Sunday Times 4623 by Dean Mayer

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
I don’t have a time for this. Being called upon to repair a cello halfway through doesn’t half mess with solving speed, don’t you find? By the time I’d done that I didn’t have time to finish before we had to go out, but when I came back to it later I couldn’t finish anyway, so no matter. I was done for by 22ac, which is an excellent clue, and perfectly solvable… just not by me.

This is one of those puzzles that felt really hard while solving (I spent over half an hour on it in total before admitting defeat) but looks perfectly simple when writing up the blog. As I’ve said before, I think that’s the mark of a first-class puzzle, which is what I think this is.

There’s one clue (7dn) I can’t quite explain, so if someone could help with that I’d be most grateful.

Across
1 Gets, when catching cold, some paper
ACQUIRES – A(C, QUIRE)S. Where ‘when’ is AS.
6 Christmas Eve revellers will keep sober
SEVERE – contained in Christmas Eve revellers.
9 Film with Harlow cast in lead, plot about drug?
PLATINUM BLONDE – (IN LEAD PLOT)* around NUMB (drug). ‘Cast’ is the anagram indicator. I got this from the checkers, reverse-engineered the anagram and figured it must be the name of a film starring someone called Harlow. Sure enough…
10 There’s nothing like returning short version of letter
KILO – reversal of 0, LIKe. In this case the ‘version’ is the international radio communication one.
12 During rally, most of net to break
CONTRAVENE – CON(TRAp)VENE.
14 Having ribs, fish will retain shape
COSTATED – CO(STATE)D. Funny word. I started out expecting this would end COSTAL, as in ‘Pentecostal’, which describes the large joint of beef I cooked over Christmas.
15 Court welcomes longing for distinction
CACHET – C(ACHE)T.
17 A transplanted organ for rabbit
ANGORA – A, (ORGAN)*. Also a type of goat or cat. Anyone with the slightest concern for animal welfare should pay great attention to provenance before buying clothes made from the rabbit’s fur.
18 Hostage is held in flat? Right
PRISONER – PR(IS)ONE, R.
19 Israeli politician’s son — he’d always put in complaint
MOSHE DAYAN – MO(S, HE’D, AY)AN. Funny to see this fellow again so soon.
21 Student group’s desire to take November off
YEAR – YEARn.
22 Do a runner?
PAGE-BOY HAIRCUT – This do did for me. I figured out I was after a type of HAIRCUT, but couldn’t get any further. It’s quite a loose clue in some ways: a PAGE-BOY and a ‘runner’ aren’t quite the same thing, and the whole thing doesn’t really work in strict Ximenean terms, but so what? If I had thought of the right sort of haircut (which I didn’t) I would have been in no doubt that it was right, and as far as I’m concerned that’s what counts. A very clever clue. Too clever for me.
24 My old relative’s reaction to bright light
MYOSIS – here ‘my’ is, er, MY, followed by O (old) and SIS. ‘Excessive contraction of the pupil of the eye, as in response to drugs.’
25 Plan to have double-cross on church tower
CON – CON (double cross), SPIRE.

