Sunday Times 4446 (14 Aug 2011)

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 37:38 with 1 mistake.

A few new words for me – COLLOCATION, LAMBERT & VALETUDINARIAN. I failed to get LAMBERT, plumping instead for LAMBENT, but then a cryptic def for such an obscure word seems a little harsh. I also entered URANIUM & IDEAL without full understanding.

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

Across
1 COD WAR = RAW + DOC all rev
4 S(MOOT)HED
10 N(A + ST)INES + Spread
11 S(A + MO)A – SA for Salvation Army
12 RI(C + OT)TA
14 INTENSE – hidden
15 VALETUDINARIAN = (INVALID + A NATURE)* – &lit
18 TO TELL THE TRUTH – dd
22 URANIUM – So far as I can see, the wordplay is just that U (for University) is the chemical symbol for Uranium
24 revolT + A + N + GENT
25 EX(IL)E
26 ERADICATE = (A CIDER)* + (TEA)*
28 MONOLITH = (I + LO) rev in MONTH
29 RECESS – A semi-&lit = CE + SS with RE in front
Down
1 CONTRIVE = (TIN COVER)*
2 DIS – dd – The God of the Underworld in Ancient Roman mythology, also (for our older solvers who are not ‘down with the kids’) street-slang for ‘disrespect’
3 ARISTOTLE = (TO REALIST)*
5 M + IS + SI(O)N
6 ON SET
7 HU(MANNA)T + URE
8 DRAWER – dd
9 REWARD = 8d rev
13 COL + LOCATION
16 RE(TENT + I)VE
17 S(HATTER)S
19 LAMBERT – a unit of luminance. I think this is just a weak cd, but that seems a little unfair since the word strikes me as rather obscure. Without any wordplay to help, if you don’t know the word, as I didn’t, you’re rather stuck. I went for LAMBENT, another light related word.
20 wHITMAN – Walt is the US poet
21 MUSE + UM
23 I DEAL – I wasn’t sure about pattern as a definition. As in ‘conforming to the ideal’ presumably, but I’m not convinced it’s really the same thing.
27 A + PE

12 comments on “Sunday Times 4446 (14 Aug 2011)”

  1. I knew, rather than thought, the LAMBENT was a unit of light. I’ve been waiting all week to find out where my one error on this one came from. Well, now I know that I know even less than I thought I knew, including some of the things I knew I knew. Thanks for the illumination, Dave.
  2. 30 minutes here and the same error. Now I see the correct answer I remember the LAMBERT from my O-Level physics classes and there was a boy named Lambert in our form which gave rise to some comment so it should have stuck with me. LAMBENT, however, won the day, or rather lost it for me.
  3. I thought of Constant Lambert as soon as I got the L*M crossing letters. He must have been a bit of a celebrity when I was a child. I didn’t know it was a unit of luminescence but bunged it in anyway. Otherwise the puzzle seemed quite straightforward. 17 minutes
  4. 25 minutes, a walk in the park compared to today’s. I don’t see any problem with LAMBERT, at least with some checkers, and ‘constant’–which/who rang a bell with me, too, although I hadn’t any idea what bell. And, as we’re often reminded, the sciences are underrepresented in these puzzles, no?
    I’ve seen ‘pattern’ used adjectivally–‘a pattern soldier/student’ etc.–so I wasn’t bothered by its use in 23d. I was, though, just a bit bothered by the concatenation of ‘on’ in ONSET (being performed=ON, on SET)
  5. Lambert always make me think of the brilliant vocal group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross…so on seeing this, I went and put the album on. Good thing as I hadn’t listened to it in quite a while. Good fun puzzle…about an hour with baseball on the box.
    1. Nice to see another LH&S fan among us; I wish I could find a CD of their Ellington album.
    1. Essentially nothing. It breaks down like this:

      A hundred = C
      books = OT
      educated woman = RITA (a reference to ‘Educating Rita’, the Willy Russell play)
      has got about = containment indicator
      cheese = definition

Comments are closed.