Sunday Times 4738 by David McLean – irreverence tempered by competence

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
17:08. I made slightly heavy weather of this one, putting GO OFF ON A TANGENT at 8dn and then not reconsidering it for far too long. This made 17ac difficult. I eventually sorted that out but never noticed – even when checking my answers – that I had typed TENGENT, so I won’t be winning a fancy pen this week.

I thought this was a smashing puzzle though, full of wit. 22ac is delightfully naughty, for instance, as are 27ac and 6dn. 28ac is neat, and topical. Clue of the day to 8dn though, for its cheeky reference to the world’s most terrifying orange man. You have to laugh, or you’d cry.

Credit to Harry also for what I think is probably the first appearance of RT/retweet. Good to see the Sunday Times crossword reflecting the development of the language.

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

Across
1 Name in sets of clothing and some woollies?
KNITWEAR – K(N)IT, WEAR.
5 Daring to go out dressed like a queen
IN DRAG – (DARING)*.
10 All aboard on rail at Barking central today?
TRAINLOAD – (ON RAIL AT)*, toDay.
11 Dismiss time-consuming Danish construction firm?
LET GO – LE(T)GO.
12 What’s this torture … love?
HELLO – HELL, O. In the policeman – ‘allo ‘allo ‘allo, what have we here, let’s be ‘avin’ you – sense.
13 Fifteen go mad driving on course
TEEING OFF – (FIFTEEN GO)*.
14 Information such as O is circular?
NEWSLETTER – NEWS (information), LETTER (such as O).
17 Hurried to eat seconds, sign of liking one’s food?
FAST – FA(S)T. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking that this was going to be a word meaning ‘hurried’ containing S to give a word meaning ‘liking one’s food’. But it isn’t.
19 Retweet for an audience into theatrical stuff
ARTY – sounds like ‘RT’, which is short for ‘retweet’ on Twitter. Somewhat to my surprise it’s in both Collins and ODO. Chambers is holding out.
20 Company bringing gas into Europe, perhaps
CONTINGENT – CONTIN(G)ENT. I was a bit surprised by G for ‘gas’: I don’t remember seeing it before. It’s in ODO though.
22 Extremely drunk bishop caught in palace in pants
INCAPABLE – (PALACE IN)* containing B (bishop), with PANTS as the anagrind.
24 Pub entertainment said to raise a smile?
IN FUN – sounds like ‘inn fun’. Because if you say something ‘in fun’ you are saying it to raise a smile.
26 Best put down roofing material around back of house
ELITE – reversal of TILE, housE. ‘Put down’ is just filler, I think: an instruction to ‘put down’ the elements of the wordplay. Nothing wrong with that, I hasten to add.
27 Party with old judge on ecstasy — tell me more!
ELABORATE – E (ecstasy), LAB (still a party at the time of going to press), O, RATE.
28 Not so happy the hard left U-turned over bill
SADDER – reversal of REDS containing AD.
29 Never ever enter houses showing great respect
REVERENT – contained in ‘never ever enter’.

Down
1 Advisory groups upset I can’t be in sketch
KITCHEN CABINETS – (I CAN’T BE IN SKETCH)*. I struggled with this clue: eventually I had to get up from the computer and find a piece of paper to write the letters out on.
2 Altogether naked when everything’s said and done?
IN ALL – ‘naked’ here is an instruction to remove the outside (the clothing, as it were) of fINALLy.
3 Just following desire? In a way that’s immoral
WANTONLY – WANT (desire), ONLY (just).
4 Roughly round
AROUNDBOUT – DD.
6 Farron’s low point? Cable supporters going topless in tights
NYLONS – farroN, pYLONS. The last letter of ‘Farron’ is its ‘low point’ because this is a down clue.
7 A hundred bottles I put by river — beer logic?
RATIONALE – R, A T(I)ON, ALE.
8 Suddenly change course and sternly reprimand Trump?
GO OFF AT A TANGENT – or a TAN GENT. The colour is a bit off and the word GENT is questionable but the clue is still a cracker.
9 One supporting new tree and hedges close to ash
ADHERENT – (TREE AND)* containing asH.
15 Big-bellied husband? Awfully wild itch to hug him!
WITH CHILD – (WILD ITCH)* containing H.
16 Russia’s ready to occupy Telford’s outskirts — worried?
TROUBLED – ROUBLE (Russia’s ready) contained in TelforD.
18 One against school taking English? Quite the opposite!
ANTIPODE – ANTI, POD (school, see also GAM), E.
21 A round figure? That girl must tuck into supper regularly
SPHERE – SuPpEr (supper regularly) containing HER.
23 What ends séance after hours to raise spirits
ELATE – seancE, LATE.
25 Spoil brought up in iron support structure
FRAME – MAR (spoil) reversed inside FE (iron).

