Sunday Times 4481 (15 Apr 2012)

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 31:54

Not much to say about this week’s puzzle. It all seemed quite run-of-the-mill with no obvious talking points. We passed 100 days to go until the London Olympics between the publication of this puzzle and its solution, so it’s appropriate to find two Olympians mentioned – John Curry (1972 & 1976), and Paula Radcliffe (1996, 2000, 2004 & 2008), although Curry’s gold from 1976 is (surprisingly) the only medal they have between them.

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

Across
1/16 GENGHIS KHAN = (tHE KING HANGS)*
5 PARASOL = PARAS + LO rev
9 A + RM + AD(ILL)O
10 BO(cookeR)ON
11 PE(DAN)T – this was a bit of a guess as I didn’t know that PET could mean ‘a fit of petulance’, or indeed that a PEDANT was originally just a term for a teacher until Shakespeare applied it to the schoolmaster Holofernes in Love’s Labour’s Lost who was obsessed with minutiae and the term stuck.
12 GO(VERNe)O + R
14 SHOP SOILED = (DOES POLISH)* – semi-&lit
18 COD + A
19 MUNIFICENT = MAGNIFICENT with U for AG
22 INNER MAN – hidden in wINNER MANages – not a phrase I knew, but the hidden word was easy to spot, particularly because the space fell at the correct point.
23 ATRIUM = TA rev + I in RUM
26 WIN + CE
27 ICE-SKATER = SKATE in (RICE)* – John Curry was a British figure skater who won both the Olympic & World titles in 1976.
28 GREMLIN = KREMLIN with G for K
29 EP + STEINway – Sir Jacob Epstein was a pioneer of modern sculpture
Down
1 GRAM + PUSh – a slightly old-fashioned term for the killer whale
2 NOMAD = DON rev about MA
3 HEDONIST = (DINES + HOT)*
4 S + ILK
5 PHOTOGENIC – cd
6 RUBBER – A bridge term for a match that consists of two or more hands, and goes on until one pair has won two games.
7 SCRUNCHIE = (NURSE + CHIC)*
13 SIMULATION = (AUSTIN LIMO)*
15 ORD(I)NANCE
17 MIS(TAKE)S
18 CHIN(W)A + Gig
20 TAMARINd
21 O + R + (WE) + LL
24/8 IN THE LONG RUN – dd – Paula Radcliffe being a British marathon runner.
25 MERE – dd

6 comments on “Sunday Times 4481 (15 Apr 2012)”

  1. 28′. I believe we’ve now had 4 British Olympians, none of whom I’d heard of, but none of whom posed serious solving problems; I’ll be keeping my eye open for others for the next few months. Never heard of scrunchies, either, and the answer for me was very much in doubt; it was my LOI.17d had me completely misled; I couldn’t parse it until Dave did it for me.
  2. 26 minutes of very enjoyable solving. I didn’t know SCRUNCHIE or GOO as sentimental language but the answers were never in doubt.
  3. scrunchies: evidently you don’t have daughters; I used to find them all over the house.
    I remember John Curry well: one of the very few male skaters to whom the term “artistic impression” could be properly applied.

    Dave, how do you feel about putting the name of the author in the heading, as we do with the Mephisto? This one was by Jeff Pearce..

    Edited at 2012-04-22 07:50 am (UTC)

  4. Agree, an easy puzzle.

    SCRUNCHIE has appeared before. I recall asking my wife what it was and learning that, like Jerry, I’d been fielding them from various nooks and crannies around the house for years!

    1. So it has, Jim, clued as “Chic nurse sporting this” at 16dn in a puzzle I blogged in 2008. In various comments too, from yourself and Tony Sever: http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/181303.html#comments.

      Interesting that a search on LJ didn’t find anything other than today’s references but “find” on my PC located the old file. Maybe the LJ search doesn’t go back that far.

  5. Just done this. I always save them to do on the blogging day. An enjoyable 26 minutes. There’s nothing much to say about this puzzle. I always thought SCRUNCHIE was a slang word for those elasticated things girls use to tie their hair back. It’s a nice word – I’m glad to find it’s the proper term.

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