Saturday Times 24741 (8th Jan)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 15:10 – apologies for the lateness and brevity of this report, but it’s ‘er indoors’s birthday today, and I was lucky to grab 20 minutes to throw this together! Normal service will hopefully be resumed next week.

Across
1 DROP A CLANGER – (large and rop)* around C(ape).
9 SOFIA – I inside SOFA
10 LIMOUSINE – LI(on) + MOUSE (cat’s dinner!) around IN.
11 AGNOSTIC – A TIC(k) around SONG “from the east”, i.e. reversed.
12 VESTAL – hidden inside “housewiVES TALking”.
13 FAST FOOD – cryptic definition.
15 MARROW – double definition. I put SQUASH in at first, so had to get the Tippex out. Well, marrow is a type of squash.
17 JERSEY – another cryptic definition, but more like a Christmas Cracker riddle than a cryptic clue.
18 PROTRACT – PRO (for) + TRACT (leaflet).
20 JALOPY – LOP inside JAY.
21 INTERPOL – (protein)* + L(ength).
24 BEE ORCHID – (heroic)* inside BED.
25 BONGO – BONG + O (two rings). The Chambers definition says it’s Cuban – I always thought of it as African. Anyone going to admit sticking BANJO in without reading the clue properly?
26 CYLINDER HEAD – C(old) + (I hardly need)*.

Down
1 DISTAFF – STAFF (man) underneath DI.
2 OFF ONE’S TROLLEY – double definition, one loosely cryptic. I though this one was a bit clumsy, but easy enough to see the answer straight away.
3 AMASS – ASSAM with the AM moved to the front.
4 LOLLIPOP – I POP (put) beneath LOLL (loaf).
5 NUMB – NUB around M(ale).
6 EXUBERANT – EX + (but near)*.
7 VICTORIA SPONGE – VICTORIA’S PONG + E(nglish).
8 YELLOW – double definition.
14 FRED PERRY – F(log) + RED + PERRY. “Old racketeer” was a good one.
16 TRINIDAD – TRIAD around DIN reversed.
17 JOJOBA – JO(b) + JOB + A.
19 TELFORD – TEL FOR D(irections).
22 EMBER – (m)EMBER.
23 THAI – sounds like “tie”.

13 comments on “Saturday Times 24741 (8th Jan)”

  1. I made a terrible start on this one and after 30 minutes I had put in only three answers, 8dn, 5dn and 26ac. Then I amazed myself by completing the rest of it in a further 27 minutes but using a solver to get 17dn. I don’t really want to get into the usual argument about tomatoes but marrows are actually more properly called vegetable marrows so I think it’s a swizz to clue one as a fruit.

    I thought I heard a cry of anguish across the miles this morning around the time our Dorsetshire correspondent may have been solving 10ac in today’s cryptic.

    1. There would probably be as many complaints from pedantic solvers if it was clued as a vegetable though. One the setter can’t win!

      I haven’t even looked at today’s puzzle yet, but might I hazard a guess that 10ac is a dodgy homophone?

  2. I almost got in touch with my inner dolt and entered ‘banjo’, and ‘jujube’ at 17d; but the still, small voice of reason that occasionally makes itself heard, did, pointing out that neither solution made the slightest bit of sense. I also thought of ‘jumper’ at 17ac. But all was for the best, albeit after at least an hour.
    As for marrows, tomatoes, etc. as fruit: I certainly wouldn’t tolerate marrows in my fruit salad, but I think the setter has the right to be pedantic, if pedantry it be. And indeed, aren’t most of our complaints about clues that the setter has been too liberal in his definition?
  3. I didn’t see marrow = fruit as pedantry, but just as valid misdirection. Nor do I think the setter would fare any better by pretending it is a vegetable. When some of our commenters here (but not necessarily any of those above!) use the p-word, I immediately start thinking of pots and kettles 🙂
  4. I didn’t fall for the old banjo trick, since a banj clearly isn’t a ring. A band, on the other hand or indeed finger, is and I quote from the MySpace page of the renowned German group Cuarteto Bando:

    El nombre “Bando” es el nombre cariñoso del bandoneón, el instrumento que da voz y color al tango.

    and I add, in my defence, that Argentina is, continentally speaking at least, closer to Cuba than Africa is.

    As for the rest of the crossword, I seem to have misplaced my copy, but I do recall, as vinyl1, suggests, that LIMOUSINE was good and that I had no idea who FRED PERRY was or that perry was a drink. My research on the latter topic led me to a fuller understanding of polo shirts and why Lacoste have a crocodile for a logo. All this for a price of less than 50p a week.

  5. Resorted to aids after an hour with four remaining (the ‘bando/banjo’ + 4, 7 & 21). FRED PERRY, whom every English sports fan knows as the last male to win Wimbledon – in 1936, as I recall – raised a smile, even though ‘perry’ as a type of booze was new to me. Fermented pear juice, indeed. That one, I think I will remember.

    Dare I say it, but I think there’s another contender for Clue of the Century in 24747.

  6. I enjoyed this puzzle, entertaining with a good mix of clues. I recall it was a bit harder than the puzzles that preceded it during the week.

    Knew FRED PERRY of course and had no problem with MARROW – this fruit/vegetable description is often interchangeable so I always consider both.

    Sad to hear Nat Lofthouse has died but that makes him eligible now to appear in this arena.

  7. 13:01 for me – which seems a bit slow in retrospect, but I can’t remember anything that particularly held me up.

    I was a bit worried by “fruit” in the clue to 15A, but I note that Chambers (2003) defines vegetable marrow as “a variety of pumpkin cooked as a vegetable; the akee fruit”, which seems to explain things pretty well.

    No problem with FRED PERRY as he used to live not far (a hundred yards or so) from where I live now. (And Mike Brearley used to live further down our road, so I’m clearly in the sporty part of Ealing 🙂

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