Saturday Times 25610 (19th Oct) – Championship day breakfast treat

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solved in about 15 minutes on the train on the way down to London for the Times Crossword Championships last Saturday. Unlike some former years, this wasn’t a beast that wouldn’t have been out of place in the final, but it was tricky in places and I was quite pleased to solve it that quickly. It set me up rather nicely in fact, as I qualified for the final for the first time, coming 8th in Preliminary A.

Full results are now available on the Times Crossword Club website (no login required), so I’ve put up a link to them on the right-hand border. Peter tells me that the puzzles from the final will also be available on the Club site soon. They were in the paper on Monday, but so far they’ve only put up a pdf of the first one, and that only in the online edition of the paper rather than the Crossword Club itself.

Across
1 LIMIT – LIM(e) + IT (drinks served with gin, one missing the last letter).
4 PAPERBACK – PACK (stuff) around [ A + B(ritish) + REP (theatre), all reversed ].
9 BAGATELLE – BAG (interest) + A + TELLE(r) (reporter mostly).
10 PRONE – “PR ONE” (individual responsible for company’s image).
11 UNIMAGINATIVE – U(niversity) + [ I’M AGIN (I don’t accept) inside NATIVE (local) ].
14 CAFF – hidden in “scaffolding”.
15 MADAGASCAN – MAG (publication) around AD(vertisement) + A + SCAN (picture).
18 MEASUREDLY – MY (writer’s) around (US leader)*.
19 ANTI – alternate letters of “cannot win”.
21 TREASURE CHEST – SURE (safe) inside REACH (stretch of water), all inside TEST (investigation). A Russian doll clue!
24 AIOLI – LOI(n) (joint of meat, cut) inside A1 (excellent).
25 TAIWANESE – TA (army) + WANES (declines) inside (K)IE(v).
27 LASHED OUT – LOUT (yob) around A SHED (a building).
28 KEMPT – M(ale) inside KEPT (looked after).

Down
1 LABOUR CAMP – cryptic definition.
2 MUG – GUM (stick) reversed.
3 TITIAN – IT,IT (appeals) reversed + A + (millio)N
4 PALPITATE – PATE (loaf, i.e. head) around IT, next to PAL (friend).
5 PIETA – PI, ETA (Greek characters).
6 REPRISAL – PRIS(on) (jail, minus on) inside REAL (serious).
7 ADOLESCENCE – (deos cancel)* + (declin)E.
8 KNEW – (Steinbec)K + NEW (novel).
12 INFRACTIONS – IN + FRACTIONS (bits).
13 INDICTMENT – I’M around CT, all inside INDENT (order). New definition of indent for me – Chambers has “an order for goods (especially from abroad)”.
16 ALLERGIST – (lets a girl)*
17 YULETIDE – sounds like “yew’ll” + [(die)* after T(ime)].
20 ACK-ACK – a pair of ‘ACKs.
22 SET-TO – SET (TV) + first letters of turned on.
23 FAIL – F(ollowing) + AIL (trouble).
26 ELM – MOLE (spy), without the O and reversed.

7 comments on “Saturday Times 25610 (19th Oct) – Championship day breakfast treat”

  1. I too solved this on the train to London but for some reason didn’t write a time on the piece of paper – I would imagine about 10 – 15 mins. Like you, I was much relieved to find it wasn’t a beast but quite confidence building.
  2. 16 mins for this one and it should have been quicker but I was held up at the end by 13dn and 28ac. I finally realised I had entered a stupid “Madagascar” at 15ac because I hadn’t read the clue properly, changed it to the correct answer, entered INDICTMENT from the definition (thanks for parsing it Andy), and KEMPT was my LOI. I must have a blind spot as far as KEMPT is concerned because it appeared somewhere else this week and I was slow getting it then as well.
  3. 32″ for all bar 4 & 18 ac and 17 dn. Went one better than Andy B and shoved ‘periodical’ in at 15ac at first. That’s why I was doing this in a box in HK and not on a train to London, I suppose…Thought 11ac was rather good.

  4. 22:07 … enjoyable stuff. Last in KNEW, which was also my favourite (I think… I really should scribble a few notes at the time).
  5. Struggled a bit with this but got there without aids eventually. Was unable to explain wordplay in three. That obscure meaning of INDENT accounted for one problem.
  7. Bit late to this as I went on holiday pretty much straight after the Championships, but congratulations on your first final appearance, Andy.

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