Saturday Times 25921 (18th October)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Times Championship day, when the puzzle (it always seems to me) is extra-hard just to rattle the competitors before the main event. For a change, not wanting to be rattled, and because I was driving to London rather than taking the train, I left this till later, solving it in the hotel room before going down to breakfast the next day – and as predicted, it was pretty tough. Probably not as tough as the puzzles in the Final, but it took me about 25 minutes, and I still don’t understand 1ac.

Across
1 One who might have left in two different ways (8)
TESTATOR – definition’s obvious, but I don’t understand the wordplay. Edit: D’oh! I was looking for some intricate reversal in the letters of the word rather than the obvious explanation given by Verlaine in the first comment!
5 Decline seconds, not ready? (6)
SUNSET – S(econds) + UNSET (not ready).
10 Quietly, otter sheds its first coat (5)
PARKA – P (quietly) + TARKA (Henry Williamson’s otter) minus the first letter.
11 Animal disturbed gorilla (not good) eating bananas (9)
ARMADILLO – (orilla)* around MAD (bananas).
12 Stand for now by religious teaching (9)
REPRESENT – PRESENT (now) next to R.E. (Religious Education).
13 Sail this before we commission standard navy marines (5)
ROYAL – double definition, the second with an example of 5 words that can follow it.
14 You left deliveries outside, on top of step (7)
SOLVERS – L(eft) inside OVERS (deliveries), next to S(tep).
16 Improve visit (4,2)
LOOK UP – double definition.
18 As one born in Lancashire town to the west (2,4)
EN BLOC – B(orn) inside COLNE (Lancashire town) reversed.
20 Reportedly read something into one with suspicion (7)
ASKANCE – SKAN (sounds like scan) inside ACE (one).
22 Sadly not allowed to complete doctor’s mission (5)
ALAMO – ALA(s) (sadly, minus the last letter) + M.O. (doctor).
23 He made press corporation go short, seizing billions (9)
GUTENBERG – GUT (corporation) + ENERG(y) (go, minus the last letter), around B(illions).
25 Dance from court, cross-examined after both sides quit (9)
QUADRILLE – QUAD (court) + (g)RILLE(d) (cross-examined, without the first and last letters).
26 Final blow — actors sacking a film-maker (5)
KORDA – KO (final blow) + RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, actors), minus an A. Hungarian-born film director Alexander Korda.
27 Goal remains — the shorter version (2,4)
EN DASH – END (goal) + ASH (remains).
28 Scriptures worthily translated (4,4)
HOLY WRIT – (worthily)*.

Down
1 Better money for authority (3,5)
TOP BRASS – TOP (better) + BRASS (money).
2 Bad mood? Drinks to be served up (5)
STROP – PORTS (drinks) reversed.
3 Work inspired by Venus de Milo? (1,8,2,4)
A FAREWELL TO ARMS – cryptic definition. First thing I thought of when I saw the enumeration, so this was my first one in before I’d even read any of the clues!
4 Where man must go for executives, the asses (7)
ONAGERS – “MAN” goes on “AGERS” to get executives.
6 Short of hairpiece, yanked off and nicked? (5,4,3,3)
UNDER LOCK AND KEY – UNDER (short of) + LOCK (hairpiece, i.e. piece of hair) + (yanked)*.
7 Son left with runny guts having scoffed friend’s cake (5,4)
SALLY LUNN – S(on) + L(eft) + (r)UNN(y), around ALLY (friend). A sweet bun originally from Bath.
8 Travel at leisure: device saving time and energy (6)
TOOTLE – TOOL (device) around T(ime), + E(nergy).
9 Scream at Oliver, hiding explosive substance (6)
AMATOL – hidden in “scream at Oliver”. A high explosive composed of ammonium nitrate and trinitrotoluene. Never heard of it, but the wordplay made it easy.
15 Help Handel and Brahms and Liszt (4,1,4)
LEND A HAND – (Handel and)*.
17 Big star treading clumsily (3,5)
RED GIANT – (treading)*.
19 Stone an old king without gawping heartlessly (6)
COGGLE – COLE (an old king) around G(awpin)G. Another new word for me, but again the wordplay allowed me to enter it with confidence.
20 Little boy, a month old, showing a certain style (3,4)
ART DECO – ART (little boy, i.e. short for Arthur) + DEC (month) + O(ld).
21 Nothing wanting in flamboyant ship (6)
BARQUE – BAROQUE (flamboyant) without the O (nothing wanting). I’m sure I saw another clue somewhere last week which had wordplay of O in BARQUE to get BAROQUE.
24 Wear armour regularly, or slip (5)
ERROR – alternate letters of “wear armour“.

