Sunday Times 4484 (6 May 2012) by Jeff Pearce

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 37:45

You’ll be pleased to know that the Sunday Times blog is ready for posting. Normal service has been resumed. 😉

I had one left (27a) after 30 minutes, then took another 7 or 8 minutes to get that one.

There seemed to be quite a few traditional anagram indicators not being used as such today – ‘Organise’ in 1d, ‘Shake up’ and ‘new’ in 4d, and ‘New’ in 11d – which made some of the anagrists tricky to separate.

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

Across
1 STONEMASON = (MOANS)* after STONE (a few pounds)
8 EARTH + galaxY – that’s blue as in ‘blue jokes’
9 RETRACTORS – dd
10 TANDEM – The centre of GUATEMALA is TEM, or indeed T AND EM
12 THe + RACE – An ancient country in Southeastern Europe, just north of the Bosphorus.
14 RUNt
15 EL + EVEN – a cardinal number
17 PENCIL SHARPENER = (N + CHEAPER PILSNER)*
19 sEXTANT
22 URN = sailoR in UN – although ‘Spot’ appears redundant to the wordplay
23 Girls On Strike Losing Other Work
25 Exam + LAPSE
27 ANABAPTIST = (ABSTAIN)* about APT
28 BA(SAL)T
29 STEP + LADDER
Down
1 STRATOSPHERE – It took me a while to parse this as my first thought was that ‘start to organise’ meant (START)* at the beginning, but no, it’s Organise + TARTS all rev + SPHERE (to surround). I wasn’t aware that sphere could be used as a verb, but it’s in the dictionary.
2 NORMAl
3 MACKEREL = (cALM CREEK)* – ‘one caught leaving’ implies that one of the two Cs needs removing from the anagrist
4 SLOW ON THE UPTAKE = (SHAKE UP NEW LOTTO)* – silly seems a little harsh as a definition, but I guess it’s allowable.
5 NESTLE = raiN + (SLEET)*
6 GRUNGE = EG rev about RUNG (part of a stepladder)
7 SH(O)E – H Rider Haggard’s novel She is a cryptic crossword stalwart. Has anyone out there actually read it?
11 MINERAL WATER = (NEW MATERIAL)* + Revue
13 RENNET = TENNER rev
16 VANDAL = V AND A (Victoria & Albert Museum) + expeL
18 RING + TAIL
20 A + P + PEAL
21 TREATS = (ARE)* in TT + Season
24 SITED = “SIGHTED”
26 L + OAF – It took me a moment or two to twig that ‘bloomer’ wasn’t referring to a flower, but to a crusty loaf.

9 comments on “Sunday Times 4484 (6 May 2012) by Jeff Pearce”

  1. A very similar experience. 26 minutes for all but 27ac and then some trouble solving that one. ‘Sphere’ as a verb in 1dn came as a surprise to me too. Otherwise all good solid entertaining stuff.
  2. 14:52, with my LOIs being 6d, 10ac, and 26d, in that order. I got STRATOSPHERE by taking ‘organise’ as anagrind, and by the time I realized that I didn’t have the anagrist, it was too late. I never did parse it until reading Dave’s explication. It took me a while, too, to read ‘about’ as an anagram indicator. Like Dave, I thought ‘spot’ was otiose. And I would never have thought of ‘silly’ as meaning SLOW ON THE UPTAKE, but it had to be. I was struck by the occurrence of 2 examples–10ac & 16d–of the same fairly rare cluing device. In any case, I agree with jackkt: good fun.
  3. Very easy puzzle. I think you’re being kind about “silly” as a definition at 4D. Everyone of us is slow on the uptake at some time and that doesn’t make us silly. No, I’ve never read “She”
  4. 20 minutes so very easy by my standards, with Anabaptist causing no problem on account of their salient place in religious history. Haggard’s She and King Solomon’s Mines were famously cited by CS Lewis as examples of ‘good bad books’. Last in RETRACTORS.
  5. Yes, I found this easy too. c20mins, though sadly I never even noticed that sphere was being used as a verb. I just thought sphere = surround was close enough, so on to the next clue.. nor did I think mineral water = tonic, though I suppose Tunbridge Wells or Harrogate would beg to differ. And I would not say silly = slow on the uptake either, but the dictionaries do, so that’s OK.. (mutter, mutter)

    1. Yes, someone in the Forum last week said it was given in their two main dictionaries but I couldn’t find justified it in any of mine i.e. the usual sources.

      Edited at 2012-05-13 11:05 pm (UTC)

      1. look under “silly;” Chambers has “stupid, feeble-minded” which is close enough, for “slow on the uptake”
        1. Thanks, Jerry. I’d seen that but it’s too indirect for me. I’d at least expect to see silly = slow (or vice versa) somewhere, even in a thesaurus would be something.
  6. Just sneaked in under 10 minutes for this, which was nice. These things have been feeling unusually tough of late – including today’s.
    I haven’t read She, and I can’t get it out of my head that Benjamin Disraeli wrote it. In lucid moments I know that was Sybil but the notion just won’t be dislodged. Perhaps I should read one of them. Or perhaps not.

Comments are closed.