Sunday Times 4792 by David McLean – cryptic boogaloo

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
8:31. This was a pretty straightforward puzzle, but a lot of fun to solve. Lots of great clues but 3dn is a particular highlight.

So many thanks to Harry, and here’s how I think it all works…

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

Across
1 Small biting insect or mite, perhaps
SMIDGE – S, MIDGE. I’m not sure what the word ‘perhaps’ is doing here, since ‘mite’ seems a direct synonym for SMIDGE to me.
5 Piece of key informant’s confession?
BISHOP – B (key), I SHOP.
9 Being beyond reproach, you won’t get beef from her!
SACRED COW – two definitions, one whimsical.
10 European staff
POLE – DD.
11 Maiden pursued for information in hearing
CHASTE – Collins gives ‘to pursue persistently and energetically in order to obtain results, information, etc’ as one of the definitions of ‘chase’. I think if I were using it in this sense I would say ‘chase up’, but people use words in many different ways, and the lexicographer’s task is to record those that become ‘standard’ (however you define that slippery term, or whichever other slippery term you use in its place). I was going to say ‘thankless task’, but I for one am very grateful to them. Aaaaanyway, this specific meaning is needed for the surface reading.
12 A few men enthralled by combination of rings?
ONE OR TWO – OR (men) contained in ONE-TWO, a boxing (hence ‘of rings’) combination. Nice clue, that I thought for a minute might have something to do with Wagner. The absence of the word ‘interminable’ prompted me to consider alternatives.
14 Rubbly waste ground is rutted
DETRITUS – (IS RUTTED)*. I realised from this clue that I didn’t really know what DETRITUS meant. I thought it just meant general waste (and of course that’s how it’s often used), but it derives from the Latin for ‘rub off’ and specifically refers to material (particularly rocks) worn away from a larger mass. Aren’t dictionaries great?
16 It’s wet and windy in North Yorkshire
OUSE – CD. I have vivid memories of a week-long walking holiday in North Yorkshire when I was a kid. It poured with rain more or less every day and it was absolutely brilliant. I learned the truth of the phrase ‘no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes’, and my parents learned the truth of the less commonly-seen phrase ‘good clothes cost a bloody fortune’.
18 Army entertainer?
HOST – DD.
19 Do a duet badly with tenor that’s past it?
OUTDATED – (DO A DUET, T)*.
21 European Society welcomed by Bojo in his schooldays?
ESTONIAN – E(S)TONIAN. We try to avoid politics on this blog, so I will refrain from saying anything about our utterly disgraceful embarrassment of a Foreign Secretary other than that he is an OE.
22 Wife taken in by Romeo with a place abroad
RWANDA – R(W), AND (with), A.
24 Where one might see Tommy eating pickle
MESS – DD.
26 Hip-hop dude holds topped veg for street vendor
BARROW BOY -B-BOY (hip hop dude) containing mARROW. This takes me back to listening to Afrika Bambaataa records in a friend’s bedroom in the 80s. I didn’t really get the music then, but we all tried the moves. I could do the caterpillar (backwards and forwards, mind), and the braver individuals could manage some approximation of the headspin, but no-one of my acquaintance ever managed the windmill. I came to appreciate the music a little later in life, and I have very recently felt a glow of parental pride in my daughter’s appreciaton of A Tribe Called Quest.
27 Having obtained plug, ask for plug – ultimately one’s no good
BAD EGG – BEG (ask for) contains AD (plug), pluG.
28 Bullfighter involved in store robbery
TORERO – contained in ‘store robbery’

