Saturday Times 25855 (2nd August)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 11:31, but wasted a lot of time on 14D of all things, so should probably have been under 10 minutes. Good puzzle though, and probably the last one I didn’t struggle with. I’ve had a bad week – double whammy of gout and a heavy cold, and my solving times have been half an hour or more all week, including a couple needing a bit of cheating. I think I’m over the worst now though, as I was able to polish off the Guardian Genius this morning. 🙂

Across
1 Pâté formed into mound makes fridge cooler (4,4)
HEAT PUMP – (pate)* inside HUMP (mound).
5 Girl in leather rejected companion? (6)
MANUAL – UNA (girl) inside LAM (leather).
9 Worker’s champion bordering on clownish talent (8)
CHARTIST – C(lownis)H + ARTIST (talent). A member of a 19th century reform movement.
10 Serious drinkers call for rescue after swim (6)
DIPSOS – SOS (call for rescue) after DIP (swim).
12 Elderly ought to visit church – right for silent treatment (4,8)
COLD SHOULDER – OLD (elderly) + SHOULD (ought to) inside CE (church), + R(ight). Popular answer this week, in more than one paper.
15 Married Yorkshire banker – something clicked! (5)
MOUSE – M(arried) + OUSE (Yorkshire “banker”, i.e. river).
16 Play-maker, current in Peru side, taken out (9)
EURIPIDES – I (current) inside (Peru side)*. Greek playwright.
18 Unconscious in car (9)
AUTOMATIC – double definition.
19 Seamstress among those we recommend (5)
SEWER – hidden in “those we recommend”.
20 One disappoints scrap-dealer on essential part (12)
HEARTBREAKER – BREAKER (scrap dealer) next to HEART (essential part). Another answer that’s been doing the rounds lately.
24 Mole protects Philby revealing much (6)
SKIMPY – SPY (mole) around KIM (Kim Philby, the well-known spy who defected to the Russians).
25 Roman has drink with Greek in perfect setting (8)
AGRICOLA – COLA (drink) next to GR(eek) inside A1 (perfect). A bit of a loose definition, but probably referring to this guy, the general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain.
26 Foreign gentleman leading an ass (6)
DONKEY – DON (foreign gentleman) + KEY (leading).
27 Grip had to change with racket drawn back (8)
ADHESION – (had)* + NOISE (racket) reversed.

Down
1 Wine Society leaves jar (4)
HOCK – S(ociety) removed from SHOCK (jar).
2 Topless brothel-keeper expelled gardener (4)
ADAM – MADAM (brothel-keeper), minus the first letter.
3 Miles to follow own special post at Universal Oil (9)
PETROLEUM – M(iles), following PET (own special) + ROLE (post) + U(niversal).
4 Plug hole in motorway certain to produce accident (12)
MISADVENTURE – AD (plug) + VENT (hole), inside M1 (motorway) + SURE (certain).
6 Tool that cuts inside metal for so long (5)
ADIEU – DIE (tool that cuts) inside AU (metal, chemical symbol for gold).
7 Turned over team coming in ahead, then losing (6,4)
UPSIDE DOWN – SIDE (team) inside UP (ahead) and DOWN (losing).
8 Only remaining chance to take seaside town (4,6)
LAST RESORT – LAST (take, in the sense of endure) + RESORT (seaside town).
11 Treated unfairly as brusque Conservative put to death (5-7)
SHORT-CHANGED – SHORT (brusque) + C(onservative) + HANGED (put to death).
13 Writer back on track is boss here – that’s understood (10)
EMPATHISED – ME (writer) reversed + PATH (track) + IS + ED (boss here, i.e. at The Times).
14 Tips on apparel seen in one national or another. (10)
AUSTRALIAN – A(ppare)L inside AUSTRIAN (one national). Last one in for me, just went blank for a while.
17 Winger‘s progress taking English past Ireland (9)
PASSERINE – PASS (progress), then E(nglish) after ERIN (Ireland).
21 Home supporter on course for keeping record (5)
TEPEE – TEE (supporter on course) around EP (record).
22 Here camels roaming spit on one (4)
GOBI – GOB (spit) + I (one).
23 Our planes and ships in spacious accommodation (4)
BARN – BA (British Airways, our planes) + RN (Royal Navy, our ships).

17 comments on “Saturday Times 25855 (2nd August)”

  1. This apparently took me 14.30 mins but I can’t remember much about it one week later.

    If you did the Genius, you must be on the mend. Thanks for the blog

    1. This was my fastest Saturday solve of the year. Based on comments on the forum, MANUAL seemed to cause a lot of problems, presumably because that meaning of companion wasn’t well-known and the wordplay wasn’t necessarily the most helpful. Liked MOUSE and ADAM.

      If you need a bit of a laugh, Andy, you could do worse than try today’s Guardian Prize (if you like Paul’s sense of humour, that is).

  2. Glad that you’re on the mend, Andy. I find rum helps with both ailments. Not that I have gout, mind you..

    I enjoyed this very much; some really nice clues, eg 24ac or 22dn, a refreshingly untimeslike clue

  3. Spouse and I are birders (setters please note:’ twitcher’ is not synonymous with ‘birdwatcher’; it’s a pistols at dawn matter). It was thus a pleasant change to find ‘passerine’ instead of the non-specialist and often misleading ‘songbird’. A crow is a passerine, but cuckoos and turtle-doves, which might count as song-birds, aren’t.
  4. Gout?! Awful, and most painful.
    Can’t see “manual” as a synonym of “companion” (5ac) . Can anyone point me to a reference for that?
    1. Chambers: “an often pocket-sized book on a particular subject (as in angler’s companion)”
  5. 18 mins. I can’t remember much about it either, although I must have had the same experience as several others because my only note, apart from my time, says that MANUAL was my LOI.
  6. Nodded off again on this one and resumed the next day so I have no solving time to offer. I wonder if I was alone in trying to justify HEAT PILL at 1ac? EURIPIDES has also been doing the rounds recently, and more than once in The Times within a couple of days, I think.

    Edited at 2014-08-09 12:59 pm (UTC)

    2. Euripides – Irippydose
      Iphiginea – Youphiginthere
      etc

      Understood MANUAL in the end.

        1. Late-night schoolboy humour from 50+ years ago. Speak it out loud.

          Edited at 2014-08-09 08:29 pm (UTC)

  7. I couldn’t get PASSERINE. I didn’t know the word, and didn’t think of ‘Erin’ for Ireland. Drat.

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