Sunday Times 4775 by Jeff Pearce

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
An enjoyable puzzle from Jeff which I suspect the speedsters will have knocked over pretty quickly. That said, whilst some generous definitions would have enabled biffers to rampage their way through much of the puzzle, some of the detailed parsing was (at least for me) quite tricky. 27ac (a “thing within a thing within a thing” kind of clue – I’m sure there is a technical definition but I don’t know it) was easy to spot but hard to fathom, as was 15dn – where I’m sure more than one solver will have cheerfully accepted the idea of a Puritanical sect known as the Morists.

Similarly, 21dn would have gone in quickly for most solvers, I fancy, but the precise parsing needed careful attention in terms of what, exactly, the definition was (this clue also had me attempting to invent new 18th century mill technology, but that’s another story – retold faithfully in the detailed blog).

Anyway, thanks as ever to Jeff for a fun puzzle.

Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted letters indicated by {-}

Across
1 Meet with dockers to change warning system (5,8)
SMOKE DETECTOR – *(MEET + DOCKERS TO) with “change” signalling the anagram
10 Where you might put varnish now! (2,3,4)
ON THE NAIL – Cryptic definition based on “on the nail” being a slang term meaning “now”. Or I guess it might be a DD – I think you could argue it either way if you had too much time on your hands…
11 It was once under a town in Wales (5)
NEATH – The old fashioned (it was once) word for “under” giving us the Welsh town which gave the world Richard Burton and also Bonnie Tyler (and numerous top flight rugby players).
12 Small daughter cuddles brown bear (5)
STAND – S (small) and D (daughter) wrap around (cuddle) TAN (brown)
13 Hearing aid? Politician visits a long-term prisoner
carrying one (9)
AMPLIFIER – MP (politician) goes inside (visits) A LIFER (a long-term prisoner) with I also added in (carrying one)
14 Being a tiro one played Clash on the radio (8)
NEOPHYTE – *(ONE) – with “played” signposting the anagram – and a homophone of FIGHT (Clash on the radio)
16 Obtain the services of volunteer (6)
ENLIST – DD
19 Overwhelms conservative with loads of paper (6)
CREAMS – C (conservative) + REAMS (loads of paper). I wondered a bit about creams for overwhelms, but I think this is the present tense of the sports commentator’s usage “Arsenal absolutely creamed West Ham seven nil…”
20 That girl’s tower contains one item that’s been in the
family for years (8)
HEIRLOOM – HER (that girl’s) + LOOM (tower) with I included (contains one) – and an unusually generous definition
22 Make an effort to take top off beer for mate (5,4)
OTHER HALF – {B}OTHER (make an effort to take top off) + HALF (beer – as in half pint)
24 Instrument that’s made of glass (5)
FLUTE – The glass in the form of a champagne flute gives the cryptic steer
25 Cornwall has many of these chaps (5)
COVES – Cornwall does indeed have many coves – as does Devon (and Dorset for that matter). Another one where I was pondering whether this might actually be classified as a DD – not that it really matters…
26 Replacement Eurostar finally moving after alteration
(9)
SURROGATE – *(EUROSTAR) – with “after alteration” suggesting the anagram – and G (finally movinG) also being thrown into the mix
27 Forges vase and mug without cracks around the
edge (5,8)
BLAST FURNACES – URN (vase) surrounded by FACE (mug without) and BLASTS (cracks – as in cracks open / blasts open a safe) going around the whole lot (around the edge). Tricky stuff.
Down
2 Narcotic den at home is busted (9)
METHADONE – *(DEN AT HOME) with “is busted” signalling the anagram
3 Heard to want massage (5)
KNEAD – Sounds like NEED (heard to want)
4 Get animated about snazzy fabric (8)
DIAMANTE – *(ANIMATED) with “about” indicating the anagram, giving the glitzy stuff much in evidence this time of year
5 I left upset rams without 24D? (6)
TULIPS – I L reversed (I left upset) surrounded by TUPS (rams without) giving an example of FLORA (24D)
6 Italian chap supporting study is person committed to
delivery (9)
CONSIGNOR – SIGNOR (Italian chap) ‘supporting’ (in the context of a Down clue) CON (study)
7 One supporting old guy’s an Arab (5)
OMANI – I (one) ‘supporting’ (again!) O MAN (old guy)
8 This is the clue — take it or leave it (7,6)
HOBSONS CHOICE – Nice cryptic. Curious about the derivation of this expression, I looked it up and it is not particularly exciting. But, what was far more intriguing as far as I was concerned, was the warning that Hobson’s Choice should never be confused with Morton’s Fork – which is apparently a choice between two equivalent options.
9 Being thus stepmother turned puce (5-8)
SHORT-TEMPERED – *(STEP MOTHER) – with “turned” signalling the anagram – + RED (puce). I think this also qualifies as a Semi & Lit, but (to my embarrassment) I’m never too sure about this particular clue type.
15 Al leaves Henry with university puritans for comedians
(9)
HUMORISTS – H + U (university) + MOR{AL}ISTS (puritans after AL leaves). The parsing here caused me no end of grief, as I originally thought the ‘AL leaves’ bit of the clue referred to Henry, giving us H{AL} – in which case I assumed Morists must be some kind of Puritan sect. In an unusual fit of diligence, I checked up on these dour Morists only to find that they did not exist. It took me an age to identify that the reference to Al leaving related to a word that came much later in the clue. Fair enough, I’m sure, but damned tricky…
17 Jab trendy old clergyman when lecturer replaces rector
(9)
INOCULATE – IN (trendy) + O (old) + CU{R}ATE with the R being replaced by an L (clergyman when lecturer replaces rector)
18 Burn some food in this salt (8)
SEAFARER – SEAR (burn) with FARE (some food) in it
21 Jenny takes motorway around front of French
mountains (6)
MASSIF – ASS (Jenny) has MI (motorway) ‘around’ it + F (front of French). I have to confess that I got to the right result through the wrong reasoning here. Not knowing that a jenny is simply the word for a female ass, I assumed there must be some industrial revolution thing happening featuring a Spinning Jenny and a (dimly remembered) Arkwright’s Mule, with possibly something like a Ramsbottom’s Ass also in play. But it was not to be.
23 Head off to dig hole (5)
HOVEL – {S}HOVEL (head off to dig)
24 State I’d ignored to find vegetation (5)
FLORA – FLOR{ID}A (State with I’D ignored)

