Saturday Times 26424 (28th May)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Still very fresh in my mind as I only got around to solving it on the train home on Thursday evening. 12:55, although it felt quicker at the time for some reason.

Across
1 Some of these immediately rejected entertainment awards (6)
EMMIES – hidden reversed in “these immediately”. Some on the forum claimed that the only acceptable plural is EMMYS, but Chambers and Collins both disagree.
5 Cut service charge added to end of bill (8)
LACERATE – ACE (service) + RATE (charge) after L (end of bill).
9 Hunter detains suspect briefly about being a drug dealer? (10)
TRAFFICKER – TRACKER (hunter) around IFF(y) (suspect briefly) reversed.
10 Curry mix is short of nothing (4)
COMB – COMBO (mix), minus an O (short of nothing).
11 Woman in a state in America, hooked by type of drug (8)
CLARISSA – RI (Rhode Island, state in America) inside CLASS A (type of drug).
12 They went abroad, fiddling taxes to save a little money (6)
EXPATS – (taxes)* around P (a little money).
13 Twin employees helping old man (4)
PAPA – a couple of PAs (personal assistants, employees helping).
15 Wrinkly felon submitted plea to Scottish court? (8)
CRIMPLED – CRIM (felon) + PLED (archaic form of pleaded still in use in Scottish courts presumably).
18 People entering shop pay pounds to have fine article wrapped (8)
FOOTFALL – FOOT (pay) + LL (pounds) around F(ine), A (article).
19 Wine / went up in price (4)
ROSE – double definition (ignoring the accent).
21 Accepting honour, fellow made a gaffe (6)
BOOBED – OBE (honour) inside BOD (fellow).
23 Work out tax, impressing English revenue’s chief (8)
EXERCISE – EXCISE (tax) around E(nglish), R(evenue).
25 Bullying officer’s abandoned air force unit (4)
WING – COWING (bullying) without CO (officer).
26 Greek engineer‘s structures spanning one stretch of water (10)
ARCHIMEDES – ARCHES (structures) around I (one), MED (stretch of water).
27 Not turning over during short nap, least likely to be moved (8)
STONIEST – NOT reversed inside SIEST(a) (short nap).
28 Songwriter such as Coward recalled penning notes (6)
LENNON – NOEL (such as Coward) reversed around NN (notes).

Down
2 Moon really only seen every now and then? Right (5)
MORAL – alternate letters of Moon really.
3 I figure insect can be seen beneath new grass (9)
INFORMANT – I + N(ew) + FORM (figure) + ANT (insect).
4 Quiet pair writing about religion of Islam (6)
SHIISM – SH (quiet) + II (pair) + MS (writing) reversed. Oddly worded definition – I’d have preferred “branch of Islam”.
5 Tackled ladies running round C and A very quickly (4,1,7,3)
LIKE A SCALDED CAT – (tackled ladies)* around CA.
6 Old car that is reconditioned for favourite daughter (8)
CORDELIA – (old car ie)*. Technically a partly indirect anagram, but certainly not unfair. She was King Lear’s youngest daughter in the Shakespeare play.
7 Police officer needing day to produce summary (5)
RECAP – REDCAP (a military policeman) without the D for day.
8 Siren giving worker tense feeling when first going off (9)
TEMPTRESS – TEMP (worker) + (s)TRESS (tense feeling minus the first letter).
14 Defender in a game getting essential point (9)
APOLOGIST – A + POLO (game) + GIST (essential point).
16 Completely supporting endless risk involving Athenian statesman (9)
PERICLEAN – CLEAN (completely) underneath PERI(l) (endless risk).
17 A tough nut playing charades (4,4)
HARD CASE – (charades)*.
20 Average toddler might say this, grabbing old phone? (6)
MEDIAL – i.e. “Me dial!”
22 Started as character in Treasure Island, forgetting last name repeatedly (5)
BEGUN – BEN GUNN (character in Treasure Island), minus a couple of Ns.
24 Handle manual worker’s classification, you say? (3,2)
SEE TO – sounds like C2 (manual worker’s classification).

9 comments on “Saturday Times 26424 (28th May)”

  1. 18:46, but with BEGAN. I’ve never read Treasure Island so I didn’t have a clue what was going on there and just bunged it in from definition. But this isn’t exactly a case where I can complain about obscurity!
    The apparent solecism at 1ac is curious: as you say Andy it is in both Chambers and Collins (so the setter is perfectly entitled to use it) but it’s not clear why they would include it: based on a Google search it appears to be a usage that is never used.
    I thought the same about 4dn.

    Edited at 2016-06-04 09:05 am (UTC)

  2. I was pleased to get almost all of this as the Saturday puzzle is my regular test of progress from the QC level.
    I got 1d wrong putting Morse which happens to be formed of the first letters in the clue before Now and Then. But I see clearly this was wrong and anyway I could not see how it fitted the clue.
    I could not fathom 4d, thinking of Shia but then getting stuck. I am now struggling to see why Pair =II (a pair in cricket would be OO). Perhaps it is eyes?
    And I don’t follow the parsing of 7d. Needing day suggests to me you add the D. But I got Recap anyway.
    Many thanks for the blog as ever. David
    1. In 7D, I read it that if the policeman needs the D then he doesn’t have it. In 4D, II is the Roman numeral for 2, or a pair.
    2. Think Roman numerals. Although I for one have never understood them (sorry).
  3. I think that as a half-hunter watch has a small window to see the hands, then if it doesn’t, it is a hunter. At 21ac I had the honour as an MBE, thinking of a disastrous gaffe !
  4. As I have no finishing time noted I’d assume I’d gone over the hour and didn’t feel the need to record it. My handwriting in the grid looks neat though, and I had very few notes or workings in the margins, so I think it was a steady solve for the most part. I never finished parsing TRAFFICKER though, as I was focussed on TICKER as “hunter” (i.e. watch) which had come up in a recent puzzle and served to distract me. On reflection that was “half-hunter” and I’m not sure that without “half” it qualifies as a timepiece.,
  5. I also had BEGAN, but I also had to resort to solving aids for SHIISM, so I don’t mind quite so much. Now someone’s mentioned him, I did know Ben Gunn from Treasure Island, but he certainly wasn’t springing to my mind last Saturday. Thanks for the enlightenment!
  6. 19.42 for me so the usual for a Saturday. With Pericles, Cordelia, Ben Gunn, Clarissa, Shiism (agree with you on that) and Archimedes this could have escaped from the TLS page so no complaints from this corner. Speaking of the TLS, I see it’s Sotira’s turn. If she’s out of commission I could fill in if needed, just not right away because I’m coping with a nasty plague of back spasms which are proving more intractable than they should be. Mine for next Friday is in the pipeline fortunately.

    P.S. Andy will know this but I’ll mention that this week’s Guardian prize puzzle is by Enigmatist (John Henderson) who gave us the torturous celebration puzzle for the TLS anniversary last December.

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