Sunday Times 4730 by Jeff Pearce

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
9:29. A gentle offering from Jeff Pearce this week, and I’m pleased to report that my submission was all correct, which makes it unlikely that I am going to make quite as much of a fool of myself as I did last time around. Other than that I don’t have much to say about this: enjoyable, straightforward fare with some very simple clues and nothing that will be obscure to regular solvers of these puzzles. In the real world of course there are people who don’t know what a TOPI is, but in the real world there are people who don’t know that SA means ‘it’: hard to imagine, I know.

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (THIS)*.

Across
1 Hard rain injured shrew
HARRIDAN – (HARD RAIN)*.
5 Still it can shock and ruin the reception
STATIC – three definitions, one referring to the shocks I always get if I go on the trampoline with my kids (as if there weren’t enough other reasons not to), and one to the effect on a radio signal.
10 Main truth to be heard
PRINCIPAL – sounds like ‘principle’. One spelling mistake no self-respecting financier will ever make.
11 Alarm Father Brown finally
SIREN – SIRE, browN.
12 Initially Oxonian English tutor is seen outside this theatre
ODEON – Oxonian, D(E)ON. Or the Sheldonian, perhaps.
13 Business lunch, say, that’s about victory is to become more interesting
COME ALIVE – CO, MEAL, I(V)E.
14 Fake flower’s quality
RHINESTONE – RHINE’S TONE. Are the wearers typically trying to pass them off as diamonds? I expect Glen Campbell would know.
17 Head off to scale branch
LIMB – cLIMB.
19 Hat one’s seen on head
TOPI – TOP, I.
20 Disgraced knight might be told to get this bust
OUT OF ORDER – various members of the Order of the Garter have had this treatment as a result of going to war with the UK. Emperor Hirohito was readmitted in 1971.
22 Vehicle’s black and dirty but not an eyesore
CARBUNCLE – CAR, B, UNCLEan.
24 19 left 20 for fly
PILOT – (TOPI, L)*, where 19ac is TOPI and 20ac, OUT OF ORDER, is the anagrind.
26 Prize a part of hospital reveals
AWARD – or, er, A WARD.
27 Fungus from rotten old toast — gross in the middle
TOADSTOOL – (OLD TOAST, grOss)*.
28 One killing rap piece
HITMAN – HIT, MAN (as in draughts).
29 Pupils left employees?
LEARNERS – L, EARNERS.

Down
1 Being trendy, a coach trip to resort is a doctor’s promise
HIPPOCRATIC OATH – HIP (trendy), (A COACH TRIP TO)*.
2 Lift top off fruit in France
RAISE – fRAISE.
3 Perfume originally detected in a lather
INCENSED – INCENSE, Detected.
4 Jelly’s a cause of excitement, mostly
ASPIC – A, SPICe
6 Italian group of workers all but bare
TUSCAN – TU, SCANt.
7 Very scared if retired poor
TERRIFIED – (IF RETIRED)*.
8 See term for “craft beers” work with Miller
CANTERBURY TALES – CANTERBURY (see), crafT, ALES. The Miller’s Tale being one of them.
9 Angry old bird
FLAMINGO – FLAMING, O.
15 Bring worker into the country? That’s serious!
IMPORTANT – or IMPORT ANT.
16 After trial’s opening manage court and heart of proceedings without a dock
TRUNCATE – Trial, RUN, C(A)T, proceEdings.
18 One scoring something to lessen anxiety?
COMPOSER – two definitions, one about as mildly cryptic as they come.
21 It’s plain aunt is angry about doctor
TUNDRA – (AUNT)* containing DR.
23 Dodge first female carrying a daughter
EVADE – EV(A,D)E.
25 Free offices at end of avenue
LOOS – LOOS, avenuE. ‘Office’ is a slang word for the loo I have only ever encountered in crosswords.

10 comments on “Sunday Times 4730 by Jeff Pearce”

  1. … the “work with Miller” stuff. And glad of an easyish Sunday puzzle after a harder time the day before. Just a touch unsure about (22ac) “eyesore” for CARBUNCLE. The medical types here will no doubt correct me.
    1. I think “carbuncle” is an “eyesore” in the sense of an unsightly building and refers to a speech by HRH Prince Charles about the proposed extension to the National Gallery back in 1984: “what is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”. Off now to see if it has officially made it to the dictionaries.

      Yes, it has: an architectural monstrosity, an eyesore (Chambers). No indication of its origin though.

      I needed 27 minutes for this and was pleased to finish within target for once on a Sunday.

      Edited at 2017-01-29 08:33 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks Jack. I confess I didn’t think twice about this, because the Prince Charles quotation was so familiar. It (the quotation) also appears in OED, although as an example rather than a specific definition.
      2. He called the Cultural Centre in HK a public lavatory when he opened that 25 years ago, and he got that one spot on too.
  2. Probably a PB for STs. Definitely a gentle one, with the most trouble, for me, caused by LIMB (POI [penultimate one in]) and RAISE (LOI), where the trouble was simply recalling the appropriate word to behead. I rather liked CARBUNCLE, where ‘not an eyesore’ means ‘eyesore’.
  4. My fastest for a ST for a long time – 22 mins. Everyone else even faster!

    LOI 24ac PILOT COD 22ac CARBUNCLE WOD HARRIDAN

  5. 22:18 for me, which is a personal best for the ST and, I think, for the Times in general. This was very welcome, considering the hash I made of the puzzle on both the day before and the day after!
  6. I was very pleased to be able to finish this on the day. Like others I had struggled with the Saturday puzzle and this was a welcome and enjoyable relief.
    I guessed Topi which I think I have seen before; and I wasn’t sure about 25a but nothing else seemed to fit. David

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