ST 4341 (Sun 9 Aug) – Amber grease

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 7:18

One or two strange cryptic definitions here (13ac, 11dn) but some good clues as well, 9ac (MOON SHOT), 15ac (ATHLETE’S FOOT) and 14dn (FLORIST) among them. I nearly slipped up on the novel at 18ac (FOREVER AMBER).

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 M(IS PR)INT
5 STUPOR; TUP in SOR[e]
9 MOON SHOT; (ON SMOOTH)* – beautifully-disguised anagram.
10 STONED; (DOESN’T)* – not sure about this one; ‘work’ as an intransitive verb can be an anagram indicator of multiple words, but of a single word? You could argue that is applies to the letters (i.e. D, O, E, S, N and T all ‘work’) which I think is considered to be acceptable in barred puzzles, but I think it’s more likely to be intended as a nounal anagram indicator here.
12 RE(APE)D
13 SEWERAGE (cryptic definition) – I think this is a pun on ‘high up’ in the sense of ‘up to the waist’ in something’, but I’m not convinced.
15 ATHLETE’S FOOT; (STATE OF HOTEL)* – very nice anagram, with the definition relying on cockney rhyming slang, ‘plates of meat’ = ‘feet’.
18 FOREVER AMBER – my last answer as I didn’t know the book and it didn’t occur to me for ages that ‘reportedly’ might refer to a word in the clue rather than the answer: ‘reportedly read’ = “red”, as in traffic lights.
23 ARTINESS; ARS[e] around (INSET)*
24 AT BEST; B[owled] in A TEST
26 DRAMAS; rev. of MAR in DAS (= ‘the German’)
27 TAKE IT IN – because computing students study IT (Information Technology).
28 N + UTTER
29 UNDERLIE; (RUDE LINE)*

Down
1 MEMORY; rev. of ROME in MY
2 SLOGAN; A + N after SLOG (= ‘strike’)
3 RESPECT (hidden) – the political party of George Galloway; enough said.
4 NOOK[y] – ‘the other’ being a euphamism for, er, nooky.
6 TITFERS; TIERS around T,F – more rhyming slang, this time ‘hat’ = ‘tit for tat’ = ‘titfer’.
7 PENTAGON; PEN + rev. of NOT, all around A G[ood]
8 RED MEATS; (MASTERED)*
11 TEA-TIME – another ‘cryptic’ definition that didn’t convince me.
14 FLORIST; (LIST OF R[oses])* – not a bad anagram/&lit, although using words like ‘primarily’ or ‘initially’ where they don’t really fit the surface reading always feels a bit of a stretch to me.
16 OFF AND ON – which are the two sides in cricket, the ‘on’ (or ‘leg’) side being the half of the ground behind the on-strike batsman’s legs and the ‘off’ side being the other half. Very topical to mention the Oval given this week’s Ashes decider there, but unless some drastic decisions regarding our batting line-up are (or possibly, by now, have been) taken I fear Australia will take the spoils.
17 PROTRACT; (CAR PORT)* around T – ‘early Ford’ for [Model] T is so much better than ‘model’.
19 VINTAGE; (N[ew] TAG) in VIE
20 EXT + REME
21 VESTAL (hidden) – nicely hidden, and possibly a nod to Chaucer’s irreverent ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’.
22 ST + A + N + CE
25 PAIN (2 defs, one in French)

4 comments on “ST 4341 (Sun 9 Aug) – Amber grease”

  1. I was slow to realise that 10ac (STONED) was an anagram, but once the penny’d dropped I didn’t object too much to “work”, which I took to be an imperative directing the solver to work “doesn’t”.

    Like you I wasn’t too sure about 13ac (SEWERAGE) and was imagining that “high” had something to do with the stench, but I like your explanation better.

    FOREVER AMBER (or some variation on it) used to crop up quite regularly in the Times daily cryptic at one time. I’ve never read it, though I seem to remember watching the film many years ago.

  2. I should have added that my time was 7:41, so you beat me despite not knowing FOREVER AMBER. (I bet I could thrash you at the TLS puzzle though 😉

  3. 30 minutes. 18ac with its image of being stuck at traffic lights reminds me of an old Round the Horne sketch. I wonder if anyone else remembers this?

    I was also puzzled by the clue for SEWERAGE. If one’s in it up to the neck or even up to the waist one is surely deep down in it?

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