Saturday Times 25969 (13th Dec)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 19:50 for this tricky puzzle (it took Magoo over 12 minutes, so it’s a time I’m quite pleased with). Lots of GK required, and some excellent surface misdirection. The NW corner was the last to fall for me, with 2D LOI when I realised it had nothing to do with football! There were a lot of good clues but my COD goes to 14D.

Across
1 Rich old entrepreneurs all on vacation somewhere in Greece (6)
RHODES – take only the first and last letters of RicH OlD EntrepeneurS.
5 Knowing quality, I invested in S African currency (8)
SAPIENCE – I inside SA PENCE.
9 Issue flashy poster depicting prerequisites in nursery (10)
FLOWERPOTS – FLOW (issue) + (poster)*.
10 Not quite the chief sin? (4)
VICE – double definition.
11 Veteran livened up (8)
SEASONED – double definition.
12 Charm of national completing the course at St Andrews? (6)
MASCOT – SCOT (national) after MA (course at St Andrews?). St Andrews might be the home of golf, but this clue’s referring to the university (the UK’s 3rd oldest, founded in 1410).
13 Scottish island‘s panel striking last answer (4)
JURA – JUR(y) (panel, minus the last letter) + A(nswer). Home to the Isle of Jura whisky distillery.
15 Conservation industry put to the test, after warnings of course (8)
FORESTRY – TRY (put to the test) after FORES (warnings of course). That’s a golf reference!
18 Plant US coin in arid ground (8)
DICENTRA – CENT (US coin) inside (arid)*. Also known as bleeding heart – I have a couple of them in the garden.
19 Banker‘s refusal to meet artist backfired (4)
ARNO – NO (refusal) after RA (artist) reversed. Italian river flowing through Florence and Pisa.
21 Current cartographers put back rail line on map (6)
ISOBAR – I (current) + OS (Ordnance Survey, cartographers) reversed + BAR (rail).
23 Soundly beat rear of student cutting Balliol lecture, say (8)
OUTCLASS – (studen)T inside OU CLASS (Balliol lecture, say). Balliol is one of the colleges of Oxford University.
25 Get through gap? I don’t know (4)
PASS – triple definition.
26 What may follow when they’ve gagged me, no doubt (3,2,5)
I’LL BE BOUND – double definition.
27 Notices vehicle pinched by youngsters after parking (8)
PLACARDS – CAR (vehicle) inside LADS (youngsters), all after P(arking).
28 Listener’s given a pound as required (6)
NEEDED – sounds like “kneaded”.

Down
2 Shouts of acclaim much reduced for Manchester players (5)
HALLÉ – a much reduced “HALLELUIAHS”, I think. Manchester-based orchestra founded in 1857 by Charles Hallé.
3 Drinks with discretion, avoiding centre in the sticks (9)
DOWNSTATE – DOWNS (drinks) + TA(s)TE (discretion, minus the middle letter).
4 Small wodge bitten into by rook’s fallen off (6)
SHRUNK – S(mall) + HUNK (wodge) around R(ook).
5 Menacing hanger-on at the feast? (5,2,8)
SWORD OF DAMOCLES – cryptic definition.
6 Frank description of Germany since 2002 (8)
POSTMARK – double definition. Germany switched currency from the Deutsche Mark to the euro in 2002.
7 The King‘s trousers needing length let down a bit (5)
ELVIS – LEVIS (trousers), with the L moved down.
8 Accelerator providing early finish for vehicle – or not, strangely (9)
CYCLOTRON – CYCL(e) (vehicle, minus the last letter) + (or not)*.
14 Loveless marriages unlikely to take off (9)
UNINSTALL – UNI(o)NS (marriages minus the O) + TALL (unlikely).
16 Shooting class being just a little tedious? (5-4)
SMALL-BORE – SMALL BORE (just a little tedious?)
17 More substantial runs between lessons right for son in the end (8)
STURDIER – R(uns) inside STUDIES (lessons), with the S changed to R at the end.
20 Far-flung island cut off in harsh winters (6)
STREWN – (winters)*, minus the I.
22 Erection of carriage frames is essential (5)
BASIC – CAB (carriage) around IS, all reversed.
24 Vocalist briefly exhibiting a touch of fire (5)
SINGE – SINGE(r).

