Sunday Times 4511 (11 Nov 2012) by Jeff Pearce

Solving time: 44:53 – with one clumsy mistake

Apologies for the lateness of the blog, I came to post it and realised I hadn’t written it up! I hate it when that happens. I solved the puzzle last week but obviously never got round to writing the blog for it.

I went through this one at a reasonable speed (for me), but failed to spell GASTROENTERITIS correctly. If I’d checked my letters against the anagrist, I would have realised I didn’t have enough Es as I’d put –ENTIRITIS.

TARDIGRADE was a new word to me. I rather liked the clever INDEED, so I’ll give that my COD.

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

Across
1 PATIENCE = PATE about (NICE)*
5 BIGWIG = GIBe rev + WIG (scold)
10/11 YORKSHIRE DALES = (DRAY-HORSES LIKE)* – A very appropriate anagram.
12 INDIA = IN + AID rev
13 PROFESSOR = PRO + SS in (FE + OR)
14 TARDIs + GRADE – A new word to me
17 WIDE – dd – An extra in cricket
19 grEen + SPY
20 A + STRINGENT
22 ANCHORMAN = ANCHORAGE (chilly port) with AGE (a long time) replaced by MAN (staff)
24 loO + DOUR
26 IRONS – dd
27 RE + PRESENT (salute with weapon)
28 TI (note) + SANE (old healthy – I think ‘old’ implies a somewhat old-fashioned term for healthy)
29 P(LATTE)R + S – although I was torn between this and FLATTERS. I preferred FR as an abbreviation to PR, but I couldn’t make the definition fit.
Down
1 PHYSIOTHERAPIST = (HAPPIEST + HISTORY)*
2 T + I + RED
3 E(uphori)C + STATIC
4 CH + I + MP
6 INDEED – If BAT is literally put in DEED, you get DEBATED (discussed)
7 WILTS + Headingley + IRE
8 GASTROENTERITIS = (STATION REGISTER)*
9 RECORD + ER
15 RAPACIOUS = (AU PAIR + COS)*
16 ROSE + MARrY
18 IN SOLENT – The Solent is the strait of water that separates the Isle of Wight from Hampshire on the southern English coast.
21 POIsSON – The French word for fish with the centre letter removed
23 NE + PAL
25 OBESE = (SEB cOE)*

23 comments on “Sunday Times 4511 (11 Nov 2012) by Jeff Pearce”

  1. I thought this was an excellent and challenging puzzle, apart from a few niggles. I completed all but four in 40 mins (good for me), but then ground to a halt on 18dn, and had to look in an atlas to find out where Hampshire is. I immediately thought of FRESHWATER on the Isle of Wight, where my wife lived for some years, which fits the clue perfectly, but not the space. She then pointed out INSOLENT, a fine clue for those who don’t suffer from Geographobia.
    The clues I felt were lacking were:

    1dn PHYSIOTHERAPIST – a physiotherapist is to a masseur as a professional engineer is to a washing machine repairman.

    20ac ASTRINGENT – American = A is in Chambers, so I guess we have to accept it, but I felt we could have had something better here.

    27ac REPRESENT – I can see that explain = state = represent, but I find it hard to see explain and represent as synonyms.

    16dn ROSEMARY – This one, I think, is just plain wrong. To get betrothed is no more to marry, than to cock a gun is to fire it. They simply mean different (if related) things.

    All in all, then, a very enjoyable puzzle marred by a few weaknesses.

    I am posting this ahead of the blog coming out, so apologies, Dave, if any of this clashes with your comments.

  2. 37 minutes with only one unknown answer, TARDIGRADE but fortunately the wordplay was clear. I still have one not fully understood so I await the blog with interest.

    On Keith’s points, I might accept “physiotherapist” cluing “masseur”, but not the other way round. I don’t have any problem with A = American as it’s in Chambers and Collins, and similarly “represent” = “explain” is in Collins so the setter is not at fault over that one either. 16dn seems obviously wrong to me too unless the idea is that when one marries one can be said to “get” one’s betrothed.

    Edited at 2012-11-18 04:08 pm (UTC)

    1. Thanks for 28, Dave, I understand it now. Collins has “sane = healthy” as obsolete and Chambers has it as rare, so I guess “old” covers it. “Mens sana in corpore sano” is where I know it from, now I come to think of it.
  3. 18:56 .. no great difficulty except that I do recall Googling TARDIGRADE before hitting ‘submit’. I have no recollection of what it turned out to mean.
  4. Apologies for not spotting “get betrothed” = MARRY.

    The others were considered and I thought they were OK. At 1D, all the dictionary definitions I can find for physiotherapy mention massage.

  5. DNF, thanks to 14ac, which at least I’d never heard of. My physiotherapist never laid a hand on me, just had me do various painful things and then prescribed a set of exercises. Luckily for me, wide/extra had appeared recently, saving some time at 17ac. I liked 12ac and 18d (which I got even though I thought the Solent was on the East coast and don’t have a clue where Hampshire is).
  6. What is the China = Pal connection in 23 dn?

    I did we’ll on this one, but the most common US usage for ANCHORMAN is the principal (not the last) newsreader; that made ANCHOR LEG attractive, though clearly wrong.

    Thoughtful in London

    1. It is cockney rhyming slang: china plate = mate = pal..
      Worth reading about rhyming slang, it pops up often enough
    2. China (plate) is Cockney Rhyming Slang for mate. CRS finds a pair of words that rhyme with the target word, and uses the first of the pair to represent the target, so stairs is rhymed by “apples and pears”, and “apples” is CRS for “stairs”. Try http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/ if you dare!
  7. Thank you, team. Helpful as usual, which I very much appreciate. British spelling I can navigate; I learnt cricket terms (completely worthwhile in itself); and I understand CRS after the fact. But learning enough rhyming slang to go forward rather than backwards is probably too much. I guess you won’t be seeing me at next year’s championships.

    Thoughtful in London

    1. Don’t remember any CRS in the championship this year, and it’s usually pretty limited to the example we had today and a couple of others, though I can’t call any of the latter to mind. So don’t miss out on that count!
  8. A very enjoyable and straightforward puzzle which, for me, came to a grinding halt at 14ac. Not being a fan of Dr. Who, I’d never heard of a T.A.R.D.I.S. Never heard of a tardigrade either, and when I looked it up in my Collins dictionary (which admittedly is about forty years old), it gave “slow-moving” as the definition – no mention of a noun at all. So I guess I was beaten by the compiler’s superior dictionary.

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