Down
2 A sign of island produce
CAPRICORN – this island in the Bay of Naples specialises in pants, I believe, but if it made maize it would be CAPRI CORN.
3 America’s broken-down area
USA – U/S (unserviceable), A.
4 Come down heavy in a petty way?
RAIN CATS AND DOGS – some people dislike cryptic definitions, but you’d have to be barking to dislike this one.
5 Joint lovers turned up in shock
STUNNED – reversal of DEN, NUTS.
6 This – giant cross, but in rocks
SUBTRACTION SIGN – (GIANT CROSS BUT IN)*. Definitions incorporating punctuation marks are always devilishly hard to spot.
7 Winning letter repeated for writer?
V FOR VICTORY – as soon as I had the starting V it was clear this was the answer but I confess I still don’t understand it. No doubt someone will be along soon to enlighten all four of us.
8 Sculptor grinding surface edges away
RODIN – eRODINg.
11 Not bothered by success, rogues cycling
ON TWO WHEELS – (NOT)*, WOW (success), HEELS.
13 Ultimately, where Mafia got put away
EAT – last letters in where Mafia got.
16 Does one turn out to protect a force for good?
EVER AFTER – EVER(A, F)TER. Nicely disguised definition. I’m not sure why the clue is formulated like this rather than ‘one turns out…’
17 Top mark is the target
AI – A1, M.
18 Spiritual “style” of “Gangnam Style”?
PSYCHIC – or PSY CHIC. As anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last couple of years will know, ‘Gangnam Style’ was the smash hit by the Korean pop star Psy which achieved global success via YouTube, where the video has now been viewed over 2 billion times. The associated dance has been performed in public by more or less anyone famous you can think of and the whole thing was all extremely tedious. However I can’t think of a better demonstration of the way in which the internet has revolutionised the dissemination of music and culture, so as far as I’m concerned it has as valid a place in these puzzles as eighty-year-old movies.
20 One of the glands (they’re all the same)
OVARY – if they’re all the same, then none, 0, VARY.
23 Some music appears to be better
CAP – contained in music appears. Two containment clues in the same puzzle were never allowed in the Times daily, but there is some evidence that the new editor may have relaxed this rule. In any case this is the Sunday Times where no such rule applies.

31 comments on “Sunday Times 4623 by Dean Mayer”

  1. 10ac did for me; hadn’t a clue as to what was going on. And Gangnam style hasn’t reached my rock yet, I’m happy to say; happier to say that I got the clue anyway.(I suppose now I should go to YouTube; I suppose.) The haircut wasn’t much of a problem, although I started by trying to come up with a bob other than ‘shingle’ (as in John Hurt’s “Give me red lipstick/and a poppy red rouge/A shingle bob haircut/and a shot of good booze”). Enlightenment about V FOR VICTORY will have to come from another solver than moi.
    1. I noticed just now that the double-u starting “writer” is really a double-v. But my interpretation of “repeated for writer” was just that when talking to someone writing, expressions like “v for victory” are a way of repeating a letter to ensure that they get it right, which seemed enough. Dean’s notes reveal that Terence understood the clue better than me.
  3. No time for this one as it put me to sleep at least twice during spells when no further answers seemed to be forthcoming. I think I have met both MYOSIS and COSTATED before but only got them on this occasion from wordplay.

    I’m not so enamoured of 22ac for the reasons given (but then forgiven) by the blogger. And I wondered if simply “Winning letter” would have sufficed at 7dn.

  4. I had to make a cup of tea and wander around before twigging the hairdo and, finally, KILO. 45 minutes or so in the end.

    PSYCHIC is brilliant. Personally, I thought the original Psy video was great fun, as were a few of the ‘tributes’ (especially a Forbrydelsen mash-up on YouTube).

    I think I misunderstood V FOR VICTORY the same way as Peter. If it works, it works.

    1. I agree with you on the original video. It was the sheer ubiquity of it that got a bit wearing.
      1. I can understand. I was living in Canada at the time and the media there isn’t as pervasive and inescapable as it is here. I suspect you were sick of Gangnam-everything before I’d even heard of it.
        1. Same here – Although we don’t live in the UK I was aware of it, but didn’t know the name of the group so had to look up YouTube. Thought it was barmy but I’m getting on a bit

          Edited at 2015-01-11 05:17 pm (UTC)

  5. I found this one a real stinker – didn’t get anywhere near it. I still don’t understand 16d – EVER AFTER. The AF (a force) bit in the middle I get, but can’t see where the surround comes from. Thanks for your other explanations, though – they have helped me understand a number of other explanations that I couldn’t see even with the answers.
    1. Thanks Anon. EVERT means to turn out, so ‘does one turn out’ gives you EVERTER. As I said in the blog I’m not sure why Dean didn’t use ‘one turns out’, which is more direct. Perhaps because EVERTER is a bit of a made-up word?
      1. Perfect, thank you so much. Without your blog I’d probably never have found that out. Doug.
  6. One half of this went in so quickly I thought ‘who are you and what have you done with Dean?’ and then I found him down in the SW corner! Finished it all in just over 11 mins so it wasn’t one of his trickiest – they usually come under my ‘three separate goes and in the recycling bin’ rule. Thanks to him and keriothe.
  7. A typo in the blog k – 16 appears twice in down enumeration, once replacing 13

    This was mostly easy – 7D and 9A for example (a write in as it’s one of Jean Harlow’s most famous films).

