Times Saturday 24538 (May 15th)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 33:20, should have been a bit quicker if it hadn’t been for a mistake in 14ac, but this was a seriously tough puzzle anyway. Most of the difficulty came from inventive wordplay and alternative definitions, although 19A was new to me and only worked out from the wordplay once I had all the crossing letters.

Across
1 CRYPTOLOGY – CRYPT + O(ver) + LOG + (gangwa)Y. A harbinger of what was to come!
6 SCAM – SAM (Spade, the detective) around C(lubs).
10 FLUKE – F(ine) + LUKE. My Bible knowledge isn’t too good, but I assume Luke was a doctor…
11 DU MAURIER – AU inside (1 MURDER)*. Daphne Du Maurier is the author.
12 SALISBURY PLAIN – SALISBURY (old Premier, Lord Salisbury) + L(eague) in PAIN.
14 OVEREGG – OVER + E.G. + (icin)G. This one was the cause of all my trouble, as I could only see ICEBERG with ??E?E?G.
15 PYRAMID – PYR(e) + AMID
17 PIT SAWS – ITS inside SWAP reversed.
19 COONCAN – COO (My!) + NAN around C (about). Got this from the wordplay with all the checking letters. New word for me.
20 NOT A HAPPY BUNNY – (by pony path a nun)*
23 CHAIN GANG – Cryptic def.
24 PROWL – alternate letters of “PaRt Of WaLl”
25 RENT – double def.
26 CORNER SHOP – CORNERS + HOP

Down
1 CUFF – triple def.
2 YOU NAME IT – TIE + MAN U + (t)O (pla)Y, all reversed.
3 THE TIME MACHINE – THE TIME(s) (daily, bottomless) + MINE around a CH. Took me ages to see how it worked, but I got it straight away from “Wells work (3,4,7)”
4 LADYBUG – BY D.A. reversed in LUG.
5 GUMDROP – DROP underneath GUM.
7 CHINA – double def (Cockney rhyming slang “china plate” = mate)
8 MARINADING – MARG(e) around IN A DIN
9 BUMPER-TO-BUMPER – BUMPER TOPER around BUM.
13 COMPANY CAR – (ram C canopy)*, the C coming from (plasti)C.
16 MACINTOSH – C(old) inside MAIN + TO + SH, &lit.
18 SOPRANO – first letters of “Sort Of Protest Rulers And Numerous Others”
19 CRYOGEN – CRY + 0 + GEN
21 TWAIN – “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” from Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads. More like a TLS clue!
22 PLOP – P + LOP.

13 comments on “Times Saturday 24538 (May 15th)”

  1. Tough puzzle, v good, 60 mins. Favourite clues MACINTOSH (tho I’d to verify that spelling) and CHAIN GANG. COONCAN was new to me too and NW corner the hardest part.
  2. I found it very difficult to get started on this one but eventually settled into a steady solve before coming to a grinding halt after an hour with 5dn 16dn and 19ac still missing so I resorted to aids I should have got the first two but I’ve never heard of COONCAN and couldn’t find it from the wordplay.
  3. Delighted to finish this one without errors, even though it took nearer three hours than two. Held up a little by wanting to put the more common MACKINTOSH – though I note now that the inventor Charles was k-less – and spent an age on my last in, COONCAN, enjoying the penny-drop moment when I saw the ‘coo!’ and was able to stop slogging through the alphabet. Very enjoyable puzzle – pleased, though that this week’s was less taxing – with special mentions to OVEREGG and the well-disguised anagram COMPANY CAR.
  5. I felt good to do this in under an hour. But I got one wrong. I had SLAP for 27D instead of PLOP. It was “making splash quietly cut” (ie an anagram of SPLASH without SH=quietly, which based on the rest of the crossword seemed just the soft of wordplay I was expecting by then).
  6. 23:30 – A good tough challenge without getting into a panic.

    10: Colossians 4:14 says “Luke, the most dear physician, salutes you: and Demas.” and Luke the Evangelist is believed to be the same person. I don’t know exactly how much reason there is to think they’re the same people, but Christian tradition has gone with this idea.

    Cooncan is supposed to be the oldest rummy-type card game in the Western World – here’s an old book about it. (Western world, as there was a rummy-style card game in early Ming china, possibly the parent of Mahjong.)

  7. I found this very tough but very enjoyable and I was pleased to finish at all, over three or four sessions during the course of Saturday. COMPANY CAR was my favourite by a long way, indeed one of my favourite clues of recent weeks. There is a world of difference between a Eureka! moment and a Doh! moment.
  8. Actually, they did meet once, at least. Afterwards, Twain said that between them they knew everything: Kipling knew everything there was to know, and Twain knew the rest.
    Loved ‘company car’, gave up on ‘cooncan’.
  9. As for everybody else a very enjoyable 40 minute solve that got the weekend off to a good start. This is what Saturday puzzles should be like – tough but not unreasonably so. I also got COONCAN from wordplay but was certain that Peter would know of it.
  10. 18:34 for me, which I thought was a bit slow – but since it appears to be faster than Peter B’s time, perhaps it wasn’t that bad after all.

    Anyway, a very enjoyable puzzle, with nice easy literary references (at least compared with the TLS puzzle :-). I knew COON(-)CAN – I can’t remember where I first came across it, but I’m almost certain it was in a book rather than a crossword.

  11. Although I also enjoyed this puzzle I kept it mainly to complain about “Ladybug,” .. a pure Americanism with the additional drawback of replacing a particularly charming word with a [to my ears] crude one.

    I suppose however there is probably no rule against Americanisms, even inelegant ones.

  12. A rare log-in from me (yes, I’m still alive and kicking).

    Just wanted to sing the praises of this Saturday setter – a terrific puzzle with delightful contemporary references and some outstanding definitions; “Wheels on firm” for COMPANY CAR just one example. And the double meaning used for 7d CHINA is top drawer stuff.

    And what about the construction of 16d? It’s absolutely superb!

    Brilliant, brilliant puzzle.

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