Sunday Times 4575 (2 Feb 2014) by Dean Mayer

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 64:25, albeit amidst distractions

Another excellent puzzle from Dean. Plenty to titter about for the schoolboys amongst us in BUM, BALLS, PUSSY, and a few others as well, but they’re all used perfectly innocently, of course.

Lots of excellent surfaces, as you would expect, so lots of candidates for COD. I’ll pick 12 for its clever cluing without resorting to one big anagram, but keeping a good surface reading at the same time.

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

Across
1 REFORM = REM (Rock band) about FOR (supporting)
4 EBORACUM = E + BORA (wind) + CUM (and also)
10 GAUGUIN = GAUGe + U (superior) + IN (trendy)
11 ROBES + ON
12 NOTWITHSTANDING = NO TWIT (clever) + AND (too) in (NIGHTS)*
13 LADIES MAN = (MADE SNAIL)*
15 CIGAR = CAR (wheels) about I (one) + G (thousand, i.e. Grand)
16 BUMPY = BUM (tramp) + PitY (PITY without IT)
17 INSOMNIAC = IN (home) + (I’M ON)* in SAC (bladder)
19 DONCASTER ROVERS = (REASON TV RECORDS)*
22 O + PINION (wing)
23 SCEPTIC = C in SEPTIC (pussy, i.e. full of pus)
24 MONETARY = MONET + A + RY (line) – ‘of LSD’ is the definition, referring to old British money Pounds (L), Shillings (S) & Pence (D)
25 FARROW = Film + ARROW (director) – Mia is the actress
Down
1 REGINAL = GIN (tipple) in REAL
2 FOURTH DIMENSION = (FUNNIER MOOD THIS)* – so ‘I’m comic in’ is all acting as the anagrind. ‘Time’ is the defintion.
3 ROUT IN ELY – Ely is a see (a bishopric), so this is a see defeat
5 BARITONES = BARBITONE’S without the second B, although ‘no use for’ to me implies the removal of ALL Bs.
6 RUB IN = RUIN (failure) about B (middle management)
7 CASTING DIRECTOR = C + ACTOR about STING (fiddle) + DIRE (grave)
8 MAN(A)GER
9 INCH – hidden
14 MOISTENER = IOM (Man, Isle of) rev + STEER about N
15 COMMON ERA = COMMA (,) about ONER (remarkable person)
16 BEDROOM = ED (Balls, Shadow Chancellor) in BROOM
18 CASH COW – cd – lowing is the sound that cows make, so cows are lowers
20 A-LIST – hidden
21 R + AS + H – ‘Flood’ is the definition, in the sense of ‘a sudden increase in numbers of’

22 comments on “Sunday Times 4575 (2 Feb 2014) by Dean Mayer”

  1. Top class effort, a candidate for the “xword of the year so far” award.. how far the ST crosswords have come, over the last couple of years!
  2. Another puzzle spoiled for me by a double obscurity. I didn’t know the wind or the old name for York so 4ac was impenetrable.
    How is B “middle management”?
  3. Agreed far better than Dean’s previous offering and back to his usual high standard

    I’m not clear why B is middle management at 6D

  4. 51 minutes, so not too bad for a Sunday, and no aids other than to explain a couple of things after the event.

    Collins has B as a person of middle management grade in administration or words to that effect.

    1. Thanks Jack – new one on me! Is A senior management and C junior management as well?
  5. A fun puzzle, though Mr Mayer seems to be getting easier (though no less enjoyable) for me as Tim Moorey and Jeff Pearce get harder. I lived in York for 3 years but that didn’t stop me putting an I instead of an A in EBORACUM. Looking through the archives, Topical Tim mentioned a while back that several VW models are named after winds, including the Bora.

    COD to 12A

  6. 29 minutes but with a very careless SKEPTIC. Definitely been in the Americas too long. In my defence, I didn’t parse the clue properly because my first glance at it gave rise to an alarming misreading from which I never fully recovered.

    I remember Eboracum from:
    – the Ebor race meeting at York, despite having zero interest in horse racing. I just like listening to Cornelius Lysaght.
    – a fanciful but appealing notion that it’s the source of ‘Ee bah gum’, which I’m sure all Yorkshiremen use regularly.

    A1 puzzle.

  7. Any puzzle that has ‘eaten by pussy’ in it is a sure-fire winner in my book. I really don’t understand K’s objection to 4: E for ‘East’ is a gimme, ‘bora’ has to be the best known katabatic wind named after a minor Greek god, and ‘cum’ – well, if that’s not the clearest cross-reference to 23a you could possibly wish for, then my name’s John Holmes.

    Oh, 85 minutes for me….

    1. I confess I am beginning to wonder if all these potentially dodgy words are purely coincidental. Dean is a bass player, after all..
      1. Intrigued, I looked up bass guitar in the urban dictionary and found an interesting entry.
        1. The urban dictionary is one of those websites I dare not visit. You innocently click on a link, and then end up have to be lifted out of your seat, an hour later, rigid and eyes like saucers… best not to go there
  8. I enjoyed this one, unlike today’s. Fourth Dimension popped up a couple of days later.
  9. B is one of the advertisers categories that define the target audience of an ad. A, B, C1, C2 etc
  10. Are Dean’s puzzles getting a bit easier, or am I getting better at solving them? Anyway, 45 minutes is a good time for me on a Dean Mayer crossword. I hesitated at the B for “middle management” and at the G for “thousand”. But otherwise a great puzzle with lots of humorous misdirection. Ann
    1. Hello Ann. G for thousand used to be very common. If you see an old gangster movie with Edward G Robinson and Jimmy Cagney they’re always talking about “50 Gs” and so on
  11. No idea how long this took me, but by God I made it. I had the same reaction to 4ac as Vinyl. On the other hand, I’d never heard of Barbitone or Rem (REM?), or the Doncaster Rovers–in fact, I was looking for Lancaster Something for the longest time. Finally, this morning at breakfast, twigged to ‘eaten by pussy’; that has to be the COM at least, although 12ac was no slouch, and I really liked 14d and 15d as well. Wonderful stuff.
  12. Yes, a great compiler if you don’t mind him barely knowing English. In what sense can ‘arrow’ mean ‘director’?
    1. In standard English, it can’t (and although I didn’t ask him when discussing this puzzle, I’m confident that Dean knows this). But in cryptic crosswords, “flower” is allowed to mean “something that flows” and therefore any river. If that’s allowed, why shouldn’t “director” indicate “something that directs”, such as an arrow, which is often used on signs to direct people?

      Peter Biddlecombe, Sunday Times Crossword Editor

      Edited at 2014-02-13 10:08 am (UTC)

  13. We took “primarily” to relate in some way to parentage – Mia’s father was film director John Farrow.

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