Saturday Times 25520 (7th July)

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
22:46 for this one, another tired solve on the Monday morning train (when will I learn that I’m no good on Mondays). Anyway, once again I’m working today and have been trying to put this together in between rebuilding servers and fixing code. Ho hum. Sorry it’s so late, but the cricket’s on as well y’know!

Across
1 DEBORAH – ROBED (dressed for court) reversed + AH (sympathetic expression). Worked out from checking letters and wordplay, but she was a biblical judge, the only female one.
5 BUCKLER – cryptic definition. I think I first came across this word playing Nethack. I assumed it was some sort of armour.
9 SMUGGLING – L (pounds) inside S(mall) MUGGING (robbery).
10 RUN-IN – double definition.
11 AIDAN – AIDA (opera) + N(orth). Irish monk who lived on Lindisfarne and died in 651AD.
12 ON THIN ICE – (nicotine)* around H(ospital).
13 ROYAL AIR FORCE – FAR (a long way) reversed makes the abbreviation of the answer.
17 INDUCTION COIL – something to do with electrickery, and INDUCTION is a concept in mathematical logic, twisted into a COIL.
21 MIDSUMMER – MM is the middle of suMMer, and 2000 in Roman numerals, but I thought traditionally midsummer day is on the 21st.
24 BAGEL – EG AB (sailor) reversed + L(ake).
25 TROUT – R (10ac is RUN-IN) inside TOUT (profiteer). I spent far too long parsing that as R inside a fish to get a profiteer.
26 VINGT-ET-UN – French for 21, the card game I’d call pontoon.
27 RESERVE – double definition.
28 EARLDOM – EARL(y) (almost premature) + first letters of “mate on dangerous” reversed.

Down
1 DISMAY – DIS-MAY, i.e. DIS (prefix indicating a removal) + MAY (blossom).
2 BLUNDERED – UNDER (into unconsciousness) inside BLED (lost fluid).
3 REGENCY – RE (Royal Engineers, corps) + (a)GENCY (heading off secretarial firm).
4 HOI POLLOI – H(enry) + OI,OI (calls for attention) around POLL (ballot). Greek for “the masses”, no idea what Shakespeare’s general’s got to do with it.
5 BIGOT – BIG (significant) + OT (part of Bible).
6 CARDIFF – CARD (ticket) + IF (provided) + F(ree).
7 LUNGI – LUNG (one doing much like gill, i.e. breathing) + I (one). More like a loincloth than a skirt I think.
8 RENDERED – (deer)* inside REND (distress).
14 IGNORANCE – (region can)*
15 RELEGATED – LEGATE (papal representative) “in RED” (dressed as cardinal?)
16 PIA MATER – (a primate)*. The vascular membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord, according to Chambers.
18 CHUNTER – C(aught) + HUNTER (predator).
19 ORBITER – OR (gold) + BITER (tooth perhaps).
20 PLENUM – EN (little space, printing term) inside PLUM (particularly attractive).
22 DROSS – hidden reversed inside “waitress ordered”
23 MOVIE – MO (doctor) + VIE (struggle).

7 comments on “Saturday Times 25520 (7th July)”

  1. 17.11 for me. I too thought MIDSUMMER was the 21st June. Deborah the judge has turned up in several crosswords lately.
  2. I thought perhaps a slightly forced ‘Shakespeare’s general (public)’.
  3. No clue about Shakespeare either.. the word is taken directly from the Greek and appears to postdate Shakespeare.
  4. Paul in London has it: ‘the general’ in Shakespeare refers to the masses, hence the hoi polloi. Specifically, Hamlet refers to a play that was ‘caviare to the general’, i.e. above most folks’ heads.
  5. Several unknown or forgotten words or references here so I was unable to complete it without resort to aids. No solving time as I fell asleep when I got stuck.
  6. June 21st is the summer solstice, while Midsummer Day is the 24th (legally, an English quarter day).
    As the solstice is sometimes reckoned as the beginning of summer, that gives the joke that summer here lasts only a week. (I think the Met Office reckons that summer consists of the months June, July and August.)
  7. How is gamble = vingt-et-un? Surely the latter is a card game, a gambling game yes but not a gamble? And how is dismay = agitate? They mean quite different things, I should have thought.

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