Saturday Times 25047 (31st Dec) – back to normal

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Another fairly straightforward Saturday puzzle for New Year’s Eve, for which I stopped the clock at 15:01. I almost misspelt 19D, but saw the cryptic and knew the alternative spelling. Reading through the forum posts, I reckon that one cost quite a few people who went with a middle Y.

Across
1 DEDUCE – D(iamonds) + (r)EDUCE.
4 SPECIMEN – CEPS (mushrooms) reversed + (mine)*.
10 COSTA RICA – COST (knocked back?) + ARIA (song) around C(old). I can’t think of any context where cost could mean “knocked back”, and the dictionary doesn’t help either.
11 RULER – double definition.
12 MORONIC – M.O. (doctor) + (i)RONIC.
13 EDIFICE – ED (journalist) + IF (providing) + ICE (chill).
14 THETA – ATE (consumed) + T(ime) around H(usband), all reversed.
15 UNERRING – E(nergy) inside (run)* + RING (group).
18 FLAGRANT – FLAG (draw attention to) + RANT (speech that’s angry).
20 CARGO – CAR (motor) + GO (work).
23 PANACHE – PAN (vessel) + ACHE (hurt).
25 NAIVETY – NET (ultimate) + Y(en) around VIA reversed (revolutionary through).
26 OSAGE – O(ver) + SAGE (authority).
27 EXCLUSIVE – ELUSIVE (difficult to remember) around X (vote), C (about).
28 BADMOUTH – H(ard) after BOUT (match) around AD (commercial) + M(uch).
29 DEEMED – DEE (river) + MED (sea).

Down
1 DECIMATE – MICE (a lot of rodents) reversed inside DATE (meeting).
2 DESERVE – (see red)* around V (versus = against).
3 CHAIN GANG – CHA(s)ING (heartlessly going after) + A N(ew) G(overnor).
5 PLATE TECTONICS – LATE TEC (delayed investigator) + TON (big amount), all inside PICS (films).
6 CORGI – COR (crumbs) + G.I. (soldier).
7 MULLION – MULL + ION(a).
8 NARKED – R(iver) inside NAKED (plain).
9 DISCOURAGEMENT – DISCOUNT (deduction) around RAGE (storm) + M(iddle) E(ast).
16 RECTITUDE – RUDE (short) around E(uropean) + C(our)T + IT (appeal).
17 HOLYHEAD – HO (house) + (lady)* around HE (man). A port and the largest town in Anglesey, North Wales.
19 LANIARD – LAD (boy) around RAIN (bucket) reversed. I almost went for the more common spelling before seeing the wordplay.
21 RHENIUM – RUM (curious) around [IN (at home) + EH (sorry) reversed].
22 APLOMB – (pal, mob)*
24 CREDO – RED (revolutionary) inside CO (business).

9 comments on “Saturday Times 25047 (31st Dec) – back to normal”

  1. Completely with you on 10A. Scratched my head to see the relationship between “cost” and “knocked back” but couldn’t find one. All the rest is standard fare

    17D is missing from the blog Linxit, HO=house + (lady)* surrounding “he” to give HOLYHEAD

  2. “That knocked me back a few quid” is an expression I’ve heard used as an alternative to “That set me back a bob or two” or “That cost me an arm and a leg”.
  3. 37 minutes but I think I may have cheated on 5dn as having worked out some elements of the wordplay I couldn’t quite fit it all together and I wanted to finish before going to sleep. It was rather annoying as I would have known ‘tectonic plate’ if that had been the answer.

    I didn’t have a ? against 25ac but when I came to review it this morning I couldn’t see the wordplay nor remember it having read the blog so perhaps that one slipped through unexplained at the time.

    I found an error at 26 where I misremembered the name of the tribe and wrote OSAKE thinking ‘sake’ for ‘authority’ was a bit dodgy.

  4. 80 minutes and two wrong – I seem to be struggling on Saturdays, ‘though today’s seems fine. My tribe was ‘Okape’ and I fell into the ‘lanyard’ trap. Bucket’s rather good, and one to remember. Interesting how words that are usually nouns being used as verbs (viz. ‘cost’) can cause trouble even to the experienced.

    Edited at 2012-01-08 08:18 am (UTC)

  5. 18:39 for me. This was a bit of a disaster: I started off badly by carelessly bunging in DEBATE (D + (r)EBATE) for 1ac, which took me simply ages to recover from; and then, in haste trying to make up for lost time, I managed to write in DISCORAAGEMENT for 9dn, making 15ac hard to get!

    Like others I started with LANYARD for 19dn, but changed it as soon as I twigged the wordplay.

    I found this a bit of a dull slog at the time, but I suspect that was my fault rather than the setter’s.

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