Saturday Times 25023 (Dec 3rd)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 13:20 – a bit of a relief to have an easier one after the previous two monsters. There was a bit of tricky vocabulary and some GK required for this one, but the wordplay was helpful and going by comments on the Club forum most found no problems with it.

Across
1 EXPLOITATION – (optional exit)*
8 TREBLES – TRE(m)BLES.
9 TSARDOM – M.O. + DRAST(ic), all reversed.
11 GEORGIA – “George” + A ??? I must be missing something here. George III was the king who lost America, if it means “who was king in 1776”, and Georgia is a state, hence part of it.
12 ISHMAEL – IS + H(ard) + (male)*. Narrator of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.
13 METIC – hidden in “soME TICkets”, and just as well, as I didn’t know the word.
14 GERMANDER – GERM (seed) + A + N(ew) + RED reversed.
16 NEWCASTLE – CAST + L(eft) inside N,E,E (various directions).
19 CLARA – C (about) + ARAL reversed. Last one in for me, as I had no idea who Clara was.
21 GO-AHEAD – GOA HEAD.
23 MODICUM – M(iles) + C(overdale) inside ODIUM.
24 REFORMS – R.E. (some of the army) + FORMS (bumf).
25 TACKS ON – “TACK, SON”, in answer to the question.
26 FRIDAY’S CHILD – cryptic definition, based on the old rhyme.

Down
1 EVEN OUT – (s)EVEN OUT. In cricket, if there are three wickets left, seven batsmen are out.
2 PELAGIC – GALE reversed inside PIC.
3 ONSLAUGHT – ON + ST around LAUGH.
4 TUTSI – TUT + IS reversed.
5 TRACHEA – H(orse) inside TRACE (run finger over) + A.
6 OLD HAND – double definition.
7 STAGE MANAGER – S(mall) + TANAGER (American bird) around GEM.
10 MALTREATMENT – (lament matter)*
15 RHEUMATIC – (much I eat, R)*, the R from R(epeat).
17 WHAT FOR – double definition.
18 AVERRED – ERRED following A(nswer) + V(ery).
19 CADUCEI – (accused)*, but with the S replaced with an I. This (singular) is a winged staff with two snakes coiled around it, incorrectly used as a symbol of medicine.
20 ACCUSED – A + CC + USED.
22 DISHY – double definition.

11 comments on “Saturday Times 25023 (Dec 3rd)”

  1. 38′, only three times as long as linxit’s, so it definitely was an easy one. I thought 11ac was an awfully mickeymouse clue (‘we hear’ George-a, hence GEORGIA). I also do not like 16ac-type clues, which say, in effect, “For the remaining 3 letters, choose from among E,N,S,&W”. Still, it was a treat to get a Saturday puzzle done in under an hour.
  2. 33 minutes but there was some guesswork based on wordplay as I didn’t know METIC, TANAGER, PELAGIC or CADUCEI.

    I think 11ac is supposed to be a homophone which only works if the ‘I’ remains silent which it doesn’t in my book.

    At 5dn I’m having trouble getting my head round TRAC(H)E clued by ‘stopping horse run finger over’, surely that’s ‘horse stopping run finger over’? Of course the surface reading is then rubbish but I can’t see the other version is accurate unless perhaps I’m not reading it the right way.

    7dn is a DBE. ‘Her Majesty’s’ can apply to many things other than the London theatre where Phantom has been running for 25 years.

    1. Re ‘stopping horse, run finger over’, thus ‘run finger over stopping horse’, there’s been discussion about this use of ‘stop’ to mean ‘arrest’ > ‘hold’ before. I guess we just have to be alert to it.

      Is ‘Her Majestsy’s’ really a definition by example? Isn’t it a example of ellipsis? Whatever, I thought this was a very good clue. 69 minutes, so multiple Linxits here.

      1. Thanks for this. I can see how it works now with stop = arrest = hold. I was thinking stopping = filling as in teeth.

        Not sure I understand your point about H.M. Definitely feeling a bit dim today.

        1. What I mean is that the context of the clue generates the inference of Her Majesty’s Theatre, even, indeed Her Majesty’s Theatre, London, this being the Times of London crossword. (Thus, ‘though she is not the only one in the world, ‘queen’ is taken to refer to ER typically and uncontroversially.) Since this is a wordplay element, it seems quite okay to me to that it be the [abbreviated] name of one theatre (which happens also to be a phrase referring to other theatres and indeed other things.)
          1. Thanks for this. Still not sure I understand exactly (I’m sure it’s me!). McT’s point made below is exactly where I was coming from and to me the answer only makes sense if one knows the clue is referring to a theatre and the only clue to that (as far as I can see) is “Her Majesty’s”.
      2. Could be DBE in the following sense: a stage manager might be employed in any theatre whatsoever, not just the one in the clue. So: “employee of Her Majesty’s perhaps” might have been fairer.
  3. I was a bit dozy this morning when I did this. I pondered over clues I didn’t understand and vocabulary I didn’t know. Completed it correctly though in 36 minutes despite never having heard of METIC and GERMANDER. TSARDOM is a strange word. Took me ages even though I had all the checkers. My LOI.
  4. Andy I don’t think this one was 25011. That was the extremely good and difficult one that you blogged on 26th November.
  6. 25 minutes. I found this more difficult than others. There were some unknowns (GERMANDER, METIC, CADUCEI) but I think it’s more down to the fact that I was completely knackered all last weekend. Small children and the Christmas season don’t mix. Oh wait…

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