Saturday Times 25622 (2nd Nov)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
9:38, so one of the easiest Saturday puzzles for a while, but also very enjoyable. Good surfaces throughout, witty definitions, precise wordplay on a couple of the trickier words – what’s not to like! Well, I liked it anyway, and I usually prefer them tougher.

Across
1 ROAD TEST – swap initial letters of TOAD and REST. Unusually, no mention of Rev. Spooner, probably because the original isn’t an actual phrase.
5 GASBAG – GAG (joke) around AS (when) + B(ishop).
8 MELANOCYTE – (once tamely)*
9 ETCH – H(eroin) after ETC (and so forth).
10 NEVER-NEVER LAND – LAND (succeed), after NEVER (not once), twice.
11 ANARCHY – remove the first letters from BAN, MARCH, BY.
13 ELEGIAC – (agile)* inside EC (the City).
15 THESEUS – HE (male) + SUES (begs) reversed, all after T(ime). Flavour of the month, Theseus – he’s cropped up as an answer in 3 or 4 cryptics in the last week or so.
18 FACETED – ACE (expert) inside FT ED (newspaper boss).
21 RHODE ISLAND RED – cryptic definition.
22 AJAR – RAJA (king) reversed.
23 ANTIFREEZE – Z (unknown) inside (Tenerife)*.
24 INDEED – I (setter) + D(ied) inside NEED (poverty).
25 PIG LATIN – PIG (Tamworth, perhaps) + LATIN (passionate, e.g. temperament). Icenay luecay!

Down
1 RUMANIA – RU (rugby) + MANIA (obsession). Just an old spelling of Romania, rather than an old country. I’ve also seen it as Roumania in old books.
2 ALLEVIATE – ALL (everything) + (d)EVIATE(d) (strayed, minus first and last letters).
3 TANTRIC – hidden in “repentant Richelieu”.
4 SECRECY – SE(clusion) + CRECY (battle in 1346 between England and France).
5 GUERRILLA – (irregula, l)*
6 SHEBANG – SHE (woman) + BANG (sock). e.g. the whole shebang. However, in my job a shebang is the symbols “#!” at the start of a script, followed by a filename, telling the shell which interpreter to use.
7 ARCADIA – ref. the phrase “Et in Arcadia ego” (And I too in Arcadia), tomb inscription often depicted in classical paintings, notably by Nicolas Poussin in 1655 (according to my ODQ, although Wikipedia puts it in the late 1630’s). Whatever.
12 HOUSEMAID – (am hideous)*
14 INTERMENT – ERM (hesitation) inside INTENT (plan).
16 HARIJAN – HAIR (mop) without the I + 1 JAN (public holiday). One of the caste of untouchables, the name proposed by Gandhi according to Chambers.
17 SCOURGE – S(econd) + COUR(a)GE.
18 FELLINI – FELL IN (went overboard) + I (one). Federico Fellini (1920-93), Italian film director best known (to me at least) for La Dolce Vita.
19 CENTRAL – as OP (work) is to peOPle.
20 DUDGEON – DUD (bounced cheque) + GEO + N(orth).

10 comments on “Saturday Times 25622 (2nd Nov)”

  1. Yes, a very enjoyable 30 minute solve for me with only 8ac unknown. Perhaps the Saturday editor was giving us breathing space before this week’s rather strange offering.
  2. I liked it too. Didn’t know Melanocyte or Harijan, but they fell into place easily. Also couldn’t parse Arcadia. What a span this week: my GK now includes both Pip Emma and Et in Arcadia Ego.
  3. 10:33 – I didn’t know 8a either and agree with Jackkt about this week’s offering.
  4. 12 mins, and I agree with Andy’s comment that it was fun for an “easier” puzzle, although I hadn’t come across MELANOCYTE and HARIJAN either.

    I also echo the allusions to today’s puzzle having just finished it.

  5. Strange. I found this decidedly tricky (31:35) but breezed through this week’s with no problems in about half that time. Just goes to show something or other.
  6. Agreed this was fairly easy, coming in at 35 minutes, with my only query being at 21. Apart from the neat use of “layer”, is it just that Rhode Island Reds are supposed to be a rusty colour? Looking at Google Images, they seem to come in every shade from buff to black.
    Today’s offering seemed fairly normal, taking me just under my target of one hour, except for the unusual length of the clues, meaning that it had to be shrunk to 85% before printing out on a single sheet.

    Edited at 2013-11-09 03:18 pm (UTC)

  7. Good puzzle where, for me, the stand out was the &lit at 5dn.
    Note to Linxit: last Saturday was the 2nd; currently 3rd in the blog title.
  8. So definitely an easy Saturday, unlike this week’s, where I’ve already stopped timing myself. But as linxit says, well-constructed and fun. I must have come across HARIJAN at some time, but it definitely didn’t leap to mind, and I put in the first A mainly because it seemed more likely than the other vowels; only got the ‘refused to mop’ post hoc. Now I’d give 16d my COD, over 19d.

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