Sunday Times 4934 by Dean Mayer

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
11:35. The Sunday Times puzzle before Christmas always used to be a jumbo, so I was expecting extended blogging duty this week. I had forgotten that last year the jumbo was the puzzle after Christmas, so I expect my Sunday blogging counterpart will draw the short straw again.

No problems with this, although I seem to have managed to write in THREW IN THE TOWEL in my submitted puzzle. For me the first stage of constructing the blog is retyping the answers into the old online version of the puzzle, which I managed to do correctly. Not sure what happened the first time but of course it’s the kind of mistake you won’t pick up by checking your answers at the end.

Leaving aside user error this was of the high quality we expect from Dean. I didn’t know the unusual term at 13dn, although it was readily deducible. I did know the expression at 8dn, which I’ve no doubt will be unfamiliar to some.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Happy New Year – here’s to a slightly less unusual 2021!

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, anagram indicators are in italics.

Across
1 Inferior to, say, Fuji Film
UNDER THE VOLCANO – a movie I don’t remember coming across before, but it was made in 1984 so I probably have at some point. I also didn’t know that Mount Fuji is still classified as active, although it last erupted in 1707!
9 Poet left nobody out — Romeo included twice
LORD BYRON – (L, NOBODY)* containing a couple of strategically-placed Rs.
10 5 catching a monster
BEAST – BE(A)ST. 5 being 5dn (spoiler alert!) VANQUISH.
11 Jack needs pub to serve spirits
JINN – J, INN. Also spelled DJINN, this is the plural form. The singular, rather counter-intuitively, is JINNI or DJINNI.
12 Nebuliser sprays for older females?
BLUE RINSE – (NEBULISER)*. Usually followed by the word ‘brigade’ and mentioned in the context of the Conservative Party conference.
14 Competitors must enter for such games
INDOOR – CD.
15 One form of power that’s about to switch
ISOLATOR – I, SOLA(TO)R.
17 Entertainer’s average partner?
COMEDIAN – the partner of an average would be a… CO-MEDIAN. Arf.
19 One way to grab fair temptress
SEXPOT – S(EXPO)T.
22 Very odd rifle, not really for battle
SOLFERINO – SO (very), (RIFLE)*, NO (not really). A battle and a Paris Métro station.
23 Follow old Turkish governor
OBEY – O, BEY.
25 A bit of Marie, Lisa, Sharon?
ARIEL – containined in ‘Marie, Lisa’. Prime Minister of Israel 2001-6.
26 Almost destroy fur in handbag?
UNDERMINE – UNDo, ERMINE. To handbag is to ‘verbally attack or crush (a person or idea) ruthlessly and forcefully (typically used of a woman)’. So a bit of a loose definition for UNDERMINE if you ask me, but the answer was clear enough.
27 Stop trying to add cloth
THROW IN THE TOWEL – two definitions, the main one being more cryptic (figurative) than the subsidiary one!

Down
1 Fruit cocktail guest eats up
UGLI – contained reversed in ‘cocktail guest’.
2 Nasty cut bound to be contaminated
DIRTIED – DIRe, TIED.
3 Lost in wood, goblin, elf or sprite
ROBIN GOODFELLOW – (WOOD GOBLIN ELF OR)*. Aka Puck, although I don’t think he’s actually referred to by this name in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
4 Because of this her echo gets through
HEREBY – HER, E (echo), BY (through).
5 Ghost interrupted by question master
VANQUISH – VAN(QU)ISH. To ghost someone is to suddenly end all communication as a means of ending a relationship, but that’s a transitive verb. The intransitive meaning required here is not in the usual Sunday Times reference dictionaries, but it is in Chambers. It’s also not hard to deduce, so I’d be surprised if it caused anyone a problem.
6 MP free before trial? Case not closed
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT – LIBERAL (free), DEMO (trial, of a computer programme for instance), CRATe.
7 Hostile to touching
AGAINST – DD.
8 Failing hotel among often failing hotel chain
ON THE FRITZ – (OFTEN)* containing H, RITZ. Collins thinks this is an exclusively British usage, Lexico that it’s exclusively North American. All I can say is it was familiar to me but probably wasn’t to everyone.
13 Democrat is damn social type, a debater
DISCUSSANT – D, IS,CUSS, ANT (social type).
16 Whip raised, I go for mum
TACITURN – reversal of CAT, I, TURN.
18 Less strong runner blocked by short kid
MILKIER – MIL(KId)ER. I don’t particularly like very strong tea but I hate it if it’s too milky so I wouldn’t like this cup.
20 Gun I stashed in seat in trailer
PREVIEW – P(REV, I)EW. ‘Rev’ and ‘gun’ are verbs here. ‘Welcome to laser noises club: please take a pew’.
21 Gadget had two zips and diamonds all over
DOODAH – reversal of HAD, OO (two zips, or noughts), D.
24 Good source of water
WELL – DD.

23 comments on “Sunday Times 4934 by Dean Mayer”

  1. … you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
    Call’d Robin Goodfellow:

    [on edit]: Sorry, I misread your comment; from the same fairy’s speech:

    Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
    You do their work, and they shall have good luck:⁠

    Edited at 2020-12-27 03:40 am (UTC)

    1. No you didn’t misread it: I thought I remembered that the name RG wasn’t used in the play. Just goes to show I should never rely on my memory.
  2. …though I didn’t officially take any time off (there didn’t seem much point; and if anything weird happens to make crazy news—what, in this eminently sane country?—I’ll be at my post)…

    That’s very amusing, about ON THE FRITZ… a phrase, moreover, whose origins are said to be “mysterious.”

