Sunday Times 4551 (18 Aug 2013) by Dean Mayer

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 31:42

Typical Dean. Lots of excellent surface readings and clever wordplay. Many candidates for COD but 12a just shades it over 17a for me. Apologies for the lateness of the blog.

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

Across
1 MIXED-UP = I’M (setter’s) rev + (DUE)* in XP (platform, as in Windows XP)
5 FISHING = FIG (Damn, as in Not care a fig!) about SHIN (cut, of meat) – ‘bank activity’ is the definition, an activity done on a river bank
9 RHO – In the Greek alphabet, the upper-case letter rho is written P, and it’s hidden in peteRHOuse
10 BRASS + IE – A golfing wood
11 UMPTEEN = (MEN PUT)* about E
12 LOSS ADJUSTER = LOSER (one failing) about (to hold) SAD (down) + JUST (good) – Faultless wordplay and a really natural surface reading. A typical Anax clue.
16 TRUSTWORTHINESS = (THUS WRITER’S NOT)* + S
17 CARBON FOOTPRINT = (Brilliant + CONTRAPTION FOR)* – I loved the definition – ‘personal effects?’
18 SEAMSTRESSES = SMS (Text) about EA (each) + TRESSES (hair) – The definition ‘style they create?’ reads a little oddly, but I guess that’s why the question mark is there.
21 INHUMAN = HUM (smell) + A all in INN
23 OBSCURE = O (over) + BS (Rubbish!) + CURE (smoke, as in preserve)
24 ChAiNs
25 TO SCALE = TOSCA (opera) + LifE (IF not in LIFE)
26 END ZONE = D (Duke) in ENZO (Ferrari) + NE – ‘target of offence’ is the definition, an American Football reference
Down
1 MOB (company?) + Y (Yes) – the ‘possibly’ seems a little superfluous to me. A colloquial term for a mobile phone.
2 X + IrAN – Xi’an is known as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.
3 DISTORTIONS = (DO IRONS TwIST)*
4 PRESS CONFERENCE = SS (Sopranos) + CON (against) all in PREFERENCE (fancy)
5 FOUNDATION STONE = FOUND (Discovered) + (IS NOT A)* + TONE (sound component)
6 SAP + PA’S rev
7 IN EXTREMIS = I + NEXT + REM + IS – are R.E.M. that old? I suppose they have disbanded, so they’re old in that sense.
8 GENEROSITY = GEN (information) + (IE STORY)* – ‘Giving bent’ is the definition, with bent in the sense of predilection
13 UNIMPRESSED = IMP (rascal) in (RUDENESS)*
14 STICK + SHIFT
15 OUTRÉ + ACHES
19 SUM + O
20 HERE – hidden
22 M + O + A

13 comments on “Sunday Times 4551 (18 Aug 2013) by Dean Mayer”

  1. Another top class effort from Dean. I particularly liked 21ac and 25ac, lovely surfaces..
  2. 56 minutes – last one in and COD to generosity. Didn’t know moby, and actually quite keen to forget it…
  3. This was the first Anax I’ve done under a half-hour (26:12), but I spoiled it by typing in ADJUSTOR at 12ac, clearly neglecting to parse carefully. And there were a number of clues I failed to parse: FISHING, PRESS CONFERENCE, TO SCALE, MIXED UP (didn’t get the XP). CODs all the hell over the place: 23ac, 26ac, 15d, 5d, 12ac. Anax does it again.
  4. Yet another in my run of 60-75 minute solves. A lively puzzle on which I made slow but very steady progress eventually resorting to aids for 2dn and 26ac, neither of which I had ever heard of and I didn’t know Ferrari’s first name either. Too many very good clues to nominate a best.
  5. Add me to the list who couldn’t work out M•B• at 1dn. Never heard of it. Also trouble parsing FISHING because I thought “damn” was FI!

    Still, if MOBY is Brit, it’s made up for by the more American STICK SHIFT and END ZONE I guess.

    Not fond of “platform” for XP at 1ac. I’m told that XP means “experience” but other Win users tell me it’s “extended platform” or even “cross platform”. If either of the latter two … then OK.

  6. Many thanks as always for a great blog Dave, much appreciated.
    As a non-techie I can only accept the finer points of XP=platform from those in the know, but we’re beginning to see it fairly frequently in crosswords now as it is a good way of accounting for those otherwise awkward letters in wordplay. My own feeling is that most people – perhaps not knowing better – would say that XP was the ‘platform’ they were using; maybe technically incorrect, but common enough in everyday parlance to be familiar.
    1. Must be my Mac-ish prejudices coming out. In our neck of the woods, the Mac hardware is the platform. And that hardware determines which operating system(s) it can run.
      1. If the idea is that a platform supports something, the operating system supports other software, and the hardware supports either the OS or both. That’s presumably the logic behind the “specific type of computer hardware or computer operating system” def in Collins.
  7. Is a “Moby Dick” someone who annoys you with their constant, obsessive mobile phone use?
  9. A lot of really good clues here, and I especially liked 12a, 17a, 25a, and 14d.
    But I didn’t like 5a one bit. Though I guessed the answer from ‘bank activity’, I would never have arrived at ‘fig’ for ‘damn’ and ‘shin’ for ‘cut’, both of which require far too much of a leap for me. Anax is a terrific compiler, but I hope he doesn’t feel the need to resort to such obscurities again.

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