Saturday Times 25998 (17th Jan)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 17:49 (although at least a couple of minutes of that was at the end staring at S?E?T (25ac) and trying to make sense of the clue). Glancing at the comments on the Crossword Club forum, I see I was in good company there, but I had no problem with 15ac, which was also mentioned as giving a bit of trouble. Good puzzle, certainly tougher than in recent weeks.

Across
1 I don’t know colonist walking to the right (7)
PASSANT – PASS (I don’t know) + ANT (colonist). Heraldic term.
5 Thoroughly cack-handed husband getting around DIY at first (2,5)
IN DEPTH – INEPT (cack-handed) + H(usband), around D(IY).
9 Vexatious bridge pair happen to claim honour (9)
WEARISOME – W,E (bridge pair) + ARISE (happen) around OM (Order of Merit, honour).
10 Fine beef steak, not much of a dish?u (5)
FRUMP – F(ine) + RUMP (beef steak).
11 Various old poets gathering in private ground after theatre visit? (4-9)
POST-OPERATIVE – (O, poets)* inside (private)*.
13 Affected kid in old Japanese capital (8)
STRICKEN – TRICK (kid) inside SEN (old Japanese capital, i.e. money).
15 European dons measure area: places timber may be sourced from (6)
PINETA – E(uropean) inside PINT (measure), A(rea).
17 Backward daughter put her foot down again? (6)
RETROD – RETRO (backward) + D(aughter). I briefly groaned at the apparent unsignalled reversed bad homophone “DORTER” but luckily sense prevailed!
19 Material I bought originally in mix-up (8)
TANGIBLE – I + B(ought) inside TANGLE (mix-up).
22 Culprit’s code I cracked forms basis of case (6,7)
CORPUS DELICTI – (culprit’s code I)*. Latin, literally “the body of the crime”.
25 Had room for second piano in rented property (5)
SLEPT – S(econd) + P(iano) inside LET (rented property). Last one in for me, took ages to even see the definition.
26 Unusual Gaelic bar shown symbolically (9)
ALGEBRAIC – (Gaelic bar)*.
27 See retiring CO fade from memory outside Home Counties (7)
DIOCESE – CO reversed inside DIE (fade from memory), + SE (Home Counties).
28 Clawed back most of information going about by oneself (7)
TALONED – DAT(a) (most of information) reversed around LONE (by oneself).

Down
1 Pop instrument (4)
PAWN – double definition.
2 Small person on budget holiday finds beetle (7)
SCAMPER – S(mall) + CAMPER (person on budget holiday).
3 Central section of program is seldom at fault (5)
AMISS – middle letters of “progrAM IS Seldom”.
4 Came to power and filched deliveries (4,4)
TOOK OVER – TOOK (filched) + OVER (deliveries, in cricket).
5 Mountain dwellers — one cross, bitten by insects (6)
IBEXES – I (one) + X (cross) inside BEES (insects).
6 Chastening language used in four consecutive letters (9)
DEFLATING – LATIN (language) inside DEFG (four consecutive letters).
7 Turned up about a job relating to apostle (7)
PAULINE – UP reversed around A, + LINE (job).
8 Like do-gooder, say, loathed admitting thirst outside pub (10)
HYPHENATED – HATED (loathed) around YEN (thirst) around PH (Public House, pub).
12 Socrates did, endlessly shivering out in the cold (10)
OSTRACISED – (Socrates di)*.
14 Flirtatious lady snaffles last of ginger cake (9)
CROQUETTE – COQUETTE (flirtatious lady) around (ginge)R.
16 Give up on insignificant Bergman film (8)
GASLIGHT – SAG (give) reversed + LIGHT (insignificant). 1944 film starring Ingrid Bergman.
18 Editor’s gripped by baseless lethargy — it could harm sub (7)
TORPEDO – ED(itor) inside TORPO(r) (baseless lethargy).
20 Monarchy shows shrewdness, getting to grips with technology (7)
BRITAIN – BRAIN (shrewdness) around IT (technology).
21 Programs needing prize — 500 put up by English (6)
ADWARE – AWARD (prize), with the D (500) moved up, + E(nglish). Programs (normally games) which get revenue from showing adverts rather than from sales.
23 Intriguing group of Spanish gents? Not half! (5)
CABAL – CABAL(leros).
24 One copper standing up to catch another fly (4)
SCUD – DS (Detective Sergeant) reversed around CU (copper).

8 comments on “Saturday Times 25998 (17th Jan)”

  1. Didn’t quite finish within the hour so resorted to aids for the last one, PINETA, which I really should have known. Failed to reconcile the definition at 25 but immediately understood it on seeing it confirmed in the blog.

    Edited at 2015-01-24 10:21 am (UTC)

  2. 19 mins. The PAWN/WEARISOME crossers were my last ones in, and I was glad of the anagram fodder for CORPUS DELICTI. I had no problem with SLEPT and understood the definition once I’d seen the wordplay.
  3. I am sure that at one stage I had grasped the definition of SLEPT but now cannot see it. Slept = had room for?

    What I wanted to say though is that the Saturday and Sunday bloggers do sterling work, often with very little feedback so on behalf of the rest of us, thank you linxit.

    1. Think tents, or holiday cottages etc.

      Yep, very quiet today, I can normally count on 9 or 10 comments. Where is everybody???

  4. PINETA did for me, too; DNK, indeed NHOI, which is some sort of consolation, I suppose. On the other hand, I forgot to correct 24d, where I’d flung in ‘acid’ (cid, police, think about it later) and much later got SCUD.More DNKs in 1d and 2d, and I had to double-check the spelling of CORPUS DELICTI; so all in all not a fun Saturday.
  5. Had my personal reasons for disliking “cack-handed” used to clue INEPT. And I was a bit unsure about “vexatious” as a literal for WEARISOME. “Worrisome” more like it?
  6. Thanks for the blog Andy – sorry very late this week as away in rural NSW with no internet…

    Got this one out eventually, but needed to “phone a friend” re. ADWARE. I also struggled with SLEPT and bunged it in without proper parsing.

    Enjoyable puzzle, particularly liked CABAL and FRUMP.

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