Sunday Times 4616 (16 Nov 2014) by Jeff Pearce

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: Just over the hour

I just crept over the hour with RAISE/STEINS being the last pair in. I’m not sure why it took me so long as, looking back at it now, a lot of them do seem fairly obvious. There were a handful, though, that caused me problems, mainly due to gaps in my vocabulary. 17 & 26 in particular.

Nothing especially to say about it, as I didn’t detect any particularly clever wordplay.

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

Across
1 M + A + LADY
4 A + CAN (N. American bog, or toilet) + THUS
10 RE(GIST + R)AR
11 fRAISE – French for strawberry
12 DES(S)ERT
14 A + BAN + DON
15 WHIPPER + SNAPPER
18 GEORGE HARRISON = GARRISON about (HERE GO)*
22 LUCIFER = LIFER about CU rev
24 T(RUE)RIBe
25 C(RAN)E
26 CONFIDENT = N + FIDE (Int’l Chess Fed.) all in CONTe (adventure story) – I didn’t know FIDE or CONTE so this one went in on a wing and a prayer.
28 SH(RudE + DD)ED
29 RE(FUN)D
Down
1 MARK + DOWN
2 LOG – dd
3 DISTEMPER = (DR + EMPTIES)*
5 CERTAIN = (CRANE + IT)*
6 NORMAl
7 HAIRDRESSER – cd
8 STEINS = (TINS + EScape)*
9 C(Rot)ATER
13 SWIVEL CHAIR – cd
16 P(OR + Cat + UP)INE
17 UNA + BAT + ED – not a meaning of ‘bat’ that I’d come across before
19 EARACHE – hidden
20 ATTEND – dd
21 Shopper + LACKS
23 FI + END
27 EMUlate

13 comments on “Sunday Times 4616 (16 Nov 2014) by Jeff Pearce”

  1. I completed all but half a dozen clues within my 30 minute target but took half as long again to complete the grid. I failed miserably to parse 27dn and I came here expecting to swear blind that I had never met “bat” = “speed” before, but at the last minute I checked Collins and found the example “they went at a fair bat” and I do know it in that context. I’ve been caught out by FIDE re chess before so I was pleased to remember it this time, and CONTE I’d have thought was almost something of a chestnut. There was an actor, Richard, of that name, one of THE FOUR JUST MEN on TV, so I’ve always had a hook to hang it on.
  2. I know FIDE all too well. Believe it or not they have tended to make even the likes of FIFA look good, over the years..
      1. Correct! President of a tinpot Russian republic called Kalmykia, or used to be at any rate…
  3. Quite a nice crossword but I thought 2dn LOG was very feeble, since that’s just what a diary is, a place for putting things down.
    1. But that’s exactly how double definition clues (as indicated by dd in the blog) are supposed to work – two literal definitions, in this case “put down” and “diary”. There’s nothing wrong with it at all.

      Edited at 2014-11-23 04:32 pm (UTC)

      1. Wilransome has a point. In ‘put down’ and ‘diary’ there are two definitions but the verb and the noun are too closely related. One logs things in a log. Something like ‘Put down some timber’ is much more clearly a double definition.
        rednim
        1. Quite agree with Rednim. I didn’t make my point clearly enough: for a double definition to be effective the two things that are defined should be quite different.
  4. Knowing nothing whatever about chess I reasoned that F1 and DE might be shorthand for moves on the board (k to p4 or something). So what is it with FIDE then?
    1. I imagine that the setter realised that the two clues could be regarded as having something in common (the theme of reducing book prices) hence put in the ellipses to strengthen that connection in solvers’ minds – this adds some misdirection to 2D which otherwise would be an obvious (and, as has been pointed out above, somewhat weak) double definition.

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