Saturday Times 25783 (10th May)

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time a gentle 12:50, solved from the paper for a change in a pub garden in Chester between rainstorms last Saturday. I was hoping for something a bit trickier which would have required a second pint, but never mind. Two minor quibbles, one with the enumeration of 17ac and the other with the disagreement of when lunchtime is between 20ac and 16dn! Maybe Across and Down have separate sittings. 🙂

Across
1 Question papers ready? (4)
QUID – QU(estion) + ID (papers).
4 Drink sparkling wine with ricotta? Not I (5,5)
TONIC WATER – (wine, rcotta)*, i.e. ricotta without the I.
9 Rifle we must store in box, right? (10)
WINCHESTER – WE around IN CHEST (box), + R(ight).
10 No end of publicity for concert (4)
PROM – PROMO (publicity), without the final letter.
11 Develop as writer whose son’s gone to the front (6)
SPROUT – PROUST (writer), with the S for son moved to the front.
12 Pub open? Drug available within, it’s suggested (8)
INNUENDO – INN (pub) + UNDO (open), around E (drug).
14 Sea creature half-visible from Orkney (4)
ORCA – half of ORCADIAN (from Orkney). Another name for the killer whale.
15 Lacking consideration, come what may (10)
REGARDLESS – double definition.
17 A place to rest when training outside for cross-country event (10)
PAPERCHASE – A + PERCH (place to rest) + AS (when), all inside P.E. (training). Enumeration’s wrong, should be (5,5) according to most of my dictionaries, although one gave it as (5-5).
20 Seconds of onion soup available when it’s 16? (4)
NOON – (o)N(ion) + (s)O(up) + ON (available). Definition refers to the answer to 16dn.
21 Robberies on the increase among crooks (5-3)
STICK-UPS – UP (on the increase) inside STICKS (crooks).
23 Release a foreign worker (6)
UNHAND – UN (a foreign) + HAND (worker).
24 Cut of beef no good (4)
RUMP – GRUMP (beef), without the G for good.
25 Hitchcock’s first appearance at what’s announced as cutting-edge horror film? (4-6)
HAIR-RAISER – H(itchcock) + AIR (appearance) + RAISER (sounds like “razor”, cutting-edge).
26 Missing ace serve, player stumbles awkwardly (10)
PERVERSELY – (serve, plyer)*, i.e. player minus the A for ace.
27 Language writer seldom uses (4)
ERSE – hidden in “writer seldom”.

2 Light drink downed by fellow in one (11)
UNIMPORTANT – PORT (drink) inside MAN (fellow), all inside UNIT (one).
3 Academic qualification showing kid up to speed (9)
DOCTORATE – COD (kid) reversed + TO + RATE (speed).
4 Social networker using rather cute short name (7)
TWEETER – TWEE (rather cute) + TER(m) (short name).
5 Change trains? One might, crossing tip of English county (15)
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE – (trains one might)* around H (last letter (tip) of “English”).
6 Head of organisation is in control, and that’s official (7)
CORONER – O(rganisation) inside CORNER (control, as in to corner the market).
7 City, one in grip of revolution (5)
TURIN – I (one) inside TURN (revolution).
8 Lover boy runs rings around me (5)
ROMEO – R(uns) + O,O (rings) around ME.
13 We sell cheaper food, though not hot chips (11)
DISCOUNTERS – DISH (food) minus the H for hot, + COUNTERS (chips).
16 Maybe one hot guy being entertained by uncle lavishly (9)
LUNCHTIME – H(ot) + TIM (guy), inside (uncle)*.
18 Irritating member of audience in box speaking (7)
COUGHER – sounds like “coffer” (box).
19 Royal attendant really blowing top, having to guard queen repeatedly (7)
EQUERRY – VERY (really), minus the first letter, around QU, ER (queen repeatedly).
21 Secure, oddly enough, with only one small coin in purse (5)
SCRIP – alternate letters of secure + 1P (one small coin).
22 Port is overlooking lake, so we’re told (5)
IZMIR – sounds like IS, MERE (lake). A port in Turkey which is its 3rd largest city.

20 comments on “Saturday Times 25783 (10th May)”

  1. Pretty chuffed to have completed this, albeit in around 4 hours. Had I been doing it in a pub garden, this would have been a minimum 6 pint job which would, no doubt, in turn have prolonged it even further. Brings to mind an old dictum of a mathematician mate of mine, “don’t drink and derive – unless you are very good…!”

    Several clues I thought were (metaphorically speaking) well worth the entry money on their own – particularly liked SPROUT, HAIR-RAISER and COUGHER.

