Sunday Times 4566 (1 Dec 2013) by Dean Mayer

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: About 55 minutes, and I was quite pleased with that.

There were quite a few unknown words for me this week – PROGENITRESS, ALSATIA, MERISTEM, CORSELET & SEROUS although I managed to deduce them all eventually.

As usual from Dean, there were some excellent clues in here – 18a gets my COD for its ‘for good measure’ construction which contributed to an excellent surface. There were some I didn’t like though – the definitions in 5a & 21a, and the homophone indicator in 2d. More details below.

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

Across
1 FI(SHIES)T – I was trying to put TRIES into something for a long time. It was only after I got 2d that the penny dropped.
5 RAN DO + M – although I don’t really see why ‘spot’ can mean random. I suppose in the sense that a ‘spot check’ could be a random check, but surely the ‘spot’ there implies that it’s done ‘on the spot’ i.e. there and then, not that it’s random.
10 MANIC = (MAN + C) about I (boxing one) – ‘on one’ is the colloquial definition.
11 PAPER OVER = APE (mirror) in PROVER (shower, someone that shows)
12 STA(MME)R – Mme. being the standard abbreviation for Madame.
13 IMPETUS = (I’M US) all about PET (personal)
15 BELOW-THE-LINE = (HE WILL NOT BE)* + E – Rather embarrassingly I had ELBOW THE LINE pencilled in quite early on, thinking it was a phrase I hadn’t heard of, which I then put in more firmly as more checkers seemed to confirm it. I mean, it’s not like there are any other words you can make from the letters of ELBOW, are there? Oh. That held me up getting 3d for a long time.
18 PROGENITRESS = PRO + G + EN + (SISTER)* – not a word I knew as such, but it was a small step from progenitor
21 ALSATIA = (A TAIL)* about SA (sex appeal, ‘it’) – I have to take issue here. Alsatians (the dogs) come from Alsace. Alsatia is an area of London. A question mark after ‘Dogs’ home’ might have made it OK, but I don’t like it as it is.
22 RA (Gunners) + TRACE (find)
23 DOLGELLAU = DOLL (beauty) about GEL (to take shape) + AU (gold) – I’ve often holidayed in Wales, so I’m familiar with the town, but those who are not might have struggled here.
25 R + IN + GO – Possibly the most famous drummer of all time. I remember his dulcit tones narrating Rev Audry’s Thomas the Tank Engine books.
26 oRATION
27 ASBESTOS = BEST (worst) in A SOS – This curious idea of best/worst being synonyms as well as antonyms has cropped up before – as verbs they can both mean ‘to defeat’
Down
1 F + AMISH
2 SYNTAX = “SIN TAX” – although ‘sin tax’ as far as I’m aware isn’t a phrase in its own right, and it’s the ‘sin’ rather than the ‘tax’ that’s the homophone. As such, the positioning of ‘say’ at the very end is a little misleading, in my opinion.
3 INCOMPETENT = COMPETE in INN + shoT
4 SUPERSONICALLY = PERSON + I + CALL all in StUdY
6 AYR – hidden
7 DOVETAIL = DO (you must) + VET (investigate) + AIL (trouble)
8 MERISTEM – hidden – not a word I knew, but as it was hidden, that didn’t really matter
9 SPLINTER GROUPS = (Prevent + PROGRESS UNTIL)*
14 PIEDS-A-TERRE = PIERRE about (DATES)* – semi-&lit
16 UPLANDER = UNDER (down) about ALP rev
17 CORSELET = COuRSE + LET
19 MAG + NET
20 SERiOUS
24 EG + O

24 comments on “Sunday Times 4566 (1 Dec 2013) by Dean Mayer”

  1. Yes, another corker from Dean. Thanks, Dave, for explaining the (colloquial) def at 10ac. Never heard of it and it’s been bothering me all week.

    Had a good old chuckle at the dog’s home in 21ac.

  2. Using similar logic, and perhaps crazed by too much Christmas shopping, I put in Santaism for a puzzle a few days ago instead of SATANISM.

    Really enjoyed this one, in particular COD PIEDS-A-TERRE. I see your point with 21A, with some semi-justification being that ALSATIA is the Latin name for Alsace, but I think there’s an argument that the “say” in 2D doesn’t have to mean that both words are homophones (though I can’t recall off the top of my head another instance where it didn’t).

    Edited at 2013-12-08 01:21 am (UTC)

  3. No idea how long this took, but I got there in the end. I was slowed down by ‘Alsatia’, but didn’t think it was out of bounds.’Sin tax’ is used in the US, if I recall, to refer to levies on alcohol or tobacco, say.
  4. Another marathon solve which finally required a little assistance to close it out. DK DOLGELLAU or MERISTEM. No problem with “sin tax” as an established saying, and it’s not just confined to the US, (no) thanks to the ever-increasing influence of the nanny state in the UK.

    Edited at 2013-12-08 08:47 am (UTC)

  5. 111minutes (I think that qualifies as a marathon). MANIC a bit ‘on one’, but PROGENITRESS a gem. (15ac also very good, though it bamboozled me – who has to read it in the PR game I find myself in – and was last in.) Nice work, Dean and Dave.

    Ulaca

  6. Sadly, I thought this was a bit below par. I didn’t find it particularly difficult and thought it lacked both humour and the usual Anax inventiveness. I do hope you’re not being dumbed down Dean – we have a run of very easy Mephitos at the moment.

