Times 26163 – Times for The Times

Another of those puzzles which at first read over the tea and toast looked rather impenetrable, but once the unscrambling began it flowed well and took me half an hour or so without rushing; one or two needed a second look to get the parsing right. With Q and X early on I thought it might be a pangram but there’s no Z.

Across
1	LIMITED – LID = hat, around MITE = small child; def. defined.
5	TERMINI – TERM = name, I, N = name, I; def. extremities.
9	FIX – Double definition.
10	LEMON SQUASH – LEMON = a feeble sort, SQUASH = game, def.drink.
11	INCIDENT – CIDE(R) = short drink, inside INN = pub, before T = start of ‘the’; def. event.
12	PINTER – NT = many books, inside PIER = mole, def. dramatist, Harold.
15	MINX – MIN(I) = short skirt, wanting I, X = kiss; def. hussy.
16	ETON JACKET – I’m not happy with this clue. I had STUN JACKET, not properly explained, until Anon below put me right, as ETON reversed = NOTE = reminder. JACK = rating and ET = extremely EleganT. If I’d been to Eton I might have worn, and so known of, an Eton Jacket. Item of clothing seems a bit loose for something so obscure.
18	CHAIRWOMAN – CHARWOMAN = daily, insert I, def. leader of meeting.
19	SNUG – GUNS may be called ‘heaters’ in the USA; reversed, def. small bar. For non-UK solvers, the snug is a separate, cosy part of the bar in an old British pub, where regulars often sit. Or maybe there are snugs elsewhere?
22	OPEN UP – O = old, PEN = writer, UP = standing; def. pioneer.
23	MITIGATE – MATE = partner. Insert II (eleven) and G (middle of night). Insert T (time) into that. Def. temper.
25	ANYTHING BUT – (AT NIGHT BUY)*; anagrind ‘new’, def. certainly not.
27	ADO – Hidden in heAD Off; def. trouble.
28	ERASMUS – SUMS ARE reversed, def. famous scholar.
29	EMPATHY – Insert MP A into (THEY)*; def. fellow feeling.

Down
1	LEFTISM – MS = documents, I, reversed, under LEFT = abandoned; def. political views.
2	MEXICAN WAVE – Anagram of (MANIAC WE’VE X), the X = by, def. moving crowd.
3	TOLEDO – TOLD = ordered, insert E, O = round; def. Iberian city.
4	DOMINATION – I MOD = one government department, upset = DOMI; NATION = country; def. tyranny.
5	TUNA – NUT = buff, as in expert, reversed = TUN, A = second of waves; def. swimmer.
6	REQUITAL – RE = on, QUIT = leave, AL = odd letters of ABLE, def. amends.
7	IDA – AID = help, the A moves ‘south’; def. girl.
8	INHERIT – Anagram of (IN THE IR), the A being removed from AIR (no answer’); def. be left.
13	TAKING APART – Def. criticism; taking a part is what an actor hopes to be doing.
14	INSATIABLE – (BANALITIES)*, anagrind ‘used originally’, def. someone who is gannet-like.
17	BROUGHAM – A sort of carriage; apparently pronounced ‘BROOM’ by those who know about these things.
18	CHORALE – CHORE = what needs, alas, to be done; insert AL = a line; def. hymn. This was easier that I’d feared at first, as I had begun to remember names of hymns from my religious upbringing.
20	GREGORY – GREY = gloomy, insert GO = game, R = rook; def. chap.
21	TIP TOP – POT, PIT would be shoot, quarry; def. of the highest order.
24	ONUS – BONUS would be extra, remove opening B, def. responsibility.
26	YEA – YEA(R) = 3/4 of year, sort of nine months; def. emphatic agreement. Right on!

48 comments on “Times 26163”

Anonymous says:

29 July 2015 at 10:34 PM

Surely 14d is Unsatiable – the ‘u’ coming from ‘used originally’
1. keriothe says:
  
  30 July 2015 at 2:29 AM
  
  If the answer is an anagram of BANALITIES + U, you have too many letters, and there is no instruction to remove an I. So the only way for the clue to work is to take ‘used originally’ as the anagram indicator.
  1. Anonymous says:
    
    30 July 2015 at 11:42 AM
    
    Thanks for that Keriothe – I should have spotted there were too many letters!!

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