    Also managed to knock over today’s (which I know we are not allowed to talk about), so very happy with progress! And most of that progress is thanks to this site, so a sincere thankyou to all the senior players who help us newbies find a way through the maze.

  2. 45 minutes until two unknowns, SCRIP and IZMIR, did for me. PAPERCHASE (10) is the only spelling given in COED, SOED and ODE so is perfectly acceptable.
    1. I looked in SOED (hyphenated), Chambers (2 words), Collins Concise (2 words) and Bloomsbury (2 words).

      Ah, that’s interesting – my SOED 5th edition has it hyphenated but the 6th edition has it as one word. Objection withdrawn 🙂

      1. Yes, I have the 6th edition SOED, but it’s in COED too which we’re always being told is one of the two main sources for the daily Times. Although it’s the smallest of the bunch the COED can prove very useful; it’s the only one to list the w.l.d. abbreviations for Won/Lost/Drawn as required for Tim Moorey’s latest ST puzzle. Peter B hadn’t checked it there, which surprised me.

        Edited at 2014-05-17 12:31 pm (UTC)

  3. 16 mins. From what I can recall I enjoyed this puzzle, and IZMIR was my LOI after RUMP.
  4. I didn’t find this easy at all, with much time at the end spent agonising over which of SCRIP/SCRAP and ISMIR/IZMIR was right, as the wordplay supported both answers in each case – the purse meaning of SCRIP had long disappeared from my memory, and I would have immediately gone for IZMIR for the latter if there hadn’t been a selection of variant spellings (Wyclif, poori, etc) in recent weeks as to give me pause.

    We had PAPERCHASE about a month ago where the enumeration was given as (5,5). Not that there’s any requirement for consistency of enumerations between puzzles (as long as they’re supported by a dictionary), but it seems a little jarring from an editing point of view.

    1. I don’t think it’s the editor’s job to decide between alternative valid enumerations for the same answer, any more than to decide that (for instance) the Times puzzle always has to spell ‘Wycliffe’ in a certain way.
      1. I would say that those are precisely the kind of things that ARE part of his job, but let’s agree to disagree.
        1. Really? That surprises me, but as you say, each to their own opinion. I’ve had many a discussion here about words that are validated by one dictionary or another (COED and Collins being the acknowledged sources for the Times daily) but never one (before today) about the spelling or enumeration of a word when it appeared previously.

          Edited at 2014-05-17 01:46 pm (UTC)

          1. I’m with Jack regarding allowing the editor to use different spellings and enumerations as he sees fit – but I am definitely with mohn2 in that it adds just that little bit of doubt which, once noticed, makes a clue a bit more difficult.
            1. Oh, I wouldn’t disagree with that for one minute but it’s another weapon in the setter’s bag of tricks. There’s nothing to say things have to be easy but we should expect them to be fair and justified by a valid source.
              1. Couldn’t agree more. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be any fun, would it?
  5. 10:03, but in my rush to get in under 10 minutes I didn’t check my answers, and I had managed to type ORKA. Not that it would have made any difference because I didn’t know IZMIR so spelled it with an S.
  6. Had not intended to do this but when I immediately saw 4 answers including 5d decided to give it a go. Spent several hours over the weekend completing the grid but was not confident as several were unparsed. Very surprised to see I was all correct.

    LOI and COD IZMIR.

    First unaided completion for years.

    I am a fan of the quick cryptic which is at my level.

  7. All solved in a short hour – which for me is pretty good. I’m having more difficulty with this week’s offering.
  8. Solved in 20 minutes, one coffee, easier than usual Saturday. Many excellent clues made this a pleasure.
    Doesn’t lunchtime begin around noon in UK? Lunchtime here is 12 noon, almost everything closes 12 till 2 or 3, you risk refusal in French restos if you arrive much after 12.30 (but there again, it’s about 3 p.m. just down the road in Spain so it’s a moveable feast!).
    1. If asked out of nowhere, I would suggest 1300-1400 as lunch hour, but that may be London-centric. My regular trips to work in the US continually surprised me as to how early everyone goes to the canteen.

      Edited at 2014-05-17 07:44 pm (UTC)

  9. Here I’d assumed that ORCA was wrong; it seemed so mickeymouse given Orkney. But in fact I put in Ismir. Oh, well, to coin a phrase.
  10. Last in and COD to Discounters. As someone with a congenital antipathy to ambiguity, perhaps it is understandable that I should suspend this feeling in respect of cryptic puzzles. All these alternatives in spelling and enumeration exist in the organic thing we call language, so it is quite appropriate that they should not be edited out of puzzles (aptly named).

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