Sunday Times 4668 by Dean Mayer

14:56. A relatively gentle one from Dean this week, but a very fine and enjoyable puzzle nonetheless.

As ever with Dean there are one or two somewhat loose things in here. For instance I struggled a bit with the definition at 5dn. But if the odd slightly loose thing is the price we have to pay for this sort of creativity then it’s one I’m happy to pay. In fact it’s not even a price: it’s just a style thing, and on the whole I very much like Dean’s style. Even if you don’t, there’s nothing in here where the answer isn’t clear from the clue, which is the important thing.

A special mention for 12dn, which one of those clues that are so perfectly formed that they give an impression of having been discovered, rather than created.

Across
1 Adult in robe, a grotesque thing
CHIMAERA – CHIM(A)ER, A. A ‘chimer’ is ‘the upper robe worn by a bishop’. I didn’t know this, so this one went in last, with fingers crossed.
6 Extravagant — or otherwise — officers
ROCOCO – (OR)*, then two COs.
9 Cast so, Iron Duke
ORSINO – the Duke of Something or Other in Twelfth Night.
10 Like Manx cat that oddly has “unnamed” ailment
TAILLESS – ThAt, ILLnESS.
11 Plastic upon leathery moulded material
POLYURETHANE – (UPON LEATHERY)*.
14 Cleric, scratching head before long
ANONcANON.
15 Revive rail company, once buried?
BRING ROUND – BR (rail company, once), IN GROUND.
16 Given tranquillity and ambience, books table here?
RESTAURANT – REST, AURA, NT. One where the definition relies on the context of the rest of the clue to make sense of it.
17 Babe to have sex with husband
RUTH – RUT, H. Ref. Babe RUTH, the baseball player.
18 High Church breaks contract for event
STEEPLECHASE -STEEP (high) LE(CH)ASE. I was puzzled by STEEP for ‘high’, but you just need to think of prices rather than slopes. Similarly you need to think of athletics rather than horseracing for the definition.
21 Derisory quote about right of way
PATHETIC – a reversal of CITE (quote about) to the ‘right of’ PATH (way).
23 New Wave youth turned hooligan
VANDAL – VAN (New Wave), then a reversal of LAD. It seems a bit odd to call a movement from the 60s the VAN today, but it’s there in the name.
24 Journalist run over — that’s run over
EDITOR – reversal or R, O, TIDE. At least I assume this is how it works, but I’m struggling with ‘run’ for TIDE.
25 Sort of plant pot with metal flaps
PALMETTO – (POT METAL)*. ‘Flaps’ is the anagrind. As usual the word ‘plant’ induced feelings of panic in me. I don’t remember coming across this one but it was easy enough to deduce from PALM.

Down
2 Launch hotel with location online
HURL – H, URL. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, but you probably knew that.
3 One poem found in friend’s home
MAISONETTE – MA(I, SONET)TE. Edit: there should of course be two Ns in both the small house and the sonnet, my thanks to anon below.
4 Last of the substandard glue
EPOXYthE, POXY (substandard). This clue seemed decidedly familiar, and sure enough in January this year we had ‘finally remove poor quality adhesive’. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that two setters can independently come up with a similar idea for this word.
5 Our team captain’s mixed hot water with trifle
A STORM IN A TEACUP – (OUR TEAM CAPTAINS)*. I struggle a bit with the definition here, because ‘hot water’ to me means genuine trouble, which a STORM IN A TEACUP isn’t. But I’m almost certainly just being excessively literal-minded.
6 Correct clothing is not close to waterproof
RAINTIGHT – R(AINT)IGHT. Not a word I can remember coming across before. I would say ‘rainproof’.
7 Pass wind when one’s left
COL – COiL. Tee hee.
8 Nibbles pieces of meat, swallowing when chopped
CASHEW NUTS – C(AS, HEWN)UTS.
12 One toast never translated?
A VOTRE SANTE – A, (TOAST NEVER)*, &Lit. What a brilliant clue.
13 Twig below some trees
UNDERSTAND – UNDER a STAND of trees.
15 Flag down first of taxis and look over it
BLUE PETER – BLUE (down), PE(Taxis)ER.
19 Salt’s thrown and left in dump
HOVEL – HOVE (the nautical past participle of ‘heave’), L.
20 Surgeon might remove it with skill?
WART – W, ART. Surgery strikes me as a rather excessive approach to treating warts, but I suppose it might happen.
22 The meat of white turkey? No
HITwHITe.