13 comments on “Saturday Times 25969 (13th Dec)”

  1. Just the thing for a weekend puzzle, when you’ve got plenty of time for solving – luckily for me, as I went well over the half-hour mark on this one. A lot of that time was spent toying with DOWNSTAGE and DOWNSCALE before arriving at the right answer. Loads of good stuff, of which my personal favourite was 6dn.
  2. Halle was my first in as I recall. My problems were with ELVIS and MASCOT. Nice puzzle; COD to the King. 81 minutes.
  3. For a reason which escapes me now I didn’t time this one, although my notes say that I found it tricky. DICENTRA was my LOI after I decided to trust the wordplay, and I only parsed RHODES post-solve. My notes say that I found the bottom half easier than the top half, and I found the NW in particulary hard to crack. A quality puzzle IMHO.
  4. I enjoyed this a lot. HALLE went in on wordplay and had to be checked later, likewise DOWNSTATE even though I live in the sticks. Liked Elvis’s Levi’s at 7dn.
  5. Like Andy, the isobars on this run SW to NE for me: lower right almost wrote itself in; upper left very distinctly didn’t. Agree with Topicaltim that postmark was the clever cod. Thanks for parsing several that were still puzzling me, Linxit.

    Edited at 2014-12-20 05:36 pm (UTC)

  6. This was a tough one, with DOWNSTATE my LOI – we had “flew” in yesterday’s puzzle indicated in the clue as American usage, even though it’s common in the UK, yet DOWNSTATE has no such indication even though I doubt it’s ever used in the UK. Didn’t know DICENTRA and also considered shrank for 4D. COD to UNINSTALL.
  7. Comforting to see that even Tim went over a half-hour; I have no idea how much over I went, but a lot, I’m sure. The NW was last to go, but all of a sudden, I got 3d, 4d, 9ac and 11ac in the space of a few seconds. DNK 13ac or 18ac, although I felt more confident with 13. If DOWNSTATE is an Americanism, I wonder who of us uses it? As Olivia pointed out in the forum, it wouldn’t make sense in New York, say, or California; and where else is there? LOI/COD 14d.
    1. Actually, it is used in New York. Not in California that I know. But common, especially referring to political segmentations, in New York
  8. Having ploughed through this over several hours, finally crossed the finish line except I could not get JURA – very frustrating to have just the one left!

    Never heard of the Island, and for some reason JURY eluded me.

    MASCOT went in, but I could not work out the M as I was on a golf course rather than at uni… Thanks for clearing that one up Andy. Finding this Saturday’s a swine of a thing by comparison.

  9. I’m trying to put together a case for OUTBLAST at 21ac. It parses ok, and would fit the definition pretty well if it was actually a word. Which is, I guess, where the case falls down.

    Never mind, I didn’t get HALLE either.

  10. Solving time: off the scale. This was the first of two difficult puzzles last weekend and I actually went for 10 minutes on this one before writing in my first answer, FORESTRY. Didn’t know DICENTRA or CYCLTRON (and am comforted by the wavy red lines that just appeared under them here).

    In the parsing, I always thought OU was the Open University and the ancient establishment was more properly called the University of Oxford (so why would it be abbreviated to OU?) but I now see that OU can stand for either. At 12 I was misled for a while by thinking of ASCOT as the course being referred to.

    HALLE was the best clue for me.

    Edited at 2014-12-21 08:57 am (UTC)

  11. No Americans querying the incorrect coinage – surely they use pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters with not a cent in sight?
    Apart from that grump, very difficult to find the right synonym – taste for discretion; hunk/wodge; flow/issue; OU class/Balliol lectures (hindered by not knowing if Balliol was OU or CU or if it had any other quality a Englishman might know of). But did know Jura, via the whisky, and that St. Andrews had a uni – didn’t one of the Queen of Australia’s sons or grandsons study there?
    44 mins with a break in the middle to stop thinking about it – let the subconscious solve it while I did something else for a while.
    Rob
    1. and you thought *you* had taken a long time!

      great puzzle, don’t know why I’d been saving it up all years

      jb

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