Sunday Times 4513 (25 Nov 2012) by Tim Moorey

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: About 45 minutes

Apologies for the slight lateness of the blog, but I’ve been busy Christmasifying my house.

I found this something of a mixed bag. Not a great deal by way of clever cluing, but some excellent surface readings – 5, 12 and 27 all stand out in that regard. But there were also some pretty obvious and lazy clues in there as well.

Overall, it wasn’t really to my taste, but it certainly had its redeeming features. COD to 5d for the excellent and factually correct surface that had nothing to do with the solution.

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

Across
1 NO BALLS – dd – The first one made me smile, the second is a cricket reference.
5 F + LEA + B + AG – Although this struck me as pretty lazy cluing.
9 M(A + REST)AIL
10 F(L)AIR
11 EASTER – dd
12 PERSONAL = P + (ORLEANS)* – Nice use of New Orleans
14 STAR + APPLiES
16 LAID = DIAL rev
18 gROOM
19 IN STITCHES – dd – an operating theatre, of course
22 DOG-TIRED = (ROGET DID)*
23 BILLY + O
26 OSIER – rev hidden
27 AGGREGATE = (GET GARAGE)* – a neat clue
28 TOERAGS – ARE rev in TOGS
29 SOT + HERE
Down
1 NUMBERS – dd – a book of the Bible, and people who numb
2 BERKS – dd – although I wouldn’t have thought of a mug and a berk being quite the same, one’s gullible, the other just stupid
3 LAS(VEGA)S – Vega is one of the brightest stars in the night sky
4 S + HAM – S for Shilling (bob)
5 FALSE TEETH = (AS THE FEET)* about London – Bow as in front (of a ship) – a very clever clue to have such a factual surface.
6 sELFISH
7 BRA IN WASH – I liked this one
8 GAR + BLED
13 SPONGE + BAGS
15 ALONGSIDE = (DEALING SO)*
17 S + TRIDENT
18 RIDE OUT = “RYDE” + OUT
20 SLOVENE = ENS rev about LOVE – I have come across ENS meaning being before, more than once, but it won’t stick in my mind for some reason.
21 SIERRA – I’m not quite sure how to classify this one – a dd, even an &lit? Sierra is the NATO Phonetic code for S which is both the first and last letter of Saloon carS, plus it is also a popular model of Ford.
24 L + EASE
25 EGGS – cd

7 comments on “Sunday Times 4513 (25 Nov 2012) by Tim Moorey”

  1. Another mixed bag indeed! I finished all but three answers in 33 minutes and then spent something like another 45 trying to work out the remainder.

    I’m not quite sure why 5dn should have been amongst those giving me problems but it had me completely foxed and even having got it eventually I was unable to explain it. I never even considered the possibility of an anagram and was convinced that “Bow in London” was something to do with CRS and “plates of meat” = “feet”.

    The other two problems were the intersecting pair TOERAGS and SIERRA. I’d have thought for 21 to work there ought to be a reference to ‘radio’ or some other indication linking S to SIERRA. I’ve never heard of ‘togs’ with specific reference to swimming as in my experience what we wore were ‘swimming togs’ so I was ready to have a go at the DBE in revenge for the problems it gave me, but I see that both Chambers and COED have the required meaning whilst qualifying it by categorising it as Australian, NZ and Irish.

    Didn’t know FLEABAG meaning ‘hotel’ or the ENS thing at 20dn.

    But there was some really good stuff here too and on the whole I enjoyed it a lot.

    Edited at 2012-12-02 04:19 pm (UTC)

  2. Same experience as Jack. Under 40 mins for all but the last three, then forever thereafter. Please can someone explain why ENS = being? I can’t find it on Google, or any of the standard dictionaries. (Incidentally the link in the right-hand bar to Chambers is broken).
    1. Here’s the SOED entry for ENS: 1 Philosophy etc. Something which has existence; a being, an entity, as opp. to an attribute or quality. M16.
      1. I knew this had cropped up in puzzles before but I spent a long time wrestling with the clue, convinced that the ‘Scrabble’ word was ESS, not ENS. Had to look it up in the end.
  3. I had everything–or so I thought–in under 20′, except 28ac and 21d, and it took me well over a half-hour to get them, for a total of 58′. SIERRA was pure guesswork. But for some reason, I put in LEAVE instead of LEASE. Couldn’t believe 1ac; and it didn’t help that cricket was involved. ‘Esse’ shows up in NYT crosswords all the time, so I assumed that ENS was some morphological variant (I don’t know Latin).

  4. Like most people, I raced through this one – in my case whilst baking three batches of mince pies – before getting bogged down at 20d, 21d and 28ac. All three, I thought, were lousy clues, especially the latter two, which was a pity because the rest of the puzzle was very enjoyable with some challenging but solvable clues. I especially liked 5d.

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