Sunday Times 4774 by David McLean

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
9:27. Straightforward stuff from Harry here. I have been very busy this week, so didn’t get to the blog until yesterday. When this happens I can seldom remember anything about the solve, and so it has proven here. Going through the clues today nothing really stood out: this is a relatively simple set. Nothing wrong with that though of course, and these are also very tidy. An enjoyable puzzle at the easier end of the spectrum.

So thanks to Harry, and without further ado here’s how I think it all works…

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

Across
1 Story detective wants putting on radio
TALE – sounds like ‘tail’, which seems a bit loose as a synonym for ‘detective’.
4 For Spooner, one might put up a hammock and metal fan
HEAD-BANGER – sounds like ‘bed hanger’. This doesn’t look like a spoonerism, but it sounds like one.
9 Refusal of choppers to waste time over India
DENIAL – DENtAL (‘of choppers’ without T for time) containing I (India).
10 Popular, and formerly saucy, ham
INEXPERT – IN, EX, PERT.
11 Fop that dances with Oscar in a pedestrian way
FOOTPATH – (FOP THAT, O)*
13 Viewer’s complaint: Sir, it isn’t entertaining
IRITIS – contained in ‘sir it isn’t’
14 Humorous release that’ll shake a corporation?
BELLY LAUGH – CD.
16 Win point with a service
EARN – E, A, RN.
17 Old man heading for overgrown border of wood
DADO – DAD, Overgrown. Better known to me as a ‘DADO rail’.
18 Coin scales fashioned in a revivalist style
NEOCLASSIC – (COIN SCALES)*.
20 Wild about numbers written about Deep Purple?
DAMSON – reversal (about) of MAD, reversal (written about) of NOS. We have a young DAMSON tree in our garden and every year the picking date is a matter of fine judgement: I don’t want to do it too early of course but at a certain point of ripeness our local parakeets decide they like them and a flock will fly in and eat them. This year they got the lot while I was away on business for two days.
21 Machinery dispute that’s backed up big cheeses
WORKINGS – reversal of ROW, KINGS.
23 Winger hit target one time
GREAT TIT – (TARGET)*, I, T.
24 Run through confession of one who won’t take The Sun?
IMPALE – I’M PALE. ‘I’m from Liverpool’ didn’t fit.
26 Writing supports ribald cops after sacking
CLIPBOARDS – (RIBALD COPS)*.
27 Row about the X-Factor with regressive view
TIER – reversal (with regressive view) of RE, IT. IT here as in the immortal words of the poet: ‘She’s got it/Yeah baby she’s got it/I’m your Venus, I’m your fire/At your desire’.

Down
2 Drink and feel unwell, so they say
ALE – sounds like ‘ail’.
3 Chuck out half-cut clergymen in the middle of film
EVICT – E(VICar)T. Hmm. VICAR has five letters. Two is not half of five. But this has to be the answer, surely? Guess I’ll find out tomorrow. [Edit: learn to read you doughnut, it says ‘clergymen’.]
4 Bag short student digs has grey lining
HOLDALL – H(OLD)ALLs. I was puzzled by this at first, thinking that ‘student digs’ gave HALL and wondering where ‘short’ came into it.
5 Skate on ice? One wouldn’t be suited to that!
A FISH OUT OF WATER – CD
6 Mark’s black and from Flanders (not the top part)
BLEMISH – B, fLEMISH.
7 Longs to have drinks outside with alacrity
NIPPINESS – NIP(PINES)S. It’s 5.30 on Saturday as I write this, nearly time for a little NIP of something…
8 Shrill tart in sleeper, perhaps rounding cape
EAR-PIERCING – the tart here is a PIE, which is inserted into an EARRING (of which a sleeper is a type), and then all of that contains (rounds) C (cape). Tricky!
12 More than the standard amount of oil in a pickle?
OVER A BARREL – slightly loose definition here, but if you’re OVER A BARREL in a negotiating situation, you are without doubt in a pickle. Ask David Davis.
15 Get cracking bitter with gents at the King’s Head
LOOK SHARP – LOO, King, SHARP (bitter).
18 Not very clear, piercing scream of disbelief!
NONE TOO – NET contained in NOOO! Tee hee.
19 Learner with problems missing wide vehicles
LORRIES – L, wORRIES.
22 Russian leader sending up current data, perhaps
INPUT – PUTIN, with IN (current) sent up to the top.
25 Story contrary detective ill-advisedly screens
LIE – contained reversed in ‘detective ill-advisedly’.

