Saturday Times 25992 (10th Jan)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
12:54 for this one, but it felt a bit harder than the last couple of weeks, although nothing too taxing really. A few people on the Crossword Club forum reported trouble with 24D/25A at the end, but both went in fairly early on for me. 20D also took some criticism, but you just have to think of the specific meanings intended, and it’s certainly not unfair. It was one of my last ones in though.

Across
1 Religious type wanting hospital linked to church cause (6)
INDUCE – HINDU (religious type) without the H (lacking hospital) + C.E. (church).
4 Seizing power, revolutionary goes for broke (8)
STRAPPED – P(ower) inside DEPARTS (goes) reversed.
10 Stop European support, not following enterprise (9)
ENDEAVOUR – END (stop) + E(uropean) + FAVOUR (support) without the F (not following).
11 Settled on measure of capacity (5)
LITRE – LIT (settled) + RE (on).
12 Article furious about nation with mass detection technique (7,7)
THERMAL IMAGING – THE (article) + RAGING (furious) around MALI (nation), M(ass).
14 Scandalous information turned round a secret society (5)
TRIAD – DIRT (scandalous information) reversed around A.
16 Sanction framed by academic that is against composer (9)
PROKOFIEV – OK (sanction) inside PROF (academic) + IE (that is) + V (against).
18 One pretending to be fouled by fellow showing disagreement (9)
DIVERGENT – DIVER (one pretending to be fouled) + GENT (fellow).
20 In low area have look for criminal (5)
FELON – FEN (low area) around LO (look).
21 Resolved to hunt, hail hero exhibiting superior attitude (6-4-4)
HOLIER-THAN-THOU – (to hunt hail hero)*.
25 Mean temperature found (5)
PLANT – PLAN (mean) + T(emperature).
26 Unrivalled forward, trim, inhibited by nothing (9)
NONPAREIL – ON (forward) + PARE (trim), inside NIL (nothing).
27 Speculator in time before robbery having load of gold (8)
THEORIST – T(ime) + HEIST (robbery) around OR (gold).
28 Empty country next to field covering good part of estate (6)
LEGACY – C(ountr)Y next to LEA (field) around G(ood).

Down
1 Changing tune, pitied for lack of competence (10)
INEPTITUDE – (tune pitied)*.
2 Democrat raised morale, involving five hundred in scheme (5)
DODGE – D(emocrat) + EGO (morale) reversed around D (500).
3 Sea with fish located earlier, being lucky (7)
CHARMED – MED (sea) after CHAR (fish).
5 Drone informally during start of meal (5)
THRUM – THRU (informally during) + M(eal).
6 Claim with conclusion taken out and run over quickly (7)
ALLEGRO – ALLEGE (claim) without the last letter (conclusion taken out) + R(un) + O(ver).
7 Comrade to receive love and shelter, I promise (9)
POTENTIAL – PAL (comrade) around O (love), TENT (shelter), I.
8 Regime followed by slimmer assembly (4)
DIET – double definition.
9 Cave in wooded area swallowing everything up (8)
COLLAPSE – COPSE (wooded area) around ALL (everything) reversed.
13 Consistent record broken by university in the end (10)
EVENTUALLY – EVEN (consistent) + TALLY (record) around U(niversity).
15 Seek to keep old US city unspoiled (9)
INVIOLATE – INVITE (seek) around O(ld), L.A. (US city).
17 Be quiet during act, missing right beat (8)
OUTSHINE – SH (be quiet) inside ROUTINE (act) without the R (missing right).
19 Revel in resistance, ordered to rise (7)
ROISTER – R(esistance) + (to rise)*.
20 Lover, go on and flourish (7)
FANFARE – FAN (lover) + FARE (go on).
22 Old letters in English among works (5)
RUNES – E(nglish) inside RUNS (works).
23 Carnivore with yen approaching houses (5)
HYENA – hidden in “witH YEN Approaching”.
24 Upset at most awkward situation (4)
SPOT – TOPS (at most) reversed.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 25992 (10th Jan)”

  2. 17 mins. My notes say that I spent two or three mins at the end on the SPOT/PLANT crossers so I obviously had the same mental block as several people on the club forum.
  3. I take comfort from the fact that the problems I hit seemed to be the same as those recorded by the seasoned campaigners (25ac, 24dn, 20dn).

    Got there eventually except I had SPAT at 24 dn (could not see SPOT for the life of me and went with “upset” as definition with cross checkers without knowing why…)

  4. 19.23 for me. We had FANFARE=FLOURISH some time last summer I think (sorry – I haven’t got Tony’s nifty app so I can’t pinpoint it)and it raised some hackles on the Club Forum for reasons I didn’t really understand then and don’t now. P.S. Andy – I think you mean 7d not 7a in your Forum comment re TLS 1058.
    2. Don’t know about The Times but it was clued by Rufus in the Guardian last September as

      An enthusiast to get on and flourish (7)

      (Guardian 26,365)

      How setters must hate Google!

  5. 45 minutes of enjoyable solving for me. I see from my notes that 24dn was my second answer in and with no checkers at the time, so obviously I had no problems seeing it.

    Edited at 2015-01-17 06:29 pm (UTC)

  7. I can’t remember much about this but the lack of ink on the scribble pad indicates that it didn’t cause any problems. Agree POTENTIAL is very good and there’s nothing wrong with FANFARE. THRUM my word of the day.

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