    I don’t really think 7D cryptic works or 16D and 22A is very weak. At 25A not convinced con=double-cross either, con is trick whereas double-cross is betray but clue so easy it didn’t matter

    1. As I hope I confirmed when editing, all 3 of the usual dictionaries have “cheat” or “deceive” as well as “betray” in their def for double-cross.
  8. 40ish for me so it took me 4 times as long as today’s. No complaints though – good fun. Ok with the hairdo, which seemed to cause a lot of trouble on the Club Forum too. I used to sport a longish one of these back when, bangs, centre-parting and all. Where I got stuck was with YEAR and EVER AFTER. I’ve lived so long in the States I’d forgotten about YEAR and think of it as CLASS. And I got side-tracked into thinking 16d had something to do with election turn-out. Yes I know.
  9. Romped though this with much pleasure in 20 minutes until only the hair-do remained; stumped, had to ask Mrs K to contribute, which she did in no time at all. Still not sure about V+V = W, but otherwise some really fun clues not least OVARY and PSYCHIC. More of these please Dean.
  10. The page-boy clue is absolute rubbish and I am surprised at the editor letting it through!
    1. Well I’m no ppofessional but I’d say that was a matter of taste. I reckon it must be a good clue because I failed to solve it but try as I might I can’t persuade myself that this is the clue’s fault. 😉
  11. A bit confused by having to put in “costated” as all our dictionaries only list “costate”
    1. COSTATED is in Chambers. It’s quite unusual to see words that aren’t in Collins or Oxford but as far as I’m aware there is no hard and fast rule.
  12. Thanks for the blog, keriothe, several of these needed explanation here. I didn’t get the hair do, and while I see the page-boy runner part I still don’t quite see where the haircut bit comes from. Lots of other close-but-not-quite-close-enough-forp-me-to-be-sure definitions gave me a lot of uncertainty. Con and double cross, as noted above, state as a shape, wow as success, den as a joint, and a couple others. But, I got through almost all of it before I succumbed to aids, and enjoyed it too.
    1. Sorry, I meant to reply to this earlier. This is what I meant when I said the clue doesn’t quite work in strict Ximenean terms. ‘Do’ is the definition, but it also has to do double duty as part of the wordplay… but in a way that doesn’t quite make logical sense either. As I said in the blog I don’t mind this, because the clue is solvable and I think that if I had got the answer I’d have been in no doubt that it was right.
  13. I can’t find any Times for the Times link for the above crossword. Have you given up on Jumbos? Have only just crawled out from under my own rock to do this one, which was passed on by relatives.

    Great commentary from everyone on 4623, which helped a lot.

    1. Thanks, anon. I have seen other comments to the effect that this Jumbo got missed, but I’m not sure whose turn it was.
      I did the puzzle so if you’ve got any questions I’d be happy to answer them.

      Edited at 2015-01-14 04:12 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks, Keriothe! We had trouble with 5d,’smooth surface of singular cheat’, and 27d, ‘Old English lay in a type of extra curse’. We have S-A-E for 5d – could be almost anything, but nothing seems more appropriate than anything else. We also have WOE BETIDE for 27d, which is a curse, but apart from OE for Old English we can’t see how else it works. Help would be much appreciated.

        Cynthia

        1. It’s a pleasure!
          5dn is SHAVE, where the definition is ‘smooth’ and the wordplay is S (singular), HAVE (cheat).
          WOE BETIDE is right. The definition is ‘curse’, and the wordplay is OE, than BET (‘lay’) inside WIDE (‘a type of extra’, a cricketing reference).

          Edited at 2015-01-14 05:55 pm (UTC)

          1. Keriothe, thanks again. ‘Have’ is a bit remote in SHAVE, but fair enough. I never get those cricketing clues, but my husband should have!
  14. From aircraft calling codes; A Alpha, B Bravo, C Charlie etc

    Famously used by Winston Churchill in an effort to rally weary Brits, the hand signal V was accompanied by “V for Victory”

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