Times Saturday 24795 (12th March)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 18:15, although apart from 2D I can’t remember now what held me up. The two 15-letter entries went in straight away, but the rest was just a steady slog. COD to 8D. ¿Qué?

Across
1 DANEGELD – D(emocrat) + LEGEND (explanatory writing) around A, all reversed. An old tax paid to the Danes to go away and raid somewhere else.
5 SPRUCE – double definition.
10 AS NOW – A + SNOW
11 FREE VERSE – F(ollowing) + (battl)E inside REVERSE, and a slightly cryptic definition, “liberated lines”.
12 PINOT NOIR – (portion in)*. Unusual and a bit sneaky to define it as fruit! Not a problem though, as it makes one of my favourite wines.
13 RAISE – (p)RAISE
14 REPROOF – REP (sort of cloth) + ROOF (top).
16 STYMIE – (is met)* around (incredulit)Y. In golf, analogous to a snooker, when the opponent’s ball is between yours and the hole. This used to be a problem years ago but now (since 1952 in fact) you just ask them to mark it.
18 HOT TUB – OTT (over-the-top) inside HUB.
20 PETUNIA – TUN + I inside PEA
22 IRENA – I + RENA(me)
23 MACHINERY – ACH(e) inside MINE + RY
25 DALAI LAMA – A MALI A LAD all reversed.
26 KINDA – KIN + D.A.
27 MIRAGE – M(ass) + I RAGE
28 TINNITUS – TITUS (Groan perhaps) around INN.

Down
1 DIASPORA – (pairs do a)*
2 NINON – IN ON (wise to) next to N(ew). Took a while to see how that worked.
3 GO WITHOUT SAYING – GO WITHOUT (need) + SAYING (wise words).
4 LIFT-OFF – OFF (cancelled) after LIFT (end of hitch-hiking).
6 POVERTY-STRICKEN – (it prevents rocky)*
7 UKRAINIAN – UK + RAIN IN around A.
8 ELEVEN – (Man U)EL + EVEN (quits). Nice one, setter!
9 DEBRIS – SIRED around B, reversed.
15 PROPELLER – ELL (length of cloth) inside PROPER (fitting).
17 MAN-YEARS – MANY EARS
19 BUMBAG – BUM (tramp) + BAG (land, as a verb).
20 PECCAVI – hidden reversed in “SpIV ACCEPting”. Literally Latin for I have sinned.
21 WISDOM – alternate letters of “aWaItS aD – fOrMs”.
24 ERNST – R.N. (fleet) + ST(reet) after E(nglish). Max Ernst, German artist.

10 comments on “Times Saturday 24795 (12th March)”

  1. I found this a little harder than usual and took about 25 minutes. I thought it an interesting puzzle with some good wordplays and of course 8D ELEVEN is superb and completely original I think. Well done setter.
  2. 53′, including at least 6 of simply staring at the clues. 8d of course gets the COD d’Or, and in a just society, a knighthood for the setter. I had never heard of Titus Groan, and I suspect my life was none the worse for that gap in my experience; and until Vallaw kindly pointed it out, couldn’t see how 20d worked. (There have been a number of really good hidden clues recently.) 20d, of course, is the famous, perhaps apocryphal, one-word dispatch sent by Charles Napier upon capturing Sind.
    1. I’ll have to disagree with you there Kevin. The Gormenghast Trilogy is well worth the effort.
      1. OK, I’ll give it a try. I tend to follow Sydney Smith: ‘I never read a book before previewing it. It prejudices a man so.’
  3. 39 minutes. An excellent Saturday puzzle with some very neat clues and feints such as “tips” meaning “turns over” instead of the extreme letters. ELEVEN made me smile and, as I was familiar with Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy, TINNITUS went in straight away. KINDA, however, got a different sort of groan.
  4. Tricky puzzle this. Took me about half an hour I think – I could check on the club website but it’s so painfully slow today I can’t be bothered. The penny didn’t drop on ELEVEN until a few minutes after solving. Great clue!
  5. 15:10, several minutes of which were trying to justify ELEVEN before the penny finally dropped.

    I’m another Peake fan. I read the Gormenghast trilogy in my mid-twenties and enjoyed them immensely. His illustrations (to e.g. Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island and Grimm’s Fairy Tales) are wonderful as well.

  6. defeat=REPRESS (kinda) … so I wrote in FREE PRESS, = “liberated lines” (kinda)
    I have just finished solving it today (Fri 25 March).
  7. I wasn’t in on this, or 2 dn, so a dnf for me today.

    Cannot recommend Mr Peake’s writing enough.

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