Saturday Times 25885 (6th September)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solved in 24:05, in the paper for a change, while sitting outside Wilde’s Wine Bar in Leamington Spa over a pint of Palm (a Belgian pale ale, very nice). I found this quite tricky in parts – more than the usual number of “&lits” (you can wait a month for one, then three come along at once) and a lot of lopping the first or last letter in the wordplay. It didn’t help that my other half was across the table winding me up – “I thought you were supposed to be good at these”, “I bet Pete Biddlecombe would’ve finished it by now”, etc. Despite that I enjoyed it, but was glad to get it over with. I think SWATHE was the last one in – WAT isn’t the first word for temple to spring to mind.

Across
1 Weapon round backed for use in Vietnam (6)
NAPALM – LAP (round) reversed inside NAM, &lit.
5 Very warm environment you formerly encountered in Tube (8)
HOTHOUSE – THOU (you formerly) inside HOSE (tube).
9 Berlin? Arriving in western half affected one (8)
COMPOSER – COM(ing) (arriving – just the western half) + POSER (affected one). Irving Berlin (1888-1989), long-lived American composer.
10 Guess what’s missing from Rossini’s Le Comte? (6)
THEORY – THE “ORY”, ref. Rossini’s 1828 Opera Le comte Ory. That one went in on faith.
11 Don’t start to look for compassion. It’s not genuine (6)
UNTRUE – (h)UNT (look for, minus the start) + RUE (compassion). I didn’t know RUE could be a noun in that sense, and Chambers says it’s archaic.
12 What needs runway — or run way? (8)
TRIPLANE – TRIP (run) + LANE (way).
14 Ailanthus, a suitable perch for bird of paradise? (4,2,6)
TREE OF HEAVEN – definition + cryptic definition, aka Ailanthus altissima, not all that heavenly according to the Wiki article!
17 Description of obscure townspeople? No contest! (3-5,4)
ONE-HORSE RACE – cryptic definition + definition this time. I’ve corrected the enumeration here, which was (3-5-6) online and an even weirder (3-5.6) in the paper!
20 Faulty reel on fishing boat dropping second fish (8)
MACKEREL – (reel)* next to (s)MACK (fishing vessel, minus the S).
22 Temple in quiet eastern area of open land (6)
SWATHE – WAT (temple) inside SH (quiet), E(astern).
23 Hot fruit loaf gets left out (6)
STOLEN – STOLLEN (fruit loaf), minus an L.
25 Not totally against abortion, one caught with many offspring (8)
PROLIFIC – PRO-LIF(e) (against abortion, minus the last letter) + I (one) + C(aught).
26 Tree rose may spread over one side of cottage (8)
SYCAMORE – (rose may)* around C(ottage).
27 Bearded lefty is regularly snug in slippers (6)
ENGELS – (s)N(u)G inside EELS (slippers). Friedrich Engels (1820-95), co-author of The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx.

Down
2 Total size of a stage (6)
AMOUNT – A + MOUNT (stage).
3 Girl’s reported after equipment is abandoned by US party official (11)
APPARATCHIK – CHIK (sounds like chick, girl) after APPARAT(us) (equipment minus the US).
4 Soldier encountered constantly crossing river (9)
MUSKETEER – MET (encountered) + E’ER (constantly), around USK (river).
5 Nelson’s hard speech after loss of navy’s foremost (7)
HORATIO – H(ard) + ORATIO(n) (speech, minus the N).
6 With everyone together always getting half of tutors’ time (5)
TUTTI – TUT(ors) + TI(me), i.e. half of each word.
7 What Wilfred Owen needed to come up with? (3)
ODE – hidden reversed in “Wilfred Owen”, &lit.
8 How a rope must be held on the shore (8)
STRANDED – double definition.
13 Revealing secrets about an old soldier’s farewell (5-6)
LEAVE-TAKING – LEAKING (revealing secrets) around A VET (an old soldier).
15 One’s death is enough for this to be set up (9)
HEADSTONE – (one’s death)*, &lit.
16 In rugby score keen devotee’s breaking foot (8)
INFANTRY – IN + TRY (rugby score) around FAN (keen devotee).
18 The City edges close to acute period of decline (7)
ECLIPSE – EC (the City) + LIPS (edges) + (acut)E.
19 Kick servant dispatching article for one (6)
THRILL – THRALL (servant), with the A (article) replaced by I (one).
21 Some music runs flat for Gershwin, for example, lacking intro (5)
RONDO – R(uns) + (c)ONDO (American word for a flat), minus the first letter.
24 Grassy area, mostly offering little sustenance (3)
LEA – LEAN (offering little sustenance), minus the last letter.

