Sunday Times 4613 by Jeff Pearce

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
9:40 for what is largely a plain vanilla puzzle. There’s one I can’t explain though, which is a bit embarrassing. Doubtless someone will be along to help shortly.

Across
1 Author‘s strong feelings in intros to best sellers
BURGESS – Best(URGES)Sellers. Anthony of that ilk, of A Clockwork Orange fame.
5 Cool guy, said to be French, touring
DISTANT – DIT (‘said to be French’) around (touring) STAN (guy).
9 Soldier backed imposing base
IGNOBLE – reversal of GI, then NOBLE (imosing).
10 Biscuit and lots of nuts
CRACKER – CRACKERs.
14 If you buy lots a draper could quit!
THROW IN THE TOWEL – DD, the first a whimsical reference to what a draper might do if you bought lots of other stuff. Do drapers sell towels?
12 Open jam for Russian bread
ROUBLE – this seems to be the right answer but I can’t explain the first half of the clue.
14 They criticise those rapping
KNOCKERS – DD.
17 Marshall put base outside key city
BUDAPEST – (PUTBASE)* outside D.
18 Commune has made horrible butter
ASHRAM – (HAS)*, RAM (butter).
21 Without delay father had potato mashed
AT THE DROP OF A HAT – (FATHERHADPOTATO)*.
24 What makes good French dump?
ABANDON – what makes ‘bon’? A B AND ON.
25 One cheated fool almost lost daughter
CUCKOLD – CUCKOo, L, D. L for ‘lost’ – in the context of football scores – has come up and been discussed here before. I only knew ‘cuckoo’ as meaning ‘mad’, but Chambers has ‘a silly or slightly mad person’.
26 Watch Derek returning tennis shot
OBSERVE – BO (Derek) reversed, then SERVE. I’m not old enough to remember Bo Derek, but I am old enough to remember other people remembering her.
27 Rich, say, stranger after dollars
DRUMMER – D, RUMMER. A reference to Buddy of that ilk.

Down
1 Give hair dryer treatment to black surgeon
BLISTER – B, LISTER. Joseph LISTER has a hospital in London named after him, which is how I knew of him. To BLISTER is to ‘attack with scathing words’ according to Chambers.
2 How I might describe old railwaymen’s small car?
RUNAROUND – NUR is (or was) the National Union of Railwaymen, now part of the RMT, an organisation apparently dedicated to advancing the popularity of driverless trains among the London populace.
3 Reject the foreign district of London
ELBOW – EL, BOW
4 Girl is turning a yellowy-brown
SIENNA – ANNE IS reversed.
5 Pass lots of cards to lead crew member
DECKHAND – HAND (pass) with DECK (lots of cards) in front of it (to lead).
6 Old fighter bit a copper with bodyguards around
SPARTACUS – S(PART, A CU)S. Reference the Schutzstaffel, who were originally Hitler’s bodyguards.
7 Crooked, like part of London
ASKEW – AS, KEW.
8 Slow swimmers get poor results following team in front
TURTLES – Team, (RESULTS)*. Are TURTLES particularly slow swimmers?
13 I’ll be watching what you say!
LIP READER – (not very) cryptic definition.
15 One burrows to be warmer and hot if shivery
EARTHWORM – (WARMER, HOT)*
16 Get cut off by mountains after leaders of expedition spot tornado
ESTRANGE – Expedition Spot Tornado, RANGE.
17 Bill’s in excellent show
BRAVADO – BRAV(AD)O.
19 Spanish butcher upset guy with a hat…
MATADOR – ROD A TAM (o’ Shanter) reversed. Slightly harsh definition.
20 …and Spanish pair of diamonds added zest
SPICED – SP (Spanish) with ICE (diamonds) and D (diamonds).
22 Small trading centre set up ways of getting there?
TRAMS – S, MART reversed.
23 Flapper drops new uni’s scarf
FICHU – FInCH, U.

15 comments on “Sunday Times 4613 by Jeff Pearce”

  1. I also struggled with parsing of ROUBLE, but came to the (tentative!) conclusion it was TROUBLE (jam – as in “in a jam / in trouble”) with the top taken off (“open”). But I may be quite wrong!

    Anyway, enjoyed this one as it was quite attainable and had some amusing surfaces (liked the Spanish butcher albeit, as you say, a kind of “tell us what you really think, Jeff!” sort of moment…)

    Edited at 2014-11-02 01:48 am (UTC)

  2. That was my comment I just deleted. Anyway, I read ROUBLE the same was as Nick did, although I wasn’t happy with it: does ‘open’ mean ‘delete’? does it indicate the initial letter, in which case we’re not told to delete? Was there an editing error?
    At least 10′ of my time was taken up by my LOsI, 17d and 24ac. I thought of BRAVADO early on, but couldn’t parse it. Enjoyable puzzle, though, as keriothe says, on the vanilla side.
  3. As Nick says.. and I don’t see anything wrong with the clue – to open something often involves taking the top off it..
    1. In the absence of an alternative explanation I guess that must be it. A matter of taste I suppose…
  4. 19:12 … I found it harder and (therefore?) enjoyed it more than our blogger.

    I don’t think drapers do sell towels but I enjoyed it anyway! And I also like the (t)ROUBLE device. As you say, keriothe, a matter of taste. It’s possible I don’t have any.

    1. Not at all. I find it takes looseness at least one step too far but I can see that might be exactly its appeal. It’s got a certain Araucariarity about it.
  5. 25 minutes for a leisurely Sunday solve so I was quite pleased with that. My comments and issues have already been aired apart from not being familiar with ‘give hair dryer treatment’ meaning to make an attack on someone verbally or otherwise – if indeed it does.
    1. It’s what people always used to say Alex Ferguson did in the dressing room when displeased. Somehow I know this in spite of having no interest in football, so I guess it must be reasonably well-known.
      1. Thanks. It rings a faint bell now, but has it actually passed into the language, I wonder? cf “Handbagging” as discussed here recently, which most definitely has.
          1. I suppose what I meant was, would I find the expression in one of the usual sources, and if I’d taken the trouble earlier I could have answered my own question. “Hairdryer treatment” is in 2009 Collins. “Handbag” (vb) is in Chambers and COED.
  6. 43 minutes for this, with the 17s taking me forever. Thought 11a was a bit too clever for its own good, but can’t see anything loose with 12a at all.
  7. ‘Hairdryer treatment’ is tremendously common in the football fan world (which is a world comprising a very large number of people, of course).
    1. That’s what I thought, if only on the basis that I had heard of it and I am very much not part of that world.

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