Sunday Times 4704 by Dean Mayer – outta sight

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
23:11. I spent a very high proportion of my time on two clues: 13ac and 5ac. I’m not really sure why: it’s just a question of looking at them the right way. I didn’t manage even this with 12dn, a brilliant clue that I had to parse post-solve: so much cunning packed into so few words.

I thought this was an absolutely super puzzle. With the possible exception of a couple of clues, It’s not particularly hard, but it’s all so darned smooth, and yet still with some lovely original touches. Bravo!

Across
1 Familiar with second-hand book? Not me
USED TO – USED (second-hand), TOme.
5 Spanish boy needs a lot of alcohol? LOL, no!
MUCHACHO – MUCH AlCoHOl. You remove the letters LOL from the word ALCOHOL. A brilliant, and (as far as I know) completely original device, and one that it took me an age to see. Bravo!
9 Was a singer about to get rumbled?
CAROLLED – CA (about), ROLLED (rumbled). When I put this in I was a bit puzzled by ROLLED for ‘rumbled’, but I bunged it in anyway. You have to think of thunder.
10 Wooden tee’s hard to accept
STOLID – I can’t make the cryptic grammar work here. ‘Tee’ gives us T, and SOLID (hard) is ‘accepting’ it. But the construction suggests to me that it’s the tee that’s doing the accepting. Is it just me?
11 Old house — or seats in it?
RUMP PARLIAMENT – what was left after Parliament was purged by whatsisname in sixteen-something-or-other.
13 Swap letters in answer
CORRESPOND – DD.
14 Leave nothing to talk about
OKAY – O, reversal of YAK.
16 Witnesses close to police, of course
EYES – policE, YES (of course).
17 Ace up one’s sleeve
OUT OF SIGHT – the sort of thing that might once have been said by a Deadhead in the 73rd minute of a particularly noodlicious Jerry Garcia solo, more normally rendered as OUTTA SIGHT, I’m sure.
19 Little sweets with lots in them
FORTUNE COOKIES – CD. ‘Lots’ in the sense ‘fates’.
20 Male put out after sex
VIRILE – VI (sex, Latin for six), RILE (put out). This sex thing confused me the first time I encountered it, but I have become wiser to it over time, without ever being entirely certain it isn’t going to catch me out again at some point. Yes of course I’m still talking about the crossword, what on earth do you mean?
21 Flower pots are inclined to produce poisonous plant
OLEANDER – a plant at the beginning and the end of the clue – total mare! Hold on, no need to panic, the flower is a river – the ODER, insert LEAN (are inclined) and you have something that looks very much like the name of a plant, which could very well be poisonous.
23 Run into drunk that we’d beaten
THWARTED – R in (THAT WE’D)*.
24 Most docile volunteers found carrying spades
TAMEST – TA, ME(S)T. It should be ‘former volunteers’, strictly speaking, but I’m not very strict, as my wife will attest. My kids are very familiar with the expression ‘soft touch’.

Down
2 Catching train, visit required
STATUTORY -STA(TUTOR)Y.
3 Sort of turn into the same couple
DUO – D(U)O. DO is short for ‘ditto’. One of those (many, many) things I know only from doing these puzzles.
4 City banks after gold
ORLEANS – OR (gold), LEANS (banks).
5 Music of Island Records?
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD – CD. A bit harsh as a judgement on the label, but a clever use of the concept of a traffic ‘island’.
6 Lead found in artificial apple
COSTARD – CO(STAR)D. Another word I surely only know from past crosswords, but know it I did.
7 Sailor’s single subject a constant source of conflict
A BONE TO PICK – AB (sailor), ONE (single), TOPIC (subject), K (constant, in this case either the Boltzmann or velocity variety, take your pick: I had never heard of either of them).
8 Jack is into baking
HOIST – HO(IS)T.
12 A risk to poor in each reform
PERESTROIKA – brilliant, super tricky wordplay here. It’s PER (a), then (RISK TO)* contained in EA (each). Bravo again!
15 They do supply cash one always splits
ACHIEVERS – (CASH)* containing I, EVER. I think ‘supply’ is my favourite anagrind.
17 Lavish spread put on, sandwiches extremely large
OPULENT – (PUT ON)* containing LargE.
18 Plump to accept stories; hope it works
FLOREAT – F(LORE)AT. As in ‘floreat Etona’, the motto of Eton College. How on earth do I know that?
19 Trust footballers? It’s hard
FAITH – FA, IT, H.
22 New writer’s game
NIM – N, I’m (writer’s). Another thing I know only from crosswords. I think sometimes it’s the only form of knowledge I have these days.

