Sunday Times 4522 (27 Jan 2013) by Tim Moorey

Solving time: 42:25

On the whole, I found this a pretty good puzzle, with some very good clues contained within. There were a few I wasn’t keen on, but they’re all perfectly sound, so I have no real quibbles.

9a I’d seen done before in a very similar way by the same setter, so I wasn’t keen on that one, but I did like the two brand name clues at 2 & 25, but my COD goes to the one that made me laugh at 8d.

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

Across
1 THE ST LEGER = (GET SHELTER)* – I’m not sure I like ‘fans’ as a anagrind
7 SACK – dd
9 SPUR-OF-THE-MOMENT – the current top player at Spurs would be the Spur of the moment. I recognised this clue so I checked back through my previous blogs. Tim clued this same phrase in a very similar way back in May 2011, in ST 4435
10 OPENER = OP + RENE rev
12 NOISETTE = (ONE’S lET IT)* – ‘a slice of lamb’ is just Lamb, so cutting it indicates the removal of the L from the anagrist. It’s a semi-&lit, although it seems just a little strained to me.
13 THERESA = (HEATERS)* – Theresa May is the current UK Home Secretary
15 DROOPS = SPOOR rev after D
17 MET + TaLE
18 POR(ThE + N)T
19 CAM + ARGUE
21 OVERDO = (DROVE)* + O
22 WOMEN’S INSTITUTE = (WISEST I TUT + NO MEN)* – &lit – not the most natural of surfaces I’ve ever seen, but a good anagram nonetheless.
24 STUDy
25 DOG’S DINNER – dd – Pedigree Chum being a well-known brand of dog food
Down
2 H(I)P – Another brand name in HP Sauce – ‘with it’ is the definition
3 STRINGENT = SENT (turned on) about RING (syndicate) after T (short time) – although I can’t quite see why SENT is ‘turned on’
4 LIFER – rev hidden
5 GEHENNA = (copENHAGEN)*
6 REM(A)INDER
7 SO(M)ME – It’s a river as well as a battle
8 CONSTIPATED = (PAST IT + wheN)* in COED – ‘unable to go’ was the definition. My COD for making me laugh.
11 POTTER + ABOUT
14 ENERGISED = END about (GIS in ERE)
16 OVEREATEN = OVER + “ETON”
18 PFENNIG = PIG (what’s difficult) about FEN (money from China, 100 fen = 1 yuan) + N (Norway) – ‘Mark’s part’ is the definition as 100 pfennigs made a Deutschmark
20 A.M. END
21 O(UTE)D – Amerind is any of the Native American languages, and Ute is one such language spoken in and around Utah
23 TOE – cd – One only needs one toes when counting to 20!

11 comments on “Sunday Times 4522 (27 Jan 2013) by Tim Moorey”

  1. ‘He/she sends me’, back in the day, at least in the US, meant ‘He/she turns me on’, albeit rather more sedately than the latter expression suggests. Sam Cooke’s first hit, I believe, was ‘You Send Me’.
    1. For ’80s music fans, this construction is also present in the chorus of “Rush Hour” by Jane Wiedlin, viz: “We’re driving in the rush hour, Ooh you send me.”
  2. A long, long time. Once again, Dave’s blog enlightens me on a number of clues: DNK Theresa May, didn’t understand how NOISETTE worked, never heard of Pedigree Chum (I just knew chum as fish bait). Am I to take ‘club’ as both definition and anagrind? I’d marked 1ac as my COD, but now I’m a bit dubious about ‘fan’ myself. Utes and Oto(e)s pay regular visits to the NYTimes crossword.
    1. I had 22a down as an &lit, so the whole thing works as the definition, not just ‘club’.
  3. A lot of cultural references, many contemporary, made this different, and I say Vive la difference! Tim made use of the ‘one=a’ okay if it’s not a Mon-Sat Times puzzle ‘rule’ twice, at 6dn and 17ac. Constipated was classic Moorey! 110 minutes, so it rather describes my effort too!
  4. A rare occasion when I seem to be against the trend in finding this one quite easy to solve, having completed it in 24 minutes. But I didn’t fully understand how NOISETTE and STRINGENT worked until coming here. In fact I wrote NOISETTE in immediately on the strength of ‘slice of lamb’, the enumeration and the ‘I’ checker.

    LOI was CAMARGUE from the wordplay as I can never remember the regions of France but I did at least recognise it once I’d worked it out.

    I don’t like overuse of A for 1 – one occasionally perhaps but not two in the same puzzle.

    ‘Fan’ is on the Chambers list of anagram indicators so I’ve no complaints there.

    Enjoyed the HP sauce reference despite reminding me of Harold Wilson who favoured it (Gannex next?) but I have happier memories of Henry the bloodhound promoting Pedigree Chum alongside the lugubrious Clement Freud.

    Edited at 2013-02-03 05:29 pm (UTC)

  5. Didn’t get round to solving this until yesterday. All correct in the end but delayed by Gehenna (unknown to me) and Noisette (which I dimly remember seeing before).

    Constipated made me chuckle too, as did Hip. Thanks Dave for parsing Outed, Pfenning and Dog’s Dinner. I’d not heard of Ute as a language or the Fen coins and having never been a dog owner didn’t twig that Chum referred to a pet food brand.

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  7. It’s a bit long ago to interest anyone, but being an Aussie I wasn’t up with Therea May, and I got it because Theresa (SOED) is thought to be the goddess of the harvest which (northern hem) is in autumn, hence May. Hey setter, bit obscure, I thought, but it was my own tangled brain, not his.

    Cheers,
    Grant in Freo West Oz.

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