Saturday Times 24819 (April 9th)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 16:53. Mostly straightforward but memorable for a couple of real gems – the gallows humour in 16ac raised a chuckle, but 28ac was just brilliant!

Across
1 COSMIC DUST – CO’S (Commander’s) + [CD (recording) + U(ranium)] inside MIST (vapour).
6 ODDS – ODD (unmatched, e.g. socks) + S(on).
9 SLAMMER – double definition.
10 HIRSUTE – (their)* around US reversed.
12 PLUNGE POOL – cryptic definition. You might jump into a plunge pool after a sauna.
13 TOT – looks the same in the mirror, with a nod to Alice (see 28ac).
15 HURDLE – RD + L(eft) inside HUE.
16 REHEARSE – RE (in connection with) + HEARSE (last ride, perhaps).
18 SMUGGLER – SMUGGER around L(ine).
20 WINDER – WIDER (opener, i.e. more open) around (ti)N.
23 BOW – double definition. The old actress is Clara Bow.
24 CONJECTURE – CONJURE around E(uropean) C(our)T.
26 ANGELUS – A + GEL (set) inside NUS (National Union of Students).
27 PROFILE – IF reversed inside PROLE.
28 DODO – one of the characters in Alice in Wonderland. Formed from the same character positions of DODGSON that CARL takes from CARROLL.
29 IN ANY EVENT – INANE (foolish) + VENT (let off steam) around (pla)Y.

Down
1 CUSP – S(ucceeded) inside CUP.
2 STAPLER – P(age) inside STALER.
3 IMMUNOLOGICAL – (colonial mum)* around GI.
4 DORSET – ROD reversed + SET (established).
5 SCHOONER – C(rus)H inside SOONER (rather).
7 DOUBTER – DOER around (but)*. From the Bible story of the apostle Thomas, who didn’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection at first.
8 SWEETHEART – SEETHE (be agitated) around W(omen) + ART (skill).
11 ROLLED INTO ONE – ROLE (acting job) around LED (directed) + TOO (also) inside INN (pub). Yes, it all hangs together, but the wordplay is very bitty and the surface reading’s a nightmare.
14 CHESSBOARD – cryptic definition – in chess, the bishops go diagonally.
17 TENNYSON – NOSY + N(ame) + NET, all reversed.
19 UNWAGED – WAG (sportsman’s partner – acronym from Wives And Girlfriends) inside (nude)*.
21 DORMICE – DORM ICE = frigid sleeping quarters. [ Edit: DORM ICE = (something) found in frigid sleeping quarters. Thanks, Tony. I got that when I solved it last week, but missed it this morning when writing it up. My biggest failing is that I never make notes, relying on my memory, which used to be up to the task… ]
22 WEAPON – (lifelin)E inside PAW reversed, + ON (attached to).
25 HEFT – HE + F(oo)T.

10 comments on “Saturday Times 24819 (April 9th)”

  2. I disagree about 28ac. I found it over-contrived.

    45 minutes without resort to aids. I finished with four unexplained but with no reserves of interest to spend more time unravelling them.

  3. 19 minutes, a Saturday PB; so I suppose it would be churlish in me to complain about some of the clues. But I agree with Jack on 28ac; it’s hardly a cryptic, but an explicit instruction to take certain letters from ‘Dodgson’. I also wasn’t taken with 20ac, never in my life having come across ‘opener’ as an adjective. And dorm ice as sleeping quarters, frigid or no? An ice dorm would be, but dorm ice? I never did parse 8d until reading linxit’s explanation–thanks as always–but I’m afraid I still don’t get UNWAGED; from comments in the club forum I gather it has something to do with the British tabloids, but just what?
    1. This is the acronym from ‘Wives and Girlfriends’ a convenient way for the media to refer to those of sportsmen, for example if a team is going on tour abroad the press may wish to report that WAGS will be accompanying them or not allowed to. Note that the plural is underlined by the addition of S even though it’s already in the full version of the expression.

      There are occasions when a reference to only one player’s significant other is required (as in the clue) yet the acronym remains the same even though what is then being abbreviated would presumably be ‘Wife or Girlfriend’. Whether this is through laziness, ignorance or for the avoidance of the unfortunate alternative acronym is not clear.

      I’m happy with ‘opener’ by the way. I see it as a logical extension of the ‘river’ = ‘flower’ chestnut.

  4. I think some of you are being a bit unfair on the clue to 28ac. Looking at the Wikipedia entry, the Dodo is supposed to be a caricature of the author. Also, it was an original idea, which I think deserves a bit of praise.
    1. Well, if one knows that of course it puts a completely different complexion on it. Unfortunately I didn’t so it was a case of pearls before swine!
    2. I’ll grant that it’s an original idea, which succeeds by equivocating on ‘characters’, and it’s clever, but I still don’t like it much. (I bet Kingsley Amis would have disliked it, if he did cryptics; he was quite down on his friend Anthony Powell’s “When it came to sex, Scorpio generally preferred his own.” But I digress.) And I don’t see how the Dodo being a caricature of Carroll helps. The clue just about flat out says ‘Choose the letters in Dodgson that correspond to C-A-R-L in Carroll’; hardly a cryptic clue.
  5. 10:29 for me for a most enjoyable puzzle. Count me in among those who liked 28ac.

    I took DORM ICE to be something “found in frigid sleeping quarters”.

  6. Just on the hour mark for this very enjoyable puzzle. Slowed down by the COSMIC DUST, which is not very familiar to me, my knowledge of cosmology being largely restricted to medieval models! Another in the 28 ac camp.

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