Sunday Times 4780 by David McLean

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
14:52. My first reaction when I opened this puzzle was panic: on the basis of the usual rotation I was expecting a Jeff Pearce puzzle, but for some reason we got another David McLean. My immediate assumption was that I had somehow missed a week and should have posted a blog that day. Fortunately a quick glance at the site showed that Nick had posted his blog in the usual fashion, so all was well. I guess Jeff was on holiday.

Having calmed down I found an average sort of difficulty puzzle waiting for me. No obscure words though, so to the (limited) extent it was difficult this came from devious wordplay and some quite oblique definitions. In one case (1dn) I think obliqueness tips into something more questionable, but that one didn’t actually slow me down.

There are a couple of cross-reference clues, which we don’t tend to see much in Times or Sunday Times puzzles. This clue type seems to divide opinion, and in one of these I was able to solve one clue (12ac NAKED) very easily from the answer to the other, which always seems a bit of a shame. On the other hand I enjoyed the crossing references to the very crosswordy concepts in 10ac and 8dn.

All in all, a fine Sunday puzzle, so thanks to Harry and here’s how I think it all works.

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (THIS)*, anagram indicators in italics.

Across
1 Object to play after expertise is seen with poem
ARTIFACT – ACT (play) after ART (expertise) and IF, the crossword setter’s favourite poem.
5 I want to be 12 and barrel about around Norfolk town mostly
NUDIST – reversal (about) of TUN (barrel) containing DISs. The answer to 12ac is NAKED, which is what a NUDIST wants to be.
10 A crossword might give you one flipping laugh a minute!
AHA MOMENT – reversal of HA, A MOMENT. A nice reference to something we solvers refer to a lot, more often in the form seen in 8dn.
11 One of the army brass must advance left in surge?
BULGE – BUGLE with the L advanced. I’m not 100% sure how ‘surge’ and BULGE are synonymous: I think it’s in the sense of a sudden and/or temporary increase.
12 Contrary uni boss drinks in King’s Head out of habit
NAKED – reversal of DEAN containing King.
13 Early Trump era atrocious, distressing essentially
PREMATURE – (TRUMP ERA)*, distrEssing.
14 10 workers touring large, empty edifices without residents
TENANTLESS -TEN, ANT(L, EdificeS)S.
17 Amaze boss having made latest start on numbers
STUN – STUD with the last letter changed to Numbers.
19 Detest husband, a tyke without any substance
HATE – H, A, TykE.
20 Tough as aggressive old goats might be?
HARD-HEADED – because an old goat might be thought to have done a lot of butting with its head, presumably.
22 Gang up with nerd to hamper one working in Beds?
GARDENING – (GANG NERD)* containing I.
24 Zero-hour contract worker possibly getting old rate
TEMPO – TEMP, O.
26 Fuss about love
ADORE – ADO, RE.
27 See Spot go for a new treatment in March?
GOOSE STEP – (SEE SPOT GO)*.
28 Street in poverty built a dwelling out of bits of wood
NESTED – NE(ST)ED.
29 Charlie Brown returned blocks that girl had grabbed
SNATCHED – reversal of C, TAN in SHE’D (that girl had).

