Sunday Times 4688 by Jeff Pearce – a sting ray in the tail

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
26:52. Another fine effort from Jeff Pearce, and one that gave me a good deal of trouble. Most of it went in reasonably smoothly, but then I found myself badly stuck in the south-east corner with three clues unsolved. I was slightly miffed by 26ac, where it seems to me there is a duff definition, but I can only blame myself for failing to see 23dn for as long as I did. And I can only give credit to Jeff for a high degree of deviousness in the construction of 24, an excellent clue.

Across
1 Odd tin items I lie about as being collectable things?
LIMITED EDITIONS – (ODD TIN ITEMS I LIE)*.
9 Game featuring leg and leg break?
PINBALL – PIN (leg), BALL, where ‘leg break’ is an example of a BALL in cricket. The question mark indicates the definition by example. A cricket clue in which cricket turns out not to be the game in question. Good stuff.
10 There’s nearly twenty-five quid in school’s gold fund
SPONSOR – PONy (a PONY is one twentieth of a monkey) contained in S’S, OR (gold). Collins gives S as an abbreviation for ‘school’.
11 Pitches look best cut evenly
LOBS – LO (look), BeSt.
12 Where the circus flag might be is a little extreme
OVER THE TOP – two definitions, one slightly cryptic.
13 Pitch to bowl over
STAGGER – I think this is just a double definition, but I’m not quite happy with the first. ‘Pitch’ and STAGGER can have similar meanings, but I don’t really think they’re synonymous. Is it just me?
15 Thai’s ordered us back massage
SHIATSU – (THAIS)*, reversal of US.
17 Clip only includes second of drama
EXCERPT – EXCE(dRama)PT.
19 It’s fine to take a golfer’s aid round river … Woods might have one!
OAK TREE – O(A)K, T(R)EE.
20 Muse finally played favourite release
DELIBERATE – playeD, favouritE, LIBERATE. Nice reference to the Devon trio. Some might say the answer describes their music.
22 Check cakes on the way back
SNUB – reversal of BUNS. SNUB can mean ‘to stop or check the motion of (a boat, horse, etc) by taking turns of a rope or cable around a post or other fixed object’, which was news to me.
25 The willpower you need to find a solution
RESOLVE – DD with a bit of extra padding.
26 Importance of a Conservative peer?
ACCOUNT – A, C, COUNT. I was stuck on this for ages, trying desperately to think of a synonym or example of ‘peer’ that would fit. Eventually I got the answer through an alphabet trawl and realised that I wasn’t looking for a peer at all. Not the best clue in the puzzle.
27 Powerful diplomat left in prison without toilet facility
PLENIPOTENTIARY – P(L)ENI(PO)TENTIARY. PO is a shortening of ‘chamberpot’ that appears from time to time in crosswords, if nowhere else.

Down
1 Mirror in middle of cellar reveals part of jacket
LAPEL – ceL(APE)Lar.
2 Fancy pen and books carried by second chef
MONT BLANC – MO (second), BLANC (Raymond, TV chef, proprietor of Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons) surrounding NT (books). Other fancy pens are available.
3 Reportedly where golfers go just right
TO A T – sunds like ‘to a tee’.
4 Carry, and give birth to, bear
DELIVER – slightly odd clue this, but I think there are three definitions: ‘carry to’ and ‘give birth to’ which share the word ‘to’, and ‘bear’, which also means ‘give birth to’. I’m open to alternative interpretations.
5 Hopes of Parisian fathers
DESIRES – DE (of Parisian), SIRES.
6 Taste a selection? You might need this afterwards
TOOTHPICK – TOOTH (taste, as in a sweet one), PICK.
7 Where actors might be seen starting?
ONSET – or ON SET.
8 Rare pictures enlivened religious text
SCRIPTURE – (R, PICTURES)*. R for ‘rare’ is in Collins.
13 Drug then gin, say, is something drivers might avoid
SPEED TRAP – SPEED (drug), TRAP (gin, say). I was a bit puzzled by the word ‘say’ in this clue, because I thought that ‘gin’ just meant TRAP, but according to Collins it’s a particular type.
14 Soldier consumes a coarse biscuit
GARIBALDI – G(A, RIBALD)I. Aka squashed fly biscuits.
16 Crawler having volunteers managed Russian city
TARANTULA – TA (volunteers, although they’re not called that any more), RAN (managed), TULA (a Russian city I had never heard of).
18 When working with rod, tope could be the fish you want
TORPEDO – the electric TORPEDO ray is a species of fish which, like the humuhumunukunukuapua-a, is familiar to me from The Octonauts.
19 Royal involved in loss of power causes a scandal
OUTRAGE – OUT(R)AGE.
21 Vehicle departs NW city to get fabric
LISLE – carLISLE.
23 Eccentric Queen leaves cell
BATTY – BATTerY. This was my second to last in, and it took me forever to see. I kicked myself hard when the penny finally dropped!
24 Animal tail’s trimmed
SCUT – S, CUT. And this was my last in, and again it took forever to figure out what was going on. The use of ‘s is really cunning.

