Sunday Times 4463 (11 Dec 2011) – Know your Europeans

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 26:30

Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid. Several weak clues – 7 & 14 being the worst of the bunch. Plus a couple of obscure Spanish artists and a French town planner. Of course, this is just my view. I’m sure there are plenty who will love it, as the effusive praise on the official forum seems to indicate.

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

Across
1 APPRAISE = A + RAISE about (Px2)
5 CO(L)T
8 WRIGHT = “RIGHT” although I wasn’t entirely sure that RIGHT and ‘due’ could be synonymous. I suppose both can mean ‘exactly’ as in ‘right in the middle’ or ‘due north’, but I’m struggling to think of a sentence where one could be substituted by the other.
9 RE + HEAR + SErenade
10 B + RUT
11 ERGOSTEROL = (TREE OR LOGS)* – not a word I knew, but this seemed the most likely arrangement of the letters from the checkers.
12 A FINE ROMANCE = A + FINE + (CAMERON)* – Fine is a quality of brandy. The song was done originally by Fred & Ginger in the 1936 musical Swing Time
16 TOWN PLANNING = TANNING about (O + WorN + PL) – Georges-Eugène Haussmann was responsible for the rebuilding of Paris.
18 MI(C)RO + LIGHT – Joan Miró was a Spanish surrealist painter of the early 20th century.
20 BRIG – semi-&lit, hidden in joB RIGging
21 INSOLvENT
22 M(ALL)OW
23 GRIS – dd – Juan Gris was a Spanish cubist painter & sculptor. Gris is also French for grey.
24 AYRSHIRE = A + (I + SHERRY)* – A breed of cattle so ‘lower’ is the definition. ‘If done’ at the start of the clue seems completely superfluous to me. It doesn’t appear to add anything to either the surface or the wordplay.
Down
1 AIR + C + RAFT – ‘Cycle’ is an unusual way to clue a C.
2 PI(GI)T – I’ve not come across the expression before, but the wordplay left little room for doubt.
3 AS THE CROW FLIES = (WELSH FACTORIES)* – A neat anagram
4 SPROG = initials of Scream + Pukes Rusks Over Granny
5 CHAMELEON = (L COHEN)* about (AM + E) – Another slightly suspect method of cluing a single letter, E for Egypt this time. I’m not sure the Daily puzzle would get with that.
6 LESS ON
7 THE SUNDAY TIMES – weak cd, barely even cryptic unless I’m missing something. Surely an automatic write-in for most solvers.
13 NOTORIOUS = (ON TOUR SO I)* – another neat semi-&lit
14 MOP – dd – although the two definitions are only distinguished by their part of speech. Another very weak clue.
15 ANTIGONE = (ANNIE GOT)* – Most famously a tragedy by Sophocles, although there have been many other tragic plays about this Greek mythological figure.
17 DINNER = RED rev about INN
19 GUTSY = GUY about (ST rev)
20 BALTI = BAT + I about L – Latin = L is uncommon, but quite fair. No complaints about this one.

6 comments on “Sunday Times 4463 (11 Dec 2011) – Know your Europeans”

  1. I’ll give you GRIS but even I think “obscure” is a touch harsh for Miro! Haussmann is also someone worth knowing about and the wordplay gives it to you if you haven’t heard of him.
    Having said that I agree that some of these clues are a little weak and I for one found this a pretty vanilla puzzle all in all. 12 minutes.
  2. Agree with your assessment Dave. Bit of a hotch-potch.
    Re right/due, that doesn’t seem much of a stretch. Def. of due, from the oed:
    “That which is due or owed to any one; that to which one has a right legal or moral.” Sentence, from the AV bible: “Render therfore to al men their dues” – nowadays of course have the Human Dues Act…
  3. 28 minutes with several references guessed but not known. On reflection I might share some of the misgivings about some of the clues but on this occasion I just wrote the answers in and didn’t think about them much beyond that as I’d been on a roll completing both the Everyman and this in 40 minutes. That’s going some for me, solving past midnight!
  4. Well, I’ve just done a quick straw poll around the office and couldn’t find a single person who could give me anything other than a blank look when presented with the name Joan Miro. So I stand by my remark!
    1. Fair enough. Mind you if I did a similar straw poll in my office I suspect half the words that appear in these puzzles would elicit similar looks!
  5. Only problem was with FINE as “brandy of average quality” (12ac) when, in fact, it’s of high quality. NOAD has:
    “French brandy of high quality made from distilled wine rather than from pomace”.

    The setter may have been misled by Bond’s cutting remark in Goldfinger. The ref. is here:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_(brandy)

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