Saturday Times 25,442 (6th April 2013)

Author   sotiraPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
I’m standing in for linxit this week. It’s my first call off the subs’ bench in a very long time. I imagine I will have slightly less impact than Lionel Messi did in midweek. You’ll forgive me if I’m not 100% match fit.
Mostly very straightforward. I recorded 22:43 but was taking extra care in order to complete a rare error-free week. I’m sure most old hands will have whipped through this.
Across

1  MASS-PRODUCED – double definition: “Made a lot of” and a reference to a shy little particle outed in March of this year at the LHC and thought to be responsible for lending mass to fundamental particles which really shouldn’t oughta have any. Not sure what the Higgs boson gets out of it but when a particle’s that hard to find, chances are it’s up to no good
9  CACHE – C(hapter) + ‘ache’, and what your computer does with cookies etc to help Google and the CIA keep an eye on you
10 DANDELION – there’s a N(ew) DELI in lon(DON)
11 DRAFTING – D(aughter) + RAFTING. I’m not certain of the impress/draft equivalence but I think it’s impress as an archaic form of press, as in press-gang, as in press into military service.
12 BOLERO – OR+E+LOB all sent backwards
13 MODERATE – MODE(way) + RATE .. definition is presumably an implied noun – “one that is not excessive”
15 FIANCÉ – N(ote) taken from ‘finance’
17 COMEDY – COY around MED(ical). The film of Doctor in the House was Dirk Bogarde’s first big break (amid a glittering cast) while the TV series has writing credits for Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Bernard McKenna
18 FRENETIC – (fencer + it)*
20 RACING – take the T out of ‘tracing’ (describing the outline of)
21 ISABELLA – Is a bell ..? + ‘a’. Not quite sure of the integrity of the syntax here but it sort of works.
24 FRAGILITY – Fr. + ‘agility’
25 F-STOP – nice clue, a FOP (dandy) around St., though the enumeration rather gives this one away [edit: I should have said, “gives this one away if you ever spent ages trying to work out an exposure in the days before point, click, upload“]
26 UNADVERTISED – cryptic def. – devoid of flim-flam

Down
1  MACADAM – CAD inside MA’AM
2  SOCIAL DEMOCRAT – (stoical comrade)*, a politician committed to …. oh, I’m sure there’s something.
3  PLEAT – PEAT around L(ake)
4  ORDINATE – (an editor)*
5  URNS – U/S for unserviceable around the RN. Easy, but with a smart surface
6  EYE LOTION – EYE(look) + Lot 1 + ON (running). Crafty stuff. The stand-out clue for me
7  SIMEON STYLITES – (solemnity)* inside ‘sites’. 37 years 50 feet up. Blimey.
8 INSOLE – the NT taken out of ‘insolent’
14 RED ENSIGN – ‘reign’ around ‘dens’, the ‘standard’ being of the flag variety
16 PROSTYLE – on edit: oops, my subconscious must have filtered this one out while blogging, perhaps because it was the only one that gave me real trouble. It is, of course, PRO (skilful) + STYLE (design) but I imagine I wasn’t the only one who knew there was such a thing as a PROSTYLE but wasn’t at all sure if it was a portico or something else entirely
17 CARAFE – A + F(ine) within ‘care’
19 CLAPPED – C + (PPE inside ‘lad’)
22 BEFIT – E(uropean) + F(emale) inside BIT (as in “the sanctions bit”)
23 KIND – definition is ‘Sort’; KID around N(ame)

17 comments on “Saturday Times 25,442 (6th April 2013)”

  1. …I missed the ‘lot 1’ and put in ‘motion’ instead of ‘lotion’, even though ‘lotion’ had occurred to me; rats! Never saw ‘Doctor in the House’, and couldn’t have imagined Dirk Bogarde starting off in a comedy; live and learn.DNK PPE. Nice to see you on the blogging end, Sotira.
  2. I had forgotten that my club only subscription expired 12 April. At 11.30 this morning (in eastern Australia)I tried to log in but was blocked. At about 12 noon I received a transaction confirmation email showing I had been billed GBP 24.99, and I am now able to log in again. It seems that my club only subscription has been renewed automatically, just an hour or so late.
    1. That’s good news!

      I posted a query about this in the forum hoping for a response from management. Nothing so far, but perhaps someone will read it in working hours.

      Edited at 2013-04-13 07:27 am (UTC)

  3. 21 minutes – although I am slightly concerned about the fact that I remembered the ascetic’s name – very strange the sort of informatin that lurks at the back of the brain just waiting for a crossword clue!
  4. Sotira, you have some clue numbers out of sync in the Downs and no mention of PROSTYLE (at 16dn) an answer I didn’t know and had to look up. I also didn’t know the ascetic so this was a DNF-without-aids for me. Other than that I spent 45 minutes on it.

    I don’t understand ‘just’ in 25ac re F-STOP, another unknown but successfully worked out.

    This puzzle is unaccountably numbered 29442 on my print-out!

    Edited at 2013-04-13 07:27 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks, jackkt (and Jimbo, below). Well, I did say I mightn’t be entirely match-fit. I think all is straightened out now.
  5. Good to see you in action Sotira and well done. To amplify what Jack has said, in the down clues 14 should read 8; 16 should read 14; the real 16 is missing.

    Agreed an easy enough offering although I was taken aback by the reference to the Higgs – things are looking up!

  6. I never time my Saturday solves. I don’t remember this one giving me any particular problems, although I did go and check that Simeon Stylites was correct afterwards. Call me an old cynic, but I’m not sure that I believe his story.

    Andy B.

    1. I believe it. The man was clearly extremely eccentric. The Wiki entry is one of the more remarkable Wikipedia articles, which is saying something. Read the bit “Early Life.” Originally, his pillar was only 4m tall, but “well-wishers” bought him taller ones! They would “test” him, by asking him to come down, and then when he showed signs of complying, tell him not to bother. You simply could not make this up!
      1. “Hey, Simeon. Good news and bad. The good news is we brought you a present … …”

        What complete b*******!

  7. Have waited a long time to able to make a comment in one of these blogs that I got an answer from a Bunuel film, but so I did, with his 1965 movie ‘Simon (sic) of the Desert’ handing me 7dn!

    Nice work by our impact sub!

  8. Straightforward offering in general. Had heard of stylites but not this particular one, though the anagram didn’t have many alternatives. Hadn’t heard of PROSTYLE but the wordplay was clear enough. Unfortunately I put in EYE MOTION for 6D, thinking it was some kind of semi-cryptic definition.
  9. Have been nursing a nasty cold for the last couple of days and yesterday’s puzzle took an hour to complete, in spite of my being fortified with whisky and hot tea. Don’t know whether today was easier or whether I was just feeling a bit more the thing, as Georgette Heyer would say, but I managed it in a fairly creditable 25 minutes. I was pleased to remember a bit about the HIGGS BOSON as well as the name of the guy on top of the pillar. Very enjoyable. Thanks to the setter for cheering me up after yesterday and to Sotira – understudy extrordinaire. Ann

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