Saturday Times 24592 (July 17th) – Times for The Times

Solving time 12:38, one mistake. With the electricity out last weekend I had to go and buy the paper, but didn’t get round to solving it until the Sunday afternoon. Not being much of a dancer, I had to work out 16D from the wordplay, and 22A across was an educated guess. I thought it might be the name of a play, but couldn’t have named the author without looking it up afterwards.

With 11D and 22A crossing, this seems to be another one announcing last Friday’s nuptials!

Across
1	SUBSIDIARY – RAID IS reversed next to SUB, + (victor)Y. I wasn’t that convinced by SUB = warship, but Chambers has “a submersible vessel, especially for warfare”.
6	GRIT – G(uzzle)R + IT (wine). IT is short for Italian vermouth, which is a wine-based drink.
9	RELOCATING – RELATING around CO reversed.
10	TINY – hidden in “conflicT IN Yemen”.
12	STORM IN A TEACUP – (Man U spectator I)*.
14	TIDIER – (I tried)*
15	MANDARIN – MAN + DARIN(g)
17	LACKADAY – LACK A DAY.
19	ENTREE – E.N.T. (Ear, Nose & Throat) + E’ER reversed. It’s a fair bet that if you see “part of hospital” or “hospital department” in a clue then the letters ENT will appear in the answer.
22	AN IDEAL HUSBAND – cryptic definition for an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde.
24	TOSH – sounds like TOSS slurred. TOSH = friend might not be familiar outside the UK. Reminds me of the old Toshiba advert.
25	CANNELLONI – NELL inside CANON + I (single).
26	YANK – YAK (gossip) around N(orth).
27	ADOLESCENT – AS around DOLE, CENT

Down
1	SIRE – S(on) + IRE
2	BELATED – ELATE inside B(lizzar)D
3	INCARCERATED – IN CARE (trouble) around C (criminal leader) + RATED (judged). I found this one very hard to parse for some reason, originally just sticking it in from the definition.
4	INTUIT – IN + T.U. + IT (the very thing)
5	RUNS AWAY – seems to be AS reversed in RUNWAY, but I can’t see where AS is defined. The most likely candidate is “after”, but I can’t think how, and the dictionary’s no help.
7	RAILCAR – RAIL (protest) + CA (about) + R(evolutionary).
8	TOY SPANIEL – (pet is only)*
11	WEDDING BELLS – WE’D DING + “belles”, &lit.
13	STALWARTLY – ST + ALLY around WAR, (confic)T. Another &lit.
16	GALLIARD – LIAR with GAL, (old-fashione)D. A spirited dance for two, in triple time, common in the 16c and 17c.
18	CRIMSON – CON around RIMS.
20	RANSOME – (a N morse). Arthur Ransome, author of the Swallows and Amazons* series of children’s books.
21	GUNNEL – double definition, a fish or an alternative spelling of gunwale. I had FUNNEL in here originally, then realised when writing it up that I couldn’t justify it!
23	MIST – M IS T(his).

5 comments on “Saturday Times 24592 (July 17th)”

At 5D I think both “as” and “say” mean “for example” so it’s “say”=”as”

I found this very easy again and whipped through it without over troubling the little grey cells. We are due a tougher Saturday puzzle but yesterday’s 24,598 also didn’t fill that bill.

Agreed, an easy one. At least, easy after I undid the damage caused by creating a brand-new expression for “minor trouble”: SCRUM IN A TEAPOT. TOY SPANIEL put me right immediately….

Yes, 23 minutes for me says it must have been quite an easy one. I didn’t quite understand 24ac but justified it at the time on the basis that ‘shy’ = ‘shot’ which is an anagram of TOSH, with ‘drunk’ as the anagram indicator. I don’t think that sort of thing is allowed but I wasn’t in the mood to spend any more time thinking about it.

Yes, I agree with all these opinions. Disappointingly easy. I also agree with Jimbo re 24598.

I have given up the ST for the Telegraph Toughie. Any thoughts about what to do on Saturdays if things don’t improve?

The Toshiba ad tops my list of the all-time memorably awful. At the time I was responsible for researching and recommending computer equipment for our company. Toshiba was dropped immediately, and I have never since considered their kit. Sure made an impression!

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