Saturday Times 24694 (13th Nov)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 9:59 – first time I’d tried to solve it online rather than from a printout, and I certainly picked the right week! Easiest one for ages, and I’d probably knock off about 25% for normal solving as I don’t like solving online. So, a big welcome to all the solvers who just finished their first unaided Times Crossword! Sorry this is so brief, but I’m still really annoyed about losing all the work I put into my TLS blog, and at the moment I just can’t be bothered!

Across
1 MILKSOP – MILKS OP
5 SOFA BED – SO FAB ED
9 LABOUR PARTY – LABOUR + PARTY
10 LEI – hidden in “buddLEIa”
11 SCREAM – double def.
12 SNAPSHOT – SNAP + SHOT
14 A BIT ON THE SIDE – double def.
17 ROUGH DIAMONDS – ROUGH + DIAMONDS
21 FULL MOON – L(ine) + L(ength) + MOO inside FUN.
23 HECATE – HE-CAT + (divorc)E
25 PIE – PI + (st)E(ak)
26 FAIRY LIGHTS – AIRY inside FLIGHTS
27 NOTHING – THIN inside NOG
28 THEOREM – THERE around O, + M

Down
1 MOLEST – (repellen)T at the end of MOLES
2 LIBERIA – SIBERIA with a different first letter.
3 SQUEAMISH – MAE reversed inside SQUISH
4 PAPA – A PAP reversed
5 SPRINGTIME – (met rising P)*, the P as the last letter of sap, &lit.
6 FRY-UP – FRY + UP, also &lit.
7 BOLSHOI – SLOB reversed + H(usband) + I,O reversed.
8 DAINTIER – A inside DIN + TIER
13 MONITORING – MOTORING around N.I.
15 ERNIE WISE – (is weenier)*. Ernie Wise was the straight man to Eric Morecambe’s clown in the famous double-act.
16 DRIFTPIN – D(rives) + RIFT + PIN (i.e. in golf). Didn’t know the word, but worked it out from the wordplay. Last one in.
18 UGLIEST – (suit leg)*
19 SMASHER – double def.
20 JETSAM – MAST reversed after JE (“I” translated (into French)).
22 MUFTI – first letters of “military uniform? Frankly this isn’t”.
24 CYST – C(arr)Y over ST.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 24694 (13th Nov)”

  2. All but four solved in 30 minutes (or so I thought) but I spent as long again trying to sort out 1dn and 11ac in the NW and 16dn and 27ac in the SW. Looking back I’ve no idea why I couldn’t see MOLEST and SCREAM but the problems lower down were the result of a wrong answer at 25ac where I had OKE – OK,stEak – which I would suggest works reasonably well though PIE is obviously a better solution. Never having heard of DRIFTPIN didn’t help matters.
  3. 40 minutes and nothing much to say except I remember thinking non-UK solvers might not be laughing much at Ernie Wise – in which case they’d be in pretty good company with those of us who sat through some of his “plays” ….
  4. 78 min, so didn’t find this one that easy. The last half-hour was spent gazing at 16dn and 25ac. I knew DRIFT well in this sense, but not combined with PIN, and would certainly have hyphenated it. The dictionaries reckon otherwise, though.

    My other problem was that, to me, PI, with its implication of sanctimonious hypocrisy, means anything but “good”, except for an assumed facade.

  6. Only moderately easy this I thought: it took me about half an hour. It should have been quicker but I held myself up by hurriedly putting in PAT for 25 (pat-a-cake). Once I’d corrected this error the rest fell reasonably quickly, although DRIFTPIN (never heard of it) also delayed me for a while right at the end.
    Certainly not as easy as this week’s.
  7. Held up for a while, having guessed at Sick Bed instead of Sofa. Seemed “fully sick” (brilliant)at the time, though finding an excuse for the “b” baffled.

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