Saturday Times 26088 (2nd May) – Times for The Times

Solving time 14:50, on the train on Thursday night! It was a busy Bank Holiday weekend for me, so I had quite a backlog to get through in this week’s commute. Finally finished the May Day jumbo last night, and the pile’s gone. Whew! COD to 25ac for the great surface reading (although they were all pretty sound), just ahead of 5dn.

Across
1	Spent close to everything on software? That’s outrageous (9)
	APPALLING – ALL IN (spent) + G (close to everything), next to APP (software).
6	Male attending church for marriage (5)
	MATCH – M(ale) + AT (attending) + CH(urch).
9	State one’s tucked into excellent fruit turnover (7)
	TUNISIA – I’S (one’s) inside A1 NUT (excellent fruit) reversed.
10	Soundly criticise and change part of service (7)
	NOCTURN – sounds like “knock” (criticise) + TURN (change).
11	Conservative/Labour split (5)
	CLEFT – C(onservative) + LEFT (Labour).
12	Farce appeared funny ultimately, entertaining gents perhaps (3,6)
	LOW COMEDY – LOOMED (appeared) + (funn)Y, around WC (gents perhaps).
13	Sing revolutionary number with a third of the band (5)
	CROON – NO (number) + ORC (a third of ORCHESTRA, the band), all reversed.
14	Book on surgery with short word for medical instrument (9)
	OPTOMETER – TOME (book) next to OP (surgery) + TER(m) (short word).
17	It isn’t unusual to hoard foreign currency, mostly for travelling (2,7)
	IN TRANSIT – (it isn’t)* around RAN(d) (foreign currency mostly).
18	Start winning at tennis? (3,2)
	SET UP – double definition.
19	Here’s implement with flat blade if chisel’s broken (4,5)
	FISH SLICE – (if chisel’s)*.
22	Still time to be in equestrian competition? (5)
	EVENT – EVEN (still) + T(ime).
24	A five year period going round part of France (7)
	AVEYRON – A + V (five) + YR (year) inside EON (period). Department of France which contains the Millau Viaduct, the world’s tallest bridge.
25	Maybe parts of Antarctic area — cold one — receding (3,4)
	ICE CAPS – SPACE (area) + C(old) + I (one), all reversed.
26	Smelly suspect behind back of screen (5)
	NIFFY – IFFY (suspect) behind (scree)N.
27	In French disco, perhaps, you are said to join in, showing stamina (9)
	ENDURANCE – EN (in French) + DANCE (disco perhaps) around UR (sounds like “you are”).

Down
1	Transporter of goods in particular (5)
	ARTIC – hidden in “particular”.
2	Pound note — payment for festival (9)
	PENTECOST – PEN (pound) + TE (note) + COST (payment).
3	Large country keeping middle part of Titanic, doomed ship (9)
	LUSITANIA – L(arge) + USA (country) around (t)ITANI(c). A passenger liner torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915.
4	To be fair, I note everyone has to study physics, perhaps (2,3,10)
	IN ALL CONSCIENCE – I + N(ote) + ALL (everyone) + CON (study) + SCIENCE (physics perhaps).
5	Book to read or film to see, thing we do when it turns nasty (4,4,3,4)
	GONE WITH THE WIND – (thing we do when it)*. 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell, filmed in 1939 starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Ideal for a rainy Bank Holiday afternoon.
6	He-man Chinese leader keeps in check (5)
	MACHO – MAO (Chinese leader) around CH(eck).
7	Greek character exercises in grey and brown (5)
	TAUPE – TAU (Greek character) + PE (exercises).
8	Not all of the old drama turned around seductive plot (9)
	HONEYTRAP – PART (not all of) + YE (the old) + NOH (drama), all reversed.
13	Leader that is printed by newspaper with all-round restraint (9)
	CHIEFTAIN – IE (that is) + FT (newspaper) inside CHAIN (restraint).
15	Soldier came across English monarch crossing Welsh river (9)
	MUSKETEER – MET (came across) + E(nglish) + ER (monarch), around USK (Welsh river).
16	Birds, secure inside old building (5,4)
	TITHE BARN – TIT, HEN (birds) around BAR (secure).
20	Woman left with frequency might be on it? (5)
	SHELF – SHE (woman) + L(eft) + F(requency), &lit.
21	Water cut flowers (5)
	SPRAY – double definition.
23	Sample steaks regularly with endless drink (5)
	TASTE – alternate letters of “steaks” + TE(a) (endless drink).

9 comments on “Saturday Times 26088 (2nd May)”

Found this quite chewy, and finally thwarted by 7dn and 24ac. Without knowing the colour or the Greek letter, I was legitimately stuffed by Taupe – but should have got Aveyron from what was, now it’s parsed, pretty generous wordplay…

Much to enjoy in this puzzle. Thought the 5dn anagram was a belter, 4dn neatly constructed (albeit easy to spot from def and enumeration), and 26ac was an amusing surface.

Thanks for the very clear blog Andy – helped me understand several that I had not fully parsed (e.g. third of band in CROON – damned devious, that one…)

Edited at 2015-05-09 08:47 am (UTC)

Managed to finish in 1 week, which is good for me. One wrong however, I has ice pans (span reversed) instead of ice caps. I also guessed croon (and optometer) Thanks Andy for showing the correct parsing.

13 mins. I think I was on the setter’s wavelength for this one, and the only note I made said that AVEYRON was my LOI after I decided to trust the wordplay.

Just scraped home in 1 minute under my target of 30, delayed by AVEYRON which I had not heard of so had to rely on wordplay. My only other unknown was NOCTURN as part of a service; I’m more familiar with it plus -E as a piece of music or type of painting.

Edited at 2015-05-09 08:50 pm (UTC)

JerryW says:

10 May 2015 at 8:24 AM

Well its a funny thing, I knew Aveyron because I swear it has come up more than once recently.. but if so, we appear not to have blogged it; maybe it was The Week or some other crossword(s) I did

Fast for me for a Saturday. DNK 19ac; for me a FISH SLICE is a slice of fish, but it went in easily enough. First flung in ‘Avignon’ at 24 for no other reason than that I had A and N; then I went from ‘five year’ to V YR and biffed, solving post hoc. Lots of lovely surfaces helped make this a very enjoyable puzzle. COD to 5d (anagram division), and 12ac.

enjoyed this one, raced through it in no time, only to find I had submitted “Gone Woth The Wind” ..

11:46. I remember thinking ‘I’m glad I’ve heard of the AVEYRON’.
I also remembered some discussion recently about TITHE BARN being clued in such a way that TYTHE BARN would fit equally well, so I checked the wordplay carefully.

Edited at 2015-05-10 08:40 pm (UTC)

DNF. Haven’t heard of Aveyron – my knowledge of French areas probably matches your knowledge of Fijian districts, just some foreign country on the other side of the world. And being a random foreign word in a language I don’t speak makes it hard to build from the cryptic – a 4-part charade which could have been 3-part or 2-part with any number of possibilities.
Grumpy grumpy 20 minutes for the rest so about average.
Rob

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