Sunday Times 4415 (9 Jan 2011)

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 23 minutes

This was easily finished during my son’s swimming lesson, and I was left twiddling my thumbs for a few minutes at the end. I hadn’t heard of CUCKOOPINT, but I knew that ‘Lords and Ladies’ was a plant, and that my knowledge of plants is woefully poor, so it was entirely plausible. I also didn’t know CAMBRIC, but again it sounded highly plausible and couldn’t really be much else once the C & M were in place.

DETAIL made me smile. I have a feeling I might have seen it before somewhere, but it gets my COD nonetheless.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 CON + FORM
5 cd – A last is a device used by cobblers to make shoes.
9 (TO METHANE)*
10 dd
11 hidden – A semi-&lit as it appears here. But is the ‘Another term for’ strictly necessary? Omitting it would have left a perfectly acceptable &lit clue, I would have thought.
12 COVEN + ANT – I like ‘social worker’ for ANT. I’ve seen it before, but it’s still good.
14 CUCKOO + PINT – Just two of many common names for Arum maculatum. Jack in the Pulpit, Bobbins, Starch-Root, Devils and Angels & Wake Robin are a few others.
16 S(Hyacinth)OD
18 P + MOP all rev
19 DETER + MINE + D
22 NAIL + FILE
23 DE-TAIL – A reference to Three Blind Mice where the farmer’s wife cut off their tails.
26 tISSUE
27 MAT + R + (CHAIR)*
28 G(ARM)ENT – The definition by example is clearly indicated.
29 (TRIP + ONE)*
Down
1 CAM + (CRIB)*
2 SET ON rev
3 cd
4 MAT + E – ‘China’ is a colloquial term for friend that crops up quite a lot in Times crosswords.
5 CON + FOUND + ED
6 “BAND”
7 (VALIANT HE)*
8 RE + LATE + D
13 (SIMPLE DIET)* – A well-disguised definition in ‘Any faster might generate a fine’.
15 MO rev + MISS in CAR
17 (PIE I GOT + Milk)*
18 P + ENDING
20 (OLD)* + “FINN”
21 European Family + FETE – I’d not come across EFFETE meaning ‘exhausted’ before, but it’s in my dictionary, so no problem there.
24 (EAGER)*
25 PETS rev

3 comments on “Sunday Times 4415 (9 Jan 2011)”

  1. 48 mins online. Only noteworthy point is that I completely missed the nursery rhyme reference at 23.
  2. 12 minutes, a personal best. I had heard of cuckoopint, which suggests to me that it must have appeared before, as my ignorance of botanical terms is encyclopedic.

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