Sunday Times 4502 (9 Sep 2012) by Jeff Pearce

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 25:38 – my quickest time for a Sunday since January.

I found this quite easy by recent standards, but by far the most enjoyable for a while. Lots of good surfaces and some clever wordplay without being too devious.

Several candidates for COD. I thought 2, 14 & 26 all worked well, but I give it to 21 for sheer inventiveness.

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

Across
1 PRACTICAL JOKE = JOE about primarK after PRACTICAL
9 EXTRA – dd
10 MONASTERY – cd – a frock can be a monk’s garment, and monks live in an order.
11 TAP + WAiTER
12 CANYON = ON after (CYAN)*
14 FERRIS WHEEL = (WHERE FLIERS)* – semi-&lit
16 ORC = CROss rev – I was familiar with the Orcs of Tolkein’s Middle Earth which are quite definitely land-monsters, but I hadn’t realised that an orc was also a mythological sea-monster, possibly from Beowulf, derived from the Latin orca for killer while. There’s an interesting article on the history of the word here.
18 L(A)P
19 POLICE STATE – cd
20 (see 4d)
21 ADDENDUM – Put an MB (doctor) around it and you get MADDEN + DUMB
24 CONVIVIAL = CON (study) + VIVA (exam) + L (Latin) about I (one)
25 OCHRE – hidden
26 SWEET NOTHINGS = (EIGHT SONNETS)* about W
Down
1 PLENTIFUL = (FILL UP TEN)*
2 ANTIPERSPIRANTS = (TENNIS PAIRS PART)*
3 TIARA = TIA maRiA
4 CAMBERWELL CARROT – I wasn’t quite sure of the correct parsing here, but I think it’s WELL (prosperous), CAMBER (bank) + CARROT (incentive) about it (to host it) – I looked on the forum and a lot of people seemed to be expressing mystification at this term. It’s a marijuana cigarette rolled so as to be really fat at the lit end, hence its resemblance to a carrot. The term comes originally from this scene in the classic 1987 black comedy Withnail and I
5 LONG – dd
6 yOBS + TA(C)LES
7 EVERY NOW AND THEN = EVERY (the best possible) + NOW (present) + A (a) + N (new) + D (department) + THEN (next)
8 C(Y)AN
13 PECCADILLO = (I CALLED COP)*
15 IMPROVISE = (I + Shot) in IMPROVE (rally) – HOT is ‘striking’ as in attractive.
17 CREAM + TEASe
20 COCK – dd
22 EPOCH = COPE rev + H
23 HI(N)T

9 comments on “Sunday Times 4502 (9 Sep 2012) by Jeff Pearce”

  1. 30 minutes to complete the grid apart from 4dn/20ac. Although I had worked out all the elements for the correct answer to that too I didn’t write it in as it made no sense to me so I decided to look it up, first in the usual sources which don’t acknowledge it, and then on-line. I found it eventually in Collins On-Line and two other somewhat dubious sources. There’s a long debate about this clue in the forum if anyone’s interested.

    Other than that this was an excellent and inventive puzzle which I thoroughly enjoyed.

    I wasn’t completely sure how EVERY = ‘the best possible’ but then thought of “every chance of success” which I think covers it.

  2. One of the results of naming the setters as the ST now does is that you tend to develop preconceptions about the crosswords. I have decided I’m not a great fan of Jeff Pearce’s work, but this one confounded that rather, as I thought it a very well-crafted and enjoyable effort.
  3. 20 minutes online so I’ll forget about the typo. The reefer took me back to days selling video tapes in Peckham and environs.
  4. 16:43 for me, despite never having heard of the spliff. It was easy enough to get from wordplay, but as soon as I finished I had to Google it, and now I’m looking out for Withnail and I.
      1. Finest work? You obviously haven’t seen Hudson Hawk…
        13m for this. I enjoyed it, particular the blunt reference
        1. Ha! Yes, I have seen Hudson Hawk, and Grant is fabulously over the top in it. But, Withnail is undoubtedly the better film.
  5. 21 minutes. I had to guess the carrot from the cryptic. Never heard of it – maybe the sign of a virtuous life. But the film is highly recommended. Ann
  6. Indeed: Withnail is not my favourite film but it’s undoubtedly in a different league. Less hawk, more turkey really…

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