Saturday Times 24700 (20th Nov)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 12:22, so a little bit harder for me than the previous week’s, although comments last week suggested some found it easier. No real hold-ups, although the alternative spelling at 20dn gave me pause until it became obvious once I had all the checking letters.

Across
1 SCRAWL – R.A. inside SC(o)WL.
5 TARTRATE – TART + RATE. Slightly confusing at first as the crossword brain connects salt = tar immediately.
9 PROCEDURAL – PAL around RUDE COR reversed.
10 DUEL – DUE + L(arge).
11 HONEYDEW – (DYE + NO) reversed inside HEW. This is a sugar secretion released by aphids, and the reason that ants “farm” them. Also a type of melon.
12 TUNDRA – DR inside TUNA.
13 ESPY – ESP (extra-sensory perception) + Y (variable).
15 NAVIGATE – (vain)* + GATE. Not sure about “guide” as a definition. Surely to navigate is to find one’s own way rather than anybody else’s. I’m probably just being picky though.
18 VIPERISH – V(olume) + I + PERISH.
19 DOCK – double definition.
21 STUPID – TUP inside SID(e).
23 THOROUGH – TH(e) + O (round) + ROUGH (below par, and nothing to do with golf, where it would probably imply the opposite).
25 PLAN – hidden in “stop landslide”.
26 BEWITCHING – (WIT + CHIN) inside BEG.
27 HARP SEAL – (Rash leap)*.
28 HARDEN – D(aughter) inside HARE + N(ew).

Down
2 CARGO – alternate letters of “oCeAn ReGiOn”.
3 ARCHETYPE – (Pay etcher)*
4 LA-DI-DA – LAD + ID(e)A.
5 THROW IN THE TOWEL – TOW inside HEEL, underneath H(ot) + ROW (terrace) inside TINT (shade). How about that for convoluted wordplay, especially for an answer most probably got from the definition and enumeration!
6 RELATIVE – (matte)R + (leave it)*.
7 RADON – ADO inside R.N.
8 THEORETIC – HE (man) inside TORE (rushed) + TIC (nervous action).
14 SCINTILLA – C (circa, about) inside SIN (wrong) + TILL (work) + A(rea).
16 GODMOTHER – GO + D (500) M(iles) + OTHER. A lesser-used meaning of the word sponsor these days – can be either sex of godparent, so could have done with a “perhaps” at the end.
17 BIDDABLE – ADD reversed inside BIBLE.
20 HOOTCH – HOOT (laugh) + C.H. (Companion of Honour).
22 PIN-UP – IN (not out) inside PUP (boxer = dog).
24 GENRE – G(ood) + ERE around N (middle letter of ONE).

12 comments on “Saturday Times 24700 (20th Nov)”

  1. About average as I recall in terms of difficulty.

    At 15A I think the definition is “guide in” because at large ports (Southampton just down the road from me) a ship will take on board a navigator to find the correct way through the shipping lanes.

    I agree about 5D, solved straight from definition and then had to write the answer down on a separate piece of paper to work out the parsing with many () and – separating the bits. Not keen on boxer=dog rather than “boxer, perhaps”. I liked 23A THOROUGH which, being a golfer, I had trouble dissecting.

  2. 11:25 for me, pretty straightforward I thought. I agree with dorsetjimbo about “navigate” – rally drivers also have a navigator, as did bomber pilots. I wonder how our transatlantic and antipodean brethren got on with 21 ac? Favourite clue 21d.
  3. 24 minutes. Very straightforward apart from carelessly scribbling in GODFATHER, which messed up things for a while. Afterwards I couldn’t get LA-DI-DA out of my head. (As sung by that droll songster Jake Thackray; though I always thought his funniest ditty was Sister Josephine.)

    This crossword reminded me of the days when the Saturday prize puzzle was always easier than the weekday ones. Things change, though. (Except for the prize, which seems to have been £20 for years; so long, in fact, that it probably should be 20 guineas!)

  4. I did this in 13 minutes, which is a fast time for me, particularly on a Saturday. A good boost to confidence that was to be destroyed by four out of five DNFs in the weekly puzzles.
    This week’s is considerably harder.
  5. 30 minutes, fast for me. It wasn’t until I read the blog that I remembered that I had forgotten to go back to figure out how 5d worked; probably just as well.
  6. Extremely easy for me – a leisurely half an hour, which is probably the fastest I’ve finished any crossword, Times or otherwise. Followed that with a failure on the day’s Jumbo, and an epic struggle today. 🙂
  7. 51 minutes – didn’t know ‘hootch’ or ‘hooch’ – F and B being a blind spot for this strictly beer and wine man. For the record, the word’s an abbreviation of ‘Hoochinoo’, an Alaskan Indian people who made the stuff.

    Congratulations to Jon on his PB.

  8. Admitting to missing out on viperish, I couldn’t quite make liverish go. 10 minutes to have most of it done, then another twenty to finish off the last 1/4. Merry Christmas to all, hope you enjoy the Boxing Day Test.

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