Saturday Times 26226 (10th Oct)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 10:38, so on the easier side. This setter likes the single-letter removal wordplay device – I counted 8 instances in this puzzle, but apart from that it was very tight with hardly a word wasted and some great surfaces.

Good luck to everyone at the Times Crossword Championships today. I’ll be in the first session at 11am and in The George at about 12:30, then back for the final at 3pm (hopefully not just as a spectator).

Across
1 Beetles left in sand by holidaymakers (8)
SCAMPERS – S (leftmost letter of sand) + CAMPERS (holidaymakers).
6 Islander, famous at last, with a grouse (6)
SAMOAN – (famou)S + A + MOAN (grouse).
9 Pole not used has end missing (4)
SPAR – SPARE (not used), minus the last letter.
10 Insulting aged or corrupt politician (10)
DEROGATORY – (aged or)* + TORY (politician).
11 A ruling on British intelligence (10)
BRAINPOWER – A + IN POWER (ruling), next to BR(itish).
13 Raised part of garden Rex installed (4)
BRED – BED (part of garden) around R(ex).
14 About 500 guineas collected for a piece of music (5,3)
AGNUS DEI – (guineas)* around D (500). “Lamb of God”, part of the Roman Catholic Latin mass.
16 Spared parliamentarian in city abandoned by monarch (6)
EXEMPT – MP (parliamentarian) inside EXETER (city), without ER (abandoned by monarch).
18 Fiction ignoring current provisions (6)
STORES – STORIES (fiction) without the I (ignoring current).
20 Tailcoat regularly worn by the same lake (8)
TITICACA – alternate letters of TaIlCoAt, inside alternate letters of TaIlCoAt !
22 What about constant love for parrot? (4)
ECHO – EH (what?) around C(onstant) + O (love).
24 Rude sign shown to be justified (10)
VINDICATED – V (rude sign) + INDICATED (shown).
26 Cat, short one, comes to birds (10)
KITTIWAKES – KITT(y) (cat, short) + I (one) + WAKES (comes to).
28 State different bits after zero hour (4)
OHIO – 1,0 (different bits, i.e. binary digits) after 0 (zero), H(our).
29 Penitent pruned the Spanish chestnut (6)
SORREL – SORR(y) (penitent pruned) + EL (“the” in Spanish).
30 Failure to utilise common herb (3-5)
NON-USAGE – NON-U (common) + SAGE (herb).

Down
2 Parrot with suitable protection (9)
COPYRIGHT – COPY (parrot) + RIGHT (suitable).
3 Army group butter up composer (7)
MARTINU – UNIT (army group) + RAM (butter), all reversed. Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959), Czech composer.
4 Finish burlesque topless (3,2)
END UP – SEND UP (burlesque), minus the first letter (topless).
5 Father’s abbreviated title (3)
SIR – SIRE (father) minus the last letter.
6 Half-hearted beggar wandering amid fat farmer’s crop (5,4)
SUGAR BEET – (begar)* inside SUET (fat).
7 Unsteady creature holding another up (7)
MUTABLE – MULE (creature) around BAT (another creature) reversed.
8 See eye to eye about occupying time (5)
AGREE – RE (about) inside AGE (time).
12 Western composer, not the first recorded (7)
WRITTEN – W(estern) + BRITTEN (composer) without the first letter.
15 Breaking of law avoids plea of not guilty? (9)
DISAVOWAL – (law avoids)*.
17 Choosing to tour East Riding — primarily to see a part of Yorkshire (9)
PICKERING – PICKING (choosing) around E(ast) R(iding). A town which is actually in North Yorkshire.
19 Bird list has to include duck (7)
ROOSTER – ROSTER (list) around O (duck).
21 Material to line empty cupboards or drawers? (7)
CRAYONS – RAYON (material) inside C(upboard)S.
23 Officer’s demeanour in capital (5)
CAIRO – CO (Commanding Officer) around AIR (demeanour).
25 Some aeroplanes Biggles sent up for playfellow (5)
IBSEN – hidden reversed in “aeroplanes Biggles”.
27 Non-European cattle may be related (3)
KIN – KINE (cattle), without the E for European.

20 comments on “Saturday Times 26226 (10th Oct)”

  1. Definitely an easy Saturday puzzle, and I didn’t solve it: put in KITTYWAKE, with a semi-conscious query about ‘short one’ that never rose to consciousness until too late. DNK MARTINU, but then the 20th-century composers I don’t know are legion. DNK PICKERING either, but the clue was easy. LOI 1ac: I was thinking of ‘beetle’ in the brow sense; idle thinking, since I can’t think of a word that would fit that sense (well, ‘beetle’ comes to mind, but). I liked 28ac, although 4-letter states are hardly a drug on the market.
  2. 14 mins, with the last 5 of them spent on my final three, which were COPYRIGHT, SCAMPERS, and finally STORES. They weren’t the most difficult of clues by any means, and I noted that I started to lose concentration and was drifting towards the end. I have done this many times before, and I suddenly realise I’ve been subconsciously thinking about things other than the clue in front of me.
  3. 10:26. Gentle for a Saturday. I didn’t know MARTINU either.
    I have prepared for the Championship today by making three mistakes on the Jumbo. Two really stupid, careless errors and one I can’t even find. Perhaps I’ll stay at home.
      2. Yes, I seem to have got my stupid mistakes out of the way for the day.
        Sorry I missed you: how did you do in the final?
        1. Somehow got 5th despite taking 43.5m – will be interested to see what held others up (I couldn’t stay afterwards so didn’t get the chance to ask).
  4. I’ve lost my print-out but I know this was my best Saturday time for ages (under 30 minutes) with nothing unknown that couldn’t be derived easily from wordplay. I believe SORREL for ‘chestnut’ is to do with horses rather than vegetable matter.

    Edited at 2015-10-17 12:51 pm (UTC)

  5. I found it easy, also.
    7 down is also MOTABLE – same cluing logic, and an archaic word with roughly the same meaning according to OED. I know this because I didn’t think of the mule, only the mole, and looked it up when I was done.
  6. And who won? Or is that a silly question?

    If anyone’s got tome to post a brief run-down, that would be great.

    1. 1. You know who
      2. Neil Talbott
      3. David Howell
      4. Chris Williams
      5. John McCabe
      6. Helen Ougham
      7. Richard Jacks
      8. Mike Davis
      9. Richard Grafen
      10. Simon Hanson

      Other TftT bods ( I think):
      14. Matthew Marcus (verlaine?)
      18. Marcos Fernandes (fathippy?)
      19. Tony Sever

      Topical Tim, Andy and Penfold also qualified for free entry next year, assuming I got their names right. I’m afraid this is as much as I can do for now, as my pecking-out-words-on-a-tablet-in-a-Kings-X-Travelodge stamina threshold is about to be crossed 🙂

          1. 8? Good grief. I had obviously given up counting.

            So that’s 48 puzzles under competition conditions without a single mistake, all at breakneck speed. You have to say, that’s not bad going.

            Forgot to say, well done, you, mohn. No mean achievement.

      2. Thank you so much. Excellent results for several of this parish, then. Neil T and Penfold especially catch the eye. Well done, all.

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