Sunday Times 4800 by Dean Mayer

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
13:21. A pretty straightforward puzzle by Dean’s standards this week. The word at 20ac was only very vaguely familiar, and I don’t remember coming across the River Nene before, but everything else was within my ken. Enjoyable stuff though, as always.

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

Across
1 Subject to selection, 25% off
TOPIC – TO, PICk.
4 Second hint’s provided in “reduce”
SIMPLIFY – S, IMPL(IF)Y. Slightly tricky wordplay here: hint has provided in [it], so IMPLY (hint) has IF (provided) in [it].
8 Potentially a senior army and navy chap
ORDINARY SEAMAN – (A SENIOR ARMY AND)*.
10 Put back in wardrobe is enormous jumpsuit
ONESIE – contained reversed in ‘wardrobe is enormous’.
11 The man would run into ring, being two-faced
DIHEDRAL – DI(HE’D, R)AL.
13 Set-back for one place in development
GESTATION – EG (for one) reversed (set back), STATION.
15 Work function’s first dance
TANGO – TAN (function), GO (work).
16 Pretend to be alien – or missing
FEIGN – ForEIGN.
18 So the mare’s chopped up for it?
HORSEMEAT – (SO THE MARE)*. Semi-&Lit.
20 Shop has an idea for a tattoo
RATAPLAN – RAT (shop), A PLAN. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew this was a word, and have somehow come to associate it with La Fille du Regiment, an opera I have never seen. Funny how these useless odds and ends can become lodged in the memory.
21 One’s hope against one’s true fancy
VIRTUE – V, I, (TRUE)*. Faith, hope and charity are the three Christian theological virtues.
24 Being in fear
CLAUSTROPHOBIA – CD.
25 Like dad’s friend, catching a sea bird
PATERNAL – P(A TERN)AL.
26 Fish being found under bridge?
TROLL – DD.

Down
1 Charge applied after sweeping road
THOROUGHFARE – THOROUGH (sweeping), FARE (charge).
2 On which one may write about priest
PADRE – PAD (on which one may write), RE.
3 Two containers on a bar
CANTINA – CAN, TIN, A. The one in Mos Eisley is the most familiar example to me.
4 Small rescue vessel for island
SARK – S, ARK.
5 Is Israel blocking sacred female evangelist?
MISSIONARY – M(IS, SION)ARY.
6 Most unproductive life, but not if given a home
LEANEST – LifE, A NEST.
7 Nice location to inhale badger’s scent
FRAGRANCE – FRANCE (Nice location) containing RAG (badger).
9 Observer newspaper’s possible target?
FLY ON THE WALL – because you might swat a fly with a (rolled-up) newspaper.
12 Put off food, worried about recipe
DISHEARTEN – DISH, EA(R)TEN.
14 A tiny bit wrong, cultivator said
SCINTILLA – sounds like ‘sin tiller’.
17 Trident carrier put bombs in river
NEPTUNE – NENE containing (PUT)*. Not a river I had heard of.
19 Record that thing without the name
EPITHET – EP, I(THE)T.
22 Not on the bill, a couple of rounds?
TABOO – TAB, O, O.
23 The first to hear bird scream
HOWL -Hear, OWL.

30 comments on “Sunday Times 4800 by Dean Mayer”

  1. Had never heard of the river Nene (only the Hawaiian bird). Not sure I’d heard of DIHEDRAL, either, but worked it out.

    I think Dean’s are usually harder than Jeff’s, right? (The one by David McLean I have to blog next week seems pretty gentle so far.)

    Edited at 2018-06-03 12:29 am (UTC)

  2. A Dean puzzle that I can do in under a half-hour is definitely an easy one. DNK ONESIE, my LOI, and didn’t know R was an abbreviation for ‘recipe’. Did, however, know of the Nene, which must have appeared here recently, or I don’t see how I could have learned it. I think I knew RATAPLAN from something I read in high school French–it’s a French word–but also from Sullivan’s ‘Cox and Box’, where Bouncer has a song featuring it. Liked 7d and 22d inter alia, but COD to CLAUSTROPHOBIA.
  3. In my case, if I can solve an Anax puzzle in under an hour, then, it’s a straightforward one. The only clue that I couldn’t quite parse (but did solve) was 6d: LEANEST, so, thanks, keriothe. Making the leap from Israel to Sion in 5d was also tricky but I got there.
    As ever, there were some terrific clues. My favourite was “Being in fear”. Dean is always succinct.
  4. Saturday 14 April 2018 (blogged on 21st)

    15 Make cultivated land with river rising around it (9)
    ENLIGHTEN: NENE (the river), backwards around LIGHT.

    Fairly straightforward for a Dean Mayer ST puzzle. My only completely unknown answer being RATAPLAN, but the wordplay was helpful.

