Sunday Times 4696 by David McLean – the Private Eye drawing room?

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
18:12. Well well, what a naughty puzzle! Male strippers, randy lords, hen parties, drugs, booze, S&M, swearing… I was in need of smelling salts by the end of it. Polite drawing room conversation this ain’t! But of course it’s Sunday so we know to expect this sort of thing, if perhaps not usually in such generous quantities.

This puzzle elicited some fairly negative responses on the forum but I really enjoyed it. I’m not remotely bothered by the naughty stuff, and I thought the clueing showcased this setter’s refreshingly original style. For me there were lots of dropping pennies preceded by scratching of the head, and little by way of biffing, which is just the kind of thing I like. And whilst it was tricky it was nowhere near as intractable as Dean Mayer’s (very fine) effort the previous Sunday. Perhaps I’m starting to find Mr McLean’s wavelength.

Some of the opprobrium was aimed at the two &Lits at 6ac and 25ac, both of which I confess I thought rather good. There are a couple of things in here that are arguably a little bit weak, and one clue where I’m not sure I’ve understood what’s going on, but overall I thought this was a lot of fun.

So thanks to David/Harry/Hoskins, and here’s how I think it all works.

Across
1 Mean annuities following a crash
INSINUATE – (ANNUITIES)*. A fairly straightforward one to start us off.
6 A little heroin will get this going
HABIT – A BIT (a little), with H (heroin) starting it off (or getting it going). &Lit, referring to the reputedly addictive properties of the drug. Can’t say I’ve ever tried it myself but I’m happy to take this on trust.
9 Let everyone down after stripping off
ALLOW – ALL (everyone), dOWn.
10 Avoid irritating sort hosting society do
DUCK’S ARSE – DUCK (avoid), ARSE (irritating sort) containing S (society). A bit rude this, even for a Sunday. I am shocked, I tell you, shocked. A DA is of course a hairdo, popular in the olden days.
11 Stuff to learn this evening?
LATER ON – (TO LEARN)*.
12 Classic way to keep the wrinkles at bay?
AGELESS – or AGE LESS. As a suggestion for avoiding wrinkles I’m not sure this is particularly practical advice. It’s a bit like the advice I give people when they ask me the best way to learn a new language, which is to be young.
13 Romantic feeling, possibly, about male all-star group
SENTIMENTALIST – SENTI(M)ENT, A LIST (all-star group). I’m not sure the word ‘possibly’ is really necessary here.
17 What Lord rubbed to aggravate Lady’s complaint
HOUSEMAID’S KNEE – I’m not sure I understand this, although the answer was obvious from the definition once I had a few checkers. Is the idea just that if a Lord rubbed a HOUSEMAID’S KNEE it would annoy his wife? Seems a little bit weak if that’s all there is too it. I thought I might be missing something more specific, so started looking into it, but I quite quickly realised that Google was going to find me answers of a kind that I was not looking for.
21 More than fed up, but almost reluctant to retire?
BLOATED – LOATh (almost reluctant) ‘to retire’, i.e. In BED.
23 Cried on cracking drink being carried away
SWEPT UP – S(WEPT)UP.
25 A party with stomach-turning grin?
SLIMEBALL – a grin is a SMILE, which becomes SLIME if you turn its innards. Add BALL (party). &Lit.
26 Topless labourer, a Chippendales assistant?
OILER – tOILER. I very much want this to be a reference to an apprentice applying oil to a fine piece of wooden furniture, but I fear the plural ‘Chippendales’ requires a less edifying interpretation. Shall we move on?
27 Dance music business expert backing hot property?
SAMBA – MBA behind SA. SA is an abbreviation for ‘sex appeal’ found in crosswords (usually as a synonym for ‘it’), hence ‘hot property’. An MBA is someone who believes that two years at Goldman Sachs followed by a year or two doing case studies makes them an expert. Highly dangerous if left unsupervised.
28 Act run off that separates state and church?
SANCTUARY – (ACT RUN)* contained in (that separates) SAY (state). Definition by example indicated by the question mark.