27 comments on “Sunday Times 4775 by Jeff Pearce”

  1. I have to confess to taking the AL off HAL and assuming MORISTS were a group of puritans, albeit with an “I’ve never heard of them before” moment. Funnily enough I’ve just watched an episode of Coast that I recorded, and it was all about the coves and caves of the British coastline, and Cornwall was mentioned as having lots of coves. I wonder if Jeff watched it before he set this puzzle:-) My FOI was KNEAD. COVES came just before HOVEL, the V being the catalyst, and the L finally gave me the very tricky BLAST FURNACES, my LOI, although being in Middlesbrough, I should have thought of it sooner! Great puzzle. Thanks Jeff and Nick. 34:15.
  2. Not an easy one for me, anyway; the club leaderboard says 27:06, but I must have gone offline at some point, since I’ve written out DIAMANTE (LOI), SHORT-TEMPERED, & BLAST FURNACE in the margins. I noticed that two clues, 14ac and 9d, begin with ‘Being’, which seemed a bit odd; and Nick, wouldn’t you say that ‘tiro’ is the definition of NEOPHYTE, rather than ‘being a tiro’? Some nice surfaces, like 2d or 12ac.
  3. Quite gentle.Never knew that meaning of ‘cream’ but Oxford confirmed it.COD FLORA.
    ONG’ARA,NAIROBI.
  4. This took me a good 45 minutes with quite a lot of time lost at the end over 4dn, my LOI for some reason. I can only imagine I didn’t see it as an anagram until the last minute, as once all the checkers were in place there weren’t many options for placing the remaining anagrist and I was perfectly familiar with the word itself.

    I’m not entirely sure which clues you are referring to as “thing within thing within thing”, Nick, but I’ve heard the term “Russian doll” used in this connection and occasionally write it myself in blogs.

    On the DD question I try to make a distinction between ‘double definition’ and ‘two meanings’, using the first for two literals and the second when one of them is word-for-word and the other more fanciful or figurative. Another fudge I employ is ‘straight definition with a cryptic hint’, adjusting the order to fit the clue. But this, as you suggest, is probably the result of having too much time on one’s hands and it seems perfectly acceptable for busy bloggers to bung in ‘DD’ and move on to the next clue.

    On the other hand TftT is a more diverse community now with regard to levels of expertise so it’s no bad thing in my view to try to be as helpful as possible, but again only if one has the time.

    Edited at 2017-12-10 06:56 am (UTC)

    2. Thanks for your insights re. double definitions Jack. Must admit I’d never given the DD very much thought when blogging – they normally just leap out and you move swiftly on, eg. with 16a. But when blogging this particular puzzle I found myself increasingly caught up with doubts about what, exactly, comprises a DD (as opposed to a ‘cryptic hint’) as I flirted with the DD at 11a, 24a and 25a (as well as 10a). Phantom DDs seemed to be coming at me from all directions!
      1. I’m not so particular .. to me, a DD is any clue that defines the answer twice, by whatever means. If one of them is cryptic or jocular, I would just say “DD, one cryptic” or words to that effect.
  5. 42 minutes, with no problems, apart, apparently, from having parsed 15 with the imaginary MORIST sect, too!

