Sunday Times 4605 by Dean Mayer

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
8:59. When I sat down to solve this Mrs Keriothe had taken all the kids out for some reason or other, so I had a completely free half hour and a fresh pot of coffee. This is not a particularly common occurrence so I confess I was a bit disappointed to encounter a rather easy and, by Dean’s standards, somewhat vanilla puzzle.

But I’m a reasonable man, so I can see that it would perhaps be unfair of me to expect our esteemed setters to anticipate the particular circumstances that will pertain in my household on a given Sunday when setting these puzzles. Generally speaking I’m all in favour of mixing up the difficulty.

As relatively simple puzzles go, this was perfectly formed, and there are a few clues that are very good indeed.

Across
1 Fine work on service return
GOSSAMER – GO (work), then a reversal of RE, MASS.
6 First of all, one of my pet hates is describing alto brass sound
OOMPAH – A for ‘alto’ inside the first letters of one of my pet hates.
9 One cut loaf, rotten sandwiches
AFRO – contained in loaf rotten. The word ‘one’ is perhaps superfluous, but there aren’t two of them so it’s not wrong.
10 Item of clothing of interest to gypsy, say
ROMPER SUIT – sounds like ‘rom pursuit’. A ‘rom’ is a gypsy man. The homophone works if you pronounce ‘suit’ as ‘syoot’. I don’t, but many do so it’s fine by me.
11 Virtual meeting that could go pear-shaped?
CONFERENCE CALL – a reference to conference pears.
12 They’ll steal equipment in groups
BRIGANDS – or RIG (equipment) in BANDS.
14 Pressure to secure hedge material
PRIVET – Pressure, RIVET.
16 Clubs, into books, almost acknowledge book
OCTAVO – C for ‘clubs’ inside the Old Testament, then AVOw. OCTAVO is a paper size, or a book made of such paper.
18 Eventually, grabbing at bosom
INTIMATE – AT inside IN TIME. ‘Bosom’ is an adjective here.
20 It’s taken every time “natal” is involved
MATERNITY LEAVE – anagram of EVERY TIME NATAL. You can read this as a semi-&Lit, where the whole thing is the definition but part of the clue also gives a wordplay indication. Or if you prefer you read ‘it’s taken’ as a loose definition. Either way, it’s a very good clue.
22 Tramp’s hoarding 1000 different hats – that could be risky
HIGH STAKES – G (1000), (HATS)* inside HIKES.
23 My knowledge, primarily, as PC expert?
GEEK – GEE, Knowledge.
24 Cheerful bachelor, and flexible
BLITHE – B, LITHE
25 Loud bursts in hooter with knobs on
NODULOSE – NOSE (hooter) around an anagram of LOUD.

Down
2 PC unplugged – will it freeze?
OFFICER – OFF (unplugged), ICER.
3 Faint quickly, drinking whiskey
SWOON – S(W)OON. I’ve never really thought about this before, but it seems the IRC code for W isn’t Scotch.
4 Scholar that is brought in to entertain awfully unpopular queen
MARIE ANTOINETTE – MA (scholar), then IE (that is) inside an anagram of TO ENTERTAIN. She who didn’t say ‘let them eat cake’. Another very good clue.
5 Mischief maker behind golfer attacks people
RUMPELSTILTSKIN – RUMP, (Ernie) ELS, TILTS, KIN. More accurately ’tilts at’, I suppose. The eponymous character in Aarne-Thompson tale type 500, The Name of the Helper.
6 Put too much money into space travel, do I? I must be mad.
OVERCAPITALISED – anagram of SPACE TRAVEL DO I, I. The opposite of what the European banking system remains to this day. A quite brilliant clue: worth the price of admission on its own.
7 Old lady love in divided group sex-based pleasure
MASOCHISM – MA, S(o)CHISM. This week’s naughty one.
8 Bad area seen in cut armpits
AXILLAE – ILL, A inside AXE. Not the most familiar word in the world, perhaps, but the wordplay couldn’t be clearer.
12 After opening of bread, ducks get off!
BOO – Bread and then two ducks of the cricketing kind.
13 Scattered missiles he’s got, bombs about to strike.
GRAPESHOT – anagram (‘bombs’) of HE’S GOT around RAP (strike).
15 Kick them out, extremist leaders
TOE – first letters of them out extremist.
17 Persuade to take single aluminium cable type
COAXIAL – COAX, I, AL.
16 Greek king from the Florida area?
THESEUS – or THE SE US.
21 A posh lady, darling
ANGEL – AN, GEL. In crosswords a posh lady is often a GEL. No, you won’t hear this anywhere else. Yes, you just have to learn it. You think that’s bad? Wait until you come across Beerbaum Tree. An actor who died in 1917. Yes way.

