Sunday Times 4496 (29 Jul 2012) by Jeff Pearce – An Olympian standard

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: DNF.

I only got round to starting this on Friday night, spent some more time on it on Saturday evening, but still couldn’t finish much more than two-thirds of it. I would’ve quite fancied spending a bit longer trying to finish it, but in the interest of getting the blog done, I abandoned it and went for the solution. Having done so, I was quite glad I did, as I think it unlikely I would have finished it.

I’m always a little wary of themed puzzles. Sometimes they can be a joy – the puzzle for the royal wedding was excellent, and ST number 4444 was also fun to solve, but other times they can get a bit strained which I felt was the case here. Some of the wordplay suffered as the surface got shoehorned into the theme. Also more obscure words than usual were present, probably as a result of trying to get so many british gold medallists into the grid.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 GUN + NELL – Sally (Women’s 400m hurdles – Barcelona, 1992)
5 GOOD + HEW – Duncan (Men’s 100m breaststroke – Moscow, 1980)
9 ANGLICISM = (CLAIMING + S)*
10 CH(A)IN – A cricket reference. A chain is a measurement of 22 yards, or the distance between the wickets on a cricket pitch. Tricky for those who don’t know their cricket, but my FOI.
11 PET(ER)S – Mary (Women’s pentathlon – Munich, 1972)
12 CH + RISe + TIE – Linford (Men’s 100m – Barcelona, 1992)
14 SUM + M(A + RISE)D
16 F + US + S
18 Get Orrible Dizzy Spell
19 BLUDGEONED = (LEG BOUND)* + ED
22 D(ALG + L)ISH – Kenny
23 W + ILK + IE – David (Men’s 200m breaststroke – Montreal, 1976)
26 sEXIST – ‘in the Games’ is clearly superfluous, just there to shoehorn the clue into the theme, but we’ll forgive it.
27 MOORHOUSE = MOOR (secure boat) + OUSE (river) about H (harbour) – Adrian (Men’s 100m breaststroke – Seoul, 1988)
28 NATURAL – just a dd, I think, unless I’m missing something
29 DENTIST – hidden
Down
1 GRAM + PUS – another name for the killer whale
2 NIGH + evenT
3 ERITREAN = (RERAN TIE)*
4 L + AIR
5 GUMSHIELDS = MUG rev + SHIELDS
6 ORCHID = CH + ID all after OR (25 = gold)
7 HEARTBURN = HEAR (try) + TURN (go) about B (small bay)
8 W + INNERS
13 MILLESIMAL = (MEAL + I’M ILL)* about Sprint
17 LECITHIN – I think this breaks down as (CHINa LET + I)* – the removal of the ‘a’ being indicated by ‘hide a’. Some pretty tricky wordplay for a pretty obscure word.
18 GUDGEON = blUDGEONed after G – a fish
20 DEEPEST = DEE + ST all about PE
21 ULSTER = (RESULT)* – Dame Mary Peters being a resident of Northern Ireland (although she was born in Lancashire)
24 KAURI = KRIs about AU (25 = gold)
25/15 GOLD MEDALLIST = OLD in (stratforD + IT’LL + GAMES)* – the crux of the theme. The wordplay was fairly tricky, but the theme was obvious so I guessed the answer and worked backwards to justify it.

7 comments on “Sunday Times 4496 (29 Jul 2012) by Jeff Pearce – An Olympian standard”

  1. Hours and days, God only knows how long, but by God I did it in the end; and I hadn’t heard of 6 of the 7 medallists. Fortunately I knew of Coe, from which I finally caught on to the 25 15 theme. Ironically, the one athlete I think I may have heard of –Christie–was also my LOI. I got as far as the TIE part, and threw in the CHRIS, but I had no idea how to account for the CH; and Dave, you might want to explain that, as I believe it’s one of those ST-only categories. Is the grampus known for its synchronized swimming skills, or is that just another bit of theme-related filler? If the latter, I would have been satisfied with ‘swimmer’; especially as synchronized swimming is my No. 1 candidate for removal from the Olympics, not to mention the face of the earth.
    1. 12A – CH (Confederation Helvetique) is the international licence plate country code for Switzerland
  2. My heart sank when I realised this was themed on the subject of sport but then surprised myself by knowing every one of the athletes and the soccer manager. I completed the grid in 62 minutes with a little help on 13, 17 and 24 down which were all unknowns.

    Edited at 2012-08-05 01:26 am (UTC)

  3. Count me among those who enjoyed this.. the only unfamiliar word was the NZ tree, not for the first time, where do they get them all from? I wasn’t sure what Mr Dalglish was doing at the Olympics, but never mind.
    I would not see lecithin as an obscure word. It is a common food additive, an emulsifier, and you might be surprised how much of it you eat!
  4. If you’ve visited NZ you’ll know the kauri, as it’s a massive and majestic tree which once covered much of the land. 47 minutes for this – with one cheat at 17, where I wasn’t happy with ‘lecathin’, having not parsed the clue properly. There’s another sporting connection at 1dn, as Nagoya Grampus is a football club in Japan. If I remember correctly it was where Arsene Wenger was before he was recruited by the Gunners. Only, in those days, it was called Nagoya Grampus Eight for reasons I never bothered to find out.

    A true Anax today, full of fine touches and innovative clueing…as well as some Club Monthly vocab.

    Edited at 2012-08-05 02:18 pm (UTC)

  5. Yawn! I’m afraid this sort of thing is why I do the Times crossword rather than the Guardian.
  6. This one was right up my street, solved in about 16 mins. I knew all the athletes, and indeed was looking out for likely places to find them once I saw the theme. All very enjoyable and made a nice change.

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