ST 4216 – Dyak knifed

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Announcement
Solving time: About 20 mins by the time I gave up looking for alternatives and wrote in my three guesses (starred) of which (at least) one was wrong. Also spent a long time on 26dn.

I found this a fairly standard Sunday Times puzzle: some good clues, some poor ones, lots of surface readings enhanced at the expense of cryptic accuracy and a couple of obscure words with ambiguous wordplays (if you don’t know the answer word), though that’s fair enough in a prize puzzle.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1* [ba]D + YAK – a stinker. I didn’t know the word (a member of any of various tribes of Borneo) and had no idea what a long-house was (it’s a large, communal house in SE Asia and amongst American Indians, especially the Iroquois). Strangely I guessed ‘dray’; at least ‘dram’ or ‘drat’ would have fit the wordplay.
11 INDUS[try] – the usual treatment of this river, but interestingly clued (“Try beyond this river for work“)- rather than waffle a long explanation I’ll just link to here (the bit below the clues).
12 ME + DIA (rev. of AID) – I’m sure I’m not the only person who dislikes ‘I object’ = ME.
13 NASCENCE; (SCENE CAN)*
19* ATTENDS (?) – I think this is a double definition, with overlap (i.e. ‘appears’ and ‘appears to listen carefully’), but I’m not sure. Perhaps the answer is ‘attunes’, or something else?
22 ORIGINAL; (AN OIL RIG)* – I suppose ‘of’ is being used in the sense of ‘made of’ or ‘from’, but for me it’s inadequate as an anagram indicator…
28 LEITMOTIV; (FILM I TOTE)* – …or a link word.
Down
1 DOC + U (= ‘bend’) + MENTAL – at first I thought ‘going round the bend’ gave ‘mental’ but couldn’t see why ‘unbalanced’ should give U, so looked again.
5* GIRASOL; (A GIRL’S + O (= ‘ring’))* – I got this right but the word rang only the vaguest of bells and I could easily have gone for one of the other five options.
6 (C)LIVE
8 [g]HOST
14 SCIENTIFIC; (CENTS IF ICI)* – ‘ici’ is indirect in the anagram, but ‘here in France’ is fairly transparent.
16 SATURNINE; (SUNNIER AT)* – ‘resort’ as in ‘re-sort’. Fair in principle, although the cryptic grammar is questionable.
20 SINGLE + T
21 RALLIER; “RALEIGH” + ER – I initially wrote in ‘rallyer’ which doesn’t seem to be a valid spelling.
25 [n]OCT[urne] + ET – if I have parsed this clue correctly I’m not a fan, either of ‘part way through nocturne’ meaning ‘some consecutive letters of nocturne’ or of the definition reading which is barely credible.
26 WAKE – tried far too hard to explain ‘rave’ here.

4 comments on “ST 4216 – Dyak knifed”

  1. 19A – Seems like a double definition to me, although the second definition doesn’t need the overlap, or rather it could read “Appears and listens carefully”, but that’s more obvious….

    25D – I agree with your comments about this.

    Thanks for explaining resort = re-sort! I’d forgotten that one.

  2. To attend an event is to appear there.

    To listen carefully is to attend.

    Seems fine to me.

    1. The problem is that ‘(to) listen carefully’ could be ‘attend’ but not ‘attends’.

  3. 19a – Appears to be listening carefully would be better?

    Most of this went in quite easily save 3. Fortunately O Senhor Talbinho blogged the troublesome trio:

    1a D YAK – might have got this if I’d Googled Long House Persons

    1d DOC U MENTAL – might have got this if I hadn’t gone for

    12a INDIA. Silly me – I thought the literal was “I” (think Radio). I got the AID back bit but did not get the rest of the wordplay – FAIL.

    There were quite a few “easies”. I hope I have these correctly:

    3a Vehicle maybe facilitating a thespian’s progress? (10)
    STAGE COACH

    10a Cloth for the coat of (a rich male)* eccentric (9)
    CAMELHAIR

    15a (Nits are)* turning out to be even worse! (7)
    NASTIER

    17a Mad to get involved (in a cult)* (7)
    LUNATIC

    21a (Dies)* messily – regret coming across the remains (7)
    R ESID UE

    24a Hens do, and some kangaROOS Too! (5)
    ROOST

    27a Still kicking, say, despite a bad back? (5)
    A LIVE. Bad back = EVIL back geddit?

    29a No problem, getting this schooling? (10)
    ELEMENTARY. Like ca 90% of this puzzle. Lots of ?s and !s today.

    30a It’s nothing to have twitch of the ear (4)
    0 TIC

    2d A half turned up as directed (5)
    A IMED. A DEMI turn.

    4d Footwear singularly fitting for rough (terrain)* (7)
    TRAINER

    7d After a failed bid, acted foolishly and resigned (9)
    A BDI CATED

    9d Gore prohibition on Scot becoming European Republican (8)
    AL BAN IAN. Alive person references apparently open season in Sunday Times? Al Gore a bit more appropriate than Al Capone in this political surface.

    18d No way alcoholic drinks can be termed quack medicines (8)
    NO ST RUMS. Dosage for ducks?

    23d Bird in icEBERG travelling north (5)
    GREBE. D’yer get Grebes in Antarctica?

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