16 comments on “Sunday Times 4774 by David McLean”

  2. Slowed down by not knowing HEAD-BANGER and not knowing ‘sleeper’. Also took a long time trying to complete …PINESS, coming up with nothing but sip and sup until the end. Is ‘tail’ intended as a synonym for ‘detective’? Then ‘Story detective put on radio’ would have been neater, no? I puzzled about this but concluded that a tail is what a detective might want put; which I didn’t find too satisfying, either.
  3. Thanks to the Dandies,the Beanos,the Beezers,the Toppers,Tiger & Scorcher,Roy of the Rovers without which ‘get cracking…’ would be a mystery to me as a foreign solver.LOI NONE TOO.A fairly easy one by Jeff.
    Ong’ara,
    Nairobi.
  5. 31 minutes with same slight concerns as our blogger over 1ac, 3dn and 4dn. Keriothe himself resolved the one about ‘short student digs, and Kevin, the one about ‘half cut clergymEn’ (I had also failed to spot the plural in the clue), so I’d like to offer this on ‘tail’ which is defined in SOED as: A person who secretly follows and watches another, esp. as a detective or a spy.

    Edited at 2017-12-03 05:51 am (UTC)

  6. I’m familiar with “tail” from spy novels, and it didn’t seem too much of a stretch to detectives from there—anyone who jumps dramatically into a cab and shouts “Driver! Follow that car!” is a tail—so no great problems with that one. FOI 2d, LOI 24a and fairly plain sailing in between.

    Enjoyed the NOOO at 18d, and nearly got off the sofa specifically to kick myself when I put in 26a as a late entry despite the fact that I was actually supporting my writing with a clipboard throughout the puzzle. D’oh.

    49m in total.

  7. 28:55 quick for a Sunday so on the gentler side. Still good fun though. Nothing wrong with a bit of variation in difficulty. FOI 4ac. LOI 1ac entered with a bit of a shrug. Dnk that sleeper was an earring but 8dn was straightforward enough to solve without knowing it.
  8. 4ac my FOI -obviously not too well known Stateside, where I now note that POTUS doesn’t actually do his own Tweeting as I thought, leaving it to a lazy lawyer! Very sensible. I also hear he will poip into London, very silly!

    I was speedy too but DNF as I 17ac DADO defeated me. Painful cluing!

    COD None

    WOD GREAT TIT

  9. An accessible and enjoyable puzzle which I eventually managed to finish; a welcome contrast to the previous day’s very tough puzzle which I had abandoned at half time.
    My friend has been going on about Deep Purple recently so I was glad to get Damson. They are touring with most of the original classic line-up still there; and no doubt performing to Headbangers. And thanks Keriothe for the reminder of Shocking Blue, a long way from Deep Purple musically but maybe not on the colour chart.
    I had no real problems with the parsings. Student digs are a hall of residence, normally shortened to Hall; that worked for me. LOI was 8d but I remembered the sleeper bit. David
    2. Student ‘digs’ are NOT Halls of Residence! ‘Digs’ are where one lives if one cannot get into ‘Halls’, and are simply off- campus dwellings. I know, I was that student.
  10. Remembered the SLEEPERs from when younger daughter (then aged 14) got her ears pierced without asking me… DAMSON put me in mind of the jam on a Myrtilus breakfast menu. 22.03
    1. My daughter just got a second piercing in one of her ears, rather against my wishes but with maternal approval. I know my place. Anyway, in all this recent ear-piercing activity the word ‘sleeper’ hasn’t come up, so I’m not sure how I knew it, but I did.
  11. Enjoyable solve, no major problems but struggled to parse 4d. For once I actually liked the Spoonerism clue.

    Thanks K and Harry.

  12. I enjoyed this puzzle, chuckling at BED HANGER and DENIAL. Liked my LOI, A FISH OUT OF WATER too. FOI TAIL. 30:59. Thanks Harry and K.

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