Sunday Times 4744 by David McLean

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
The club timer shows 14:46 for this, but I lost my internet connection halfway through, so all the answers disappeared on submission and I had to type them in again. So about 11-12 minutes allowing for that I expect. No real problems, in other words, although there were a few where it took me a while to see the parsing, and I had enough doubt about the answer to be wary of biffing. 3dn, for instance, even though it really couldn’t be anything else from the wordplay and checking letters.

There was some discussion in the club forum about ambiguity of cluing in 6dn and 21ac. There’s a case to be made for 21ac, perhaps, but 6dn seems completely unambiguous to me. Perhaps I’ve missed something, in which case I look forward to standing corrected.

Highly enjoyable as usual, so thanks to Harry and away we go…

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (THIS)*.
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Across
1 Why some want to lighten locks for balance?
TO BE FAIR – two definitions, one slightly cryptic.
6 Resilience club’s defender shows for the most part
BOUNCE – BOUNCEr.
9 Learner enthralled by odd metal stick in Polo
MALLET – (METAL)* containing L (learner).
10 Evasive son gets slap round mouth, Queen involved?
SLIPPERY – S, LIPP(ER)Y, where LIPPY is lipstick, or slap (make-up) round the mouth.
11 Possible result of union’s publicity: pipeline limits
OFFSPRING – OFF(S, PR)ING. You have to lift and separate “union’s” to get the S here. If something is in the OFFING, it’s in the pipeline.
13 One on hand to kick out good-for-nothing!
LOVE – gLOVE. Very neat.
14 Group of stars held back by Gary Lineker
LYRA – reversed in ‘Gary Lineker’. I had never heard of this constellation, but it went straight in with no checkers.
15 As ringtone that’s swirling around?
RESONATING – (AS RINGTONE)*. &Lit, although the definition is a bit odd. I’m not sure I’d describe the sound of a phone ringing as ‘swirling around’.
17 Carry out a drunk reporter’s partner in crime
ACCOMPLISH – shoundsh like ‘accomplice’ if you’re shloshed.
19 Brutal type discharging second round
BEAT – BEAsT. He seems like a beast, but underneath he’s that Dan Stevens from off of Downton. A round is a BEAT when it’s a bobby’s.
21 Ill-mannered sort’s a pig so they say
BOOR – sounds like ‘boar’. I think some people had BOER here. I can sort of see how you might justify it, but it strikes me as a bit judgemental for our purposes.
22 Music producers rearrange small, cold cuts
RECORDERS – RE(C)ORDER, S. The recorder can be a charming instrument when played well, which it usually isn’t.
24 Pass on note outside broadcast repudiated
DISOWNED – DI(SOWN)E, D. I wasted timing thinking ‘outside broadcast’ would be OB, or ‘broadcast’ would be AIR, but ‘outside’ is a position indicator and ‘broadcast’ is SOWN.
25 Sign one’s put on stone? Newly ill-fitting tops!
GEMINI – GEM, I, Newly Ill-fitting.
27 Ignoring leader, return to a previous state issue
EGRESS – rEGRESS.
28 A recent shot capturing northern transport
ENTRANCE – (A RECENT)* containing N.

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Down
2 Speech Corbyn’s lot nicked from scientific study
ORATORY – labORATORY.
3 I’m ten and like elephants to some extent
EEL – contained in ‘like elephants’. The definition is a reference to 10ac (SLIPPERY).
4 Wearable products associated with sweaters?
ANTI-PERSPIRANTS – CD.
5 Polish suitor that’s dumped posh Swiss dish
ROSTI – (SuITOR)*. ‘Polish’ is the anagrind.
6 Occupying a just position … a Conservative MP?
BEING IN THE RIGHT – two definitions, one slightly cryptic. There was some discussion about an alternative here, which I can only assume must have been BEING ON THE RIGHT. This satisfies the second half of the clue, but not the first, so I don’t seen any ambiguity here.
7 A French chum with a food that’s hard to swallow
UNPALATABLE – UN, PAL, A TABLE.
8 Two vehicles flanking a traveller’s convoy
CARAVAN – CAR(A), VAN.
12 Famous lover getting high with loads of smack
FLAVOURSOME – (FAMOUS LOVER)*.
16 Runner without cash offloading books
SKI – SKInt.
18 Maybe the top dog in pigeon apery working at The Range?
COOKING – or the COO KING, geddit?
20 As nice as travelling round Rwanda’s capital
ARSENIC – (NICE AS)* containing R. The first time this trick catches you out, it really catches you out. I’m a bit wiser to it these days. Watch out for I for iodine, among others.
23 Worry that daughter’s wearing a red outfit?
CADRE – CA(D)RE. A ‘group of revolutionaries’ according to Collins. I’m reading (and very much enjoying) David Aaronovitch’s memoir of growing up in a Communist family at the moment so this popped quite quickly into my mind…
26 For a girl’s name Mark is revolutionary
MIA – …whereas here it probably got in my way. ‘Revolutionary’ is just an indication to reverse AIM (mark).

