Sunday Times 4464 (18 Dec 2011) – Christmas Special

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 1:29:12

I hadn’t realised this was going to be a Jumbo until I opened it, but by then I was committed. I had just solved the previous week’s Jumbo for blogging purposes, so I ended up doing two back-to-back. Fortunately I was having a lazy Sunday so I had the time to spare.

Excellent festive stuff, I thought. Some really good clues. The setter has done well to include quite a bit of festive wordplay for words which are not otherwise Christmas related.

Its UK-centricity might have quite a few overseas solvers scratching their heads. 21, 39 & 9a being the clues in question. There were a few complaints that I noticed on the forum regarding the fact that, despite it being the size of a standard Jumbo, the online points were allocated as if it were of a standard size. A slip-up by PB, perhaps? Anyway, the people who complained clearly take their scores way too seriously – it’s the comparative time that should be most important, surely?

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

Across
1 A + R(CAN)ELY
5 COBWEB = BE rev after COB + W – Cobweb was the name of one of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
9 PRI(N)CE – There can’t be many people in the UK who haven’t come across the buxom Katie Price who used to be known as Jordan during her career as a glamour model. Her seemingly limitless need for publicity has seen her competing on I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!, be the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary of her day-to-day life, write novels, run for parliament, and apparently she’s now expressing an interest in running for the new elected post of police commissioner. For a woman with no recognisable talent whatsoever, she’s done pretty well for herself. I’m not sure how familiar non-UK solvers will be with her, however.
12 VINEGARY = (A GIN VERY)* – although my first thought was VERMOUTH from the ‘It’ at the start, but I couldn’t justify it any further.
13 REST ON ONE’S OARS – cd
16 N(EAR)S
17 HULLABALLOO = HULL + A + (ALL in BOO) – One of my last in, as I was expecting Port to be the definition.
18 EXPEL = (EX + EL) about P
19 STEREOTYPED = (POETRY)* in STEED
21 ADRIAN MOLE = AD + (I + (MAN)*) in ROLE – Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ was a popular children’s novel of the early 1980s and has spawned several sequels and a TV series.
24 NACHO – hidden in iN A CHOcolate
25 OBLIVIOUS = OBVIOUS about LIghts
26 EXPANSE = SNAP rev in EXE
27 AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION – cd
30 A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE – cd
35 HELLION = HE + (NO + ILL) rev – really good &lit clue. My COD.
36 LAID ASIDE = AID in (A SLED I)*
38 NO(V)EL
39 ROBIN’S NEST = ROBIN’S + (SENT)* – This was an ITV sitcom which ran for 48 episodes over 6 series from 1977-1981. It was effectively a spin-off from Man About the House. Another clue which will probably cause problems for overseas solvers (or indeed anyone under 40).
40 SCREENS + AVER
42 SQUAWk – a ‘Brave’ being a Native American
44 THROATINESS = (HE STRAINS TO)* – semi-&lit
45 PILe + AU
46 ELECTRIC ORGANS = (ETC CAROL SINGERS)* – a neat festive anagram
47 UNRAISED = (IS UNDER A)*
48 FERRy + IS
49 SHR(I)EK – Shrek the ogre is the animated character made famous by Dreamworks and voiced by Mike Myers with a Scottish accent.
50 AS + PER SE + D
Down
1 ADVENT SUNDAY = AD + (US NAVY TEND) – My only quibble with this clue is that the wording seems to imply that the date given as the definition is always the same, whereas it clearly changes every year. Maybe I’m just being picky.
2 CONVALESCED = CON + VALE + DEC’S rev – Vale is an archaic farewell from Latin, meaning literally ‘Be well!’
3 N(EG)US – A type of hot toddy which I’ve come across many times in crosswords, but never anywhere else.
4 LARGHETTO – I assume this is LARk (play) + GHETTO (quarter)
6 OVER AND OVER AGAIN – cd – For a cricket scorer, ‘o’ = over, two of which can be found in the word ‘FOOD’.
7 WIT + HALf
8 BAN(GLADE)S + HI
9 PANTOMIME DAME – the ellipsis here indicates that the clue for 10d is doing double duty and should be read as part of this clue as well.
10 IS + SUE
11 CLAMP DOWN ON = CLAM + (OWN in (POND)*)
14 SILVERED = (DELIVERS)*
15 F + LIP + FLOP – Another really good clue with a festive feel.
20 E + X + ONE + RATION – E for ‘earth’ might be a bit of a liberty, but it makes for an excellent surface.
22 NAP + KIN + RINGS
23 POLITICAL SCIENCE = (ICE ON ICE-CAP STILL)*
28 CAT-O-NINE-TAILS = (ACTION)* + NET + AILS
29 WELL + GROUNDED
30 ALL ABOUT EVE – cd – Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic 1950 movie starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter. Also a very early appearance by Marilyn Monroe. I watched this film for the first time back in April of this year.
31 ILL + US TRIO + US
32 A + VI + ARIES – ‘House’ = ‘sign of the zodiac’ crops up occasionally
33 RE + VIVA(LIST)S
34 P + H(ARISE)E
37 EVEN SO + NG + S
41 MANaGER
43 WATER = WAR about ThosE
45 PurE + ACE

