Saturday Times 24747 (15th Jan)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
I think this was about 25 minutes. I solved it on the train on Monday morning, but my mobile phone was dead so I didn’t have a stopwatch. Brilliant puzzle, and I attracted a few stares when I laughed out loud at 3dn! Lots of traps and tricky wordplay made this tough to solve but perfectly fair. One of the best Times crosswords I’ve seen for a long time.

Across
1 RAP ARTIST – APART (separate) + IS (lives), with R in front (led by king) and T at the end (consorT ultimately).
6 BEDIM – I(nsinuations) + M(entioning) after BED (plot).
9 SUPERINTENDENTS – SUPER (excellent) + END (ambition) inside INTENTS (other ambitions). Took me ages to see how that worked.
10 EYEFUL – sounds like “Eiffel”, some would say. Most wouldn’t, but using that as the homophone indicator lets the setter off the hook in my opinion.
11 SIDEREAL – SIDE (left perhaps) + REAL (no dream).
13 TRADE WINDS – TRADE W(ith) IN D.S. (policeman). “Potential howlers”, great definition.
14 STUM – SHTUM with the H removed. Another word for must, unfermented grape juice.
16 OATY – Y (unknown) + TAO, all reversed.
17 ESCUTCHEON – (the US once)* around C(ape).
19 LIES UPON – N(ew) + OPUS reversed, following LIE (fiction).
20 AT ODDS – A TODD’S, ref. Sweeney Todd.
23 PROTECTION MONEY – cryptic definition (rhino is slang for money).
24 PATHS – hidden reversed inside “SpaniSH TAP-dancer’s”.
25 RACONTEUR – (Eurocrat)* around N(oon).

Down
1 ROSIE – ROSE (climbed) around (gladiol)I.
2 PIPPED AT THE POST – PIP (star) + P.E. (training) + D.A. (lawyer) + T,T (Times) + HE (man) + POST (after). That’s just brilliant.
3 RE-ROUTED – REAR OUTED with the A removed. That’s also brilliant, and funny!
4 IONA – IO (satellite, one of Jupiter’s moons) + NA (not available). An island in the Inner Hebrides, famous for its monastery.
5 THE TIN DRUM – (I tenth)*, “one tenth fancy” + MURD(er) reversed, “two thirds killing”. A 1959 novel by Günter Grass.
6 BUDGET – D.G. (Dei gratia, by the grace of God) + E (key), inside BUT (save).
7 DANCE ATTENDANCE – DANCE (hop) + ATTENDANCE (gate). Chambers gives the definition as “to wait assiduously (on).”
8 MUSCLEMAN – SUM reversed (raised total), then M(ass) inside CLEAN.
12 RIPSNORTER – R.I.P. SNORTER!
13 TOODLE-PIP – (old poet)* + I + P.
15 SCOTSMAN – (most)* inside SCAN.
18 DURESS – DUCHESS with the CH replaced by R.
21 SKYER – SKYE + (tempe)R(ature).
22 TORC – every third letter of “taTtoO-maRks Cut”.

15 comments on “Saturday Times 24747 (15th Jan)”

  1. I found this somewhat harder than average, about 30mins in all. I liked it too, my only complaint, if you can call it that, was that I thought stum rather too obscure a word for a daily cryptic. I tried to prove it, by googling to see how many hits it got, but it appears that shtum is regularly misspelled, and there are lots of people called Stum!
  2. Agreed, an excellent puzzle in all sorts of ways but what a pity about EYEFUL! I think you’re far too kind – if people don’t know the correct pronunciation they tend to call it the EYE-FELL tower in my experience. I think this one joins the “sandpaper” sounds like “sandpiper” collection!

    Anyway, thank you setter

    Jerry, you’ve had a sheltered upbringing. Shtum is one of those yiddish words that English has adopted which is quite common in some parts of London, certainly, and I would guess elsewhere.

  3. This took me forever, and I’ve been waiting eagerly for this blog ever since I somehow finished it, to find out how half the clues worked. Never did understand 2d, 3d, 6d, 22d, & 16ac (and got that one wrong too boot), getting them only thanks to the crossing letters; which is why I appreciated the cleverness of the clues a lot less than I otherwise would have. Thanks, linxit, and thanks, setter.
  4. Lost the print-out unfortunately so I have no record of how I did. I think I found it a toughie.
    1. Found it now. This puzzle took me 90 minutes with several look-ups when the hour had passed and after that I had almost lost the will to live and didn’t have the motivation to go back and work out all the missing wordplay. I was just relieved I had no blogging responsibilities that day.

      I pronounce Eiffel the English way and it doesn’t sound remotely like EYEFUL to me because I would pronounce that ‘eye-full’.

  5. When I’m speaking english I pronounced “Eiffel” just like “eyeful”. And that is having lived in France for years and speaking fluent French, so I do know exactly how it is really pronounced.

    I thought this was a superb puzzle. I had one wrong since I put in OATS instead of OATY and never never went back to check it.

  6. Brilliant puzzle, 60 mins. Esp liked DANCE ATTENDANCE, PROTECTION MONEY, RIPSNORTER (my last answer and favourite clue) but all the clues were really good in truth. Have seen the Eiffel Eyeful homophone before, I think it’s quite OK esp with the wording of the clue. Yes, it’s different to what the French would say but that’s irrelevant here of course in an English crossword.
  7. 21:21 for me, a few minutes of that down to confidently putting in EIFFEL for 10A: I’ve no objection to the homophone, but “his tower” in the clue seemed an absolutely clear indication that that (rather than EYEFUL) was the expected answer. Apart from that, a very fine puzzle.
    1. I did the same, Tony. However, I quickly spotted RE-ROUTED just afterwards and corrected it. To me in pronunciation, EYEFUL has a slightly longer first syllable, but the sounds are the same. I know the correct pronunciation is something like EH-FELL, but I’d only use that if I was speaking French.
  8. I’ve been waiting all week for this, as have others. So many clues I solved correctly without knowing quite how. Thanks, especially, for the explanation for “By the grace of God”. As with paulmcl I put OATS instead of OATY but I had no problem with EYEFUL. I thought it was perfectly fair. Straight away I took the answer to be “a sight to behold”. What also helped is knowing an extremely tall lady who’s nickname is EYEFUL. Excellent puzzle
  9. Terrific puzzle – we’re on a run of very good Saturday puzzles. Another who fell for ‘oats’. No problem with the homophone – commonly heard among Anglo speakers of French. RIPSNORTER was a gem.
    1. Am I alone in remembering:
      “I’m leaning on the Tower of Pisa
      Had an eyeful of the tower in France
      I’m hanging round the gardens of Babylon…”

      If the homophone is good enough for 10CC it’s good enough for me 🙂

      1. Life is a Minestrone, indeed! (With or without the Parmesan cheese).
        Nice one! That’s brightened up my Monday morning already!
        Altogether now…
        “Well, I went to a party at the local county jail…”
  10. Firstly, I am so used to reading star’s as ‘star is’ to give the definition star, that it was a while before I saw it was star’s = belonging to the star, that made sidereal OK.

    I suspect my other miscalculation was possibly unique. In 5D I got most of the answer by using the anagram of tithe (one tenth). That left me with an ‘n’ I couldn’t account for until I logged in here.

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