Saturday Times 25287 (6th Oct)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time – a sluggish 20:55, although as usual going back over it a week later I can’t remember what slowed me down or why. Still, there were a few with tricky wordplay in amongst the easy stuff. I have to nominate 17 as COD as it gave me a laugh.

Across
1 COMPLEXITY – COMPLY (follow orders) around EXIT (passing).
6 SCUM – SC (scilicet = that is to say) + UM (I’m not sure).
10 VINTNER – V(ery) + INNER (secret) around T (last letter of Kent).
11 THIRSTY – THIRTY (figure) around S (last letter of gallons).
12 CARRIES ON – CAR (vehicle) + (senior)*.
13 SNAIL – SAIL (navigate) around N(orth).
14 BLUNT – double definition. Anthony Blunt, art historian and Soviet spy, one of the Cambridge Five.
15 SECOND ROW – SECOND (back) + ROW (argument). “Forward line” as in part of a rugby scrum formation.
17 IN THE LOOP – IN THE LOO (having a quiet moment) + P(arty). Lovely euphemism there, first time I’ve seen it used in a crossword.
20 NADIR – DAN (he who dared) reversed, + IR(ish). Ref. 1950’s comic strip hero Dan Dare.
21 FATSO – hidden in turf at source.
23 SPOKEN FOR – “Spoken 4” – a cardinal number.
25 AD ASTRA – A + [ART (craft) + SAD (in the doldrums), reversed]. Part of the Latin motto of the RAF, Per ardua ad astra, “through adversity to the stars”, although it has a lot of other uses too.
26 ISLANDS – I + [L(eft), AND (also) inside SS, i.e. on board].
27 ECHO – a straight definition with an extra hint. Echo was a mountain nymph who annoyed Hera, who took away her voice, apart from being able to repeat the words of others.
28 RECONSIDER – (nice orders)*

Down
1 CIVIC – definition + palindrome indicator.
2 MINOR SUIT – (tourism)* around IN (trendy). In bridge, the major suits are spades and hearts, the minor suits are diamonds and clubs.
3 LONG IN THE TOOTH – double definition.
4 XEROSIS – SIX (a couple of triplets) around SORE (painful), all reversed. Never heard of it, but I already had the X and both S’s in place, so the wordplay made it obvious.
5 TITANIC – double definition, as it’s also an adjective meaning “of or containing titanium”.
7 COSTA – COST (sacrifice) + A. Another word for a rib.
8 MAYFLOWER – MAY (Spring) + FLOWER (something that flows, as a leak may). Famous ship that took pilgrims to America in 1620.
9 PINS AND NEEDLES – double definition.
14 BRIEFCASE – BRIEF (temporary) + CASE (situation).
16 REDEFINED – (defender)* around I (one).
18 ON STAGE – ONE (unspecified person) around STAG (animal).
19 PROVISO – PI (good) around ROV(e) (short walk) + SO (consequently).
22 TRASH – T(ime) + RASH (skin blemish).
24 RISER – SIR (knight) reversed + ER (the queen, hence dubber, as in “I dub thee knight”).

9 comments on “Saturday Times 25287 (6th Oct)”

  1. Forgot to make notes at the time, but I recall it as an enjoyable puzzle that didn’t take too long. Don’t know why politically incorrect terms of abuse such as FATSO give me the giggles; perhaps they remind me of school days. I look forward to future inclusion of “spotty”, “whiffer” and “specky-four-eyes”.
  2. 44 minutes with the unknown xerosis last in. Did myself no favours there by carelessly sticking in complicity at 1ac. Also enjoyed the Mooreyesque quiet moment.
  3. Another 44 minutes here, also with “complicity” at 1ac so I needed aids to solve 4dn and to discover my earlier error. 17ac and 20ac were delightful clues but I’m but not so keen on the term of casual abuse being given renewed legitimacy by its appearance at 21ac.

    RISER was great too and the “dubber” reference helped with a clue that appeared later in the past week.

  4. Very enjoyable. I had a quiet giggle at 17a. A lot of time was wasted on COMPLICITY at 1a because, although COMPLEXITY fitted the cryptic better, I felt that the alternative fitted the definition better. Moreover, my mind (what’s left of it) rebelled against the idea of a word beginning with X. But I got there in the end in 36 minutes. Ann
  5. I suffer from the same problem, namely remembering what I was doing last Saturday. I remember this as not too difficult, but witty. I marked four clues as particularly good: 14ac, 17ac; 2dn, 5dn.
  6. 43′. Putting in LONG IN THE TEETH at 3d forced me to spend lots of unnecessary time working on 21ac; once I got that, 14d followed as the night the thing, and 14ac (LOI) after that. With 14ac, as so often happens, I was looking for a synonym rather than an example (if the clue requires a synonym, of course, I look for an example). I didn’t know the loo euphemism, but that didn’t pose much of a problem. A number of nice clues, but my COD goes to 10ac.
  7. 14m for this. Straightforward but enjoyable. I liked 17ac. Could have been very topical for some solvers.

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