Saturday Times 25592 (28th Sept)

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time about 13 mins, so not a hard one last week. I actually only got round to solving it yesterday afternoon, so it’s still fresh in the memory for a change. However, I’m working today so will have to try and get the blog done as and when I can. I thought I was just going to be on call but it’s turned out to be a lot more hands-on. It turned out to be full-on, with a production incident to deal with too, so I had no time yesterday at all. Luckily I got up early this morning so here it is, only a day late!

Across
1 THUMBS UP – cryptic definition.
9 ABOVE ALL – OVE(r) (almost dead) inside A BALL (a dance) – a bit bemused by the definition though, which means more like “after all” than “above all”.
10 ABEL – ABE (US President) + (thral)L.
11 TENNIS RACKET – TEN (number) + SIN (evil) reversed + RACKET (criminal activity).
13 FIANCE – FINANCE (money matters) minus an N.
14 NOMINATE – NO (limited, i.e. abbreviated, number) + MATE (wife maybe) around IN (home).
15 STREWTH – STREW (broadcast) + last letters of (violen)T, (skirmis)H. One of my dad’s favourite expletives, especially when he was drunk.
16 SPRINGY – SPY (agent) around RING (criminal gang).
20 RAINFALL – “R.A. IN FALL”. My first attempt at this was RAINDROP, but 21dn put me right.
22 LEEWAY – EEL reversed (twisting fish) + YAW reversed (turn over).
23 BASS CLARINET – (bans articles)*
25 IVAN – DIVAN (couch) minus the first letter.
26 NEGATIVE – E.G. (say) inside NATIVE (resident).
27 YOKELISH – L(earner) inside YOKE (burden) + IS + H(ard). When I entered my solution online, the final letter of this was marked incorrect, although the published solution agrees with the obviously correct answer. As there are over 100 correct entries according to the Crossword Club stats, this must have changed during the week. Weird.

Down
2 HEBRAIST – (Is a scholar, Beth)*, sort of &lit, as Beth (ב) is a Hebrew letter B.
3 MILTON KEYNES – (men in style OK)*.
4 SUNNIEST – SUNNI (Muslim) + EST (Parisian is).
5 PATIENT – PATENT (open) around I (one).
6 POGROM – GO (attempt) reversed inside PROM (concert).
7 PARK – P(ressure) + ARK (rescue vessel). Mungo Park (1771-1806) was an explorer of Africa.
8 FLATTERY – FRY (youngsters) around LATTE (coffee).
12 CONFIDENTIAL – (notice if land)*
15 SARABAND – ARAB (Saudi) inside SAND (his natural environment).
17 POLO-NECK – LONE (single) inside POCK (blemish).
18 GLAD RAGS – GAGS (jokes) around LAD (boy) + R (rex, king). Ref. The Emperor’s New Clothes (didn’t we have this last week too?). Before anyone shouts, the version in the film was called The King’s New Clothes. I have one gripe about the clue though – shouldn’t the last word be “these” rather than “this”?
19 BLARNEY – L (fifty) in BARNEY (quarrel).
21 AU LAIT – sounds like “Olé”.
24 SAGE – STAGE (theatre) minus the T (there’s no time).

8 comments on “Saturday Times 25592 (28th Sept)”

  1. 17 mins for the third straight prize puzzle that was on the easy side. After yesterday I won’t be commenting about a fourth this time next week ……..

    I didn’t see the anagram fodder for HEBRAIST so thanks for that Andy. I also agree with your this/these comment re: the clue for GLAD RAGS, although I confess I don’t remember thinking about it at the time. NEGATIVE was my LOI after I saw SAGE.

  2. 12:29 for a nice easy Saturday puzzle. Like Andy, I won’t be commenting in a similar fashion about yesterday’s puzzle!!
  3. 45 minutes steady work-out for me.

    I don’t fully understand the high score at 1ac. Is it just an example of something that might elicit the gesture or is there something more specific? And still can’t find YAW meaning “turn over”

    I also noted a query, “these” for “this” at 22ac.

    1. 1ac, that was my assumption too. 22ac was the LEEWAY clue, but YAW just means “turn”, with over as the reversal indicator.
      1. Thanks Andy. YAW meaning ‘turn’ seems new to me but no doubt it’s yet another instance of my failing brain. I gather now that it often refers to shipping, sailing etc and it sounds to me like a word I would have met in ‘Moby Dick’ or ‘Treasure Island’. It might go well with a cod West Country accent – “A-harr, Jim lad!”

        Edited at 2013-10-06 04:33 pm (UTC)

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