Saturday Times 25980 (27th Dec)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
A sluggish 23:33 for my last puzzle of the year, but it was another good one in a string of top quality Saturday puzzles I’ve blogged recently. I expect verlaine enjoyed it too, what with all the classical literature references. Looking through it again this morning I can’t see anything particularly hard here, although the general opinion on the Club forum was that it was tough. Maybe we were all exhausted after all those Jumbos!

Across
1 Playmaker Spanish rate for juggling and retaining ball (12)
ARISTOPHANES – (Spanish rate)* around O (ball). Ancient Greek dramatist, known as “the father of comedy”.
8 Route with drop in fare (7)
LASAGNE – LANE (route) around SAG (drop).
9 Priest’s backing mostly willing union (7)
AMALGAM – LAMA (priest) reversed + GAM(e) (mostly willing).
11 Firm lines with mature artwork (7)
COLLAGE – CO (form) + LL (lines) + AGE (mature).
12 Cried, hut walls being not right (7)
SHOUTED – SHED (hut) around OUT (not right).
13 Liqueur stocked by wine merchant going around (5)
CREME – hidden reversed in “wine merchant”.
14 Translating Low German is an enticement to those in school (9)
ANGLEWORM – (Low German)*.
16 Fed uncovered report of larceny in gallery? (9)
PICNICKED – “Pic nicked” might be the Sun headline if this one was stolen!
19 Leaders of light industry claim high interest in Chinese growth (5)
LICHI – first letters of light industry claim high interest.
21 State in USA — it wants amendment (7)
TUNISIA – (in USA it)*.
23 Light displays Jaguar door, faded, regularly scratched (7)
AURORAE – alternate letters of “Jaguar door, faded”.
24 In sensational fashion, seduce briefly and casually (7)
LURIDLY – LUR(e) (seduce briefly) + IDLY (casually).
25 What traveller may have worn during passage (7)
HOLDALL – OLD (worn) inside HALL (passage).
26 Try and try to get in satirical poet’s good books? (5-7)
COURT-MARTIAL – double definition, the second referring to the Roman poet Martial.

Down
1 Excuse to work out topless, holding up muscles (7)
ABSOLVE – (s)OLVE (work out topless) underneath ABS (muscles).
2 He won’t appreciate current grid (7)
INGRATE – IN (current) + GRATE (grid).
3 International politician, well positioned in case of flood, rides here? (5,4)
THEME PARK – MEP (international politician) “in THE ARK” (well positioned in case of flood).
4 More than one top dog’s outspoken (5)
PEAKS – sounds like “peke’s”.
5 Pound fills a poem with it (1,2,4)
À LA MODE – LAM (pound) inside A + ODE (poem).
6 Give hot novel literary dimensions? (7)
EIGHTVO – (give hot)*. Ugly word that means the same as octavo, back-formed from the abbreviation 8vo.
7 Character giving asset freeze order (5,7)
BLOCK CAPITAL – “Block capital!” – freeze those assets, do it now!
10 Did fashion magazine covers cut rather wet French title? (12)
MADEMOISELLE – MADE (did) + ELLE (fashion magazine) around MOIS(t) (rather wet). Not too keen on “rather” as a word-shortening device, and I can’t remember seeing it used like that before. [ Edit: must remember to read the whole clue – I think my eyes must have skimmed past the word “cut” when solving and again when blogging, as I missed it both times. As mohn points out, cut is there to shorten MOIST, meaning rather wet. ]
15 Daughter caught in a mist rising over the River Don (9)
GODFATHER – D(aughter) inside A FOG reversed, followed by THE R(iver).
17 Call for spirit and stiff port, guzzling head of beer (3,4)
CON BRIO – CON (stiff) + RIO (port) around B(eer).
18 Pub drink? It’s said one shouldn’t be trading (7)
INSIDER – sounds like “INN CIDER”.
19 Dangerous creature from Transylvania’s ready to follow traditions (7)
LORELEI – LEI (Transylvania’s ready, i.e. Romanian currency) after LORE (traditions).
20 Rotter meets end in dock (7)
CURTAIL – CUR (rotter) + TAIL (end).
22 Tips for swim past rocky bay in gulf (5)
ABYSM – S(wi)M after (bay)*.

17 comments on “Saturday Times 25980 (27th Dec)”

  1. One missing (Peaks). Couldn’t think what ‘out’ was doing in Shouted so thanks Andy for explaining that.
    Abysm and Angleworm were new words for me.
  2. Over an hour in three sessions – main problem was bunging in ABYSS which made COURT MARTIAL extra difficult – barking up the wrong tree in the wrong wood. Thanks for the blog.
  3. 44 mins from start to finish but that included plenty of nodding off so it probably would have taken me about half that time if I had been fully alert. It seemed tricky while I was solving it, although as Andy said there wasn’t anything in it that was particularly obscure. THEME PARK was my LOI after PICKNICKED.

