ST 4281 (Sun 15 Jun) – Troll booth

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 6:10 (solved online)

Some decent clues in this puzzle, and nothing too difficult; TIMAEUS at 4dn was the only clue that really held me up, and 23dn (TROLL) might have caught some out (possibly including me, as I don’t really understand the wordplay).

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 BURNT AT THE STAKE; (AT BEST TAKEN HURT)* – reasonable clue but the definition and enumeration made this an easy spot.
9 SANCTUM; (c in ANT) in SUM
10 SHUT OUT; SHOUT around T.U. (= ‘trade union’)
12 LEDERHOSEN; (HOLDER SEEN)* – “Noddy” works well as the anagram indicator here, but as in 1ac the definition is so obvious that the wordplay is rather wasted.
13 CO[mm]ERCE + S
15 NEON + A + Z + I – the surface reading might have been more natural without the word ‘person’, which could be removed to leave the definition as ‘on the far right’, defining the adjective rather than the noun.
17 DELIVER; rev. of REVILED – a classic reversal but with hard definitions: ‘transport’ for DELIER, ‘savaged’ for REVILED (in the sense of ‘criticise’, I suppose).
19 CHE + LATE
20 RISING(DAM)P
22 BE + AT – an old chestnut.
25 OP + A + LINE
27 DORCHESTER HOTEL; (COHORT SHELTERED)*

Down
1 BASIL (double definition) – a fourth-century saint.
3 [s]TATE – ‘society’s not found’ meaning ‘remove (an abbreviation for) “society”‘.
4 TIM(A)E + U.S. – a dialogue by Plato.
6 SOUTH POLE; (HOTEL SOUP)* – decent clue.
7 A(TO)MS – ‘turn over’ = TO is pretty tricky.
8 EXTENSIVE; EX + (EVE ISN’T)*
13 CEDARWOOD; O in (DEAD CROW)*
14 CAVENDISH; (NHS ADVICE)* – excellent anagram to quite a difficult word. The Cavendish Laboaratory is part of Cambridge University.
16 A BASEMENT
18 RE + DR + E,S,S
19 COMMOD[or]E
21 STA(I)R – good clue, with an appropriate question mark after sun.
23 T(R)OLL – if I hadn’t known this fish I’d probably have guessed ‘troil’, and I still can’t really see how ‘struggle’ = TOLL.
24 [w]ITCH

5 comments on “ST 4281 (Sun 15 Jun) – Troll booth”

  1. Bravo to the setter (or editor) for managing to get Noddy Holder into a crossword on the Slade front man’s birthday. Who knew?

    I enjoyed 19d COMMODE, as well. Ticks for HAS-BEEN and STAIR (nice misdirection), and the long anagram at 1 across which is nearly excellent.

    Overall, a continuation of the recent upward Sunday curve. Good stuff.

  3. Setter says thank you for nice comments. The Noddy thing was a happy coincidence!
    1. It’s all part of a proud British rite of passage: Christmas Eve, you’re 18 years old, you’ve just drunk one more pint of strong cider than is good for you, then several more just to be sure, and having staggered out of the pub you sway down the street, arm in arm with your very best friends, singing along with Noddy: “So, here it is, Merry Christmas, Everybody’s having fun…” .. which you are, at least until the morning after. But then again, you’re 18, so who cares about the morning after…

      Rider Haggard’s good, but he’s hard to sing along to.


  4. At 23d I don’t think that TROLL is a fish, it is a method of fishing – a verb rather than a noun. Like you I struggled to see how struggle = TOLL. TROIL is, apparently, a variant spelling of Cornish TROYL which is a barn dance or Celidh. It may have a connection to FISH in that they may have one when the Pilchard catch comes in? TROIL is also in the slang dictionary but we don’t want to go there.

    The clue at 1a was straightforward enough but lets have some more cheerful subject matter eh?

    There are 4 “easies” not in the blog:

    11a Boy has injected drug – most important story (4)
    L E AD

    26a Active month, ego-tripping unbounded (2,3,2)
    (m) ON THE GO (-tripping)

    2d Advice to cyclist to remind one of something (4,1,4)
    RING A BELL. In Milton Keynes the advice to cyclist is usually GET OFF THE DUAL CARRIAGEWAY AND ON TO THE REDWAY (a network of cycle paths separate from the roads). There are usually some other words in there too. Rant over.

    5d (Banshee)* vanquished, one no longer effective (3-4)
    HAS BEEN

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