Saturday Times 26400 (30th April).

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
16:49 for this one, so I must have found it on the tricky side. I can’t remember what held me up now though, seems pretty straightforward going through the clues again this morning. It was my third puzzle of the morning last Monday though, so I was probably just running out of steam.

Across
1 Republican follows formal procedure within CIA principles (8)
CRITERIA – R(epublican) after RITE (formal procedure), all inside CIA.
9 Protect from harm criminal shot at court (8)
CONSERVE – CON (criminal) + SERVE (shot at court, i.e. tennis).
10 Something lovely from Rio — samba that rocks! (8)
AMBROSIA – (Rio samba)*.
11 Day inexperienced defender causes problem (8)
DRAWBACK – D(ay) + RAW (inexperienced) + BACK (defender).
12 Opposing and supporting check by social worker (10)
PROTESTANT – PRO (supporting) + TEST (check) + ANT (social worker).
14 Hawk-headed god restrains explosive Titaness (4)
RHEA – RA (hawk-headed god) around HE (high explosive). In Greek mythology she was the mother of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and others.
15 Sticks from shed are broken (7)
ADHERES – (shed are)*.
17 Couple tours river that is in grassland (7)
PRAIRIE – PAIR (couple) around R(iver) + IE (that is).
19 Flatfish being the only one (4)
SOLE – double definition.
21 Fabric designs record steps taken to banish duke (10)
TAPESTRIES – TAPE (record) + STRIDES (steps taken), minus the D for duke).
22 Framed in mosaic, perhaps, compiler finally becomes immortal (8)
TIMELESS – TILES (mosaic perhaps) around ME (compiler), + (become)S.
23 Histrionic viewer around a long time (8)
OPERATIC – OPTIC (viewer) around ERA (a long time).
25 Agitated wanderer short with son, returned (8)
ANSWERED – (wanderer, son)*.
26 Toothless Suez PM at site of hangings (8)
EDENTATE – EDEN (Suez PM) + TATE (Gallery, “site of hangings”).

Down
2 Spirit or French wine that’s put about (8)
RUMOURED – RUM (spirit) + OU (or in French) + RED (wine).
3 Accelerator and choke (8)
THROTTLE – double definition…
4 Climbing plant / took an upward course (4)
ROSE – … and another.
5 French settler runs to escape simple rural type (7)
ACADIAN – ARCADIAN (simple rural type), minus the R for runs. Acadia is a former name for the part of Canada settled by the French in the 17th century.
6 Brandt upset with some at daggers drawn (2,3,5)
ON BAD TERMS – (Brandt, some)*.
7 About to puncture swimmer’s lung? (8)
BREATHER – RE (about) inside BATHER (swimmer). Coincidentally the same word appeared in Monday’s Guardian (the same day I solved this) with a very similar treatment.
8 Make out superb stores close to retail chain (8)
NECKLACE – NECK (ake out) + ACE (superb), around (retai)L.
13 Stormy weather set for ducks? (10)
SWEETHEART – (weather set)*.
15 Barker‘s penniless friend, one found in Dickens (8)
ALSATIAN – (p)AL (“penniless” friend) + I (one) inside SATAN (Dickens, a euphemism for the Devil).
16 Level of standards dropped in some respect? (4-4)
HALF-MAST – cryptic definition.
18 Troubling girl to fill in old tax office books (8)
IRRITANT – RITA (girl) inside IR (Inland Revenue, old tax office) + NT (New Testament, books).
19 Romantic concept is accepted by officer (8)
IDEALIST – IDEA (concept) + IS inside LT (lieutenant, officer).
20 Happening to find Greek character on turf in Central Greece? (7)
EPISODE – PI (Greek character) + SOD (turf), all inside EE (central Greece).
24 Something inherited comes from Guernsey regularly (4)
GENE – alternate letters of Guernsey.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 26400 (30th April).”

  1. All but three in 25 minutes and 15 for the remainder. I think I biffed “coheres” at 15ac which was foolish and held me up a bit. RHEA as something other than a flightless bird was new to me.
  2. dnk RHEA, but seemed logical. There are quite a lot of hawk- headed gods in Ancient Egypt. 32′.
  3. 18:46. Fingers rossed for RHEA. 13dn my last in by a long chalk, and quite a good penny-drop moment when I finally saw it. Nice clue.
  4. It could have held me up for a while longer had I not been at a friend’s house doing the crossword with a borrowed pen — a resplendent golden plastic number featuring a hawk-headed Egyptian god with a big golden sun above its head as if to say, “Hi. I’m RA!”. Quite the coincidence.
  5. About 45 min on the train. I thought it was on the easier side, but I also thought there were a number of nice clues. Spent a while trying to figure out what kind of social worker an ing (protesting) was, before I got the cross and changed to the somewhat less accurate protestant.
  6. Managed to get most of this but failed to get Necklace and Rhea; and also needed three in the SW. Got stuck with Hall-mark for 16d, couldn’t think of anything else. David
    1. Congratulations – that’s a prize that remains absent from my trophy cabinet after over 30 years of solving!

      However, I got a £20 cheque as a runner-up prize for the Mephisto last week (only the second one I’ve sent in this year), but no letter to go with it, just the cheque. I had to search online to find out what it was for!

      1. I definitely got lucky, then! Maybe I should spend the vouchers on a frame for the letter 🙂

        So far I’ve tried one Mephisto, and I think it’s safe to say that it will be a very long time before I’m sending those in regularly.

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