16 comments on “Sunday Times 4704 by Dean Mayer – outta sight”

  1. Also had a question-mark here. Figured an implied “‘hard’ [is] to accept”. And not quite sure that “Records” (5dn) works either. Otherwise, one of the best STs for a while now.
  2. I gave up after 45′ with 21ac and 22d unsolved; then some time (days?) after submitting, I went back and solved them. I didn’t see a problem with STOLID at the time; dessert has port to follow, tee has hard to accept, etc.? Oh, well. I’m sure I was not the only one who just knew PERESTROIKA was correct but took forever to account for all the letters. On the other hand, I bet I was the only one who wasted time at 14ac thinking of ‘osag’ and ‘obag’ as the minutes ticked away before finally hitting on OKAY. On LOL: I think it was my first attempt in the clue contest where I tried to delete the (non-adjacent) H and M from a word by having ‘queen departs’ or something, and was given a red card. Anyway, a brilliant puzzle.
  3. Solved about two-thirds very easily, struggled over four or five others and gave up on the remaining two,14ac and 5ac,finally resorting to aids. The only unknown was NIM, oh, and MUCHACHO I suppose, as I knew the word but not that it meant a boy so I was never going to think of it. I’ve heard it in Westerns and always assumed it was companion, an alternative to compadre.
  4. A fine crossword this one.
    I’m also not certain 10dn quite works; but hey, I solved it OK. The only unknown for me is our esteemed blogger’s “noodlicious,” though I dare say I can guess the meaning
    2. Noodle: verb (Intransitive) slang to improvise aimlessly on a musical instrument
  5. jerry I think you mean 10a, which I also found hard to explain exactly, although the answer was patent.
    A fine crossword which presented no hold-ups, 15 minutes, with PERESTROIKA not entirely justified letter for letter, I thought it was an anagram but didn’t bother to work out of what.
  6. I think 10a works better without the apostrophe: ‘Wooden tee hard to accept’, even if the surface is not so smooth.

    Also thought that 5a was weak, being a random foreign word that hasn’t entered the lexicon, as it were, even if it’s entered the dictionary.

    Thought CORRESPOND was top drawer.

    Edited at 2016-07-31 02:08 pm (UTC)

  7. keriothe, you might be missing 23a out.
    My hard time was OLEANDER (in spite of having grown up with them and being told countless times not to eat the flowers – as if that ever would have occurred to us), due to assuming that the pot was an OLLA.
    Ulaca – you might live in the wrong former colony; in the US MUCHACHO is probably part of the vernacular these days
    1. So I might! Sorry, and thanks: I’ll add it now. I did this last time too: must pay more attention.
  8. DNF 22dn NIM was unknown to me and not well clued IMO.
    14ac I shoved in ORAL but OKAY was the real deal.

    5ac MUCHACHO was annoyingly clever but a word I had not come across.

    COD & WOD PERESTROIKA

    horryd Shanghai

  9. I did fairly dismally, with plenty unfinished even after hours of staring. Too many complete unknowns for me, especially FLOREAT, but some in the clues as well as the answers, like “sex” for “VI”, which I don’t think I’ve come across before. Ah well.
  10. Many thanks for a great blog Keriothe – hope everyone enjoyed the puzzle.
    Matt’s comment confirms how irrational are my fears (and doubtless those of other setters) that new ideas can rapidly turn into chestnuts. The VI=sex thing has done the rounds a few times and I only used it here because it worked with the surface; even so, I had thoughts of “I’ll get pasted for using that one again”. Yet no matter how old hat a device feels there is always a new audience.
  11. Beaten by six clues,Anax is a tricky setter with a unique style that requires guile to unlock.(Ong’ara,Nairobi)

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