Sunday Times 4443 (24 Jul 2011)

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 24:41

Not much to say about this one. Back to a more usual standard this week, with little to tax the solver too hard. I made steady progress throughout, and probably could have posted a quicker time had I given it my full concentration.

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

Across
1 WILD RICE – The ‘WILD’ in the answer acts as an anagrind on RICE to make ‘Eric’ in a reversed kind of clue.
5 bANGERS – A town in Western France (twinned with Wigan)
10 AN + ARCH + I + ST
11 SETT + O – A sett is a home for badgers
12 SHEA + F – The shea nut is where shea butter comes from, widely used in cosmetics
13 FIREBRAND = BRA in (FRIEND)* – I can’t recall having seen ‘fantastic’ as an anagrind before, but I guess it’s OK in its ‘odd’ sense.
14 VAC(ILL)ATED
17 RIFF = IR rev + FF
19 READy
20 GRAN + DOPE + RA
22 LOW + LANDER
24 GECKO = ‘ECK in GO
26 AD + MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
27 NONPAREIL = (ALIEN PORN)*
28 SINGER – dd – Isaac founded the Sewing Machine Company which bears his name
29 SPARROWS = SPAR + ROWS – a spar is a quarrel, and rows must be at least two more.
Down
1 WEAR SEVERAL HATS – dd – although I had WEAR VARIOUS HATS at first, but it was quickly disproved by checkers
2 L + thE + AVE
3 ROCKFALL = ROCKALL about Fishermen
4 CH + IE + Fold
6 NASEBY – rev hidden, site of a famous battle in the English Civil War
7 EXTRADITE = EX + (ATTIRED)*
8 SWORD OF DAMOCLES = (DO/DO + SCREAMS WOLF)*
9 STURGEON = (ONE’S GUT)* about suppeR
15 CHARWOMAN = CHARM about WOe + A + Nightmare
16 AB + RADiANT – I didn’t know this word, but couldn’t make ABRASIVE work, so I felt it had to be right.
18 LO + NG + H + AIR
21 CASTLE = LEft after CAST
23 RUNe + UP
25 C(RED)O

7 comments on “Sunday Times 4443 (24 Jul 2011)”

  1. Most of this was solved within 30 minutes but I was very tired and I think I nodded off a couple of times before I sorted out the final two, 1ac and 2dn. I’ve no idea why I couldn’t see these obvious answers.

    Thanks to the setter for reminding me of the wonderful Flanders and Swann (at 3dn). Not available on YouTube unfortunately so the lyric will have to do: http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fas/and_rock.html

    1. Ah, the memories. My brother (at the piano) and I used to do a rendition of this as Denis Healey and Harold Wilson (complete with my dad’s Gannex raincoat), respectively. Thanks fot the link – we had At the Drop of Another Hat and I knew it wasn’t from there, but had no idea where it was from.
  2. 30 minutes for me. I actually hesitated with LEAVE; it seemed so easy, I felt sure there was a catch. Forgive me if I’m being denser than usual, but I have trouble parsing 27: no problem with the anagrist, but what’s the anagrind? ‘made to look awful’? ‘awful’? Neither modfies ‘alien corn’. Couldn’t one have just done ‘super model makes awful alien porn’? CODs to 6d and 8d.
    1. It must be ‘made to look awful in’ to give a sort of &lit. Not the world’s greatest clue, agreed.
  3. Oh, 56 minutes online. Rather abtuse with a few, as I recall, notably CREDO. I’m hopeless with commies, taking forever to get TROTSKYITE in another puzzle recently.
  4. For the third quarrel, I took it to mean arrows, which are also quarrels, along with spar and rows.
    1. Yes, I certainly considered ‘arrows’ as quarrels. In fact I saw that before the spar/rows breakdown, but I couldn’t really make it work. I think it’s just a coincidence.

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