Sunday Times 4507 (14 Oct 2012) by Tim Moorey

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 57:11 with one wrong

I really struggled with this one. There were several clues I didn’t understand until post-solve. And 6d I effectively gave up on, throwing in any old thing just to complete the grid. A pretty dreadful effort all round really.

I don’t think I can blame the puzzle or the setter for my shortcomings this week. Looking at it now, it seems by and large fair enough. I have no quibbles, and a lot of it was very clever. Unfortunately I wasn’t, which seems to have been the main problem.

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

Across
1 POST + HA(S)TE
6 O(O)PS
9 EMU – dd – a flightless bird, and an acronym for Economic and Monetary Union which is a European economic agreement.
10 FIRST PERSON = (FOR SPINSTER)*, the definition is just ‘I’.
11 EARLy
12 FLEA-BITTEN = (LET IT BE A + F + N)*
14 TROCHES – hidden
15 SIGHING = (Gendarme + IS) rev + Hilarious + IN + G – The surface refers to one of the many running gags in the UK TV Sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo. The series was set in occupied France during WWII, and rather than have the characters actually speaking French and German, they all spoke English, but they used exaggerated French, German and English accents to represent the other languages. The local gendarme was actually a disguised English spy, and to imply that his French wasn’t very good, he used to mispronounce all his English words. So his opening line was always ‘Good Moaning’.
17 EFF(ECT)S
19 COAL TIT = bALTI in COT
20 FLE(A + MARK)ET
22 WILT – Most of WILTS, the standard abbreviation of Wiltshire.
24 CALL THE TUNE = (hoTEL LUNCH + TEA)* i.e. with Hungry Ones removed
25 asIAN – It took me a while to work out the wordplay, here. ‘As recalled’ implies the removal of AS
26 OTIS = wOrThIeS – A well-known manufacturer of lifts. It seems odd for the name of a manufacturing company to be included like this, but then I’m sure we’ve all travelled in lifts with the name OTIS printed inside, so there should be no issue with obscurity.
27 SWAN SONGS – cd – an allusion to the trumpeter swan. A swan song is generally a farewell performance, hence ‘music at last’.
Down
1 PRESENT + PERFECT
2 SQUARE + OFF
3 HE + FT
4 ST + ROLLS
5 ENTRAPS = S + PARTNEr all rev
6 OPENING BAT = (BEING TOP mAN)* – Excellent misdirection. At least, it had me fooled. This was the one I didn’t get, as I completely failed to make the connection to Andrew Strauss, the England cricketer, until several days post-solve.
7 POS + IT – ‘Chamber’ is an informal term for chamber pot, as is ‘po’. This has caught me out in the past.
8 ONE-NIGHT STANDS = (SNOGS AND THEN + InvolvemenT)* – &lit
13 CHECKMATES = “CZECH MATES”
16 IN TUITION
18 STREETS – dd – to be streets ahead of someone is to be far in advance.
19 CAESURA = (SAUCER)* + A
21 EILAT = TALE about I all rev – Israel’s southernmost port, and their gateway to the Red Sea.
23 DEUS = SUED rev

8 comments on “Sunday Times 4507 (14 Oct 2012) by Tim Moorey”

  1. What a relief to learn how 6d worked! Now I don’t care that I couldn’t get it, as I didn’t know the term, never heard of Strauss, and it’s cricket. (I put in ‘opening day’, out of sheer desperation and sick-and-tired-of-trying-to-solve-thisness). Didn’t know about the sitcom, either, but that was OK as it turned out. And I didn’t know that ‘chamber’ alone could be used, but luckily I knew PO. For what it’s worth, Otis was the inventor of the elevator as well as founder of the eponymic company. I liked 8d.
  2. Most of the LH went in in reasonable time but the RH was a disaster area for me and even after resorting to aids about an hour into the ordeal I took nearly 2 hours to complete the grid.

    I didn’t know TROCHES, Strauss as a cricketer or the term SQUARE OFF with reference to fighting (but “square up to”, yes). I completely missed the point of 7dn as I had forgotten, if ever I knew it in the first place, that “chamber” is an alternative to “chamber pot”. I couldn’t see the wordplay at 25ac.

    I agree with the blogger that there’s really nothing to complain about but some of it was simply too much for me on the day.

    Edited at 2012-10-21 06:26 am (UTC)

  3. I found this quite hard too, but I did finish it, only to find that I had stupidly and unaccountably entered ECU instead of EMU.. so no prize this week 🙁

    Later: another fine effort from Jeff Pearce today; he is really on a roll at present..

    Edited at 2012-10-21 09:00 am (UTC)

    1. 51 minutes for this, with 10ac the pick of the bunch. Similar time for today’s, which has some tasty anagrams…
      1. Isn’t it strange? I raced (well, walked fairly briskly for me) through today’s puzzle without aids in a quarter of the time it took me to crack this one. It’s definitely a wavelength thing.
        1. Partly that, but partly GK, where troches and Andrew Strauss came quickly to my mind. If it were flowers, fashion, carriages or F&B, I’d have been struggling.
  4. Yes, OPENING DAY is what I went for too, also out of sheer desperation, but I had heard of both the term and the man so have no excuse.
    Not knowing the sitcom in 15a shouldn’t affect your ability to solve the clue, only your ability to understand the surface.
    And I didn’t know that Otis invented the lift, so thanks for that.
  5. I, too, sailed through the LH and ran into a brick wall in the RH.

    6d – like Dave, it never occurred to me that it was Strauss the batsman we were after. I guess ‘waltz’ threw me.
    12a – I don’t like clues which give no indication that we need to use the initial letters of certain words. The old convention seems to have been thrown out the window.
    15a – I was beaten all ends up with this one.
    19a – never heard of a Balti curry, perhaps because I live in the former colonies, miles away from Stourbridge, where I understand (now) there is a Balti Mile of such restaurants.
    22a – I never expect to have to abbreviate an abbreviation.

    On the other hand, I spotted ‘Otis’ right away, it being used frequently in N. American crosswords.

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