Saturday Times 26280 (12th Dec)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
A fairly sluggish 16:09 for this, which puts me out of the top 100 on the leaderboard (although as more than half of them are neutrinos that doesn’t mean a lot!) I remember putting TABLE at first for 21D, which messed up the SE corner for a while, but the rest of my problems were caused by starting it before I had enough coffee flowing through me!

Across
1 British PM’s keeping payment back for election transport (11)
BATTLEBUSES – B(ritish) + ATTLEE’S (PM’s) around SUB (payment) reversed.
7 You’ll need a hand, cutting fruit in half (3)
PAW – the fruit is a PAWPAW.
9 Note Welshman’s tucked into basmati and beef? (9)
GRIEVANCE – G (note) + EVAN (Welshman) inside RICE (basmati).
10 In retrospect, chalet obviously offers sleeping accommodation (5)
BOTEL – hidden reversed in “chalet obviously”.
11 Estuary eroding rocks (7)
GIRONDE – (eroding)*.
12 Chap‘s business in shopping arcade taking millions (7)
MALCOLM – CO (business) inside MALL (shopping arcade), + M(illions).
13 Crime force has ignored by a character from Athens (5)
THETA – THEFT (crime) without the F (force has ignored) + A.
15 Test cricket side welcomes extremely tough competition (9)
TRIATHLON – TRIAL (test) + ON (cricket side) around T(oug)H.
17 Champion returned prize following match? (3,6)
TOP FLIGHT – POT (prize) reversed + F(ollowing) + LIGHT (match?).
19 Ultimate in incentives for good child (5)
SPROG – (incentiove)S + PRO (for) + G(ood).
20 Fashionable, say, wearing flowing mantle cut away at the front (7)
ELEGANT – EG (say) inside (mantle)*.
22 Set fire to coal, left out by daughter (7)
IGNITED – LIGNITE (coal) minus the L (left out) + D(aughter).
24 I pass out in part of church (5)
APSIS – (I pass)*.
25 Discovering director at last is entering film studios (9)
REALISING – (directo)R + IS inside EALING (film studios).
27 Upper crust headgear? (3)
LID – double definition.
28 Heaters went bust in old cinema (4,7)
NEWS THEATRE – (heaters went)*.

Down
1 Rock climbing is great (3)
BIG – GIB (rock) reversed.
2 Tourist getting rid of pennies, one hears (5)
TRIER – TRIPPER (tourist) without the Ps (getting rid of pennies).
3 Trouble about beginning of month: uprising in Baltic province (7)
LIVONIA – AIL (trouble) around NOV 1 (beginning of month), all reversed.
4 Cake from French fellow alone contributing to his neighbour’s diet? (9)
BUNDESTAG – BUN (cake) + DE (from French) + STAG (fellow alone).
5 One way to cook casserole wife’s missed before noon (5)
STEAM – STEW (casserole) minus the W (wife’s missed) + AM (before noon).
6 Grotty pub opening bottles? That’s another story (7)
SUBPLOT – (pub)* inside SLOT (opening).
7 Scout hit by heavy wave (9)
PATROLLER – PAT (hit) + ROLLER (heavy wave).
8 Properly handled, we learners got on under staff supervision (4-7)
WELL-MANAGED – WE + LL (learners) + AGED (got on) underneath MAN (staff).
11 Fail to visit Chinese tourist attraction (2,2,3,4)
GO TO THE WALL – GO TO (visit), THE WALL (Chinese tourist attraction).
14 Newspaper chief squeezed out (9)
EXPRESSED – EXPRESS ED (newspaper chief).
16 Plotter in capital city surrounded by explosive (9)
INTRIGANT – IN + RIGA (capital city) inside TNT (explosive). Not a word I’d come across before, and Chambers says it’s archaic. Easy to get from the wordplay though.
18 Pressurises poor kid (5,2)
LEANS ON – LEAN (poor) + SON (kid).
19 English teacher and students turning up so early in the day? (7)
SUNRISE – E(nglish) + SIR (teacher) + NUS (students), all reversed.
21 Floor cover (5)
THROW – double definition.
23 Colour to conceal a blemish (5)
TAINT – TINT (colour) around A.
26 I’m surprised American regularly goes east (3)
GEE – alternate letters of “goes” + E(ast).

10 comments on “Saturday Times 26280 (12th Dec)”

  1. I hadn’t heard of either botel or intrigant before; but as you say, neither was hard to find.

    My submission spoilt by an irritating typo with “leads on” instead of leans on..

    Edited at 2015-12-19 09:10 am (UTC)

  2. Quite a few unknowns here: LILVONIA, INTRIGANT, APSIS. I knew the floating hotel but only as ‘boatel’.

    13ac would surely have been better with ‘force’s’ instead of ‘force has’ so that the solver could read it as ‘force is’. ‘Force has’ doesn’t make sense in my opinion. I got distracted by thinking ‘crime force’ was THE MET and wondering how deletion of EM or ME was clued. I’d already long since biffed the correct answer and went back to it after completing he grid

    58 minutes hard work.

    Edited at 2015-12-19 09:29 am (UTC)

    1. 13ac: I read it as “Crime (that) force has ignored”, which makes sense to me. I seem to be in the minority though!
  4. I’ve lost my print out but thought I had this cracked in 20 minutes. Now I read the blog I don’t remember entering INTRIGANT as it’s a word I don’t know and would have had to guess or look up. So I may have been a DNF.
    The rest was good, for me, including Andy’s parsing of 13a.
  5. Back in my boarding school days we had a smuggled copy of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in which “intrigante” occurs more than once as I recall. It was confiscated by the domestic science teacher who spoke not a mot of French but recognised the title. Didn’t know battlebuses. 21 minutes on the dot.
  6. I stayed on a BOTEL once. In Prague in the early 90s, when they were short of proper hotels. The Vltava. Couldn’t get a certain piece of music out of my mind… Longish solve (39 mins) but got there in the end. BUNDESTAG was LOI. Ann
  8. a stupid typo–GREIVANCE–gave me two wrong. 4d, 10ac, and 16d were my LOIs, last, laster, and lastest; but I’m pretty sure we’ve had BOTEL before. DNK APSIS, but no problem. DNK BATTLEBUSES either, which was more of a problem.

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