An enjoyable puzzle at the gentler end of the spectrum this week – and none the worse for that! Some very nice wit and whimsy on display at 16d and 17d, and several neat and elegant clues with 26ac, 4ac and 19d being my personal favourites.
As ever, thanks to Jeff for an engaging puzzle.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): letters removed indicated by curly brackets {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Loud type of musician hasn’t finished cold drink (6) |
| FRAPPE – F (loud) + RAPPE{R} (musician hasn’t finished). I do know some grumpy old men who would dispute the legitimacy of referring to a rapper as a “musician”, but clearly our setter is of a more generous disposition. | |
| 4 | City witches go for (8) |
| COVENTRY – COVEN (witches) + TRY (go for). Straightforward but rather engaging. | |
| 10 | Few heard to put on Bernstein classic (9) |
| SOMEWHERE – SOME (few) + homophone of WEAR (heard to put on) for the much-covered West Side Story number | |
| 11 | Good game against the Spanish but it was disappointing fare (5) |
| GRUEL – G (good) + RU (game – rugby union) + EL (the Spanish) | |
| 12 | Fancy leaders of radio appear after jingle (7) |
| CHIMERA – RA (leaders of Radio Appear) ‘after’ CHIME (jingle) | |
| 14 | Shorten a spanner (7) |
| ABRIDGE – A BRIDGE (being something that spans) | |
| 15 | Clobber thief, say, with obstructions left out (14) |
| KNICKERBOCKERS – KNICKER (sounds like – say – ‘nicker’ – thief) + B{L}OCKERS (obstructions with L – left – out) | |
| 18 | Long-haired Harry’s blue gag (6,3,5) |
| SHAGGY DOG STORY – Long-haired gives us SHAGGY, to harry is to DOG (so harry’s gives us dog’s) + TORY (blue). For one of the finest examples of the genre, you might like to listen to Australian cricket commentator Kerry O’Keefe’s “frog walks into a bank” joke told during the course of a slow period of play in an Australia v. Sri Lanka match here http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-24/kerry-okeeffe—frog-in-a-bank/5174280 | |
| 22 | Undercover agent? (7) |
| SLEEPER – DD, the first being somewhat cryptic | |
| 24 | Retiring officer engaged in boring work? What a laugh! (7) |
| CHORTLE – LT reversed (retiring officer) inside (engaged in) CHORE (boring work) | |
| 25 | Fur making cockney thus? (5) |
| OTTER – …the wearing of which will make an aitch dropper {H}otter. Apparently in days gone by otter fur was highly prized due to its density, and “otter” was used to refer to the fur as well as the creature itself. | |
| 26 | Like a lot of Silver, say, and Gold medical equipment (9) |
| ASPIRATOR – AS (like) PIRAT{E} (a lot of Silver say – as in e.g. Long John) + OR (gold) | |
| 28 | Author’s short book about most of Swiss city (8) |
| TURGENEV – RUT{H} reversed (short book about) + GENEV{A} (most of Swiss city) | |
| 29 | Spike Sprite with a stronger drink (6) |
| IMPALE – IMP (sprite) with ALE (stronger drink than the lemonade found in a can of Sprite) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | I ask chef to change this bit of seafood (4,4) |
| FISH CAKE – *(I ASK CHEF) with “to change” as the anagrind, giving us the item that often seems to be made of potato and bread crumbs with nary a bit of fish to be found | |
| 2 | Weapon comrade carries back (3) |
| ARM – Reverse hidden in coMRAde | |
| 3 | Peg worked to dissipate a potential disaster (6,3) |
| POWDER KEG – *(PEG WORKED) with “to dissipate” as the anagrind | |
| 5 | Seasoning duck with orange puree (7) |
| OREGANO – O (duck) + *(ORANGE) with “puree” as the anagrind | |
| 6 | Leaders in English lad’s newspaper upset scorer (5) |
| ELGAR – First letters (leaders) in English Lad’s + RAG reversed (newspaper upset) | |
| 7 | Troops initially told Ben-Hur about bombshell (11) |
| THUNDERBOLT – T (first letter of Troops – initially) + *(TOLD BEN HUR) with “about” as the anagrind | |
