Sunday Times 4536 (5 May 2013) by Dean Mayer

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 46:26

Once again, Dean fails to disappoint with another very clever offering. Slightly on the harder side, this one I think, but there’s a lot of very clever stuff going on here.

Dean’s speciality always seems to me to be his knack for getting the surface readings to work so well without detracting anything from the wordplay, and that’s certainly the case here. It’s hard to pick out a COD as there are so many candidates, but I’ll pick 3d for its ‘flying cat’, narrowly over 1, 11 & 22a

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

Across
3 FIG – dd – An abbreviation for figure as used to label diagrams in books, hence ‘small picture’, and if something is trivial then it ‘doesn’t matter a fig’
8 A + TRIAl
9 OVERT + RUMP – I’m a keen bridge player, so not too tricky for me
11 POWER OF THE PRESS = (POET WHO PREFERS)* + S (square) – I thought ‘paper weight’ was a marvellous definition
12 SUP + PORTER
14 TREVI = T’ (a Yorkshire version of ‘the’) + rIVER rev – the famous Roman baroque fountain
16 AMERICA = AFRICA with the F (France) replaced by ME (Middle East)
18 OPEN OUT = O + Peterson + TONE rev about O (love) – Oscar is O in the NATO phonetic alphabet
19 TI(R)ED – that’s drawing as in level points
20 NATHANIEL = (LATIN HE)* about (A + N)
22 SPIRITUAL FATHER = (FAST)* about PI (religious) + RITUAL (ceremony), + HER (the female) – I like this. Very clever.
24 DISAGREED = (SAID)* + GREED – I’m not entirely convinced by ‘varied’ as a definition. I can’t come up with a sentence where the two could be interchangeable, but I can see where Dean is coming from.
25 Church + ANON
26 OWE = mEn WhO rev
Down
1 MA + U + PASSANT – Passant is a heraldic term that describes an animal that is supposed to be mid-stride, and is generally depicted with one paw in the air. Guy de Maupassant was a leading exponent of the short story in 19th century France.
2 GRO(W)UP
3 FAIR TO MIDDLING = FIDDLING about AIR-TOM (flying cat) – made me chuckle when I got it
4 GO + OF
5 NE(THERMOS)T
6 SUPEREGO = GERE (Richard) in OPUS (7d) all rev
7 OPUS – rev hidden
10 TIPS THE BALANCE = B in (PLEA SINCE THAT)*
13 TEA INFUSER = (IN USE AFTER)*
15 INTOLERANT = INTO (loving) + LifE (life but not if) + RANT (moan)
17 pEARLIES + noT
21 I CHING – hidden
22 SODA = SA (It, i.e. Sex Appeal, an old crossword stalwart) about OD (overdose, or excessive intake)
23 LUDO = LOUD with the O moved to the end

4 comments on “Sunday Times 4536 (5 May 2013) by Dean Mayer”

  1. Over an hour; how much I can’t remember. But I do remember enjoying every minute and oohing and aahing as I finally solved one. LOI 23d, which I’d never heard of. Before that I spent a lot of time on FIG and GOOF; I’d actually come up with GOOF early on, but couldn’t justify it and passed on. Too many fine clues to choose a COD. On DISAGREED, ‘the two hypotheses vary/differ in the predictions they make’ seems OK to me.
  2. 53 minutes for this, with power of the press especially good. Air tomwas a little too contrived for my taste. Vary = disagree in such contexts as ‘Your mileage may vary’.
  3. One just runs out of things to say about these puzzles. Another wonderful collection of wit, excellent surface readings and a graded set of clues from the relatively easy “starters” to the very clever. I loved every minute of it, especially the paper weight and the flying cat!
  4. I lost count during this one but I think it took something approaching 90 minutes. Excellent stuff but not keen on allowing ‘T’ for ‘the’ without any indication of dialect being a factor, otherwise lazy setters might start using it willy-nilly.

    Kevin, you have missed a treat with ludo. On one level it’s a gentle children’s game mostly of chance, but it can also be vicious game of skill and tactics, especially if two players play two colours each.

    Edited at 2013-05-12 08:12 am (UTC)

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