Saturday Times 25221 (21st July)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 31:33, but it felt quick! Brilliant puzzle, just the sort I look forward to on a Saturday. When J, Q and X appeared in the first few clues I solved, I was pretty confident it was going to be a pangram, and I wasn’t disappointed. Only QVWZ away from being a double pangram in fact.

Across
1 PYJAMAS – (s)PY (one sleeper having cover blown) + JAMA(i)S (French for never, without the I).
5 PROGRAM – PRO (for) + GRAM (a pulse)
9 CAM – CAM(p)
10 QUICKSILVER – (slick)* inside QUIVER (shake)
11 AB INITIO – A BIO (book of life) around IT IN reversed. Latin for “from the beginning”.
12 RAGTAG – RAG (paper) + TAG (mark).
15 EDGY – from the edges of E(ven-tempere)D G(u)Y.
16 CAFE AU LAIT – hidden reversed in substantial UAE factories.
18 SNAPDRAGON – SNAP (and me) + DRAG ON (playing dame). A Christmas parlour game where players have to snatch raisins out of a burning brandy bowl and eat them. Sounds like fun!
19 FLAK – FLAK(e). I had it as (d)RIFT for a while, which slowed me down for a bit in the bottom right.
22 INKPOT – (into KP)*
23 CHENILLE – EN (a small gap in the rag trade, i.e. the press) inside CHILLE(d) (almost completely cool).
25 PANDORA’S BOX – (paradox snob)*
27 ZIP – double definition.
28 TALLY-HO – ALLY (supporter) inside THO (allowing).
29 ASSURED – (users)* inside AD (public notice).

Down
1 PICKAXE – PICKE(r) (elector nearly) around A X (vote).
2 JUMPING JACK – JUMPING (catching unawares) + JACK (sailor).
3 MAQUIS – MARQUIS (noble) without the R.
4 SPIRIT AWAY – PI (religious) + R.A. (artist) around IT, all inside SWAY (force).
5 POKE – 0K (0 degrees Kelvin, absolute zero) inside P.E. (gym).
6 ORIGANUM – MIRO (Catalan artist Joan Miró) reversed, around GNU (antelope), around A.
7 REV – double definition, serviceman = vicar.
8 MR RIGHT – sounds like “missed a rite”.
13 TRAILBLAZER – TRAIL (dog) + BLAZER (jacket).
14 XENOPHOBIA – (a phoenix)* around OB (died, short for the Latin obiit).
17 IDEOLOGY – (v)IDEO (tape minus the V) + LOG (record the time of) + Y(ear).
18 SNIPPET – TENPINS (game) reversed, with P(age) replacing N(ew).
20 KNEE PAD – PEE (letter) inside DANK (nasty, wet), all reversed.
21 ONYXES – SEXY NO reversed.
24 FARO – sounds like “pharaoh”.
26 NIL – cryptic definition.

13 comments on “Saturday Times 25221 (21st July)”

  1. I think there’s never much fun to be had from puzzles in which many clues have wordplay that defies explanation even after the solution has been found.

    I got there in an hour with a little assistance from aids in the last 5 minutes.

    I didn’t know ‘pulse’ = GRAM or RAGTAG as a noun meaning ‘common people’. I’d never heard of the game SNAPDRAGON, but nor have COED, Collins or my Chambers. It’s in SOED however without any reference to Christmas.

    I can see the ED and GY at 15 across but still don’t understand how ‘despite appearances, not this’ gets us to the answer. It’s probably obvious but my brain was in meltdown at the time of solving and is in not much better shape this morning after tackling this week’s effort with only about a third of the grid completed after an hour.

    Edited at 2012-07-28 07:31 am (UTC)

    1. Snap is a children’s card game where the players take turns to turn a card from their pile face up. When two cards the same are turned up, the first to shout “Snap!” wins the pile of face-up cards.

      Anyway, if two people meet wearing the same jumper for example, one might point and jokily say “Snap!”

      1. Thanks very much, and clear(er) now. One of the reasons I like the puzzle is that it brushes up my British (in order) miscellaneous culture, spelling, and sometimes lateral thinking, and I’m thinking that this ticks at least two of those three. Would you consider that easy, or a bit of a stretch? That is, would it ever decode the word for you, or is it mostly useful as verifying wordplay?
        1. In this case it was for verifying the word, which had to be SNAPDRAGON from the checking letters, but I hadn’t heard of the game and couldn’t see anything leading to a plant. I saw DRAG ON first for “playing dame”, then looked for something that could indicate SNAP. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but neither is it a bit of a stretch. It’s a fairly common setter’s trick to slip an interjection into a sentence, e.g. in June 30th’s Saturday puzzle, “In very high latitude, what forms large item going overhead (7,3)”. STEEP (very high) + LAT. around EH (what) = STEEPLE HAT.

          Edited at 2012-07-28 12:41 pm (UTC)

  3. Found this puzzle “hard but worth the effort”. Unfortunately, the recycling bin was collected yesterday so I no longer have the puzzle or my jottings about it. I remember ticks of approval for the definition in PANDORA’S BOX (something about hope remaining), the SNAP = (and me), ONYXES and the reversed hidden.

    I was put off by the odd extra word such as “nasty” with “wet” in 20, thinking that it served a purpose other than helping to suggest “dank”; it is, of course, a perfectly fair device to throw you off the scent.

    If my memory is not playing tricks on me, I recall a time (20 years ago?) when the Saturday prize-puzzle was generally much easier than those that appeared during the week. These days, the opposite is often true. I am happy with this trend and think that people should have to work for the prize, particularly with “crossword-solvers” being readily available on line. It would, however, be encouraging for those sending off their puzzles (I never do these days) if the prize went up from £20 to £50; it seems not to have increased in decades.

    1. Yes, I got that too, but I still can’t see what in the clue is telling me to extract the end letters to form the answer.
  5. Fantastic puzzle; I loved every minute of it (and it was probably over 90 minutes). 24d of all things was my LOI; I took ‘picked up’ as a reversal indicator, which led to Olav or Olaf, which of course I couldn’t make sense of. I simply couldn’t see (or hear) why FARO worked. COD to EDGY.
  6. Great puzzle, even taking 2 days. Well about an hour for all but 5, then back to finish it 2 more sessions the next day.

    Could see EDGY had to be the answer, but couldn’t completely justify it before Kevin’s ed-gy-on-the-outside.

    And couldn’t justify FARO, which I pronounce FAR OH, unlike the Egyptian FAIR OH. Trying to make an OAF a card didn’t work.

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