Saturday Times 26178 (15th Aug) – blimey!

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 9:08! Wow, was I on form or what! I did this around 10:30am on Saturday morning, and was amazed to find myself leading the pack (excluding a few neutrinos) on the Times leaderboard. I was even more astonished to find myself still there (apart from a dozen more neutrinos) at midnight! The only one I struggled with was 23ac, where I was labouring under the impression that “scheme” was the definition, and wanted the answer to be CONJECTURE, but then I got 19dn and had another look. A few others went in on instinct (intuitive BIFFing?) but I’d figured out the wordplay by the time it took to type them in. Feeling like the guy who saved money on his car insurance in that stupid advert :-D.

Across
1 Summoner keeps time, reflecting top-class standards (8)
CRITERIA – CRIER (summoner) around T(ime) + A1 (top-class) reversed.
9 Not quite the news thirsty old traveller wanted to hear? (4-4)
WELL-NIGH – “old” traveller as in “in days of yore” when water was drawn from wells and they’d say nigh for nearby.
10 Asylums without locks, first to close (6)
HAVENS – SHAVEN (without locks), then move the first letter to the end (first to close).
11 Chemical agent briefly repelled men fusilier replaced (10)
EMULSIFIER – EM (briefly repelled ME(n)) + (fusilier)*.
12 They say some deer get little sleep (4)
DOZE – sounds like “does” (some deer).
13 Stupid speculator was first in (4-6)
BULL-HEADED – BULL (speculator) + HEADED (was first in). I wouldn’t have gone with “stupid” for the definition – maybe stubborn or obstinate, impetuous even. As a speculator, a bull is someone who bets on a rise in the stock market. That may be stupid, but it’s not what the answer means!
16 Implement silent working introduced by university (7)
UTENSIL – (silent)* after U(niversity).
17 Spirit causing problem — about millilitre in drink (7)
GREMLIN – RE (about) + ML (millilitre), inside GIN (drink).
20 National dress upset rogue (10)
PORTUGUESE – (upset rogue)*.
22 Scruff last in line put on fluffy coat (4)
NAPE – E (last in “line”) next to NAP (fluffy coat).
23 Joining European Court in scheme (10)
CONNECTIVE – E(uropean) + CT (court), inside CONNIVE (scheme).
25 Public official‘s year very much going west (6)
NOTARY – YR (year) + A TON (very much), all reversed (going west).
26 Upshot of half a dozen in building about to be thrown out? (8)
EVICTION – VI (half a dozen) inside ERECTION (building) without RE (about). &lit or semi-&lit? I think semi, with “Upshot of” as the non-wordplay element. Great clue though.
27 Speculator ruined others with it (8)
THEORIST – (others, it)*

Down
2 Re-equip army heading off last (8)
REARMOST – REARM (re-equip) + HOST (army) minus the first letter (heading off).
3 Way to acquire a granny, perhaps, or in-laws? (3,3,4)
TIE THE KNOT – double cryptic definition? Obvious when you see it, anyway!
4 Like a son fleeing building again? (10)
RESEMBLING – A + S(on) removed from REASSEMBLING (building again).
5 Jolly Liberal leaves without causing offence (7)
AWFULLY – L(iberal) removed from LAWFULLY (without causing offence).
6 Rich husband’s forgone bonus (4)
PLUS – PLUSH (rich), without the H for husband.
7 Felt for cord amid rising depression (6)
PITIED – TIE (cord) inside DIP (depression) reversed.
8 Dramatist‘s Bottom taken up by this lady (8)
SHERIDAN – NADIR (bottom) reversed, next to SHE (this lady). Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), Irish playwright best known for The Rivals.
14 Essential intelligence shared by Arabs? (5,5)
HORSE SENSE – cryptic definition.
15 Provide the Cabinet’s publicity man? (10)
ADMINISTER – AD-MINISTER, i.e. the minister for ads.
16 Left, maybe, taken apart (8)
UNPICKED – double definition, the first slightly cryptic, as in left on the bench?
18 Solicits men in undesirable spots, letting the first go (8)
IMPLORES – OR (men) inside DIMPLES (undesirable spots) without the D (letting the first go)… or more likely PIMPLES without the P – see comments.
19 Republican worker supporting priest in need of assistance (7)
RELIANT – R(epublican) + ANT (worker), around ELI (priest).
21 Clubs invested in currency that’s rising high (6)
RANCID – C(lubs) inside DINAR (currency) reversed.
24 Headgear provided by firm (4)
COIF – IF (provided) next to CO (firm). I looked this one up afterwards, as I thought it meant a hairstyle, but according to Chambers the real meaning is a type of headdress, with hairstyle as an informal usage.

11 comments on “Saturday Times 26178 (15th Aug) – blimey!”

  1. I was pretty sure ‘unpacked’ wasn’t going to work, but UNPICKED didn’t occur to me as meaning ‘taken apart’. HAVENS I biffed, although a loose-lipped Club forumist explained things soon after. I had the same thoughts as Andy about BULL-HEADED.I liked 9ac.
  2. Solving on a different planet this took me not far from 90 minutes. I also wondered about BULL-HEADED but it turned out my concerns needed to be addressed to the lexicographers – at least the ones at Collins.
  3. 26 mins. I did this after getting back from the pub on Saturday afternoon so I’d have to surmise that what works for Verlaine doesn’t seem to work for me. HAVENS was my POI and it seemed to take me an age to see the wordplay, while UNPICKED was my LOI after I finally saw how it worked. I noted that it took me way too long to see EVICTION, and you can count me as another who hadn’t come across the “stupid” meaning of BULL-HEADED before.
  4. OK, I spent a week trying to work out 10a on the grounds that HAVENS didn’t make any sense of the wordplay at all. Now I do see it, but it seems a bit stretchy. Should have just biffed it and got on with it.
  5. 61 minutes – my notes say ‘tough and elegant’. Animal-wise, I had no problem with bull-headed but had never heard of horse sense. 9a was my favourite.

    I think the setter may be confusing his dimples with his pimples – Kirk Douglas and a few other screen icons would be surprised to hear their (inverted) salient features described as ‘undesirable spots’. Legal letters might fly too…

    Edited at 2015-08-22 01:44 pm (UTC)

  7. TfTT teamwork at its finest – CSI meets the Marx Brothers. Motto: ‘We get there in the end!’

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