Saturday Times 25269 (15th Sept)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solved in bits and pieces last Saturday whilst on the phone all day trying to sort out a problem at work, so I can’t even estimate a time. Nasty trap for any French-speakers at 21ac, who would know that mort is a feminine noun, but I suppose they weren’t so fussy about grammar in the 15th century.

Across
1 BECALMED – (cable)* + MED (sea).
5 BIGAMY – MAGI (wise guys) reversed, inside BY.
8 HINDUSTANI – (Danish unit)*
9 MOLE – double definition, the first dredged up from some recess where I’ve filed O-level chemistry.
10 MILLENNIUM DOME – MILLENNIUM (enormous time) + D(ied) + (h)OME (house topped off).
11 SILESIA – SIL (odd letters of still) + “easier” (less advanced, we hear).
13 CREEPER – C(old) + “reaper” (death).
15 SATISFY – SAT (one day) + IS + F(rida)Y (previous day, not full).
18 REFORMS – RE FOR MS (to turn suMS into suRE).
21 LE MORTE D’ARTHUR – (Mahler tortured)*, for Sir Thomas Malory’s famous collection of Arthurian legends, first published in 1485.
22 AVER – AV (Authorised Version = Bible) + ER (monarch)
23 ANTIFREEZE – double definition, the second cryptic, based on the phrase “until Hell freezes over”, which basically means forever.
24 GRILLE – GRILL (restaurant) + E(at).
25 THREATEN – THREE (small card) overlapped with A TEN (a larger one).

Down
1 BAHAMAS – BAAS (what comes from lamb) around HAM (meat).
2 CANDLELIT – (cell and it)*
3 LAURELS – double definition, the second from The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith, in which Charles Pooter lives at The Laurels, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway, London.
4 ESTONIA – A1 (road) + NOT + SE (odd letters of seen), all reversed.
5 BAIN-MARIE – BAR (pub) around 1 + (man)*, + I.E. (that is).
6 GAMBOGE – GAMBO(l) (no end of frolic) + E.G. (say) reversed. Familiar to me as a type of yellow pigment, as I’d just finished reading Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey (it’s the name of one of the characters).
7 MOLIÈRE – MORE around LIE. French playwright. I wasn’t happy with “compresses” as an insertion indicator, but it has an archaic meaning “to embrace” according to Chambers.
12 INFURIATE – “IN FUR I ATE”
14 PARCHMENT – ARCH (bow) + MEN (people), inside PT (part).
16 ALL OVER – (f)ALL OVER.
17 IMMORAL – I’M + ORAL (spoken) around M(ildly).
18 REDDISH – RED (left) + DISH (picec of china).
19 FIR TREE – T(ime) + RE (about), inside FIRE (blaze).
20 SURGEON – URGE (compulsion) inside SON (lad).

15 comments on “Saturday Times 25269 (15th Sept)”

  1. I think about half the 90′ this took me was devoted to the final 4 clues: 5d, 23ac, 6d, 9ac. I liked a number of the clues, but I think I’d give 18ac the COD. I made the gender error with 21ac, all right, but fortunately took a moment (at the last moment) to check the anagrist. SILESIA, I could have done without; not only because of the rhotic problem, but because I don’t pronounce it ‘-eezia’ but ‘-eezha’ (ditto Tunisia, freesia, …).
  2. Most went in very quickly but I stopped suddenly in the bottom right, turning a 20 minute solve into a 45 minute one.

    Thought BIGAMY clever and FIR TREE very neat.

    Pooter’s house was my first one in; I often stroll round Kentish Town and Camden and have found on several occasions what I am sure is The Laurels, Brickfield Terrace, with steps up to the front door, a side gate and a railway line behind. I know the Pooters were supposed to live in Holloway, but I’ve never found a house there that quite matched the description.

  3. I thought this a fine effort by the setter, one of many in recent weeks. Interesting point about 21ac, which has never occurred to me before. Maybe in those days, the fact that Arthur was male might have affected the issue?
    1. There is no doubt that “la mort” was correct in French at that time – it appears thus in Villon who was almost a contemporary of Malory. I think you can just put it down to ignorance on the part of Malory – possibly (like Chaucer’s prioress ) he spoke the French of Stratford-atte-Bowe. Geoffrey of Monmouth made a similar mistake 300 years earlier with “Morgan le Fey”

      Derek

  4. 55 minutes. Didn’t know GAMBOGE although I suspect I have met it somewhere previously, or the scientific MOLE – we had its other slightly obscure meaning (breakwater) about a month ago. PARCHMENT is a DBE as it doesn’t have to be made from sheepskin. Chuckled over IN FUR I ATE, and the ham dressed as mutton at 1dn.

    LAURELS went in early here too as I am a great fan of Pooter.

  5. Forgot to say that even if one was aware of the point of grammar the answer should never have been in doubt because of the anagrist.
  6. Excellent and not easy puzzle. Thanks to Linxit for explaining REFORMS. It had to be the solution but I couldn’t for the life of me see how the wordplay worked. Very ingenious. BIGAMY was nice, and I chuckled, with Jack, over INFURIATE.
  7. Thought the “overlap” was a bit slack here with the second E held in common — that kind of overlap — by THREE and A TEN. Haven’t seen this type of clue before; and hope not to again.

    Edited at 2012-09-23 01:17 am (UTC)

    1. Surely the overlapping is simply the A of A TEN sitting on top of the final E of THREE? My mental image was of one card overlapping another.
  8. 12:00 for me. I bunged in LA MORTE D’ARTHUR, but then corrected it quickly after checking the anagram. I’m another fan of the Pooters, but it’s so long since I read the book that I’m afraid I had to wait for some crossing letters before I remembered LAURELS.
  9. Even though I failed miserably on this, inventing ‘infursate’, and putting ‘laudens ‘ for LAURELS and ‘milk’ for MOLE, I thought this was a very good puzzle, indeed, with a whiff of the Mephisto and the TLS.

    Edited at 2012-09-24 03:19 am (UTC)

  10. Just noted the reference to Pooter. How could I miss it? Diary of a Nobody is one of my enduring favourites.

    If you’re a fan of Charles Pooter – I recommend “The Diary of a Nobody in the 21st Century”. It’s a re-write of the original with contemporary references, and all the drawings up-dated.

    There are some deeply curious parallels with the original in the updated narrative … (Lupin – a hedge fund manager?). It’s available only on Kindle, but I gather it’ll be coming out in paperback soon. Go to the Amazon site if you’re interested. I got to hear of it because he’s on twitter. A complete stream of irrelevant but pooterish nonsense. @charlespooter

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