ST 4309 (Sun 28 Dec) – Aztec, camera

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 7:40 (one mistake)

A nice puzzle to end the year with generally simple breakdowns, 5dn excepted!

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 IN CAME R.A. – I was thrown here by the two definitions (the second being ‘inside’), sandwiching the wordplay. Rubbish, see comments.
6 BI(SEC)T
9 STAG[nant]
10 CROSS + PIECE
11 JETS + A.M.
12 ORD(AIN)ER – ‘ain’ is a Scottish word for ‘own’.
14 CINDERELLA; (I’LL DANCE)* around ER – decent ‘double whammy’, where the whole clue is both the definition and the wordplay.
16 [r]ALLY – judicious use of the question mark, indicating that Monte Carlo is an example of the word required.
18 [v]AGUE – an old word for a cold or fever.
19 N(O)T + A RISING – not sure the ‘A’ is fairly indicating here. An alternative reading would be ‘revolt’ = ‘arising’, but I don’t think ‘arising’ can be used to mean that.
21 HOLSTEIN; (THE LOIN’S)* – one of these.
23 No-SHOW; (SON WHO)*
25 NO NONSENSE – unless I’ve missed something, this one is pretty weak.
27 MI(N)X
28 RENNET; rev. of TENNER
29 REST-CURE; ([l]ECTURERS)* – not sure about the cryptic indicators here (‘left exhausted’ for ‘L removed’ and ‘overwrought’ as the anagram indicator).

Down
2 NAT + T[h]E RING – The Ring is a series of four operas (or perhaps an opera in four parts) by Richard Wagner.
3 A + E.G. + IS
4 ENCUMBRANCE; (NUN REBECCA + M[ale])*
5 AXOLOTL; X (= ‘cross’) + L[ake], all around (O + LOT), after an initial A – lovely Aztec word.
6 BIS (hidden, twice) – ‘repeatedly’ or ‘twice’ in Italian, used in musical notation and to mean ‘encore’.
7 SCIMITARS; (CRISIS AT)* around M
8 CACHE; “CASH”
13 DEAD RINGERS (two defs, one cryptic)
15 DRESS DOWN
17 L + A + N + DOWNER
20 TENONER; TEN[p]O[u]N[d]ER – ‘Chips’ = ‘carpenter’.
22 OZ + ONE (= ‘a certain’)
24 SUMAC (hidden backwards) – makes a change from being clued using Albert Camus!
26 SOT; SO (= ‘well’) + T[own]

5 comments on “ST 4309 (Sun 28 Dec) – Aztec, camera”

  1. It should be on camera, not in camera.
    The wordplay is: on (working) RA (artist) with
    came inside.
    Def. is: In the process of being filmed.
    Barbara
    1. Thanks Barbara. I’m so used to seeing ‘in camera’ clued as IN CAME R.A. that I carelessly didn’t read the clue properly. Anyway, ‘in camera’ means ‘in secret’ or ‘behind closed doors’ rather than just ‘inside’ so I should have realised this wasn’t right.
  2. Was feeling all chuffed about knocking this off quickly until ‘ON camera’ was pointed out here. I see now on closer scrutiny of the clue and should have known better (I’m a film actor)
    AXOLOTL came quickly probably from having been an avid fan of Mad Magazine in my youth and RENNET too ’cause me mum used to make a rennet-based dessert called JUNKET.
    1. Junket is a crime against nature which we were forced to eat as kids. Revolting stuff! It has put me off milk base puddings for more than 60 years.
  3. I managed to see ON CAMERA no problem at 1ac as my FOI.
    The rest was fine too – including CINDERELLA and LANDOWNER that we have had very recently – but I was completely floored by TENONER at 20d . This was despite having unravelled the clue to get “anagram fodder” of ten-pounder minus pud = ten(p)o(u)n(d)er. If I had noticed that there is no anagram indicator and had just subtracted the PUD then I would have got it. I know that a carpenter can use a TENON SAW and so do I quite frequently, but is TENONER really a word? My problem was that I could not get past Chips as fries, Si-chips, wood chips or road chips and did not see/remember chips = carpenter.

    Hand me down the self-kicking boot.

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