Sunday Times 4433 (15 May 2011) – Get your atlas ready.

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 30 minutes.

Something of a geographical crossword today with 1a, 2, 10 & 26 all to be found on a map.

My COD to 18 for a surface that made me chuckle.

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

Across
1 M(A + NIT)OB + A
5 the WALL + OP – The classic Floyd album is The Wall from which their only No 1 hit Another Brick in the Wall (part 1) was taken. Not to everyone’s taste, I’m sure, but it’s certainly in my collection.
9 FAN + DAN + GO
10 B(RUN)E + I
12 LIEGE = LIE + EG rev
13 AMENDMENT = MEN in (TANDEM)*
14 DIS + (TEAR INTO + Student)* – To ‘dis’ someone or something is modern slang for showing disrespect.
18 BAKING POWDER = (BREAK WIND)* about GPO – Made me laugh!
21 Be out of bed before home help comes round? He may get the sack!  (9)CUPBEARER = BE with UP before, all in CARER. Sack is a type of wine common in crosswords.
23 stanD + ANTE – Is it me or has Dante cropped up quite a lot recently?
24 READER – hidden
25 PIN + iT + SIZE – I wasn’t sure about the wordplay, here. I think it’s PIN = brooch and SIZE = glue (I didn’t know this definition, but my dictionary backs it up)
26 SO(K)OT + O – Sokoto appears to be a completely un-noteworthy state in NW Nigeria. Unless I’m missing something, this might be the most obscure word I’ve ever seen in a Times crossword. I got it from the wordplay, but I’d never heard of it and I’m not surprised.
27 EGGSHELL – I like the definition ‘that soldiers have to get through’, but if an EGG is a mine, then I can find no justification for it.
Down
1 MUFFLEr – to damp a sound is to muffle it
2 NANTES = NAN + SET rev
3 TRAGEDIAN – Another one I didn’t really understand. I’m assuming it’s hamleT + (I after RAGED) + AN – but I can’t see how to justify RAGED = partied.
4 BEGGAR’S OPERA – cd – The opera was composed by John Gay and set in Newgate Prison. The ‘barred’ reference implies the musical nature of the answer since it’s written in musical bars.
6 A(C)RID
7 LING + ERIE
8 PRIS(TIN)E
11 HEARTWARMING = (NIGHTMARE)* about WAR
15 ANECDOTES = (ENACTED SO)*
16 OB’S + CURES
17 S(KIP + J)ACK – Juliet is J in the NATO phonetic alphabet
19 ON LINE – dd
20 RE + VEAL
22 EVE + NonchalanT

9 comments on “Sunday Times 4433 (15 May 2011) – Get your atlas ready.”

  1. 21ac – slight formatting issue
    27ac – Chambers has “bomb or mine (sl)” as one meaning of egg
    3dn – Chambers has “a party (sl. esp. Australia)” as one meaning of rage

    I am inclined to agree that Sokoto is obscure, but don’t forget this is not a Times crossword.. it is a Sunday Times crossword!

  3. I always save the Sunday puzzle to do on the day of this blog so it’s fresh in my mind. So have just completed this. Strange to see 5 place names in one crossword! I had the same doubts as others here. I couldn’t see RAGE as a party and I’d never heard of SOKOTO. But there were no alternatives so they went in without full understanding. Last in PINT SIZED – easy once I remembered that a small brooch is called a PIN. Had a delightful LOL moment with 18a. An enjoyable 19 minutes.
  4. 26′, awfully fast considering how little I understood: had no idea what albums Pink Floyd produced; or how egg=mine; or what’s controversial about veal. Never heard of Sokoto, of course, but that wasn’t a problem; and had only the faintest memory of size in the sense of glue, and little faith in the memory. I realize now that I put in 4d simply from ‘Gay’s composition’ without thinking about, let alone figuring out, the clue as a whole. Still, I enjoyed this one, especially considering it was a ST puzzle.
    1. Veal used to be controversial in the UK because the calves used to be raised on milk in very small crates. This very cruel method (designed to produce pale and very tender meat) is now banned in Europe. However this is not very well known and many people in the UK at least still think that they shouldn’t eat veal. As a consequence a large proportion of the male calves that are produced by the dairy sector are killed at birth.
  5. No time as I solved between pitches while watching baseball but a fairly
    easy ride for me. Guessed SOKOTO then looked it up to verify it. Just one look at the Pink Floyd and I banged it in. Today’s(May 22) quickly dispatched even while watching baseball.
  6. 24 minutes for this. Several unknowns (SOKOTO, EGG, RAGE, SIZE) but all gettable one way or another. The egg and soldiers device has appeared a couple of times quite recently and defeated me the first time I saw it so I was ready.
  7. 52 minutes with PINT-SIZE last in. TRAGEDIAN went in and out and back in after checking Chambers.

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