Saturday Times 25580 (14th Sept)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
I’ll get to this sometime in the afternoon. I knew I should have done it last night when I had a bit of time!

Well, here it is, bit of a rush job I’m afraid. Solved in around 14 minutes on the train sometime during the week.

Across
1 BRIDGET – BRIDE (woman as wife) around G(ood) + T(ime).
5 HELICAL – HELL (very hot place) around I (one) + C(old) + A(rea).
9 HIP – double definition.
10 DOUBLE BLIND – L(earner) inside DOUBLE BIND (dilemma).
11 MORALITY – ORAL (exam) inside MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an American college) + Y(ear).
12 STRAIT – S(ingular) + TRAIT (characteristic).
15 SOUP – SO (very) + UP (high).
16 FLUID OUNCE – FLU (illness) + I (one) + DUNCE (ignorant man) aound O (nothing).
18 OVAL OFFICE – A = L (pound) + OFF (departing), inside O(ld) + VICE (deputy).
19 PSST – first letters of “Polishing Small Silver Tray”.
22 PRECIS – P(arking) + IS next to REC (playing field).
23 GET A LIFE – double definition.
25 PULP FICTION – PULP (material for paper) + FICTION (some literature). Well-known film by Quentin Tarantino.
27 IDA – sounds like “eider” (duck).
28 RETIREE – RE (on) + TIREE (Scottish island).
29 THERMAL – THE R.M.A. (Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst) + L(eft)

Down
1 BAHAMAS – BAAS (what sheep produce) around HAM (meat).
2 IMPORTUNATE – E(uropean) underneath IMPORT (drift) around TUNA (fish).
3 GADFLY – (Flag day)*, minus an A.
4 TRUE TO LIFE – TRUE (honest) + TO + LIE (tell stories) around F(emale).
5 HALE – sounds like “hail”.
6 LIBATION – LIBERATION (freedom) minus ER (king, e.g. Edward Rex).
7 CHI – C(aught) + HI (greeting).
8 LADETTE – AD (these days) inside LETTE(r) (character, virtually).
13 AGNOSTICISM – (miscast go in)*
14 BIOCHEMIST – O (no) + CHEMIS(e) (shortened undergarment) inside BIT (little).
17 TO DIE FOR – (of editor)*
18 ON PAPER – OP (work) around N(ew) + APER (copyist).
20 TOENAIL – ENA (woman) inside TOIL (labour).
21 PAWNEE – PAW (hand) + (k)NEE (part of leg, mius the first letter).
24 ACNE – hidden inside “Isaac Newton”.
26 LOT – double definition.

13 comments on “Saturday Times 25580 (14th Sept)”

  1. Now that Livejournal accepts postdated entries, the best time to do it is straight after solving it.. needless to say, I seldom manage to!
    1. I have occasionally used that facility, but usually I’m playing catch-up and rarely solve it on the Saturday.
  2. I did todays and actually completed it which good, im not as smart as most on this site! There is never a commentary on saturday crossword though, why is that? Maybe everybody is chasing that twenty quid…
    1. You’ll find the answer to that in the “About this blog” link above. We never comment on prize puzzles until after the closing date.
  3. Just under the hour for this one. Didn’t know either term involved at 10ac. Couldn’t find anything in the usual sources to support “offering” as a definition of LIBATION. Don’t really understand why we need “on the contrary” at 24ac.
  4. I thought libations WERE offerings (to the gods), in the form of wine poured out on to the ground. And I took the ‘on the contrary’ to indicate that it’s acne in Isaac Newton rather than the reverse. This is not the first time MIT has been referred to here as a college; it’s a university.

    Edited at 2013-09-22 04:24 am (UTC)

    1. Libation = Offering – indeed, and the Oxfords make this clear. Should have gone to Specsavers!
    2. I’m with you – though I think it prefers to be known as an Institute, as in: “Flim Flam, God Damn, Hurray for the Institute!” But definitely not a college.
  5. My note says I did this one in 19 mins and nothing else. I always make a note of something that stood out or annoyed me, so I can only assume that I found this puzzle to be a pretty vanilla offering.
  6. Can you please explain the double definition in 26 dn, where our clue was “The French department is to be kicked down”

    How do you get LOT defined by ‘is to be kicked down?’

    Or is there a typo in our clue? We had a typo in 7dn, Rupert’s TheOz had GETTING instead of GREETING in the clue, rendering it unsolveable.

    Beaten today, my ignorance of Scottish islands matched only by my ignorance of French departments. Trawling the alphabet got to RESERVE before RETIREE for the non-worker; guessed LAS for 26 dn as ‘the French.’

    Cheers,
    Rob, down under

    1. Rod,
      it’s knocked down, not kicked… a LOT is knocked down at an auction and is a French Dept.
      Re Greeting, we get the TheOz online version and no typos there.
      Harriet & Jeff

  7. Rob,
    (with apologies for the typo in your name above)
    We have now been able to check the TheOz online version we printed vs the content as published in TheOz newspaper. Most interesting…
    The online version is ok but the printed version contains both the typos above:
    7dn should be ‘greeting’, not ‘getting’ &
    26d should be ‘knocked’, not ‘kicked’.
    No wonder you had issues!

    Harriet & Jeff
    Also downunder – Syd.

    1. Thanks for that.
      In my experience typos are very rare in the Oz – don’t actually remember one before.

      One thing that has been seen is improved clues. MINESWEEPER in 24463 had a logical error in the original clue, acknowledged by the setter.
      5 weeks later the clue had been fixed when published here. Bouquets for Rupert (a rarity).

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