Sunday Times 4635 by Dean Mayer – The Americano

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
A distinctly stateside flavour this week, with nary a short third man or a jam roly-poly in sight (although we do have a UK TV presenter on parade). Mr. Mayer provides us with a bit of gridiron, a quintessentially American automobile, a US lawman, a splash of transatlantic slang, some native Indian people and a reference to the Great American Rear End.

What a ripper this was! An absolute treat with wit, ingenuity and panache in abundance. Challenging (well, flippin’ hard really) but hugely enjoyable.

As the new kid on the block blogging the Sundays, this was my first Dean Mayer and I approached it with some trepidation, fearing an Icarus moment. Pleased to report that I got there eventually (albeit about three and a half hours to arrive home fully parsed) and loved every minute of it. Thanks to The Dean for an excellent puzzle.

Happy Easter to all.

Definitions underlined, DD = Double definition, anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 Notice a difference at sea (6)
ADRIFT – AD (notice) + RIFT (a difference). Easy when you see it, but one of my last ones in for some inexplicable reason
4 Rainbow presenter’s first to enter cult – that’s funny (8)
SPECTRUM – S[P]ECT_RUM. First letter of Presenter enters SECT (cult) with RUM (funny)
9 Church official has to live around heart of country (7)
SUBDEAN – SU[B]D[E]AN: BE (to live) around the middle (heart) of SUDAN
11 Daughter in Ferrari, extremely nice target for footballer (7)
ENDZONE – EN[D]ZO_NE: Daughter (D) enters the ENZO, a Ferrari model. Add the extremes of NICE and you have the end of the pitch where American footballers score tries touchdowns… (On edit: thanks to kevingregg for pointing out that Enzo was also the first name of Signor Ferrari himself – probably a better analysis of the clue, though I think either works)
12 One version of “citadel” means “stronghold never taken” (6,6)
MAIDEN CASTLE – *(citadel means) with “one version of” as the anagrind, giving us the virgin fortification, and with the whole thing dressed up as a kind of tourist guide translation entry. Brilliant, I thought. Subsequent research reveals there is indeed an iron age Maiden Castle in Dorset, but I don’t think that has anything to do with what is going on here
15 Flaccid member’s no good if you do it (4)
LIMP – DD. A Sunday special – the thinking person’s Up Pompeii moment. Flaccid = Limp is obvious. The trickier definition requires recognition of a leg as a “member” – in which case if your leg (member) is no good you will LIMP. Ingenious and somewhat unsettling for us blokes in late middle age
16 Risk keeping reserve prices low in this (4,6)
BEAR MARKET – B[EARMARK]ET. Straightforward but elegant
18 Shift Georgia to Gabriel? Almost (4-6)
GEAR-CHANGE – GE_ARCHANGEL. The GE is the abbreviation for Georgia in eastern Europe (as opposed to the Peach State which is GA). Add the GE to almost all of Gabriel’s designation – viz. ARCHANGEL – and you have the shift / gear change depending on what side of the pond you are from. Another cracking clue, with a lot of potential misdirection going on
19 Large predator in Windsor Castle (4)
ORCA – The beast is hidden in WINDSOR CASTLE
21 La Dolce Vita’s awful singer (4,8)
LEAD VOCALIST – *(LA DOLCE VITAS) with awful as the anagrind. Much relieved when this one unravelled quite rapidly: I was fearing a hunt for a specific artiste of whom I would almost certainly not have heard (know my birds and fish, but very light on vocalists)
24 Revolutionary greeting in Indian language (7)
MARATHI – MARAT (revolutionary) + HI (greeting) gives us the language widely spoken around the Goa region
25 Support the new forecaster (7)
PROPHET – PROP (support) + *(THE) with new as the anagrind. A playful definition conjuring up a pleasing image of Elijah sonorously intoning “Cromarty, Forth, Tyne – North 7 to severe gale 9…”
26 Switching on cassette, record silence (3,1,4)
NOT A PEEP – NO (switching ON) + TAPE (cassette) + EP (record). Likely to be totally unintelligible to anyone under the age of 30!
27 Top Gear presenter and kids heard this arrangement (6)
MATRIX – Homophone (signalled by “heard”) composed from MAY (as in James, one of Mr. Klaxon’s co-presenters on Top Gear) and TRICKS (kids). Topical, cunning, droll – love it

