Saturday Times 25215 (14th July)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving tme 12:06, so quite an easy one this week. I still managed to make a mess of one though, putting in TWO FOR TEA at 14dn at first. Apologies for the brevity – time is short again.

Across
1 FOOT-AND-MOUTH – cryptic definition, although one of them’s for foot in mouth.
9 ABOUT – A BOUT.
10 FALL SHORT – ALL SH inside FORT.
11 CLEARING – double definition.
12 LACKEY – LAC (leading aircraftsman) + KEY (vital).
13 SPLATTER – S(mall) + P(age) + LATTER (last).
15 LIQUOR – sounds like “licker”.
17 MISHAP – (has)* + (sto)P after M1.
18 TINNITUS – TIN + (units)*
20 TALLOW – TALL OW.
21 SEIGNEUR – (genius)* around E(nergy), + R(uns).
24 NEGOTIATE – GOT I inside NEAT + E(nglish).
25 BROOK – B(ishop) + ROOK.
26 BODICE-RIPPER – BOD + ICE + RIPPER.

Down
1 FRANCIS – IS under FRANC(e).
2 ON ONE’S LAST LEGS – (Los Angeles not)* + S(ucceeded).
3 ASTER – (m)ASTER.
4 DEFENDER – DEFER around END.
5 OSLO – “Oz” + LO.
6 TASMANIAN – (stamina)* AN.
7 MOCK TURTLE SOUP – MOCK + TURTLE + SO + UP. Ugh, sounds delicious.
8 STAYER – ST + AYER (A.J. Ayer, philosopher and setter’s friend).
14 TEA FOR TWO – cryptic definition for the song from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette.
16 MISERERE – MISER + ERE.
17 MUTINY – “mew” + TINY.
19 STRIKER – double definition.
22 GOBBI – GOB + BI(g). Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone.
23 MALI – hidden in inforMALIty.

3 comments on “Saturday Times 25215 (14th July)”

  1. All but six in 20 minutes but I needed another 22 to finish them off. I was stuck mainly in the SW but also took ages to spot STAYER and LACKEY in the NE. Last in were the 17s.

    Didn’t know ICE for ‘kill’ and SEIGNEUR was last met so long ago I had forgotten its existence.

    Don’t know quite why MOCK TURTLE SOUP needs qualifying as an ‘old’ course. I note the DBE at 16 is mitigated by ‘say’ but the one at 1dn is allowed to stand alone.

    I think 1ac works rather well, ‘foot in mouth’ being referred to cryptically to nail the exact disease required in the solution.

  2. 22:29 for this. Mostly quite easy but I don’t remember seeing LAC before so I wasted ages trying to justify LACKEY or find an alternative. And for some baffling reason it took me forever to see OSLO, my last in.
    1ac seems fine to me.
  3. 13:01 for me, with the last few minutes spent agonising over SPLATTER which was new to me (and I wasn’t too keen on LATTER = “last” – I see Chambers qualifies that particular definition by “(Shakesp)”, but no quote springs immediately to mind).

    No problems apart from that – and I’m another who rather liked 1ac.

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