Times Saturday 23701 – found it!

Solving time 24:07

When I was solving this puzzle a week last Saturday, I realised it was quite tricky so made some notes on it afterwards to make writing the blog much easier this week! Not scrawled down on a scrap of paper, but properly typewritten ready to paste straight into the blog window.

Then I lost it – unbelievable! I couldn’t remember what I’d called the file or where I’d saved it. I eventually found it tonight under Documents/Crosswords/Times/Blog_23701.odt – I would never have guessed that; I’m not usually so well-organized! Anyway, knowing that I’d already done it really put me off doing it again, as I just had to find the damn thing, which is why it’s a couple of days late!

Across

1 M,ALA(PRO,P.O.)S – P.O. being Petty Officer
9 CAP,U,LET – Juliet’s family name in R&J
10 TOSS,POT – supper as in drinker.
12 OX,LIP – I had no idea that it was a hybrid. Apparently it’s a cross between a cowslip and a primrose.
13 (b)ECOM(e),MER(C)E – I disagree with the enumeration (1,8) in the online version at least, and it held me up in solving the clue.
14 HARPO,N(ON)EST,RING – had to pick apart the wordplay to get this, as I’ve only ever heard it as just HARP ON. I liked ‘Brother keeping mum’= HARPO.
17 PRIVY COUNCILLOR – UN (foreign article) inside (v. poor Cyrillic)*
20 IN,CLEMENT – IN = elected, and there have been 14 Pope Clements, the last dying in 1774.
23 WOO,M,ERA – not a mountain range, but a firing range for weapons testing and a rocket launch facility.
26 GREEN POUND – why French beef? Quoting Chambers: “the agreed value of the pound used to express EU farm prices in sterling and to measure the level of Britain’s contribution under the Common Agricultural Policy.”

Down

1 MI,CROC,HIP
3 POLY,PR,OPYLEN=openly*,E – is it a resin, though?
4 (m)ONTH,EGO – I only figured out the wordplay of this afterwards.
5 OUTVOTE – tricky cryptic def. for me, and the last one I put in after going through the alphabet looking for alternatives to OUTDONE.
7 P,A,PERM,ILL
11 SOMETHING,I,SUP – there’s sup meaning drink again.
15 RAIN CLOUD – not sure I understand this. My guess is a reference to the phrase “Every cloud has a silver lining”.
16 GAR,LANDED
20 IO,WAN – IO being one of the moons of Jupiter.
22 MIA,O,U – AIM rev=’train climbing’, O=round, U=bend

4 comments on “Times Saturday 23701 – found it!”

  1. 15D: I guess as well as silver linings, there’s the fact that rain can ‘bucket’ or come in bucketfuls.
    1. It’s NODS – double definition. NOD can mean to be careless (which was news to me) or to fall asleep (hence be about to crash).
  2. HARPO being the brother keeping mum. I had to rely on Mrs NPBULL to see that one.

    Eight easies missing the cut:

    6a Expelled for minor quarrel (4)
    SPAT

    21a From the right progrAMME, Grab cover girl (5)
    GEMMA

    24a Bird sinking top of bill into sprout (7)
    BU STAR D

    25a Is careless and is about to crash? (4)
    NODS. I didn’t know the careless meaning but have nodded off more times than I care to mention.

    2d Do like to stuff a couple of pounds in top of coat (5)
    L APE L. Here the “do like” = APE which stuffs (goes inside) a couple of pounds = ££ or LL.

    8d Workers drink, said pupil (5)
    TU TEE

    18d Love to be a song-writer, but not doing covers (4,3)
    0 PEN AIR

    19d Remarkable lack of furniture (7)
    NO TABLE

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