Saturday Times 26502 (27th Aug) – placeholder

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Sorry, I won’t have time to post until later this afternoon or evening.

I got back very tired last night and just couldn’t face it, so imagine my surprise and delight when I woke up this morning to start it and found some kind soul had done it for me! Thanks brnchn, much appreciated!

The blog entry is in the first comment, for anyone looking for it here.

13 comments on “Saturday Times 26502 (27th Aug) – placeholder”

  1. This feels like taking a liberty, but linxit is clearly overloaded and I always like to look at the blog as soon as I finish, so perhaps I can be forgiven for trying to repay the enjoyment: so, here goes my take on the solutions, no doubt nowhere as good as the master!

    Across
    1. Body under bar by phone (4)
    BAND: sounds like “banned”

    3. Finished off last of cheese spread clubs imported (10)
    ERADICATED: (chees)E + RADIATED = spread, with C(lubs) included

    10. Scroll possibly inscribed “I was hit by vehicle” (9)
    CARTOUCHE: CAR = vehicle + TOUCHE = I was hit

    11. Gold coin in circulation? (5)
    ORBIT: OR = gold + BIT = coin.

    12. Faint line blocking transmitter (7)
    S(L)ENDER

    13. What might be taken for piercing sound of seabird (6)
    SKEWER: sounds like “skua”

    15. Half-price tents I distributed to start with (2,3,5,5)
    IN THE FIRST PLACE: (HALF PRICE TENTS I)*

    18. To which Beijing’s PM might retire for diversion? (7,8)
    CHINESE CHEQUERS. whimsical cd.

    21. Appeals to agency staff bearing fruit at last (6)
    TEMPTS: TEMPS = agency staff, including (frui)T

    23. Doctor with book collection taking one to front for a little release (7)
    DRIBBLE: DR + BIBLE with “I” moved forward

    26. Best party’s away in the lead (5)
    OUTDO: OUT = away, DO = party

    27. Badly run cattle indisposed (9)
    RELUCTANT: (RUN CATTLE)*

    28. Western drug works in Rome (5,5)
    HORSE OPERA: Horse = heroin, OPERA = Latin for “works”

    29. Split career (4)
    TEAR: dd.

    Down
    1. Output from sewer giving team player sharp pain (10)
    BACKSTITCH: BACK = player, STITCH = pain

    2. New First Lady full of Republican spirit (5)
    NERVE: N(ew) + EVE = first lady, containing R(epublican)

    4. Engineers joined up, making repeated application (9)
    RECURSIVE: RE = engineers + CURSIVE = joined up, as in cursive script

    5. Cuts down meetings of court (5)
    DIETS: triple definition – cuts down, meetings, court (in Scotland)

    6. Seal’s head and shoulders? (5,2)
    CLOSE UP: double definition, the second as in portraiture

    7. Crockery, etc, fit to be plunged in bubbly water (9)
    TABLEWARE: ABLE = fit, in (WATER)*

    8. Service wife with yen for a couple of children (4)
    DUTY: DUTCH = wife, replace CH by Y(en)

    9. Head in East London kept teacher up (6)
    NODDLE: Not a word I know, but it’s in Chambers; and the wordplay is unclear, but I’m guessing E LD is abbreviation for East London (?) + DON = teacher, all reversed. Correction: thanks to CROVIG: It’s ‘ELD (i.e. “kept” in Cockney) + DON, all reversed.

    14. Maybe circular lake described by crossword editor’s latest recruit? (10)
    NEWSLETTER: NEW SETTER (latest recruit) around L(ake)

    16. Analyst crossing border for 90 days or so (9)
    TRIMESTER: TESTER around RIM

    17. Planner ruled out supporting school close to college (9)
    SCHEDULER: SCH(ool) + (RULED)* + (colleg)E

    19. Tramp anchored in river set off (7)
    EXPLODE: EXE, the river, around PLOD

    20. Shakespeare’s rustic fruit (6)
    QUINCE: Midsummer Night’s Dream

    22. Not much of a fight? (5)
    SCRAP: double definition

    24. We’re told to contravene restraint (5)
    BRAKE: sounds like BREAK

    25. See coach unloaded here in Scotland? (4)
    LO + C(oac)H.

    Edited at 2016-09-04 10:04 pm (UTC)

  2. DNK NODDLE, flung in ‘noodle’. I also wasted bags of time on 20d until I finally noticed that I’d unthinkingly typed in ‘checkers’ instead of CHEQUERS. ‘Rustic’ struck me as an odd epithet to apply to any of the rude mechanicals, all living as they did in the city of Athens.
  3. Noddle = ‘eld (in East London “kept”) don (teacher ) all reversed (up)

    No parsing indicated for 29 ac – presumably dbl def?

    1. Don’t know why “Interstate” appeared as heading – should have been “9 Down”. Sorry.
  4. This was more accessible for me than many Saturdays and I finished by putting in Bone for 1a as I could not think of anything better. I am still struggling to parse it fully but many thanks to the intrepid new blogger for stepping in.
    I did not know Horse Opera but was able to guess it. Enjoyed the puzzle. David
  5. Took me ages to get my LOI, SKEWER, because I only had the vaguest memory of the seabird. All good fun apart from that. It wasn’t far off a pangram, was it?
  6. Didn’t know NODDLE, and could’t parse it either, so went with NOODLE. So one to the setter. Otherwise, a nice Saturday solve. Thanks
  8. Never heard of NODDLE, and it’s not as if the wordplay hands it to you on a platter. Too easy instead to go with a not-quite-parsable NOODLE, so that’s what I did. Bah.

    Thanks setter, linxit, and especially the vocalophobic brnchn.

  9. Thanks Bigtone for the Body analysis. I see it now.
    Noddle is very familiar to me from growing up and general usage (maybe not recently). “Use your noddle” I thought was common. It must depend where you grow up. David
  10. 8m, so obviously my kind of puzzle, but not in a way I can really identify. I very nearly fell into the NOODLE trap but uncharacteristically paused to check the wordplay. NODDLE seemed vaguely familiar.

Comments are closed.