Saturday Times 24676 (23rd Oct)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
I found this one really tough, although maybe I was just feeling a bit battered after a long session of Listener, Magpie and TLS puzzles! About 38 minutes to finish it in all. Sorry this is so brief, but I’m out of time (as usual).

Across
1 MYCOSIS – MY + COS + IS
5 SATANIC – (a saint)* + C(irca)
9 VOL-AU-VENT – LAU(d) inside [V(ery) + OVEN + T(ime)].
10 UNMAN – (g)UNMAN.
11 MAGNILOQUENCE – MAN around G(rand) + (one clique)*.
13 MALADIES – MA + LADIES = at least 3 women.
15 MERLOT – MERIT with the I replaced by LO.
17 OPTICS – OP + “ticks”.
19 POTTERER – POTTER (craftsman) + ER (hesitation).
22 TENDER-HEARTED – the heart of “Often Derek” is TENDER.
25 NOELE – hidden in “AquiNO ELEcted”.
26 PHEROMONE – (more hope + (wome)N)*
27 EMPATHY – E(nglish) + MY around PATH.
28 TOLSTOY – LOT reversed + STO(r)Y.

Down
1 MOVE – M(aiden) + OVE(r).
2 CALOMEL – CALL around ‘OME. Another name for mercurous chloride, used in medicine as a purgative.
3 STUNG – ST(r)UNG.
4 SPECIMEN – SPECI(al) MEN.
5 SETS ON – S(ucceeded) inside NOTES reversed.
6 TRUCULENT – N.T. (scripture) underneath (culture)*.
7 NOMINAL – NO + MIN + AL(l).
8 CONJECTURE – E.C.T. (a sort of therapy) inside CONJURE.
12 IMPORTANCE – IMPORT + ANCE(stor).
14 DECREMENT – REM inside DECENT.
16 COVALENT – (love can’t)*. A type of chemical bond.
18 TENSE UP – sounds like “ten sup”.
20 RIDE OUT – sounds like “wry doubt”.
21 CHIPPY – double definition, one of them cryptic.
23 TROLL – double definition. Troll meaning to fish was new to me when it appeared a few months ago in the Times crossword, but luckily I remembered it.
24 LEVY – LEV(it)Y.

7 comments on “Saturday Times 24676 (23rd Oct)”

  1. I think you must have been worn out Andy. I found this interesting but straightforward and of about average difficulty. I thought 26A PHEROMONE was very good. Overall, a decent enough Saturday puzzle.
    1. I disagree, Jimbo. This took me 90 minutes with resort to aids in the last 15. Just couldn’t get into it.
  2. Forgot to record a time, but perhaps just a little harder than average. Once again some nice clues.
  3. Certainly not as easy as this weekend’s, but fairly straightforward, I thought. I couldn’t get CHIPPY without resorting to an answerbank, having put ‘chappy’ in, but knowing it was wrong. Will hopefully now finally remember that deal = wood in crossword land. Also fouled up on 1 ac, putting ‘micosis’, with the MI- being an anagram of ‘I’m’, with ‘surprised’ the anagrind.
  4. The clue for 4 dn in my paper was: “Remarkable fellow staking out gangster – a few drops of blood here?” Apparently it should have been: “Remarkable fellows taking out gangster – a few drops of blood here?” With the glitch, I could not get the answer. I also find the use of “gangster” to mean “Al” to be quite lame.
  5. My paper says for 4D “Remarkable fellows…” so no problem there.

    21D I didn’t get. “Chippy” is supposed to mean “irritable”? OK, I see it’s a Canadian usage. *sigh*

    John in USA

  6. 90 minutes, but completed without aids. A long time to get started, with Tolstoy, and a long break before finding any more. Last in, magniloquence, having first plumped for “grandi” and finding that too long!

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