Saturday Times 25059 (Jan 14th)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 18:44. A game of two halves, the top going in fairly quickly but then I ground to a halt for a few minutes and struggled to the finish. Nothing too difficult here though – I just lost the plot for a while.

Across
1 SOMALI – OS (Ordinary Seaman = sailor) reversed + MALI (land in Africa).
4 SONATINA – SON (boy) + TINA (girl) around A.
10 ARCHITECT – (I chatter)* around C(hapter).
11 EXPEL – EX (former) + PEEL (Tory leader) “half-heartedly”, i.e. removing one of the middle letters.
12 CROQUE-MONSIEUR – (menu or course I)* around Q(uestion).
14 CABLE – C(onservative) + ABLE (clever).
16 UNDERWEAR – UN,DER (European articles) + WEAR (don).
18 CALLAGHAN – CALL (term) + A + GHAN(a) (country cut short). James Callaghan was the Prime Minister from 1976-79.
20 PUT-ON – triple definition, the first two as two words rather than hyphenated.
21 WHIPLASH INJURY – (why punish liar, J)*, the J coming from J(udge). Great anagram which I fruitlessly wasted too much time on at the start before I had any letters.
25 RAZOR – RA (Royal Artillery = fighting force) + OR (Other Ranks = men), around Z (unknown).
26 ISLINGTON – I (single) + SLING (drink) + NOT reversed. A London district.
27 MURALIST – (altruism)*
28 LET RIP – L(at)E + TRIP (visit).

Down
1 SPATCHCOCK – SPAT (quarrel) + COCK (mate) around H(ot) and C(old).
2 MACAO – MACA(w) (flier losing tail) + O(ld).
3 LEISURE – LURE (temptation) around (D)e(l)i(u)s.
5 ORTON – ORION (many stars), with the I swapped for a T. Joe Orton, English playwright.
6 ATELIER – IE (that is) inside (later)*.
7 IMPRUDENT – RUDE (offensive) + NT (books) next to I (current) + MP (politician). Makes a change from the usual “R inside IMPUDENT” wordplay for this.
8 ALLY – WALLY (Charlie) without the W. Wally and Charlie are both words for a fool. However, you’d say someone’s a proper Charlie and a complete wally.
9 VERMOUTH – REV (minister) reversed + MOUTH (opening).
13 BRANDY SNAP – BRAND (trademark) + PANSY reversed (climbing plant).
15 BALTHAZAR – BALT (Latvian, say) + HAZAR(d) (danger reduced). A wine bottle size equivalent to 16 normal bottles.
17 DUNGHILL – DUN (horse) + HILL (fell) around G (end of loG).
19 APPAREL – RE (about) inside APPAL (shock).
20 PENANCE – PENCE (coppers) around (m)AN (bloke losing head).
22 ADIOS – I (one) inside ADO (trouble) + S(ucceeded).
23 UTTER – (m)UTTER (speak inaudibly, minus the M).
24 FROM – FORM (shape), with the middle letters reversed. Tricky little one which caught a lot of people out, judging from comments on the Forum.

7 comments on “Saturday Times 25059 (Jan 14th)”

  1. A surprisingly quick 29 minutes. I wasted some time trying to make ‘exile’ work for 11ac, but on the other hand I twigged to the ‘for’ in 5d, one of the few times that trick doesn’t fool me. ‘Wally’ was new to me; I didn’t understand 8d until coming here. Loved 24d.
  2. 35 minutes, so one of my better efforts for recent puzzles. I’m not sure about ‘don’ = WEAR at 20ac as I’d have thought one dons and then wears an article of clothing and the two aren’t interchangeable.
    1. I think you mean 16ac, Jack. (There’s PUT ON and “assume” at 20ac, which confuses things.) I thought “don” = WEAR was perhaps sailing a little close to the wind, but I felt “Are you going to wear that hat?” and “Are you going to put on that hat?” were close enough, and that “don” = “put on” provided the necessary link – given that no-one (?) uses the verb “to don” in real life these days.
      1. Thanks, Tony. Yes, I meant 16ac, and it’s a safe bet if there’s anything to confuse I shall confuse it!

        Your example don/wear does just about work in that the end result is the same. I was probably being a bit picky but if I’m in doubt about something I like to find out what other people think.

  3. 11:56 for me, so not particularly fast, but not desperately slow.

    With -H-N at the end of 18ac, I assumed the country was going be CHINA, thought of CALLACHIN, and moved swiftly on without considering alternatives. (Doh!)

    Nice puzzle.

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