Sunday Times 4874 by David McLean

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
19:24. A tricky and interesting puzzle from Harry this week. Most of these clues are really very straightforward, but they throw you (OK me) off track by deploying slightly off-beat or unexpected meanings of words. Going through them properly for the purpose of writing the blog, I really can’t see what on earth I found difficult about any of them. This is generally the mark of a first-class puzzle, and that’s what this is.

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

Across
1 South American prison survey
SCAN – S, CAN. I don’t think of CAN as a specifically American word, but ODO says it is and that’s good enough for me.
4 Old royal beaten up by old mayor
BLOODY MARY – (BY OLD MAYOR)*. Mary I, who earned this moniker by having as many protestants as possible killed before her half-sister Elizabeth could stop the fun.
9 Primate some find risible
INDRIS – contained in ‘find risible’. I hadn’t heard of this type of short-tailed lemur found in Madagascar but the wordplay was clear so as soon as I had a checker it went in.
10 Developer’s provided with tricks and hints
SOUPCONS – SOUP (developer), CONS (tricks). When solving I thought this might be a reference to the ‘primordial SOUP’ that is a developer of early life (kind of) but it turns out SOUP is a word for a photographic developer. I don’t really know what this means either but I assume it’s the sort of bath thing that people dip photos into in dark rooms in movies.
11 Don’t forget about one in the club, say
REMEMBER – RE, MEMBER.
12 A perhaps reflective number from The Edge
SIDE-ON – SIDE (A, perhaps, the other side being the B side), reversal of NO. Not a U2 reference as it appears.
13 County bigwig trade union tells, mostly, to go to hell
LORD LIEUTENANT – (TRADE UNION TELLs)*. I’ve no idea what these people do but I met one once and he was posher than I had previously believed possible and quite extraordinarily pleased with himself.
16 A flight to East London?
APPLES AND PEARS – not very cryptic definition. Still took me a few checkers to twig though.
20 China possibly to back one who supports Bush
PROTEA – PRO (one who supports), TEA (China possibly). I worried a bit that BRATEA might be a thing but this looked altogether more likely.
22 A guy carrying mug and small tumblers
ACROBATS – A, C(ROB)AT, S. The guy is a CAT, the mug (verb) is ROB.
24 Woman close to Ohio is stuck in traffic?
CAROLINE – CAR(ohiO)LINE. CARLINE, geddit?
25 Groovy tango track many bought by female group
WITH IT – WI (female group), T (tango), HIT (track many bought).
26 Hope a store abandoned offensive kid’s toy
PEASHOOTER – (HOPE A STORE)*. Much more likely to be a Nerf gun these days.
27 Idle talk about the Fringe from Ernie Wise
SAGE – reversal of GAS (idle talk), Ernie or possibly erniE.

Down
2 Criminal girl that’s taken in English clot
CONGEAL – CON, G(E)AL.
3 Sauce bottle
NERVE – DD. This must be a chestnut, surely? I can’t specifically remember seeing it before but this setter did clue DUTCH COURAGE as ‘bottle of sauce?’ a couple of years ago (4753).
4 Vulgar parties which are thrown by sports people?
BASEBALLS – or BASE (vulgar) BALLS (parties).
5 Keep watch
OBSERVE – DD.
6 Got to welcome queen with second Bacardi and Coke?
DRUGS – DUG (got, as in ‘do you dig Hendrix?’) containing R (queen), S. I think the idea here is that alcohol and cocaine are both drugs, hence the plural.
7 Country club fellow, one with class essentially
MACEDONIA – MACE, DON, I, clAss.
8 Weak résumé
RUNDOWN – ‘Weak’ seemed a bit oblique to me, but I suppose weakness is generally a part of feeling under the weather or RUN DOWN. This meaning needs a space between the words so it’s (very mildly) cryptic wordplay rather than a second definition.
14 It is not real somehow
RELATIONS – (IS NOT REAL)*. The definition is channelling Eric Idle, of course.
15 First-class prize fund to be raised
TOP-DRAWER – reversal of REWARD POT. Again, this must be a chestnut, surely?
17 Have some grounds to arrest volunteers on ecstasy
PARTAKE – PAR(TA)K, E. Very cunningly concealed definition.
18 Most tidy home — worry going inside it
NEATEST – N(EAT)EST.
19 Southern bishop dropping out of gambling scene
SETTING – S, bETTING.
21 In the morning, I leave for China from Spain
AMIGO – AM, I, GO.
23 Objections reportedly could mean the end of cigarettes
BUTTS – sounds like ‘buts’.