    FOI 2d, LOI 21d where it will probably take me some time to remember “jenny” as a donkey. On the plus side, that reminds me: there was plenty of ass-based action in Jean de Florette, which I watched for the first time last night, and which is the first place I’ve seen the French coin ‘sou’ used outside a crossword. It’s always nice when these things actually appear in “real life”…

    1. Yes .. I remember Emmanuelle Beart’s ass in particular, though that was in Manon des Sources
  6. Found this pretty easy, though slightly held up by a conviction that it should be spelled HUMOURISTS

    Neath has a surprising number of notable folk born there, eg Kathleen Jenkins; and Alfred Russel Wallace lived there.

  7. 48:14 and I was another who thought Morists was a puritan sect. Doh! Some easy stuff in the top half to get started but got a bit bogged down in the bottom half. My LOI 27ac took ages to see what was going on. Struggled to equate “beer” with “half” in 22ac. I’ll just assume that such measures of beer must actually exist, not sure I’d ever ask for one myself though.
    1. If anyone ever asks for a half (not that it happens very often) I always think of old Jacko “I’ll have half” in the appalling (but very funny at the time) show Love Thy Neighbour.
      1. I’ve heard of the show Nick, (mainly for its being controversial) but I think it must have been on TV a couple of years before my time. I’m more familiar with Jacko the philandering painter and decorator from Brush Strokes, not that I remember him drinking halves, or much else about it besides the theme tune by Dexys Midnight Runners. It’s always fun to look back on old shows like the Sweeney though and see Regan or whoever charged the princely sum of something like 3 shillings and sixpence for two pints and whisky chasers in the pub – it makes me choke on my cocoa as I think to myself – more like £4 a pint in London nowadays!
  8. This was the one that held me up – I had to get C*O*C* before I could see it at all. Thank you for reminding me of the Sellars/Yeatman take on Morton’s Fork – which they authoritatively tell us gave rise to the term “fork out”.

    I try very hard to avoid tv coverage of American football but I have heard the term “cream” used to mean some unfortunate 300lb behemoth getting set upon and crushed by 3 other 300lb behemoths. 19.08

  9. Don’t remember this as being memorable, so to speak, but my scruffy print out says “18 minutes OK”.
  11. It’s easy to forget how difficult these puzzles look to the average solver,
    particularly at the start.
    On the Nail got me started and then I had an invigorating tussle with the puzzle and kept managing to find another answer. I managed to finish in one session (over an hour) which is good for me. LOI was 27a.
    Did not know this meaning of Creams; I think a batsman could cream a ball over long on. And DNK Jenny as a female ass but a guess based on Massif Central did the trick.
    Big thanks to the setter and to Nick for another excellent blog. David
  13. Fairly straightforward and an average-ish time of 49:55, albeit with KNEAD misspelt.

    Some interesting comments on double definitions. I think 10a probably fits jerrywh’s “DD, one cryptic”, 11a and 25a are “DD, neither cryptic” and 24a just doesn’t work for me, although the answer is, ahem, clear enough. I think just “Glass instrument” would be better.

    Similarly I thought 17d was perfectly gettable, but does L = “lecturer”?

    Having said all that, an enjoyable puzzle so thanks to Jeff and thanks Nick for the blog.

    2. I can’t recall ever seeing L = lecturer or R = Rector before however they are both in Chambers. On the other hand I had understood that setters were not allowed the full range of single letter abbreviations available in the dictionaries, and that was based on information that came from PB when he founded TftT many years ago. But times change and Sunday Times more than others so perhaps we should expect to move with them.

      Edited at 2017-12-10 11:47 pm (UTC)

  14. DNF, since I couldn’t see ON THE NAIL and had ON THE BALL instead (the exclamation mark contributed to that, since I read “now!” as an admonishment to pay attention and get moving). ON THE NAIL seems to refer to immediate payment, so perhaps I never pay for anything, or maybe it’s just that Chambers classifies it as British, perfectly fair of course for a cryptic crossword, but still a foreign language for me.
  15. I was surprised that 27ac passed without comment – surely in a steelworks the output of the blast furnace is cast into ingots for the forge.
    1. That was my reaction as well but turns out the Catalan Forge is only a hairs breath away from a blast furnace.
  16. This just reminded me how much time you bloggers put into this site and the debt of gratitude we mortals owe you all which we can never repay.

    It wouldn’t be half the fun without you(s). Without your insights we’d never have progressed to our present level of skill.

    A big shout out THANK YOU.

    Tom and Janet

    Toronto.

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