ST 4411 (Sun 12 Dec) – Parrot-fashion

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 5:18

Pretty much a bog standard Sunday Times crossword, with a decent set of clues punctuated with one or two very good ones (I liked 10ac (RAPTOR) 21ac (LIP-READ) particularly), a couple of shockers (eg DINOSAUR at 3dn and CURE-ALL at 15ac) and a faulty clue (27dn).

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 SLAPDASH; rev. of PALS, + DASH
5 SPOILS; SP[ecial] + OILS – this looked like it had to be an anagram of paints. Once ‘apnits’ and ‘aptins’ were the only possibilities I nearly assumed it was a faulty clue and abandoned it, but saw the answer just in time.
9 TRAIN + SET
10 RAPTOR; (PARROT)* – amazingly I don’t think I’ve seen this lovely anagram before.
12 ELAPSE; (PLEASE)*
13 C(A,S)EMENT
15 CURE-ALL; CU (= ‘Copper’) + L, all around REAL (= ‘genuine’) – ‘x y in’ meaning ‘x [with] y inside’ is bad enough, but the syntax in this clue (‘x in y’ meaning ‘x; insert y’) is even worse. [My apologies – see comments.]
16 MADE; rev. of EDAM
20 A + BET – ‘back’ in the sense of backing a horse.
21 LIP-READ (cryptic definition) – nice clue.
25 BRACELET; BRA + C.E. + LET
26 RE(WAR)D – ‘overdrawn?’ cryptically indicating ‘in the red’.
28 HOT DOG – I think this is just ‘powerful’ = HOT and ‘boxer?’ = DOG, leaving ‘Food served at arena’ as the rather woolly definition.
29 CALAMINE; CAL[ifornia] + A MINE – according to Chambers, this word is used in America to mean hemimorphite, an ore of zinc, but in Britain to mean zinc carbonate (also called smithsonite). I didn’t know the word anyway and guessed it from the wordplay, so this subtlety didn’t make any difference to me!
30 PIRATE; I with PRATE around – the capital on Silver was a huge giveaway. Still, rather that than just dropping the capital, which the likes of the Guardian deem acceptable.
31 SOMERSET; “SUMMER” + SET (= TV) – there was a writer called Somerset Maugham, apparently.

Down
1 SITTER (2 defs) – in the sense of a hen sitting on her eggs, I think (Chambers gives ‘a sitting bird’ under ‘sitter’).
2 AVATAR; A.A. around VAT (= ‘tank’) + [wa]R – a good one. The film won three Oscars.
3 DINOSAUR; (IS AROUND)* – tragic.
4 SUET; SUE + [die]T
6 PLANET; PLANE + [wha]T – not sure what ‘to make it grow’ is doing here.
7 IN THE BAG; (HAT BEING)*
8 SPRITZER; rev. of REPS around RITZ
11 MALLARD; MALL + A + R[oa]D
14 DE(SIR)ED
17 LAMB CHOP; L + A + M.B. (= ‘doctor’) + COP around H[ospital] – the definition is ‘cut’, with ‘being’ as superfluous padding.
18 MEGASTAR; rev. of (RATS + A GEM)
19 LACE + RATE
22 RE-SORT
23 RAPIDS; P[latoon] in RAIDS – not totally sure about the definition here, but I think I’ve heard ‘to shoot rapids’ used as a kayaking term.
24 ADVERT (2 defs)
27 FAR + O – so close! But the obligatory error appears at the death (a rogue comma after ‘Portuguese’). Having once visited Portugal’s Algarve I happened to know this city from its airport, where I seem to remember we were heavily delayed – probably the French air traffic controllers, but could have been the Spanish.

4 comments on “ST 4411 (Sun 12 Dec) – Parrot-fashion”

  1. 28 minutes, with one stupid error: put in ‘calamite’ instead of ‘calamine’, God knows why.
    I read 15ac as CU followed by L in REAL; isn’t that OK?
    And I liked ‘superfluous padding’!
    1. Yes, 15ac is fine, clearly – my thanks and apologies. I will cite tiredness and ST precedents as my feeble excuses, and also wish that I could claim that ‘superfluous padding’ were deliberate. My resignation letter is in the post (so will probably arrive some time in January).
  2. 8:55 for me, not helped by trying to make anagrams of “paints” in 5A and “set out” in 22D, and taking ages to come up with LIP-READ even though I suspect I’ve seen the same clue (or one very similar) before.

    I wasn’t too worried by 3D, but I do take exception to 8D since surely a SPRITZER isn’t a cocktail!?

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