Down
1 Contrary to most, grand dons hating showers?
AGAINST THE GRAIN – G contained in AGAINST THE RAIN. I’m not sure about this definition: to me this phrase means contrary to habit or natural inclination, and the usual dictionaries seem to agree with me.
2 Line from song off a record
TRACK – DD. I wasn’t sure about ‘line’ as a definition when solving but railway line/TRACK is the most obvious example.
3 God, a good walk spoiled around harbours – due to this? (8)
FLOODING – reversal of GOLF (a good walk spoiled, according to someone or other) around ODIN.
4 Bloke entertaining Earl is good value
CHEAP – CH(E)AP.
6 Cheery Greek character about to obtain lead over European
UPBEAT – reversal of TAU containing PB (lead) over (because this is a down clue) E.
7 Terribly dull tie is not a good match
ILL-SUITED – (DULL TIE IS)*.
8 Woman in article took out what happened around 10?
THE PENNY DROPPED – PENNY (woman) containing in THE, DROPPED. ‘Took out’ in the sense that you might take out/drop a player from a team, I think.
9 Bit of seepage with locks under pressure
STRESSED – Seepage, TRESSED (with locks).
15 I love travelling on tours to house of ill-repute
NOTORIOUS – (ON TOURS)* containing (to house) I,O.
16 Genial new nurses beginning to nurture small biases
LEANINGS – (GENIAL)* containing Nurture.
18 Feeling awfully tense holding one set of holy works
SENTIENT – (TENSE)* containing I, then NT.
21 Very harsh split ending in divorce
SEVERE – SEVER, divorcE.
23 Big argument? No good going back over it!
GROWN – reversal of NG containing ROW.
25 Go light
MATCH – DD.

28 comments on “Sunday Times 4780 by David McLean”

  1. Perhaps it was chatting to Harry while having a few beers at York, or maybe because I do some of his puzzles in the Indy, but I seem to be on his wavelength these days. This one tripped off the fingers in 21:50, with lots of Aha Moments. Liked 6d and 8d. Great puzzle. Thanks Harry and K.
  2. Fast for me for one of Harry’s. Biffed 10ac and 14ac–the latter I mistakenly took at first for a cross-reference, since it was ’10’ not ‘ten’. I took ‘dropped’ as ‘deleted’, as in ‘The author dropped the offending reference’. I hadn’t thought anything of surge/bulge at the time, but now that you mention it, it does seem stretching things. COD to 15d.
    1. Me too, on the 10 vs ten taking a second (and third) look to sort out. I don’t think I would have been duped quite so easily if having the other cross references had not lulled me into making an assumption.
  3. Was also surprised to see a David one instead of Jeff.This one was gentle compared to his other ones.COD 19ac.Why is he ‘Harry’ and what’s his alter ego in the Indy?
    Ong’ara,
    Kenya.
  4. Setter sequence: this is in fact being restored to the norm now, rather than changed. Jeff had 4775 and it was therefore his turn for the jumbo 4778 on Christmas Eve. He didn’t want to do it, so his spot was swapped with David McLean, and Jeff wrote 4777. Jeff is back today with 4781.
    1. Thanks Peter. I’m not sure I’d have noticed in normal circumstances but the delayed posting of Harry’s Christmas puzzle meant it was fresh in my mind.

      Edited at 2018-01-14 04:44 pm (UTC)

  5. 32 minutes. I shared your feelings about AGAINST THE GRAIN, K. I assumed the phrase came from wielding a plane in the wrong direction in carpentry, which this weekend’s solutions seem to be bringing to mind. I also wondered about BULGE. I pondered without reaching a conclusion it it was linked to The Battle of the BULGE, which was an attempt to surge through allied lines. On 8d, THE PENNY DROPPED straight after my AHA MOMENT. Oh heck, I’m sounding increasingly like Alan Partridge. COD GARDENING, which I saw after an extensive tour of Bedfordshire along with most of Bucks and Herts but certainly not getting as far as Norwich. Nice puzzle and blog. Thank you K and David.
    1. At the time of solving I thought the same as you BW about the Battle but then was reminded that it was called that because of the muffin-top effect the German offensive created on contemporary military maps.
      1. After a very well-catered family Christmas and with walking temporarily curtailed after my fall, talk of the battle of the bulge referring to a muffin-top effect has me looking down reproachfully!
  6. 54 minutes, missing only the parsing of 1d—ironically my first one in, albeit lightly-pencilled until the crossers confirmed my biff. I didn’t note my last one, but I have a feeling it was somewhere around AHA MOMENT, appropriately. Good fun, I think.