13 comments on “Sunday Times 4744 by David McLean”

  1. I was pleased to get one of Harry’s so (for me) quickly, but I found some of the surface readings rather, ah, strained, eg 18d, 25ac, 9ac. I had no idea that BOOR rhymed with ‘boar’ over there, and hesitated to put it in (my ‘Boer’ rhymes with ‘boor’ which rhymes with ‘poor’, but in any case I can’t imagine a setter defining any ethnic group as ‘ill-mannered’); live and learn. I’d forgotten about ‘slap’, but it wouldn’t have helped, because I’d never heard of LIPPY; but I biffed successfully. I think this is the third time I’ve been misled by AS, but this time I finally twigged. Let’s see if I spot HE next time.
  2. Thanks Keriothe for parsing OFFSPRING. It was the one I bunged in but couldn’t see why.

    I agree with Kevin on the surface readings of a few clues.

  3. Most of the surfaces are fine but I agree some are not, including the ones Kevin points out.
    Had to laugh at the idea that The Times would issue racial insults .. and would be very interested to see dictionary support for the proposed definition of Boer!
    14ac no problem, been watching Sky at Night for ever, it seems like

    1. ‘Boer’ is or was a word for a policeman, according to ODO, and possibly not a complementary one. That’s as close as you can get, I think, and it’s not very close.
      I never notice surface readings, so if they’re particularly good or bad it tends to pass me by.

      Edited at 2017-05-07 10:19 am (UTC)

  4. I was pleased to get through this, albeit with some biffs and other guesses and not fully understanding some of the parsing. I made an error with BOAR at 21ac which I can only put down to lack of concentration. LYRA was the only unknown.
  5. Straightforward with most done in 36 mins but held myself up at the end by putting “bore” of the crashing sort at 21ac and going through Casanova, Don Juan et al at 12dn before reappraising and coming to the correct solutions later that day. I was hesitant over the two letter preposition at 6dn where “in” seemed to work for the first half but not the second half and “on” seemed to work for the second half but not the first half. Went for the correct version in the end. I was not keen on 13ac where to my mind “good-for-nothing” as hyphenated is a single, indivisible, semantic entity so to lift and separate as it were to use it as both letter removal indicator and definition is a bit of a stretch. However, having said that it did pass the ultimate, “is it solvable” test.
  6. Well I liked it, on the easy side, and the parsing of EEL was my LOI with a smile. 15 minutes. No problem writing in BOOR not an alternative. As the collared doves nesting in the garden wake me up cooing every morning, I have a love hate relationship with 18d. Thnaks keriothe.
  7. I had a late start last Sunday, so this was done in two halves either side of The Archers and a trip to the local market, totalling about an hour. I’m glad to see I didn’t actually get any wrong on paper; I must have typo’d while transcribing into the club site grid to check a couple of my answers.

    COD to the drunken ACCOMPLISH. WOD LYRA. In my misspent youth I read a lot of SF, and first came across Lyra in Larry Niven’s 1967 short The Soft Weapon, which takes place in the vicinity of Beta Lyrae. One of those rare Sundays where I knew every word in the grid…

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  8. I crashed and burned with three errors: BOAR, RUSTI and MALLOT. I have to believe that MALLOT and RUSTI were careless mistypes, as they bear no resemblance to a proper untangling of the clues, whereas BOAR was my misinterpretation of the wordplay. Lack of concentration I think! 45:30. Thanks David and Keriothe.
  9. Can’t agree with 27a. Egress means exit etc. Nowhere in the on-line RT can I find egress being a synonym of issue or vice versa.
  10. Can’t agree with 27a. Egress means exit etc. Nowhere in the on-line RT can I find egress being a synonym of issue or vice versa.
    1. From Collins:
      Egress: the act of going out or forth; emergence
      Issue: the act of emerging
      Close enough for me.
  11. I’m surprised noone (apart from me) seems to have confidently put in ‘dread’ for 23d. D for daughter plus (a red)* = worry. Completely mucked up 22a, 24a and 28a for me, for ages, until I thought ‘dread’ just had to be wrong.

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