Saturday Times 24580 (July 3rd)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 26:32, so pretty tricky for me. When I saw the large number of multi-word entries I thought it would be a doddle, but that certainly wasn’t the case. 15dn was a new word for me, but gettable from the wordplay once a few letters were in place. My other difficulties were all from the subtleness of the clues, although I’m ashamed to admit that 8A/2D were the last two to go in, despite the fact that I earn my crust as an IT contractor. Top class puzzle.

Across
1 HAILE SELASSIE – HAILS E(nglish) LASSIE around (stat)E.
8 WISP – W, ISP (Internet Service Provider).
9 BUDDY MOVIE – BUD + (video my)*
10 SPA TOWNS – TO inside SPAWNS.
11 THENCE – THEE around N.C. (North Carolina).
13 IN FAVOUR OF – A, V(ery), O(ld) inside (off I run)*
16 OVAL – middle letters of (l)OV(e) (se)AL(ed).
17 JEEP – E twice inside J.P.
18 MARYLEBONE – NOBEL (chemist) reversed next to RY (track), all inside MAE (West).
20 EDWARD – (rag)E + WAR inside two D’s.
22 SANDHILL – GANDHI’LL have his first letter swapped for an S.
24 PROSCIUTTO – PROS (players paid) + CUT TO (start filming instead), around I. Fiendish wordplay, although I put it in from Ham … (10) and worked the rest out later.
26 LOUD – second letters of “fLatlining nOw bUsiness oDdly”.
27 WELL-THOUGHT-OF – hidden in “CamberWELL, THOUGH, TO Finchley”.

Down
1 HAIRPIN BEND – HAIRPIN + BEND.
2 INPUT – NPU (successors in the alphabet to MOT) inside IT. Very clever, had me fooled for a long time.
3 ELBOW-ROOM – ELBOW (barge) + MOOR reversed.
4 END USER – US inside ENDER.
5 AS YET – (Aye, it’s)* without the I.
6 SMOKE-BOMB – SMOKE (joint) + BOMB (lots of money).
7 ELI – RELIC with R.C. removed.
12 CHANNEL-SURF – ANNE inside [CH(eck) + L(arge) + SURF. Great definition – Stick at station? Hardly!
14 APPRAISAL – R.A. IS inside APPAL.
15 FALUN GONG – F(ollowing) + A LUNG + ON + G(rampians). Chambers leaves me not much the wiser: “a form of qigong in which, as well as physical and spiritual health, morality of character is promoted.”
19 RISOTTO – (sort I to)*.
21 DRIFT – double definition (without end = aimlessly).
23 HOLST – HOLST(er)
25 ROW – double definition.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 24580 (July 3rd)”

  1. I thought that this puzzle was very hard. I particularly struggled with BUDDY MOVIE (never heard of it) and FALUN GONG (didn’t know what it meant: thought it might be a Far Eastern Ultra group!).

    But the wordplay was very fair and it was a good challenge. Completed in 1 hour.

    This week’s is something similar.

  2. 16:29 for this one – hope Jimbo solved it as it seems to be what he’s after on a Saturday.

    FALUN GONG was in the news about 11 years ago when the Chinese goverrnment banned it, but has fallen out of the news. So I remembered that, but had to invent BUDDY MOVIE.

    1. I believe that this composer is American or lived in the States for a while. Buddy Movie is a genre which started with Easy Rider then films like Butch Cassidy, Midnight Cowboy, et al. It is often used when writing film reviews and since I now live in the States, I had no problem with it, whereas my English buddy did.
      1. I don’t think you need to have lived in the States to know a phrase like ‘buddy movie’ – there are other American words that I’ve acquired on holiday, for instance. Or ‘buddy movie’ might just have been a dictionary find for some set of checking letters.
  3. I enjoyed this one. It was challenging and satisfying although it took me three sittings to complete it. Thanks for a good blog, vinyl. I am also an IT man and have the same problem with IT related clues. I wonder if it is a general problem for specialists, perhaps because they have a wider range of options to filter.

    Nick

  4. This took me 80 minutes and according to my notes I used aids to get 11ac and 22ac. I worked out FALUN GONG from the wordplay but had never heard of it so was not really expecting to have the dictionary confirm it as correct.

    At 10ac, 13ac and 18ac I didn’t get the wordplay and having completed the grid after a lengthy solve I lost interest and couldn’t be bothered to spend any more time thinking about them.

  5. Did this on the Sunday after finishing a Mephisto that made me slightly grumpy so was pleased to find it tough but largely fair.

    My problems were much the same as others, particularly FALUN GONG which I checked in Chambers before entering in the grid. Agree with Jack about the D by E at 20A and also thought SANDHILL a bit on the weak side. The rest was very good and enjoyable.

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