Saturday Times 25628 (9th Nov)

Solving time 15:38, so about average difficulty but a very enjoyable puzzle with good surface readings thoughout and some cracking definitions, e.g. “number one fan” for EGOTIST, “one up in good time” for EARLY BIRD, “go through mood changes” for CONJUGATE. A bit of a Marmite puzzle looking at the comments on the Forum, but I love Marmite anyway.

Across
1 KNEEPAD – KNEAD (massage) around PE (exercise) reversed.
5 AGHAST – hidden in “scallywag has turned”
8 SNOWY OWLS – SOW (pig) + YOWLS (squeals), around N (an unspecified number of).
9 V-NECK – alternate letters of “event, etc, OK“.
11 AMISH – HAMISH (Scotsman), without the first H.
12 BOCCACCIO – BIO (life-story) around O(ld), and A (article) in a series of Cs (chapters).
13 DUTCHMAN – DUN (press to pay) around (match)*.
15 BARTOK – BART (Lionel Bart, writer of musicals) + OK (pass), to get Bela BARTOK, the Hungarian composer.
17 AILING – A1 (excellent) + LING(o) (tongue that’s been chopped).
19 TAX HAVEN – TAX (sounds like “tacks”, courses) + HAVE N(o) (almost all lack).
22 EARLY BIRD – (library)* inside ED (journalist).
23 SCOFF – S(mall) + COFFEE (drink) without the E’s (no drugs).
24 PINKO – KO (put out), next to NIP (biting attack) reversed.
25 CONJUGATE – CON (criminal) + JUG (prison) + ATE (worried).
26 CONKER – sounds like “conquer”, which can mean “best” or “worst” (see Wednesday’s puzzle).
27 REDDEST – RED(i)D (redecorated without I (one), + EST (time in New York, Eastern Standard Time, five hours behind GMT).

Down
1 KISS AND MAKE UP – KIND (type) around S,S (sons) + AND (with a) + MAKE-UP (slap).
2 EGOTIST – (to get)* around I’S (one’s).
3 PSYCH – first letters of “Perhaps Someone You Can’t Have”.
4 DOWNBEAT – D(ignitary) + OWN (to have) + BE AT (to attend).
5 ALSACE – ALS(o) (cut too) + ACE (fine).
6 HAVE A BASH – HAVE (be constrained to) + ABASH (make shame-faced).
7 STEP CUT – S(pades) + (put etc)*. Cut in step-like facets, e.g. these. New term for me, but easy to get from the wordplay.
10 KNOCK-ON EFFECT – KNOCK (criticise) + ONE (person) + FF (very loudly) + ECT (electroconvulsive therapy, shocking treatment).
14 HONKY-TONK – HONK (sound of horn) + Y (unknown) + TONK (hit).
16 PARDONER – double definition, the second a cryptic reference to Chaucer – The Pardoner’s Tale, one of the Canterbury Tales.
18 LORENZO – LORE (learning) + NO (Japanese drama) around Z (character at the end).
20 VIOLATE – VIOL (intrument of long ago) + A + T(erribl)E.
21 KIT CAR – (a trick)*.
23 SQUAD – S(cotland) + QUAD (yard).

11 comments on “Saturday Times 25628 (9th Nov)”

  1. 32 mins for me, and I found this a strange puzzle. I raced through most of it but I was held up badly at the end by four clues. One of them was, inexplicably, TAX HAVEN, and the others were ALSACE, REDDEST and my LOI, PINKO.
  2. It’s another pangram.

    Was unsure of 26 as I was unable to parse it last weekend. Wish I’d looked again before coming here today as we had a best/worst clue during the week so I might have spotted it.

    Good puzzle but a tricky one.

  3. I breezed through this in just under 16m, so clearly I was very much on the wavelength. Unlike this week.
    I was a bit puzzled by 6dn. I think you have to read “have” as “be constrained”, but it seems a bit odd somehow.
  4. Enjoyed this for the varied vocab. LOI PINKO, and COD to 1D as that meaning of slap doesn’t come up very often.
  5. DNF. I could find no rationale for ALSACE and REDDEST, so thanks linxit. Did not finish last Sundays ST either (one short, 3 letters out of 5 in) so better times ahead I hope!

    Edited at 2013-11-16 05:45 pm (UTC)

  6. In my Forum comment last weekend I said there were 6 clues I could not parse. Thank you, linxit, for snowy owls, dutchman, conker, reddest, Alsace and Lorenzo. Now we wait for the TftT Enigma machine to decrypt Dean Mayer’s Sunday puzzle. Solving time for this one was 1hr 44mins and some seconds.
  7. Like others, a tale of two puzzles: the first 2/3 went right in, then it got tough. Plus, I needed Andy’s parsing for some of the ones I had been able to write in. 26a and 5d in particular.

    On a different subject: I am in NY this week, where I learned (at the cost of the cover price) that the NY Post no longer publishes the Times crossword. Anyone have an idea as to whether there is more to that than just the cryptic not being all that attractive to a US audience?

  8. Took forever, as Saturdays often do for me, LOI PINKO. Fortunately, CONKER had shown up recently to jog my memory. Parsed ALSACE only long after the fact. I supposed that the HAVE in 6 is the ‘have’ in ‘have to’, which still sounded a bit forced; but I had the checkers. A tough but enjoyable puzzle.
  9. That clue is not a double definition, strictly speaking, but a cryptic definition. Otherwise the “one” would have to do double duty for both definitions. Someone on the forum was complaining about this initially
  10. Must make notes on timings. Can’t remember, coming back to it after a week, but do remember a hugely enjoyable and varied solve! Technically did not finish, as couldn’t parse REDDEST – “elementary” seeing the commentary. Doh! Liked the serendipity of Boccaccio and Chaucer in one crossword, along with Lorenzo (the Magnificent?).

    CONJUGATE my clue of the day. Remembered old schoolboy joke about an inattentive girl pupil in the Latin class – when asked to conjugate, she declined …

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