    Edited at 2015-01-03 02:55 pm (UTC)

  4. Quite a hard one for me but I persevered and was relieved to finish correctly in 74 minutes. My unknowns were CON = ‘stiff’, ABYSM (archaic, according to my dictionary), EIGHTVO and the Transylvanian money.

    Edited at 2015-01-03 10:59 am (UTC)

  6. Good puzzle which I found slightly easier than average. EIGHTVO cropped up in an Indy puzzle in November, which was the first time I’d encountered it. Count me as another who put in abyss instead of ABYSM (maybe better known in abysmal), even though the wordplay didn’t support it, but COURT-MARTIAL sorted that out.

    Re MADEMOISELLE at 10D, I think the “cut” is removing the last letter of “rather wet”, rather than the “rather” removing the last letter of “wet”.

  7. We had no TLS that week so this one stood in for it, and very nicely too. Especially as this week’s TLS turned out to be a bit of a bummer on more than one front (not very literary, one dodgy spelling and one impenetrable clue). Must have been in the zone at 20.46.
    1. ‘Tis a pity the TLS four week solution cycle precludes any meaningful discussion here. Those who complain about lax cluing in the main Times might be more than startled by some of this week’s. Without providing answers, anyone want to try the following?

      “Tequila Mockingbird” – a book for him? (9) (a rejected refugee from this week’s Listener, perhaps?)

      He produces some signs of literature (9)

      Neither fast nor slow, but frequently melodious (8)

      One who hopes for lingua franca (9)

      Elia’s hardly silent (5)

      Cowper’s job (4)

      Thank god it’s Thursday (4) (NOT Thor, by the way)

      and of course Olivia’s “impenetrable”:

      Hacker accepted one of them (7)

      Don’t let this put anyone off attempting the TLS: it’s rarely this opaque. But it is certainly a different kind of challenge, more akin to very early Times crosswords where allusive cluing was commonplace.

      1. It was the “Suicidal dog star (5)” that held me up the longest. Luckily I saw Olivia’s comment before attempting it so knew more or less what to expect, and did get it all correct in the end.
      2. I play with the TLS as it makes a complete change from the high standard of clueing usually seen in The Times and the ST. A bit abstruse this week though.

        Over at the Crossword Club, John Doylend has pointed out that this week’s Listener is also different from the ultra-tough usual ones and while I am only about one-third through, it is great fun. As z8 says the TLS Tequila clue would have fitted in (sort of)

  8. I found this difficult – it took a long time to get enough pieces in place to have checkers to work from. I read 10d the same way mohn2 did. Thanks, Andy, there were rather a number of others which I hadn’t fully parsed.
  9. 22.06, totally undone by believing the French would be consistent with their spelling (they’re better in that than the English) and not spotting MADAMOISELLE until after submission and a long search for my one mistake. It’s obvious when your write it out like that, but it was a down clue…
  10. 66 minutes. Relieved to finish at all. I’m another who had ABYSS. It rather messed up my search for satirical poets. I was trying to fit Horace in somewhere. Normally I would have given up but I was languishing in bed with a filthy cold and had nowhere else to go. In retrospect, I can’t see why I found this puzzle so hard. Probably the head cold and the tablets didn’t help. (I’ve spent the afternoon watching Miss Marple and now the rugby in Welsh because I’m feeling too feeble to change channels.) Ann
  11. 18:09. This did feel a bit trickier than that, I remember. EIGHTVO went in with crossed fingers: it seemed an unlikely word to me even after seeing the OCTAVO link. I think I managed to avoid the ABYSS trap by solving COURT MARTIAL first.
  12. Grappled with this on and off over the weekend and managed to complete eventually, with quite a sense of triumph!

    EIGHTVO was unknown but went in on basis it seemed the likeliest solution from the well signalled anagram and cross checkers.

    Enjoyed PICNICKED, but this was just pipped by the excellent PEAKS as my COD.

    Thanks to setter and to Andy for blog.

  13. Painfully slow, as is often the case with me on Saturday, with PEAKS my LOI. Irritatingly, I knew EIGHTVO, I had the anagrist, and it still took me ages to get. Then again, it is an ugly and unnatural word.I, too, had ‘abyss’ for a very long time. COD to 16ac.
  14. I had “did fashion” = made, and couldn’t parse the rest – looking for ME as MagazinE covers. And (now it’s explained) believing The Times banned brand names such as Elle. Obviously brand names are allowed – new with the new editor? I’m sure I remember a while back people questioning the allowability of Sky as a broadcaster, since it’s a brand name.
    Otherwise seemed tricky during the solve, but finished in average time about 25 minutes. Avoided the ABYSS by 1. reading the clue & solving it 2. reading it last – somehow missed it until finding it was the last word left to solve.
    Rob

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