Sunday Times 4690 by David McLean – all in the game, yo, all in the game

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
21:49. I felt I was making heavy weather of this, but I found it very enjoyable. Writing up the blog afterwards I couldn’t for the life of me see what I had found so hard, which is generally the mark of a good puzzle.

There were some rumblings on the club forum about 27ac, which as a straight homophone would be pretty awful. I think there’s a little more to it than that, but I’m not sure I’m reading it right so I’d be interested to hear what others think.

There are several clues in here that require us to reverse something and then put it inside something else. There are also some quite unusual abbreviations: this seems to be a feature of this setter’s style. It’s arguably a little bit Mephistoish (although they are all in Collins or ODO) but that’s fine by me.

Nice to see THE WIRE appear. The best TV series ever as far as I’m concerned.

Across
1 Cook nasty chops? They’d praise them
SYCOPHANTS – (NASTY CHOPS)*.
6 Official with euros in offshore bank
REEF – RE(E)F.
10 Rope alight around spinning beam
LANYARD – LAND (alight) around a reversal (spinning) of RAY (beam). First example of a reversal inside something else.
11 Noble effort to ignore leader of the land?
COUNTRY – COUNT, tRY. COUNT correctly defined as a ‘noble’ rather than a ‘peer’ on this occasion.
12 Put right over quote run about dissident
HERETICAL – HEAL (put right) containing a reversal (about) of CITE, R. Second example.
13 Can taking on artist work out?
TRAIN – T(RA)IN.
14 Someone visiting Coats Island
NEVIS – contained in ‘someone visiting’. ‘Coats’ is the containicator.
15 Perhaps bombs with a cold metal tip
SCRAPHEAP – (PERHAPS, A C)*.
17 Help for rocky marriage requires Charlie to avoid drugs
MEDIATION – MEDIcATION.
20 Pub barring loud unionist as a joke
IN FUN – IN(F, U)N. I don’t think I can remember seeing ‘unionist’ for U before, but it’s in Collins.
21 Period books about inspiring female
ERATO – ERA, reversal of OT (books).
23 Stacked cups revolutionary state won
PREVAILED – PILED containing a reversal (revolutionary) of AVER (state). Number three.
25 WI jams that place in show
THE WIRE – THE(WI)RE. A reference to the quite brilliant HBO series. Most def.
26 Follow one chasing game in China?
IMITATE – I, M(IT)ATE. Nice misdirection from ‘chasing’, which made me think that I (one) would be coming after something meaning ‘game’, but of course IT is the ‘chasing game’. I know from a recentish crossword that this game is also known as ‘he’.
27 Vow to improve lout’s pronunciation?
OATH – I think the idea here is that TH is often (mis)pronounced as F (so ‘thief’ becomes ‘fief’), so in that context changing the F to TH is an improvement in pronunciation. So in a whimsical way OATH could be said to be an improvement on ‘oaf’. The question mark, which covers the whimsicality, is arguably working quite hard in this clue, but I rather like it.
28 A way round man not opening bitter
ASTRINGENT – A ST, RING, gENT.

Down
1 Quiet nurses work at raising spirit
SYLPH – SH (quiet) containing a reversal (raising) of PLY (work at). Number four.
2 Do very taxed hosts orchestrated
CONTRIVED – CON (do), TRI(V)ED.
3 A short campaign going like a dream
PHANTASMAGORIC – (A SHORT CAMPAIGN)*. Great anagram!
4 Put in court to charge one’s devotees
ADDICTS – ADD (put in), then CT (court) contained in (charging) I’S.
5 Poser hearing how to amuse girl in Bow?
TICKLER – sounds like “tickle ‘er”. I didn’t know this meaning of the word.
7 Especially old and reflective paintings
EXTRA – EX (old), reversal of ART.
8 Out of this having got into deeper water?
FRYING PAN – CD, a reference to the phrase ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’ in which the ‘fire’ is (figuratively) deeper water.
9 Generation X may stand for this
MULTIPLICATION – because X is the symbol for multiplication.
14 Second couple put under laughing gas?
NUMBER TWO – NUMBER (laughing gas?), TWO. I thought NUMBER for laughing gas was a bit strange, but nitrous oxide is also used as an anaesthetic, especially by dentists. It’s a definition by example, hence the question mark.
16 Way to Slough? I float up in river
EXFOLIATE – (I FLOAT)* contained in EXE. To ‘slough’ means to cast off skin, which I think I have come across before (in a crossword, no doubt) but I had forgotten it so this one caused me a bit of trouble. ‘Up’ is the anagrind.
18 Strike one with base of steam iron
IMPRESS – I, steaM, PRESS. M is the ‘base’ of ‘steam’ because this is a down clue.
19 More poor drugs flooding dodgy diner
NEEDIER – (DINER)* containing two Es (drugs).
22 Instrument — a tenor — stuffed with dope
AGENT – A(GEN)T.
24 Note large town in which we lived
DWELT – D(WE), L, T. ODO gives T as an abbreviation for ‘town’ in the name of sports clubs like Mansfield Town.

8 comments on “Sunday Times 4690 by David McLean – all in the game, yo, all in the game”

  1. and about time to do it, too, when I overlooked a typo at 3d, thought of SCRAPHEAP but couldn’t see how it worked, especially as I’d flung in DEfoliate at 16d, even though I knew the correct word (some skin lotions are used to remove dead skin). Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, I enjoyed the puzzle, although OATH was beyond me (but I spelled it right).
  2. I read OATH the same way but I didn’t like it much. The FRYING PAN clue also weak, getting into mixed metaphor territory. COD to SCRAPHEAP, best TV series to The Sopranos, followed by Breaking Bad then The Wire.
    1. Many people share your opinion of The Sopranos but I haven’t watched enough of it. I got bored of Breaking Bad after a few episodes but I am reliably informed that I should have persevered. (And to be fair many people have the same experience with The Wire, since it takes half a series before you can understand what they’re talking about). So one day I will binge-watch both of them and perhaps revise my ranking.
  3. ….in ‘defoliate’ – well, the Dee is a river – that held me up for quite a while. It was very convincing, and it was only when I saw ‘scrapheap’ that I was able to correct it and finish.
    1. It’s entirely convincing: indeed it’s an actual word with almost identical etymology. I think I just got lucky, because I didn’t remember what ‘slough’ meant so if I had thought of DEFOLIATE first I’m pretty sure I’d have put it in.

      Edited at 2016-04-24 01:06 pm (UTC)

  4. About half an hour for the puzzle – loved OATH, one of the clues of the year for me.

    I watch too little TV to make a meaningful contribution to a debate, but since that has never put me off, I’d have Breaking Bad and Band of Brothers at the top. (Have seen Sopranos but not The Wire, which is also on my list of stuff to watch provided by my daughter.) Actually, I am only half way through the second series of Breaking Bad and adhering to my commitment not to binge watch it. It is so raw that I don’t think I could if I wanted to.

    On edit, I just realised I put “enfillade” at 16d.

    Edited at 2016-04-24 02:22 pm (UTC)

  5. No problem with 27ac, but coming from Dartford . . .
    My late job took me to New Jersey at least 6 times a year so on my last trip, I took the family and the young adults massively enjoyed The Sopranos trip, including sitting in whatever seat in whatever club that Tony sat in. I left them to it!
    22d took a while to parse.
  6. 49 minutes is not too bad for me for a Sunday solve these days. Slow but steady and my progress around the grid flowed nicely. At 20ac I didn’t notice the relative obscurity of U for “Unionist” but I did look twice at “barring” as a containment indicator. It makes perfect sense but I don’t think I’ve seen it before.

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