Sunday Times 4657 by Tim Moorey

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Overall I found this a reasonably straightforward puzzle, laced with a handful of standout clues. Thought 19ac was excellent, 26ac was a very nice cryptic clue and 17ac a pleasingly groanworthy pun. 1ac was pleasantly whimsical, and 1dn was quite elegant provided you had the necessary GK.

I was not able to fully understand the definition in 3dn without the benefit of a bit of ex post facto research, but the answer was clear enough from the wordplay.

As ever, thanks to Mr. Moorey for this offering.

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

Across
1 Help coward escape as a youngster (6,7)
SPRING CHICKEN – Primary definition nicely supported by fine piece of cryptic whimsy
9 Car a Kennedy checked (7)
AUDITED – AUDI (car) + TED (a Kennedy – Senator Edward of that ilk). Plenty of scope for a tasteless joke here, which I will resist…
10 Rent delay leads to a huge storm (7)
TORNADO – TORN (rent) + ADO (delay)
11 Was blooming loud sherif sacked? (10)
FLOURISHED – *(LOUD SHERIF) with “sacked” as the anagrind. And in case anyone else did a double take on the spelling of “sherif(f)”, this is the Arabian variety (chief magistrate of Mecca, amongst other usages) and a totally different linguistic derivation to the office more usually associated with Nottingham or John Wayne
13 Branch scale not Celsius (4)
LIMB – C (Celsius) removed from CLIMB (scale)
15 Piece of history concerning ’51? First place for Churchill (5)
RELIC – RE (concerning) + LI (51) + C (first place for Churchill)
16 Not upright, one’s in a mess (2,2,5)
AT AN ANGLE – Additional AN (one) appears ‘in’ A TANGLE (mess)
17 At which beer drinkers finally leave the pub? (6,3)
BITTER END – Very droll cryptic clue, prompting memories of the legendary Scandinavian barman Lars Torders…
19 Carpenter of note cut short, ranked high (5)
KAREN – *(RANKEd) with “high” as the anagrind. As well as knocking the final D off the anagrist, “cut short” (intentionally, I’m sure) also prompts thoughts of the tragic early death (age 33) of the girl with the golden voice. A fine clue, I thought
21 Press club (4)
IRON – DD – bit of a sense of deja vu here…
22 Love pudding that’s with chips? Not half! (7-3)
SWEETIE PIE – SWEET (pudding) + IE (that’s) + PIECES (chips – but missing half). Took me a while to parse the PIE bit, but got there eventually…
24 Checked cotton cloth from a Medway Town? Not bad (7)
GINGHAM – GILLINGHAM (ILL – ‘bad’ – removed)
25 Switch with LED in an undeveloped state (3,4)
THE WILD – *(WITH LED) with “Switch” as the anagrind
26 Misdirect a soldier and there could be this (3,2,4,4)
EGG ON ONES FACE – Lovely cryptic clue. Not sure whether this would also make sense outside UK/Australia – just in case, a “soldier” is a term for a strip of bread used to dip into a boiled egg
Down
1 Battle for a Premier League spot (8,6)
STAMFORD BRIDGE – Scene of King Harold’s victory against Harald Hardrada’s invading Norwegian army (hard to think of the delightful Norwegians as a belligerent foe these days), and home ground of Chelsea of the Premier League
2 Flyer in a communist election (7)
REDPOLL – RED (communist) + POLL (election) giving the finch with a cute red forehead
3 Teachers out to lunch mostly getting a piece of Pavlova (10)
NUTCRACKER – The wordplay is clear enough – NUT (National Union of Teachers) + CRACKERS (out to lunch mostly): the definition relies on knowing that Pavlova is a character (the kitten) in the tale – which I have to confess I did not. I therefore justified sticking it in on the basis that it must have been one of Anna’s more celebrated roles. All roads lead to Rome…
4 Knave of clubs, card regularly underneath (3)
CAD – C (clubs) + AD (cArD regularly) ‘underneath’
5 It’s handled badly around East Riding (2,3,6)
IN THE SADDLE – *(ITS HANDLED + E) with “badly” as the anagrind
6 Captain in church? (4)
KIRK – The leader of the SS Enterprise splitting its weekly infinitive, and the Scots place of worship. I’ve put this down as a cryptic, but it just might be perceived as a DD – although I’m not sure ‘Captain’ would qualify as a definition for Kirk: again, all roads…
7 Getting close to burning with change of wind direction upfront (7)
NEARING – [S]EARING (burning) has it’s first letter (upfront) changed from S to N (change of wind direction)
8 Nice cryptics might be based on this? (6,8)
DOUBLE ENTENDRE – Gentle cryptic. Thought I had missed a layer of subtlety here and went on a hunt, but I don’t think so
12 Diplomat says Middle East country restricting wife (11)
STATESWOMAN – STATES (says) + OMAN (middle east country) around (restricting) W (wife)
14 Small part bores supporters and unpleasant critics (10)
BACKBITERS – BIT (Small part) gets into (bores) BACKERS (supporters)
18 Clobber‘s weight set up right initially (7)
TROUNCE – OUNCE (weight) with RT (right) reversed (set up) at the beginning (initially)
20 Copy missing two pages, paper clip loose (7)
REPLICA – *(AER CLIP) – PP (two pages) taken out from the anagrist, with “loose” as the anagrind
23 One’s family banned shocking tobacco (4)
SHAG – SHAKING – kin (one’s family) removed from shaking (shocking), leaving the smokable material. Found the clue construction a bit odd (which roughly equates to “hard to fathom for quite a long time”), albeit the answer was clear enough once the G cross checker went in, steering me away from CHOP (Aussie term for under the counter baccy)
25 Brown belt (3)
TAN – DD – straightforward enough

