Saturday Times 24765 (5th Feb)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 11:46, and for a while I was hoping for sub-10 minutes. 1ac got me off to a flier as I got nearly all the Downs off it at first look, so the top half went in very quickly. The bottom half was a bit slower, mainly because even when I got 28ac it took me ages to see how it worked.

Across
1 SUPERNATURALIST – (Astral power is untrue)*. Once I’d ascertained that only the P from power was required, this just jumped out at me.
9 APOSTOLIC – (so topical)*. Another easy anagram that went straight in.
10 TREND – R in TEND.
11 DES RES – DESIRES without the I (current). Estate-agent-speak – ugh!
12 IMPRISON – IMP + “risen”.
13 MELODY – MY (of me) around DOLE reversed.
15 SOPRANOS – SO P + SONAR reversed.
18 JUNK MAIL – sounds like JUNK MALE, someone aboard a Chinese boat. Very strangely worded clue.
19 SCREAM – SCRAM around E(nergy).
21 BROADWAY – BROAD (general) + WAY (route). Chicago and Oklahoma – places on the route perhaps, or two musicals which appeared in New York’s famous theatre district.
22 WEEPIE – WEE PIE. I’d normally only use this to describe a type of movie, but Chambers gives it as a “highly emotional film, play or book”.
26 EASEL – (please)* without the P.
27 OBEDIENCE – I in BEDE, all inside ONCE. I hope everyone’s heard of the Venerable Bede.
28 SPEAKING TRUMPET – PEA (vegetable) + KING (supreme) inside STRUMPET (cocotte). Definition “What may up deliveries”, i.e. make your speeches louder. Very neat clue, as a cocotte is also a small serving dish.

Down
1 STARDOM – (Mr Toad’s)*
2 PIOUS – P(rev)IOUS.
3 ROTTERDAM – ROT (gradual decline) + TERM (period) around D.A. (public prosecutor).
4 ALLY – (p)ALLY
5 UNCOMMON – rUiNs + COMMON (open land).
6 ACTOR – (f)ACTOR
7 IN ESSENCE – IN ESSEN (where some Germans live) + (sin)CE.
8 TIDINGS – I’D inside TIN, + G(enerate) S(hock).
14 LANGOUSTE – (along, suet)*. French for the spiny lobster – delicious but very fiddly to eat!
16 RICHELIEU – RICH + LIE (reside) inside EU. Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu was Louis XIII’s chief minister.
17 RIGADOON – GIR(l) reversed + ADO + ON. A lively jig-like dance for one couple.
18 JOBLESS – JO(y) + BLESS.
20 MAE WEST – SEW in TEAM, all reversed. An inflatable life jacket, so-called because it supposedly gives you the figure of the actress.
22 DALEK – remove RAN (managed) from DRANK, then fill it with ALE. Doctor Who crops up here fairly regularly, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen anyone else from the series.
24 PIN-UP – (s)PIN + (s)UP.
25 REST – RE(pa)ST.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 24765 (5th Feb)”

  1. Very clever clues; welcome absence of formulae and hackneyed devices. I’ve heard of a speaking tube and an ear trumpet but never a SPEAKING TRUMPET. Assuming it exists it’s a good clue, though.
    1. What I think of as a SPEAKING TRUMPET is more usually called a megaphone, I think. According to Collins it can also be the listening device.
    1. SW was hardest for me too, similar time of around the hour. When they went in, I thought these were beauties – junk, jobless, broadway – and dalek taking the cake.
  3. This took me 39 minutes, which seems a long time looking at it now, because I can’t see that much difficulty in it.
    I thought it was an absolutely first rate puzzle, with lots of originality in the clues and several enjoyable Eureka! moments.
    Of the many very good clues DALEK was my favourite. “Drank but never managed to hold drink” is sheer brilliance. Thank you setter.
  4. Agreed, a good and entertaining puzzle that I had to work at. Also thought DALEK a very good clue.
  5. This took me over 50 minutes, with a lot of time spent on 25d and 11ac. With the checking letters in I was sure 25 was REST, but ‘repast’ didn’t come to me until morning. Racked my brains trying to think of some (3,3) Latin expression, as D?S ?E? surely wasn’t English. Evidently I’d heard the phrase ‘des res’ once in my life, as I finally hit on it; hope I don’t hear it again. I also spent a good deal of time, once I had IMPRISON and SOPRANOS, searching my mind for an xxxxMOOR.
  6. I was struck by the high count of clues that involved some kind of subtraction. I counted 2 in the acrosses and 7 in the downs.
  7. 12:15 for me – I didn’t solve 1ac first time through (it’s not a word I’ve come across before as far as I’m aware), and I was slower than I should have been elsewhere. I even had momentary doubts about RIGADOON, as I’m more used to the French rigaudon and was worried that I might somehow be confusing the English version with “(It’s bloody) Brigadoon”. All in all though, a very enjoyable puzzle.

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