Saturday Times 25436 (30th March)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Sorry for the delay in getting this posted, just didn’t have time yesterday. Anyway, great puzzle and quite tricky, around 25 minutes to solve. It looked like it was going to be a pangram as I was solving, as Q, X, Z and J all appeared fairly early, but in the end there was no room for an F or a V.

Across
1 KNOW-HOW – (think-tan)K + NO, WHO (screened doctors) + W(ith).
5 GASBAG – AA (Alcoholics Anonymous = addicts) around SB (antimony), all inside GG (goods). Antimony’s chemical symbol Sb is from stibnite (Sb2S3), the main source of the element.
8 SATURNINE – S.A.E. (stamped addressed envelope, enclosure) around TURN IN (hit the hay).
9 ETHIC – ET HIC (Latin for “and this”).
11 AT BAY – TB (tuberculosis = consumption) inside A (w)AY.
12 CLEOPATRA – C(aught) + LEOPAR(d) (Manx, i.e. tailless cat) round (cour)T, plus A(rea).
13 DERBY DAY – RED (claret) reversed + BY DAY (from dawn to dusk).
15 ZIPS UP – ZIP (nothing) + SUP (eat lately, i.e. in the evening).
17 ABACUS – AC (bill) inside A BUS (i.e. as a passenger).
19 BUCKSHEE – SHE (girl) inside BUCKE(t) (nearly all of tip).
22 EMANATORY – (th)E + MANDATORY (obligatory), minus the D of Democrat.
23 PINKY – P(itch) + INKY (black).
24 PHONE – PH ONE is highly acidic, (pH 1 to be exact).
25 LAID WASTE – (detail was)*.
26 SEXTET – STET (let it be, proofing term) around EX (old-time).
27 ERRANDS – ERRS (is human) around DNA (genetic material) reversed.

Down
1 KISS AND MAKE UP – (Speak mind as UK)*
2 OCTOBER – CO reversed + TO BE R (future king). Definition refers to the Russian October Revolution of 1917.
3 HARDY – HARD (tough) + Y(ear). Oliver, Thomas and a definition of the word itself as well as the wordplay.
4 WHINCHAT – WHAT (which) around INCH (creep).
5 GEEZER – sounds like “geyser”.
6 SHEEP TICK – E(nergy) inside EP (recording), all inside SHTICK (the old routine).
7 ACHATES – ACES (singles) around HAT (Panama). Achates was the close companion of Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid.
10 CHAMPS ELYSEES – CHAMP (top horse) + S(econd) + ELY (place in Cambridgeshire) + SEES (eyes). Parisian street leading to the Arc de Triomphe. Very good horse-racing surface reading.
14 YOU NAME IT – NA (not applicable) inside YOU, ME (the two of us) + IT.
16 QUAYSIDE – sounds like “key sighed”.
18 ABALONE – AB (the Ancient Mariner, say) ALONE. In the poem (Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner), after Death throws the dice, all the ship’s crew drop down dead, leaving the Mariner

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!

20 HANDS-ON – hidden in “much – and so needless”.
21 JOB LOT – JOB + LOT (both Biblical characters).
23 POWER – P(enny) OWER. It won’t take much to settle his debt!

6 comments on “Saturday Times 25436 (30th March)”

  1. What is ‘horse’ doing in 10 down? Winning horses are seldom referred to as champions or champs.
    1. Possibly slightly redundant, but top horses are undoubtedly referred to as champions, admittedly along with many other top things. Seems fair enough to me though.
  2. A very nice 33 minute Easter Saturday diversion – lots to like and I too have no problem with a horse being a champ.

    Thanks to the setter and linxit too.

  3. I thought this was a great puzzle – although I didn’t quite finish without resorting to aids. (I had to google the symbol for antimony at 5a before I could complete that corner.) It took me 55 minutes to get that far but the satisfaction of completion was well worth the struggle. Loved the doctors in 1a.
  4. A little over the hour for me on this one, but it was an enjoyable solve.

    I missed the first screened doctor in 1ac so didn’t quite crack the wordplay.

    I liked the Manx cat idea although it turned up only a few Sundays ago in the Everyman.

    I doubt the Ancient Mariner had the rank of AB but I enjoyed the clue at 18dn despite perhaps being a little too smart for its own good.

    Edited at 2013-04-07 12:54 pm (UTC)

  5. Well over an hour; at least I stopped counting then. I had to look up antimony, too, and had to check WHINCHAT to make sure I wasn’t making something up. I twigged to 15ac, my LOI by a long shot, just exactly when I had hit the submit button. But wotthehell, it was a lovely puzzle. I especially liked 11ac and 12ac, which gets my COD.

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