Sunday Times 4478 (25 Mar 2012) – Dinner with no strings

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 46:39

I feel Jonathan should be blogging this one as it has something of a musical flavour to it. We have brass (11a), woodwind (5d) and keyboards (13a, well, sort of) but no strings or percussion in our ORCHESTRA (14d). We even have an OPERA at 15a. It will make a nice accompaniment to our meal of RAVIOLI to start, RISOTTO for the main, PRALINE for dessert, followed by some EDAM and a TEA SERVICE. How very civilized!

I found it fairly tough overall, but on the whole fair. I didn’t like 10a for reasons I’ve mentioned below, but otherwise some good stuff.

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

Across
1 HISTORIC PRESENT = (CHOIR SIT)* + PRESENT
9 PR + A + LINE
10 CHUGGER – cd – I’ve not come across a CHUGGER before, and I’m not a fan of relatively obscure words such as this being clued with cryptic definitions. Personally I think cds should be restricted to common everyday words. If you don’t know the word, you haven’t a hope of getting it without taking a wild guess. Apparently chuggers are those annoying people that stop you in the street and try to persuade you to commit to making a regular monthly donation to charity. It’s a portmanteau of charity & mugger.
11 TUBA = A + BUT all rev – 14 is a reference to 14d: ORCHESTRA
12 ATMOSPHERE = (REST-HOME + A + P)*
13 PIANOLA = P + (IAN + LA) about Oasis
15 OPERA + NT (National Trust – a UK organisation which buys up buildings & monuments of historic national importance, restores them and opens them to the public.
17 REDUCER – dd
19 ASTOUND = A + S(T)OUND
20 TEA SERVICE = TEASE (cod) + newspapeR + VICE (substitute)
22 EDAM = E + MAD rev
25 RISOTTO = IS + OTTO after R – There have been four Holy Roman Emperors called Otto.
26 AGAINST – dd
27 MANDARIN CHINESE = (MEN IN SEDAN CHAIR)*
Down
1 HOe + PIT
2 STAR + BOARD
3 OVID rev hidden in vlaDIVOstok
4 IN + ER + TIAra
5 PICCOLO = ICC (1 c.c. = little volume) in POLO, another reference to 14d: ORCHESTRA
6 EQUIPMENT = MEN (guys) after QUIP (crack) all in ghETto
7 EAGLE – dd – An eagle in golf is two-under-par on any hole. This is most commonly done by taking 2 shots on a par 4, or 3 shots on a par 5. It can also be done with a hole-in-one on a par 3, but this is much rarer, hence the word ‘normally’ in the clue.
8 TORMENTED = MEN in TORTE + Diet
13 PYRETHRUM = (MYRRH PUT)* about E (Egyptian) – I’m not very good at flowers, and I hadn’t heard of this one, but I managed to come up with it from the wordplay.
14 ORCHESTRA = (ACTOR + Recite Hamlet’s Speech Exciting)* – something of a contrived anagrist. I got it from the definition and worked backwards to the wordplay. The other clues that referenced it also helped considerably.
16 ABUNDANCE – cd – An abundance bid in solo whist is where the bidder believes they can make 9 of the 13 possible tricks.
18 RAVIOLI = RAVI + (OIL)* – Ravi Shankar was a famous Indian sitar player and a personal friend of George Harrison.
19 ARCHAIC = A + (CHAIR)* + C
21 cARSON – Willie Carson was a Scottish jockey who was British Champion 5 times between 1972 and 1983, although he was still riding winners right up to his retirement in 1996. He has also been a team captain on the BBCs A Question of Sport, and now co-presents horse-racing coverage for the BBC.
23 MITRE = joinT in MIRE
24 BALI = LAB rev + I

7 comments on “Sunday Times 4478 (25 Mar 2012) – Dinner with no strings”

  1. Pyrethrum comes from Chrysanthemum plants – the chemical is used to kill insects like mosquitoes at reservoirs or lice. Wiki says it is in the name of plants too…
  2. There was comment on the Times website that CHUGGER is a portmanteau word. I couldn’t see it at the time but thanks to your blog, daveperry, I can now! I rather thought it was onomatopoeic as it’s like the sound made when the person holding the tin shakes it under your nose to make you feel guilty. I did like the setter giving us a 4-course dinner plus liquid refreshment and musical accompaniment as Dave mentions! 86mins and some secs.

    Edited at 2012-04-01 06:18 am (UTC)

  3. 24 minutes! A rare Sunday excursion under half-an-hour for me these days, and even rarer under 25 minutes. Reviewing the clues this morning, many of them were quite difficult so I must simply have been on the same wavelength as the setter.

    I happened to know CHUGGER from news reports on a London-based radio station. It’s in the latest Collins and Oxford Dictionary of English but my Chambers is too old to list it.

    The flower at 13dn gave me most difficulty and was my last in.

    Maybe I’m getting better at ST puzzles because I also did quite well on this week’s special offering, and indeed the Everyman, which I usually finish in about 15 minutes, took me nearly twice as long as the ST.

    Edited at 2012-04-01 05:46 am (UTC)

  4. Done by the plant, as I was done again by the dog yesterday – flora and fauna not my thing, obviously. As far as portmanteau words are concerned, best left to the experts, such as Lewis Carroll. Top time, Jack!
  5. I also didn’t find this difficult but share Dave’s reservations about the clue to CHUGGER (which is in the latest Chambers)

    I happen to know the word because I think it has appeared in another crossword at some time. However, it is a relatively obscure word and the clue leaves one guessing and needing to use a dictionary to verify (which I don’t particularly see as a problem but know there a lot of folk who do)

  6. 16 minutes for this, with a couple at the end working out which letters to put where for PYRETHRUM.
    I was helped by knowing the word CHUGGER but I completely agree with you Dave.
  7. U.S. solver here so didn’t know what it meant but got the answer with a mental picture of a High Street nuisance in the form of a chav chugging a keg of beer and doing some sort of unwelcome soliciting. Printed and solved offline in the 30 minute range. Thanks for the blog.

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