Sunday Times 4582 (23 Mar 2014) by Tim Moorey

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving Time: 63:39

A good test. I didn’t feel like I got on the setter’s wavelength particularly well, but then I very rarely do with Tim’s puzzles.

Three sportsmen in this one – Brian Lara, Rod Laver & Lionel Messi, plus a president, a prime minister and a Viking, but most of them should be fairly accessible for most people, with the exception, perhaps, of Messi.

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

Across
1 BRAN + DISH
5 D(U)RESS
10 SMEL(LARA)T
11 R(ACE)R
12 INDRA – rev hidden
13 BARBARIAN = BAR x2 + (IN A)*
14 GA(THE RED)IN
17 CANE – rev hidden
19 C + HEW
20 FANNY + ADAMS – Duff & Fanny are both American slang terms for bottom, John Quincy Adams was the 6th POTUS, and Fanny Adams is a colloquial term for nothing.
23 MESSIEURS = EUR in (MESSI + S)
25 TITLE = TITtLE – ‘a tiny or scarcely detectable amount’
27 A TRIAl
28 THE RIVALS = (LAVER’S HIT)*
29 TURKEY – dd
30 HOME’S + PUN – Sir Alec Douglas-Home was the PM
Down
1 BUS KING
2 AHEAD = A (Advanced) + READ (study) with H for R
3 DOLMADES = (SELDOM MADE)* with the ME removed (Middle Eastern leaves). ‘Full of beans’ is the anagrind which makes this an &lit.
4 S(CR)UB
6 UPROAR = UAR (United Arab Republic, a former union between Egypt and Syria) about PRO
7 ENCHILADA = L in (HACIENDA)*
8 STRANGlE
9 STAR SIGN = S (RATINGS)*
15 TREASURER = T (Tycoon’s capital) + REAR (behind) all about SURE (firm) – semi &lit
16 EVALUATE = EVA + (A LUTE)*
18 PART-TIME = EMIT (pour out) + GIN (trap) all rev
19 COMPACT – dd – ‘comes initially’ is C, and the C in CD is Compact, plus a compact can be a bargain (similar to a pact)
21 STEPS ON
22 M1 RAGE
24 STENO = (NOTES)* – semi-&lit
26 TRAM + P

4 comments on “Sunday Times 4582 (23 Mar 2014) by Tim Moorey”

  1. 75 minutes for this one, so I struggled a bit. Unknowns were MESSI, INDRA, “duff” = “posterior” and by extension the US FANNY and STENO as an abbreviation for “stenographer”
  2. Lots in quickly then slowed a bit to finish in 41 minutes. Particularly liked Messieurs and compact. Indra and duff unknown, and dolmades forgotten. I’m not a massive fan of Eastern Mediterranean food, anyway, though baklava never goes amiss.
  3. Good blog, Dave.

    I do not know where you are based but in my part of the world, Fanny Adams (usually accompanied by Sweet) gives SFA which has the same meaning but a more basic construction.

  4. 19 has two wordplay interpretations. I think the intended one was the fact that in CD = “compact disc”, “what comes initially” is “compact”. Or that’s how I read it, failing to notice the alternative.

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