15 comments on “Sunday Times 4657 by Tim Moorey”

  1. Surprisingly fast, in retrospect, given how many wrong turns I took. The only carpenter I could think of was Jesus, but I couldn’t make anything out of ‘Chris’, oddly enough. Finally remembered the singers from whenever they were around; I doubt if I sat through more than 5 minutes of their stuff in toto. 23d was BIFD (+ checkers); I would never have come up with the parsing, so thanks Nick for that. LOI was 3d, as I took ‘out to lunch’ as anagrind with ‘teachers’ as anagrist. I assumed that ‘Pavlova’ was Anna, and it still seems right to me.

    Edited at 2015-09-06 02:56 am (UTC)

    1. I guess 8dn sort of qualifies?!

      Your comment reminded me of the MADAME PUNSTER aide memoire that our French master at school came up with as a way of remembering the French verbs that take etre rather than avoir (it does require you to pretend the U is a V – venir, I seem to recall?) but other than that it worked pretty well. Was this unique to my teacher, or did others come across this?

  3. Very enjoyable, and I particularly liked 26 across. Never did quite fathom what was going on at the end of 22ac.

    Edited at 2015-09-06 07:10 am (UTC)

  4. So, it’s not staNford bridge, then! An object lesson in the perils of bunging in answers related to things I don’t know much about (historic battles and football grounds).

    Otherwise a pretty breezy 12-minute romp. Enjoyed the corn-fed SPRING CHIKEN.

  5. Just snuck under the half hour, the plethora of multi-word clues (with which I always start) certainly helping here, not least 1d. Like Kevin I just took Nutcracker as a piece performed by Anna Pavlova, benefiting from the play on words with the superb dessert, which has always been a speciality of my Kiwi mother.
  6. Nick can you enlighten me on the venir / uenir mnemonic or whatever it was Mme Punster pedalled? Was that really her name or are you havin’ a larf? Even after 8 years living here I occasionally have to stop and think.
    1. Yes, sorry my reference was probably a tad elliptical. The mnemonic comprises the first letters of each of the verbs that take etre. You’re testing my memory now, but it was something like Monter, Aller, Descender etc. etc. As with any mnemonic, it wasn’t much use if you could not remember the words despite the first letter prompt, but it helped…

      Inevitably, the more waggish elements of my class had quite a bit of fun with this, inventing a complete persona for the Mme who we envisaged as running a brothel in Marseilles and who had a talent for saucy puns of the ‘allo ‘allo type (we were about 30 years ahead of our time in that regard!)

      1. Perhaps this:
        Monter, Aller, Descendre, Arriver, Mourir, Entrer.
        Partir, Venir, Naître, Sortir, Tomber, E?, Rester ??

        Can’t find a second “E” verb.
        “Passer” seems to be missing; as does “Retourner”.

        “& TRUMP” might be a better mnemonic then?

        Edited at 2015-09-07 12:43 am (UTC)

        1. …all of which probably explains why generations of boys went through our school destined to mangle the French language as they disembarked at Calais…
  7. Though this was on the easy side for a Sunday, put in Nutcracker without too much analysis apart from Pavlova = ballet; then went back to Saturday’s which was a bit of a struggle.
    My LOI was KAREN although I do like her voice, very sad the way she died.
  8. I’ve only just realised that I never got round to solving this last week, so I’ve just done it. I’ve had a slightly boozy afternoon (it’s my birthday today) so this has been a bit of an experiment in solving under the conditions that our friend verlaine finds so conducive to quick solving. The experiment has confirmed that I’m not cut from the same cloth: my time was about 8 Magoos.

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