Saturday Times 25490 (1st June)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 13:43 (last week nearly all my times were between 13-14 minutes, apart from Friday’s which was 17). Enjoyable enough puzzle (apart from the groanworthy 21dn), continuing the run of fairly easy Saturday puzzles. I’ve just had confirmed that my Crossword Club subscription will run until the end of June 2014, so I’ve got plenty of time to decide whether or not to continue afterwards.

Across
1 LAPDOG – GOAL (ambition) reversed around PD (paid).
5 MASSACRE – A inside (scream’s)*.
9 MARMOSET – MO (instant) around ARM (weapon) + SET (collection).
10 ADRIFT – AD (commercial) + RIFT (break).
11 BUSIER – B(ritish) + USER (employer) around I (one).
12 DEPICTER – DETER (put off) around PIC (his work?).
14 EXPERIMENTAL – EXPER(t) (boffin briefly) + I (one) + MENTAL (mad).
17 COLLABORATOR – COLD (unheated) + LABORATORY (work base, in the context of the previous clue), both missing the last letter.
20 HIPSTERS – (PE shirts)*
22 ATTEND – A + T(emperature) + TEND (nurse).
23 FLOWER – double definition, in crossword jargon.
25 ENORMITY – OR (soldiers) inside ENMITY (hostile situation).
26 INTEREST – RE (about) inside IN (during), TEST (examination).
27 EUSTON – NOT SURE (unsafe) reversed, minus the R (last letter of stationmaster).

Down
2 ABACUS – A + CAB (taxi) reversed + US
3 DEMOISELLES – DEMO (protest), then EL (the Spanish) inside ISLES (the Balearics?)
4 GASTROPUB – (a grub spot)*
5 MATADOR – MA (old woman) + [ ROD (stick) + AT (towards), reversed ].
6 SWAMP – SWAM (crawled perhaps) + P (soft).
7 AIR – HAIR minus the first letter.
8 RIFLEMAN – (inflamer)*
13 CONTRETEMPS – T(o)R(i)E(s) between CON (party) + TEMPS (workers).
15 METHADONE – MET (satisfied) + HAD ONE (having taken single).
16 BOUILLON – ILL (laid up) after BOU(t) (brief attack of sickness) + ON (regularly consuming).
18 RASHEST – SHES (females) inside RAT (desert).
19 ONE-TWO – O (ball) + NET (goal) + WO (without).
21 EERIE – sounds like “eary” .
24 WOE – hidden inside “two engineers”.

8 comments on “Saturday Times 25490 (1st June)”

  1. I did like the unusual wordplay for COLLABORATOR. Wasn’t entirely sure of BOUILLON as I’d only encountered it in the context of stock cubes rather than a dish in its own right. By glossing over the wordplay, I managed to spell CONTRETEMPS with an A instead of the first E, a (regrettably frequent) error that I mirrored this week by putting in an answer with an E instead of an A.
  2. Well, I couldn’t think of much to say about this crossword, which is a compliment; in other words, it is well up to The Times usual high standard.
    But never mind that – how is it Andy that you and others have Crossword Club access until 2014?! Mine runs out, it appears, in December.. why, I have no idea. What’s more, they have not only sent me an email to tell me how I should be pleased about this, they have also taken the trouble to write me a snailmail letter which says precisely the same thing, word for word.. it’s sweet of them to think I might not be able to read my emails but they really haven’t quite grasped the digital message yet, have they?
    Wonder what it cost..
    1. I never could understand how renewals worked at the CC as they used to take the money (often twice) 6 months before my sub was due to expire so at a certain times of the year I had 18 months subscription outstanding. Eventually I assumed they needed my money early to help their cash-flow problems. On one occasion, my credit card details had expired and they were unable to take the new sub, so they locked me out of the club on the grounds of a refused payment despite my existing sub still having 6 months to run. All this was done in the name of “maintaining unbroken access to the club” or some such jargon.

      Edited at 2013-06-08 05:54 pm (UTC)

  3. I didn’t time this but I think it was between 35-40 mins, mostly because I was trying to think of a drug for 16dn for what seemed like ages, until BOUILLON finally came to mind after I went back to the wordplay, although I also didn’t see where ‘on’ came from. Now that I’ve seen it was ‘regularly consuming’ rather than just ‘regularly’ it should have been obvious. Thanks for the explanation Andy.

    As an aside, I smile whenever I see bouillon because of George Clooney’s pronunciation of bullion in Three Kings.

  4. 43 minutes. Didn’t understand how ON was clued at 16dn – should have thought of that!
  5. DNF; I never got BOUILLON (I also forgot to type in the O of WOE). Somehow I got ‘coli(c)’ into my head and it kept everything else out.
    My clubsub has been renewed regularly at the end of December, so I figured I was good for this year; but like many others, I was told that in fact my free web pack sub goes through June 2014. Go figure. (They also sent me an e-mail thanking me for subscribing to the Web Pack, although I’ve done nothing but receive their various e-mails.)
  6. Ended after 81 minutes with depicter of all things, as I was working around defer for put off. I thought this was a very good puzzle, and was yet another who is in debt to Andy for the parsing of ‘on’.

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