ST 4396 (Sun 29 Aug) – Tears for spheres

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 7:57

A mediocre puzzle with some wackiness, notably at 10ac (SPHERE) and 15ac (UGLY CUSTOMER). My last entry was 11dn (MINUETS), which would have been difficult anyway with just three out of seven letters checked but also had a dodgy clue. I don’t think I have correctly understood 19dn (COPPERS) either.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 GRAPH + I + TE (= ‘note’)
5 RECOUP; [mo]RE COUP[les] – strictly this is a transitive verb only, so the definition should be ‘To make up’ rather than ‘To make up losses’, but it’s close enough for the Sunday Times.
9 EMBARKED; BARK in E[astern] MED[iterranean] – ‘bark’ is an alternative for ‘barque’.
10 SPHERE; (HESPER)* – a lovely anagram but a bizarre clue. Given that ‘orbiting’ is the only possible anagram indicator, my guess is that ‘- evening star -‘ was included in error, and was an annotation to a draft version or something (such as might have been included to reassure a typesetter who hadn’t come across the word).
12 STRAIN (2 defs)
13 DIVORCES; (DISCOVER)* – another good anagram, and I don’t think I’ve seen this one before either.
15 UGLY CUSTOMER – is this supposed to be a cryptic definition? If it is, I can’t make sense of it. Perhaps there’s a word missing in the clue.
18 ARTICULATION; (TUTORIAL I CAN)* – not a valid use of ‘arrange’ (it can’t be used intransitively in this way) but again standard for the ST. At least the surface reading is ok.
23 FOREPAWS; “FOUR PAWS” – ok, but ‘forefeet’ would have been equally valid. The clue might have read more naturally if ‘sound’ had replaced ‘sounding’, with no worse a cryptic reading.
24 VIENNA; VIE (= ‘To contend with’) + rev. of ANN
26 OPENER (2 “definitions”) – ouch.
27 MOTORIST; (O + TOR) in MIST
28 ERNEST; “EARNEST”
29 ATTORNEY; (NEAT TORY)*

Down
1 GREASE; “GREECE” – good surface reading, albeit with a superfluous word or two.
2,3 ALBERT HERRING; ALBERT (= ‘watch’) + HER RING – a comic opera by Benjamin Britten. I wasted time trying to anagram ‘opera her ring’.
4 TIER; R[ight] after TIE (= ‘draw’)
6 EXPLOIT; EX + (PILOT)* – some confusion between acrobatics and aerobatics, I think.
7 OVERCAME (2 defs) – this is nearly a very good clue, since both definitions (‘Wiped the floor with’ and ‘worsted’) have completely different meanings in the surface reading, but the problem is that in the cryptic reading they are really the same definition rather than two separate ones.
8 PLEA + SURE
11 MINUETS; MINUS around E.T. – the first ‘Without’ gives MINUS, the second is a containment indicator and E.T. is given by ‘space visitor’, but unfortunately the comma between ‘space’ and ‘visitor’ ruins the clue.
14 BYELAWS; BY (= ‘passing through’) + (WALES)* – as a regular victim of “roads” in Wales I sympathise with the surface reading and could recommend a few adjustments.
16 CALF-LOVE; COVE around (FALL)* – not a phrase I knew.
17 S(T)URGEON – the theatre being one in a hospital.
19 COPPERS (2 defs?) – why ‘Receptacles’? The closest definition I can find is ‘a boiler (originally of copper) for laundry’, but that’s tenuous. I initially put in ‘coffers’ here.
20 ORINOCO; OR + (COIN)* + O (= ‘ring’)
21 ENSIGN (hidden)
22 PALTRY; TRY (= ‘attempt’) after PAL (= ‘mate’) – an unindicated change in the order of the wordplay elements, unless you want to interpret ‘to’ as meaning ‘next to’. The word ‘to’ in the clue means it can’t be read as a charade (i.e. a single phrase ‘pal try’) because ‘pal’ can only be a noun.
25 HOLT; HOT around L[ake] – dubious wordplay. I couldn’t remember the word for an otter’s lair but have seen this word used in names of points on rivers and got there eventually.

7 comments on “ST 4396 (Sun 29 Aug) – Tears for spheres”

  1. Re 19dn, Coppers, the OED says: “3a A vessel made of copper, particularly a large boiler for cooking or laundry purposes” and “3b A copper mug or vessel for liquor” so I guess that’s OK.
    My main complaint with this puzzle is that an Albert is NOT a watch, it is a watch chain only. I am inclined to agree that 10ac is an editing error.
  2. Liked STURGEON which I got right off but got myself in trouble by at first banging in GREECE instead of GREASE and had to look up ALBERT HERRING and CALF LOVE as I’m used to the expression PUPPY LOVE. My education through these puzzles continues.
    This week’s Sunday puzzle sports yet another error at 4d.
    35-40 minutes being sidetracked while looking things up.
      1. Ah yes. Plural if that’s safe to say here. Thanks. Somehow got it right without noticing.
  3. Don’t understand ‘plot to gain’ in 29ac. Presumably some or all of it is the anagrind but I don’t know how it works.

    I foolishly wasted time with FORELEGS at 23ac. CALF-LOVE or CALF something with similar meaning came up in a Times puzzle very recently, I think.

    I didn’t think the rest of it was bad for an ST puzzle. Are we becoming too critical of the ST clues as opposed to the dodgy editing?

    1. I think “plot” is the anagram indicator and having done so, you gain a legal representative.. in other words, “to gain a” is just to titivate the surface meaning. I leave it to you to be critical or otherwise 😉
  4. 7:55 here, so I was expecting talbinho to break 4 minutes! The clue to SPHERE puzzled me a little but didn’t slow me down as it was a very obvious anagram. I think “client” or something similar must be missing from the clue to 15ac. I didn’t notice any of the other problems while solving.

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