Saturday Times 25209 (7th July)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Just remembered I’ve got to take the car in for its MOT this morning, so I don’t have time for the blog, which will probably now appear either late afternoon or evening.

Update: we went out for the afternoon and I was expecting to get back by 6 or 7 at the latest – just walked in the door now at 12:45am! I’ll get up in the morning and do it.

Well, here it is. Took me 13:29, which equates to a bit easier than average. However, I’ve just checked the Times Crossword Club forum, and there were 32 comments, mostly from people who got 7D the wrong way round or misspelled 16A – and quite a few who fell into both traps! I really can’t see how 7D could be read the other way round myself, but I sympathise with those who put INDESPENSIBLE. To me it just looks wrong, although the similar INDEFENSIBLE is correct. The minefield that is English spelling…

Across
1 CAPYBARA – CAP (cover) + Y(ell) + BAR (pub) + A.
5 STUPOR – (Proust)*
9 EXCLAIMED – EX (lover discarded) + CLAIMED (treated as if rightful property).
11 BERYL – BE(r)RY (fruit with centre removed) + L(eft).
12 MENUHIN – MEN (people) + (r)U(s)H + IN (popular). Yehudi Menuhin, the great violinist.
13 VERBOSE – VERSE (lines) around BO(y) (lad briefly).
14 SODIUM NITRATE – (miniature dots)*. One of the ingredients of gunpowder, although also used in fertilizers.
16 INDISPENSABLE – double definition, one of them tongue-in-cheek.
20 ENCOMIA – (in cameo)*.
21 RECITAL – CIT(e) (short quote) inside REAL (actual).
23 GRILL – double definition.
24 SHILLINGS – SINGS (celebrates) around HILL (eminence).
25 SUNDRY – SUN (warmth) + DRY (let the water evaporate.)
26 VENDETTA – VET (examine) + T.A. (army), around END (aim).

Down
1 CREAMY – C(onservative) + (d)REAMY (preoccupied, no leader).
2 PECAN – hidden inside canaPÉ CANapé, taking advantage of the convention that accents are always ignored.
3 BEACHED – EACH (everyone) “in BED” (like an invalid, maybe).
4 ROMAN NUMERALS – i.e. all the characters of the word “vivid” are.
6 TABARET – TAT (shoddy stuff) around BARE (badly worn). An upholsterer’s silk fabric.
7 PERSONAGE – PARSONAGE (minister’s house), with E (prime bit of Entertainment) replacing an A.
8 RELIEVED – RELIVED (once again experienced) around E(nergy).
10 DIVINE SERVICE – double definition, one cryptic (although not too hard, seeing as Wimbledon was on at the time!)
14 SEDUCTION – S(on) + EDUC(a)TION (teaching, not a).
15 DIVERGES – D.I. (detective officer) + VERGES (constable’s assistant). Verges is Dogberry’s assistant in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
17 SAMPLER – S(ister) + AMPLER (more than enough).
18 BUCKLED – LED (was first to go) after BUCK (dollar).
19 PLASMA – PA’S around L(ine) + MA.
22 TENET – TENE(men)T.

8 comments on “Saturday Times 25209 (7th July)”

  1. The continued presence of my small grandchildren is causing a lengthening of my completion times.. I ploughed steadily through this one in about half an hour, though it looks easier now. I see that Dogberry’s assistant passed straight over my head and that of some others too, I suspect. No trouble with anything else though
  2. 49 minutes. Three unknowns: CAPYBARA, VERGES and TABARET. Dogberry comes up occasionally and I am always pleased when I remember him but perhaps being expected to know his assistant is a bit much. But anyway the answer was obvious from the literal.

    I particularly liked 4dn and the variation on the standard concealed answer at 2dn.

  3. 24m here, so I found this slightly trickier than average.
    I didn’t understand 3dn so thanks for putting me out of my week-long misery! I’m still a bit puzzled by it: I can’t think of a context in which “each” means “everyone”.
    7dn seems unambiguous to me. However I avoidedINDISPENSIBLE only narrowly: somehow the correct spelling looked marginally more likely.

    Edited at 2012-07-15 07:50 am (UTC)

      1. “To everyone his own”? Doesn’t work for me. “To every one his own” makes sense but I struggle to see “everyone” meaning the same as “every one”. I’m sure it’s just me: to every body its own.
        1. ‘To everyone his or her own’ or ‘To everyone their own’ have much the same meaning as ‘To each his own’, and, after all, it is only the single word ‘each’ which must pass the mooted ‘substitution test’.

          Edited at 2012-07-16 03:46 am (UTC)

  4. 5:58 for me, including time spent checking that I really had interpreted 7dn correctly and mulling over 16ac (going back to the Latin). My best Saturday showing for ages (nearly a clean sweep, but I baulked at DIVERGES first time through).
  5. A very speedy (for me) 22′. LOI 6d & 13ac. I ‘knew’ 1ac right off, but it took me some time to remember how to spell it; which suggests that I didn’t know it that well. Came within an ace of being tricked by 7d, which is also my COD–‘for’ always is a problem for me.

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