Saturday Times 26130 (20th June)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 12:10, so on the easy end of the spectrum. Maybe because there was a lot of General Knowledge required which happened to suit me because I knew it! Well, most of it – I’d never heard of A4e, but then that wasn’t required to solve the clue anyway.

Across
1 Wife and mother reclined on rug in tent (6)
WIGWAM – W(ife) + MA reversed, next to WIG (rug).
5 So one left via Tower Hill exit? (8)
HEADLESS – cryptic definition alluding to the fact that it used to be where they held public executions. There’s a tube station there now, which explains the surface reading.
9 Horse box enthusiast (8)
CHESTNUT – CHEST (box) + NUT (enthusiast).
10 Speculator backed by mysterious millionaire (6)
GATSBY – STAG (speculator) reversed + BY.
11 Empty contract stops A4e having effect (6)
ACTIVE – C(ontrac)T inside A, IV (4), E. If you’re wondering (which I was), A4e stands for “Action for Employment”, a company which supposedly supplies training and helps unemployed people find work (but read the Wikipedia article, it’s fascinating).
12 Frank describing works of Luke and John? (8)
POSTMARK – in the Gospels, Luke and John come after Mark.
14 Political broadcast on large TV draws people in (12)
GOVERNMENTAL – (on large TV)* around MEN (people).
17 Offensive player demands extra handset (4,8)
WIDE RECEIVER – WIDE (extra, in cricket) + RECEIVER (handset). An American football position.
20 I abhor kale, regularly used as vegetable (8)
KOHLRABI – (I abhor kale)*.
22 Girl’s last to start making cake (6)
ECLAIR – CLAIRE (girl), with the last letter moved to the front.
23 One purchasing second discounted jumper (6)
HOPPER –
25 Dissonant in Tosca’s C superfluous to melodic phrase (8)
OSTINATO – (in Tosca)* + TO.
26 Calculate roughly one million swells assets (8)
ESTIMATE – 1 + M(illion) inside ESTATE (assets).
27 Delay on time machine is ignored (6)
RETARD – RE (on) + TARDIS (time machine), minus IS.

Down
2 Using a vehicle, knocking out wings in New York City (6)
ITHACA – (w)ITH A CA(r). A city in New York state. I only knew of the one in Michigan, as my brother had a penfriend from there when he was a teenager.
3 Invest in dreams here with shilling we cast? (7,4)
WISHING WELL – W(ith) + (shilling we)*, &lit. Great clue, almost poetical.
4 Crew given work contrived plan (9)
MANOEUVRE – MAN (crew) + OEUVRE (work).
5 Henry turned up to motivate Percy (7)
HOTSPUR – H(enry) + TO reversed + SPUR (motivate). Nickname of Sir Henry Percy (1364-1403).
6 Guardian contends Egypt’s leader must go (5)
ARGUS – ARGUES (contends), without the E for Egypt. In Greek mythology, a giant with 100 eyes who protected the nymph Io.
7 Survivor in Sodom finds destiny (3)
LOT – double definition.
8 Wrong about NKVD boss hailing from Tomsk? (8)
SIBERIAN – SIN (wrong) around BERIA (NKVD boss).
13 Asteroid child, extra-terrestrial, conceals plot (5,6)
MINOR PLANET – MINOR (child) + ET (extra-terrestrial) around PLAN (plot).
15 One famously portrays struggle in Balkan city (5,4)
MOVIE STAR – VIE (struggle) inside MOSTAR (Balkan city).
16 Spirited Russian chap interrupts you in Paris (8)
VIGOROUS – IGOR (Russian chap) inside VOUS (you in Paris).
18 Eastern brute an individual who succeeds (7)
EPIGONE – E(astern) + PIG (brute) + ONE (an individual). Not a word you see every day, and I’m sure I’ve only ever seen it in crosswords. A Greek word meaning a successor.
19 Easy chance for MP? (6)
SITTER – double definition.
21 Vessel has gold — tons in two areas (5)
AORTA – OR (gold) + T(ons) inside a couple of A(rea)s.
24 Greek character in pub on island (3)
PHI – PH (public house) + I(sland).

11 comments on “Saturday Times 26130 (20th June)”

  1. 18 mins. I sailed through most of it, but according to my notes the EPIGONE/OSTINATO crossers and MANOEUVRE (my LOI) took me about 5 mins.
  2. This was pretty straightforward but I remember being momentarily stumped by POSTMARK and ECLAIR of all things. Still, a pleasant 20 minutes or so. The clue for ACTIVE looks much sharper in light of the Wikipedia article.
  3. I like the Chambers definition of ECLAIR – A cake, long in shape but short in duration.

    linxit, at 13, the definition is just asteroid, the child is part of the wordplay. (Sorry to be picky).

    1. Well spotted! That’s actually what I intended, not sure how I ended up putting the closing tag in the wrong place. Fixed now.

      I almost mentioned the Chambers humorous definition, as it’s probably the one most cited. For a longer list of them, have a look here. I occasionally find others lurking there which aren’t in any of the lists, but never remember to make a note of them.

  4. 24m: I found this pretty tricky. I can’t remember all the things that gave me trouble but i didn’t know EPIGONE and it was one of them. I initially put ITHICA but fortunately wasn’t sure so went back to check the wordplay.
    Another picky point, Andy: I don’t think 17ac is &Lit.
    1. I agree that 17ac isn’t &lit, but then I never said it was 😉

      The only one I described as &lit was 3dn, which I’m pretty sure is. I know I highlighted only half of it as the def, but it dawned on me as I was typing it up that the whole clue could be seen as a definition of a wishing well.

      1. Eek! I have no idea how I did that. But I meant 3dn. For me an &Lit is a clue in which the whole clue is both wordplay and definition. Here WP and definition are separate so it is not &Lit, even if the whole clue can be read as a definition.
  5. Another Saturday off the scale for me but quite easy compared with today’s offering! Never heard of WIDE RECEIVER and only got ITHACA through ignorance and a bit of luck. I didn’t know it was a US city but vaguely thought of it as something to do with mythology and assumed it was a city in Ancient Greece. I then took ‘New York’ as referring to ‘vehicle’, giving me CAB (as opposed to a UK ‘taxi’) from which to remove a wing.
    1. As in the famous black cabs in New York, and that iconic slice of London life, Taxi Driver?! 🙂
  6. Greetings from Abu Dhabi airport, as I await the magic carpet to whisk me onwards to London…

    Was I alone in thinking POSTMARK was outstanding?! Very witty, elegant and economical surface, and required a “penny drop” moment (at least for me).

    Chewed my way through the rest, with ITHACA going in without being able to parse it (i.e. a guess playing the odds) and EPIGONE being unknown but mercifully very attainable from the wordplay.

    Thanks to blogger and setter.

  7. 42:22 for me, so a bit on the hard side of average. Both ARGUS and EPIGONE were unknown and leaps of faith for me from the wordplay. 2d, my LOI, took me ages even once I had finally got 11a and belatedly realised it was a city in NY State. I agree with Nick on POSTMARK, and I also enjoyed the ‘rug’ in 1a.

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