    Yes, R for ‘recipe’ was unusual but SOED has it with specific reference to medicine / pharmacy.

    Trolls under bridges were only known to me through the recording of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ as performed by Frank Luther played relentlessly by ‘Uncle Mac’ on ‘Children’s Favourites’ in the 1950s and early 1960s. It’s not even mentioned in the long Wiki article about the folk-tale.

    Until the final checked letter ruled it out I thought ‘Being in fear’ (24ac) was CLAUSTROPHOBIC, and I’m still of the opinion that it’s a better answer than CLAUSTROPHOBIA.

    Edited at 2018-06-03 05:02 am (UTC)

    1. I’m no doubt missing something, but I don’t see how CLAUSTROPHOBIC would work, since the specific fear, of enclosed spaces, wouldn’t be referred to. Whereas CLAUSTROPHOBIA is the being-in fear.
      Relieved to know that I did first learn of the mighty Nene here; surprised it was that recently.
      1. No, I was missing something, Kevin. Shame I can’t edit my comment now! Apologies to Dean anyway, as I know he usually visits.
    2. Ah yes. Oops! I didn’t comment on that blog so I can only assume I biffed the answer and didn’t think twice about it.
      I never heard that version, but the troll under the bridge (‘who’s that trip-trapping over my bridge?’) is of course pretty fundamental to any telling of the tale.

      Edited at 2018-06-03 07:39 am (UTC)

  5. I wonder if that heading gets this post blocked. As with Jack, my knowledge of trolls comes via Uncle Mac. “Goodbye children, everywhere.” I remember a joke about how then he would then click off the microphone and mutter expletives about children in general and his listeners in particular. DNK RATAPLAN, constructed from cryptic and crossers. LOI VIRTUE, which had me going through the seven before the clanging cymbal of I Corinthians 13 was heard. COD to CLAUSTROPHOBIA by a short head from FLY ON THE WALL. Quite slow compared with previous posters on this pleasant puzzle at 39 minutes. Thank you K and Dean.

    Edited at 2018-06-03 06:19 am (UTC)

    1. There was an Uncle Mac type on US radio way back when, who once, not realizing his mike was still on, said something like “That should take care of the little bastards for another day.” That turned out to be his final broadcast. I remember reading, or being read, “Three Billy Goats Gruff”, although according to my mother my favorite story was about some squirrel. It was my favorite because it made my father laugh; he would break up trying to tell me that Jimmy the Squirrel had the finest nuts in the whole forest.
      1. That’s more or less the story I heard. I didn’t want to hear it of Uncle Mac so I’m pleased it was someone else, if not apocryphal. I sympathise though. I had a vacation job at the Cambridge Hall in Southport in the mid sixties. The wrestling night, the brass band concerts and the tea dances were terrific. The lowlight was Uncle Charlie’s Children’s Party, with its talent show in the middle. As the twelfth ten-year old girl in a row got up to sing Edelweiss, I lost the will to live. I doubt if it was the career Charlie planned either when he first played the trumpet in a jazz band.
  6. 19:33 with RATAPLAN, my LOI, the only unknown. Living in East Anglia, I knew of the River Nene as it passes through Peterborough and Wisbech and on to The Wash. Some nice clues as ever from Dean. HORSEMEAT my favourite.
    1. I spent many happy childhood days fishing in the Nene around Peterborough, where we pronounced it “Neen”. I now live in Northants, where for some reason they insist on pronouncing it “Nenn”.

      Anyway, I finished in 39:02 which is about usual for the Sunday cryptic.

      Thanks blogger, setter and commenters.

  7. I sang in a production of Fille du Regiment in Hong Kong a few years ago – my operatic bow. It actually spoils a chorus member to bother with any other opera, as a) you are in the title and b) you are on stage singing (not holding a spear) for most of the first half.

    38 minutes says the iPad, with no cheats that I can remember. Oundle School, against whom we used to play rugby, is on the River Nene, so lots in my favour here. Not that you would know it from the time.

