Saturday Times 24143 (Feb 7)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Easier than most Saturdays, solved in 14:09. There were a couple of weak clues (17A was the worst for me), but more than made up for by the brilliance of 23A, 11D and especially 16D.

Across
1 SOAP BUBBLE – PB (lead) inside AU (gold), + BB (two billion), all inside SOLE (only). A very complicated start to the puzzle!
6 PASS – P(ressure) + AS (since) + S(tudent).
9 CARROTY – (c)O(a)T inside CARRY (bear).
10 BRAILLE – (liberal)*
12 ENDED – (v)ENDED
13 EXTRADITE – EXTRA DIET with the last two letters swapped.
14 STREET FURNITURE – this looks like one of those stuttery clues that Azed’s so fond of, but isn’t. It’s just “St” for STREET and “sticks” for FURNITURE.
17 TOOK ADVANTAGE OF – double definition, but I don’t think the first one really works. It’s more like “took advantage from”.
20 CABRIOLET – CA + BRIO + LET
21 APPAL – A + LAPP reversed.
23 TESSERA – TESS ERA, of Thomas Hardy, who wrote Tess of the d’Urbervilles(1891) after The Woodlanders(1887) but before Jude the Obscure(1895).
24 BEGONIA – (gain OBE)*
25 HUSK – first letters of Hull University Should Know.
26 FOSTER HOME – FOSTER (encourage) + HOME (old PM, Sir Alec Douglas-Home (pronounced “Hume”), 1963-4).

Down
1 SOCKET SET – SOCK + (magazin)E + TEST reversed.
2 ACRID – R in ACID.
3 BLOOD RELATIVE – O (ring) inside (veritable old)*.
4 BAY LEAF – BAY (recess) + LEAF (table extension).
5 LOBSTER – LOBS + TER(n)
7 AT LEISURE – (late)* + 1 + SURE
8 SUEDE – “swayed”.
11 AWAY IN A MANGER – A WAY IN (an entry) + A.M. (after midnight) + ANGER. Great clue, wonder why they didn’t use it at Christmas!
15 RHOMBUSES – RHO + M(ilitary) + BUSES. Hmm, Chambers gives a lot of “M” abbreviations, but military isn’t one of them.
16 EXFOLIATE – hidden reversal in “SomE DETAIL OF XEnophobia”. Genius!
18 VOLCANO – V(ery) + (col on a)*.
19 NOT A BIT – BATON reversed + “IT” (person chasing in e.g. a game of hide-and-seek).
20 CATCH – double definition, verb + noun.
22 PINKO – PIN + K.O., definition “I’m rather left”.

14 comments on “Saturday Times 24143 (Feb 7)”

  1. Agreed very easy one and I’m with you on the weak ones. At 15D I think you have to read the clue as: Diamonds; greek letter; on; top of military; vehicles. I thought 11D and 16D particularly good. Funny that we both thought of AZED at 14A and I had to get that out of my mind to solve the clue!

    My best memory of Douglas Home pronounced Hume was a joke on TW3 by the very young David Frost. They showed a newspaper placard with “Home in bed with flu”. Frost read it out as “home (pronounced home) in bed with flu” – and then added “or should that be hume in bed with flo”?

    This weeks Saturday puzzle is a corker and, unless I’m very much mistaken, contains the name of a living person! The last time I recall that happening was the clue: lighthouse? (4,6). The answer – JACK WARNER (old British film star)

    1. Hi, Jimbo, and I agree about a certain clue in the Tyneside area of today’s puzzle.

      But what’s this about about Jack Warner? He’s been dead for 28 years! I’m sure the Times code has been broken many times since then before today. Certainly once or twice since I have been reading this blog. But you say it’s the last time you recall and there’s no arguing with that of course.

      1. It’s worrying Jack that one remembers so clearly the events of 50 years ago but not what one was doing last week!!
    2. So it does, Jimbo.. I don’t recall ever noticing one before. I don’t remember the Jack Warner clue – when roughly would it have been, I wonder?

      1. I think I was still at school so say circa 1959 but my memory is not so good as it was. I remember it simply because he was still alive and I had been told of the “no living people” rule.
        1. Ah.. I first tried to solve a Times cryptic at some point in 1966, so there we are.

          Another question: can anyone remember when the first Saturday Times prize crossword was? I like to think that I might have completed every one there has ever been, because I have a very vague recollection of them starting in the late 1960s. Mind you even if they did, I have doubtless missed a few anyway.. true obsession only dates back 15 years or less..

  2. This is the first time I’ve ever seen the abbreviation A.M. used to mean ‘After Midnight’. Of course that’s a perfectly fine alternative to the classic meaning which is ‘ante meridiem’ (before noon).
    Is ‘after midnight’ an accepted usage, or is it just a common mistake?
    Barbara
    1. “after midnight” in the clue means in full “immediately after midnight” that is to say AM. AM is not an abbreviation for “after midnight”
  3. Good fun if you overlooked the odd liberty. I too had pencilled “genius!” next to 16d.

    Perhaps we should have some sort of Hall of Fame for outstanding clues (and puzzles).

  5. ‘None picked up stick in race with person chasing”: I see this as def. ‘None’, baton rev. + it, which is a race with person chasing. What then is the word ‘in’ doing here?

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