Saturday Times 25933 (1st Nov) – or should that be 1st April?

Solving time 21:50, which I was quite pleased with in the circumstances, as several people had mentioned how tricky it was last week. There were a few other problems to overcome though – and the puzzle number coming up as 23933 wasn’t one of them! Three clues seem to have been subject to editorial interference, two of them (2D, 16A) minor but making the clues not quite work in my opinion (although I’ve since been persuaded that 2D is ok), but then there’s 11D where the anagram fodder was changed making the clue technically impossible to solve. Apart from that it was a brilliant puzzle with some great surfaces, witty definitions and a couple of excellent &lits.

Across
1 Better use of computers — a tip for businessman? (10)
CAPITALIST – CAP (better) + IT (use of computers) + A + LIST (tip, as a verb).
6 Measure from Tories ultimately preferred to the Left? (4)
STEP – S (last letter of Tories) + PET (preferred) reversed.
9 Revised EU tolls better in the marketplace (7)
OUTSELL – (EU tolls)*
10 Primate can put round a Gospel (abridged) (7)
TAMARIN – TIN (can) around A MAR(k) (a Gospel, last letter removed).
12 Obsession about fine chest for sport (4,6)
THAI BOXING – THING (obsession) around A1 (fine), BOX (chest).
13 A plea for peace remains after conflagration (3)
ASH – A + SH (plea for peace).
15 Ploughs it all back? Some, leaving a bit behind (6)
LATISH – hidden reversed in “Ploughs it all”.
16 Copy, outside church, part of minute religious scene (4,4)
ECCE HOMO – ECHO (copy) around CE (church) + MO (part of minute?). I wonder if someone changed “second” to “part of minute” in that clue. Anyway, it’s Latin for “behold the man”, and in art it’s a portrayal of Christ crowned with thorns.
18 Steer, perhaps, but not straight, and without permit (8)
GALLOWAY – GAY (not straight) around ALLOW (permit). A Scottish breed of cattle.
20 Important figure in battalion rings GP up periodically (3,3)
BIG GUN – BN (abbreviation for battalion) around alternate letters of “rings GP up”.
23 Black coat: one paid for it to be shortened (3)
TAR – TART (one paid for it, i.e. sex) minus the last letter.
24 Agent raising commotion back with graduate at college (6,4)
BAKING SODA – ADO (commotion) reversed, next to B.A. (graduate) + KINGS (college).
26 Lead analyst, perhaps, in Speaker’s role? (7)
ASSAYER – AS SAYER (in Speaker’s role?)
27 Out of pride, perhaps, one resolved to stop row (7)
LEONINE – (one)* inside LINE (row).
28 Fast one hardly observes at Xmas, first of all (4)
HOAX – first letters of “hardly observes at Xmas”.
29 After something sticky, in jam? (2,1,3,4)
UP A GUM TREE – double definition, the first whimsical.

Down
1 Chef taking care of punch conclusively tipped (4)
COOK – CO (care of) + KO (punch conclusively) reversed.
2 Piece of slating from sink’s over piping (7)
POTSHOT – POTS (sinks) + HOT (piping). I don’t think that apostrophe should be there in the clue. Sink is only synonymous with pot as a verb (e.g. in snooker), never as a noun. Edit: objection overruled by john_from_lancs’ interpretation – POT (sink) + ‘S (short for is) + HOT.
3 Victories mean billions: zero parts they play (3,7,3)
THE WINSLOW BOY – WINS (victories) + LOW (mean) + B(illions) + O (zero), all inside THEY. A 1946 play by Terence Rattigan.
4 See election is coming up in spring (6)
LOLLOP – LO (see) + POLL (election) reversed.
5 What’s become hard to run through without rehearsal initially? (3,5)
SET PIECE – SET (become hard) + PIERCE (run through) minus the R. Definition is the whole clue, so it’s an &lit.
7 Undecided over hiding publicity howler (7)
TORNADO – TORN (undecided) + O(ver), around AD (publicity).
8 Appropriate to get on train where congestion’s likely? (5,5)
PINCH POINT – PINCH (appropriate) + POINT (train, e.g. a gun).
11 Disturbance in field scattered old fragments in two minutes (8,5)
MAGNETIC STORM – (scattering, O(ld))* inside M,M (two minutes). Oh dear oh dear. I have Mark Goodliffe to thank for the parsing of this one, from a comment on the forum – “scattering” was changed to “scattered” in the clue, which ruined the anagram fodder.
14 What’s following land, conveniently, with height? (6,4)
FLIGHT PATH – F(ollowing) + LIGHT (land) + PAT (conveniently) + H(eight), another &lit.
17 Advocate with very little to drink, one making a scene? (8)
BACKDROP – BACK (advocate) + DROP (very little to drink).
19 Girl’s gone off rails when upset (7)
LARISSA – (rails)* + AS (when) reversed.
21 Try radius divided by diameter line that is more than pi? (7)
GODLIER – GO (try) + R(adius), around D(iameter), L(ine), IE (that is).
22 A good word for world body that’s cut off from power (6)
UNPLUG – “U.N. PLUG”
25 Jump from plane with foot on parachute (4)
JETÉ – JET (plane) + E (last letter of parachute). A ballet term.