    The novel UNDER THE VOLCANO, by a proto-Beat, I knew of. I even own a copy (though I haven’t read it. Maybe I could relate better now, as I’ve been drinking more…).

    There’s such a thing as “strong tea”?—says the coffee fiend. Ha.

    I know SOLFERINO from its being the name of the street in Paris where the Parti Socialiste had its headquarters until after the last presidential election… in which it got 6 percent of the vote.

    I didn’t wonder about that sense of “ghost,” but I see that Collins and Cambridge come close with “to move somewhere smoothly, quickly and quietly.” To move somewhere else, then…

    There is a mark on my copy questioning “handbag.”

    Edited at 2020-12-27 02:09 am (UTC)

    1. Its all relative of course but if you put two bags of PG Tips in a cup, fill it with boiling water and leave it for ten minutes, you will get something that is stronger than I would like to drink!
      1. One bag of ‘PG Tips’ in a tea cup for a couple of minutes is something I would not like to drink, either!
  3. SEXPOT was my LOI, and I was misled by ‘one’; is it needed here? I didn’t know the verb GHOST, and that slowed me down as well. DNK HANDBAG either, but with ERMINE there wasn’t much to dither about. DISCUSSANT=debater was new to me; for me, a discussant is a commentator. COD to COMEDIAN.
    1. I suppose it’s not, and it’s odd because the abbreviation doesn’t really exist in the plural.
  4. DNK ON THE FRITZ but nothing else fitted. Fuji film brought back memories. Imagine waiting a couple of weeks to get your holiday snaps back?
      1. Your timing was exquisite. I was meant to be driving to get a PCR test. I cancelled my holiday on Xmas Eve and should have been flying in a few minutes time. We will all have other holidays, I hope.
  5. …I failed to spot my typo: UGLU!
    There was so much to enjoy in this puzzle. The only clue I couldn’t parse fully was LIBERAL DEMOCRAT so thank you, keriothe.
    FOI was ROBIN GOODFELLOW while LOI was TACITURN.
    Too many excellent clues to mention but COD to COMEDIAN.
    No problem with HANDBAG or ON THE FRITZ.
  6. WELL was FOI but then I mainly solved the LHS in my first session. A lot of this was very hard for me although I have just been invited to an online talk where we have discussants, a word I think I knew anyway. I did not know JINN but guessed it from the wordplay. And I failed to get 8d- ON THE BLINK, ON THE BRINK, ON THE SLIDE but not the NHO FRITZ. Link for Chain seemed likely in this clue. BEY also unknown.
    Anyway enjoyed the challenge.
    David
  7. ….the “one” in the clue to SEXPOT. It was my LOI too, and it certainly didn’t help – the surface would be fine without it.

    I originally entered “online” at 14A on the basis that you have to press “enter” to complete a move in most of those games that I play.

    FOI UNDER THE VOLCANO
    LOI SEXPOT
    COD COMEDIAN
    TIME 12:35

  8. Putting on the Fritz was unknown to me and I was left three letters short of a cigar. DNF but a v. fine puzzle.

    FOI 1dn UGLI – ‘bigly’

    (LOI) 21dn DOODAH – not so zip-a-dee!

    COD 5dn LIBERAL DEMOCRAT (a communist in Trumpton)

    WOD 12ac BLUE RINSES (GOP dames)

    It was the Battle of SOLFERINO (22ac) that led to the establishment of The Geneva Convention 1864, through Swiss humanist Jean-Henri Dunant – who also jointly set up the Red Cross with Freddie Passy.

    At 1ac ‘Under the Volcano’ was directed by John Huston and starred Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset with Anthony Andrews.

  9. Think I have only been able to finish 2 of these crosswords this year and this one fits into the larger of the two sets. Lurking on here, trying to train myself, I do sometimes spot if there is a pangram; probably something to do with filling all the answers in at one time!
  10. No timing to offer but it wasn’t fast, hampered by the unheard of film at 1ac. Also the ‘handbag’ clue which seems way off beam to me; undermining is subtle, whereas hand-bagging is anything but. Not Dean’s finest clue, unless I am missing something, which is quite possible.

    Edited at 2020-12-27 02:48 pm (UTC)

    1. Can’t help but agree .. undermining is NOT handbagging, however you view it.
      But I was left wondering about what might actually be Dean’s finest clue. A fine thing to behold, whichever it is
      1. “Sandbag” would have been more appropriate. Ideas are “sandbagged” all the time. [Note – this word is also a contranym.]
  11. I found this very tough and it took me well over an hour. Lots to like and admire though as usual from this setter.
  12. I didn’t know the film, but constructed it without too much effort. The expression at 8d was a total unknown, which I had to build from wordplay, but by the strangest coincidence was used by Agent DiNozzo about his mobile phone in an episode of NCIS that I watched last night! I managed to remember RG at 3d, although LIBERAL DEMOCRAT took a while to see. DISCUSSANT was a new one on me, but it had to be. We had SOLFERINO in the fairly recent past, so that went in easily. An enjoyable puzzle. 33:37. Thanks Dean and K.
  13. Thanks Dean and keriothe
    Didn’t know of the film or the 19th century battle, but it didn’t hold up completing the puzzle without initial aids. Didn’t really understand the ‘handbag’ definition at 26a either.
    Started off with UGLI – really must taste one to put some substance to a frequent crossword fruit. Did like the construction of the long clues across the top and the bottom.
    Finished in the right hand side with PREVIEW (where I missed the engine rev / gun meaning, lazily thinking of it as an abbreviation of revolver), ON THE FRITZ (which I built from the word play and vaguely remembered seeing it before) and the cleverly clued SEXPOT as the last one in.

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