Sunday Times 4461 (27 Nov 2011) – OMG – ROFL :)

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: About 45 minutes – An excellent puzzle this week after a couple of fairly humdrum ones.

Lots of entertaining clues this week. LOLITA gets my COD for its use of text speak! 18 & 28 seemed to cause the most problems among the users of the forum, neither of which caused me any problems, but I couldn’t parse 8 which didn’t get a mention online, so I’m guessing I’m missing something obvious!

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

Across
1 DIRE + aCTOR
5 STRAIN – dd
10 CONVENIENCE FOOD – cd, with a play on ‘bog’ and ‘convenience’ both being terms for toilet
11 ET + HERe – Good surface with the required separation of Sky / Movie
12 IMP-ROMP + ThUs – the word order is a little confusing here, but ‘lark for troublemaker’ = IMP-ROMP
13 SIR GALAHAD = (GIRL HAS A)* + HAD
16 JO(L)T
18 hidden in hillsiDE AFfords, definition as in stone-deaf
19 REIMBURSED = (SUM BRIDE)* after REception
22 COMMITTED = COED about (M + MITT)
24 BUmpkin + RMA (Royal Military Academy) – The previous name of the country now known as Myanmar, although no reference in the clue that the name is historical, which is a little naughty.
26 BOTANICAL GARDENS = (AND BACTERIA LONG)* – well-disguised anagram
27 LOLITA = LOL (text-speak for Laughs Out Loud) + IT + A
28 POW(Described)ERED – this clue seemed to raise quite a few queries on the ST forum, although it seems perfectly OK to me. Electrified = POWERED, ‘fences’ is the containment indicator, initially described = D, fine is the definition.
Down
1 Discuss + U + CHESS
2 RAN + CH
3 CL(EAR + W)AY – ‘ear’ = ‘notice’ as in ‘to gain someone’s ear’
4 OR(I + GI)NATE
6 TREMOR = ROT rev about REM (a type of sleep)
7 AMOR(PH)OUS
8 NO DOUBT – surely is presumably the definition, but I don’t understand the rest of the clue,
9 SNAP = PANS rev – ‘snap’ = ‘still’ in the photograph sense
14 ROAD METAL = (ALARMED TO)*
15 ARM + AD(ILL)O
17 CUPBOARD = CU + PB + (ROD)* about A
18 DECIBEL – This clue seemed to catch out the most people according to the forum. The standard abbreviation for ‘decibel’ is db, or DECIBEL ‘kept to a minimum’, which is hidden inside childbirth.
20 DRAINED = (cARD INDEx)*
21 SIGNET = “CYGNET”
23 sTUCK
25 RIDER – dd

9 comments on “Sunday Times 4461 (27 Nov 2011) – OMG – ROFL :)”

  1. 63 minutes, something of a slog, but some good clues. I might give LOLITA a COD, but I don’t want to recognize twitterese. How about 5ac,an elegant dd, or 6d with its elegant surface? As for NO DOUBT, my take was that it could be ‘received’ =heard as NODE OUT.
  2. 48 minutes with 18dn the last understood – I gave up trying to understand it last weekend but worked it out this morning.

    I don’t think there’s a homophone element to 21dn i.e. reference to ‘cygnet’, but a ‘signet’ is a small seal often attached to a ring which might therefore be described as a ‘baby seal’ with the question mark suggesting a reference to the flippered creature but not to the swan.

  3. 22 minutes, but over half of this puzzling over 28ac. When I finally realised what the answer had to be it made me rather grumpy and I still struggle to see how “fine” and “powdered” mean the same thing. A powder can be fine or coarse, after all.
    On the other hand, once I’d figured it out there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I had the right answer and for me that’s the ultimate test. I’m really only grumpy because a single clue took me over ten minutes to solve!
    Generally a puzzle up to the usual excellent standard. When it’s an Anax puzzle you know you’re in for a treat.
    I hadn’t figured out DECIBEL, so thanks for that Dave, and for the blog generally. I liked your heading: LMAO!
  4. Hello all. Thanks to Dave for a great blog and to all three of you (teehee) for your comments. Hope you all (the three of you) had fun.

    For fine=powdered, it was of course irresistible for the surface. I was a tad nervous about using it but no comment was made at the editing stage, so PB probably took the same view as me; sometimes in cryptics the def will be based on ‘can mean’ rather than ‘does mean’. It sometimes demands an extra mental stretch for the solver, but I hope it doesn’t spoil the enjoyment too much.

    1. Thanks for dropping by – then there were four!
      Lots of fun as ever, thanks. As I said, once I finally figured it out I had no doubt it was right, which is good enough for me. I haven’t even checked whether one of the dictionaries justifies it but we are not their slaves.
  5. I like Anax’s crosswords a lot and this one is no exception. Look down the clues and see how natural and unforced the surfaces appear, and how concise the clues are.. I won’t say any more, his head is far too big already 🙂

    In re “can mean” rather than “does mean” i would say that the former is more common than the latter, indeed some setters seem almost to look for unlikely pairings that turn out to be technically correct but still feel a bit stretched. Used in moderation it is surely a normal tool of the trade and if a word can be substituted for another in a reasonably normal english sentence then I would say they can be considered synonymous. The unique way in which such a large number of words can overlap their meanings is a great strength of the English language and a gift to setters.. I would not like to set cryptics in German for a living.. sometimes I think that is one reason [but by no means the only one] why we don’t see enough science/technology.. the words are often rather precise in meaning and thus surely harder to clue

    1. Hi Jerry
      I, how I agree with that last comment. So often, when the setter is forced to place a technical (maths/chemistry etc) answer in the grid, finding an absolutely direct definition can be murder, and commenters tend to be quick in pointing out that “Ah yes, but, technically…” It’s a minefield.
      I do feel sorry for crossword setters in other countries where their language is not internationally influenced as English is; they really don’t get anything like the opportunities for wordplay that we do.
      1. No need to get overly technical to include a bit of science, surely? Just the names of a few more scientists would be a good start.
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