Saturday Times 25233 (4th August)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
12:33, so much easier than the last two. COD to 26ac for the excellent anagram, other wise it was all very straightforward and looking back on it I don’t know what held me up!

Across
1 VIBRANCY – BRAN (cereal) inside V(ery) ICY.
5 ELYSEE – ELY (cathedral city) + SEE (bishop’s responsibility).
10 WINCHESTER RIFLE – W(estern) + INCHES (isles) + TERRIF(y) (brief scare) + L(oath)E. Got it from the definition, then had to puzzle over the wordplay. INCH is a Scottish/Irish word for an island.
11 NIAGARA – sounds like “nigh” (close), “agora” (market). Another one I got from the definition.
12 ANIMALS – (Manila’s)*, dead giveaway anagram.
13 PORTABLE – TABLE (menu) after POR (sounds like “pore”).
15 HEM IN – H.E. (His Excellency = ambassador) + MIN(ute) (a short while).
18 ADEPT – APT (likely) around D,E (lower classes).
20 ART HOUSE – AROUSE (fire) around T(emperature), H(ot).
23 TACKIER – TACK (food) + I.E. (that is) + R(estaurant).
25 EXPANSE – EXE (river) around PAN’S (steamer’s).
26 LEAGUE CHAMPIONS – (lose in a cup game)* around (matc)H.
27 EXETER – EX (old) + E(n)TER (register, minus the N for name).
28 BEGRIMED – B(ook) + E.G. (say) + RIME (old verses) + D(onne).

Down
1 VOWING – GOV(ernment) reversed around WIN (victory).
2 BANGALORE – BANG (report) + LORE (what has been learnt) around A.
3 AT HEART – HEAR (try) inside A TT (motorcycle event, i.e. the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy)
4 COSTA – CO-STA(r). Latin word for a rib.
6 LARGISH – (girl has)*
7 SOFIA – OF I(sland) inside S(outh) A(frica).
8 EVENSONG – (gone)* around VEN’S (archdeacon’s).
9 DECADENT – DACE (fish) reversed, inside DENT (depression).
14 BOAT RACE – O.B. (old boy) reversed + A TRACE (a bit).
16 MISINFORM – MIS(s) (teacher, finishing early) + IN FORM (in class).
17 BASTILLE – TILL (work) inside BASE (vile).
19 TRIBUTE – (c)UT(s) inside TRIBE (family).
21 ON PAPER – (propane)*
22 CEASED – CD (recording) around EASE (facility).
24 CRATE – C(onstant) + RATE (measure of speed).
25 ERASE – hidden reversed in Caesarean.

5 comments on “Saturday Times 25233 (4th August)”

  1. A very enjoyable 37 minutes on this. 4,18,17 and 27 took it over the half-hour. Much of the wordplay was surplus to requirements.
  2. 24′, definitely an easy one for Saturday. I had the vaguest of memories of TT as meaning something to do with races, but it took a while to dredge it up; ditto for COSTA. And I realized, with 11ac, that all these years I’d had the stress on the wrong syllable for ‘agora’, a word I’ve never heard, only read (not to mention that ‘agora’–stress on the 2d syllable– in Portuguese means ‘now’).
  3. Easy for me too, 20m, but no duff clues.
    As for agora, how exactly do we know where the stress should be? Modern Greek is no help and there are no ancient ones to enquire of. and it was written in a different alphabet.. all Roman and Greek pronunciation is an invention

    Edited at 2012-08-11 07:04 pm (UTC)

    1. There are conventions for how Greek and Latin loan words are pronounced in English. And have you read W. Sidney Allen’s Vox Graeca and Vox Latina?

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