Sunday Times 4558 (6 Oct 2013) by Tim Moorey

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 42 mins – with aids resorted to for one.

What with Dunstable, Barnes, Leyton Orient, Spar and Penguin Books, not to mention Mandy R-D, this all seemed a bit UK-centric. I wonder how some of the non-UK solvers found it. There did seem to be an awful lot of specialist knowledge required. I needed help with 27 and would never have got it without looking at a list of the operas of Bellini.

There were several good clues in here as well, of course. The anagram as 8d is my personal favourite, and COD, but the other long anagram at 1d was also good, and 29a was very neat.

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

Across
1 dUNSTABLE
5 DUMDUM = MUD rev x2 – abuse, as in mud-slinging
10 POTBOILER = POT (kitty) + Bakery + OILER (can) – ‘work to deliver bread fast’ is the imaginative definition
11 TALON – hidden – Not a word I knew in this context, and I thought I was pretty good on the terminology of playing cards.
12 oRANGE
13 CREDULITY = (LURED)* in CITY
14 I + NB + RACKETS – a definition hiding in plain sight
17 MALI – Cassius Clay was of course the original name of Mohammed Ali, hence C. Clay became M. Ali
19 MA(R)X – This could refer to any of the Marx Brothers, but I’m a sucker for Chico’s piano vignettes myself.
20 REAL + LOCATE
22 NOTRE-DAME = (TATE MODERN)* with one T removed (little time to go)
24 RUM + B + A
26 AG(N)ES – I can’t say I’ve ever come across the winner of Swedish Idol 2005 before, but the wordplay was clear enough.
27 I PURITANI = (PUT IN AIR + I)* – I confess I had to look this one up as I’d never heard of it, and quite frankly the consonants could have gone in in pretty much any order and been just as likely. If you didn’t know the opera you were a bit stuck here, and that makes it a weak clue in my book.
28 YES-MEN = YEMEN about ‘S (is)
29 PENGUINS = PEN + (USING)* – Penguin been a major British book publisher.
Down
1 UNPARLIAMENTARY = (ANY MP A REAL RUNT + I)*
2 SIT-IN = NIT + IS all rev
3 ABOVE PAR – I think this is SPAR (supermarket) with the S exchanged for ABOVE (overhead), although I’m not sure the wordplay quite works.
4 LILAC = CALL rev about I
6 UNTRUE = (U-TURN)* + maggiE
7 DALAI LAMA = AIL in (A + MALADy) rev
8 MANDY-RICE DAVIES = (DID MANY A SERVICE)* – An excellent anagram. Along with Christine Keeler, she was one of the models at the centre of the Profumo affair in 1962. There’s also a paraphrasing of Stephen Ward’s famous line, given during his trial – ‘He would, wouldn’t he?’ when told that Lord Astor denied having met the girls.
9 ORIENTAL = ORIENT (London soccer team, Leyton Orient) + A + League
15 BARITONES = BARNES (SW London district) about I (one) + TO (accompanied)
16 KEEP AT IT = PEEK rev + A + TIT
18 BOARDING = BOG (Head, as in toilet) about (A + R + DIN)
21 LESSEE = “LESS E”
23 E + DUCE
25 MI (note) + AMI (friend from Paris)

23 comments on “Sunday Times 4558 (6 Oct 2013) by Tim Moorey”

  1. … in this, last week’s, puzzle than with today’s offering. The MANDY R-D clue was a small stroke of genius. And I’m glad Dave recognised the origin of the last four words in the clue because I was wondering what they were doing there. The clue seemed fine without. (Setters to note: CHRISTINE KEELER is also 15 letters.)

    Also wondered why the clue for 27ac was so convoluted when “Rattle put air in one Bellini opera” would have been OK. No doubt there was a reason I haven’t seen.

    10/10 though for working another famous Scouser into the clue, even if Gershwin is more his style than Bellini.

    Edited at 2013-10-13 03:59 am (UTC)

  2. Did this fairly quickly, considering all my marginal notes. I wasn’t sure about RANGE, not knowing Orange, which I assume is a mobile company.DNK AGNES, but as Dave says it was clear enough. I’ll be curious to see if anyone knew TALON. Didn’t know that Barnes was a SW London district, and given …ONES, was wondering what to make of BARIT. I did, though, know ‘head’–my father, who was in the (US) Naval Reserve, used to use it (the word, as well). As I understand it, the ‘ship’s toilet’ Ulaca’s source refers to was the ocean itself, originally; i.e., one, ah, placed oneself in a position to miss the ship. I thought ‘desperate condition’ was a bit much for ‘malady’; surely many maladies are cured? For some reason, I’d thought that it was M R-D herself who uttered the famous words; live and learn. My COD to 18d.
    1. For some reason, I’d thought that it was M R-D herself who uttered the famous words;It was.
  3. I wrote ‘tricky anagrams; good puzzle’ against this one, while noting the heavy British bias. Why not, occasionally, though, is my feeling? No idea of talon either, which sounds so unlikely to me among all the other expressions associated with cards, which seem either to be French or slangy (‘one for his knob’).

