Sunday Times 5138 by David McLean

12:22. I’m in a rush this week as I’ve left it very late and we have people coming for dinner, so let’s get straight into it…

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.

Across
1 Star missing out on lead in Batman or Speed
CELERITY – CELEbRITY.
5 Going west, tender encountered is foreign capital
WARSAW – reversal (going west) of RAW, SAW (encountered).
10 Old country club party one held in North America
MACEDONIA – MACE, DO, N(I)A. Now known as North Macedonia following the settlement of a dispute with Greece in 2019.
11 London museum’s hidden painting … there it is!
VOILA – V(OIL)A.
12 Brief period with Queen making a comeback
REMIT – reversal of TIMe, ER. Or rather TIME, R. See comments – thanks David!
13 Asocial US criminal obsessed with Congress
SALACIOUS – (ASOCIAL US)*.
14 Primate I’ve given grief in a demanding mood
IMPERATIVE – (PRIMATE IVE)*.
17 Triumph over devoted Bordeaux fan?
WINO – WIN, O.
19 Yawning in public
OPEN – DD.
20 One surveying houses large roots affected
ASTROLOGER – (LARGE ROOTS)*. Lot of anagrams this week.
22 In hearing, dispatched article for police work
SLEUTHING – sounds like ‘slew thing’.
24 Still excited to go into flipping work
PHOTO – HOT in OP reversed.
26 Home help going around in a state
INDIA – IN, reversal of AID.
27 Seat (not in centre) BA cut by 50 per cent for flights
STAIRWAYS – SeaT, british AIRWAYS.
28 One making brass longer after hammering out tip
EARNERyEARNER.
29 Religious type of place a series is about
CHAPLAIN – CHA(PL, A)IN.
DOWN
1 Whatever occurs in romance, hero is happy
COME RAIN OR SHINE – (IN ROMANCE HERO IS)*. Happy as in drunk, I guess.
2 One standing in line with old copper and male
LOCUM – L, O, CU, M.
3 Singer of the Russian Revolution, perhaps
REDSTART – I don’t know what’s going on here, any suggestions welcome.
4 They usually grab food German put in pots
TONGS – TON(G)S.
6 Lawyer turning back on police unit’s counsel
ADVICE – reversal of DA, VICE.
7 Soprano feeling sick around men being salty!
SAILORING – S, AIL(OR)ING.
8 It’s not the usual question a barkeep might ask
WHATS YOUR POISON – I think this is just a CD – a question that a bartender might ask which is not ‘the usual?’
9 Trip? Why is it likely to be winter in America?
FALL OVER – because if fall is over, winter has begun. ‘Likely’ rather than certain just because it might conceivably be spring, I guess.
15 Soldiers taken in by quiet nurse in fraud
PRETENDER – P(RE), TENDER.
16 Revolutionary took exam about one most dashing
TASTIEST – reversal of SAT, T(I)EST.
18 Cold drink and slice served up for cobblers
CLAPTRAP – C, LAP, reversal of PART.
21 NHS unit bringing in hot drinks and chilled
AT EASE – A(TEAS)E.
23 Scrape choppers together in campaign as hard-up
GNASH – contained in ‘campaign as hard-up’.
25 Flash on turning, I understand, in city abroad
OMAHA – reversal of MO, AHA!

19 comments on “Sunday Times 5138 by David McLean”

  1. 43m 08s
    Oh, dear! The only query I have is with 3d REDSTART and I was hoping you would have had the answer, keriothe!

    1. I decided it was just RED for “Russian” and START for “Revolution,” or, perhaps better, take “Russian Revolution” as one phrase and say that was the RED START.

  2. I was planning to do (and I did) “Come Rain or Come Shine” at karaoke last Sunday night, so it was cool to see the phrase here. Weirdly, several times this week, I’ve entered a word in a crossword at the very instant someone pronounced it on TV.

  3. 33:05
    I seem to have just biffed REDSTART and never tried to parse it; I think Guy’s red start may be it. I liked STAIRWAYS, although ‘flight’ always seems to point to stairs, and ASTROLOGER and SLEUTHING.

  4. I really enjoyed this but was a DNF as I couldn’t see SLEUTHING. REDSTART was a write-in just assuming that it was the start of the communist era in Russia, never heard of the bird though. WHAT’S YOUR POISON seemed a bit odd so thanks for explaining the ‘not the usual’ part of the clue. NHO barkeep, only barkeeper. COD to ASTROLOGER.
    Thanks K

  5. It’s getting worse: two typos when entering online. I just cannot see the errors when proofreading – very annoying. Am I going to have to post my solution?

  6. 25 minutes and need to start lunch, with S_E_T_ING unsolved. Just couldn’t get away from dispatched = scent as a homophone. Even thought of THING at the end. Enjoyed it and the blog

  7. I found this easy, except where it wasn’t — I have never heard of REDSTART as a bird or any other kind of singer and the wordplay was not of much help. My entry, unlikely though it seemed, was REDSTURN and I was thinking of an also unknown human singer with a strange spelling of his name. I don’t think the Reds began with the Russian Revolution, anyway. Oh, well. The rest was fun, especially SLEUTHING.

  8. No time yesterday for the blog… I wasn’t convinced by Revolution = Start, but the other explanation seems to be what’s meant, if inaccurate. I thought it was a nice hidden in 23d – took me ages to see after the answer went in. I wasn’t sure what was going on with 8d, but it’s much cleverer than I thought, bringing in the ‘usual’ that the barman might say to regulars.

  9. Too many queries to be a success for me: failed badly in the southern half of the grid in putting in grind which held up STAIRWAYS and CHAPLAIN ( no of course I couldn’t parse it!). Also no clue about 21d, so that corner empty too. Lost patience with myself is the real reason I gave up finally: might have to stick to the Quickie in future! Very much liked CELERITY, LOCUM and WHATS YOUR POISON.

  10. Thanks David and keriothe
    Was able to complete this in a single 49 minute session on Saturday morning. Like others had a little trouble working through REDSTART (very clever after Guy’s second option), missed the import of ”the usual’ in 8d and was also making double use of ‘brief’ in 12a.
    With 9d, I had the ‘likely’ relating back to ‘trip’ – you don’t necessarily FALL OVER if you trip – but if you do trip, than you are likely to fall – winter most certainly does follow fall though !
    Lots of interesting clues throughout and finished in the SE corner with CHAPLAIN, OMAHA (after not being able to parse Osaka) and TASTIEST the last one in.

  11. There is a sense of (REVOLUTION=) TURN that is roughly equivalent to START, as in if you turn the engine over, you start it. Think I saw something along these lines in my old Concise Oxford. Initially had RAIN, HAIL OR SHINE for 1D, but corrected on scrutiny of the anagram. Not totally convinced by 8D, but solved it. Favourites perhaps SLEUTHING and WINO.

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