ST 4312 (Sun 18 Jan) – Rubic? Er, no

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: Gave up after 20 mins with 5ac (MANTLE), 21ac (PALMARY) and 11dn (COXCOMB) all missing.

I got horribly stuck on three clues at the end of this. Lack of knowledge hampered me at 5ac and the poor checking (only 3 from 7 letters) of the other two clues didn’t help, but I should really have got 11dn. I don’t like the other two clues much though (see below) and have grave concerns over 3dn.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 RAPACITY; rev. of (A PAR) + CITY
1 MANTLE (2 defs) – I did eventually realise that ‘Goes over light’ meant ‘Something that goes over light’ (though I can’t see the justification for this) but didn’t know this meaning of ‘mantle’ and guessed ‘wattle’.
9 PROCEEDS (2 defs)
10 ROC + O + CO
12 IN + FLU + X – good clue, with ‘arriving home’ needing to be split.
13 CO + ALES + CE – nice breakdown.
15 DIV(ORC)E
16 KEPI; (PIKE)* – one of these. I was surprised to learn that this is a French word.
20 ALAN; [m]AL[ay]AN
21 PAL + MARY – not a word I knew (it means ‘worthy of the ceremonial palm’ or ‘pre-eminent’) and I couldn’t solve this but in what way is the ‘chum’ here (PAL) ‘hold[ing]’ the ‘girl’ (MARY)?
25 STAIR ROD (cryptic definition) – very clever but easily seen through.
26 A SPIRE
28 NAIADS; rev. of AN, + (SAID)*
29 CANNIKIN; “CANNY KIN” – it never feels quite right to me when the homophone indicator (‘reportedly’ here, which is arguably dubious in itself) covers both parts of the ‘sounds like’ phrase (‘canny’ and ‘kin’ here) but then one of them is unchanged in the answer word (as ‘kin’ in this clue).
30 TEMPER (2 defs)
31 RE + HEARSE – I don’t think ‘soldier’ for RE is justifiable, though obviously ‘soldiers’ for RE is fine.

Down
1 REP + AID
2 P + ROOFS – a proof is the first print taken from the negative of a photograph, hence ‘negative trials’.
3 CHE + RUBIC – Given that the Rubik’s Cube was named after its inventor Ernõ Rubik, I’m pretty certain that ‘Rubic’ is incorrect. Nonetheless, “Rubic’s Cube” gets more hits on Google than “Rubik’s Cube” so I’m prepared to be corrected. If this is a mistake, it’s one of the crass I’ve seen in this puzzle to date.
4 T + IDE
6 A(TO)LL + S
7 TOOL-SHED; (TOE-HOLDS)* – I spent a long time trying to do something with ‘shoe’.
8 ESOTERIC; (I + O + SECRET)*
11 COX + COMB – the third one I couldn’t solve. Probably should have got this but I couldn’t think of any short navigators and was waylaid by ‘fool’ = ‘con’ looking likely at the start.
14 ROTATOR (palindrome)
17 BASS(IN)ET – a baby’s cradle.
18 PARADIGM; (A GRIM PAD)*
19 PRESENCE; PRE + (SCENE)*
22 BRIDGE (2 defs)
23 BI(C)KER
24 SEANCE (cryptic definition) – I think the idea is that ‘excommunication’ formally refers to churches and people rather than mystics and ghosts, but this barely classifies qualifies as a cryptic definition. [Edit: see Sotira’s comment below.]
27 G + APE

8 comments on “ST 4312 (Sun 18 Jan) – Rubic? Er, no”

  1. More difficult than usual for an ST puzzle, I thought. It took me more than an hour. I share your reservation on Soldier = RE at 31.
  2. I too failed to get the COXCOMB/PALMARY pair. I can’t see how 21a works, either, talbinho. I notice ‘Alma’ is in there, and wonder if there’s some ‘pry/chum’ equivalence, though I’m blowed if I know what.

    I didn’t know how ‘Rubik’ was spelled, so didn’t have a problem at the time. But you’re right. Bad mistake.

    Some very good things in here, too. I enjoyed the ‘dismayed Malayan’ boy. INFLUX was very good, too.

    I saw ‘excommunication’ in 24d, as communicating with those who are ‘ex’.. which I thought rather good.

    1. 24dn: I concur. I think I was getting confused between ‘excommunicate’ and ‘exorcise’. Thanks for the correction.
  3. Palmares is a term used in cycling when referring to a list of past achievements, so I eventually got palmary, having been as confused by “holds” as everyone else. Holds as in holds close? I’m not convincing myself. Also toyed with concook for too long and footstep briefly. On the difficult side of Sunday puzzles. Well spotted on Rubik. Is there a cheap copy called Rubic to avoid copyright?
  4. Took me 2.5 days (not in 1 sitting!), mostly also getting stuck on COXCOMB & PALMARY, having not heard of either before and having to use a word wizard.

    Agree with the spelling of Rubik, and I did like 20a & 24d.

  5. I don’t like ORC for killer whale. I live in BC where we have pods of Orcas, a single one is an Orca. An Orc is a monster.
  6. I managed to get the DD MANTLE at 5d but was beaten by the crossing 11d COXCOMB and 21a PALMARY. The COXCOMB clue was a good ‘un and I bow to the setter in obeisance. Not so the clue for PALMARY where the “Chum holds girl” is an unequivocal containment indicator(IMHO). If it was “Chum holds girl close” we might have stood a chance.

    But it is not these things that most surprised me. About a week or so before this a new solver clued DELIGHTED (at his success) with something like “Lamp indeed (9)” – or DE LIGHT ED. Our illustrious founder PB assured him that no such construction would ever be used in a Times Cryptic clue. Yet here we are a few days later with DISMAYED = take MAY out of MALAYAN to get ALAN and TURNPIKE to get KEPI – the French Gendarme’s hat.

    Are these not exactly the same? I have to admit I quite like them – possibly because I managed to solve them? Or is the Sunday Times a law unto itself? The ST cryptic is the senior partner by 4 years if my calculations are correct.

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