Saturday Times 26604 (Christmas Eve)

I had a pretty much crossword-free Christmas for various reasons, and didn’t get around to this one until Thursday evening. The brain must have been quite fresh though, because after a very slow start (only 3 answers in the first 5 minutes), I finished it in 12:33. Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and happy solving in the New Year.

Now to make a start on the 22 puzzles I missed that I’ve got piled up in front of me (not including today’s)!

Across
1	*Transport* from trap, turning a constant worry (7)
	BEWITCH – WEB (trap) “turning”, + ITCH (a constant worry).
5	Commander grabs girl: *typical!* (7)
	CLASSIC – CIC (Commander-In-Chief) around LASS (girl).
9	Hides demon admirer? Not all *suspected wife* (9)
	DESDEMONA – hidden in “Hides demon admirer”. Othello’s faithful wife in the Shakespeare play, killed for adultery because of Iago’s villainy.
10	*Bread* is mine, thank you very much (5)
	PITTA – PIT (mine) + TA (thank you very much).
11	*Another problem*: Mary’s no-longer-little lamb has to be sold at a profit (4,2,2,5)
	HERE WE GO AGAIN – HER EWE (Mary’s no-longer-little lamb) + GO (to be sold) + A GAIN (a profit).
13	Tweeter losing his head and *not making much sense* (8)
	RAMBLING – BRAMBLING (a bird similar to a chaffinch) “losing his head”.
15	*I repeat*: Queen Catherine on throne at last? On the contrary (6)
	PARROT – PARR (Queen Catherine, Henry VIII’s 6th wife) + first letters (not last) of O(n) T(hrone).
17	Hard men saving shocking treatment for *bully* (6)
	HECTOR – H(ard) + OR (men) around ECT (electroconvulsive therapy, shocking treatment).
19	*Acquire* hide, putting away cape (4,4)
	TAKE OVER – TAKE COVER (hide), minus the C for cape.
22	*Fighter*, one fooling around with school glove (13)
	MESSERSCHMITT – MESSER (one fooling around) + SCH(ool) + MITT (glove). German WWII aircraft manufacturer. They also made bubble cars in the 1950s and 60s – my uncle had one.
25	*Bowler*’s foothold finally level (5)
	DRAKE – (foothol)D + RAKE (level). Sir Francis Drake famously finished off his game of bowls before finishing off the Spanish Armada in 1588.
26	*The wit* to distribute replies having hacked into phone company (3,6)
	BEL ESPRIT – (replies)* inside BT (British Telecom, phone company). French for a wit or genius, according to Chambers.
27	*Pinch* *a bit* (7)
	SNAFFLE – double definition.
28	In Chekhov, perhaps, reversing my *‘hot’ for ‘cold’, say* (7)
	ANTONYM – ANTON (Chekhov perhaps) + MY reversed.

Down
1	*Invited*, in poor English (4)
	BADE – BAD (poor) + E(nglish).
2	Saw them playing for *team* (4,3)
	WEST HAM – (saw them)*. West Ham United, English Premiership football team.
3	Saying that place is *the opposition’s* (5)
	THEIR – sounds like “there” (that place).
4	*Gull* in swirling wind caught by snare (8)
	HOODWINK – (wind)* inside HOOK (snare).
5	*Price* of horse shortened (6)
	CHARGE – CHARGER (horse) “shortened”.
6	Sign of activity in first-class brain? (5,4)
	ALPHA WAVE – cryptic definition.
7	After some games, just *going to be fine* (3,4)
	SET FAIR – SET (some games, e.g. of tennis) + FAIR (just).
8	Restrictions damaged *one of a group of businesses* (5,5)
	CHAIN STORE – CHAINS (restrictions) + TORE (damaged).
12	*A man of principle?* I’m scared he is corrupt (10)
	ARCHIMEDES – (I’m scared he)*. Archimedes’ principle states that “Any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.
14	*Sort of binder* mostly found in autumn? (5-4)
	LOOSE-LEAF – LOOSE LEAF (which you’d mostly find in autumn).
16	Put up ladies dining-room over a *home for heroes* (8)
	VALHALLA – LAV (ladies) reversed + HALL (dining-room) + A. In Norse mythology, a great hall in Asgard where half the warriors slain in battle were taken.
18	*Starch* silly man put into sparkling wine (7)
	CASSAVA – ASS (silly man) inside CAVA (sparkling wine).
20	Over time, surgeon getting name as *experienced performer* (7)
	VETERAN – ERA (time), inside VET (surgeon), N(ame).
21	Uniform, originally black, *in functional condition* (6)
	USABLE – U(niform) + SABLE (black).
23	*Small picture* omits first two in matching clothes (5)
	INSET – TWINSET (matching clothes), minus the first two letters.
24	Turning up, bumped into one *couple* (4)
	ITEM – MET + I (one) reversed.

