Saturday Times 25083 (11th Feb)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
14:44 for this. Having struggled recently on Monday mornings, I wisely decided to save this for the train home on Monday evening, posting what seems to be a fairly good time (anything under 15 mins is good for me lately).

Across
1 DISCOVERY – RY (track, short for RAILWAY), next to DISC (record) + (n)OVE(l).
6 CHAMP – hidden in “picnic hamper”.
9 VAINEST – NEST (home) next to V(ery) + A1 (busy road). Definition “Emptier than all the others” works with e.g. hopes.
10 PINTAIL – AIL (trouble) next to PINT (drink). Third clue already with the wordplay in reverse.
11 DEPOT – O (nothing) inside DEPT (small department).
12 AMSTERDAM – AM(erican) + DAM (barrier) around STER(n) (most of unyielding).
14 BUR – RUB (problem) reversed. “Ay, there’s the rub” (Hamlet). I’d never heard of this, and Chambers doesn’t mention the dentist’s drill definition, but it’s there in Collins.
15 ANIMATRONIC – (in a romantic)*
17 RECONSIDERS – RIDERS (conditions) around E(uropean) CONS (politicians).
19 SOL – SOL(o). Latin for sun.
20 HEATHENRY – HENRY (king) next to HEAT (pressure). Yet another wordplay-in-reverse example.
22 REPEL – P(arking) inside LEER (look) reversed.
24 RELEASE – double definition.
26 ORATORY – OR (gold) and TORY (blue) around A.
27 SATED – SAT(urday) ED(ition). Great clue, and a bit of a plug for the Jumbo!
28 ELEMENTAL – alternate letters of “meal he” + MENTAL (nuts).

Down
1 DAVID – D(itties) + DIVA (singer) reversed. King David in the bible was a skilled harpist. Slightly unusual for the Times to merge the wordplay and definition like that, but the clue’s good enough to get away with it.
2 SKIPPER – double definition.
3 OVERTRAIN – OVER (completed) + TRAIN (school).
4 EXTRADITION – X (ten) + ART (pictures) reversed, inside EDITION (book).
5 YUP – (stud)Y + UP (at university).
6 CONTE – CON (read) + T.E. (Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia).
7 ABANDON – A BAND (a gang) + ON (working).
8 POLEMICAL – (I came)* inside POLL (election).
13 STATELY HOME – TAT (rubbish) + ELY (city, not “see” for a change!) + H(ospital), all inside SOME (a little).
14 BAR CHARTS – CHAR (daily) inside BARTS (London hospital).
16 RESURFACE – RE (again) + SURFACE (show). I started putting something else at first for this, but I can’t remember what!
18 CHAPLET – “CHAP-LET” = little fellow.
19 SUPPORT – UP (appearing for trial) inside SPORT (rugby, for one).
21 HEARD – “herd”, and an easy one for George!
23 LOYAL – L(earner) + O(ld) + YAL(e) (American university without the E for English).
25 EYE – last letters of “the telly page“.

8 comments on “Saturday Times 25083 (11th Feb)”

  1. A slow and steady 49′; always happy to get a Saturday puzzle done in under an hour. I didn’t flag anything, which suggests no particular difficulties, although I didn’t much care for YUP meaning ‘absolutely’. Is the ‘store’ in 11ac just there to make the surface more plausible? I’ve never seen ‘dept’ as an abbreviation for ‘department store’.
  2. 37 minutes, with one wrong, heathenly – d’oh! Share Kevin’s feeling re yup – surely, its use is typically associated with apathy rather than affirmation.

    In 11ac, store’s the definition!

    1. Speaking of d’oh!
      Regarding 20ac, I wonder if Ulaca, like me, is occasionally affected by the circumambient l/r confusion.
      1. I’m increasingly prey to all kinds of confusion. Talking of circumambience, I wonder if they’ll ever manage to get ‘circumambient peripherisation’ into a puzzle. I don’t think they should be allowed to cross!

        Today’s crossword is a cracker. Solve that in under an hour and you’ll have fully redeemed yourself.

  3. 28 minutes is good for me for a Saturday (this week I’m already up to an hour with barely half the grid completed) so I was quite pleased with this effort.

    BUR, the dentist’s drill, is in COED too, under BURR. I didn’t know it either. I thought SOL(E) rather than SOL(O) when solving 19ac but it still got me there.

    Back to 25084 now in the hope that a night’s sleep may have restored my brain function.

  4. I completed this puzzle today so it’s still fresh in my mind. I started at a gallop in the NE and thought it was going to be a quick solve (for me,that is) but I hit the rails after 10 minutes and finished more sedately in half an hour. Quite a lot went in from definition alone, though I managed to work them all out later apart from SATED. I needed the blog for that one. Thanks very much.
  6. 11:34 for me. No objection to YUP = “absolutely”. I don’t recall seeing “/” separating wordplay from definition (as in 1dn) previously either, but I think it works rather well since they’re alternative ways of reaching the answer.

    Edited at 2012-02-19 05:17 pm (UTC)

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