Sunday Times 4480 (8 Apr 2012) – Name dropping

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 35:14 – with one wrong (see 27a).

No one should be left in any doubt about The Sunday Times’ use of living people in its crosswords. No less than seven people are mentioned by name today, and three of them are still alive. There are also 2 cities, 2 countries, a state and a building to add to the list of proper names, along with the New Deal, Agent Orange and Sky.

A decent puzzle overall, I thought, without being anything too special. My pick of the clues would probably be 2, 11 & 25.

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

Across
1 GNAT = TANG rev
4 SCREW BALLS – dd – I wasn’t sure about ‘cases’ as a definition, but I found it in the dictionary as an informal term for ‘an odd person; eccentric’.
9 SWEDE + gardeN – I saw the construction immediately, but it took me an age to come up with what should have been an obvious answer.
10 OVER EASY – dd – My FOI
11 BE STRAIGHT = BEST + RIGHT about Advice – &lit
14 The-BAR – I thought this was just a ski-lift, but it’s also a socket wrench. I also wouldn’t have thought ‘The Bar’ was an Americanism, but the dictionary lists it as US to mean ‘the legal profession collectively’, while the British meaning is ‘barristers collectively’. I guess there’s a subtle difference there.
15 ALTER + EG + O
17 INROAD – dd – A ‘sleeping policeman’ in the UK is a colloquialism for a speed-bump in the road.
18 TROPPO = OP + PORT all rev
20 GIGANTIC = GI + (ACTING)*
22 EMUS – hidden in evocativE MUSic
23 GOALKEEPER = (PEERAGE + KO + L)* – This word cropped up a few weeks ago in 4471. The definition then was ‘Given, say’ after Shay Given and it had me stumped for the longest time. The definition this time is ‘Seaman was one’ after the better known (I suspect) David Seaman, and I got it much quicker.
25 PARIETAL = PAL about (R + I + (TEA)*) – Nice use of ‘Bone china’
27 DOODAH = DOH about (A DOn) rev – I went wrong here. I threw in DOODAD without full understanding and never came back to check before submitting.
29 LARGE SCALE = (C + ALE) after (LAGER’S)*
30 NUTS – dd
Down
2 NEW DEAL – A ‘wordplay-in-solution’ type clue (is there an official term for these?) where ‘New DEAL’ = (DEAL)* = LEAD, although ‘given’ only appears to be there to improve the surface, which weakens the clue slightly. The ‘New Deal’ was an economic program implemented by FDR to help the US to recover after the Great Depression.
3 TED – dd – The youngest of the Kennedy brothers after John F, Bobby and Joe. Also a relatively obscure word for shaking out hay to allow it to dry.
4 SENNA = ANNE’S rev – Ayrton Senna was Formula 1 world champion three times in four years between 1988 and 1991 before his tragic death during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
5 ROO = “RUE”
6 WRESTLING = (GIRLS WENT)*
7 A + GENT + ORANGE – The infamous defoliant used by the US in Vietnam.
8 LA SCALA = (CALLAS)* + A – The famous opera house in Milan
12 TRES + PASSING = Nicolas Sarkozy is the current French President, so ‘Sarkozy’s very’ is TRÉS.
13 GEORGIA – Georgia on my mind was written and first recorded by Hoagy Carmichael, but the best-known version is that of Ray Charles.
16 ELONGATES = GATES (Bill) after (NOEL)*
19 RUM + BABA – Another word I didn’t know was BABA for father.
21 INEXACT = EX in (IN + A + CT)
24 sKy + EDGE – ‘unrestricted’ means ‘without limits’ so in a cryptic sense means ‘removing the first and last letters’. A kedge is a small anchor.
26 LEA – hidden in middLE America
28 OWN = DOWN with the Definition removed. ‘Have’ is the definition.

4 comments on “Sunday Times 4480 (8 Apr 2012) – Name dropping”

  1. 37 mins, but I was a bit of a doofus, writing doofah for DOODAH. I blame my mother, who always said ‘doodacky’.
  2. 35 minutes, so I had few problems other than not knowing BABA as father and PARIETAL as a bone. Fortunately even I had heard of today’s soccer player so there was no repeat of the ‘Given’ debacle.

    The anagram at 8 down gave great pleasure when I first came across it some years ago but it has become a bit of a crossword chestnut now.

    You missed some fun blogging Friday’s puzzle, Dave!

    Edited at 2012-04-15 09:01 am (UTC)

  3. About 25 very enjoyable, casual minutes with no hold ups or problems. Its a totally competent offering but lacking any Callas special something, so to speak.
  4. 24′, maybe my fastest Sunday, but like Dave, I put in DOODAD, although realizing that I didn’t understand how that would work. DOODAH is sufficiently far outside of my dialect that I don’t know if I would have got it in the end. Never heard of a sleeping policeman; well, in that sense, anyway.

Comments are closed.