9 comments on “Saturday Times 26604 (Christmas Eve)”

Lonely here today.
Suspect your fast time was not the rested brain, but the benign nature of the crossword. I raced through most of it in a fast 15 minutes, held up at the end by CASSAVA (forgotten/didn’t know CAVA as sparkling wine or CASSAVA as starch), SNAFFLE (forgotten its BIT definition since last time), INSET and BEL ESPRIT (not expecting foreign words in a language I don’t speak). They pushed me just over 20 minutes, still good.

Also didn’t know BRAMBLING, guessed GRAMBLING; and don’t know Othello so missed the extra cleverness in the DESDEMONA clue, which now appeals very much. A real feast of female Shakespearean protagonists, after REGAN and PORTIA yesterday. Looking forward to JULIET on Monday.

An average 24 1/2 minutes for me – Like Isla I found it mostly straightforward. But I got into a bit of a tangle by misremembering and bunging in HALVALLA for 16d. Doh! 11a my favourite. Unknown BEL ESPRIT worked out from the wordplay and put in with a slight frown. Thanks for the blog. Shame there aren’t more visitors today. HNY to you.

Edited at 2016-12-31 03:44 pm (UTC)

Don’t remember much about this but I finished it reasonably quickly. I liked the DESDEMONA clue (I’ve seen Othello at RSC) except it was rather a write-in since the name wasn’t very well hidden and there just aren’t that many answers to “suspected wife”. I think BEL ESPRIT was the only unknown but the wordplay was generous (and I speak French).

…and puzzled over some of the clues. I ended up bunging in ‘snaffle’ without really understanding why, but that worked out OK.

There were certainly some answers that are seldom seen in typical puzzles, making things a little more difficult.

Now this weeek’s Saturday – I’m finding that mighty hard indeed.

P.S. I think I’ve got today’s. A lot of really clever stuff in this one.

Edited at 2016-12-31 04:51 pm (UTC)

I managed to get most of this over the week; had four outstanding: 6d,16d,24d and 28a. Had never heard of Alpha Wave; had alpha male as best guess. Not having the first letter of 16d was a huge obstacle; could not disentangle the clue. Despite seeing The Seagull recently and having had many emails about Wild Honey, I failed to see what the Chekhov clue required.
On the plus side, I guessed Parrot (could not parse it) and managed to get quite a few which seemed impossible on first reading. So, progress continues.
A very slow start today however. David

vinyl1 says:

31 December 2016 at 5:50 PM

Well, you’re certainly starting with the most difficult 15 x 15 puzzles. It’s a good thing you had all week!

Some of the weekday ones are sometimes easier, although RR claims ‘easy Monday’ is a myth.
1. Anonymous says:
  
  1 January 2017 at 12:45 PM
  
  Thanks for the tip.
  I do occasionally look at the daily 15×15 if I have completed the QC quickly; or if one of the bloggers tips us off that it’s at the easier end (which commonly happens).
  Am still struggling with yesterday’s but had a breakthrough over breakfast in the SE. David

As usual, I vaguely remember finishing this in a reasonable time(for me), but the details have gone into the recycling bin. I do remember liking MESSERSCHMITT and ALPHA WAVE. I think BEL ESPRIT was my LOI. I also recall assembling CASSAVA from its component parts and making a mental note to file it as starch, but I expect I’ll have forgotten by the time it comes round again:-) Many thanks to Andy for keeping the flag flying and a Happy New Year to all. Cheers John.

Well, I found this tough, falling into a few traps that only I discovered, such as the more German sounding Messerschmidt and stable at 21d. Finished with antonym, which I made a right horlicks of. Very good fare.

Found the 31st much easier, if I’m remembering the right puzzle; I’m still recovering from John Henderson’s Double Toughie in the Telegraph.

Comments are closed.