15 comments on “Sunday Times 4605 by Dean Mayer”

  1. Lots to enjoy here, particularly for us less experienced players.

    A few went in on a wing and a prayer (ROMPER SUIT, AXILLAE, ANGEL) but otherwise all quite attainable – albeit with much initial head scratching!

    Particularly liked OOMPAH, HIGH STAKES and OVERCAPITALISED.

    Thanks for a very nice blog Keriothe.

  2. Not, perhaps, among Anax’s best, but then what a best! Anyway, it still took me quite a while to finish, and I rather liked it. Keriothe, do you pronounce the ‘suit’ of ‘pursuit’ differently than the ‘suit’ of ‘suit’? We Murcans (at least speakers of General American) pronounce them both ‘soot’, so 10ac worked fine for me; indeed, it’s my COD. I think–knock on wood–that Beerbohm T may be finally resting in peace, but before ‘gel’ joins him, I wouldn’t mind seeing an end to ‘it’ and ‘SA’.
    1. Hi Kevin. In short, yes: see ulaca below. When I say ‘pursuit’ it sounds a bit like ‘purse yute’. When I say ‘suit’ there’s no y.
  3. An hour, ending with OOMPAH, so K was really on fire. I note he has given us excellent reasons for why he sometimes underperforms chez K, and look forward to something along similar lines to explain disappointing workday solves. 🙂 (besides the errant iPad)

    On the pronunciation thing, in Standard British English – mine and K’s anyway – no one pronounces ‘pursuit’ the American way. Where there is divergence is with the pronunciation of suit. Most speakers of Standard British English pronounce it ‘soot’, while a few pronounce it to rhyme with (English) pursuit. They will often be considered affected by those who do not follow, um, suit.

    1. Indeed. Yesterday for instance I was slowed down by having to adjudicate in a heated argument about which of two imaginary horses was faster. There were tears.
      Disappointing workday solves are usually the result of interference on the train, but hangovers have been known to play a part. Speaking of which, I haven’t attempted today’s puzzle yet but my time is likely to be a bit slower than last week’s, on account of the fact that it was my birthday yesterday. Speaking of which, I happen to share my birthday with a particular setter, so happy birthday Dean.
      1. Well, put it this way – if the ratio of our solving times was to hold constant, you will be scrambling under the 90 second mark.

        Oh, and happy birthday to you both!

        1. Thank you. In the event my time was almost exactly the same as last week, so adjusting appropriately for birthday-induced fuzziness perhaps it was a bit easier.
  4. I quite like ‘friendly’ Mr Mayer especially on a Sunday when there is so much non-crosswordy stuff to do. This one took me 10 mins but I did enjoy myself.
  5. I think this entertained me for about an hour but my timings on weekend puzzles are usually rather vague these days.

    Sorry to disappoint Kevin, but Tree,the actor, turned up here as recently as 25858 (13dn) on 6th August.

    I think one can still hear “Gel” in certain quarters. Posh home counties and parts of Edinburgh possibly?

    I wondered about A cluing AN at 21ac preceding a word which grammatically would not warrant it. I don’t know whether this is okay or not but it feels wrong to me. I understand in crosswords one takes each element separately so what it comes down to is can A clue AN regardless of context?

    Edited at 2014-09-07 07:59 am (UTC)

  6. Didn’t know romper suit, and with a clue of that kind didn’t stand much chance of working it out regardless of how I pronounce the various forms of suit. Also didn’t get geek, which rankles as I spent a number of early years hearing mechanical, chemical, and civil engineers remind me that it was the electricals who put the ee in geek. Jealousy, I’m sure. Otherwise, a nice puzzle.
    1. I can see that this would be a tough one if you don’t know ROMPER SUIT, which I guess must be British usage. It’s probably on its way out now, because the garment in question is now known as a onesie, and worn by modish adults as well as toddlers.
      1. Americans usually call it a jumper or a jumper suit, hence confusion elsewhere with sweaters. But there was a famous TV show in the 50s and 60s called Romper Room aimed at the 3-5 age group. I’m sure it was a word I’ve heard, just not one that would come to mind quickly, so I stood a chance if it had been ordinary wordplay. Plus I’m sorry to have missed a controversial homonym,
  7. ….this is an example of one of the reasons why we love cryptics as opposed to straight xwords. When people hear we do cryptics they behave as if we were some sort of Einsteins. But we can never get them to see that straight can be much more difficult. You have two shots at the answer in a cryptic.

    Assume you had the cross letters a_i_l_e to the clue “Armpits” in a regular xword. Unless you knew axillae you would never get the answer without aids. But in your cryptic; ILL, A inside AXE and bingo.

    Jan and Tom, Toronto.

    1. Welcome, Jan and Tom. You have hit the nail on the head! I don’t do the concise crossword precisely because I often can’t finish it.
      How’s the weather in Toronto? I was there only a few weeks ago.

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