Saturday Times 24915 – Today I analysed it – a dry hobby (8,3)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
So what’s a bit of plagiarism between friends? Yes, it was my birthday last Saturday (48 years young), and I solved this one over a pint in the garden of the Monsal Head Hotel in the Peak District with a spectacular view of the dale and viaduct as the backdrop, while Sue was nagging me to hurry up and get on with it and Dave Perry was posting my blog for the previous week’s puzzle. The first few clues I solved gave me a J, a Z, an X and several K’s so I was on the lookout for a pangram which never came – Q missing. What a let-down. About 25 minutes, which could have been twenty without the earache 🙂

Across
1 SPYGLASS – G(ood) inside “SPY LASS”.
9 PARAGUAY – PARA (soldier dropped) + GUY (rope) around A. Geography lesson for me – I didn’t know it was landlocked.
10 GODZILLA – GOD (superman) + Z (character ending series) + ILL (laid up) + A. Star of a series of Japanese monster movies. Funniest one I saw was Godzilla vs. Megalon. Hilariously bad.
11 RETRACED – (terraced)*
12 KNICK-KNACK – “nick” (steal) + KNACK (gift).
14 KILO – fiendish phonetic alphabet clue, barely hinted at. If you spelt out “disk-jockey”, the letter before E (echo) would be K (kilo). I can’t complain too much though, as I got it quite early.
15 HERONRY – HERO (one greatly admired) + N(ew) + RY (railway).
17 FINANCE – FIANCE (intended) around (lio)N.
21 ALPH – hidden reversed in “fifth place”. From Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan – I’m sure I’ve quoted this before here…

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where ALPH, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
22 TINKER BELL – IN + KERB (road edging) inside TELL (grass). The one in Peter Pan.
23 WAINSCOT – (A, C(onsultancy), ITS OWN)*. Took a while to figure that one out.
25 OVERTASK – OVERT (public) + AS (when) + K(ing).
26 VA-VA VOOM – V(ery) + AV AV (Alternative Vote – twice) + MOO reversed. Should’ve been (2-2-4) really (according to Chambers anyway).
27 YARD SALE – YARDS OF ALE minus OF. Love it!

Down
2 PROVINCE – PROVIN(g) (turning out minus the last letter) + C.E. (church).
3 GAZPACHO – GAZ(e) (look briefly) + O(ver), around PA (pop) + CH(estnut).
4 AXLE – A(rea) + X (by) + L(ill)E.
5 SPARTAN – SPAR (boom) + TAN (function, geometry).
6 TROTSKYITE – O.T. (books) + SKY (send up), inside TRITE (worn).
7 JUNCTION – J(udge) + UNCTION (practice of smearing sometimes extreme).
8 SYNDROME – “sinned, roam”. Didn’t know the meaning used here.
13 KARATE CHOP – KA (Egyptian soul) + P (quietly), around RAT + ECHO (parrot).
15 HEATWAVE – HEAT (race to eliminate) + WAVE (arms movement).
16 REPRIEVE – (previewer)* without the W.
18 ASBESTOS – AS BEST (like cream) + SO reversed.
19 COLOSSAL – COAL (jet, i.e. black, fuel) around LOSS.
20 ANATOMY – (to many a)*
24 PEAR – PEAR(l)

18 comments on “Saturday Times 24915 – Today I analysed it – a dry hobby (8,3)”

  1. Solved it this morning in a little over an hour and was unable to justify several clues without resorting to aids.

    The enumeration at 26 is wrong not only according to Chambers but also according to COED, SOED, OED and Collins.

    I didn’t remember that CH = chestnut with reference to horses despite a lengthy discussion on the subject here some years ago.

    Quite a fun puzzle despite its difficulty for me.

  2. Enjoyed this one, as far as I recall. Interesting word (phrase?), va va voom. How does a word that has only been around for five minutes apparently get a settled spelling so quickly? Who was it, that decreed that hyphens are essential? Can I appeal this decision?
  3. In 21ac, I don’t see why the word ‘down’ appears in the clue. Any ideas, anyone?
  4. Can someone please explain “supporting rhino” in 17. I know that rhino can be money. Is it then “money that supports” i.e. finance in the sense of funding? Thanks
  5. I don’t think it is settled, Jerry, going by the entries in OED and elsewhere which cite several alternative versions dating from the original, the 1954 song, Va Va Va Voom. But one thing all sources I have seen are agreed upon is that the single hyphen given in the clue is not an option.
  6. Many happy returns Andy. In time you will acquire the art of solving the puzzle whilst she-who-must is engaged in those mysterious feminine activities that preceed any outing.

    A great shame that KILO appeared in a Saturday puzzle because in the week I suspect the clue would have generated a good deal of comment. I guessed it from ?I?O and the deduction that the answer was in the phonetic alphabet.

    Can’t let unqualified conference=pear go unrecorded, particularly as I’d already forgiven Bond=spy. Decent puzzle overall with KILO very difficult

  7. Happy virtual birthday, Andy.

    30 minutes and change, of which I think about 10 were spent staring at _i_o before the light dawned. That’s one tricky clue.

    Good Saturday fare.

  8. I no longer have any idea how long this took me; after a fairly productive 21 minutes, I bogged down and picked it up the next day, still bogged. Several (KARATE CHOP, TINKER BELL) fell into place finally with enough checkers, but took me ages to parse afterwards. (Ka? KA?) 14 drove me crazy, because I was pretty sure D=Delta, but decided that perhaps DIDO was an alternative. COD to 22ac, and 19d for its lovely surface.
  9. Can’t remember how long this took but it wasn’t too bad apart from a small number of clues at the end.
    However I didn’t get ALPH. I don’t know the poem (in spite of a degree in English Literature – always found the Romantics terribly dreary) and was convinced that “down in fifth place” was instructing me to take the fifth letter from a four-letter word. Hey ho.
    I didn’t understand KILO but got it from “what precedes echo” and crossers. I thought I must be missing a reference of some kind.
      1. Yes, good point. I studied it at some length and enjoyed it immensely, although I can’t remember any of it now of course. I do remember it being far superior to all that other twaddle. Perhaps I’ll go back and have another look.
  10. 18:36 for me – in the middle of a bad patch, so it might have been quicker another time.

    Nice puzzle, with GODZILLA and VA-VA(-)VOOM somewhere near the limits of my knowledge of popular culture.

    I guessed KILO first time through without any crossing letters, but didn’t actually dare to type it in until I had both the I and O in place.

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