Sunday Times 4445 (7 Aug 2011)

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: About 28 minutes

After last week’s fun and games, a much more conventional solve today. A few new words for me – CRAMBO, OJIBWAS & ORISONS, although I think I have probably come across the latter in the dim and distant past.

The Sunday puzzle has never followed the same rules as the daily regarding references to living people, and that is demonstrated today with both Quentin Tarantino and Steve Cram making an appearance. Also there seemed to be quite a lot of cryptic defs today, which I know aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.

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

Across
1 MOCK TURTLE SOUP – cd – that’s ‘neat’ in the cattle sense, as mock turtle soup is made from calf offal, and not from turtles.
10 ORIGAMI – cd
11 MILITIA = (I LIMIT)* + A – unusual to have A for American rather than AM or US
12 NEWS + AGENT – an ‘organ’ can be a publication or journal of some kind
13 ThE + MP + summiT
14 NO SHED – dd
15 M(E + CH)ANIC
18 HOT + PRESS – ‘Press’ as in press gang, and ‘evening out’ as in flattening
20 SCHOOL – dd
23 MUNiCH – Edvard Munch is best known for his ‘The Scream‘
25 TA + RAN + TIN + O – ‘my’ = O as an interjection. Quentin Tarantino is best known for his ‘Pulp Fiction‘ and ‘Reservoir Dogs‘.
26 UNI + CORN – to corn is to preserve with salt, which I hadn’t come across. Hence corned beef (which I had).
27 MAYPOLE – cd
28 HARPSICHORDIST = HARPIST about (ORCHIDS)* – There were several baroque Italian composers called Scarlatti, but Domenico was the most notable harpsichordist.
Down
2 OJIBWAS = (I SAW JOB)* – I didn’t know this particular tribe of Native Americans, but this seemed the least unlikely arrangement of the letters.
3 KOALA BEAR = (LOAf + A BAKER)* – nice definition
4 UNITES = UN + I + SET rev
5 TOMATOES = (MEATS TOO)*
6 ECLAT = TALE rev about C
7 OTTOMAN = (TOMATOes)* + N – 5 being a reference to 5d
8 PRACTICAL JOKER – cd
9 DOWN IN THE MOUTH – dd, one of which is cryptic
16 HACKNEYED = (CHEEKY AND)*
17 ISOTONIC = I + SOT + (COIN)*
19 TANGIER – dd
21 ORISONS – hidden
22 CRAM + BO – a rhyming word game which I’ve never heard of. But Steve Cram was the only athlete I could think of that fit *R*M, so I guessed it right.
24 HOOK’S – the obligatory cricket reference

10 comments on “Sunday Times 4445 (7 Aug 2011)”

  1. 18 minutes, so my best time on a Club cryptic for ages. ISOTONIC and CRAMBO from wordplay and OJIBWAS, like you, as the least unlikely arrangement of the grist, otherwise it was all straightforward.
  2. Around 40 minutes, as I recall. ‘Orisons’ is best known from the close of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in Act 3, Scene i:

    ‘Nymph, in thy orisons/ Be all my sins remember’d’.

    Good time, Jack!

    1. Also “Anthem for Doomed Youth” (Wilfred Owen) “Patter out their hasty orisons”
  3. Fun crossword this one, I like it’s independent approach. A least, now it is normally technically right.
    A different spelling of Ojibwa, Otchipewa, was in the June Club Monthly crossword. Chippewa gets you to the same tribe too.
  4. For 9 down, I quickly and confidently entered DOWN IN THE DUMPS, accompanied by a loud snigger. Unfortunately, the SW corner then became somewhat tricky.
    Mike O
  5. I had this done in 24 minutes, save 23ac and 24d, which took me an additional 9, and in retrospect I had no idea why. I was familiar with the Ojibwa/Chippewa, and I think they’ve appeared in an earlier cryptic other than the June monthly, too. And a recent Jumbo had a clue where either crambo or crimbo was the solution; I remember, since I’d never heard of either!. A somewhat reluctant COD to 14ac; reluctant only in that (in my dialect, anyway) ‘put away’ is transitive (I put away a dozen macaroons vs. *I put away all day) and ‘nosh’ is intransitive (I noshed all day vs. *I noshed a dozen macaroons); does UK English allow that last sentence?
    1. I don’t think there’s a problem if ‘put away’ is taken as the (passive) past participle – an interpretation in fact indicated by the ‘weren’t’ in the second part of the clue.

      On the second point, I think a sentence like “He noshed a whole bar of chocolate” is fine.

  6. I’ve only just done this so it’s fresh in the memory for once.
    23 minutes. Like Kevin I spent ages on 23ac and 24dn. Unlike Kevin I know exactly why: I was sure 23ac would be MANET or MONET and was trying a) to figure out which and b) to solve 24dn from T_O_S. As so often, I had to wrench my brain out of the rut to make progress.
    Good puzzle, this. The OJIBWA were new to me but I remember CRAMBO from a recent clue somewhere in which you had to change a letter to get CRIMBO. Or vice versa.
  7. What does isotonic have to do with a drink from a leisure centre? I can see that tonic is a drink, but Iso?
    1. Isotonic drinks are those energy-giving drinks like Lucozade that you often see in vending machines at Leisure Centres. Ideal for re-hydrating after an exercise session, so we’re told.

Comments are closed.