18 comments on “Saturday Times 25933 (1st Nov) – or should that be 1st April?”

  1. About half an hour for this. It’s a shame about 11dn but otherwise I thought this was a brilliant puzzle. Lots of very clever clues that require close attention to wordplay.
    I don’t have a problem with the apostrophe in 2 down: sink can be a noun in the surface and a verb in the wordplay. We get this sort of thing all the time, don’t we?

    Edited at 2014-11-08 11:32 am (UTC)

    1. Normally it can, I agree – but in this case I don’t think it works because of the apostrophe. Maybe I’m being extra picky because of 11dn 🙂
      1. I read the wordplay as [verb meaning sink], [S = is] over [adjective meaning piping]. Seems fine to me.

        Edited at 2014-11-08 11:50 am (UTC)

  2. Interpreted sink’s over piping as (sink) ‘(s) (piping) = (POT) (S) (HOT)

    Eventually worked out that scattered should have been scattering, but I spent quite a time on that clue trying to think of an alternative answer that had a D in it.

    Took me just under an hour and I thought it otherwise an excellent puzzle.

    1. I used to find that kind of analytic separation of elements linked in the surface a bit too much, but I’ve got used to it, probably from years of hanging around this joint.

      About 40 minutes of hellish joy here. Brilliant puzzle. The setter/editor must be kicking themselves/each other over the 11d SNAFU.

  3. Thanks Linxit for the parsing, much needed by me. I didn’t like this it all during my 40 minutes of struggle, not helped by 11d, but in retrospect it all seems to make sense, and there were some very fine clues. I’m still not sure I get the flight path &lit- is it that after the aircraft leaves the land, the flight path follows?
  4. This took me on and off some 3 hours though now that the blogger has explained all I’m at a bit of a loss to understand why. Perhaps a glass or two of red wine too many? But as the clues eventually fell I remember noting how impressively the tight the clues were. Thanks for the blog and the puzzle – both much appreciated.

    Edited at 2014-11-08 03:10 pm (UTC)

  5. Found this a very stern but very enjoyable test which I solved in fits and starts over the best part of a day. All correct except for not knowing Ecce Homo.

    Edited at 2014-11-08 04:05 pm (UTC)

  6. I’m pretty sure this was the toughest one I’ve managed to complete correctly in my “career” to date, so feeling quite chuffed. Several hours of highly enjoyable arm wrestling over the weekend.

    Spent an age trying to justify 11D (had to be right from definition and checkers), and thought I must be missing something: the idea that it might be an error did not occur to me!

    The 14D, 18A, 19D and 23A area held me up longest. Saw TAR quickly, but dismissed it on the basis that it seemed a bit too much like schoolboy humour for the Times crossword (which I always imagine as the personification of a maiden aunt). But, once got GALLOWAY (again with misgivings as to whether the maiden aunt would clue GAY as “not straight”) it all began to fall into place.

    So many great clues to choose from, but COD a toss up between UNPLUG, UP A GUM TREE and THE WINSLOW BOY.

    Thanks to setter and to Andy for very clear blog.

  7. 50 minutes. My comment written on completion last Saturday was “tough but very tightly clued and enjoyable”. I solved and parsed 11dn without realising the error in the clue and, according to my careless interpretation it worked perfectly as it stood so I was surprised to read the comments in the Forum. Thanks to ulaca for discreetly pointing out my error. In my innocence (ha-ha!) I was unable to parse 23ac.

    Edited at 2014-11-08 09:56 pm (UTC)

  8. I found this difficult, and, like Nick, entered the answer to 11d on the basis that it had to be the correct solution, without working out where the error lay.
    While enjoying the struggle, and admiring almost all the clues, I remain unconvinced by 29a – I think I must be missing something in the first part of the clue. Do people climb gum trees to search of something sticky?
    1. It’s a literal interpretation of a figurative allusion, surely the sort of cryptic device we meet in almost every Times crossword?

      Brewer’s suggests it may have originated with reference to opossums using gum trees for refuge.

      1. Thanks Jack. I hope that my second posting clarifies what I was sure Imwas missing initially, i.e. ‘After something sticky’ = ‘Looking for a stick’.
  9. On reflection, is this a groanworthy variant of ‘What’s brown and looks like a stick?’
  10. “Tough, quirky and fun” I wrote in the margin of this one. My time was something over two hours.
  11. Just under 40 minutes, held up by failing to spot the definition in THE WINSLOW BOY and “that must be the answer, but I can’t see the wordplay” on guess which clue. Good ansd meaty, though as some have said I’m not sure why I found it that tough.

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