Saturday Times 25131 (7th April)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Approx 15 minutes for this one, solved sitting in a pub in Solihull while out shopping. Took me a while to get going, but finished in a bit of a rush as I finally locked on to the setter’s wavelength. Good puzzle.

Across
1 MONEY-GRUBBING – MONEY (ready) + GRUB (food) + BIN (waste receptacle) + G (key). You expect the definition “mercenary” to be a noun but this time it’s the adjective. I hope nobody fell into the trap and put MONEY-GRABBING without figuring out the wordplay!
8 OSLO – OS (outsize = unusually large) + LO (watch). “Uses up” seems to be padding, though.
9 ARAB LEAGUE – ARABLE (sort of land) + AGUE (fit). An organization consisting of most of North Africa and the Middle East.
10 INTEGRAL – (altering)*. Well-known 8-letter anagram that can also make alerting, relating, tanglier and triangle.
11 WRAP UP – W(ea)R + A PUP (something you’d not want to be sold, from the expression “to sell (someone) a pup” = “to swindle”).
13 SHOT-PUTTER – PUTTER (club) next to SHOT (go).
16 WEBS – B(lack) inside SEW (darn) reversed.
17 SOAP – SAP (fool) around O(ld). Liked the def, “bar in Bath”.
18 DISOBEYING – DYING (failing) around I’S (one’s) + O.B.E. (honour).
20 HELENA – (p)ANEL (the judges, penniless) + EH (pardon), all reversed.
22 BELIEVER – B(ishop) + ELI (priest) + EVER (at any time).
24 RAWALPINDI – RAW (untreated) + ALPIN(e) (mountain, less E(astern)) + D(agestan)I. Took a while to unravel the wordplay, but the answer went straight in.
26 TIER – double definition, two different pronunciations.
27 ROYAL STANDARD – AND (with) + A + R (regina = queen), inside (Tory’s lad)*, &lit.

Down
1 MISANTHROPE – (1 smartphone)*, and a nice link to the next clue.
2 NO ONE – NOON (twelve) + EX without X (times). Reminds me of the nickname of former Australian rugby captain John Eales, “Nobody”.
3 YEAR-ROUND – YEARN (long) + D(iscussion) around (our)*.
4 REALLOT – REAL (concrete) + LOT (parking area, perhaps).
5 BELOW – BELLOW minus one of the central L’s.
6 IN A BAD WAY – I NAB (catch) + D(aughter) inside A WAY (a fashion).
7 GNU – ‘UNG (commonly suspended) reversed. Thought briefly of a bat on first reading, but only for a nanosecond or so.
12 URBAN LEGEND – URBAN (any one of 8 popes) + LED (was the first) around GEN (knowledge).
14 TIPPERARY – TIPPER (upsetting person) + (f)A(i)R(l)Y.
15 REBELLION – REEL (wind) around (pu)B + LION (sign, presumably of the Zodiac).
19 SUBUNIT – SUIT (clothing) around BUN (baker who’s a card). Mr. Bun the Baker is part of a set of Happy Families cards. Last one I got, and didn’t really understand it until I got home and Googled.
21 APPAL – souns like “a pall”.
23 EXTRA – EX(i)T (the way out one’s left) + R.A. (Royal Academician = one painting).
25 AIR – double definition.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 25131 (7th April)”

  1. I’m in awe of your solving time! I took 40 minutes to get all but three (19, 20 and 24) and then stared at them for 30 minutes making no further progress so I used aids to finish them off. Simply not my cup of tea, this one.

    Edited at 2012-04-14 12:02 pm (UTC)

  2. I nice morning workout with my first cup of tea. I loved this. There were some great surfaces. I must single out ARAB LEAGUE and SOAP for their clever construction. Lots to giggle about here. I can’t remember ever seeing Mr Bun the Baker in any previous crossword.(When I moved to this house 30 years ago my elderly neighbour was Miss Snipper the Taylor’s Daughter!) 23 minutes
  3. A little over an hour for this, but done for by ‘pardon’ and had to cheat to get Helena, unable to see past Serena.
  4. …but I still don’t quite understand 1d and 2d! Sorry! Nor do I get John Eales’ nickname! Oh dear! 65mins 23secs for this. I did like “arab league” (a singularly ineffectual body). Helena was my LOI. The penny finally dropped when I realised the import of “pardon”. That in turn took me back to the old sitcom, “I didn’t know you cared” where one of the characters (Stavely?) used to say “I ‘eard that, pardon!” Thanks for the blog, linxit.
    1. 1 Fancy one smartphone? I’d like 2!

      A misanthrope hates everyone, i.e. likes 2D – ‘no one’;

      2 Twelve times leaving ex who is perfect

      Lift and separate twelve times, to give NOON + EX-after-X-has-left-it > NO ONE.

      Erstwhile Australian rugby union captain, John Eales, was such a fine player, leader and gent that the Aussies called him Nobody, because he really was perfect.

  5. At under 30′ (I don’t know how much under, I seem to have tossed my copy), this has to be the fastest Saturday cryptic I’ve ever done, with quite a few solutions just coming to me without my understanding why they were correct until after I’d written them in. As falooker says, some great surfaces; I especially liked 2d, 7d, and 20ac.
  6. I thought this crossword was a Class Act.. some fine clues. cod 2dn.
    However I’m still puzzled by 8ac. The simple “large watch is capital” seems far better to me. What’s with the “uses up?”
  7. 19:37 for me. I realised late last night that I hadn’t actually done this puzzle, and tackled it when I was at my tiredest, so that I was practically asleep by the end of it and struggled with HELENA (TERESA kept intruding; it’s just as well I didn’t think of SERENA). Looking back at it now, I see that a) it was an excellent puzzle, and b) I should have been a damned sight faster.

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