    I can’t reconcile “spot” to RANDOM and agree a “spot check” is “here and now” allbeit often, but not exclusively, of a random sample. I thought 21A was just wrong but had no problem with 2D for which I didn’t need the cryptic (very unusual in an Anax puzzle)

    I know DOLG…. Beautiful place where I once climbed Cadair Idris. There’s a very pretty 9 hole golf course also that sits in the hills.

    1. “spot” as in “spot prize” made sense to me.

      As the original form of Dean’s puzzles can be very difficult, there is sometimes some tweaking, but there still always seems to be someone who finds the result really tough. As I’m fairly sure I’ve said more than once, no instructions have been given to Mephisto setters about difficulty. If you’ve been doing them long enough to have seen many of the strange words before, they’re bound to be considerably easier than for people just starting on them. One of our Mephisto setters regularly tells me how swiftly he finished a certain similar puzzle in another paper.

  7. I thought this excellent. Some very fine clues such as 9dn. Perhaps not one of Dean’s very finest, but who can do that every week? What is more, when he does there are vociferous complaints..
    For 5ac Collins has: “a quick random examination” which seems close enough to me.
  8. Re 25ac I forgot to say that Ringo may well be the most famous drummer ever but he certainly wasn’t the best… somebody once asked Paul McCartney if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, and he replied “Ringo? Ringo isn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles!”
  9. 37:28. I found this difficult, and in the case of DOLLGELAU, impossible. I’ve never heard of the place and the cryptic defeated me. But I thought it was up to the usual standard, i.e. very good indeed.
    1. I thought Dolgellau was a bit like Scotch Corner – not a big place but somewhere “everyone” had been through on a holiday trip. But maybe the likely holiday experiences depend on your generation. There was also assistance with the spelling if you’ve ever heard it said and know your Welsh spelling rules. As I have no Welsh relatives, I didn’t think my knowledge about them was unusual …
      1. I’ve never heard of Scotch Corner either!
        In any event I have no complaints about the clue. The wordplay is perfectly clear. It’s a difficult clue if you don’t know the place, but I don’t mind being defeated by difficulty. I get annoyed when the clue is impossible without this sort of knowledge. And by “this sort” I mean “obscure”. And by “obscure knowledge”, of course, I mean “stuff I don’t know”. 😉
        Edit: I’ve just realised that I did say it was “impossible” in my initial comment! I just meant that it proved impossible for me, it wasn’t intended as a criticism of the clue.

        Edited at 2013-12-09 05:49 pm (UTC)

  10. I’m a new subscriber to the crossword club but I can’t get into any of the puzzles. It comes up with invalid character error 5 when I press play. I can’t find a help link on the site and I would be grateful if anyone has any advice.

    Nico

      1. Thanks Sotira,
        I’ve checked the cookies and scripting as suggested on this page and it still don’t work.
        It must be something on my computer because I’ve just logged in on another and it works.
        I’ve just realised I’ve forgotten the golden rule – switch off and restart – so I’ll give that a go….

        nico

        1. Glad it’s working for you somewhere, Nico. There’s not much a restart or a hammer won’t fix. Might be worth trying a different web browser if the trouble persists. Good luck.
  11. A tale of two puzzles here. The bottom half (everything below the line) succumbed to persistence even while I fell into pretty much every trap Anax set; the top foxed me. A couple synonym/definition connections I didn’t make (for me, pet = favourite, but =? personal, or cowboy = rambunctious, =? incompetent).

    And, still need some help as the penny still hasn’t dropped here re 1ac. Is it Fit = form? And shies = attempt? Are those just nuances I’m not getting, or am I missing something more obvious?

    Edited at 2013-12-08 05:44 pm (UTC)

    1. ‘Supremely funny attempts to fill in form’ – obviously, the literal is ‘supremely funny; so the wordplay is ‘shies’ (in cricket, this means to throw the ball at the stumps in an attempt to knock the bails off and effect a run out) in ‘fit’ (representing ‘in form’, equivalent, I reckon, to ‘in good health’, as in ‘Old Rodney’s in good form’). That leaves ‘to fill’ as the containment indicator.
      1. Thanks very much, ulaca. I think I could have seen my way to the fit/form bit if I’d had the rest, but didn’t know the cricket reference. Now I do. And, a good thing too, as ( other than these last few days), (and also other than a couple days earlier in November) I enjoy, and listen to, and even attend, cricket. To the point, this is a bit personal, with being annoyed by ABC when I was in the States last week because they have prohibited the radio distribution, including on-line streaming, of TMS outside Britain, and then didn’t provide substitute.
  12. 41:49 ..so I definitely got my money’s worth.

    DM’s puzzles always give you something to talk about (dogs’ home, indeed!), and plenty to figure out by incremental steps (PROGENITRESS, MERISTEM). And always some belting good clues. SPLINTER GROUPS is my favourite for a great surface.

    I ‘got’ DOLGELLAU straight off but had no clue had to spell it. A lot of brute force decryption involved in sorting that one out.

  13. I see from the hard copy that I wrote everything in correctly last Sunday and I do not remember any particular difficulties. Like sotira, I had never heard of DOLGELLAU but as she says, it is succeptible to hard decryption. I liked 12A. And hey, being a Chartered Accountant is not always the greatest conversation-breaker but it meant that 15A went in without thought.

    Edited at 2013-12-08 06:50 pm (UTC)

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