Saturday Times 25478 (18th May)

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 13 minutes exactly. We seem to be having a run of easier puzzles on Saturdays lately. With the number of double definitions in this one I was wondering whether Rufus had joined the Times! Quite a fun puzzle though, great surface readings at 11ac and 25ac, but 1ac gets my COD for originality.

I’ve made the page about how to keep your Crossword Club-only membership “unsticky” now, but it can still be found here, or in Memories / Times Crossword Club. Actually, I just worked out how to add it to the right-hand column, so it can stay visible permanently without taking up too much room.

Across
1 INPUT – reverse homophone, that’s a new one on me. Sounds like “twopenny” backwards.
4 HAMBURGER – double definition.
9 TRIBESMAN – (merits ban)*.
10 DITTO – DITTY (simple song) with a different last letter.
11 MARILYN MONROEMONROE (5th president of the US) after [ R(elations) inside (mainly)* ].
14 DISH – double definition.
15 SANDHOPPER – SHOPPER (one buying) around AND (with).
18 TRANSVERSE – last letters of definition, thus inside TRAVERSE (cross), &lit.
19 MEAN – double definition.
21 CLAUDE DEBUSSY – CE (church) around LAUDED (acclaimed) + S(infonia) inside BUSY (diligent).
24 ALIBI – LIB (party) inside (j)AI(l).
25 COVER GIRL – OVER (on) + RIG (outfit) reversed, all inside (under)CL(othes).
27 NIGHTFALL – NIGH (approaching) + TALL (unlikely) around F(ade).
28 NONET – ONE (I) inside NT (New Testament = books).

Down
1 INTIMIDATE – INTIMATE (friend) around ID (unconscious thought).
2 PSI – PS (one added to letter) + I (one more). Ψ – 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet.
3 TREBLE – treble definition! I’ve seen this one before, probably in the Guardian.
4 HUMAN RACE – HUM (smell) + (ran)* + ACE (excellent).
5 MANGO – MAN (piece) + GO (zest).
6 UNDERDOG – UNDERDO (cook too little) + G(rub).
7 GUTTER PRESS – cryptic definition.
8 ROOT – double definition.
12 RESEARCHING – (her case)* inside RING (call).
13 GRANNY FLAT – definition + cryptic definition.
16 DUST DEVIL – (duvet slid)*
17 ESSAYIST – S(on) + SAY (for example) + IS, all inside ET (alternate letters of meat).
20 OBERON – OBER (close to one month, i.e. October) + ON.
22 DACHA – A CHAD (a country) with the D for daughter moved up.
23 WAIN – WIN (success) around A.
26 INN – FINN (European) minus the first letter.

10 comments on “Saturday Times 25478 (18th May)”

  1. Saturday cryptics certainly have changed: today’s was my fourth in a row under 20′, although I misspelled one word. This one (i.e. 25478) was a pb. I realize now that I never got around to checking my answers, and only now notice that I’d never parsed INN (it could hardly be anything else) or 25 (ditto); so thanks,linxit, for the explanations. Liked 11ac, especially as the actress did have relations with a president, albeit not Monroe.
  2. 25 minutes, so an easy solve for me but I had problems explaining some of the clues and still don’t quite get them all. Like “essentially” meaning the middle two letters of “underclothes” at 25ac, apparently, yet in past clues “essentially” has signalled the first letter of a word.

    I was completely baffled by the wordplay at 1ac and none the wiser for the explanation given above until I thought “tup’nny” instead of “twopenny”.

    Edited at 2013-05-25 08:12 am (UTC)

  3. 41 minutes but irrelevant as I got 8 and 18 wrong. Not only does CL in 25 seem a bit of a stretch, but ‘jail no end in sight’ suggests JAI to me rather than AI’, which would seem to require ‘no beginning or end…’
  4. Part clued as ‘French Musician’. I wonder if the setter knew that when he died in 1918, Debussy wished to be described on his headstone as ‘Musicien Français’.
    Geoffrey
  5. I don’t normally time my Saturday solves, but in this case I did and it took 22 mins, post-lunch.

    I was under the impression that Roger Squires (Rufus in the Guardian) sets for The Times occasionally, and with the number of DDs it could well be one of his.

    I also enjoyed the originality of 1ac.

    1. I don’t think Roger Squires sets for the The Times any more. I’ll get spammed if I provide a link, but if you google “crossword who’s who” you’ll find a useful reference!
  6. One missing (Transverse) and one wrong (a guess at Phi for Psi at 2dn). FOI Finn. Treble was fun – singer, singer, singer indeed!
    Thanks for parsing Dacha, Andy – I didn’t understand that one. Daniel
  7. 18m but with a careless PHI. Grr. And I was so pleased with myself for figuring out 1ac…
  8. Something a little tougher would be nice, since perhaps as others I have more time to play with the puzzle on Saturdays. I managed to solve this one in about 25 minutes (DTV) with no mistakes according to this blog.

    Re ‘essentially’ as a ‘middle-letters-ind’, whilst one doesn’t like to make things harder for the compilers, I’m really not too sure. It does seem tough with the various eviscerations, drainings and disheartenings failing perhaps in hyper-accurately describing the part to be chucked away, but some seem to work more smoothly than others for me.

    Thanks indeed all.

    Chris.

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