Saturday Times 24622 (21st August)

linxit28th August 2010 at 12:16 AMWeekend Cryptic

Solving time 11:37, which I was fairly disappointed with at the time, as I flew through the top half in about 3 minutes. However, comments I’ve read since suggest others found this pretty hard going, so maybe I ought to be feeling quite chuffed. Sorry for the very brief entry this week, but I’ve run out of time.

Across
1	FATHOMING – FAT + HOMING.
6	BIRCH – H + CRIB, all reversed.
9	ERATO – hidden in “Lover at Oxford”. The commonest Muse in crosswords by a mile.
10	PETTICOAT – (OTT cape – it)*
11	DISSATISFACTION – SATI (Hindu practice) inside DISS (East Anglian town) + FACTION.
13	SMOOTHIE – SHIE(d) around MOOT.
14	TEMPER – double definition, one of those words that can mean its own opposite. Isn’t English crazy!
16	LIMPID – 1 MP inside LID.
18	ELECTRON – ELECT RON! is the slogan, otherwise a negatively charged subatomic particle.
21	STRAIT OF MESSINA – (to assist fireman)*. That between Italy and Sicily.
23	UNWRITTEN – (New turn – it)*
25	LEERY – YR EEL reversed.
26	YOKEL – YOKE (burden) + L(eft)
27	CHORDATES – (hot, scared)*. Pretty much anything with a spinal column would do as an example I suppose.

Down
1	FREUD – FEUD around R(ight) for the father of psychiatry.
2	TRANSFORMER – TRA(i)NS + FORMER.
3	ODORANT – ODO (old bishop) + RANT. One Odo was William the Conqueror’s half-brother and bishop of Bayeux, but there have been others.
4	IMPLICIT – IMP + LICIT.
5	GET OFF – G(rand) + E(nglish) + TOFF.
6	BRIOCHE – OCH inside BRIE.
7	ROO – ROO(m).
8	HIT-AND-RUN – double definition – in the cricket reference, get off strike and let the other batsman have a crack.
12	IMPERTINENT – I’M PERTINENT
13	SALISBURY – double definition – an ecclesiastical see, as Salisbury is a cathedral city, and Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who was Prime Minister three times (1885-86, 1886-92 and 1895-1902).
15	FLAMINGO – FLAMING + O
17	INITIAL – double definition.
19	CASTLED – CAST LED
20	POETIC – CITE OP, all reversed.
22	ABYSS – ASS around BY
24	WOK – WO(r)K

16 comments on “Saturday Times 24622 (21st August)”

vinyl1 says:

27 August 2010 at 11:32 PM

I had put ‘fattening’ for 1 across, and componded the problem by pencilling in ‘exorate’ for 3 down. When I got ‘smoothie’, I had to work backwards through these until I had the right answers.

So it should have been straightfoward enough, but it wasn’t, although as usual I struggled with a few of the simple ones.
jackkt says:

27 August 2010 at 11:35 PM

I took 11 minutes to solve my first clue so I can’t understand being disappointed to solve this (or any Times puzzle) in 11:37. Got there eventually in an hour. I suppose T20 (in 8dn) means something to cricket buffs, but absolutely nothing to me.
1. vinyl1 says:
  
  29 August 2010 at 12:16 AM
  
  I was a helped a little by there being a ‘hit-and-run’ play in baseball, as every fan will know, so I figured it was likely enough. I have no idea what it is in cricket, however.
  
  You may see a hit-and-run in baseball when there are no or one outs, a runner on first, and the count is favorable to the batter.
  1. jackkt says:
    
    29 August 2010 at 5:21 AM
    
    I’m familiar with the expression itself but it’s the T20 thing I don’t understand.
    1. JerryW says:
      
      29 August 2010 at 8:10 AM
      
      I believe T20 is short for “Twenty Twenty,” which is what they call the game which is all the rage these days, wherein each side plays 20 overs only. A sort of 100m race, as opposed to the test match marathon.. I am very impressed that you have managed to avoid seeing any reference to it, it has been much discussed in the news etc and England uncharacteristically have only this year won the T20 World Cup..
      1. jackkt says:
        
        29 August 2010 at 9:03 AM
        
        Thanks, Jerry. I avoid all sports coverage as far as possible apart from tennis.
ulaca says:

28 August 2010 at 1:25 AM

As usual, as if in mockery of a lifetime playing and umpiring the game, the cricket reference tripped me up – I was working round six-and-out, and elsewhere too I wasn’t really on my game, as this took me just shy of two hours and I needed to resort to aids three times (STRAITS of MEDINA – missed the anagrind – BRIOCHE – couldn’t get further than ‘nay’ for the Caledonian cry of disapproval and ODORANT). Also wasted time on the PM, as I pencilled ‘Aylesbury’ beside the grid and it took LIMPID to set me right as the other two crossers appeared to confirm my stab. At least, I was in the right vicinity for the PM’s country residence …
keriothe says:

28 August 2010 at 8:14 AM

I also put FATTENING in for one accross, which made an otherwise medium-gauge puzzle very difficult to finish. I had 13ac and 3dn unsolved until Sunday. 13ac finally yielded and it was only at that point that I revisited the mistake and finished. Very glad to have got there without aids.
diogenes44 says:

28 August 2010 at 9:58 AM

Not for the first time the clues don’t match up with the spaces given. I wonder if the new forum the Times is opening will be any better. Can’t be any worse, surely??
1. petebiddlecombe says:
  
  28 August 2010 at 11:10 AM
  
  I’ve just had a look – in the online version, the clues are all there, but the enumerations in (brackets) are wrong for lots of them. Sometimes the right one is next door (e.g. for the two long across answers). I don’t have time to type up and check a list of the correct versions from the paper before departing for a weekend away.
  1. jon88 says:
    
    28 August 2010 at 9:36 PM
    
    Enumerations online are correct for the first three Across clues; 14a has the enumeration for 15a, and so forth through the rest of the clue list. (If it’s revealing too much to say that 14a is (6,3), then please edit this posting.)
    1. Anonymous says:
      
      29 August 2010 at 4:59 AM
      
      The online version (via the Crossword Search)is now
      correctly enumerated.
      
      Carole H
john_from_lancs says:

28 August 2010 at 10:13 AM

Can’t remember how long this took me as I’ve recycled the newspaper, but it was longer than 11.37! These words that mean their own opposites give me great pleasure. I remember sitting on top of a high point called Werneth Low and wondering why it was so called; that led to pondering other absurd names for uplands, such as the South Downs. Could the Times Crossword be possible in a language other than English, I wonder?
dorsetjimbo says:

28 August 2010 at 11:11 AM

I was a little surprised by the “that was difficult” comments that appeared about this puzzle. Whilst no push over it didn’t strike me as anything other than average Times standard. A decent enough offering, fun to solve but hardly one to write home about. I worked my way through it in about 25 minutes with no particular problems.
Anonymous says:

30 August 2010 at 9:24 PM

I thought this was pretty difficult and like others put “fattening” and thought about “exorate”. I’ve never heard of Odo!
Anonymous says:

3 September 2010 at 3:34 PM

Finished last night at dinner at end of 2 weeks holiday and daily effort. No aids. Is this a record ….? (Would have finished it sooner if I had found this forum before now!)

Comments are closed.