Saturday Times 25705 (8th Feb)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 22:15, so on the tricky side for me. A bit late posting today as I was up half the night, and also out earlier sweeping tiles from the street which had still been on my roof yesterday evening. We were lucky they missed the car! I had minor quibbles with a couple of the clues, but generally this was a pretty good Saturday puzzle.

Across
1 BECKETT – BECK (literary gesture) + ET (and in French) + T (last letter of “dramatist”). I suppose “literary gesture” as a contraction of BECKON, but it’s still in everyday use in the phrase “at someone’s beck and call”. Still, it also helps the surface reading, which is very good as Beckett also wrote in French.
5 SPAMMER – REAPS (harvests) reversed around MM (millions repeatedly). Not sure what the point of “repeatedly” is at the end.
9 INNOVATOR – IN NO VAT (not occupying any vessels) + OR (“other ranks”, soldiers).
10 NARKS – hidden reversed in “mixing-desk randomly”.
11 CARBON-NEUTRAL – CAR (vehicle) + BONNET (its front) around U(ranium), + REAL (true) without the E (wasting energy).
13 POLISHER – (rips hole)*.
15 PEDDLE – sounds like “pedal” (cycle).
17 TOPPER – REP (salesman) + POT (cooking container), all reversed.
19 DOGMATIC – MA (parent) in between DOG (a pet) and TIC(k) (its parasite briefly).
22 EXPEDITIOUSLY – (XI out speedily)*.
25 SIEVE – EVE (threshold) + IS, all reversed.
26 PRIVATISE – P (quiet) + RISE (increase), around VAT (tax) + I (one).
27 SKY BLUE – cryptic definition.
28 MAE WEST – EWE (sheep) + S(kin), inside MAT (rug).

Down
1 BLIP – B(lack) + LIP (edge).
2 CYNICAL – IN (trendy), inside LACY (finely-woven) + C(ape), all reversed.
3 ELVER – EVER (always) around L(och). Why loch instead of lake I wonder? Just for a change I suppose.
4 TATTOOED – TAT (shoddy stuff) + TO (aimed at) + OED (big dictionary).
5 SARONG – SAG (hang loosely) around RON (man).
6 AD NAUSEAM – cryptic definition. I was trying to find wordplay in it as NAUSEA originally meant seasickness specifically, but I don’t think there is any. Just the fact that taking pills to prevent sickness to the point of being sick would indeed be counter-productive!
7 MORDRED – MORE DREAD (increased fear), removing the A (for area) and the first E (for English).
8 RESILIENCE – RE (note) + SILENCE (refusal to talk) around I (current).
12 APOTHEOSIS – (ship sea too)*.
14 SPEEDWELL – SPEED WELL (do a good job of acting expeditiously). I don’t know enough about plants to know how good or bad a definition creeper is, but there’s no mention in Chambers either in its own entry or under its genus Veronica.
16 POLONIUM – POLO (game) + NI (nickel) + UM (let me see).
18 PEPPERY – PRY (snoop) around EP (recording) + PE (games).
20 TOYLIKE – (yet Loki)*.
21 STAPLE – P(ower) inside STALE (overworked).
23 SHAKE – HAKE (fish) underneath S(mall).
24 ZEST – alternate letters of “Aztec site”.

7 comments on “Saturday Times 25705 (8th Feb)”

  1. An enjoyable 22 minutes for me too held up for some silly reason by BECKETT.

    Tiles off our shed roof overnight – it is still very windy here so finger’s crossed that’s all the damage we’re going to get.

  2. 17 mins so it looks like I was on the setter’s wavelength, although I did last Saturday’s Jumbo in 29 mins which is the first time I’ve knowingly broken the half-hour barrier for one, so maybe I was just on form.

    I had the most trouble in the SW. It took me a while to see APOTHEOSIS and POLISHER, but once I got them it opened up the corner and STAPLE was my LOI after SKY BLUE.

  3. 12m here, so clearly I was very much on the right wavelength. I initially put in NAPPER for 17ac, which fits the wordplay perfectly but is the head rather than something you put on it.
  4. A very enjoyable Saturday puzzle that took me a leisurely 64 minutes parsing as I went. I had similar thoughts about NAUSEA and also wondered if there was more to SKY BLUE than met the eye. Deducting time spent considering these points would take me well under the hour.
  5. Enjoyed this one whilst weekending at friends’ place deep in rural New South Wales – the crossword being picked up and put down between bouts of fishing and sampling of our host’s home made vodka (surprisingly excellent). Obliged to parse everything as our host (a fellow Englishman in exile) demanded to understand how this mysterious process actually worked. (Given my novice status this was very much a case of the one-eyed man being king…)

    Meandered through it without too many dramas, until left with only 7dn outstanding with 4 checkers in place. Still it eluded me – and then our host, triumphant, yelled “Obvious innit? Mordred – more dread, geddit?” Having tasted this initial triumph, he has now joined those of us who submit to this exquisite torment daily and now curses me. Ah well.

    Thoughts with all of you in the UK as you grapple with the appalling weather.

  6. No idea how long it took me, but I managed to finish, overcoming the disadvantage of being really dim about several of the clues. I ‘got’ NARKS, for instance (my LOI), from ‘singers’ and checkers, only much later noticing the hidden. I ‘got’ MORDRED, finally, without noticing the absence of any ‘sounds like’ hint in the clue, hence wondering, until I came here, what ‘striking area’ was about. Still, it was fun. COD to INNOVATOR. My sympathy and best wishes to all of you suffering in the English weather.

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