Sunday Times 4637 by Jeff Pearce

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
A most enjoyable puzzle featuring a “horn but not”, a North American herring, a French philosophical concept, a comedian and a celebrated charioteer – now that’s what I call eclectic!

Elegant clues, some very nice surfaces (3d, 17a and 15d my favourites), most of it quite gentle. And then there was 5d and 20a… Most of the chatter on the club forum was around these two clues, and I’m not surprised. Both, I thought, were very fair (5d in particular was quite gettable from the wordplay even if the answer was an unknown), but both brought into play GK that, I suspect, is not that “G”.

Anyway, no complaints at all: on the contrary, many thanks to Mr. Pearce for a fine offering.

Across
1 Crashing a car and losing horn? (3,7)
COR ANGLAIS – *(A CAR LOSING) with “crashing” as the anagrind. As online music sites point out, this (woodwind) instrument is “neither English nor a horn”, although “cor” is indeed French for horn so I think the definition is fine. It sort of goes into the same linguistic bucket as the French letter…
7 Furtively look towards the left and right (4)
PEEP – “towards the left and right” flags the palindrome – provided you can read the signal! I spent a while thinking “right” was the definition and that the answer would also mean sneaking a peek when read right to left… Easy when you see it, but a neat disguise
9 Live with a flash girl (8)
BEATRICE – BE (Live) + A + TRICE (flash – “in a trice” = “in a flash”)
10 Mean-spirited Conservative party at end of election (6)
CRAVEN – C (Conservative) + RAVE (party) + N (at end of electioN)
11 After medical procedure I had such? (6)
OPIATE – OP (medical procedure) + I + ATE (had). The whole thing is a semi & Lit with “such” being the definition and the rest of the clue – as well as providing the component parts – gives it context and sense (I pronounce confidently, as I shamelessly borrow Keriothe’s splendidly clear parsing of REFRACTORY last Sunday, a clue very similar in its construction)
13 One politician strolls after rallies (8)
IMPROVES – I MP (one politician) + ROVES (strolls) coming “after”
14 Show of praise received when choking? (3,2,3,4)
PAT ON THE BACK – This might be a DD, but I think the second part of the clue is not so much a definition as a reinforcement through a slightly cryptic play on words. But then again…
17 Love meal laced with yoghurt – it’s a hospital’s speciality (12)
RHEUMATOLOGY – *(O MEAL YOGHURT) with “laced” as the anagrind. Nice surface, neat anagram
20 Rating ham and pork, say, without carnivores (8)
MEERKATS – ME[ERK]ATS. Ham and pork are examples (“say”) of MEATS, around (“without”) ERK, a (totally unknown to me) term for a Naval “rating”, giving us the creatures that seem to have achieved the status of “cutest things in the world”. Apparently they enjoy tucking into the odd vole, so carnivore is fine, although they are not the most obvious exemplar of the meat eating classes. Last one in for many, I suspect (I spent an age trying to get to the bottom of it and in the end had to take a bit of a punt and do a quick check on Google)
21 It’s said to make you smile (6)
CHEESE – ‘old it flash bang wallop what a picture!
22 Doctor entertains artist with piano and a brandy (6)
GRAPPA – G[RA]P+P+A. A pleasing image of a civilised encounter
23 Made false allegations about a new press journo (8)
ASPERSED – A + *(PRESS) + ED. Must admit I did not know the verb “to asperse” existed, but the wordplay was straightforward
25 Some despair about part of church (4)
APSE – DESPAIR. The architectural feature is hidden inside (“Some”) DESPAIR and reversed (“about”)
26 Stupidly we enrolled useless oaf (4-2-4)
NE’ER-DO-WELL – *(WE ENROLLED) – a phrase liberally applied by my grandmother with regard to just about every male she knew, with the sole exception of the local vicar

