Sunday Times 4499 (19 Aug 2012) by Jeff Pearce

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 57:29, but couldn’t get 5a without aids.

Most of this went in without too much difficulty, but there were a handful that I had trouble with which left me crawling to the finish. A couple of words I didn’t know – PROEM & IPECAC – the latter of which, I felt, was impossible to get from the wordplay alone.

Probably more entertaining that last week’s offering, but more annoying at the same time. I really didn’t like 5a, and I think that put me in a bad mood for the rest of the grid. I’m hoping Anax can provide something for the 45th centenary that will raise my flagging spirits!

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

Across
1 CUP + BOARD – Board is listed in the dictionary as ‘table (archaic)’. Not a definition I knew, but the answer was clear enough from the rest of the clue. Indeed it was my FOI.
5 IPECAC = (EPIC)* + A + C – I assume this is how the clue is supposed to break down, but it doesn’t work. The ‘about’ seems to have been used as superfluous filler and it ruins the wordplay. ‘Novel’ is the anagrind, so it can’t be that. There is no insertion or reversal going on, so what’s it doing there? ‘Epic novel by a Conservative’ would have been fine. If you know the word, then I daresay it’s obvious from the checkers and the definition, but otherwise you are only led to IPACEC. At least mistakes like this are much rarer these days than they used to be.
10 MOONSHINE = M + (SOHO INN)* + Evening
11 ENROL – rev hidden
12 DEMUR = DEMURE with the final salE removed
13 EASY + CHAIR – semi-&lit
14 OUT + GENERAL
17 C(L)OD
19 MALTa
20 ESPLANADES = E + (LANe in SPADES)
22 NEIGHBOUR – barely cryptic def
24 CAmPER
26 ELGAR = L in (GEAR)*
27 CAPRI + CORN
28 S + HOVEL – It took me ages to see how this worked. I just couldn’t get away from ‘old’ being the O. I’m still not convinced that ‘old’ adds much to the clue.
29 CLUELESS – cd
Down
1 COMEDY OF MANNERS = (SCENE FROM MONDAY)* – a genre of play, rather than a specific title, and one I was vaguely aware of. It took me quite a while to unscramble it, which was very annoying considering the rich vein of first letters it promised.
2 PROEM = PRO + ME rev – I didn’t know the word, but the checkers all went in fairly easily, and there didn’t seem to be an alternative.
3 OBSERVER – a rival newspaper to The Times
4 RHINE = SHINE with S replaced by R
6 PIE(R)CE
7 CUR + TAIL + ED – I originally assumed the journalist was going to come first, but then realised that ‘follow’ was a definition rather than an instruction
8 COLORADO SPRINGS = (CORPORALS DOING)* + Stuff
9 MESS HALL = (SELLS HAM)*
15 TALKING TO = concerT + ALTO about KING
16 ENSCONCE = (CON + C) all in (SEEN)*
18 IN ACT IV + audiencE – I’m sure I’ve seen this before, or something very like it.
21 CHARGE + CHAR + EG rev
23 RE(P)EL – ‘poise’ is actually a scientific unit of dynamic viscosity (after French physician Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille) and it’s in this context that the abbreviation P can be used.
25 P(RON)E

7 comments on “Sunday Times 4499 (19 Aug 2012) by Jeff Pearce”

  1. I’m afraid one of the disadvantages of naming the setters is that one can form a negative opinion of some of them, eg of Jeff Pearce. He is workaday, and makes mistakes from time to time. If all were anonymous, maybe it would get lost in the wash. I suppose the upside is that the best setters get the recognition they deserve.

    5ac is a fine clue for IPACEC but as you say Dave, does not seem to work for IPECAC. Agreed, it’s now the rare exception, and not the rule.

    Thanks for parsing 23dn, I having to my great shame forgotten that poise is a unit..

    Edited at 2012-08-26 04:16 pm (UTC)

  2. Re 5a, I have to sympathise with Jeff because a slip like this is so easy to make, especially when – in this case – you have that C-C pattern in the answer. As a setter, you begin to pick out usable components and, as you do so, ideas for the story begin to take shape. These ideas can be very compelling and can blind you to the order in which you present them.

    We’ve all done it and, as here, it’s perfectly possible for the error to slip by both a highly talented setter such as Jeff and a very experienced editor. We all end up slightly embarrassed and tell ourselves it won’t happen again – but it will.

    I should add that, yes, I solved this puzzle last weekend and, no, I didn’t spot the mistake!

    Edited at 2012-08-26 05:02 pm (UTC)

  3. 41 minutes but with one error at 5ac having deduced an unknown, and as things turned out non-existent, answer from the wordplay.

    One probably unnecessary “old” might have been okay but two (at 1ac and 28ac) was irritating. Both meanings are in current use as verified by Chambers. 22ac was feeble.

    16ac requires c=cycle but I had some difficulty in verifying this. I eventually found it in Collins but not in Chambers, COED or SOED so I assume the rules of thumb regarding single letter abbreviations do not apply to ST puzzles.

    Incidentally on a point of pedantry re the blog, the Observer is a rival of the Sunday Times.

    Edited at 2012-08-26 05:25 pm (UTC)

  4. At 5ac I just wrote in IPECAC since I knew the word, and if you do the definition makes it easy (in US pretty much anyone with small children is encouraged to have some although I’ve also read that it doesn’t really work).

    I read the word play as EPIC* around A followed by C but didn’t even notice that it doesn’t actually work.

    C is certainly cycle in things like cycles-per-second (cps). But that’s a road we don’t want to go down (A is animals in RSPCA etc).

  5. Is anyone else having problems accessing the crossword club website this morning (Mon)? I can’t raise it at all, and I daren’t go to today’s entry!
    1. There have been some software issues Jerry, and some users have had trouble logging in especially on IE.
      I’ve had no problems using Firefox (just checked again to be sure) although I do get prompted for username/password, thankfully stored as cookies anyway so no need to re-enter them.
  6. I can’t remember my time for this, but I had IPACEC like everyone else who didn’t know the word.

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