Saturday Times 24514 (17th April)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 12:31, so another fairly easy one for a Saturday (unlike today’s, which was brilliant but incredibly tough – at least, I hope it was for more than just me).

Across
1 MAIN CLAUSE – “mane” and “claws”, two features of a lion.
6 OPAL – O + PA + L(ength).
9 CHAIN UP – A inside CHIN UP.
10 MAJORCA – JO inside CRAM rev, + A. Jo March is one of the girls in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. The others are Meg, Beth and Amy.
12 PORTENTOUS – TENT inside POROUS
13 NOH – NO H. Eliza Doolittle is the Cockney flower girl in Shaw’s play Pygmalion, taught to speak proper by Professor ‘Enry ‘Iggins. Noh is Japanese traditional drama.
15 CHAIRS – C.H. (Companion of Honour) + AIRS
16 VENTURER – V(isit) + E(ast) + (return)*
18 POPPADUM – POP + (pud ma)*. One that had to have accurate wordplay as there are about a dozen different ways to spell it. Chambers doesn’t even bother to list them all, just says “Also in several variant spellings”.
20 SEXTON – NOTES reversed around X
23 GYM – hidden in bioloGY Master.
24 INCENDIARY – (V)INCEN(t) + DIARY.
26 ARRANGE – ARRAN (a Scottish island) + E.G. reversed.
27 INKLING – (L in King)*. No, can’t be. That would be an indirect anagram. Could be just L inside IN KING, but then why “Funky”, and IN has to do double duty. Good idea, but I can’t quite get it to work without breaking the rules either way. [ Edit: IN (= fashionable = funky) + L inside KING. Thanks to mctext for the correct explanation. ]
28 SITE – first letters of State In This European.
29 UNRESTORED – (Returned so)*

Down
1 MACE – MC (compere) around A (top class) + E(ntertainer).
2 ISADORA – IS + “adorer”. Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), the American dancer.
3 CONSTERNATION – C.O. + STERN (demanding) inside NATION.
4 ALPINE – A LINE around P(iano). An Alpine Symphony was composed by Richard Strauss in 1915.
5 SUMMONER – ON inside SUMMER.
7 PARTNER – RENT RAP reversed.
8 LEATHERING – L.E.A. (Local Education Authority) + THE RING.
11 JUST THE TICKET – double definition.
14 SCAPEGOATS – SATS (Scholastic Aptitude Tests, college entry exams in the US, but also the name of the National Curriculum tests in the UK), around EGO (I) underneath CAP (top). I stuck it in from the definition and worked the rest out later.
17 PUNCHEON – EON after PUNCH. A support post in a mine.
19 POMFRET – double definition, another name for a Pontefract cake and a type of fish.
21 TERRIER – TI(g)ER around ERR.
22 UNWISE – USE around NW1 (the Postcode for Camden Town in London.
25 AGED – C (Convict’s first) removed from CAGED.

17 comments on “Saturday Times 24514 (17th April)”

  1. Agreed, much easier than 24520. Couple of notes that may help:
    18ac: Chambers’ main entry is “popadum or poppadum…. Also in several variant spellings”. That is, I can’t imagine Chambers misusing the word “alternate”. Or maybe you have a more recent edition?
    27ac: “Funky” = “fashionable” = “in”; then stick L(ine) into King.

    1. 18ac: No, I just looked up the entry in Chambers then forgot what the actual wording was.

      27ac: Makes more sense than my effort!

  3. This was an amusing and moderately easy solve. I enjoyed the Eliza Doolittle, Van Gogh and Elvis Presley clues. I thought the semi-&lit aspect of “Suspicion” was a mistake but, on checking Youtube I find that Elvis did cover Suspicion as well as singing the better-known Suspicious Minds. I could never understand the lyrics to that one “We’ll call it a trout/ I can’t walk out”
    1. I believe the line goes, “We’re caught in a trap”; diction was not one of Elvis’s strong suits.
  4. My crossword brain is worn out after the efforts of yesterday and today; where’s the double definition at 11dn?

    I couldn’t explain it when solving last week either, before I had double definition in mind. This answer was the only thing that fitted and was obviously correct and I wasn’t writing the blog so I gave up worrying about it, but I’d still like to know what I’ve missed.

    1. Minimum requirement for one travelling/first class. I suppose I was being lazy calling it a dd, because the first half doesn’t lead to a dictionary definition, but you get the idea. The second half is roughly synonymous with what Chambers gives as the definition of the phrase under the headword ticket: that’s (just) the ticket (inf) that’s exactly the right thing or the thing to be done.
  5. Carelessly wrote nah instead of noh for Doolittle clue; otherwsie, pretty straightforward. Which is more than can be said for The Beast. My one satisfying moment so far was figuring out that those two clues weren’t the same.
  6. Nothing to add. A puzzle at the opposite end of the spectrum to today’s 24520 offering! Good luck with the blog which may get a record Saturday attendance!

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