Sunday Times 4,343 – Light & Easy

Author   yfyapPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Normally, the puzzles I tackle from the daily broadsheets will require at least a couple of references to Chambers, thesaurus and sometimes even to other sources like Wikipedia; perhaps to check spelling or a new word or some hitherto unknown fact. Thankfully, there are puzzles which I can quite confidently solve without having to check. They make for good companions when one is travelling and have to contend with say, a 5-hour journey by bus. This week’s ST was no different …. a light & easy trip like a reward after the struggle from the past week. And because it takes so little time, I invariably get stuck into Azed … aren’t we masochists?

ACROSS
1 CHANGE OF HEART One of those reversed devices where the answer would appear to be a clue of the fodder (in this case, EARTH)
10 WAR DANCES cd
11 UDDER What a tantalising cd
12 RHEAS *(hears)
13 THESAURUS cd
14 SLEDGING *(niggles + D) Very timely clue as this appeared during the deciding Test at the Oval for the Ashes. SLEDGE vi and vt (cricket slang, orig Australia) to seek to upset the batsman’s concentration by making offensive remarks – Chambers.
Congratulations to England for regaining the Ashes.
16 LISTEN ha
19 ATTEND AT (rev of TA, Territorial Army, volunteers) TEND (nurse)
20 RED GIANT
22 SEA PARROT *(paratroopers minus pro)
24 SUSIE SUS (first letters of star’s usually strumpet) + IE (id est, that is)
25 INDIA Look at DELIA. You will see that EL (Spanish definite article) is literally in D & IA. Very clever clue like the chestnut, DHU devotee (5)
26 HARMONICA *(a + monarch + I)
27 GRIEF-STRICKEN What a grave cd

DOWN
2 HORSEMEAT *(a rest home) I often wonder whether horsemeat is suitable for human consumption
3 NEARS N (indefinite number) EARS (spikes – see spike2 in Chambers)
4 EXCITING Cha of EX (old mate) CITING (making a quotation)
5 FASTER This a what I would call a very timely tichy (tongue-in-cheek) clue on this first day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting to commemorate the Hijra
6 EDUCATING Ins of DUC (duck minus k) in EATING (taking food)
7 RIDER ha
8 SWORDSMANSHIP Ins of WORD (promise) in SS + MAN (him) SHIP (boat) and of course Athos, one of the Three Musketeers was skilled …..
9 ARMS AND THE MAN Cha of ARM (weapon) + ins of T (first letter of trigger) in SAND (smooth) & HE-MAN (beefy guy)
15 GIN PALACE Cha of GIN (snare or trap) PAL (mate) ACE (powerful shot like in tennis, perhaps)
17 TRANSPIRE dd
18 RESTORER Cha of REST (support as in snooker) ORE (metal) R (right) I rather like the oblique definition, one makes good like a reformed character
21 BRAHMS BRA (support for the female breast) HMS (Her Majesty’s Service) Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897), German composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period
23 ADDER dd
24 STOIC Ins of O (old) in STICK minus K

Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

7 comments on “Sunday Times 4,343 – Light & Easy”

  1. Unusually straightforward for a ST cryptic, and nothing wrong with it technically that I could see, barring a couple of cliches such as BRA = supporter. Nothing wrong with today’s either, so far as I can see, so maybe things are improving.. keep up the good work!
  2. 35 minutes.

    Very concerned that somehow I managed to miss “support” = BRA until quite late into the proceedings.

  3. 17d Is anyone else bothered by the -s of ‘happens’ in the clue?
    19ac Ditto for the ‘Being’
  4. 17d Transpire:
    I agree with Anonymous that the clue word should be ‘Happen’ and not ‘Happens’. Perhaps this error occurred only in the online version.
    21d Brahms:
    Queen = HM, with the ‘s’ coming from “‘s”
    18d Restorer?:
    The given solution doesn’t quite make sense. An ore is not a metal, rather it is a substance from which a metal or other useful material, not necessarily metallic, may be obtained. I admit that I was unable to solve the clue myself, but after reading the given solution, I checked the answer given in the Times. The correct answer seems to be ‘LECTURER’. I had to do some research to see why this might be the answer. In Chambers, a lecturer is ‘one of a class of preachers in the Church of England, supported by voluntary contributions’. Thus a LECTURER is maintained by pious (good)contributions (support). Since Re = rhenium, a rare METALlic element, and R = right, we have ‘a metal right at the bottom’. I can’t say that I am entirely comfortable with the whole thing.
    2d Horsemeat:
    yfyap wonders if horsemeat is suitable for human consumption. Some North American Indian tribes ate horsemeat. The ancient aboriginal people of the Americas hunted the horse to extinction, and I don’t think it was solely to get the hides. It was the Spanish conquistadores who reintroduced the horse to the Americas. I believe that horsemeat is eaten in some parts of the world even today.
    1. Horsemeat is very popular in France. Each market has its Chevaline.

      The answer given for 18dn seems wrong to me. Where is the “lectu” coming from? To me restorer clearly correct. The OED is happy to define “ore” as “metal, 2. Brass, bronze, copper.” and also “Chiefly poet. Metal, esp. precious metal.”

      I agree with you about Brahms. HM’s, not HMS. And about happen(s)

  5. jerrywh,
    I had another look at ‘restorer’. If ‘metal’ is replaced by ‘ore’ (which seems legitimate according to Chambers as well), and if ‘makes good’ = ‘repairs’ (Chambers), then ‘one makes good’ is indeed ‘restorer’. Thanx for putting me on the right track.

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