ST 4315 (Sun 8 Feb) – Hurricane Higgins

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 7:15

A few difficult words this week – I don’t think I’ve come across GHILLIE or Henry Higgins before.

* = anagram.

Across
1 A HEAD FOR HEIGHTS; (HAG + FISH + TOAD HERE)*
9 ANCIENT (2 defs) – an old word for a flag, ensign or standard-bearer.
10 G(HILL)I + E – a Gaelic word meaning a guide for hunting or fishing sportsmen.
11 D + RUM
12 SPRING ROLL – just a pun on ‘spring’ = ‘bound’, I think.
13 POTTER’S – as in Harry Potter.
15 SCAR + I.E. + R
17 ERRATIC; ERIC around, i.e. ‘caring for’, RAT
19 DESSERT (cryptic definition) – a pun on ‘course’.
20 SAINT-SAENS; (A NASTINESS)* – composer of ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ and ‘Danse Macabre’.
22 ARMS; RM (= ‘soldiers’) in AS (= ‘when’).
25 TREACLE – referring to the ‘treacle well’ in ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
26 BROCADE; (BAR CODE)*
27 DELIRIUM TREMENS – an alcoholic’s shakes. I held myself up considerably by writing ‘therapy’ as the second word once I had T-E—-.

Down
1 A WARD
2 ENCOUNTER (2 defs)
3 DEE + P (middle of ‘Tapti’)
4 OCTOPUS; rev. of CO, + TO, + rev. of SUP
5 HIGGINS – refers to the character Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, who trains a cockney girl to speak with an upper class accent.
6 I + SING + LASS
7 [ot]HELLO
8 SMELL A RAT; [Brian] LARA in SMELT – not the best week to refer to West Indies cricket after the farcical second Test.
13 PRESS STUD; (PUTS DRESS)*, semi-&lit
14 ESTATE CAR; (TERESA + CAT)*
16 INEBRIATE; (AT + I + BERNIE)*
18 CHATEAU[brian’d]
19 DINGBAT (hidden)
21 I + DEAL
23 STEPS; rev. of S + PETS
24 MOLE (2 defs)

5 comments on “ST 4315 (Sun 8 Feb) – Hurricane Higgins”

  1. Prof. Higgins is better known these days from the musical My Fair Lady based on the Shaw play. Rex Harrison created the role on stage and repeated it later on film.
  2. The ghillie that most folk will know of was John Brown, originally from Queen Victoria’s estate at Balmoral, who became her advisor and friend after the death of Prince Albert.
  3. This is interesting as I am just doing this crossword on March 14th presented as the challenge crossword in the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star, Ontario, Canada.
    1. Yes, I believe the Sunday Times puzzles are syndicated to the Toronto Star, and I think some other global papers, and appear about three to four weeks later than in the UK. Whether the numerous errors are removed beforehand I don’t know!
  4. This was an entertaining solve with no question marks next to any answers for obscurities or impenetrable word-play.

    The very much still alive (especially in 2009) Brian Lara in 8d shows that the Times rule for inclusion of only persons who have passed on is not applied to the Sunday Times.

    It appears that England were not doing very well in the Windies in Feb 2009 and so it is again in Feb 2019 with England 1-0 down in a 3 match series and 187 all out with Windies 30-0 at the start of the second day in Antigua.

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