Sunday Times 4658 by Jeff Pearce: Punt and Venice?

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
24:15. I really struggled with this one, and was thinking to myself that it was another in the run of more challenging puzzles we’ve seen from Jeff Pearce of late. However from the leaderboard it appears that others found it reasonably straightforward, so perhaps it was just me.

There are a few groanworthy clues in here – the Spoonerism at 24ac chief among them – but I’m all in favour of that sort of thing. The ‘Polish’ aspect of 27ac elicited some comment on the club forum, and it does seem incorrect, but that didn’t stop me from figuring out what was going on and putting the answer in. Although not necessarily in that order.

Across
1 Bum goes round with rubbish and kit
SWEAT PANTS – S(W)EAT, PANTS (rubbish).
6 Some fantastic stuff to drink
ASTI – contained in ‘fantastic’. I struggle a bit with the word ‘to’ in the cryptic grammar of this clue.
9 Gnasher starts to misbehave — often leaping at Walter’s rear
MOLAR – first letters of ‘Misbehave – Often Leaping At’ and then the last letter of walteR. Reference Walter the Softy, habitual victim of Dennis the Menace and his dog Gnasher in the Beano cartoons.
10 Brilliant spinner takes some steps
TOP FLIGHT – TOP (spinner), FLIGHT (some steps).
12 Democratic MP angry with Montessori school
POSTMODERNISM – (Democratic, MP, MONTESSORI)*. ‘Angry’ is the (slightly unusual) anagrind.
14 Clobber some balls to cover
OVERCOAT – OVER (some balls), COAT (cover). The obligatory cricket clue.
15 Unable to produce tool for the auditor
SPAYED – sounds like ‘spade’. I wondered about ‘produce’ here, but one of the definitions in Collins is ‘to give birth to’.
17 I’d gone off old Judge
GIDEON – (I’D GONE)*. A character in the Old Testament with a penchant for smiting Midianites and putting bibles in hotel rooms. Also the name of the UK Chancellor before he changed it to George at the age of 13.
19 At home with drink, almost books an event
INCIDENT – IN, CIDEr, NT (books).
21 Moving cry from an impatient child?
ARE WE THERE YET? – CD.
24 Utensil for Spooner’s Snoopy lover?
FRYING PAN – Spoonerism of ‘prying fan’. Geddit? I do enjoy a nice awful groanworthy Spoonerism.
25 More rhubarb — might one say?
EXTRA – a reference to what an extra might do to help convey the overall impression of lots of people saying ‘rhubarb’ together on a stage.
26 A lot of flipping fish
RUDD – RUDDy. This was my last in, and I thought for a while I was never going to crack the flipping thing.
27 Polish workers in Venice
GONDOLIERS – CD. Pole-ish: geddit? An admirably groanworthy clue somewhat spoiled by the fact that the pole in question is an oar. In Jeff’s defence ODO gives as an example ‘the boatmen appeared, poling a small gondola’, but the definition (‘propel (a boat) by pushing a pole against the bottom of a river, canal or lake’) does not describe what they do in Venice.

