Saturday Times 25634 (16th Nov)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
A mini cricket theme in some of the clues and solutions of this one, appropriately as the first test in Brisbane is under way now. Solving time was about 18 minutes, on the train on the way home Tuesday evening if I remember correctly. Two of the 15-letter ones (9ac and 2dn) went straight in but it took me a bit longer to get the other two. LOI was BONSAI, COD to WHIMSICAL.

Across
1 WIDE AWAKE – WIDE (poor delivery, cricket) + AWAKE (definitely not out). Unlike the England batsmen so far!
6 VISOR – VISITOR (guest) with IT removed.
9 NUMBER-CRUNCHING – double definition, one cryptic.
10 HEPTAD – (death, p)*, the P from passion.
11 REFORMER – R.E. (couse on religion) + FORMER (old). Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a leader of the Protestant Reformation.
13 WHOLEGRAIN – W(ith) + HOLE (difficulty) + GRAN (old woman) around I (one).
14 INCA – IN CA(t). I don’t normally think of Inca as a language, but Chambers confirms it.
16 IFFY – JIFFY (moment), minus the first letter.
17 ROYAL ASCOT – ROYAL (prince perhaps) + A SCOT (not an Englishman).
19 SHOWROOM – SHOW (play) + ROOM (area).
20 BONSAI – BONES (doctor), minus the E for European, + A1 (excellent).
23 CARDINAL VIRTUES – (arrived lunatics)*. I knew about Cardinal Sins, didn’t know there was also a list of cardinal virtues – prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude.
24 LEERY – L(ine) + EERY (sounds like eerie, weird).
25 ALLOTMENT – double definition.

Down
1 WINCH – WINCHESTER is the cathedral half-destroyed.
2 DAMP-PROOF COURSE – DAM (mother) + PRO (in favour of) around P (parking) + COURSE (naturally, presumably as a contraction of “of course”).
3 AVERAGES – AVE (hail) + RAGES (storms). Most of the England team’s are going down, but maybe Cook and Pietersen will both get double centuries tomorrow and pull off a historic victory.
4 ARCO – ARC (part of a circle) + O (a whole circle). A musical direction meaning “with the bow”, to mark the end of a pizzicato section.
5 ECUMENICAL – (I uncle came)*.
6 VICTOR – VIC (Old theatre) + ROT (rubbish) reversed.
7 SWIMMING COSTUME – SWIMMING could be an anagram indicator for COSTUME to make “some cut”.
8 REGARDANT – REGARD (admiration) + ANTI (opponent) minus the I. Heraldic term meaning “looking backward”.
12 TRIO SONATA – (Sinatra too)*.
13 WHIMSICAL – WHIP (cat, without its tail making it a Manx) + MUSICAL (stage show) minus the U (not acceptable). Quite a whimsical clue – it could almost be argued that it’s an &lit!
15 TABOURET – TA (cheers) + RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) inside BOUT (boxing match). Didn’t know the word but easy enough to get from the cryptic.
18 BRAINY – RAIN (sort of weather) inside BY (through).
21 INSET – IN SET (where teachers spend the day, I suppose). [ Edit: as jackkt points out, it’s actually referring to a day of IN-Service Education and Training. ]
22 OVAL – OVA (eggs) + L(eft). A London cricket ground, home of Surrey CCC and scene of the final home Ashes test in August (an almost certain victory denied by the umpires, but at least we won the series 3-0).

7 comments on “Saturday Times 25634 (16th Nov)”

  1. At 21dn the reference is to IN-S(ervice) E(ducation) and T(raining).

    70 minutes for me, so no doddle this one.

    Edited at 2013-11-23 01:55 pm (UTC)

  2. I think you have overlooked “of” in the answer. Thus the whole of “of course” is there to represent “naturally”.
    Regards,
    Adrian Cobb
  3. Another endless Saturday puzzle for me. DNK the in-service meaning of INSET; nor did I know that the 7 deadly sins were also known as cardinal sins. And I never did figure out WHIMSICAL, having forgottten about that other cat. I thought 9ac was rather weak, but I liked 20ac and 23ac.
  4. 29 mins and I didn’t find it easy.

    INCA was my LOI after I got REGARDANT, and I also hadn’t thought of Inca as a language. I thought the clue for BONSAI was excellent. I was pretty sure INSET was a DD but I entered it without knowing what one of them was, and TABOURET went in from the wordplay.

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