    Edited at 2018-06-03 06:45 am (UTC)

    1. I hope you had a good tenor. The only other thing I know about the opera is the aria with however many high Cs in it. I really must see it one of these days, but it’s not done that much, presumably because it takes a brave tenor to take it on when everyone can compare you to Pavarotti with a click of the mouse.

      Edited at 2018-06-03 07:44 am (UTC)

        1. Lovely. I guess old Juan Diego would have stretched the budget a bit. I saw him a few years ago in Orphée et Eurydice. He’s not bad.
          1. Yes, I doubt we’d have got our 20 quid honorarium if we’d got JDF
      2. I’ve just sent you a message about La fille du régiment and been informed that it’s been deemed spam. Don’t know if you can retrieve it.

        Tom (and Jan) Toronto.

        1. No, it hasn’t shown up and isn’t in my spam folder either. Feel free to comment here – no-one’s reading this any more!
          How’s the weather in Toronto? It seems to have cooled down a bit. I’m flying there on Thursday!
  8. DNF in 30 mins. I didn’t find Onesie despite looking back for it and I had no Virtue.

    COD Claustrophobia just pipping Fly On The Wall. I had Man On The Spot for a while which delayed me somewhat

  9. 19 minutes, my printout says, with RATAPLAN a guess from word play, the rest fine. Seen the Nene before.

    Anyone else done the Guardian Prize this weekend? Super puzzle with a clever theme.

  10. A bit stickier for me in nearly 24 minutes: FLY ON THE WALL took quite a lot of that until I realised that Observer and newspaper needed separation.
    “Being in” fear was concise and clever, and my favourite clue.
    Wiki credits Churchill with the invention of the siren suit, forerunner of the ONESIE. The debate over whether it is appropriate for Tesco’s (or more especially Marks and Spencer) is still a live issue in my corner of Essex, Churchill’s long time constituency.
  11. Just over the hour for this relatively straightforward offering. I should’ve been a fair bit quicker but managed to throw a spanner (or rather a trout) in the works by biffing the aforementioned fish at 26ac. Having the wrong final checker meant 9dn took me ages to get. When I eventually realised the first word was “fly”, 9dn went in and I corrected 26ac to troll. COD to the brilliant “being in fear”.
  12. 35 minutes with RATAPLAN unknown.
    FLY ON THE WALL, CLAUSTROPHOBIA and ORDINARY SEAMAN were very good but COD to HORSEMEAT.
  13. This is, I think, the first Dean puzzle I’ve solved correctly in under 30 minutes. I’m usually between 40 minutes and an hour, so obviously a gentler challenge than usual. TOPIC first in followed by CANTINA, a word I knew mainly from Ralph McTell’s song, El Progresso. #Down in the cantina, I was dancing cheek to cheek, with a dark eyed senorita with a rose between her teeth. I said is that the rose I smell, well upon your breath so sweet, and she gave me a look that made me tremble from my head down to my feet#. It’s a song about a cigarette! Lots of great clues, CLAUSTROPHOBIA, HORSEMEAT, MISSIONARY….. Most enjoyable. RATAPLAN and DIHEDRAL (I considered BIHEDRAL, but the wordplay won out) had to be constructed, otherwise nothing too obscure. I considered TROUT at 26a, but then remembered the Three Billy Goats Gruff. 27:39. Thanks Dean and K.
  14. I struggled with this and ended up getting about half of it.
    I did get Thoroughfare and Onesie but even with those helpful letters the clues proved intractable. And I am aware of the river Nene. Dihedral and Rataplan unknown so would have been difficult anyway. David

    1. I’m not sure how I’d have fared with RATAPLAN if I didn’t recognise it. It doesn’t obviously pass the ‘looks like a word’ test, and ‘idea’ is not the most direct synonym for PLAN.
  15. Like Ulaca, I sing in a choir. Like his lot we once did the RATAPLAN chorus from “Daughter of the Regiment”. Our men had fun with that and the ladies later cackled through the “Witches Chorus” from Verdi’s MacBeth. By some coincidence we are doing the Witches again next Saturday while the men try to sing the Anvil Chorus. Summer madness. I saw DotR once when a friend of mine was singing the tenor lead. A light voice but he hit those top Cs. A real test of nerves. I took longer than usual on this puzzle because I couldn’t see the FLY ON THE WALL for ages and that screwed up the RH clues. 45 minutes. Ann

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