ST 4401 (Sun 3 Oct) – Withal due respect

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 5:09 [edit: one mistake (9ac)]

I felt sluggish over this, despite it seeming fairly easy, which is in keeping with most of my solving recently and doesn’t bode well for today at Cheltenham. The clues were pretty good, if mostly fairly basic in construction, with some nice surface readings and little to quibble about.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 DI(VERGE)D
5 CH + ARMS
9 HOBO; HOO around B LOBO; LOO around B – thanks to Barbara for pointing out my mistake here. I had to knock out this blog very quickly and didn’t stop to think about this one properly.
10 SALMON PINK; ALMON[d] + P (= soft), all in SINK
11 ESTHER (hidden)
12 BRIGADES; (BASED)* around RIG
14 MODERNISED; MORE + R.N. + IS + ED
16 SACK (2 defs) – ‘cashier’ in this sense being cognate with ‘quash’, I believe.
18 WEIR[d]
19 MISCELLANY; IS CELL in MANY
21 CHEERS UP; (SHEEP CUR)*
23 WITHAL; WIT + HAL[e] – sidetracked by ‘wag’ here, and made harder because ‘not completely’ could have applied to either part of the wordplay. I think I’ve only come across this as part of ‘wherewithal’.
25 INSTRUMENT; INSTRU[c]T around MEN – ‘not about’ indicating ‘remove C’ (for ‘circa’). This was my last solve: I’d never have got it from ‘legal document’ without the checking letters and had spent a while going through options for ‘men’ instead of taking the word at face value.
27 [d]AVID
28 KENYAN; KEN (= ‘range of knowledge’) + rev. of NAY (= ‘no’)
29 SCRAPP[i]ER
Down
2 IRONSTONE; (TENOR IS)* around ON (= ‘performing’)
3 EPOCH; rev. of H[ospital] + COPE
4 GASTRONOMES; (MARGE NOT SO)* + S[pecial] – a nice ‘double whammy’ clue.
5 DELIBE[rate]S
6 COO[l]
7 APPRAISAL; (R.A. IS) in A P PAL – R[oyal] A[cademician] for ‘artist’, P for ‘piano’ (= ‘quiet’).
8 MANSE; MAN (= ‘fellow’) + SE[e]
13 IN DEEP WATER (1 def, 1 literal interpretation) – wasted some time here on a non-existent anagram.
15 EAR(NEST)LY
17 CANTABILE; CAN’T A BILE – ‘cantabile’ means something like ‘in a singing style’ in musical notation.
20 SUPPERS; PER in SUPS
22 HENCE, from FENCE – the ‘coping’ of a wall is its covering, so ‘new coping’ means ‘a new first letter’, although I’m not keen on devices like this when the replacement letter isn’t indicated.
24 TRAM + P
26 [t]URN

8 comments on “ST 4401 (Sun 3 Oct) – Withal due respect”

  1. An unexceptionable puzzle I thought, with nothing at all to complain about, which counts as strong praise for the ST cryptic. One teeny typo Neil, it’s MODE not more in 14ac.
    According to Peter’s blog you were second to finish in the Times championship final, coming 7th directly behind Peter & Tony with just 1 error.. a fine result, well done!
  3. To cashier is to dismiss a military person, dishonorably. I can’t say I’ve ever seen it in current use, but “Othello” has some wordplay about cashiering Cassio, one more of Iago’s victims.
  4. The setter is grateful for the apparent damning with faint praise from a fast solver whose chief interest seems to be to bolt his food in record time rather than sit down and enjoy it properly. One hope others savoured the meal rather more!
    1. The setter is perceptive: I do tend to bolt my calories, on the grounds that it increases the time available for burning them.

      On the other hand, the wonderful ‘unexceptionable’ was not my coinage but that of a commenter; au contraire, this puzzle was exceptional for the Sunday Times in that it did not contain a mistake (unlike my solving).

  5. Many years ago, I worked with an undermanager who was irritatingly pretentious, especially with regards to reports for the upper echelons. In one report that I saw, instead of “wherewithal” he wrote “where with all”. Cringe.
    Mike
    Skiathos

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