Saturday Times 25514 (29th June)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Sorry I’m late with this – I’m actually working today so I had to squeeze it in when I could around supporting some application developers, who needed a lot more support than I’d anticipated! Anyway, solved in 16:03 on the train on Monday morning. Nothing particularly difficult although there were some tortuous wordplays to unravel (I’m thinking of 24ac, 1dn and 9dn particularly).

Across
1 CUBIT – CU (copper) + BIT (piece). Definition not strictly true, as it’s defined as the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.
4 SAGACITY – SAGA CITY, whimsical definition for where the characters from John Galsworthy’s Forsyte Saga may have lived.
8 WEAK AT THE KNEES – i.e. suffering from prepatellar bursitis.
10 RESISTANT – (train sets)*
11 OSTIA – AIT (island) reversed, next to OS (Ordnance Survey, mapmakers). An old Roman town, now a suburb of Rome itself.
12 LAWYER – hidden reversed inside “Surrey walkers”
14 MISPRINT – I next to M(anuscript) + SPRINT (dash).
17 NIGHTCAP – double definition.
18 LOOSED – (poodle’s)* without the first letter.
20 SENOR – SR (sister) around ONE (a certain) reversed.
22 IN THE SWIM – double definition.
24 STAGE DIRECTION – SECTION (part) around [ T(ime) + AGED (old) IR (Irish) ].
25 TENDENCY – TEN (small number) + C(raz)Y around END (purpose).
26 LOTTO – LOO (ladies possibly) around TT (teetotal, dry).

Down
1 COWARDLINESS – before WAR (battle), C.O. (commander), then D.S. (drill sergeant presumably) around LINES (ranks).
2 BEATS – B(ritish) + EATS (nosh).
3 TEAR SHEET – TE (note) + (ash tree)*
4 SATRAP – PART (role) + AS, all reversed.
5 GREAT TIT – (I target)* + (shoo)T.
6 CANTO – PANTO (Christmas entertainment) with a different first letter.
7 THEATRICS – THE, A (articles) + TRICS (sounds like “tricks”, special effects).
9 SANTO DOMINGO – (man’s)* + IN (during) + GO (journey), around TO-DO (trouble).
13 WAGONETTE – WATT (engineer) around GONE (departed), + E (oriental).
15 PROVENCAL – PROVE (test) + NC (National Curriculum) + AL(l) (almost everyone).
16 BASILDON – BASIL, DON. A town in Essex.
19 STORMY – M(eteorologist) inside STORY (report).
21 RIGID – RIG (doctor) + ID (something which will identify).
23 WRIST – S(on) inside WRIT (court order).

5 comments on “Saturday Times 25514 (29th June)”

  1. Enjoyable although it only took me just under 8 minutes to solve. Agree with jackkt about the NIGHTCAP, it has gone far beyond being an ‘old friend’ let alone a ‘chestnut’.
  2. An enjoyable puzzle that took me 40 minutes but I had one wrong, the one I couldn’t explain, because I had put SANTA DOMINGO based on “ado” as the trouble element. Also I had problems bringing BASILDON to mind as the Essex town. It would be nice if we could put the NIGHTCAP double definition out to grass once and for all.
  3. 16d was my LOI; I’d fortunately heard of the place, though not having any idea of where it was, but the checkers finally did their job. It took me a great deal more time to parse 9d than to get it. COD to 15d.
  4. 25ac must be tendency, not militant. Never heard of Basildon, guessed Gavindon.
    1. Haha, you got me there! Strange nobody else noticed that. Fixed now.

      If there was an Essex town called Gavindon you’d have a strong case.

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