Sunday Times 4548 (28 Jul 2013) by Dean Mayer

Solving time: Most of a flight from Manchester to Faro

I struggled to get on the setter’s wavelength with this one, so most of it was like pulling teeth. Only much more enjoyable. Although often very frustrating. Very satisfying to eventually complete it though.

Lots of great surface readings here, which is very much Dean’s hallmark. The wonderfully imaginative 18a has to be COD, but there were many other good ones.

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

Across
1 UNASSUMINGNESS = US about (SUN SIGNS MEANS)*
9 S + KILL
10 MAGNIFICO = FIN rev in MAGIC + O
11 DISPERSALS = DISS about PERSonAL
13 FI(A)T
15 D(U)O
17 WOOD ANEMONE = WOO + (‘EM + ON) in DANE – My LOI as I didn’t know the plant so had to work it out from the wordplay. And I wasn’t entirely convinced by WOO = ‘Cultivate’
18 WATER CLOSET = (ClEeSe + AWLT TO ER)* – How does Dean come up with this stuff! How can I clue ‘water closet’? I know, I’ll make it an anagram of CES AWLT TO ER! Obvious, really. I don’t know how he does it, but it’s genius! My COD.
19 T + AU
20 CRU + X
21 LIONHEARTS = (THE SLAIN OR)*
24 KINGS HEAD = (G + SHEAf) in KIND – According to somebody on the internet, there are 421 King’s Head pubs in Britain which makes it the 10th most popular pub name after The Red Lion, The Crown, The Royal Oak, The Railway, The White Hart, The Plough, The Swan, The White Horse & The Bell.
26 MA(OR)I
27 PRISON CHAPLAIN = (APPROACH SIN)* about L + IN – ‘Can preacher’ is the definition.
Down
1 UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE – cd
2 A + MISS
3 SILVERWARE = (WE’RE RIVALS)* – An anagram disguised in a very natural surface
4 MUM – dd
5 NIGEL LAWSON = NOS + WALL + EG + IN all rev – I’m of a generation that still regards him as more famous than his daughter.
6 N(A)IL – ‘Expose’ for NAIL is another definition I can’t quite get my head around.
7 SPIT IT OUT = (PIT + I) in STOUT
8 POP THE QUESTION = POP + (QUITE HONEST)*
12 STOOL PIGEON = (GONE TOPSOIL)*
14 WEATHER MAP – cd – because it shows the rain
16 OUTRUNNER = (RUNT)* + NicE all in OUR
22 RIOJA = OJ in AIR rev
23 ASKS = ASS (Behind) about K (king)
25 DOH – hidden

10 comments on “Sunday Times 4548 (28 Jul 2013) by Dean Mayer”

  1. In stark contrast to today’s Tim Moorey puzzle, which really was a tooth-puller. The clue for WATER CLOSET was, I agree, a masterstroke. Especially as it invoked the opening credits where letters fell off the sign for FAWLTY TOWERS and got replaced by others. As I remember FARTY TOWELS was among them. (An anagram minus a W.)
  2. Dean’s crosswords just get better and better, don’t they? I loved this. Lots of good clues, but 13ac and 8dn are both true works of art.
  3. Just over the hour for this one but I was never really stuck and it was an enjoyable solve. I was quite impressed by FIN as ‘marine guide’ in 10ac.

    I didn’t know CRUX as ‘puzzle’ or TAU as ‘cross’ and I’m more familiar with UPSIDE-DOWN as a pudding rather than a cake. I had no problems with NAIL (Collins has ‘expose or detect a lie or liar’) but I was a bit surprised to find that COED lists OJ as ‘Orange Juice’.

    Edited at 2013-08-04 06:29 am (UTC)

  4. Beautiful puzzle. As a more general observation, I think it’s a tribute to all involved that whereas I used to approach the Sunday puzzles (if I approached them at all) with a certain degree of resignation, and knowing there was an even-money chance the solving experience would end with a puzzled shrug of the shoulders, these days I find the ST often provides the best puzzle of the week.
    1. Agreed! Congratulations to all. And to Dave for sorting out all the parsing.
  5. Thank you Dave for a typically superb blog – the hard work you put in really is greatly appreciated. And thanks to everyone else for your comments.

    Just a quick note on 18a; I wish it could be attributed to ‘genius’ but it can’t. The def was pretty much a write-in and all I needed was a well-known surname somewhere in the fodder. With most of the ex-Python’s name there I spent ages working with CLEES- but the letter balance wasn’t nice. The odd letters device was a desperate final effort, but this time the letters used in FAWLTY TOWERS just leapt out from the remainder.

    Although Dave’s use of ‘obvious’ is tongue-in-cheek, in the end it really was obvious.

    1. I am reminded of the maths don (Hardy?) who in the course of a lecture, after saying ‘it is obvious that …’ paused and spent several minutes working on his notes before continuing ‘it is really obvious that … etc. #.
  6. Even after Dean’s crib note modesty, I’m with Dave and the rest of the gang in thinking ‘genius’ on 18a. I enjoyed this, and got everything barring 27a in a long hour, which then took three days of noodling whilst waiting for the kettle to boil.
  7. Got side-tracked here by putting in “nerve gasses” as I thought myself very clever seeing this as apt definition for “rising numbers”-i.e gasses rise and nerve gasses numb. Couldn’t make out the rest of clue of course and when getting nowhere on dispersals lionheart magnifico had to revisit my hastiness . Also in Canada we always think of ass=posterior as N. American and “arse” as the British usage.

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