20 comments on “Saturday Times 25885 (6th September)”

  1. I resorted to aids for the last two or three as the hour approached.
    I never heard of the first tree, the temple or ‘thrall’ as an archaic servant, and I still don’t understand what ‘always’ is doing in 6dn. Lots of good stuff elsewhere though, and I enjoyed the Irving Berlin and Gershwin references.
  2. 24 mins and a similar experience to Andy, with the notable exception of the lack of a spouse giving me a hard time. SWATHE was my LOI after THRILL, and I needed to use Google post-solve to see why THEORY fitted the wordplay.

    Actually, there were two notable exceptions because I had AROUND for 2dn and I would argue that it also fits both the definition and the wordplay. Having said that, if I’d thought of “stage” as a verb rather than a noun I’d probably have gone for AMOUNT.

    1. And it’s only since reading your comment that I find I had AROUND too with A cluing A and stage cluing ROUND (as in a stage/round of a competition).
      1. I don’t know what Andy B had in mind but my version doesn’t stand up well to close scrutiny though in the heat of the moment it seemed okay and got bunged in. It was along the lines of measuring the girth or circumference of something where the size is measured all the way around.

        Edited at 2014-09-13 06:48 pm (UTC)

      2. The first definition of AROUND in my Chambers is “on all sides of”, and that’s reasonably synonymous with “total size”, as is its third definition “somewhere near”, although that’s a little more tenuous.

        Interestingly, if you enter A?O?N?:total and A?O?N?:size into OneLook you get AMOUNT and AROUND for each search, although I haven’t got a clue how the search algorithm works. Just after I wrote that last sentence I decided to see what would happen if I searched OneLook for A?O?N?:total size and it actually came up with three answers; the aforementioned two plus ABOUND.

        1. On reflection, the “somewhere near” definition is probably the better one, used in something like “that field is a total size of/around one acre”.
  3. Some nice clues in this (5A brought back memories of the joys of London commuting), and the definitions and checkers made for a quick solve. Didn’t know ailanthus or the Rossini.

    I don’t think 1A strictly speaking counts as an &lit because “Weapon” doesn’t contribute to the wordplay hence must be the definition (even though the whole clue reads like a definition).

  4. 25 mins of which 15 were spent trying to sort out the SE corner following my not concentrating when I put in the last word of 17a.
  5. Still at the stage where managing to complete the offering is a major thrill – so pretty happy to have knocked this one over. That said, it seemed a bit short of wit or panache: bit of a grind.

    Had to validate a few things afterwards (WAT as temple, STOFFEN, the Tree and Le Compte Ory) but all gettable from wordplay / checkers.

    Curious as to whether “Bearded lefty” is regarded as a tight enough definition for Mr. Engels: whilst the wordplay and Eels gets us there OK, the definition covers a very large number of possible candidates. On the other hand, I got the answer so the clue works I suppose…

    1. Considering that we had “place” cluing EMMENTHAL the other day, I think that is a pretty tight definition.
  6. Around 100 minutes with one wrong, ‘stringed’ for STRANDED. The literals were very well hidden, I thought, so that I was regularly guessing the wrong end. No idea why ‘always’ is in 6d.
  7. Only got 80pct there. Some from poor solving, some from confidently writing in wrong partials or else answers that were not quite parsable, and either way making a hash of the crossing opportunities.
    In the contribution from significant others department, I had a girlfriend years ago who, after the ‘how’s that work?’ and then looking over my shoulder for a bit said “the only part of this that’s clear to me is that it’s a real mistake to write in your guesses”. I’d’ve done better this week if I’d remembered.
  8. Was anyone else unable to get Acker Bilk’s “STRANGER on the Shore” out of their head when tackling STRANDED?

    Edited at 2014-09-13 01:47 pm (UTC)

    1. Absolutely – to the point where (with the cross checkers I had at that point – S and R) I was convincing myself STRANGER might be the answer!

      Not that I thought the clue (sadly) would be a homage to Acker, but in case there was some meaning / literary reference behind Stranger on the Shore that I was unaware of but which would explain the clue…

  9. 24:09. Similar experience to other with this: a bit tricky, fingers crossed for THEORY, needed all the checkers to work out what of heaven was needed. I enjoyed it though.
    1. Shorthand for “and literally”, where the wordplay to make up the answer is in the clue, but the definition is the whole clue.

  11. To me,this crossword lacked both humour and wit. Pedantic and iron fisted in fact. OK, so I’m a bad loser.

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