Saturday Times 24837 (30th April)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
16:50 for this one, which had a lot of challenging wordplay in it. There seemed to be an awful lot of removing middle letters or outside letters going on, but it got easier towards the end as the tricks became easier to spot. COD to 18 VENOM for the fiendish device which is used occasionally but nearly always catches me out.

Across
1 ASH BLONDE – (on bed L has)*, the L as last letter of wall. Definition is just “Light”.
9 TRACHEA – ART (drawing) reversed around ACHE (long).
10 ISLAMIC – M(ark) inside IS (lives) + LAIC (of ordinary people).
11 SPOOF – F(ollowing) + OOPS (admission of error), all reversed. Definition is “Cod”, which has several other meanings apart from the fish.
12 SMART BOMB – SMART (be sting-y) + BOMB (a fortune), followed by a cryptic definition.
13 RELAPSE – RE (on) + LAPS (drinks) + E (drug).
15 NEHRU – hidden reversed in “favoUR HENceforth”. Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India 1947-64.
17 GULAG – GAG (crack) around U(sefu)L.
18 VENOM – to turn HAM into HAVE, you need VE and NO M. Took me a long time to see how that worked.
19 OBELI – BELI(e) next to O(ld).
20 PLOVDIV – PLO(t) + V(ery) + VID reversed. Bulgaria’s second-largest city.
23 ELECTRODE – ELECT + RODE.
25 A-LIST – ALIST(air). Makes a change – most Times setters think all Scotsmen are called Ian!
27 HOOKAHS – HO(use) + OK (well) + (has)*.
28 EMPORIA – (more IPA)*
29 MICROWAVE – MI (note) + CROW + (s)AVE(d).

Down
1 AMIDST – A MIST around D(emocracy).
2 HULLABALOO – HULL (a port) + A.B. + A LOO(k).
3 LIMITING – (dea)L + IMIT(at)ING.
4 NACHO – (s)NAC(k) (s)HO(p), &lit.
5 ET TU BRUTE – BUTTE(r) reversed + (true)*.
6 VASSAL – VANDAL (destroyer) with SS (ship) replacing the centre. I thought “stage” was superfluous at first, but with the meaning “part” it’s OK and adds to the surface.
7 SHOO – SHOO(t).
8 HALF-TERM – (felt)* inside HARM.
14 PINA COLADA – COL + ADA underneath PIN A (fix a).
16 HOOVER DAM – (move road)* underneath H(ospital).
17 GO PLACES – G(ood) + OP (work) + LACES (accessories to boot).
18 VIRTUOSO – O’S (round’s) + OUT (eliminated) + RIV(als), all reversed.
21 DOTARD – DO (provide) + TARD(is) (transport for doctor removing one’s).
22 LESSEE – LESS + (k)EE(n).
24 ETHIC – ETH(n)IC
26 I-SPY – (cr)ISPY, i.e. C(hee)R removed from CRISPY.

8 comments on “Saturday Times 24837 (30th April)”

  1. I really liked this one.. on the website there were complaints about Plovdiv but it is a fine city, very scenic (I’m told) and not obscure.
    I wrote in venom quite early but like you it took some time to work out why; ditto I spy.
  2. Ditto. Good puzzle which I enjoyed. Forgot to time myself but about a mug of coffee plus a bit. Got VENOM from checkers and definition and worked out wordplay some time later.
  3. Thanks, linxit, for explanations of the 8 clues I had trouble with. I’ve been waiting for your blog to help sort them out! That was a real tough one for me.I still have a problem with ELECTRODE in 23ac. Shouldn’t it be RETURN TO OFFICE, in the present tense? I guess I must be missing something. No time posted as I printed the grid, then completed it the next day while filling in time in transit at Hong Kong Airport.
  4. 90 minutes with considerable use of aids after 60. I don’t like puzzles where there are lots of clues I solve from definitions and then spend ages working out the wordplay. This is my fault, not the setter’s, but I took little pleasure from this experience. Nor from this Saturday’s.
  5. A “president elect” is one who has been elected (i.e. returned to office), but has not yet taken up his/her position, so I guess “elect” is being used in this sense.
  6. A joyless grind. I found the word play much too convoluted to be pleasurable. Besides, too many of the clues for my liking depended on adding or subtracting letters. I put it aside a couple of times and finished it by guessing answers without understanding the wordplay. This puzzle made me feel extremely stupid – especially when I read this excellent blog. Btw, VASSAL was one I bunged in in desperation from word-play only. I never thought a “vassal” was a “slave”. I just thought it was a person who had a duty of allegiance to a superior. Needed aids for PLOVDIV. Crawled home in 82 minutes.
  7. I forgot to resume counting after dinner, and finished after breakfast Saturday, but it must have been 2 hours; and it’s been a long time since I’ve been so eager to see the blog. I got 21d from the checkers, and was relieved to find that there wasn’t a chance in hell of my understanding the clue, since I’ve never seen ‘Dr Who’. I was reduced to Googling ‘Bulgaria’ to discover PLOVDIV; I can’t remember having had to do that sort of thing to solve. I agree with Falooker about VASSAL (and didn’t get the clue); and wasn’t happy about the definition of ‘belie’.
  8. Enjoyed this a lot. No idea of the time, as the puzzle’s at the office, but around an hour, I think. Thanks, Andy, for the explanations of VASSAL and the tardis one (I never liked Dr Who – and as for Star Trek ….). I specially liked HULLABALOO. Martin Stephen, recently retired as Headmaster of St Paul’s School, while in his first teaching job at Haileybury, used to sing a folk song that included the immortal line, “From Hull and Halifax and Hell, O Lord, deliver me!”

    Spent two sun-soaked weeks in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, in 1980 for 99 pounds return, all-in. Visited Varna on the Black Sea – still remember the paucity of fruit and vegetables in the markets and the mug-shots of those who had crossed the regime bedecking the bus stops.

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