Saturday Times 24484 (March 13th) – boxing clever?

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 12:18, so pretty easy for a Saturday. No obscure vocabulary, and nothing too tricky in the wordplay either. However, the surface readings were smooth and some of the cryptic parts were brilliantly inventive even if not too hard to get, e.g. 4d & 21d, both of which are COD contenders for me. A hint of a theme too, with four surfaces and one entry suggesting boxing.

Across
1 ACROPOLIS – cryptic definition. It’s the hill in Athens that the Parthenon stands on, amongst many other classical Greek ruins.
6 MADAM – MA + DAM, &lit.
9 SUMATRA – SUTRA (Buddhist writing) around MA (old lady). A bit clumsy to have MA as a wordplay element in two consecutive clues, even if they are indicated slightly differently.
10 ARTEMIS – hidden reversed in “woodS I MET, RApidly”. The ancient Greek goddess of the hunt.
11 AMITY – AMY (i.e. Amy March, one of Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women), around IT.
12 INDOLENCE – (on decline)*
13 MEDIA – double definition, the second being the country of the Medes around 600BC.
14 GANGPLANK – GANG + PLAN + K(ing).
17 SURCHARGE – SURGE around CHAR.
18 ROCKY – double definition, the second referring to the series of six films (so far) starring Sylvester Stallone.
19 HATE CRIME – (race, I’m the)*. Good anagram &lit.
22 MUNCH – double definition, the second being Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, ref. his painting The Scream.
24 PEAFOWL – P.E. + A + F(ine) + OWL. A careless PEACOCK here at first glance slowed me down a little bit.
25 OUTBACK – the “return journey” being OUT and BACK.
26 NAKED – NA (negative response of Scots) + K(ing) + ED(ward).
27 SKYWRITER – cryptic definition.

Down
1 AT SEA – A SEAT with the T rising.
2 REMAINDER – A inside REMINDER. Do people still tie knots in their handkerchiefs to remind them of something? It used to be a common phrase when I was growing up, although even then I never saw anyone do it.
3 PETTY CASH – (typecast)* + H(usband).
4 LEADING ARTICLES – double definition, one cryptic, as THEatrical ANthologies have them! Really enjoyed this when the penny finally dropped (long after I’d written it in).
5 STAND ON CEREMONY – (Many contenders)* around O.
6 METAL – M (James Bond’s boss, hence director of agents) + ET AL
7 DEMON – DON around ME reversed.
8 MASTER KEY – MASTER + KEY.
13 MISSHAPEN – (emphasis)* + N(ame).
15 PERIMETER – PETER (Tsar) around E(uropean) RIM.
16 ASCENDANT – (stance, and)*
20 TRACK – R(ight) inside TACK.
21 CROWD – CROSSWORD (this, for example) with SS and OR removed. Brilliant!
23 HIKER – HI + K + ER.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 24484 (March 13th) – boxing clever?”

  1. Agreed an easy puzzle – about 20 minutes to solve. Two quibbles. I think at 13A we need “old region” or “region once” or some indication we are going back over 2,000 years. At 3D is “ready for minor roles” a good definition of PETTY CASH? Like linxit I thought both 4D LEADING… and 21D CROWD very good.
    1. Once the penny had dropped, I thought “ready [i.e. ready money] for minor roles” was a brilliant definition of PETTY CASH.
  2. Achieved a PB for a Saturday puzzle with this one at 25 minutes but with several unexplained until I revisited it later. I like to think I have an above average knowledge of Scottish dialect for a non-native but I never knew there was an official word “na”. I wonder if their knights of old used to say it?
  3. 40 minutes for me – well under standard, so must be easy. The leading articles clue is top notch.
  4. I thought I was getting off to a great start with AREOPAGUS for 1ac, and of course then had to waste a good deal of time on 2d and 4d. (And the Areopagus is, I believe, the height, while the Acropolis is the architecture.)
  5. Thanks for the explanation of LEADING ARTICLES. It completely defeated me. I thought it was some weak allusion to leading ladies. Apologies to the setter. Far too clever for the likes of me. CROWD was also a corker.
  6. I didn’t think this was difficult at the time, c20mins, but now I see that elements of both 4dn and 21dn seem to have passed me by at the time. Well done setter, and well blogged!

    Agree with Jimbo about 13a, but not 3dn which I thought witty & sufficiently accurate

  7. 10:04 for me for a most enjoyable puzzle, with several exceptionally fine clues.

    I wasn’t too worried about the lack of an indication that MEDIA is a former region. I have the impression that setters have been becoming more relaxed about this sort of thing for some time now – anyway I feel I’ve become quite used to it.

  8. The Acropolis is the height, on which stands (in the case of Athens) the architecture, which is the Parthenon, so 1A is a sound clue. (The Areopagus is not particularly high.)

    Good puzzle. I completed it without at first fully understanding 4D and 21D which are really clever clues.

    John in USA

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