ST 4220 (Sun Apr 15) – “Neil suffers setback with one missing, a Red River” (4)

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

Solving time: 7:57, one missing (27dn).

Mostly straightforward wordplay, but there were quite a few words (or alternative meanings of words) here which are rarely seen outside barred puzzles: ‘neat’ (cattle), ‘euro’ (a kangaroo) and ‘ti’ (a plant) are three examples. I stalled on 26ac and 24dn, and should have gone with my first instinct at 27dn.

Guardian blogger Mick H’s “title” for his posting on 24,052 was an alternative clue to one of the answers, so I’ve followed his lead and offer my alternative to my downfall clue.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
5 BED + AU + B
9 RE(DOLE)NT
10 AC + CEDE
15 NON-USER; NO + (NURSE)*
16 TIER; “TEAR”
20 NEAT (double definition)
21 PASS(I)ON
25 TEAR + DROP
26 CH + Y + PRE – a perfume, from the French for ‘Cyprus’. Not a word I knew, and the rather verbose clue made this difficult, but after a minute or so I managed to dissect it correctly.
30 R(AIDE)R

 

Down
1 EURO + PE
2 TI + DIED – a nice clue with a deceptive definition and tricky wordplay. Collins supports ‘ti’ = ‘agave’ (see here).
3 ABLUTION; (AN OIL TUB)*
8 BREAKERS (double definition) – ‘rollers’ in the sense of ‘breaking waves’.
11 DIVERS + E
14 CUR + A + TOR
18 NAG + A + SAKI
19 NOAH’S ARK; (ON A H[ard])* + SARK – ‘Channel island’ is much more likely to be ‘Sark’ or ‘Herm’ than any of the three main islands.
24 DEAD EN[d] – this, along with 26ac, took me a couple of minutes. It didn’t help that I’d originally written in ‘Chapel’ at 26ac.
27 LENA – I wrote this down, but wasn’t sure it was a river and couldn’t convince myself it was a woman’s name. The river turns out to be in Siberia (see here) while the name is in Chambers, but I can’t find anyone called ‘Lena’ that I’ve heard of.

5 comments on “ST 4220 (Sun Apr 15) – “Neil suffers setback with one missing, a Red River” (4)”

  1. Never heard of the singer Lena Horne? I know she has made appearances in England so would be surprised if you haven’t heard of her.

    John M

      1. That’s a very common name in Russia. On the subject of the river, I believe one V.I Ulyanov used it for an interesting purpose: apparently a fellow revolutionary had re-named himself after a river so Lenin, to get one up, did likewise but purposefully chose the name of a longer river to make a point!
  2. Struggled a bit with this one and took just over a hour with one answer missing BUT when I downloaded it from the Club on the Sunday they had put up the clues with an old grid so I had to work out the new grid as I went along. Fortunately 1A and 5A were easy enough so that was a good start to establishing the layout.

    I had the opposite problem with 27D as I knew the name LENA, but not the river. In the end and in desperation I used a solver to get CHYPRE having already wasted far too much time on the thing. I like to think I would have had the patience to work it out if it hadn’t been for the problem of the missing grid.

    Incidentally I complained to the Times Crossword Club as this was the second time within a week they had made a similar error: the Bank Holiday Jumbo had old clues with new grid for a couple of days. They amended both problems eventually but without comment or apology.

  3. Hot stuff for a Sunday!

    Plenty of “easies” for the bunnies:

    1a (Sergeant)* outmanouvered is cut off (8)
    ESTRANGE

    12a Fairly good-looking (6)
    PRETTY

    13a Cosmetic to adhere to cheek? That’s not the intention! (8)
    LIP STICK

    28a Bent over script (6)
    ITALIC

    29a Fixed up with a partner again (8)
    RE-PAIRED

    31a Abandon former position and support Irish county (4,4)
    BACK DOWN

    4d Beat this and get a medal? (4)
    GONG

    6d Tax cut (6)
    EXCISE

    7d Drink made from (pear if it)*’s fermented (8)
    APERITIF. Could be a Babycham – the genuine champagne perry?

    17d More tricky for (tinker to)* repair (8)
    KNOTTIER

    22d Recommend about fiVe revolutionary (ideas)* (6)
    AD V ISE

    23d Two ducks circling harbour in Portugal (6)
    O PORT O. Literally “The Port”.

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