Sunday Times 4612 (19 Oct 2014) by Tim Moorey

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 48:55

I never concentrated in History at school, but I managed to drag 23a up from somewhere. I’m also not sure where I managed to pull 11a from either, but it was in my head for some reason.

A decent workout overall, I thought, with some fairly solid clues. I particularly like 7d, so I’ll give that my COD.

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

Across
1 DEMONSTRATE = (NOT MASTERED)*
10 ODOUR = OD replaces T in TOUR
11 EGLANTINE = IN in (ELEGANT)*
12 OR(I + GIN)ATE
13 TYPE A – dd – the first letter of 15d being A, so online solvers would type it.
14 HEAlTHY
16 CUTPURSE = CURSE about (PUT)* – the (not me!) simply implies that a cut-purse wouldn’t be put off by pockets.
18 SET-ASIDE = (Agribusiness + SEEDS IT)* – semi-&lit (although I didn’t think it worked particularly well as a definition)
20 AB(US)E + D
23 YALTA – the venue of a famous post-WWII conference between the Allied heads of state = AT + LAY all rev
24 LARCENIST = (IS CENTRAL)*
26 REP + AIRING
27 TENOR = “TENNER”
28 SAFETY BELTS = (LEFT BY SEATS)*
Down
2 E COLI = I + LOVE all rev with C replacing V
3 OARFISH = OAR + F + (HIS)*
4 SEESAW = SAW after SEE
5 ROLLED-UP – dd
6 TANK-TOP = TANK (drink heavily) + POT (jerry, as in jerry can) rev
7 DOROTHY SAYERS = (DO SHORTER)* about (Y + SAY) – semi-&lit
8 B + IT PARTS
9 GET A HEAD’S TART
15 ANT + ELOPE
17 A + DELi + AIDE
19 STAMINA = (AT MAINS)*
21 BREATHE = RE in BATH (Western spa town) + E
22 DRAGGY = 2 Gs (goods) in YARD rev
25 INN + IT – a word that some people use to stress a point.

14 comments on “Sunday Times 4612 (19 Oct 2014) by Tim Moorey”

  1. I imagine this was my ST pb; it was probably made easier by the abundance of anagram clues–eight, if I counted right.I was wondering about the ‘not me!’ at 16ac. If I recall, Chaucer’s Prioress was named Eglantine; that was my first acquaintance with the word.
  3. Could have been a Sunday PB for me too, although seem to have lost the print-out with my time written on it. I think 15 minutes. But today’s was also a fast one, if it’s correct.
  4. Solved on paper and just under 10 minutes, a rare thing for me with the Sunday Times in the Biddlecombe era.

    2d is the sort of clue which makes me very grateful for the enumeration. Imagine how hard that clue would be without it!

    There’s no such thing as a bad pun in my world so GET A HEAD START naturally wins Clue Of the Day.

  5. 10:47. Lots of this went in unparsed, including 6dn, which I still don’t understand. How does ‘tank’ mean drink heavily? I’ve never heard it, and neither have any of the dictionaries I’ve looked at. To ‘get tanked up’ is to get drunk, but that’s not the same thing.
    1. Not knowing the ins and outs of modern British slang helped, in this case. Tank went in with a shrug, and a who knows what they say over there? The second half worried me though – I can’t see any possible way POT could equate with JERRY (aside from both being containers).
      28 mins, so not as easy as some found it.
      Rob
      1. Well not ‘tank’ in this sense! It doesn’t seem to have bothered most people though.
        I share your reservations about jerry/pot but I try to restrict myself to one moan per clue. 🙂
  6. Found this on the harder side for a Mr Moorey and it took me quite a while to get going. Speaking of going, and given that this is the ST, I read Jerry as meaning the slang term for a chamber pot rather than a jerry can. With sotira on the pastry COD.
  7. A few things were a bit of a stretch I felt but overall this was enjoyable. I’m with keriothe about TANK but can’t say it bothered me. However the writer at 7dn published as Dorothy L Sayers so I would query the omitted ‘L’ here.
    1. It didn’t bother me while solving either: ‘sleeveless garment (4,3)’ was more than enough!
  8. 38′ – I found ‘spa town, west’ rather odd. COD must go to the author of The Man Born to Be King.

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