Saturday Times 25927 (25th Oct)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Finally got round to solving this on the train on Wednesday, and it was pretty straightforward for a Saturday, knocked out in a fairly leisurely 12:50. Some general knowledge required, but nothing too arcane. The one thing that really stands out though is 29ac, which must take the prize for the dodgiest homophone ever seen in the Times Crossword!

Across
1 Region noted for wine and beer — bottling wine mostly (6)
ALSACE – ALE (beer) around SAC(k) (wine mostly).
4 Pesticide chemical in Yorkshire river discovered by old landholder (8)
URETHANE – URE (Yorkshire river) + THANE (old landholder).
10 Visitors to entertain returning soldiers, jolly singers (9)
CAROLLERS – CALLERS (visitors) around OR (soldiers) reversed.
11 Part of church begun by king, an old rogue (5)
KNAVE – NAVE (part of church) with K(ing) in front.
12 Fellow unfortunately dispatched — end of the line for Bill (5,6)
ROYAL ASSENT – ROY (fellow) + ALAS (unfortunately) + SENT (dispatched).
14 Physics unit that doesn’t get off the ground (3)
EMU – double definition, the first an abbreviation for “electromagnet unit”.
15 Provider of furs maybe — material some sent back (7)
TRAPPER – REP (material) + PART (some), all reversed.
17 Story something shameful? Keeps head down maybe (4,2)
LIES IN – LIE (story) + SIN (something shameful).
19 Black tree seen in plain, more (6)
BALDER – B(lack) + ALDER (tree).
21 Club support about to drop off (7)
BRASSIE – BRASSIERE (support) without RE (about). An antique golf club equivalent to a two-wood.
23 French soldier longing to retreat (3)
NEY – YEN (longing) reversed. Marshal Ney, Napoleon’s right-hand man.
24 Such is Pope, a certain person wanting to prevent war (11)
PEACEKEEPER – the wordplay’s in the answer, as “Pope, a certain” contains PEACE.
26 Auditorium attracting English orchestra (5)
HALLÉ – HALL (auditorium) + E(nglish). The Hallé is an orchestra based in Manchester, founded in 1858 by conductor Charles Hallé.
27 Herb garden more untidy with nothing removed (9)
GERMANDER – (garden more)*, minus the O.
29 For what reason is a scoundrel said to be a know-all? (8)
WISEACRE – allegedly sounds like “Why’s a cur?” Now I’m normally quite relaxed about loose homophones, but this doesn’t sound right in anybody’s accent!
30 Bit of toast that’s often good to begin with (6)
HEALTH – cryptic definition: the toast in question would usually be “Good Health!”

Down
1 Exact account, one supporting senior minister (8)
ACCURATE – AC (account) + CURATE (one supporting senior minister).
2 Being scornful of a small island, as you might suppose? (5)
SARKY – i.e. like Sark, one of the Channel Islands.
3 Officer‘s pass (3)
COL – double definition.
5 After scheme falls short get rid of mathematician (7)
RUSSELL – RUS(e) (scheme falls short) + SELL (get rid of). Bertrand Russell: mathematician, logician, historian, philosopher, the list goes on.
6 Children given doggy-bags at party may be most remarkable? (4,3,4)
TAKE THE CAKE – double definition.
7 New ideas came for alternatives for comprehensives (9)
ACADEMIES – (ideas came)*.
8 A gloomy place as before on top of vehicle (6)
EREBUS – ERE (before) + BUS (vehicle). A dark and gloomy cavern between earth and Hades in Greek mythology, although I imagine it’s pretty gloomy most of the time on the Antarctic mountain of the same name.
9 One spouts — not necessarily an old man being heard (6)
GEYSER – sounds like “geezer”, although as the clue implies can also be pronounced otherwise (which makes 29ac seem even more bizarre).
13 Weird pet leopard — one consumed particular insects (11)
LEPIDOPTERA – (pet leopard)* around I (one).
16 Lily takes a walk and is crossing railway (9)
AMARYLLIS – A + MALL (walk) + IS, around RY (railway).
18 Herod? Cunning after the star oddly makes appearance above (8)
TETRARCH – ARCH (cunning) underneath alternate letters of “the star“.
20 Genuine garnet but not clear mineral (7)
REALGAR – REAL (genuine) + GARNET minus NET (clear).
21 Dim bishop, a man of nonsense and heresy ultimately (6)
BLEARY – B(ishop) + LEAR (Edward Lear, a man of nonsense) + (heres)Y.
22 Small son that produces show? You bet! (3,3)
AND HOW – take S and HOW to make SHOW.
25 What sounds like deal? One may be pressed to make progress (5)
PEDAL – sounds like “peddle” (deal).
28 Cut flower in Devon (3)
AXE – double definition. The River Axe starts in Dorset, then goes via Axminster in Devon to the English Channel at Axmouth.