Down
1 Wrestling with problem of no female
SUMO – SUM, Of.
2 Obscure English film excerpts shown at opening of Empire
ECLIPSE – E, CLIPS, Empire.
3 Turn around prison with teacher of dance
TERPSICHOREAN – (PRISON TEACHER)*. I had to pay close attention to the anagram fodder to avoid spelling this TURPSICHOREAN, which of course means ‘pertaining to the tedious job of thinning paint’. I knew the word from Monty Python’s Cheese Shop Sketch.
4 Might a mutual arrangement about first of November be described thus?
AUTUMNAL – anagram of A MUTUAL surrounding November. A semi-&Lit where the whole clue is the definition and part of it provides the wordplay. I think.
5 On reflection store had lots of booze
TOPED – reversal of DEPOT (store).
7 Show soldiers around if in a state
SIGNIFY – reversal of GIS, then IF in NY.
8 One dollar hidden in china cow
INTIMIDATE – INTIM(ID)ATE. I was puzzled by this one initially, because ‘china’ usually gives MATE. But here it’s INTIMATE.
11 Cabinet member gets daughter office with son in cosmetics giant
LORD PRIVY SEAL – L’OREAL containing D, PRIVY, S. ‘Office’ for the loo has come up and elicited comment a few times of late. LORD PRIVY SEAL is a ceremonial title but the holder attends cabinet and gets a salary, so they are given a proper job too: usually Leader of the Commons or Lords.
13 Here you’ll see Manx folk ignite short tree
DOUGLAS FIR – DOUGLAS (where you’ll see Manx folk), then FIRe.
16 Wrinkly guy touring club after limitless fun
UNIRONED – fUn, then NED (guy) around IRON (club).
18 Many Disney heroines are like Bambi?
DOE-EYED – DD, including a reference to the fact that Disney heroines invariably have absolutely enormous eyes. In the animated films, that is.
20 Part of hospital is briefly let out for term
ENTITLE – ENT (ear, nose & throat, part of hospital), Is, (LET)*.
22 Old doctor drops boxes — one’s so heavy!
HIPPO – HIPPOcrates.
23 Religious celebration features male on a donkey
MASS – M, ASS.

8 comments on “Sunday Times 4658 by Jeff Pearce: Punt and Venice?”

  1. Couldn’t figure out 1ac, and now I see why. I, too, put in RUDD after a lot of thinking, only my thinking led me nowhere beyond the definition. 11d from enumeration, figured out post hoc. Terpsichore, as well as being the muse of dance, is the title of a wonderful suite by Michael Praetorius. I had some difficulty with POSTMODERNISM (I have a lot of difficulty with postmodernism), since it seemed to me that ‘Montessori’ is not within the scope of the anagrind. Twigged GONDOLIERS only post hoc; wouldn’t a ? have helped?
  2. I really enjoyed this one. Occasionally find Jeff’s puzzles a tad on the dry side, but this was a hoot.

    I loved the spoonerism, the Polish workers, and the surface of 13dn was most appealing. 15ac was a beauty, and I also thought the troublesome RUDD was pretty neat.

    Thanks to Jeff for a splendid puzzle, and very nice blog from Keriothe.

  3. Completed in 39 minutes, which is not too bad for me for a Sunday. There was a lot to enjoy here and I had no problems with the wording in 27ac, firstly because the setter wrote “pol-ish” suggesting there might be some stretching of meaning going on, and secondly because the gondolier’s equipment, though most accurately described as an oar, is a type of pole, albeit a refined version. In fact SOED defines an oar as: A long pole widened and flattened at one end into a blade, used to propel or steer a boat by pressure against the water.
  4. My printout has ’14 m’ written on it, so I must have been on form; my groanometer registered a 9 at times, but it was great fun, keep ’em coming, Jeff. Also thanks K for explaining the Pole bit, I just bunged it in, the oar v pole issue passed me by.
  6. The heavy hippo reminded me of something that I saw recently
    “What is the difference between a hippo and a zippo?”
    One is quite heavy and the other is a little lighter.

    Fascinated that the ST team could get the Venice thing wrong.

  7. Just back from holidays and must apologize for this slip-up. My excuse is that the point that struck me when test-solving was whether “polish” could be justified from the “pole”, remembering similar doubts with a clue about mops. I eventually convinced myself that it could, and moved on to the next clue.
  8. Hi

    My partner and I live on a farm near Toronto Canada, and just recently started to do the Sunday Cryptic, the only one distributed in these parts, albeit with a 1-2 week delay …

    Last week we had to deal with
    Clue: “a lot of flipping fish”
    Answer: RUDD

    Our ‘incorrect’ guess was RUDE, based on a lot of flipping (the bird) being undoubtedly rude, and the existence of a record label, the RUDE FISH …

    Whether our attempt was spot-on or not is immaterial; the larger question is: In general, does one have to get it “right” if a better answer that fits the completed grid also exists? Does mind-reading count?

    John & Anne-Marie
    Ontario, Canada

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