Down
1 Lover one turned over to whip very quickly
IN A FLASH – reversal of FAN, I, then LASH. I don’t tend to notice the surface readings when I’m solving, so this clue didn’t make me blush until I was writing this blog.
2 Leans back to swallow large port
SPLIT – reversal of TIPS (leans) containing L.
3 Upset about wide HGVs avoiding large fine
NO WORRIES – reversal of ON (about), W (wide), lORRIES. An Australian expression that you now hear a lot in this country.
4 Reduction in size divides beer firm
AL DENTE – AL(DENT)E. If you put a DENT in a task (for instance), you are reducing its size. The answer relates to pasta, of course: this is how you should eat it. And always remember to use lots of well-salted water: 1l of water and 10g of salt (yes really) per 100g of pasta. This is terribly important.
5 Nurse is unable to secure hospital entrance
ENCHANT – EN (Enrolled Nurse), C(H)AN’T.
6 What’s up with wine one’s left in rush
HASTE – reversal of EH (what) containing ASTi (wine one’s left).
7 Job: An obstacle for every young man
BARPERSON – BAR (obstacle) PER SON. A bit of a weak definition, this, no?
8 Article on medium that’s beyond one’s belief
THEISM – THE (article), IS, M.
14 Foreign Legion medical officer’s new term
NEOLOGISM – (LEGION, MO’S)*. This is an indirect anagram, which is a strict no-no to a strict Ximenean. On the other hand the indirect part is a standard and (in crosswords) common abbreviation, so why not?
15 Attacks in city the reason girl won’t answer door?
LASHES OUT – LA, then the girl won’t answer the door because SHE’S OUT.
16 Women’s group corral sailor, Spooner’s said
HEN PARTY – or PEN HEARTY as the reverend would have it. Spoonerisms get a lot of stick but I like them. I also like really bad puns.
18 Capital exchange needed by those selling fruits
MEDLARS – PEDLARS with the first letter exchanged for an M. This device strikes me as a little weak: the M could be anything, although fortunately it’s a crossing letter. Not that it would have been a problem for me anyway. As I commented nine months ago: ‘I’m fine with plants if they’re named after London restaurants, so ARBUTUS was no problem. I will have the same advantage if MEDLAR ever turns up.’ The restaurant named after this particular fruit is excellent, if you ever feel like splashing out and happen to be passing by the King’s Road.
19 Drug abuse making tenor fashionable
INSULIN – INSULT (abuse) with the T (tenor) swapped for IN (fashionable).
20 On rough seas, a bit of bravery humbles
ABASES – A, Bravery on (SEAS)*.
22 He knocks out second part of farewell letter
THETA – HE replacing the second letter of TATA.
24 When liberal university town upset city
TULSA – reversal of AS, L, U, T. We had T as an abbreviation for ‘town’ a few weeks ago.

8 comments on “Sunday Times 4696 by David McLean – the Private Eye drawing room?”

  1. Yes, I liked this too. Missed, or rather guessed, 10 without knowing what was going on. I had HEN PARTY, HABIT and SLIMEBALL as my favourites, along with BARPERSON – yes maybe the definition could have been a bit more imaginative, but the wordplay was good. No idea about 17 either I’m afraid.

    I couldn’t agree more with you about the vital importance of adding just exactly the right amount of salt when cooking pasta.

    Thanks to blogger and setter.

  2. I think I might have been in the wrong mood, but this rather grated, clever or not. BARPERSON should not exist as a word. Still, never mind, eh? 25 minutes, setting the tone for me for the week ahead – not as hard as all that, and perhaps should have been quicker.
    I’m similarly convinced that 17 is what it is, a nudge and a wink sort of clue with no other wordplay. And shouldn’t that be HOUSEPERSON’S KNEE? Just to be consistent?

  4. Sadly I managed to complete this without even noticing how raunchy it was, though I did briefly raise my eyebrows at 10ac.
    I never use salt in cooking (except baking bread) and solve the pasta problem by avoiding it wherever possible.
  5. Same experience as our esteemed blogger, and same feeling about 17a. Today’s was more fun, I think, although I have to wait until next week to have 3d explained.
  6. A testing solve that took me a few minutes over an hour to complete. As I tend to ignore surface readings I hadn’t noticed many of the things referred to in the blog but 10ac and 25ac were unavoidable. If one wants that sort of thing in a crossword then Cyclops in Private Eye is far better at it than the ST’s newest recruit.
  7. ……I think the oiler reefers to the individual who oils the bodies of the male strippers in the Chippendales group.

    One of the very few we DNF. We had MOSES (left in rushes) for 6d. SO written up in MES, a sweet Ethiopian wine. You can see waht that did to that corner.

    Thanks for the blog but have to disagree about the water and salt for the pasta.

    We find barely covering the pasta with boiling water, bringing it back to the boil in the microwave and cooking it on low for 7/8 mins produces better tasting pasta than the old wive’s method which takes so much of the carbohydrate out of it. The resulting liquid can be used to dilute )and enhance) the pasta sauce if required. You also save energy and water. Salt being a matter of taste can be added to the individual portions.

    Jan & Tom, Toronto

    1. Yes, I realised about 26ac, which was really the point of my comment!
      I’m sorry but I will definitely not be adopting your method of cooking pasta. It’s all to do with the texture, and both using plenty of water (which allows the starch to disperse) and salting it generously (which also has an effect on the starch in the pasta, although I’m not a scientist so I’m a bit hazy on the mechanism) are important in avoiding a sticky, gelatinous result.

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