Sunday Times 4583 (30 Mar 2014) by Jeff Pearce

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving Time: 35:59

Quite a straightforward puzzle this week, but not one of Jeff’s best. Lots of cryptic definitions which I’m not generally a huge fan of.

Anyway, I’m blogging this from a holiday in Portugal at the moment, so on with the answers…

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

Across
1 EAST BERLIN = (T BLAIR SEEN)*
6 S + CAM
9 S + HORN
10 PRESS GANG – dd
12 MUSICAL CHAIRS – cd
14 HEN PARTY = (HENRY + PAT)* – semi-&lit
15 EDITOR = (RIDE TO)* – 10 being a reference to PRESS GANG
17 RAM + JET – I got this one wrong. I’d pencilled in RAMMER but never liked it. I’d intended to go back and revisit it but forgot.
19 TURNSPIT – turn SPIT to get TIPS (gratuities)
21 LANCE CORPORAL = (COLONEL CAR PARk)*
24 APART + MEN + T
25 UNCLEan
26 brEWER
27 CITY CENTRE – a way to describe ‘IT’, i.e. the centre of cITy
Down
1 ELS + Eighteenth – Ernie Els is the golfer
2 SNOWMAN – cd
3 BANK STATEMENT – cd
4 RAPACITY = (A + PAR) rev + CITY
5 IDE + A + L
7 CHAR(I + O)T
8 MA + GIST + RATE
11 SCHADENFREUDE = (SEND A RUDE CHEF)*
13 SHORE LEAVE – cd
16 PUPPETRY – cd
18 MAN + DATE
20 POLE + CAT
22 O + B + ELI
23 FE(T)E

9 comments on “Sunday Times 4583 (30 Mar 2014) by Jeff Pearce”

  1. Wasn’t keen on this.. several clues were barely cryptic at all, eg 12ac. And Jeff had been doing really well lately, too..
  2. 51 minutes and not entirely without its difficulties for me.

    I didn’t know RAM JET or the golfer. I don’t really understand what “domestic” is doing in 3dn as bank statements aren’t limited to home finance, and I would dispute “unconvincing” in 16dn as that would depend on the skill and artistry of the performer and the receptiveness of the audience.

    Edited at 2014-04-06 09:58 am (UTC)

    1. I assumed that it meant something like ‘charade’, and indeed my (Japanese) dictionary gives ‘unconvincing presentation; pretense’ as one definition.
      1. Thanks for this, Kevin. I forgot one of my cardinal rules which is to check ‘the usual sources’ before sounding off about an incorrect definition.

        If I had done so I would have found the exact definition in Collins from which I gather it is more of a figurative meaning than a literal one which seeks to denigrate the entire performance skill and its practitioners.

  3. 29 minutes, held up a little by putting ‘home economics’ at 3d by dint of enumeration when I had very few crossers. I too though the ‘puppetry’ clue a little odd.

    Nice to see the homage to the Big Easy. A ‘different golfer’, indeed, and by all accounts a smashing fellow.

    1. And Jeff actually pronounced his name correctly, something no announcer I’ve ever heard has done.
  4. Got nowhere with this last week, then polished most of it off quickly this morning. Held up in the SW by an incorrect but reasonably parse-able rapier for the thruster. I don’t mind cds as much as some seem to, but they often hold me up.
  5. I was another HOME ECONOMICS guy initially but got there in the end. Not the most satisfying of puzzles though
  6. I had the same reaction as Jerry, but on the other hand, I can’t remember ever getting a ST cryptic in under 20 minutes. I knew RAMJET (my LOI), but it took a while, and all the checkers, to get it.

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