Sunday Times 4628 – Jeff Pearce (February 8, 2015)

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Back again! I’m standing in for Dave P on this one as he’s incommunicado at the moment but I hope he’s okay. I found this very tough but I have no time to offer as I fell asleep overnight and returned to it the next day. The blog was done in a hurry so I may be checking and editing for the next half hour.

{deletions}


Across
1 ELECTRIC BLANKET – Cryptic definition. “In retirement” is the clue that we’re after something to do with bedtime.
9 HIBACHI – I (current) + BACH (composer) inside HI (hello). A type of barbecue apparatus that I’ve never heard of before.
10 ALTERED – ALT (key), ERE (before), D{uet}
11 RILL – {b}RILL (fish)
12 HANKY-PANKY – HANKY (rag), PAN (slate, criticise), KY (old Vietnamese leader). Definition: fling, as in an illicit romantic liaison.
13 SKIFFLE – SKI (runner), FF (very loud), LE (the French)
15 TESTATE – A not very cryptic definition
17 ATHLETE – Anagram [damaged] of HEEL AT T(rial). Dame Kelly I assume.
19 BLOOMER – BLOOMER{s} (knickers)
20 EXPERIENCE – EX (old), anagram [foreign] of RECIPE {b}E{a}N{s}
22 EDDA – E{ducate)D, DA (lawyer – District Attorney)
25 ESTONIA – {p}ESTO (sauce), anagram [strange] of IN A
26 RED FLAG – RED (wine), FLAG (droop)
27 TATTERDEMALIONS – Anagram [novel] of MALTREATED SOT IN. I didn’t know this word for a tramp or ragamuffin.

Down
1 ETHER – Anagram [out] of THREE. Definition: number
2 EMBELLISH – MB (doctor) inside EEL (fish), L (left), anagram [ghastly] of HIS
3 TUCK – Double definition, one with reference to Robin Hood’s Friar, the other, school slang for sweets etc.
4 IMITATE – I (International) M{odiglian}I, TATE (gallery)
5 BRACKET – B{reak}, RACKET (awful din)
6 ANTIPASTO – Anagram [spread] of TOAST P{rosciutto} IN. The definition is &lit.
7 KAREN – KEN (guy) encloses A+R(river)
8 TEDDY BEAR – TED (delinquent – don’t tell Jimbo!), D{irt}Y, BEAR (carry)
13 STATEMENT – STATE (Victoria, say), ME{a}NT (intended)
14 FREE RANGE – Anagram [might produce] of GREEN FARE
16 ARMADILLO – A (American), MAD (nuts) inside RILL (11ac), O (old)
18 EMERALD – Anagram [new] of LEADER M{illiband}. Definition: one of the greens. For a while on Sunday this clue had “on” instead of “one” in the on-line version but I believe this was later corrected.
19 BUCKRAM – BUCK (counter, as in buck the trend), RAM (stuff). Definition: stiff stuff
21 PETIT – ET (alien) inside PIT (mine)
23 AEGIS – A{ttacks}, EG (say), IS
24 IDOL – Sounds like “idle” (relaxed)

16 comments on “Sunday Times 4628 – Jeff Pearce (February 8, 2015)”

  1. I remember this one as being easy, but I have not kept the hard copy. There have been a few blogs not surfaced in the last month or two, mainly jumbos

    I do hope Dave is OK

    1. It’s one of those little jokes that turn up so regularly in cryptics. Ether is an anaesthetic so it makes things numb!
    2. Yesterday’s Guardian (26,497 – 3 down) read: ‘Use a particular number showing energy on the increase (8)’.
  3. 14:22. I found this fairly straightforward.
    27ac irritated me: I think I looked it up, having decided that trying to work out which letters went where wasn’t really a good use of time on a Sunday morning.
    I join you and Jerry in hoping that Dave’s OK.
  4. I too had to look this up. A rare word that I had never come across before. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle – not too hard.
    Thanks to Jackkt and best wishes to Dave should he be unwell.
    Barry J
  5. TATTERDEMALIONS came up in a Guardian puzzle last year and is one of those rare words that my brain decided, on first encounter, to mark as indispensible for future crosswording use. And, thirteen months later, here we are.
  6. We had a bit of email feedback about this one from someone who said they’d last seen this answer in a Times crossword, about 30 years ago. I phoned them and during the call asked how sure they were about the timing. Their answer was “definitely 30 years ago – I remember where I was”, in the style normally associated with events like 9/11 or deaths of very famous people.
    2. That person must only occasionally do the Times, Peter, not do it every day. I’ve seen TATTERDEMALIONS in my brief solving career (since 2007). Google tells me it was 23872 on May 27 2008.

      Quite easy 19:46 with a few nice clues, but totally bamboozled by TESTATE which was a guess, and the &lit 6 dn – I’m not Italian but in my experience I’ve never seen toast in an antipasto spread.
      Rob

  7. 8 TEDDY BEAR – TED (delinquent – don’t tell Jimbo!), D{irt}Y, BEAR (carry)
    As and Australian not being fully into “TED” which I assume comes from “teddy boys” my reasoning to justify the answer was T{o}Y extremely carrying (i.e. having inside) E{xtremely} D{irty} D{elinquent}(initially) + BEAR (to carry). To me, unusual overlapping clues, but thought maybe that is ok.
    1. It’s a good idea, and if it helped you to the answer then that’s the main thing, but it would rely on too many elements doing double duty to work efficiently as a clue. In my interpretation (as blogged above)there’s a definition (toy) and then each other word in the clue serves a single purpose.
    2. I second this, T_Y then initials E, D, D being carried.

      Two almost complete crosswords in consecutive weeks, must not get too excited…

      1. Congrats on your success, but please see my note above to the other anon re 8dn as I’m afraid that interpretation of the clue misses the mark on several accounts. It’s not important on this occasion of course as you got to the right answer, but for future solving it would probably be useful to understand why it has to be one way rather than the other.
  8. I got the answer from the cryptic part of it but I don’t understand how relation and statement relate to each other.

    Judy in Vancouver, BC

    1. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary has

      Relation: The action of giving an account of something

      Statement: The action of stating, alleging, or enunciating something;

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