Sunday Times 4557 (29 Sep 2013) by Dean Mayer

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 1:13:17

I found this a complete nightmare, taking me well over an hour. There were a few I wasn’t keen on, so not one of Dean’s better efforts in my opinion. That said, there were of course some excellent clues – the two long down anagrams were both excellent, and 19 was typical of the setter!

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

Across
1 GASP – 17a is VAPOUR PRESSURE, so it’s GAS + P
3 ARCHIMEDES – I think this is just a cd that refers to Archimedes’ principle, but that seems a bit weak to me so there may well be some wordplay that I’m missing.
10 OVER(NIGH)T
11 LIVID = LID (one stops) about VI (sex, i.e. Latin for six) – The VI = SEX trick is one I’ve seen Dean use two or three times before, so I’m wise to it now. My FOI
12 LINGUA – rev hidden
13 GO POSTAL = OP (work) in GO (progress) + STALl
15 COMMON OR GARDEN – As in Common Market and Market Garden, ‘Familiar’ is the definition
17 VAPOUR PRESSURE = VA (State) + PRES (President) about POUR (jet) + SURE (of course) – quite aside from the discussion going on in the forum as to whether this is a force or not, I don’t like POUR from ‘jet’. The two seem quite different to me.
21 TERTIARY = TRY about (IRATE)*
22 A + MRI + ThAt – I didn’t know the word, but could deduce it easily enough
24 N(EG)US
25 PARENTAGE = PAGE about AREN’T
26 HALF-SISTER = (SHE FLIRTS A)*
27 MESS – dd
Down
1 GOOD LUCK = GOO (sticky stuff) + L in DUCK (dip) – ‘a product of 7’ is the definition, as a devotee would be liable to wish you good luck
2 STERN + UM
4 oRAnGE – I’m not normally a fan of having to split up a word for a removal, but I don’t mind it when both words are spelt out like this.
5 HOT-DOGGERS – Dot hoggers (point controllers) with the initials swapped over.
6 MALNOURISHMENT = (THE NORM IN A SLUM)* – Excellent &lit and my COD
7 DE(VOTE)E
8 Sioux + ADDLE
9 PNEUMOCONIOSIS = (POISON I CONSUME)*
14 SOUR GRAPES = SO (really) + RAP (blame) in URGES (desires)
16 BE(JAB)ERS
18 AEROGEL = A + hERO = LEG (on) rev
19 U + R(IN)ATE – ‘Go’ is the definition. Made me laugh. Typical Dean
20 thiS + TENCH
23 FREE = FEE about Road

15 comments on “Sunday Times 4557 (29 Sep 2013) by Dean Mayer”

  1. Found this a little harder than average for Dean, and rather sparse on his signature humour. Didn’t know PNEUMOCONIOSIS (and guessed the anagram incorrectly) or AEROGEL. COD to 6D.
  2. took me a few sessions

    archimedes is chimed in a res. forget the actual clue now

    and at 15a i reckoned market garden

    you have a typo at sternum 2d

      1. Thanks, 2 & 15 now corrected. That’s what I meant in both cases. I considered CHIMED in A + RES, but I couldn’t see why CHIMED would be ‘was correspondent’ or why RES was ‘law’.
        1. RES is Latin for ‘thing or matter’ and is accordingly used in law to refer to a thing, such as RES GESTAE (things done)
  3. My reasoning here was that 7 is supposedly a lucky number (hence the final “?” in the clue). On that basis the clue would still have worked even if the answer to 7 had been “breaking a mirror”.
    1. Convention seems to be a digit representing a cross-reference to another clue, and numbers always spelled out to represent numbers.
      This is the first time I can remember seeing a digit representing a number.
      Rob
      1. This convention is used in Times crosswords, but the Sunday Times ones don’t follow the same conventions – the one about living people other than the reigning moanrch is probably the clearest example. I’m sure you could find examples of digits indicating numbers rather than clue answers in other broadsheet cryptics, or clue answers being indicated by numbers in words.

        In a context where the whole game is about different words meaning the same thing or the same word meaning different things, it’s a convention that seems rather odd to me.

        Peter Biddlecombe, Sunday Times Crossword Editor

  4. I don’t have a proper time for this as 1) I had to cheat to make sure I had the right anagram for 9dn and 2) I fell asleep half-way through. Including the nap it took me just over an hour.
    Unusually for one of Dean’s puzzles, I didn’t enjoy this very much. I dislike clues like 9dn where an obscure term is clued ambiguously (it could easily have been PNEUMONOCIOSIS), and he just seemed to be stretching things a bit too much for me in some of the clues: HOT DOGGERS, for instance, or GASP/VAPOUR PRESSURE. I didn’t have a clue about 1dn.
  5. I didn’t like this at all. I normally admire Dean’s puzzles but I found this utterly tiresome. As I posted elsewhere there’s a place for this sort of puzzle and it’s not one in which I expect to find myself on a Sunday morning when I open the ST cryptic.

    Edited at 2013-10-06 05:46 pm (UTC)

    1. … you said of this puzzle that it “appears to contain at least one word/expression that’s not in any dictionary”. Been dying to know for a week which one that was! Please help.
      1. It was an error on my part at 13 where in desperation (and knowing Dean’s SOH) I invented the expression GO COITAL. I was severely disappointed to find out it was wrong!

        Edited at 2013-10-06 11:21 pm (UTC)

    2. I couldn’t agree more. Might I just add that I thought the idea was that the puzzle be solvable. It’s been a long time since I threw in the towel on a puzzle, but I sure as hell did on this one. This setter is becoming too cute for words.
  6. Quite a lot of tiresome comments on the club website that really just amount to “It was harder than I like.” It certainly was hard, and you wouldn’t necessarily want them all like that, but I am happy to have one now and then.
    Vapour pressure is definitely a force, as are all pressures of that type.
    Although pour and jet would normally be used differently I agree, they do seem to pass the substitution test: ODO says, for jet: “to spurt out in jets: blood jetted from his nostrils,” and for pour: “His aorta ruptured and he exsanguinated spectacularly, mouth pouring blood like a burst fire hydrant.” .. which seem close enough to me, if a little grisly, sorry about that..

  7. 36 minutes, with masses of time trying to justify HOT DOGGING rather than something else really obscure – the Speverend Rooner penny dropped about two hours after submitting in hope.
    Among many possibilities for explaining 1d, where I settled for something vaguely to do with a DEVOTEE, I toyed with 21 being both the lucky outcome in Blackjack and a product of 7. Clever, I thought.

Comments are closed.