Down
2 Embroider cover protecting piano (8)
OVERPLAY – OVER[P]LAY. Soft entry point into the NW corner
3 Old king drops charioteer’s gift (3)
ART – ARTHUR. Ben HUR dropped by Guinevere’s hubby. On the basis that I only know one charioteer (well, two if you include Boadicea, but she is unlikely to feature in a three letter answer) and could only think of one old king featuring HUR, I got there quite quickly – although ART for GIFT caused a moment’s hesitation before deciding it must be OK, as in special skill. Very nice surface and good clue, I thought
4 Carp is good and ready to eat … (5)
GRIPE – G (good) + RIPE (ready to eat)
5 … fish with beer on it is initially extremely flavoursome (7)
ALEWIFE – OK, here we go… ALE_W_I_FE. ALE (beer) “on” W (with) + I (Is initially) + FE (extremes of FLAVOURSOME), giving us a type of herring found in North American waters, so I subsequently discovered. An unknown to me, but generous wordplay from Mr. Pearce made it quite gettable
6 Toady law enforcer joins in shanty at sea (9)
SYCOPHANT – SY[COP]HANT. COP (law enforcer) included in (joins in) *(SHANTY) – with “at sea” as the anagrind
7 A firm kiss with Tory about to make one colour (7,4)
PEACOCK BLUE – PE[A_CO]CK BLUE. PECK (kiss) and BLUE (a Tory) go “about” A CO (A firm)
8 It’s not odd to follow the Spanish cardinal (6)
ELEVEN – EL (the Spanish) followed by EVEN (not odd) giving us a cardinal number
12 When out with armourer Pope endlessly shows self-respect (5,6)
AMOUR PROPRE – *(ARMOURER POPE), giving Rousseau’s concept of self esteem. Not a phrase I encounter much hanging around in North Sydney, but dimly recalled from somewhere
15 Bird on the stove, in a container still (4,5)
THEN AGAIN – T[HEN][AGA]IN. HEN (bird) is “on” AGA (stove), and the whole lot is inside a TIN (container). As word-sum clues go, I thought this was less clunky than most, capped off by a nice surface
16 There’s some white in this paint (8)
EGGSHELL – Easy one, but not sure how to classify this clue – just a cryptic definition? But that said, it’s just the paint that takes us to the answer. Appreciate any advice… [On edit: a double definition – thanks to our esteemed editor for comment below]
18 Short girl has to get slip (7)
MISTAKE – MISS (short girl) + TAKE (to get), giving us the young lady’s faux pas rather than her item of clothing
19 Talk aggressively about the French excursion (3,3)
LET RIP – LE TRIP – something to do at Le Weekend
21 Trophy I had for archer (5)
CUPID – CUP (trophy) + I’D (I had) giving us the mischievous little matchmaker whose arrows have frequently changed the course of history
24 Atkinson, say, loses an argument (3)
ROW – ROWAN. Mr Bean bereft of indefinite article. Only saw this once I had the cross checkers, as Atkinson (for me) brings to mind a couple of relatively obscure Somerset cricketers from the 1960’s (who are extremely unlikely to ever surface in a crossword!) rather than Rowan of that Ilk – but yes, that’s my problem…

11 comments on “Sunday Times 4637 by Jeff Pearce”

  1. for some reason –sloppiness comes to mind, as does stupidity–I flung in ‘peek’ at 7ac. I think MEERKATS was my LOI; I only parsed it post hoc. Meerkats also eat scorpions, and the mother will defang them for the kids. I’d come across ERK here before, but was under the impression it was an RAF term; now I see from my dictionary that it applies to both services. Having missed AGA a few times before, it was nice to finally have spotted it. COD to 3d, also liked 9ac, inter alia.
  2. At 16D, double definition I’d say, as “there’s some white in this ” gives you the original kind of “egg shell ”
    1. Thanks very much Peter. Yes, on reflection it clearly is – much appreciated.
  3. I knew “erk” from RAF usage, but also from current business jargon for a menial, as in “Get one of your erks to book us in for lunch” etc..
    Having solved this last weekend, “Amour propre” got me off to a flying start, being 1ac in Wednesday’s effort from 1948
  4. This was a very welcome 34 minute solve in a fortnight or so of toughies for me. Also didn’t know ERK but that was my only problem and it didn’t hold me up for long.

    Edited at 2015-04-19 10:22 am (UTC)

  5. Another with LOI MEERKAT. Despite having an RAF pilot father I’d never heard the word “erk” (that I recall).

    Quite a challenging puzzle, I thought. Good Sunday fare.

  6. 17:18. Like others MEERKATS was my last in. I had forgotten ERK, but I think the term I had forgotten was an RAF one. I was also held up by ALEWIFE: I knew the word, but had forgotten what it was, so I had to construct this from wordplay.
  7. I think ERK is derived from “aircraftman”, which would make it an RAF term, although the other services have their air arms. A rare sub-half-hour, so thanks Jeff for an easy ride.
  8. As a keen young Chartered Accountant in late 1978, having moved from the sticks to the largest accountancy firm in the world, I asked the all-powerful Group Secretary what time off I could have over Christmas. The answer, ‘What are you, an erk?’ stuck in my mind so no problem here. She and I almost got married so no hard feelings.
  9. Some answers seems such a stretch to me but I’m keen to learn to think like a master! Thanks for your explanations.
    1. You are most welcome! I’m no “master” – still very much learning the art – but whatever progress I have made in the last 18 months since I started tackling the Times in earnest has been largely attributable to the blogs and comments at this site.

      So, you are in the right place! Welcome aboard.

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