Down
2 Naughty movie is such rubbish
MISCHIEVOUS – (MOVIE IS SUCH)*. This clue is a thing of beauty. Speaking of things of beauty…
3 Love love love?
DUCKS – this is an absolute masterpiece. ‘Love’ is the definition, in a ducks/my darling/honey/my lover/chuck [delete according to preference] sort of way, and then ‘love love’ gives two nil scores (ducks, loves, strikes out) for the wordplay. Bravo!
4 He and I are two guys into remoulding steel
ELEMENTS – MEN contained in (STEEL)*. He and I being helium and Iodine, of course. Another great clue.
5 One who’ll deliver over in Derby
BOWLER – two definitions, one possibly slightly cryptic because although a bowled ball is a ‘delivery’ in cricket I’m not sure that it’s used as a verb like this. But I am no expert so probably wrong.
6 Paramount head nervous about a star collapsing
SUPERNOVA – (Paramount, NERVOUS)*, A.
7 Before heading to Leeds, look here for fuel?
OIL – OI!, Leeds.
8 Possible result of The Donald getting in via The Bush?
ACROSS COUNTRY – of course the result would have been the same if The Donald had not got in, but it would have been a different country.
13 What might be found by duo working together at sink?
WASHER-DRYER – interesting clue: there isn’t really a definition, but it’s pretty clear what’s intended.
15 After stampeding, our steers turned up in the end
RETROUSSE – (OUR STEERS)*.
17 Go off the best solicitor in the business?
START OUT – or STAR TOUT.
20 Item subject to inflation following a crash
AIRBAG – CD.
23 Woman that could slow traffic?
AMBER – DD. You have to slow down to stop, I guess.
25 Time is, for more than one person, up
ERA – reversal (up) of ARE (is, for more than one person).

30 comments on “Sunday Times 4792 by David McLean – cryptic boogaloo”

  1. Isn’t that (P [aramount], NERVOUS)* + A? def ‘star collapsing’ ? Your parsing lacks the A
    1. Yes of course, how careless of me. Thanks Kevin – I have amended the blog.
  2. Great puzzle, even though it took me surprisingly little time. A couple of DNKs: Bojo (thanks, K), which fortunately wasn’t necessary to know; and B-BOY, where I just BIFD. (Given what a B-GIRL is, and being gratefully ignorant of hip-hop, I wouldn’t have come up with the parsing.) Some terrific surfaces, like 5, 14, 28ac, 2, 4, 7, 15d, but yes, COD to DUCKS.
  3. COD OIL.Witty, smooth surfaces all over. Thanks Keriothe for blog. Remember Shabba Doo and Boogaloo Shrimp in 83-84?
    Ong’ara,
    Nairobi.
    1. I confess I had to look up the names: I don’t know that I ever actually watched these movies, and it was a long time ago!
  4. I was a SMIDGE under 50 minutes on this, so your time is seriously impressive, K. LOI was the brilliant DUCKS. The more ubiquitous ‘love’ was/is used in our house. People worked with the title ‘progress chaser’ early in my career and I think still do as ‘claims chaser’ so it wasn’t that end of the CHASTE DD which caused me to pause. A maiden may well be CHASTE, and a maiden voyage might take place without a shipboard romance, but I’m struggling to find an adjectival use where they mean the same. I’m probably being thick. After that I got my Bojo working. I was going to curse the setter for expecting me to know anything about hiphop, only to find I did. I made clue of the day WASHER DRYER, both functions being carried out by me in our house. Thank you K and David.

    Edited at 2018-04-08 07:01 am (UTC)

    1. I thought of ‘maiden aunt’, but on reflection that’s not quite the same thing, is it? ODO gives ‘(of a female animal) not having mated’, but you wouldn’t really use the word CHASTE in that context. To conclude, hmm.
  5. I am always alarmed at how many folk spell and pronounce
    2dn as MISCHIEVIOUS! Just saying.

    35 minutes

    FOI 1ac SMIDGE – is it in fact SMIDGEON that draws the perhaps? Perhaps not!

    SOI 2dn DUCKS which was a bit obvious IMHO.
    LOI 24ac MESS
    COD 13adn WASHER-DRYER – no definition- fine by me!
    WOD 15dn RETROUSSE

    21ac ESTONIA(N) and 22ac RWANDA are presently very popular resorts.

    In a ‘Double-H’ format I think 8dn was a wasted opportunity for a stunning 13 letter word. Or am I being MISCHIEVOUS?

    Edited at 2018-04-08 07:30 am (UTC)

    1. Yes MISCHIEVIOUS seems increasingly common. I wonder if it will ever be considered standard.
  6. A very enjoyable offering and inventive too, but haven’t DM’s puzzles become lot easier since he started? Or maybe I’ve just got used to him.