21 comments on “Sunday Times 4668 by Dean Mayer”

  1. Illyria. No idea of the time, but I seem to have finished in a sudden spurt of activity, getting 6ac, 15ac, 8d, and 1ac in the last 5′. I’ve stumbled at 8d and its equivalents a couple of times, simply because I (we?) call them cashews tout court. Liked the placement of the comma in 15ac; la virgule juste.
  2. 40 minutes with much biffing and reverse engineering after the event. 12dn breaks one of the editor’s previously stated rules that “one” in a clue can indicate I in an answer, but not A. Not that he was editor at the time of writing that.
  3. chimer: one of three spellings for the robe in Collins Eng Dict
    A storm in a teacup: on the practical side, is there another for (1,5,2,1,6)? The handy Chambers Phrase File, bought long ago, has nothing else.
    “one” only indicating A: this is a rule in Times crosswords, but AFAIK has never applied at the Sunday Times.
    1. Thanks, Peter, I’m sure (or at least hope) you understand that I was not trying to hold you to account over this. But contributors often ask about rules and conventions so it’s inevitably a talking point when something is tossed in from left field.
      1. always a mistake, to rely on or worry about “rules” as an aid to solving. There is so much room in the left field…
        1. Sorry, but I disagree that it’s always a mistake. Rules and conventions are a very useful aid to learning how to solve, or why else would Peter have published such an extensive guide to them in the first place? Of course one has to bear in mind that things move on and different puzzles will have their own so-called rules and nothing needs to be set in stone etc etc.

          For those without access to the crossword forum here’s Peter’s response from last Sunday to my comment re 12dn which seems eminently sensible to me:

          “Sorry if we broke a rule I stated (and we’ll have to wait to say what rule it might have been), but the primary rule for me is to serve up a puzzle with some challenges and entertainment on the route to a solution. All the more detailed rules are a means to that end”.

          Edited at 2015-11-22 06:16 pm (UTC)

          1. HI jack,
            I vaguely remember even the weekday Times has had “A” clued by “one” since the new editor arrived, but too hard to search for it to confirm or not. It’s quickly going to hell in a handcart, in my view (which is the only view that matters, to me): live people, Guardianesque clues, etc. etc.
            Meantime: nice Anax puzzle, with a few obscurities, but gettable in 35 mins – slowish.
            Rob
  4. 18:27 … very satisfying, and the puzzle an exercise in brevity.

    When anyone asks what’s the point of solving crosswords, the answer is surely “So that you can know, without actually knowing, not only that a chimer is a thing but that it is undoubtedly some manner of vestment.” What other pastime can do this?

    1. scrabble? Since you ask… though I remember a scrabble champion being quoted as saying he had no idea what any of the words meant, only that they existed
      1. Indeed the world champs were just on, and one competitor who won the French (?) championship didn’t speak French – just spent a few months memorising the list of 200,000 or whatever words allowed in French scrabble.
  5. I am determined to master the art of cryptic crosswords but this one was really tough for me. I’m very very grateful for this helpful site. Thank you.
    1. You’re most welcome, and thank you. It’s nice to know that this blog helps.
      Mastering these things takes time, so my advice is to stick at it. You’ll be amazed at the progress you can make.
  6. 3dn surely needs two ‘n’ s – which took me by surprise because I have only ever seen sonnet spelt with two and maisonettes wth one but … I gather it is an alternative spelling of the latter!
      1. Actually, it seems to be a compiler’s error. If anyone can find an authority for the use of the double-n spelling in English I’d be very interested to know what it is.
        1. Thanks for pointing out the error, which I will correct now. The double-n spelling is in both Collins and Chambers.

Comments are closed.