    Certainly better than I’m faring with today’s, though I’ve never got into noting which setters I find harder in the ST; I’m only just figuring it out with the Guardian daily, where there’s a lot more regular evidence of my shortcomings versus particular names!

  7. 51:23 so I found this quite tough, perhaps I was thrown by the cross-referencing clues which aren’t really to my taste, although I admit solving crossing crossword clues, themselves about the experience of solving crossword clues, does add an extra layer to the pleasure of solving. I was glad to have the poem in 1ac, I would otherwise have misspelt the word with an “e” not an “i”.
  8. I liked this one – the solving-related clues in particular. I’m don’t usually like cross references (I get to thinking that if I don’t solve one difficult clue quickly I’ll never get another four or five), but this time the wit involved won me over, and I found I was looking and hoping for more. I didn’t have any problem with Against the Grain, I hear it used that way often, which might be due to slightly different or less precise US usage. Nice puzzle, and than you David/Harry. And thanks for the blog, keriothe – you always set out something worth thinking about.
    1. You are too kind!
      I don’t think there’s anything less precise about this meaning. If it’s used that way then so be it.
  9. Fun puzzle. The Trump reference prompted a sympathetic grimace, and that was before this week’s tour de force from His Bigness. Same as Special Bitter – I was glad to be clear that it was to be an I in ARTIFACT. I don’t at all mind the internal references in moderation but sometimes the Guardian is exasperating. Although if there’s a theme it usually comes out in the end. I went all round Robin Hood’s barn to make sure just what kind of head the goat had. And I rather agree with Keriothe about the definitions in BULGE and AGAINST THE GRAIN. No complaints at all mind you. 18.57
    1. I’ve always associated the phrase with Huysman’s novel, “A Rebours”, which was translated as “Against the Grain”, and again as “Against Nature”. So I didn’t see anything particularly amiss about the definition (not, mind you, that I’ve actually read the novel, although I did once own a copy); and I see that some online dictionaries give the required definition.

      Edited at 2018-01-14 01:07 pm (UTC)

  10. You suggested I start doing these in the pub on Championship day, and I decided to have a go. Now I’ve been doing them for a few weeks I’m getting to know the setters styles… and enjoying the puzzles. I will have to start recording times for them too. This one wasn’t too hard, I seem to remember and possibly a little faster than usual. I liked the 10a 8d combination. I had no problem with 11a and my pristine copy of Chambers has ‘swell’ as a meaning of both bulge and surge. AGAINST THE GRAIN seemed OK to me too, but maybe I’m easily satisfied. GARDENING my favourite. Thanks Harry and keriothe for the entertainment. Wait a minute – I did it online, so I can see how long I took – 23:09.

    Edited at 2018-01-14 01:38 pm (UTC)

  11. I found this enjoyable and not too difficult ( compared with his large Christmas offering).
    I did have a mynah problem with 1a which I entered as Artefact as that’s how it’s spelt in my experience. I did not take the trouble to parse it carefully. I presume the judges would count this as an error?
    Otherwise all correct I think. Didn’t think twice about 1d and my last two were 18d and 23d. David
    1. Yes David this would count as an error, since it doesn’t fit the wordplay. I would normally spell it like you I think, but for words like this (where Es and Is both look plausible) my spelling tends to be atrocious so I try to take extra care.
  12. what I printed out for 4780 1ac was “Object if you say a Da Vinci sells for millions?” and came up with ARTIFACT but with a poor clue. Was this revised? I see a different (better) clue substituted.
        1. That seems right, yes, but I can see why it was changed, “artefact” being a perfectly reasonable alternate spelling, and the “e” being unchecked. (In fact my dictionary, the O.D.E., has ARTIFACT as the US spelling, but I don’t know what the usual sources say…)
          1. Yes I assume the ambiguity is what got the clue pullled, although it arguably deserved it anyway for Grievous Cheesiness with Intent to Induce Groans.
      1. I have the same issue with MATCH / GO.
        ‘Match’ is, as you say, ‘go with’, not ‘go’…

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