14 comments on “Sunday Times 4464 (18 Dec 2011) – Christmas Special”

  1. I also thought this a really good effort (and good blog Dave) .. twice the number of unusually good clues for the money, and still some on the crossword website manage to find something to complain about!
    We still drink mulled wine, glogg etc etc, but a main ingredient of negus is port which is perhaps a bit pricy for a mixer nowadays.. the word turns up a fair bit in historical novels, Dickens, Bronte, Heyer, that sort of thing.
  2. Almost forgotten this now, but I dug out my copy and found I solved it in 1hr 19m in the middle of the night which doesn’t seem too bad. I had a ? against only one clue, 43dn, which I managed to understand as soon as I looked at it again today. Congrats on the blog, Dave, you seem to be doing overtime here at the moment!
  3. I thought it was T & E that restricts those on vacation rather than the edge of ThosE.
  4. Not quite sure the point you’re making. My understanding is:

    ‘combat’ = WAR
    ‘restricts’ (container indicator)
    ‘those on vacation’ = TE (‘ThosE’ vacated i.e. minus its inner letters).

    Are you suggesting something different?

    1. Yes, I was taking a surface reading that the restriction on vacations are money for travel and entertainment or T and E whereas you are saying “on vacation” means remove inner letters. More likely to be your version, just hadnt seen it before.
  5. Very good crossword. But there was one I didn’t understand: 21ac: ‘Notice single man cast in portrayal of young journalist’: presumably the def is ‘young journalist’, but was Adrian Mole a young journalist? I never thought so.
  6. Hello all, and a very Happy New Year to you.
    Many thanks to Dave for sacrificing part of NYD for this blog mullarkey, and thanks all for your comments.
    Wil – true about Adrian Mole; not a journalist as such, but he kept a journal/diary. An “I’ll get my coat” moment of mad punnery from me.
    Me again next Sunday if I’ve got my calendar right. Yippee and all that ;o)
  7. I had a lovely, if rather long, time with this, so it was all the more annoying to discover that I evidently forgot to type in the O of NOVEL. Add me to the list of those unaware of the Jordan, and only vaguely aware of ADRIAN MOLE, although the name rang a bell. Has ‘on vacation’ been used before as in 43d?
  8. Scoring on the club site: as stated in the forum there, the time limits (and any information about grid size shown before you start) are assigned to the puzzle types used on the site rather than grid sizes. Presumably, when the current site was built, no-one remembered that one of the puzzle types has an annual change from standard to jumbo size – all the other ones with online solving are the same size every time. 21A: Collins has “a person who keeps a journal” as a definition of “journalist”.
  9. From a non-UK solver, “squaw” and “brave” are no longer considered polite terms for First Nations people here in the US. I wouldn’t necessarily expect a non-US person to be aware of this, but I was rather startled to see that.
    1. No offence was intended. For “squaw”, the note in the Oxford Dictionary of English describes British usage accurately. I’ve read about some American sports teams dropping terms like “brave” from their names or being encouraged to, but I honestly can’t find any support for “brave” on its own being regarded as offensive.

      Peter Biddlecombe
      Sunday Times Puzzles Editor

      Edited at 2012-01-05 09:33 am (UTC)

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