Saturday Times 26016 (7th Feb)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Struggled with this one for some reason, as I stopped the clock in 29:49, easily my slowest of the year so far. I can’t remember why now, as they all seemed very gettable as I was working through the explanations. By the way, sorry this is so late, but I had PC trouble this morning. Looks like an update failed at a critical moment and the whole thing crashed and wouldn’t reboot. All up and running now, but it took a while!

Across
1 Like some music I composed, mostly with style (9)
CLASSICAL – I + CAL(m) (composed, mostly) next to CLASS (style).
6 Fellow has work installing air-conditioning (5)
JACOB – JOB (work) around AC (air conditioning).
9 Loose woman rejected by theatre cronies (7)
SLAPPER – REP (theatre) + PALS (cronies), all reversed.
10 I’ll smile, given Greek meal without starter (7)
GRINNER – GR(eek) + (d)INNER (meal without starter).
11 Who’s endlessly keen after start of affair? (5)
AMOUR – MOUR(n) (endlessly keen) after A(ffair). Semi-&lit, i.e. the whole clue is the definition, but so’s the first word, which isn’t part of the wordplay.
12 No drinks served half-heartedly in these? (9)
NOSHERIES – NO + SHER(r)IES (drinks “half-heartedly”). Same again, semi &lit. with “in these?” as the non-wordplay element.
14 Your daughter’s taken round flat (3)
DRY – YR (your) + D(aughter), all reversed.
15 Iceland free to develop as small part of EU? (3-2-6)
ÎLE DE FRANCE – (Iceland free)*. Another name for the Paris metropolitan area.
17 Tenacity of rebel capturing relative and a few more (11)
PERSISTENCY – PERCY (rebel) around SIS (relative) + TEN (a few more). Our rebel is Sir Henry Percy (1341-1408), who rose against Henry IV and ended up with his head on a stake.
19 Speed limit one partly ignored (3)
TON – hidden in “limiT ONfont>e”.
20 Moving at a fairly fast paceu, or running (2,3,4)
ON THE TROT – double definition.
22 Readily believe in return of future monarch? (3,2)
LAP UP – PUPAL (of future monarch? – a type of butterfly) reversed.
24 Umpire given a mouthful between runs? (7)
ARBITER – A + BITE (mouthful) in between RR (runs).
26 Youngster can initially grasp one element of arithmetic? (7)
TOTTING – TOT (youngster) + TIN (can) + G(rasp).
27 Portion of asparagus, singular accompaniment for fruit (5)
SPEAR – S(ingular) + PEAR (fruit).
28 New guide about royal city of old required (2,7)
DE RIGUEUR – (guide)* around ER (royal) + UR (city of old).

Down
1 Plotter caught breaking into Italian’s house (5)
CASCA – C(aught) inside CASA (Italian’s house). Servilius Casca, one of Caesar’s assassins.
2 First-rate international body supervises my study (7)
ANATOMY – A (first-rate) + NATO (international body) + MY.
3 Problem about traveller turning up in one high-performance vehicle (9)
SUPERMINI – SUM (problem) around REP (traveller) reversed + IN + I (one). Laughable definition – the “super” refers to the size of the chassis, not the engine.
4 Sound of alarm near awfully secret Cotswolds location (11)
CIRENCESTER – sounds like “siren” + (secret)*. I was in that area last Sunday and drove through it, as it happens.
5 Record — big hit, though not No 1 (3)
LOG – SLOG (big hit), without the first letter.
6 Energy drink (5)
JUICE – double definition.
7 Deliver company new logo (7)
CONSIGN – CO + N(ew) + SIGN (logo).
8 Stay at home entertaining artist and composer (9)
BERNSTEIN – BE IN (stay at home) around ERNST (artist). Composer Leonard Bernstein, artist Max Ernst.
13 Strict tutor put out, breathing in a kind of sneezing powder? (11)
STERNUTATOR – STERN (strict) + (tutor)* around A.
14 Detective is planning to arrest uppity American officials (9)
DIPLOMATS – D.I. (detective) + PLOTS (is planning) around AM(erican) reversed.
16 Springing up, American reptile about to kill deer (5,4)
ROYAL STAG – GATOR (American reptile) around SLAY (to kill), all reversed. It’s not in Chambers, but a royal stag is one with a set of antlers with 12 or more points.
18 Academician put forward, being worthy of respect (7)
RATABLE – RA (academician) + TABLE (put forward).
19 Leading team cut (7)
TOPSIDE – TOP (leading) + SIDE (team).
21 Tenant not the first to cross the threshold (5)
ENTER – RENTER (tenant) without the first letter.
23 Secretary right, say, to pick up message on this? (5)
PAGER – P.A. (secretary) + R(ight) around EG (say) reversed.
25 Pole travelled, avoiding east (3)
ROD – RODE (travelled), without the E for east.