Down
1 Gathering behind them, steal energy (10)
ASSEMBLAGE – ASS (behind – USA rendition of arse) + EM (contraction of “them” – bless ’em all) + BLAG (steal) + E (energy)
2 Vegetarian wouldn’t want this in a bun? (6,4)
RABBIT MEAT – Never quite sure how to classify these types of clues, but I think this is what is referred to as a Cryptic & Lit – apologies if I have got that wrong. Anyway, whatever label one applies, RABBIT MEAT would indeed be an unacceptable filling for a vegetarian’s roll (bun), and it is also something that is found inside a bun(ny). Hmm…
3 Crooked line old lawman crosses (6)
FLEXED – FED (lawman) crosses L (line) and EX (old)
5 Campaigners plot? (8,5)
PRESSURE GROUP – DD (at least I think it is, unless the “plot” is technically more of a wordplay reinforcing the primary definition). The second cryptic definition from P (pressure) + LOT (group) had me scratching my head for a long time
6 Black bags and empty cases, originally, in car (8)
CADILLAC – C[AD]ILLA[C]. CILLA (Black), the Liverpudlian songstress, captures (bags) AD (and empty) plus C (cases originally). One where the answer was reasonably obvious as the cross checkers started coming in, but the parsing was tricky, with all sorts of clever misdirection and disguise going on
7 Cross an old piece of land (4)
ROOD – DD. Christ’s cross and an antique term for a quarter of an acre. Knew the land, did not know the cross
8 Timid male’s reaction to mouse? (4)
MEEK – M (male) + EEK (the somewhat Bunteresque ejaculation on spotting the rodent). As an aside, there is a Jamaican reggae artist called Eek-A-Mouse
10 Arrested carrying property, I note it’s cheap for Americans (6-3-4)
NICKEL-AND-DIME – NICKE[LAND]D_I_ME. NICKED (arrested) carrying LAND (property) with I and ME (note). Fortunately, a lot of time spent in the past with US business people who used this phrase frequently in negotiations helped me spot this one early on
13 Fighter runs in to touch his collapsed queen (10)
SKIRMISHER – SKI[R]M (runs inside skim = to touch) + *(HIS) – (collapsed as the anagrind) + ER (queen)
14 Take That worried by sneaky charge (7,3)
STEALTH TAX – STEAL (take) + *(THAT) – (worried as the anagrind) + X (by – as in multiplied by). Another top clue, I thought
17 Cap in hands, stay outside (8)
SCREWTOP – S[CREW]TOP. STOP (stay) outside CREW (hands)
20 Native Americans will be fine in a bit (upset) (6)
DAKOTA – A T[OK]AD . OK (fine) inside A TAD (a bit) all reversed (upset)
22 Queen is one, but not with monarchy (4)
OMAN – WOMAN. “Queen is one” gives us WOMAN, lose the W (not with) leaving the sultanate (form of monarchy) of OMAN
23 Dry, except when crossing river (4)
BRUT – B[R]UT. Finally, for those still standing, a “gimme”!

28 comments on “Sunday Times 4635 by Dean Mayer – The Americano”

    1. Aha – thanks for that – it was. (Also a model issued in 2002). Will amend blog accordingly.

      Edited at 2015-04-05 04:08 am (UTC)

  2. This took me forever, and I was surprised and relieved to find I’d finished without an error, as I was at a loss to parse a number of the clues: DNK Top Gear, for instance, or ‘blag’, or Cilla Black [actually, I think I came across a clue involving her once, but], and couldn’t see what was cryptic about RABBIT MEAT. Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” describes her struggles to keep her head above water working in various US states at various low-paying jobs.

    Edited at 2015-04-05 06:48 am (UTC)

    1. Cilla cropped up as “Black singer” in Sunday Times 4600. It appealed to me then as a neat misdirection (predictably I’d spent ages running through Diana Ross, Nat King Cole etc. etc.) and it stuck in my mind which was useful for this one!
  3. Wonderful crossword! Some fine clues (eg 21ac), and overall a highly enjoyable experience.
    Note that there are at least six Maiden(s) Castles in Britain.. it seemed to be a common name for a castle that had never been, ahem, breached.
  4. No time for this, because I had to do it in a few goes, but I’d guess around 45 minutes in all. When 1ac went straight in I thought we were in for one of Dean’s simpler efforts, but it was not to be. An absolute cracker.
    Great blog Nick, thanks. I wouldn’t call 5dn a DD: the PLOT part is one of those reversals where the answer is in the clue and the associated wordplay is in the answer, but I think I’d still call it wordplay.
    One small nit: a BEAR MARKET is one in which prices are falling, rather than low. Close enough.

