Sunday Times 4495 (22 Jul 2012) by Tim Moorey

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: Only about 30 minutes, but it was a joint effort between me and my father, and I have to confess that he probably beat me to two-thirds of the answers. Had I been on my own, I suspect 40-45 minutes would have been more likely.

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

Across
1 DEAD + MARCHES – movements in the musical sense, and ‘marches’ are border districts
9 LOCO – neat dd
10 REQUIEM MASS = (EMMA SQUIRES)*
11 BOsOM
14 REDUCED = ED after (CRUDE)* – ‘supply’ is the anagrind, in the sense of ‘in a supple way’
16 RHODES = “ROADS”
17 ROPE IN – Because ‘EUROPEAN’ has ROPE in
18 CINEMATOGRAPHER = (OPERATE CHARMING)* – not convinced about ‘flicks’ as an anagrind
19 EMBERS – hidden
21 LEAN ON = LENNON with A for N
22 S + CARVES
23 billIONS
26 REST ASSURED – dd
27 GrEEK
28 SACHERTORTE = (HOST CATERER)* – I would have struggled here. This wasn’t a word I knew, but luckily my Mum did. Ta Ma!
Down
2 EVENt
3 DEUS = SUED rev – Abba can mean father, particularly in the religious sense.
4 APEXES = A + Parliamentarian + EXES (colloquialism for expenses)
5 COME UP TO SCRATCH – dd
6 E + mASTER
7 DO SOMETHING = (GOOD MEN + THIS)*
8 COMMON + FRONT
12 PROCEEDINGS = PRO + “SEEDINGS”
13 GO ON A BENDER = GOON + ND (no date) in A BEER
14 REAM + ERSe
15 DO + SAGES
20 SCLERA = (CLEARS)*
21 LEASER = EASE in LawyeR
24 HUG + O
25 B(E)AT – Alastair Cook is the opening batcman for Essex and England, so ‘bat’ is the well-disguised definition.

6 comments on “Sunday Times 4495 (22 Jul 2012) by Tim Moorey”

  1. Just under the hour. A very enjoyable puzzle. Didn’t know the cricketer but otherwise there was nothing new to me. ‘Flick’ defined as a verb always seems to involve movement so I’ve no problem with the anagrind.

    Some in the Club forum expressed doubts about SACHERTORTE being one word, but it is in the original German and this is as listed in the Oxfords and Chambers, although Chambers also has two words as an alternative. Somebody also didn’t like SCARVES as headgear which they undoubtedly can be.

    Edited at 2012-07-29 08:30 am (UTC)

  2. I too think of SACHERTORTE as one word, probably because I first came across it in Fanny Cradock’s 1963 classic The Daily Telegraph Cook’s Book.

    “There is a famous Viennese restaurant called Sacher’s and it should be safe to say that Sachertorte is the Austrian chocolate cake – but, if you do, you will have every Austrian woman brandishing her book of family recipes and wiping the floor with you for being a poor ignorant creature for imagining that Sacher’s could beat her grandmamma’s version…”

    I can still call to mind this larger-than-life TV chef, with her much-provoked husband, Johnnie, hovering in a semi-inebriated state in the background.

    1. I remember Bob Todd doing a very good send-up of Johnnie (with Benny Hill playing Fanny).
      1. I never saw (or heard) Fanny Cradock, but felt I knew her personally from Betty Marsden’s Fanny Haddock in Round the Horne and/or Beyond Our Ken.
  3. There was some good stuff here – I particularly liked 9ac (LOCO) – but I wasn’t too keen on 3dn (DEUS), where I felt “Abba perhaps” was a little too far-fetched as a definition. I’m vaguely aware of Alastair Cook, but still agonised over 25dn, so these two clues made a significant contribution to a sluggish 19:27.

    Surely 26ac (REST ASSURED) would depend on how lumpy the beds were!?

  4. 40′, with 25d LOI, naturally, the only cricketer I know being Grace. I don’t have my New Testament to hand, but my dictionary refers to Mark 14:36 and Rom 8:15 for ‘Abba’ as indicating God.

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