| 8 | The old dean got up and made a lot of noise (6) |
| YELLED – YE (old rendition of the) + DELL reversed (dean got up) – dean and dell both being words meaning small valley; having spent my childhood in the Vale of Taunton Dean, this was a bit of gen I fortunately knew | |
| 9 | Once, return service (6) |
| REPAIR – DD, the first being that in bygone days (once) “repair” meant to return. Unlike Dean / Dell, this was news to me so this one went in purely on the second ‘standard’ definition | |
| 13 | Doctor retires with this best friend (5,6) |
| IRISH SETTER – *(RETIRES + THIS) with “doctor” as the anagrind, giving us one brand of man’s best friend. Initially spent some time trying to justify Irish Whisky (the early cross checkers having made ‘Irish’ highly probable) on the basis that most doctors of my acquaintance would indeed regard this tipple as a staunch ally if not a best friend. | |
| 16 | Peckish delivery person? (9) |
| KISSOGRAM – Nice droll cryptic based on a kiss being a peck (at the demure end of the spectrum) | |
| 17 | Fancy planes might be flown thus? (2,6) |
| BY GEORGE – Very neat DD, with the first being an equivalent of “well fancy that!” and the second referencing the fact that the ‘name’ (in an anthropomorphic sense) of the auto-pilot on aircraft is George. Lovely stuff. | |
| 19 | Distance, say, a cart reversed (7) |
| YARDAGE – EG A DRAY reversed (say, a cart reversed). Very neat. | |
| 20 | Business raised some support with unknown people (6) |
| OCCUPY – CO reversed (business raised) + CUP (some support – being part of a bra) + Y (unknown as in algebra etc.), with the definition being the verb to people a place as in colonise it. | |
| 21 | Old car key — something that wasn’t wanted (6) |
| ESCORT – ESC (a particularly handy key on one’s computer keyboard) + ORT (a left over scrap of food – ‘something that wasn’t wanted’), giving us the trusty old Ford. The food scrap was unknown to me, but apparently is a bit of a crossword staple so one for the memory bank… | |
| 23 | Navy officer’s nicked bag (5) |
| PURSE – PURSE{R} (navy officer is cut / ‘nicked’) | |
| 27 | Duck left concealed leaves (3) |
| TEA – TEA{L} – anas crecca loses its L (left concealed) | |
Edited at 2016-09-04 02:53 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-09-04 08:40 pm (UTC)
More vitally: I wouldn’t expect pressing ESC to automatically fix things if the cursor simply froze for no apparent reason, and I don’t know what other dire situations may have forced you to reboot, but ESC is one of the three keys you press at one time to get the Force Quit dialogue panel, in order to quit unresponsive apps, which is usually what you need when you see the spinning, rainbow-hued beachball of death.
Thanks to blogger – including for the “frog in a bank” link – and to setter.
Thanks in general for the blog, Nick, and in particular for the link. That joke is absolutely awful, which again is just the way I like it.
I could not parse everything in particular 21d, so thanks as always to our blogger. For a time all I could think of was Aston (old car) plus a musical key to mean something not wanted. The SW was where I finished and I thought the author had to contain Bern but a final flash of inspiration led me to the unlikely Geneva. Greatly enjoyed the challenge. David
Edited at 2016-09-04 11:41 am (UTC)
I have to congratulate PeterB on the quality of Sunday Times crosswords these days. I like the fact that they don’t stick to all the rules of the daily (the names of the setter appear, you don’t have to be dead to appear, clues are often a little more risqué than you get during the week). Of course it is not just Peter, it is the setters too. They all seem to be at the top of their game.
Edited at 2016-09-04 11:38 pm (UTC)
horryd Shanghai