Saturday Times 25358 (29th Dec)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 17:42, not one of the hardest but one of the most enjoyable puzzles of the year. Many great clues but my favourites were 5D, the excellent cryptic def at 23D, and the linked pair of 4A and 10A. Nice one, setter.

Across
1 BICEPS – B(ritish) + ICE (reserve) + PS (some extra added).
4 PRISONER – P(ushe)R IS (lives) ON ER (at Her Majesty’s expense).
10 CALLAGHAN – CHAN (detective) around AL (gangster) + LAG (4, i.e. prisoner). James Callaghan, British PM 1976-79.
11 BUCKS – double definition, the first as in the verb meaning to resist.
12 FEATHERBEDDING – FEAT (exploit) + HER (female) + BEING around DD (Doctor of Divinity).
14 RAPID – P (quietly) inside RAID (sally).
16 SPORTSMAN – (storm)* inside SPAN (bridge).
18 NOTRE DAME – NOT RED (unembarrassed) + AME(n) (prayer’s ending incomplete).
20 SODOM – M.O. (modus operandi, method of working) + DOS (parties), all reversed.
21 SALISBURY PLAIN – S.A. (sex appeal, it) + L(arge) + IS(land) + BURY (conceal) + PLAIN (basic).
25 RHINO – double definition.
26 ANDALUSIA – AND (with) + A + L(ake) + [I (one) inside USA] (across the pond).
27 THE BEANO – E(nglish) inside THEBAN (ancient Greek) + O (cipher).
28 IRONED – ID (pass, perhaps) around R (rex, king) + ONE (I).

Down
1 BACKFIRING – BACK (second) + FIRING (dismissal).
2 CELIA – hidden reversed in “frail, eccentric”.
3 PEACHED – P.E. (exercises) + ACHED (hurt).
5 RINSE – IN S.E. (at the bottom right) below R(iver). Is this the first clue that uses crossword blogging terminology as wordplay?
6 SUBEDIT – TIDE (come-and-go of sea) + BUS (ferry) all reversed.
7 NICKNAMED – (mace, N, kind)*
8 REST – RE (on) + ST(ilts).
9 CHARISMA – CHAR IS MA (mum’s the one who’s doing).
13 ONE-MAN BAND – NAME NO (call number) reversed, + BAND (ring).
15 PATNA RICE – PAT (Paddy) + (a nicer)*
17 OVERRIDE – ERR (boob) inside (video)*
19 EPITOME – (th)E + PI TOME (Holy Bible).
20 SUPPLER – SUPPLER becomes SUPPLIER (dealer) by including I (one).
22 BRAWN – BR (British Rail, train body once) + AWN (beard).
23 ARSON – cryptic definition, and a very good one too.
24 FRET – double definition.

12 comments on “Saturday Times 25358 (29th Dec)”

  1. My instinct was to put PATNA, which I knew was a place in India (and hence which might conceivably have its own type of rice), but I’d not come across pat to mean paddy, only pet. So petna it was …
  2. I found this one quite difficult, needing 62 minutes to solve without aids and coming here with a couple still unexplained. I agree that 23dn was excellent – just about as good as cryptics come but by contrast 8dn was feeble to say the least.
  3. Great puzzle beautifully composed. 29 minutes. I only got “rinse” after submission. 5 pages of neutrinos on the club board with Jason clocking in at #53. Sheesh, it just gets worse. I forget which Earl of Salisbury it was (late 19th or early 20th century) but his sisters were unfortunately rather homely and were known as the Salisbury Plains.
  4. Enjoyed this one. All correct apart from The Beano which I had to look up.

    Rinse entered from definition and checkers – the clever wordplay eluded me. Didn’t know Patna Rice or Peached but both were easily gettable. I see in Chambers that Peached meaning informed against/betray was coined by Shakespeare.

    “Helpless player” for one-man band made me laugh-out-loud!

  5. I’m not a lexicographer by any stretch of the imagination, but there appear to be so many new words attributed to Shakespeare that his plays either contained many words that would have come across as nonsense to his audience or they were actually the first examples of those words that have been found in written English but were in verbal usage at the time. I have always tended to believe that the latter is the more reasonable explanation.
    Andy B.
  6. I did enjoy this, though if it really was one of the most enjoyable of the year that rather passed me by, I’m afraid. I have had a bug.
    Don’t understand your parsing of 10ac Andy. Lag = 4 ie prisoner ??

    On the subject of peach, Chambers does mention Shakespeare but the OED gives five earlier quotations than him. Chambers is not what it used to be

  7. An eon and a half, as I recall; but a definite sense of accomplishment when I finished, all the more in that I actually understood all the clues save 4ac.DNK PATNA RICE, DNK the military use of SALISBURY PLAIN (which in fact I only know from the Lord Chancellor’s nightmare, where he crosses it on a bicycle).COD to 10ac, but kudos also to 6d and 8d. I felt that 20d should have read ‘…as would be dealer …’, but I suppose that’s nit-picking.

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