south coast of England.
20 SNOW – N(ew) inside SOW.
21 BOOR – BOO + R
23 GO FOR BROKE – BROKE (smashed) after GO FOR (attack).
25 MOMENT – double definition.
26 MARATHON – MARAT (body in the bath) + HO(use) + N(ot). Jean-Paul Marat, the French revolutionary, was famously murdered in his bath by Charlotte Corday.
28 PROPOSER – PROP (rugby position) + (l)OSER.
29 COSIMA – COSI (opera’s short title, for Cosi fan tutte) + MA (Italian for but). Definition is just “A Wagner”, as Richard Wagner’s second wife was called Cosima (and was also the daughter of Franz Liszt).

Down
2 AUGUSTINE – IN inside AUGUSTE. Auguste is a particular type of clown character. St. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 598 AD.
3 HIGHEST – (eighths)*
4 MOO – MOO(r).
5 DEPOT – DE-POT
6 GERRYMANDER – (marry)* inside GENDER. This is to change voting districts to support a particular party. Interesting etymology, formed from Governor Elbridge GERRY and salaMANDER, from the likeness to that animal of the gerrymandered map of Massachusetts in 1812 (Chambers).
7 BIGOTRY – BIG TRY around O(ld).
8 DIEGO – DIE (fail) + GO (to move).
12 PHARYNGITIS – (pity sharing)*
16 OWE – OW (it hurts) + E(nglish)
17 STOCKHOLM – STOCK (trunk) + HOLM (a type of oak).
19 CARVE UP – double definition, figurative and literal.
20 STRATUS – STATUS around R
22 ODOUR – O (rounded character) + DOUR. Another figurative definition.
24 FEMUR – ME reversed in FUR.
27 ROC – ROC(k).

11 comments on “Saturday Times 24454 (Feb 6th)”

  1. … or Lunar New Year, for politically correct types.

    78 minutes – even got RUGGED right. Was prevented from breaking the 75-minute barrier by 27dn, for which I had MIC at one point. At that stage I didn’t have MARATHON, which is my COD. Still never heared of ROC.

  2. I don’t time myself on Saturdays. There are much better things to do! But I thought this was quite difficult. I had no idea about WADHAM (College) or that CARVE UP was Pommy slang for cutting in front of another driver — we never do that in WA! I also didn’t know that a calypso is often on a topical theme. And as for Cosima … well … after looking at her Wik entry, it would seem that both Wagner and Nietzsche would have been better off without their (respectively musical and philosophical) executrices.

    For those who remain interested: the pic is the Tele head. NB leftie stringing.

    1. Had to resort to aids but didn’t find it too difficult, however today’s ….
      Have often had the pleasure of watching live Ed Bickert play his Tele here in T.O.

      Sunday puzzle quite a wreck.

  3. 60 minutes but not fully understood. I don’t like clues such as 26, not that it was difficult to solve, but I’d never have been able to explain it.
  4. This puzzle was worth doing for OSTEOPATHY on its own – great clue and I think original? However, didn’t like definition by example in DOGSBODY. I think Marat in his bath is well known enough to not count as obscure but not so happy about composer’s wives. Not clear why I should be expected to know who they were. Reasonable all round puzzle – off to do today’s now.
    1. This is another example of things being easy if one happens to know the answer or reference. I wrote in COSIMA on first reading without a moment’s hesitation because I studied music so I knew the references. But I could have spent the whole day thinking about MARATHON and without resort to assistance I would never have worked out the reasoning.

      So my POV would be that Cosima Wagner is well known enough but I’m not clear why I should be expected to know about the manner of death of a person who is not mentioned even obliquely in the clue but is defined by example of the way he shuffled off this mortal coil!

  5. This was an entertaining solve. I got there in the end but I had religious difficulties because I did not know that the Apocalypse was the Revelation of St John. I also struggled with the Wadham/Augustine intersection.

    No problems with Cosima, who, as well as being Wagner’s wife was Liszt’s daughter. The body in the bath definition of Marat is probably an allusion to David’s painting La Mort de Marat. Older solvers will remember the 1960’s play and film “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade”, better known as the Marat/Sade.

  6. I held myself up for a while by confidently putting ELTHAM at 1ac, on the basis that an Egg, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich is an alternative to a BLT.

    The most noted more recent Wadham character was Maurice Bowra, who was Warden from 1938-70.

    There is (?was) an area of the river Cherwell, called Parson’s Pleasure, set aside for nude male sun-bathing. One day some women punted by on the river, ignoring the posted signs. The dons lounging around grabbed clothing to cover up their naughty bits, except Bowra who covered his head with a towel. When asked what the hell he was doing, Bowra is said to have replied, “I believe, gentlemen, that I am recognised by my face.”

  7. 10:03 for me. No problem with WADHAM, which I used to pass daily on my way to and from the Science Library or lectures in the Pitt Rivers Museum (or, on a good day, one of the North Oxford women’s colleges :-).

    I don’t recall seeing the (very good) OSTEOPATHY clue before, but my memory is far from reliable these days.

    A friend recommended An Instance of the Fingerpost to me as a book he was certain I’d enjoy, but although I found parts of it quite interesting, I can’t say it did too much for me. Perhaps my expectations had been raised too high.

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