Saturday Times 24610 (7th August)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 8:40, one of my quickest Saturday times for ages. Someone mentioned this one was very easy compared to the previous week’s, and so it turned out. The two 15-letter entries went straight in (21 is a bit of an old chestnut), and I can’t remember any hold-ups at all. Might have shaved a couple more minutes off if I could write quicker!

Across
1 SUCCESSOR – (crocuses)* after S(pring).
6 STROP – PORTS reversed. wobbly n (inf) a fit of nerves or anger. Used in the phrase “to throw a wobbly”.
9 HAUNT – A(nswer) inside HUNT.
10 OLD MASTER – (Art’s model)*. Great anagram &lit, unlikely to be original but I don’t think I’ve seen it before.
11 BUTTERFLY EFFECT – cryptic definition. The phrase comes originally from the title of a talk on chaos theory by Edward Lorenz in 1972: Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?
13 SPRITZER – SP(ecial) + RITZ + ER.
14 HECTIC – TIC after HEC(k).
16 VIEWER – EWER after VI.
18 SNOWFALL – (all of NSW)*. The surface isn’t strictly true though – the Snowy Mountains are in New South Wales.
21 NOTWITHSTANDING – NOT WITH STANDING. The usual way this word is clued. A gift to any experienced solver.
23 IMPRUDENT – IMP + R.U. + DENT.
25 SKIER – SKI(pp)ER.
26 SEGUE – SEE around (Au)GU(st).
27 ENDURANCE – (a creed nun)*

Down
1 SAHIB – B(ritish) + I(ndia) + HAS, all reversed.
2 COUNTERFEIT – FE (iron) inside COUNTER (bar), IT.
3 ENTREAT – hidden in “Jobcentre attacked”.
4 SCOT-FREE – SCOT + FREE
5 RED-EYE – E(xposed) inside RE-DYE (colour again).
6 SNAFFLE – ELF FANS reversed. A jointed bit for horses.
7 RAT – RAT(e)
8 PIRATICAL – RAT (as above) + 1 inside PIC, + AL(l) (almost completely).
12 EXTRADITION – EX-TRADITION.
13 SEVENTIES – EVEN inside STIES.
15 UNSTATED – (a student)*
17 EPICURE – ERE around PI CU.
19 WINDSOR – WINDS + O(ve)R.
20 WHEEZE – Z (unknown) + (rid)E after WHEE!
22 GORGE – GORGE(ous). Cheddar isn’t just a cheese.
24 PIG – alternate letters of spring. Looks like they’ve finally sorted out the issue with numbers in clues (although the ellipsis at the front (8d) is still a problem).

13 comments on “Saturday Times 24610 (7th August)”

  1. Far too easy I thought even for a puzzle designed to encourage new solvers. It was largely a case of read the clue and write in the answer.

    I’ve just finished yesterday’s puzzle (couldn’t do it yesterday because of the fall out from Mephisto 2606 not appearing on the Crossword Club site). That surely would make a better Saturday offering. Great fun without being monstrously difficult.

    1. I liked yesterday’s a lot too, but I believe there are people who don’t have time for a puzzle every day and only tackle it on Saturdays. If so, a mixture of difficulties on Saturday seems appropriate, including some easy puzzles.
    2. >Far too easy I thought even for a puzzle designed to encourage new solvers.

      I think you’re forgetting what it was like to be a beginner. A puzzle like this is bound to seem pretty straightforward to old hands like you and me, but I suspect a new solver would find it taxing enough to occupy 20 or 30 minutes.

      I can still remember when it was a really good day if I completed a Times puzzle in under 15 minutes, and that was when I’d been solving cryptics of one sort or another for several years.

  4. Not as easy as today’s stroll, but I still made a meal of it, finishing in just over an hour. Last in SNAFFLE, as least partly because I didn’t know the bridle-bit meaning. Took me a while to realise that ‘hotelier’ at 13ac wasn’t a mistake and that it was César Ritz to whom referenec was being made. COD to the well crafted anagram UNSTATED.
  5. Nothing particular to say about the crossword, but how do you do the font change colour thing, Linxit, to put bits in red? Is there some html for that?
    1. It’s a bit clunky, but easy enough.

      At the start, put (font color=”red”) and at the end, (/font), but use angle brackets rather than round ones, and note the American spelling of colour, which is unfortunately necessary. The html knows the names of most common colours, so you don’t have to use red.

      1. HTML knows some pretty bizarre colour names too – such as dodgerblue, olivedrab, peru, burlywood and tomato. According to my old HTML crib, these may not be supported by all browsers.
  6. Yes, very easy, but I like having an easy one to solve on a Saturday, as I’ve got less time than in the week, and am usually exhausted after trying to keep the kids entertained.
  8. My Missus now believes she can do cryptics, having worked her way through this, her first serious attempt, in about half an hour, if with an occasional hint. So indeed a good introduction for beginners, but I still can’t break ten minutes. Just can’t write fast enough and think at the same time!

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