Sunday Times 4427 (3 Apr 2011) – A scientist no one thought of

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: Exactly 30 minutes. I thought of the final answer just as my son finished his swimming lesson.

After Ernest Rutherford got a mention in the grid that pre-dated this one by two days, someone quipped that he was not the first scientist one thought of. A dialogue then resulted in which numerous well-known scientists were listed as being fair game. I had a quick count up, and I believe 38 scientists, in addition to Rutherford himself, were mentioned. Not one person mentioned André-Marie Ampère, but I suspect we won’t see too many people moaning about his obscurity. I trust we’ve all come across amps before?

Overall, a decent crossword. Pretty standard Sunday fare. No major complaints from me, so a massive improvement on last week’s offering. I would have expected to see the enumeration for 19 to be (10,10) and omitted entirely from 10a, rather than enumerating them separately, and there’s rather a dubious homophone at 16, but those are the only things.

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

Across
1 GERSHWIN = (WHINGES)* about Referee – ‘Scorer’ = composer always manages to catch me out even though I must have seen it a hundred times.
6 FACsimILE – A ‘sim’ does not reply to any specific computer game, although The Sims franchise is in danger of monopolising the word these days. It refers to any game that attempts to simulate some aspect of reality.
9 RHEA – hidden
11 hAMPER + E – Indisputably not the first scientist one thinks of (or even the 39th apparently!)
12 JAM + BORE + Elected – I put this in from the checkers and definition alone, and worked out the wordplay later.
14 TROLLEYBUS = TROLL + garagE + (BUSY)* – I did like ‘monstrous Scandinavian’ for TROLL. An entertaining clue.
16 NIPS = SPIN rev
18 FLOG = GOLF rev
19 PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT – cd
21 SCOT-FREE = (SECRET OF)*
23 PISTOL – cd – Ancient Pistol was a veteran soldier in Henry V’s army, and an acquaintance of the late Sir John Falstaff, according to the Bard and is one of the major roles in his play.
25 BLUE + CHEESE – I liked the surface here. Not an easy definition of ‘cheese’ to work into a clue, but well done for achieving it.
27 AVID = DIVA rev
28 HO(A)RSE
29 R(I)E + SLING = I has RE (about) + SLING (to chuck) outside – a semi-&lit clue, but I think it needs ‘of this’ in the clue to make it a bit clearer.
Down
2 EPHEMERAL = Elizabethan Play + HEM + (LEAR)*
3 S(T)ALE
4 WHIT + recipE + PEPPER – I think PEPPER is supposed to sound like “PAPER” when spoken with a posh accent. I’m not convinced.
5 NOS + tablE + JOB
6 FORm)
7 CO + Million POUNDS
8 LAN(C)E
13 MUSEUM PIECE = MUSE + MU rev + PIECE
15 LIGHT YEAR = I in (LETHARGY)*
17 PRO + MOTION – Andrew Motion took over as poet laureate in 1999 after the death of Ted Hughes. He retired after 10 years in the position (the first laureate to do so) and was replaced by Carol Ann Duffy.
20 ROE-DEER = ROE + “DEAR”
22 CELL + nO = 10 (INSTRUMENT)
24 SHAW + L
26 ivanHOE

4 comments on “Sunday Times 4427 (3 Apr 2011) – A scientist no one thought of”

  1. This was something of a slog for me, 57′, and I can’t remember why. (I went to the Club forum to see what I had said there, and found all my postings deleted!) I had no idea how to parse 6ac until I came here; thanks, Dave. And I wasted time on 19,10 trying to think of some obscure percussion instrument (the percussion counterpart to theorbo), ignoring the possibility of a generic term. I was divided between amusement and irritation at 4d.
  2. An hour with one cheat at 7dn where I have never met the answer in the sense required.

    I remain completely unconvinced that anyone says ‘paper’ as ‘pepper’ and I consider myself something of a student of posh accents (not that I have one). It might also be argued that pepper has only one use in the kitchen, namely to add the flavour of pepper.

    I can’t see that 29 works as a semi &lit. I found the answer from the wordplay, then consulted a number of dictionaries expecting to find that ‘RIESLING’ is a term for being drunk that had somehow passed me by. The comedian Michael McIntire in his act has a theory that posh people have a variety of options for describing this condition, ‘trousered’, ‘wellied’, ‘trollied’ and ‘rat-arsed’ for example, and that many other random words might be substituted to exactly the same effect such as ‘gazeboed’, pyjamaed’ or ‘car-parked’.

  3. Thanks, daveperry, for the explanation of riesling. Yes, “of this” would have made things more understandable. Didn’t like the upper crest PEPPER/PAPER in 4d at all. Had never heard of SIM as a computer game. 48mins, I think.

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