16 comments on “Saturday Times 25927 (25th Oct)”

  1. 20 mins. I was a little slow to see some of the GK-related answers and URETHANE was my LOI after RUSSELL. EMU also took a while because I didn’t know the physics unit.
  2. I had a question mark beside 29ac, not wishing to believe it could be just the homophone… I think they do it deliberately, to wind us up 🙂

    Re 9dn, I would argue that geyser can only be pronounced one way in British English, and that what the clue is therefore implying is that the man is not necessarily old…

    Edited at 2014-11-01 09:34 am (UTC)

    1. I’d agree with you, but Chambers has 9d pronounced as “gayzer”, “geezer” or “guyzer”.
  3. Came home just short of an hour but I tend to be a bit more relaxed about solving at the weekends.

    I enjoyed SARKY and also the awful homophone. DKU EMU the unit and only got 4ac from wordplay – I’d heard of ‘polyurethane, the plastic coating, and had no idea that without its ‘poly-‘ it’s a pesticide.

    I also failed to spot the hidden PEACE at 24ac where I assumed some special knowledge of Popes was required that I lacked so I gave up without investigating further.

  5. Bit of an oddity, I thought, though not too difficult and enjoyable in its own way.

    I wondered if there was an alternative pronunciation for WISEACRE as it’s a word I’ve come across mainly in American usage, (I’ve always referred to a “know-all”). The on-line Oxford Learner’s dictionary allows you to listen to both British and US pronunciations; the latter does sound a little more like “why’s a cur?”

    Never heard of “TAKE THE CAKE”, it’s always biscuits that I’ve taken; perhaps the expression reflects an increasingly obese population.

    My take on GEYSER was similar to Jerry’s above: you can have an “old geezer” or a “diamond geezer” or just a “bit of a geezer”. Reading our blogger’s comments about the different pronunciations of GEYSER, however, has convinced me of his interpretation of the clue.

    My newspaper came late today and I tried to print off a copy from the Times site, but can only find last week’s puzzle. Luckily, my paper arrived and I’ve just completed today’s puzzle; last week’s is still up on the site, though. Anyone else having problems?

    1. No problems here, it printed out 23933 OK. Try clearing cache and reloading the page?

      Re geyser, regardless of how it can be pronounced, the setter could still have been referring to the “old” bit anyway..

  6. My favourite quotation, from our venerable and well-loved Chambers 1962: “Welsh rabbit, melted cheese, with or without ale &c., poured over hot toast – sometime written ‘Welsh rarebit’ by wiseacres.”
  7. (From you-know-who, if you know me by now – otherwise, Google it)
    ‘About once every hundred years some wiseacre gets up and tries to banish the fairy tale.’

    31 minutes for this – today’s was a beaut.

  8. Really enjoyed this one, and managed to complete inside 2 hours which, for me, is a remarkable thing!

    Particularly enjoyed “end of the line for Bill” definition, the appalling Wiseacre, and the “keeping peace” device which took me a fair while to spot.

    AND HOW went in without really understanding it, and must admit I’m still struggling a bit with the logic.

    Today’s is indeed a different kettle of fish…

    Thanks, as ever, to blogger and setter

  9. Lost track of the time after going offline, but did manage to finish it. DNK SARKY, but it seemed pretty inevitable. I’m glad I’m not alone in considering WISEACRE beyond the pale. I wonder if I’m alone in having flung in ERG at 14ac even without any justification for it (other than having exactly 3 letters).

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