21 comments on “Sunday Times 4688 by Jeff Pearce – a sting ray in the tail”

  1. … good puzzle from JP. I was also a bit concerned about the def for ACCOUNT, but the Oxford gives the example: “The money was of no account to her”. Seems OK.

    Didn’t know R = “rare” and was a bit miffed by the use of the apostrophe-S in 24dn. Hope it doesn’t become a regular feature; the possibilities are endless.

    Otherwise, much enjoyed.

    Edited at 2016-04-10 05:04 am (UTC)

    1. I don’t mind ‘importance’ for ACCOUNT. The problem I have is that a COUNT isn’t a peer. I’m not an expert on which particular titles are and aren’t peers, but COUNT isn’t an English title at all as far as I’m aware.
  2. Never heard of TULA, either, but wotthehell. Also never heard of pony or monkey, but ditto, given the checkers. And, I think to complete the list, I never heard of Raymond BLANC, or MONT BLANC pens, but the checkers were pretty reassuring. I didn’t even notice the COUNT problem (of course, a count would be a peer, if the peerage included counts, if you see what I mean). Again, I didn’t notice any problem at the time with DELIVER; but wouldn’t it have been better as “Carry, and give birth, to bear”? where TO is the complement of both verbs. For what it’s worth, I learned PO not from crosswords, but from Anthony Powell.
  3. Another good one from Jeff. No problems with 26ac since I know little about aristocratic ranks, and care less. However Collins gives as its first definition: “a member of a nobility; nobleman” which would seem to encompass a count OK, being “a nobleman in any of various European countries”

    slight typo at 23dn, Keriothe, the answer is “batty”

    1. The various European countries don’t include the UK. I didn’t even know that I knew this, but my mental trawl through types of peer (lord, earl, baronet, er… marquis?) didn’t throw up COUNT.
      Thanks re 23dn, will correct.
  4. Just going on what you said in the intro:
    > was slightly miffed by 26ac, where it seems to me there is a duff definition.
    1. I’m not sure how to do this. I solved it in the crossword club and I can’t figure out a way of linking to past puzzles on the new-look Times website.
  6. Just a thought K…could the three definitions be “carry and give”, “birth” and “bear”? Although the “to” would be slightly problematic.

    Or maybe it’s a double definition, the first one being “carry and give birth to”?

    Alternatively can “carry” pass muster as a synonym for “deliver”? I mean we sort of assume that a carrier pigeon is also a deliverer, otherwise it’s pretty much a waste of birdseed.

    Whatevs, it was a pretty easy clue.

    1. Hmm. Not sure. it seems a bit clunky however I look at it, although as you say it wasn’t difficult.
  7. It’s a very minor difference but at 11ac I had an alternative wordplay, namely the odd letters of LOOK BEST. I’d never noticed before that LO can mean LOOK and also are the alternate letters of LOOK.

    I don’t think you need to go to the obscurity of some ray for TORPEDO. Isn’t fish naval slang for a torpedo?

    I got ACCOUNT very early on, before I had any checkers, and rejected it as requiring too much of a 3-point turn. Sure, peers are noblemen, and so are counts, but that doesn’t make them synonyms. Since the clue wasn’t using the look sense of peer, the clue would have been fine (if very easy) by putting nobleman instead of peer.

    SCUT was very Guardianesque once I realized what was going on.

    1. So it is, thanks. But as I had heard of the fish but not the naval slang I must take issue with your definition of ‘obscure’! It works either way.
  8. 35 minutes. TULA unknown and the required meaning of SNUB. TORPEDO/fish has come up before.

    Edited at 2016-04-10 06:26 pm (UTC)

  9. Good blog, keriothe, and needed here. I didn’t realize brand names were allowed – or is that just for Sundays, like not-yet-expired celebrities? Very nice puzzle, I agree

    1. I may be more relaxed than Richard R about brand names. But as there are certain types of brand name that seem to be permitted everywhere (including, but not limited to, names of newspapers and sports teams), so I don’t see why others shouldn’t be used.
      1. thanks, Peter. A lot of candy and snack names, too. I’ve also had a question about whether the practice is
        ‘not allowed at all’ or ‘not allowed as the final answer, but OK as either part of the clue or part of the wordplay. So, for example, Cameron couldn’t be an answer, but could it clue (ignore the dbe) politician, or, alternatively, be part of some anagram fodder?
        1. At the ST there’s no distinction between answer, definition or other clue content for this point.
      2. I remember seeing “Sky” as a brand in the daily cryptic .. but according to Private Eye every part of the Murdoch empire is required to advertise it 🙂
        2. I remember Al-Jazeera as an answer in the daily Times; so while Private Eye might be right, the setters see names of mass media outlets (not just papers, as Peter says above?) as fair game.
          Rob

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