22 comments on “Sunday Times 4738 by David McLean – irreverence tempered by competence”

  1. … not understood. RT for “retweet” was a complete unknown; “G” for “gas” ditto. And as for parsing IN ALL: not a chance — thanks Keriothe for putting me out of my misery.

    As for the controversial 8dn: agree with our blogger that most contentious element is GENT. Very redolent of a protest placard against DT’s UK visit: “We don’t want any orange-skinned people here”.

  2. I seem to have tossed my copy, no doubt in disgust at having 2 wrong: I had ‘on’ at 8d–I don’t think I’ve ever come across ‘at’ and it never occurred to me to question my solution, even though, of course, it rendered FAST unattainable. 8d is a fine clue, among many, but the man is so dangerous and so unspeakably vile that I find it hard to be amused by witticisms dealing with him.

    Edited at 2017-03-26 06:51 am (UTC)

    1. I take your point, but we can take some comfort in the fact that as it turns out he is even more breathtakingly useless than one might have expected. And mockery is an important weapon.
    2. I’m with you on the orangeman Kevin and of course I dithered between ON and AT. Is it unusual for the Times (forget the Guardian) to have so many unflattering political references, oblique or otherwise? He’s been having another horrible week and I’m wondering if I might have something to do with it. This isn’t just an outbreak of solipsism. He’s a very big sewer so I took an idea from Nancy Mitford’s Uncle Matthew and wrote his name on a piece of paper and put it in a special drawer on his “inauguration day”. Guess what.
      1. I don’t really understand what you’re saying, Olivia–a sewer? Uncle Matthew?–but keep it up! More paper! More drawers!
        1. It would take too long to explain if you’re unfamiliar with Mitford’s Uncle Matthew (Pursuit Of Love). He referred to people he hated (he was a great hater) as receptacles of waste matter.
  3. A hard slog with a last minute change to GO OFF AT A TANGENT inorder to get LOI 17ac FAST rather than RAIN – which made little sense other than the ‘hurried’ element.

    Unlike the speedy keriothe my FOI was 1dn KITCHEN CABINETS – my time was just under the hour.

    I thought 28ac SADDER was a weakish clue.

    G = Gas!? ODO but not in the Chambers Bible however.

    COD 19ac ARTY for its originality (even though I do not tweet!)
    WOD 10ac TRAINLOAD

  4. Did not record time but completed this eventually.Wonder if pod=school is used in normal conversation nowadays.
    Ong’ara
    Kenya.
  5. 45 minutes with no issues. Guessed it had to be ARTY though on the odd occasion I’ve retweeted something, I’ve certainly not been RT-ing. COD GO OFF AT A TANGENT. I’ve always felt that a better idea than going round in circles. LOI TRAINLOAD. Even when Mrs BW was WITH CHILD, I wouldn’t have been brave enough to call her big bellied. Neat puzzle. Thank you Mr McLean and K.
  7. 59 minutes, so pretty good for me for a Sunday (better than today’s effort, anyway…) I didn’t know the meaning of 1d but got the anagram pretty early on and it made sense. As with others, the only parsing I didn’t get until I arrived here was for 2d.

    I nearly misbiffed “arts” into 19a but luckily had second thoughts. I’ve been on Twitter for more than a decade, so I shouldn’t have needed second thoughts, mind…

    COD 8d, of course; unfortunately I forgot to note my F/LOI. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    1. To whit to whoo to you Pip. I don’t do them either but then I’m not a snowy owl.
      1. ‘To whit to whoo’ would actually be two Snowy Owls, since ‘to whoo’ is the reply of the female to the ‘to whit’ of the male. Or possibly the other way round.
  9. I enjoyed this one, with a speedy, for me, 28:49. Started with IN DRAG and have no idea which one I finished on! Memory fade! As others have noted, I thought our TAN GENT clue was a hoot. Lots of clues raised a smile, including 22a. Thanks setter and K.
  10. …failed to read the last word of 16dn and wrote TROUBLES instead of TROUBLED.

    I feel like I’m getting the hang of Harry, and greatly look forward to his contributions. This one was certainly no disappointment, so thanks Harry, and thanks Keriothe for the blog.

  11. I think go off on a tangent, crossing with gain (hurried to eat seconds, as in a race where you try to eat up the seconds between you and the leader; put on weight, as in like one’s food) works.
  12. I can just about see that (weight) GAIN might be a sign of liking one’s food, but I can’t get GAIN from ‘hurried to eat seconds’. It’s the wrong tense, for a start.
  13. I thought 2d was a bit unfair, having to remove first/last letters of a word that wasn’t actually in the clue, but had to be derived from a vague phrase. Not entirely happy with this clue at all. BC
    1. I can see your point, and certainly I think the wordplay can only be reverse-engineered from the answer, but for me the clarity of the definition, especially when combined with the checkers, makes it OK.

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