14 comments on “Saturday Times 25921 (18th October)”

  1. The TESTATOR has left “in two different ways” both by bequeathing something, and also shuffling off this mortal coil…
  2. Much enjoyed this, and found it only medium, not so hard as, say, yesterday’s (24th). 1ac made me smile when the 1p dropped. I have a poor memory for clues but 3dn seemed familiar.
  3. I’m very glad I stopped solving puzzles for a couple of days pre-Championships. If I had tried this one on the morning of the competition I probably wouldn’t have turned up!

    As it was, this took about 35 minutes on a very noisy train a couple of days later. It’s been a while since I solved a puzzle with so many unknowns / forgottens, but I suppose that’s what Saturdays are for.

    It took me 2 days to understand TESTATOR, but UNDER LOCK AND KEY was the biggest penny-drop moment while solving and brought a big smile. Very nice.

  4. 55 minutes without resorting to aids so I was reasonably happy this quite inventive and lively puzzle. Didn’t know COGGLE or the explosive but the wordplay helped with both. The sound-alike SKAN for ‘scan’ doesn’t work for me (i.e. in RP) but I suppose it’s okay in northern speak or various overseas accents. BAR(O)QUE turned up last Wednesday.

    Edited at 2014-10-25 07:49 am (UTC)

    1. SKAN –> scan, I almost made a comment about that. As a stand-alone set of four letters it’s obviously identical in pronunciation, but as part of the word ASKANCE it would be more like “skahn”. This sort of partial homophone leading to a non-word in the middle seems a bit un-Times-like to me.
  5. 22 mins. COGGLE was my LOI after I decided to trust the wordplay, and before that I had been held up slightly by the SUNSET/TOOTLE crossers. It took me a while to see ROYAL and how it worked, and I should have seen 6dn must faster than I did. My other note says that I couldn’t parse ASKANCE at the time, although having seen the explanation here I really should have done because I pronounce it the northern way. Although I didn’t make a note of it I recall that I only saw how TESTATOR worked post-solve.
  6. This was a major arm wrestle, which finally beat me into submission with about 80% done.

    Main issue was my lack of the requisite GK (SALLY LUNN, OTAGERS, KORDA) coupled with my inherent stupidity (missed TOP BRASS and SUNSET, both of which I should have got).

    For those kind souls who sometimes say I should drop the “Novice” bit of my handle, this is a classic example (together with yesterday’s terrifying offering) of why I still feel very much as if I belong on the nursery slopes!

    That said, managed to knock over today’s offering OK so onwards and upwards…

    Thanks to Andy for a most illuminating blog that explained all the stuff I could not get.

  7. Found this harder than average mainly because of the number of unknowns/forgottens – SALLY LUNN, AMATOL, and COGGLE all went in on wordplay. Not sure I could have identified COLNE as being in Lancashire nor KORDA as being a director (non-dead tennis player, maybe). Given the choice, I tend to pootle rather than TOOTLE, which had me wondering for a while if a pool was an unknown-to-me word for a device. Bonus points to the setter for 13A – not the first time I’ve seen that kind of clue, but 5 examples strung together in a reasonable surface deserves some applause.
  8. I attempted this when I got back from the championship, feeling decidedly sub-par, and fell asleep half-way through. I finished it on Sunday, and it took me half an hour in total. At least I managed to finish it without making an incredibly stupid mistake, unlike today.
  9. I enjoyed this – Saturday puzzles are usually my favourites of the week – and polished it off in 25 minutes, with COGGLE unknown but got from word play.
  10. The two ways of leaving are: might have left an inheritance; might have shuffled off this mortal coil.
  11. I got the anagram and the answer, but what are ‘Brahms and Liszt’doing in the clue ?
    Geoffrey
    1. That’s the anagram indicator – Cockney Rhyming Slang for a word meaning “inebriated”. 🙂

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