Saturday Times 25454 (20th April)

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Thanks to Sarah and Marcos for stepping in for me for a couple of weeks. I’ve was too busy to even solve any puzzles then, let alone blog them, but I’ve just about caught up again now. This one was pretty friendly for a Saturday, solved in 12:30.

Across
1 GOLD DUST – GUST (blow) around OLD (no chicken) + D(iner). “No spring chicken” means old, but as far as I know, “no chicken” only means brave.
5 OFF-KEY – KEY (opener) next to OFF (cricket side).
10 DECAF – a jumble of the notes in the musical scale, without G and B.
11 HOBGOBLIN – HOB (place of cooking) + [ NIL (duck) reversed, next to GOB (spit) ].
12 HIT-AND-RUN – HIT (successful single) + [ DR inside A NUN ].
13 TEMPE – hidden reversed in “Keep metal”. The Vale of Tempe in Greece has often been mentioned in poetry and literature as a place of beauty.
14 LECTERN – TERN (winger, i.e. bird) after L(eft) + EC (city).
16 SPOTTY – S(ingular) + POTTY (barking).
18 DO WELL – DOWEL (sort of rod) + L(ine).
20 ANFIELD – (A fine)* + LD. Liverpool’s football stadium.
22 HIKES – HIKE (serious constitutional) + S(outh) (point).
23 FRAGRANCE – RAG (charity event) in FRANCE (hence “cross-channel”).
25 ESOTERICA – (tea, rice)* around SO.
26 ASSAI – ASSAIL (set about) minus the last letter. Musical notation (and the Italian) for “very”.
27 REFUSE – REF (man in middle) + US (America) + E(nergy).
28 HANDRAIL – RAIL (protest) after HAND (worker).

Down
1 GODCHILD – DO reversed + CH(urch), inside GILD (paint in glittering colour). [ Explanation corrected after anonymous comment. ]
2 LICIT – C.I. (Channel Islands = Jersey etc) inside LIT (French for bed).
3 DEFENCELESSNESS – (fled scene senses)*
4 SAHARAN – HAS (keeps) reversed + ARAN (knitwear style).
6 FRONT-ROW FORWARD – FRONT (host) + ROW (argue) + FOR WAR (hawkish) + D(emocrat).
7 KILOMETRE – KIT (outfit) around LOME (West African port, capital of Togo) + RE (touching).
8 YONDER – (Rodney)*
9 T-BONES – B (type of blood) in TONES (veins).
15 CLOCK GOLF – cryptic definition.
17 EDGEHILL – EDGE (advantage) + H(andled) + ILL (poorly). The Battle of Edgehill was the first battle of the English Civil War, in 1642. Not too far from where I live, and I’ve been to the Castle Inn in the village, which overlooks the battlefield.
19 LEFTIE – if you took the odd letters of “wine”, “rice” or “fine”, you’d have LEFT IE.
20 AGA SAGA – AGA (feature of kitchen) + SAG (sink) + (dram)A.
21 OH DEAR – O(ld) + (heard)*.
24 NESTA – sounds like “nester” perhaps.

13 comments on “Saturday Times 25454 (20th April)”

  1. Commiserations, and welcome back Andy. I agree this was quite straightforward, though Tempe, assai, perhaps even aga sagas not necessarily all that well known.

    re 1ac, this is from Collins: (slang) no longer young ⇒ “she’s no chicken”

  2. 24:46 .. I didn’t find this quite so easy and really puzzled over a few, especially CLOCK GOLF – I’ve never heard of it and couldn’t really see how the clue worked. Still can’t, in fact.

    The rugby player and the football stadium also caused me some problems.

      1. We used to have a clock golf set that I played with my Dad in the garden. You have only one hole but place 12 different “tees” numbered 1-12 (in Roman numerals I seem to recall) around it (in theory in a circle) and then putt from each number in turn.
  3. Oh dear, I had no idea I was going to find myself quite so out of step on this one! It took me 109 minutes with resort to aids on three clues, making it probably my longest ever solve in recent years. I won’t embarrass myself further by raking over the ruins but I’m now wondering if I fell asleep whilst the clock was ticking, without realising it.

    Edited at 2013-04-27 05:09 pm (UTC)

  4. I think 1d is DO reversed + CH(urch), inside GILD (paint in glittering colour)
  5. I found this quite tough. 70 minutes to finish – though leftie was rather good…as was he whole puzzle.
  6. “Rag” is a charity event? “Aga” is a feature of kitchen? “Aga saga” is a phrase that means something? “Nesta” is “picked up for girl?”
    Maybe these are all Britishisms, but they mean nothing to me. I will Google them, but I have to say that I haven’t encountered so many obscure (to me) clues and answers in one of these puzzles in a while.
  7. OK – I have checked on Google and “aga” and “aga saga” are in Wikipedia, but I find no definition of “rag” as “charity event” and no girl’s name “Atsen” or “Nesta.”
  8. assembler of Russian dolls = nester which is “picked up” as (ie sounds like) Nesta

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