10 comments on “Saturday Times 26016 (7th Feb)”

  1. No note of time, but troubled most by the unknown sneezing agent, after which my last in ‘totting’ fell. No notes, no memory, so no further comments…
  2. 24 mins. I also found this one trickier than some, with STERNUTATOR my LOI. My notes say that I only parsed DIPLOMATS post-solve, and I thought that NOSHERIES, GRINNER and TOTTING were stylistically similar.
  3. I thought this a bit more tricky than average.. several rather unusual words and concepts, eg Percy = rebel, Ile de France etc… good though
  4. Yes, this took me longer than it might have at 24.58. There was some huffing and puffing on the Club Forum about SLAPPER being sexist and inappropriate but I can’t say it really bothered me. The one I had trouble convincing myself of was TON but it couldn’t have been anything else. My mother still lives near and does her shopping in Cirencester. Her generation (what’s left of it) call it Ciceter – I’ve no idea why but our lot always called it Ciren as in siren.
    1. An old school friend of mine lived in the prep school there, started by his grandfather and run at the time by his father. While visiting him, I remember him calling the place ‘Sister’. Although it is unclear to me now whether he was adopting a faux Glos accent – he spoke RP – the pronunciation is attested enough to have lead to this limerick:

      There was a young lady of Cirencester
      Who stood up to speak, and they hirencester:
      A man threw a carrot —
      She screeched like a parrot —
      But ducked in a flash, and it mirencester.

  5. 15:35. I seem to have been in the zone for this one. Good puzzle. I don’t like it when words like STERNUTATOR are clued with anagrams but in this case it seemed pretty clear where the letters had to go. I’d prefer not to see words like SLAPPER in these puzzles but I’m not going to die in a ditch over it.
  6. Rather heavy going. I solved it over several sessions so have no accurate time to offer, but it was way over my 30-minute target. Never heard of STERNUTATOR which doesn’t even look right now that I know it is. I was brought up to pronounce the town “Ci’ster”.
  7. Felt I was operating at the extreme edge of my capability (and slightly beyond at times!) with this one. But, a most enjoyable grapple and great learning experience.

    Missed out on NOSHERIES (despite all the cross checkers – a word that would simply never have never occurred to me) and having BIKE instead of MINI as the SUPER vehicle together with a NOTABLE rather than RATABLE academician scuppered PERSISTENCY.

    Thanks for very helpful blog Andy.

  8. Some DNKs slowed me down, not that I was going that fast anyway: SLAPPER, for one, TOPSIDE, SUPERMINI, STERNUTATOR, although that last one wasn’t much of a problem once I remembered ‘sternutation’. BK (barely knew) TON. It was nice–albeit delay-making–to see another international body other than the UN, and another rebel other than Che and Cade. I dislike words like GRINNER, which are simply derivational forms with no independent existence; why not ‘enjoyer’ or ‘hastener’ or ‘enveloper’? I looked up CIRENCESTER afterwards; couldn’t believe it’s pronounced pretty much as spelled.

    Edited at 2015-02-15 03:29 am (UTC)

  9. Thanks, for someone who enjoys but struggles, your answers are a real gift.

    Best wishes

    Adrian

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