Saturday Times 25299 (20th Oct)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time – not sure, around 25-30 minutes. I stopped the clock to take a phone call after 10 minutes and forgot to restart it again afterwards. As always on Championship day, this was a tough puzzle. I think they do it deliberately just to crush the confidence of most of the competitors, and I know that some of the old hands don’t even attempt it until afterwards.
Hover the cursor over the clue number to see the clue.

Across
1 SUGAR CANE – alternate letters of SpUrGe + ARCANE (understood by a few).
6 ACCRA – A + [ ARC (rainbow) + C(oalition) reversed ]. Capital of Ghana.
9 LOTUS – LOTS (many) around U(ncomfortable). I’m not sure whether to take this as a helpful surface reading or an &lit. Depends on how flexible you are, I suppose!
10 PARTIALLY – (m)ARTIAL (Roman poet minus the first letter) inside PLY (to travel).
11 DRAW IN ONE’S HORNS – double definition, the second one a bit tongue-in-cheek.
13 SKEWERED – KEW (gardens) inside SERE (dry) + (perio)D.
14 MODERN – (or mend)*. That’s the longest anagram indicator I’ve seen – “Somehow make … to be”.
16 EXCISE – EX (former) + homophone for eyes (pupils and more).
18 PENUMBRA – P.A. (assistant) around E-NUMBER (additive), minus the second E (one European banned).
21 ON ANOTHER PLANET – (A note)* around NOT HER PLAN (perhaps his scheme).
23 AUTOGRAPH – (page, author)*.
25 USING – MUSING (thinking), minus the first letter.
26 ROMAN – R(epublican) + OMAN (country).
27 HINDSIGHT – double definition.

Down
1 SOLID – SOLD (disposed of) around I (one).
2 GUTTA-PERCHA – (caught)* around TAPER (narrow, verb). They used to make a lot of things out of this stuff, but I didn’t know that included banknotes!
3 RESPITE – PI (good) inside REST (another word for break) + E(nergy).
4 APPROVES – APP (something to download) + ROVES (travels).
5 EARNER – E’ER (always) around A + RN (Royal Navy = service).
6 ATISHOO – sound like “at issue” (unresolved), but I don’t know what the drunkard’s doing there. It sounds like that no matter how many pints you’ve had.
7 COL – COLD (wintry conditions), minus the last letter.
8 ABYSSINIA – BY (through) + S(mall) + SIN (error) + I, all inside AA (Automobile Association = drivers).
12 REED BUNTING – (dut, beginner)*, “dut” being the odd letters of doubt. Another one that’s sort of an &lit.
13 STEGOSAUR – GETS reversed (rises = gets up) + SA (sex appeal) inside OUR.
15 WEAR THIN – double definition.
17 SHOTGUN – SUN (setter, geddit?) around HOT (popular) + G(ood).
19 UMLAUTS – UM (I’m not sure) + LOUTS (bad boys) with the O (nothing) replaced by A (top grade). The two dots that can go above A, O, or U in German to lengthen the sound.
20 THRASH – TRASH (refuse) around H(usband).
22 TIGHT – you sleep TIGHT (soundly) if you’re TIGHT (drunk).
25 TOM – TOME (heavy reading) minus the last letter.

15 comments on “Saturday Times 25299 (20th Oct)”

  1. Puzzle 25299, Andy.

    90 minutes with a couple of look-ups when I eventually ran out of steam, but nevertheless this was for the most part a very enjoyable puzzle. Gutted to need aids for GUTTA-PERCHA again; will I never learn?

    If ‘drunkard’ is needed for “at issue” to sound like ATISHOO should we assume that our sober setter speaks like Brian Sewell?

    Much easier pickings this Saturday!

    1. Thanks, corrected. I assume you also deleted the other message pointing out the mistake and the advert for Ugg boots! Cheers.
      1. Honestly, I spend half an hour typing an ad for Ugg boots and it just gets deleted. How am I ever going to get rid of the 2,000 pairs I’ve got in the garage?
  2. Even a pleb like me often omits the h from ‘issue’, but I agree Mr Sewell may be more likely to do likewise with ’tissue’. Perhaps the setter reads the complaints about inexact homophones on this board? Anyway, about half an hour as far as I remember and time well spent. (Sorry, the anon above was me typing nonsense)
  3. 16:15 .. so I was flying on Championship day. If only I’d been there I might have been quite perfectly average.

    ATISHOO was indeed a head-scratcher. I like the Brian Sewell yardstick, although after reading the extract from his memoirs the other day which described his encounter with Salvador Dali, I’ll never think of Brian Sewell quite the same way again (fascinating, but don’t read it to your aged aunt – or do, depending on how racy she is).

    I must see GUTTA-PERCHA in a crossword about once a year – just long enough to have forgotten it by the next time. I didn’t know they made banknotes from it, either, linxit, but as plastic banknotes are now being introduced all over the place the clue is especially pertinent (and might help me remember the stuff next time).

  4. I’ve missed the pi = good before. Can someone help me with the definition? I assume it’s a well known British abbreviation that I need to learn. (Meantime, Americans spell it ACHOO or ATCHOO; I’m learning a lot this week). Thanks – Thoughtful in London
  6. I enjoyed this although it seemed to take ages to complete. Slow but steady. 42 minutes. I was thrown by the “flying” in 12d. I didn’t expect the answer to be the name of a bird. I likes the “high marks in German” definition. It seemed obvious afterwards but gave me pause when solving. Btw, some of us might need Sotira’s Uggs – it’s a lot colder today!
  7. Notes made while solving include ‘hard but good’ and ‘very few queries – mark of a good puzzle’. Ticks against the multi-word 1ac and 21ac. No time recorded but will be at least double today’s 30-odd minutes.
  8. Amazing how word-blindness takes you sometimes. I spent an age trying to work out how wordplay involving TAPER inside GOTCHA could be reconciled with the obviously correct GUTTA-PERCHA. D’oh, d’oh and thrice d’oh…
  9. 45′, with 3d my LOI. Couldn’t parse 13d and 21ac, so thanks, linxit. DNK 20d, but I did know GUTTA PERCHA, only because it was a gutta-percha cane that a Southern pro-slavery Senator used to attack an anti-slavery senator whose name I’m ashamed to say I forget, in the Senate chamber. Umlaut, by the way, doesn’t lengthen a vowel, it fronts it

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