    As I wasn’t blogging, when I saw “Love love love (5)” I just wrote in DUCKS and moved on so I don’t know whether I’d ever have worked out there was more going on as decribed by k. Having read his explanation I agree it’s a very good clue but unfortunately one doesn’t need its subtelties to solve it.

    1. I thought that was generally true of this puzzle: I enjoyed solving it but only appreciated some of its finer points when doing the blog.
  7. I really enjoyed this puzzle. Challenging for me but fun and I managed to complete it on the day. LOI was Bishop -I still fall for the piece trap. I did remember He for Helium so was pleased about that.
    Was in Liverpool for a couple of days this week on Beatles tours and so the music is in my head at present. We had Free as a Bird in an earlier puzzle this week and this one has (all together now) ..Love Love Love. David
  8. Thanks Keriothe for blog, I didn’t parse the Ring thing (also wondering Wagner), guessed what a B-BOY was and still don’t quite get ACROSS COUNTRY, but it was a fast and enjoyable puzzle.
    I think BoJo is cool, he says undiplomatic things which need saying and then someone can apologise for him afterwards even if we really meant some of it.
    1. Your concept of the proper role of the Foreign Secretary is refreshingly unconventional, I’ll grant you! 😉

      Edited at 2018-04-08 09:47 am (UTC)

  9. Tussled with this one for 43:20, but got there in the end with BISHOP LOI as I couldn’t see the chess man for ages. Lots of misleading cluing. Can’t remember too much about it due to Mulling about. Not sure if I did it on Sunday or Monday even. Thanks Harry and K.
  10. 43:49 for a very enjoyable puzzle. At the risk of tempting fate I would say that like Jakkt I do feel a bit more attuned to this setter’s wavelength now than when he started setting for the ST. I wondered what for information was doing in 11ac so thanks for the explanation. I really liked the army entertainer and the place for Tommy eating his pickles. As for Amber slowing traffic, not in my neck of the woods. Most drivers round here seem to take it as an instruction to accelerate in the hope of getting past before it turns red.
  11. 23:16, so I found this a bit harder than some. Some lovely clues. Got stuck on BARROW BOY and needed that to see ACROSS COUNTRY. I loved the loves and the BAD EGG… Surely not another reference to Bojo?
  12. Everyone else seems to have enjoyed this. But I felt all the way through that I must be missing something. Anyway, there were too many that I couldn’t parse properly and had to semi-biff. I saw ACROSS COUNTRY early on but discounted it. I didn’t see it as a phrase. CROSS-COUNTRY makes sense to me but not this. Didn’t know the hip-hop or the boxing references. Got fed up in the end. 45 minutes. Ann
    1. I had exactly the same thought as you about ACROSS COUNTRY but it is in both Collins and ODO as a phrase in its own right so I thought it must just be me!
  13. I had the same qualms about maiden/CHASTE; “maiden” is not listed as a synonym for CHASTE at thesarusDOTcom.
    Didn’t know who “Bojo” was, and guessed it must be some UK thing that I didn’t have the energy to get to the bottom of, though I got the answer (as all of them). But what is an “OE,” James?
    Today’s Sunday puzzle seemed particularly easy. I don’t remember if this one took very long.
    1. In the context used, Old Etonian, but not a valid abbreviation for crossword purposes, I think.
  14. 26 min 11 secs.

    I’m watching the final day of the Masters. I’ve backed Mcilroy and I’ve also backed him to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year. About to tee off. Solving time tomorrow likely to be impaired if he wins – or loses!

    Would tee off count as a deletion indicator for the letter T?

    Edited at 2018-04-08 06:41 pm (UTC)

    1. Sorry, that could have been clearer. Cryptic definition, yes.
      In the literal reading ‘windy’ means ‘winding’. So the river OUSE is defined as a wet and winding thing in North Yorkshire.
      The cryptic reading is of course a statement about the weather.

      Edited at 2018-04-09 09:44 pm (UTC)

  16. In the parsing of 12 across OR is supposed to be men – is this a British reference?
    Puzzled in Canada
    1. I, being a puzzled Canadian as well, googled it and found the following –
      Other Ranks – OR (military term for non-commissioned ranks)
  17. Hi Puzzled in Canada. The other puzzled Canadian is right: it’s short for ‘other ranks’. Remember it, because it’s very common in cryptic crosswords.

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