Saturday Times 25227 (28th July)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Another really tricky puzzle, solved in just over the half-hour (30:13 to be precise), although the last 10 minutes or so was spent on trying to figure out 10ac, with three possible candidates to consider. Kicked myself hard when I saw how it worked, as I don’t usually fall for that particular trick.

Across
1 JOHN BUCHAN – (a hunch N(ew) job)*. Scottish writer whose best-known work was The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915).
6 BOMB – double definition, the second referring to films, plays etc.
9 TICKER-TAPE – T.A. (volunteers) + P.E. (exercising) following TICKER (watch perhaps).
10 PISA – To get SAY from SPY, P IS A! Has to be my COD as it had me stumped for ages.
12 POETRY IN MOTION – POE (writer) + TRY (go) + IN (home) + MOTION (proposal).
14 ON-SITE – sounds like “On sight”, i.e. shoot first, ask questions later!
15 NINE-INCH – NEIN (“no” in German) inside NICH(e) (short recess).
17 KAYAKING – A Y(acht) + AKIN (similar), all inside KG (weight).
19 CHAPEL – CHAP (man) + (hot)EL (hotel not heated). I’m not sure how “but” indicates putting CHAP in front, but I can’t see how else it’s supposed to work either. Edit: CHAP replaces HOT in HOTEL. Thanks kevingregg.
22 SECOND WORLD WAR – SECOND (instant) + WORD (promise) around L(ine) + RAW (unprepared) reversed.
24 OATH – (l)OATH(e), i.e. remove the case from LOATHE (can’t stand).
25 GHOSTWRITE – G(rand) + HOST (entertaining fellow) + W(ith) + RITE (ceremony). I’d never thought of this as one word before, and Chambers has it hyphenated, but it’s there in Collins.
26 ERNE – sounds like “earn”.
27 TEXT EDITOR – TEX(as) + (Detroit)*.

Down
1 JUTE – (on)E underneath JUT (stick).
2 HECTORS – HORS(e) around ECT (shocking way to treat).
3 BREATHTAKING – R.E. (soldiers) inside BATH-TAKING (the habit of washing).
4 CUTEYS – CU (copper) + S(mall), YET (all the same) reversed. I would spell it “cuties” but this alternative’s in Chambers.
5 APPENDIX – (I P expand)*, P = quietly.
7 OPINION – 0 PINION (i.e. with no binding one’s not restricted).
8 BRAINCHILD – RAIN (showers) + C(old) + H(ot), all inside BILD (a German newspaper).
11 FORESHADOWED – FOR (behind) + E(uropean)’S + HAD OWED (previously needed to pay).
13 FOLKESTONE – (K(ept) to oneself)*, a ferry port in Kent.
16 SNOW-SHOE – just a cryptic definition I think, but the way it’s worded suggests there might be more to it. If there is it’s lost on me!
18 YUCATAN – YUC(k) (that’s revolting – not quite) + A TAN (what sun-seeker hopes for).
20 PIANIST – PI (seemingly good) + A + (isn’t)*.
21 PRESET – PRES(s) (brief journalists) + E.T. (film).
23 REAR – first letters of runners, even at rest.

11 comments on “Saturday Times 25227 (28th July)”

  1. Easy one this, except for 10a which had me scratching my head for a while and others too, it seems from the website forum.

    12ac made me smile, through remembering those lorries I used to see transporting poultry up and down the M1, with a big sign on the side “Poultry in Motion”

  2. This was the hardest puzzle I remember since I started coming here 5 years ago. After an hour I had solved only 11 clues so I abandoned it and went back to it the next day when another hour and occasional use of aids enabled me to complete the grid with one error.

    Just possibly my alternative at 10ac is valid: PICA the city in Chile that sounds like “peeker” (spy).

    I thought CUTEYS was a bit much but everything else was fair enough.

  3. I found this tough, and spent ages at the end agonising over 10ac. Eventually I gave up and guessed RIGA.
    I sort of figured it out later, but I still don’t really understand it. I’m struggling to see how “say how spy comes to that” means something like “how spy changes to say”. Probably just a sour grapes-induced blind spot!
    1. It works for me if you put pauses after ‘say’ and before ‘city’, but ‘Say, how spy comes to that, city’ would be a bit clunky, indeed ungrammatical, and ‘Say…how spy comes to that…city’ rather a giveaway.

      My own effort is best forgotten, with a hasty ‘John Bunyan’ rather summing things up. I guessed PISA on the basis that it’s better known than Riga or Giza.

      1. I’m still struggling with it. The wordplay would work as a clue for EGPISA, for instance, but there seem too many bits in it for PISA. To put it another way “play” appears twice (once as “that”) but is only used once.

        Edited at 2012-08-05 12:50 pm (UTC)

  4. I semi-whizzed through this in 43′, but went for Riga (Why? you ask. Shut up, I explained.) Yet once again, I found myself running through the alphabet, and losing patience mid-run; I’m not sure if I even noticed Lima as a possibility. In retrospect, I think it’s a brilliant clue, though. I thought of ‘cuties’ early on but couldn’t make it work; didn’t get it until I had the Y of 12ac. Thanks, linxit, for the explanations of KAYAKING & HECTORS; I had no idea Y was an abbreviation for yacht, and I have to remember ECT.
  5. I wondered about this, too. My take was that it’s “hotel has [‘s] not ‘hot’ but ‘chap’ “, which provides us with the definition, ‘room [where] service may be in’.

    Edited at 2012-08-04 09:28 pm (UTC)

  6. I thought this was a fine puzzle, and am in the division that regards 10ac as a work of genius. It did take me 10 minutes all on its own to crack it.
  7. 16:35 for me, nearly half of it spent pondering 10ac (my COD as well).

    Thanks for the explanation of 11dn (FORESHADOWED) which I hadn’t managed to parse until I came here, missing FOR = “behind”. On the other hand I had no problem with 19dn (CHAPEL), parsing it in the same way as kevingregg.

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