Sunday Times 4649 by Jeff Pearce

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solved sitting in a bar overlooking Honfleur harbour during the French leg of our holiday, and very pleasant too.

A fairly straightforward offering, but after a racing start I got bogged down for a time before a strong finish. No outstanding clues for me, but a uniformly solid and enjoyable puzzle so thanks, as ever, to our setter.

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

Across
1 Rejected pickle in ale and cobalt in squash – technique employed in Sheffield? (8,7)
BESSEMER PROCESS – “Rejected” requires us to reverse both MESS (pickle) and CO (symbol for cobalt) inside BEER (ale) and PRESS (squash) respectively, giving the industrial process for converting pig iron into steel (and thus no doubt widely used in the traditional capital of the British steel industry).
9 Writer about to visit fat cat (7)
LEOPARD – POE reversed (writer about) inside LARD (fat)
10 Some clarets in Asda’s wine selection (7)
RETSINA – The Greek rocket fuel is neatly hidden in claRETS IN Asda, with clarets steering me away from the answer for a while. Fond memories of backpacking around Greece on a budget of 50p a day (or so) in the ’70’s
11 Artist losing urge knocked back wine (4)
HOCK – HOCKNEY. David without his YEN (urge knocked back), giving the tipple of choice for English families first dabbling with wine in the 1960’s – glass of Blue Nun, anyone?
12 Bread cooked at butcher’s (10)
BRUSCHETTA – *(AT BUTCHERS), with “cooked” as the anagrind
13 Official revealing hole by a road (7)
STEWARD – STEW (hole) + A + RD (road). “Stew” from “hole” is, I think, a reference to the “stews” which were brothels in Southwark in the Middle Ages / Tudor times – thus a low-rent area (as in “the place is a bit of a hole”)
15 Come near Monty Python member during drink (5,2)
SIDLE UP – (Eric) IDLE inside SUP (drink)
17 Heading off for resort that’s trendy (5-2)
RIGHT ON – BRIGHTON – The co-respondent’s venue of choice without it’s first letter (heading off)
19 Snack has to satisfy, say, one in gym (4,3)
MEAT PIE – Homophone of MEET (“to satisfy, say”) + I in PE (gym)
20 It’s best to whip dip (10)
PICKPOCKET – PICK (It’s best – “pick of the crop”) + POCKET (whip – as in snaffle), with “dip” being a slang term for a pickpocket. Spent a fair while trying to think of increasingly outlandish alternatives to taramasalata before the light dawned
22 Club harbours old vessel… (4)
BOAT – BA(O)T
25 … and displays old models (7)
EXPOSES – EX (old) + POSES (models)
26 Tiny piece of this bread from Belarus is such bother! (7)
TROUBLE – T (Tiny piece of This) + ROUBLE (the currency – “bread” – of Belarus). Fair enough, but did not find this clue particularly satisfying somehow
27 Unwelcome sort, diplomatically asked to leave (7,3,5)
PERSONA NON GRATA – Possibly a DD, but I think it’s more a case of the widely used general term for an undesirable being the primary definition, with a borderline cryptic supporting definition that harks back to the origin of the phrase in diplomatic circles

Down
1 Violently eject leaders of British Eurosceptics leaving Cameron happy (5)
BELCH – First letters (leaders) of British Eurosceptics leaving Cameron happy
2 After drink get urge for a nibble (6,3)
SCOTCH EGG – A wee dram + EGG (urge – as in “egg on”)
3 Antelope’s endless spirit (4)
ELAN – The ELAND (a fine looking sturdy beast) loses its end
4 Term at Uni with a wine bore (7)
ENDURED – END (term) + U (Uni) + RED (a wine). Neat clue, I thought
5 Pedantic folk upset knight in places (7)
PURISTS – SIR reversed (upset knight) in PUTS (places)
6 Lots of art deco had funny shapes (9)
OCTAHEDRA – *(ART DECO HAD) with “funny” as the anagrind (and “Lots of” indicating we get most – but not all – of the HAD)
7 At first erotic work upset writer (5)
ELIOT – E (first letter of Erotic) + TOIL reversed (work upset) giving the female novelist who called herself George in order to dupe misogynistic publishers
8 Fruit pastel melting over tap (4,5)
STAR APPLE – *(PASTEL), with “melting” as the anagrind, around (over) RAP (tap)
13 Junk has battle with raft (9)
SCRAPHEAP – SCRAP (battle) + HEAP (raft – as in a “a raft of stuff” / “heap of stuff”)
14 Turn pasta into an Italian starter (9)
ANTIPASTO – *(PASTA INTO)
16 Transport carries Bishop’s plant (9)
EUPHORBIA – B (Bishop) inside EUPHORIA (as in transport of delight), giving a flowering plant that is apparently part of the spurge family (which I have to say sounds like an answer waiting for a cryptic clue…)
18 International function hosted by part of UK at a city (7)
NICOSIA – I (International) + COS (function – of the mathematical type) inside NI (part of UK) + A giving us the capital of Cyprus
19 Rattle, say, very nearly storms out without a note (7)
MAESTRO – *(STORMS) – “very nearly storms out” – around (without) A + E (note) for Sir Simon, who I always mistake for David Gower
21 Holiday-maker abandons medium skip (5)
CAPER – CAMPER – holiday maker without the M (medium)
23 Article cheers Greek character (5)
THETA – THE (Article) + TA (cheers – as in “thanks”)
24 Swamp engulfs new pipe (4)
BONG – BOG (Swamp) engulfing N (new), giving the device primarily used for smoking waccy baccy

5 comments on “Sunday Times 4649 by Jeff Pearce”

  2. 17:43. I found some of this quite tricky, but now I can’t remember which bits!
    I don’t remember seeing the trick used in 1ac before.
  3. Also found it quite tricky, but mostly self-inflicted… was looking for a noun for SKIP, a name or an unknown period of time for TERM, don’t really see STEW as HOLE, BRUSCHETTA is a dish with bread in it not “BREAD” so first thought was a new spelling of CHAPATTIS with a B say CHUBARTTES, didn’t know transport as a noun meaning euphoria, etc. Topped off by mistyping BBELC for 1 down, holding me up 5 or 10 minutes at the end before I noticed.
    35 mins.
    Rob

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