ST 4397 – 5th September 2010

Talbinho, your usual blogger, has been struck down by yellow bird syndrome on the Times Crossword Club site, so I’m standing in for one week only.  I flew through most of this in about 7 minutes then took another 11 minutes to complete the bottom left corner, especially 17d (tricky), 24a (also tricky), 26a (maybe dodgy) and 22d (easy enough but just couldn’t get it). Reading Talbinho’s blog it seems that wrong clueing is far from unheard of on the Sunday Times puzzles and this one doesn’t disappoint.

Across
1 CANAPES – (AS PECAN)* a really easy start
5 ROSETTE – SET in ROTE. I think this is the first error as I can’t find evidence that ROTE = memory. Use of memory, yes, but not yer actual memory.
9 BUM,PIER
10 OWN G(O)AL
11 SWEEPING CHANGES – probably a cryptic definition
12 SPOT ON  – POT in SON
14 ROPINESS – PINE in ROSS, an area of Northern Scotland inextricably linked with Cromarty
17 OVERT,ONE 
18 BOTTLE – double def
21 COLLISION,COURSE
24 A,TOM(IS)E – IS being the biblical abbreviation for Isaiah
25 BREATHE – B +(HEATER)*
26 DOSSERS – is a single brief made up of several dossiers? I’m a little dubious
27 THAT’S IT – two defs, one the answer to “What’s all this PC stuff?”

 
Down
1 CUB,I(ST)S
2 NUMBER ONE – I was quite surprised (but pleased) to see one of the definitions as “pee”
3 PR,1,MP – PR being PRince. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before but I eventually managed to confirm it here
4 S,PRANG – a definite wrong ‘un. The clue gives “move suddenly”, so unless a crash can also be a PRING there shurely shome mishtake
5 ROOT CROP – crop as in “this year’s crop of gradates”
6 SAN MARINO – (ROMANIANS)*
7 THONG – “song” to a lisper
8 EN,LISTS – EN being EN(glish)
13 ON THIN ICE – cryptic def. I took far too long on this wanting the “cracking future” to have something to do with eggs
15 ENTER,IT IS
16 INSIDERS – “In ciders”
17 ORCHARD – a really tricky clue, “source for supplying cooker direct”, a cooker being an apple unsuitable for eating raw
19 ELEMENT – two def, one slightly tricky – “I perhaps” refers the the element iodine on the periodic table
20 IN (h) A BIT
22 LOOPS – SPOOL rev
23 O,PER,A – A here being the last letter of saunA

6 comments on “ST 4397 – 5th September 2010”

  1. I’ve no record of how long this took but I think it was far too long. My print-out has ?s and !s against at least half a dozen clues which I found difficult or couldn’t explain satisfactorily. I think it’s a handicap to solvers when past experience has proved they can’t trust the setter/editor/typsetter.
  2. 13:19 for me, with the SW corner giving me a hard time as well. My main problem was that I parsed 17A (Manifest single part of harmony) and 17D (Source for supplying cooker direct) wrongly, lured by the possibility of an initial S for both answers.

    I had DOSSERS down as iffy. I don’t think a single brief can really be made up of several dossiers – after all, the whole point of a brief is that it’s supposed to be brief.

    I quite agree with jackkt that the continuing run of cock-ups in the ST puzzle makes you doubt every clue you have difficulty with. Very unsatisfactory.

    1. And it continues today, at least in the on-line version where the enumeration at 11ac is incorrect. There’s another clue where I have the correct answer but I haven’t got the faintest idea how it’s supposed to work but I’m not going to waste any more time on it in case there’s an error in the clue.
  3. Thanks for stepping off the subs’ bench at fairly short notice. Although you’re right about ROTE, it didn’t bother me at all when solving, as I’ve never had to look it up before, and “by rote” would mean same if ROTE did mean “memory”. 26 and 4 were more obviously problematic, and I wans’t quite convinced by “inspired” as a containment indicator at 24. 27 and 2 were probably the clues I liked best.
  4. Not a hard one this, well under 20mins for me. I agree with the errors pointed out in the blog and with the general view that because there are so many, it changes your whole view of the crossword.

    I am told the ST has an editor, so what does she do? I count at least three clues that only needed a letter or word changed to make them legitimate. In 26ac for example the only complaint is that it says brief, and not briefs. Also in 4dn, moved instead of move is all that seems needed. Why not get it right? I hereby offer my services in pointing these simple corrections out beforehand, instead of afterwards, if required..

    I thought “inspired” was an inspired containment indicator..

  5. Pretty much in agreement with Jerrywh although it took me a little longer …watching a ball game as usual.

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