Saturday Times 25711 (15th Feb)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Getting there, but I’m on call today. Thought I’d have an easy day of it but got called out half an hour before I was due to start and only just finished with it! Still, ker-ching, eh? That’s the main thing!

I didn’t note my time, but I think it was around 20 minutes. I’m going through a slow patch I think! Loads of double and cryptic definitions in this one, felt like a hard Rufus in the Guardian! COD to 22dn, a bit of lateral thinking required for that one.

Across
1 ASTRAY – A RAY (a fish) around ST(reet).
4 SMOOTHIE – double definition.
10 TERMAGANT – TERM (spell) + A + G(r)ANT (permit minus the R).
11 BACON – double definition, the first referring to Francis Bacon, the painter.
12 HOW’S YOUR FATHER – double cryptic definition.
14 ROGUE – G (last letter of Scallywag) inside ROUE (philanderer), whereas the answer could refer to either one.
16 HANG LOOSE – LOOS (ladies and gentlemen) inside (c)HANGE (copers, minus the first letter).
18 PYONGYANG – YON (that) + G(ood) + YANG (positive principle), all behind P(ayments). Capital of North Korea.
20 DEFOE – hidden reversed in “certificate of education”.
21 RECORD-BREAKING – cryptic definition.
25 PIQUE – sounds like “peek”.
26 ANALGESIA – (leg)* inside AN + ASIA (enormous area).
27 SVENGALI – (an evil genius)*, &lit.
28 STONED – double definition.

Down
1 ART THERAPY – (prayer that)*
2 THROW – double definition.
3 ANALYSE – L(ine) inside (an easy)*.
5 MOTIF – MOT (remark) + IF (providing).
6 ORBITAL – BIT (taste) inside ORAL (mouth).
7 HACKED OFF – double definition.
8 ERNE – alternate letters of rEpRiNtEd. Another name for the sea-eagle.
9 BABUSHKA – BAK(e) (cook cut) around BUSH (plant), + A.
13 NEW ENGLAND – EWE (female) inside N,N (notes) + GLAND (organ).
15 GROTESQUE – T(ime) inside (ogres)* + QU(it)E (rather, minus IT (sex appeal)).
17 NIGERIAN – NIGER (river) + A1 (fine) reversed, + N(orth).
19 GOOD EGG – double definition.
20 DRAUGHT – double definition.
22 DRAWL – “DRAW L”, to make a right-angle.
23 IBSEN – NESBI(t), reversed. Edith Nesbit, best known for The Railway Children. Ibsen we met again yesterday in the form of one of his characters, Peer GYNT.
24 OPUS – O(ld) + PUS(s).

12 comments on “Saturday Times 25711 (15th Feb)”

  1. 57 minutes, finishing with the unknown/forgotten crossers at 9 & 10. Bit as in ‘he finally got a taste of the action’ took a little working out, as did the bit on the side in the delightfully Carry On ‘How’s your father’ for relations.

    Edited at 2014-02-22 02:28 pm (UTC)

  2. I found that the stopwatch on my phone hadn’t started when I finished this but estimated about 10 mins.
  3. Loved the HOW’S YOUR FATHER. I would have hyphenated it, but Chambers gives it as three separate words.

    By the way, it’s 22dn, not 22ac that is the clever right angle.

  4. I had all but three answers within 50 minutes and I was by then short of time so I used aids to polish them off. I never heard of ART THERAPY so I was pleased to have worked that one out from the anagrist.

    According to Brewer’s HOW’S YOUR FATHER dates from Music Hall days when it simply meant ‘nonsense’ and it didn’t acquire its cheeky meaning until the last quarter of the 20th century. Not sure I believe that.

  5. A steady hour plus here, which translates as straightforward. Didn’t know how’s your father, but now do. Orbital has appeared a a couple times recently – do we ever suspect the setting team of picking a word for all of them to try?
    1. I am often convinced that the setters are given ‘word of the month’ but am assured that it is pure coincidence.
      1. Yes. No malice intended, but we should be careful of taking the assurances of a group as skilled in the arts of misdirection and deception as they and their editors are, shouldn’t we?

        Edited at 2014-02-22 06:12 pm (UTC)

  6. I see that this took me about 20 mins, unlike todays unsatisfactory puzzle. Like 12A of course. As a child of the early 50s, I am sure that I came across the expression with its current meaning well before 1975.

    Edited at 2014-02-22 07:29 pm (UTC)

  7. I am also certain that “A bit of how’s yer father” has had a rude meaning for all of my life, which includes most of the 1950s..
  8. My first recollection of “Hows your father” came in about 1971 or so when I was 8 years old. I was standing in the queue in the fish ‘n’ chip shop and there was a greasy-haired bloke waiting on the bench who said it to me in a gruff voice. I politely replied “He’s fine thanks, how do you know him?” (as you do when you’re 8 and don’t have a clue). Everyone in the shop laughed and he slunk off. I was still none the wiser until several years later – much more innocent times back then!
  9. 18 mins. I can’t remember much about this one but my notes say that HANG LOOSE was my LOI after BABUSHKA, and that I only parsed NEW ENGLAND post-solve.

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