    A slight tweak in the Barnes clue, I think TO stands for ‘accompanied by’ – Collins gives the example ‘dancing to loud music’.

    Those as baffled as I was by head for lavatory will be enlightened by this naval website explanation: ‘The use of the term “head” to refer to a ship’s toilet dates to at least as early as 1708, when Woodes Rogers (English privateer and Governor of the Bahamas) used the word in his book, A Cruising Voyage Around the World. Another early usage is in Tobias Smollett’s novel of travel and adventure, Roderick Random, published in 1748. “Head” in a nautical sense referring to the bow or fore part of a ship dates to 1485. The ship’s toilet was typically placed at the head of the ship near the base of the bowsprit, where splashing water served to naturally clean the toilet area.’

    This Bellini opera has cropped up before, once two and a half years ago http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/714298.html (on Jack’s beat) and again more than five years ago http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/236345.html. So at least it is out there – orbiting somewhere in the cruciverbosphere!

    I think you must be right at 3 dn, where I was stumped. If so, we have another, if not UK-centric, then at least Euro-centric offering. Would the clue have read better as ‘Overhead for small part of supermarket better than expected’?

    I’d like to end this thesis-length comment by thanking setter and blogger!

  4. Yep, use it all the time as an addicted cribbage player. The “pone” “cuts the talon for the starter”. Also, pace Ulaca, “one for his nob”, “two for his toes” and “a nineteen” (to mean a hand with a zero score).

    Edited at 2013-10-13 04:14 am (UTC)

        1. Interesting. I wonder where that is? It must be a very local variation as an exact phrase search on Google brings up only 6 hits and none of them relating to cribbage. 350,000 for “two for his heels”

          Edited at 2013-10-13 10:10 am (UTC)

  5. I found this pretty straightforward, but then I’m English so I would, wouldn’t I? Ms Rice-Davies has always insisted that she said that famous phrase, and it appears that indeed she did. I’ve always been rather proud that even our English prostitutes seem to have a certain je ne sais quoi.
    I Puritani is reasonably regular crossword fodder. It was in a T2 Jumbo only a month or two ago

    1. As a young actuarial student I was walking past The Old Bailey when these two ladies arrived outside the court in a rather posh car. They were simply the two most stunning looking women I had ever seen at that tender, inexperienced, age. Je ne sais quoi indeed.

      Like you found the puzzle a bit parochial.

    2. I wouldn’t have known the opera if it hadn’t been in the Indy puzzle just 2 days before.
  6. 14:58, the last two minutes spent staring at 19a and wondering why I couldn’t see the obvious! Very enjoyable.
  7. I’m embarrassed to report I was about to say I never heard of the Bellini opera and thanks to ulaca’s research I find I already said that 2.5 years ago. And to add insult to injury I have a degree in music.

    I enjoyed solving this puzzle which took me a steady 45 minutes to complete. I don’t understand what “natural” is doing in 19ac but maybe I’m missing something that hasn’t yet been explained.

    Not impressed with being expected to know of the winner of a Swedish trash TV contest in order to understand the answer to a clue.

    Edited at 2013-10-13 12:25 pm (UTC)

  8. Somewhat surprisingly, given my usual carping, none of the Britishisms gave me trouble, but I didn’t get Marx, even with a dual stream alphabet run. Why the natural comedian?

    I had a co- worker from Barnes, and am old enough to dredge M R-D up, and (probably since it involves a ball or a stick), had Leyton Orient somewhere in my memory. I knew I Puritani (saw a nice production thereof in Munich recently) which helped the SE. Didn’t know Agnes or Talon, but as Dave says… For me, it was an enjoyable solve.

    And, re the cribbage, in the western US we got one for his nibs, not nobs. The cribbagers will appreciate how panicked I was, when as the men’s lacrosse equivalent of a striker at University (Institute), I was assigned jersey no. 19.

  9. 22:28. There were a few things in here I didn’t know but it all struck me as perfectly fair at the time. I do have the advantage (even over Jerry) of being an Englishman who lives in Barnes.
    I didn’t remember the opera, and thought for a few minutes that I wasn’t going to be able to construct it. It seems any combination of consonants is going to look equally likely… until you hit on the right one.
  10. This reminded me of the definition in Chambers for one of the meanings of dare: “a device for fascinating larks with mirrors”. Now it’s less suggestive!
  11. As a Canadian who only gets a Sunday Times puzzle once a week on Saturday morning I look forward to it with great anticipation. Seldom can I complete it without research often on British locales or worse, slang. Regardless I love the puzzle and look forward to your commentary once I have thrown up my hands in despair. Gregory Glenn, Toronto
    1. Another Torontonian weighing in – also the best part of our Saturdays, especially with this forum to explain how we went wrong. That being said, we are getting better, no small thanks in part to this commentary! mj
  12. A very enjoyable puzzle with excellent clue construction.
    8d was brilliant, one of the best clues I have ever come across.

Comments are closed.