    Edited at 2015-04-05 07:30 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks Keriothe. Yes, I was in two minds about the DD – thanks for the explanation.
  5. Gets a bit boring saying “Brilliant. Thanks, Dean” every 3 weeks, so I’ll thank the editor instead. Thanks, Peter.

    The wordplay of STEALTH TAX is just beautiful. Take that, indeed.

    1. “Thanks, Peter”
      Quite possibly the loveliest comment I’ve ever read.
  7. Good puzzle, good blog. I was confused about the Georgia abbreviation – didn’t know GE was used for the European one. If you’re on blog duty this time next week Nick you’ve got a real snorter coming down the pike. I was quite surprised by it and glad that I don’t have to offer the explanations. 28.23
    1. Thanks Olivia. Yes, I’ve just tackled today’s and fortunately for me my learned friend Keriothe has the dubious privilege of blogging it – several that are quite perplexing!
      1. Indeed. Some decidedly odd clues and one that I had to cheat to get, so I’ll be blogging a DNF! Oh, and one that I can’t explain.

        Edited at 2015-04-05 10:45 am (UTC)

          1. No, that’s the one I had to cheat to get, but I can explain it. I can’t explain 15dn.
  8. Just over an hour but failed on FLEXED, where I saw the FED but couldn’t lift and separate the ‘old’. Hoe ever many Maiden Castles there may be in Britain didn’t stop me plumping for the Medina variety at first. A very nice puzzle and another nod to the Take That clue. Even though I’ve never heard of the tax, being the father of a teenage girl, I’ve certainly heard a lot of Take That.
  9. I enjoyed the puzzle very much once I got going. But I still can’t understand RABBIT MEAT. How can BUN by itself refer to a Bunny Rabbit? I had all the checkers and could see the last word was MEAT but decided to leave it unfinished. I’d welcome another explanation. Ann
    1. This meaning was familiar to me, but I see it’s not in Collins or ODO, so it would appear it’s not very common. It’s in Chambers though.
    2. Must admit I was guided more by personal experience than the official reference sources on this one! When I was growing up in Somerset, rabbits were often referred to as “buns” and this sprang to mind straightaway when I saw the clue and I did not bother to check it further.

      That said, a clue reliant upon Somerset dialect to work would be, um, “questionable” to put it mildly, so I’m relieved that Chambers also has it! This will teach me to be more diligent in checking things in the future…

  10. There were a couple I didn’t really know so relied on wordplay: MAIDEN CASTLE and MARATHI. I didn’t understand PRESSURE GROUP (so well done, Nick for working it out). I never heard of ENDZONE or ENZO so I looked up Ferrari to help me on my way out.

    I get tired of the mealy-mouthed Americanism “ass”. GE for “Georgia” came up barely a week ago but I didn’t twig that it referred to the former USSR state rather than the American one, sort of assuming there was an alternative or I had been wrong thinking ‘GA’ all these years.

    On the plus side I really liked 8dn.

    Edited at 2015-04-06 08:16 am (UTC)

  11. I never pronounce it “May-“, so assumed there was a Matt someone on Top Gear, which I have always avoided watching. (Glad to see Clarkson has at last got his comeuppance)
  12. Thanks for a great blog Nick and to all for your comments.
    Just a note about ASS. Funny how things change. I’ve no idea when it was first used in this way for cryptic clues, but the ‘a bit naughty’ angle probably evaporated a long time ago. These days the story starts and finishes with ‘useful’; definitions like ‘bottom’, ‘rear’ and (especially) ‘behind’ are simply handy tools to succinctly deal with this little run of letters. In this case ‘gathering behind…’ melds two defs into something the solver may not suspect needs to be split. In that regard it serves its purpose too well to start messing around with other, probably more convoluted, alternatives.
    On the same subject, solvers who don’t particularly like this usage can take some refuge in the Telegraph. Here, ASS can be a fool but not a derriere. Other notable restrictions include having no references to mental illness (even to the extent that ‘mental’ and related words can’t be used as anagrinds), while another no-no is ‘beheaded’ as a first letter removal indicator.
    So now you know 🙂
    1. Thanks very much for the kind comment Dean, and particularly for the fascinating insights into comparative takes on the bounds of acceptability between different organs.

      On which note, interested to see Willy permitted an outing this Sunday just gone…

      Edited at 2015-04-07 04:22 am (UTC)

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