ST 4394 (Sun 15 Aug) – Illegalised

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 3:52

Yet another erroneous clue (for LEGALISED at 6dn), probably with a missing word, detracted from what was an otherwise mostly reasonable puzzle.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 TRAINING COLLEGE – I think this is a pun on ‘track’, as in an athletics track, and ‘training’, but there may be something else.
9 JOCKEYS (2 defs)
10 INGENUE; (GENUINE)*
11 KIND (2 defs)
12 DISPELLING; DI (= ‘Girl briefly’, i.e. a short form of a girl’s name) + SPELLING (= ‘arranging letters’)
13 BUILDER; “BILL” + DER (= ‘the German’)
15 RESERVE (2 defs) – ‘bench’ as in the substitutes’ bench.
17 NEGLECT; (ELECT N[o]-G[ood])* – awkwardly worded.
19 BAD OMEN; BAD MEN around O (= ‘ring’)
20 SUSPICIONS; rev. of US, + SP (= starting price = ‘odds’) + I + (COINS)*
22 INCH (hidden)
25 AVARICE; A[nd] R[esulting] in A VICE
26 IN DOORS
27 DEFENCELESSNESS; DE (= ‘Of French’) + FENCE (= ‘sword’) + LESS (= ‘reduced’) + NESS (= ‘point’, as in a headland) – I had doubts over ‘sword’ = FENCE, but both can be intransitive verbs (meaning ‘to wield a sword’, as in e.g. fencing).

Down
1 TAJIK (initial letters) – decent clue.
2 ASCENDING; (SING DANCE)* – ‘tune’ as in ‘tune a piano’, I suppose, but the wording of this clue is jarring.
3 NOEL; (a)LONE – ‘strangely’ might have been better than ‘strange’ but this is a clever use of ‘without a present’.
4 NASTIER; (INSERT A)*
5 CLIP + PER
6 LEGALISED – this was presumably supposed to have been an anagram of ‘alleged is’, but the ‘is’ seems to have been lost along the way. If you’re solving the Toronto Star version in three weeks time, you’ll probably see a corrected version of the clue, although there will of course have been no mention of the mistake anywhere on the Times site.
7 ENNUI; (GENUINE – E.G.)*
8 EVER GREEN – the definition seems to be a dubiously-worded pun on ‘shed’ as in ‘shedding leaves’.
13 BANDSTAND; BAND (= ‘Ring’) + ST (= road) + AND – ‘Ring road’ is a nice idea, although somehow ‘road’ = ST doesn’t feel quite right since ST is an abbreviation of the specific word ‘Street’ in place names. That said, ‘way’ = ST is standard crosswordese so I’m not sure what the difference is; maybe just that (unlike ‘road’ = RD) there’s no abbreviation of ‘Way’.
14 DIETICIAN; (I INDICATE)* – I always dither over the spelling of this word, and probably always will since apparently ‘dietitian’ is a valid alternative.
16 ROMAN NOSE; (MASON NERO)* – an apt anagram.
18 TRIREME; “TRY” + R.E.M.E.
19 BONFIRE; (NO FIBRE)*
21 SCARF (2 defs) – there’s more on the wood joint here, and the word probably (apparently) comes from Old Norse skarfr meaning ‘nail for fastening a joint’. I hate incomplete definitions like this (‘May cover the neck’) and can’t understand why this clue wasn’t prefixed with ‘This’ or ‘It’.
23 HOSES (cryptic defs) – another incomplete definition (see previous clue). The pun here is on ‘jets’ which are not aircraft but water spurts.
24 ODDS (cryptic definition) – a pun on ‘better’. Better.

9 comments on “ST 4394 (Sun 15 Aug) – Illegalised”

  1. Yes, surely it should be “is alleged”. There’s a stray typo in today’s ST also. Conclusion: get an editor or shut up shop. Or else: take this puzzle off the Times site (and out of the paper?) so folks don’t get confused between it and the genuine article. Everyone seems to be being nice to someone who now lacks basic competence. I wonder why.
    BTW: it’s Sun 15 Aug; not 17.
    1. Date slip-up fixed.

      Once we’ve pointed out any problems here (or written to the Sunday Times about them), it’s up to the newspaper to decide what action needs taking. One day, the ST puzzle will change, just as the Sunday Telegraph puzzle changed out of all recognition some time last year. But insulting descriptions like “lacks basic competence” are not going to make it happen any faster.

      On the “genuine article” point, I see no reason why the Sunday Times, as a separate paper (see Wikipedia for the historical context), shouldn’t have a crossword that’s different in style and authorship to the Times crossword.

      (Peter, who posted the report on Talbinho’s behalf)

      1. Certainly we don’t need confrontation but this sort of error week after week is very frustrating and mct has something of a point. Either they don’t have an editor (in which case they should appoint one) or they have one who is not very good at their job. The issue needs to be addressed.
    2. I take it the “stray typo” you refer to in today’s ST puzzle is “remainder” instead of the obviously required “reminder” as the first word of 25ac (unless I’m missing something)? Agreed, these sorts of error are tiresome, and unnecessary – all the more regrettable as today’s was otherwise a very good puzzle, I thought, with some excellent clues well up to Times daily standard.
  2. It must be some sort of a plot, since – wait for it – yes! 4395 has a major typo in 25 ac.
    1. Well I must be dim today, but I can’t see how the clue would make any sense without the “track” reference.
  3. I felt very old and tired doing this puzzle, and struggled to a miserable 6:28 when I felt I should have broken 5 minutes.

    I was slowed down a bit by 1ac, since when the first letter of the second word appeared, I took the hint from “track” and bunged in TRAINING COURSES. In the end I came to the same conclusion as you, that the track is an athletics track for training.

    I wasn’t too keen on “road” for ST in 13D either.

  4. Toronto Star has it as alleged to. I notice no one has commented on the fact ides would be equally valid (and perhaps more clever an answer) at 24d
  5. Doesn’t “on track” point to “train” as in railroad? It doesn’t help the reading (RR!) though.

    Sorry to be so late, but Ottawa gets this a week later than Toronto.

Comments are closed.