20 comments on “Sunday Times 4874 by David McLean”

  1. My last one in was CAROLINE. “Car line” being kinda goofy…
    RUNDOWN is hyphenated for this sense in Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, and Collins, but it’s not an obscure sense (possibly more American than British, though).
    As an inveterate pothead (who is, however, about to pour himself some Heaven’s Door Tennesse bourbon), I applaud the recognition that alcohol is a drug. Cheers!
  2. I’m not sure now what slowed me down, other than LOI CAROLINE, where it took me forever to entertain the possibility that ‘Woman’ was the definition. DNK (or DNR didn’t remember) APPLES AND PEARS, but with ‘flight’ always meaning ‘stairs’, I figured CRS; DNK SOUP but made what turned out to be the correct assumption. Biffed LORD LIEUTENANT mainly from the enumeration. I liked PARTAKE and RELATIONS; if we must have IT, this is the way to have it.
    Today’s puzzle has some stellar clues.
    1. was the first CRS I ever learnt. I would say this phrase is almost universal in the UK and hardly restricted to Bow.

      My old man, not a ‘sparra’, used to say most nights, ‘Bedtime boys, get up them apples!’

      Note only the first part was used, else the shibboleth would be broken.

  3. John here, Canadian … visited London for your ‘fake news Brexit’ week (I’m really more Nix It) … so thrilling to do the puzzle in real time rather than on the two-week publication delay on my farm near Toronto … DNF after striking out on PROTEA and PARTAKE … possible alt interpretation of 25 Ac: Groovy tango track many bought by female group = WITH-IT … women’s group = W; tango = it (it does take 2); track many bought = hit … but of course that would double up on the ‘it’ refs in the puzzle, which is a bit lame … enjoyed as always nonetheless, although I’m usually tripped by some obscure Brit reference … Cheers
  4. ….Sweet CAROLINE (Neil Diamond – an earworm on Sunday evening).

    A really enjoyable puzzle. Parsed SIDE-ON afterwards.

    FOI SCAN
    LOI CAROLINE
    COD BASEBALLS
    TIME 13:21

  5. 48 minutes, so not quick. I had a girlfriend called CAROLINE back then, who lasted from The Fortunes to Neil Diamond, and who sadly I learnt recently has died, so COD to her. I also liked BLOODY MARY. Memories of rocking the tray for my plates of the Sodium D lines in a Clarendon dark room helped me with SOUPCONS, although I also thought it might refer to the primordial soup. A good puzzle. Thank you K and David.
  6. I agree with our blogger’s assessment of this puzzle, on the tricky side.
    My FOI was BUTTS and my solve was bottom up. I knew PROTEAS only as the nickname of the South African cricket team (mention of any other sports strictly off-limits), and INDRIS must have come up before as it seemed vaguely familiar.
    In the end I got stuck in the NE. 6d seemed completely impenetrable and even when explained induces a shrug rather than anything else. And I failed to see RUNDOWN and SOUPCONS (another shrug). But the rest I enjoyed.
    David
  7. I made really hard work of this, taking 64:53 to get through. LOI was SOUPCONs with the soup bit not understood, so thanks to K for that. MACEDONIA, PARTAKE, CAROLINE and BLOODY MARY all exercised the neurons way beyond the call of duty. Relieved to have survived the onslaught! Well played Harry, and thanks again K.
  8. If anyone’s wondering what a PROTEA looks like, here’s a photo I took of a Protea Aristata at the National Botanic Garden of Wales back in July. At least they look pretty memorable, and I suppose remembering the name long enough to tag the photograph probably helped it edge into the fringes of my brain…

    The rest of this took me an hour and eight minutes, so quite the workout. FOI 1a SCAN LOI 6d where it took me quite a while to classify Bacardi under DRUGS. Wasn’t sure about the “soup” in 10a, either, and I’ve developed and printed my own photos every now and again. Slang didn’t come up on the darkroom course!

  9. 10A’s soup is “photographic developer” meaning the liquid rather than a person.
  10. 14dn was the sex, 6dn the drugs and 24ac radio Caroline for the music.

    Was beaten by 10ac SOUPCONS (plural!)and 6dn DRUGS which was rather forced IMHO. Bacardi a drug!!? Bacardi 151 yes! But they don’t make it anymore. The setter has obviously never been to Cuba! Bac is regarded as ‘gripe water!’ in Habana – ‘Bahamian Rhapsody’ – not the real thing, unlike Coke!

    FOI 1ac SCAN

    COD 4ac BLOODY MARY

    WOD 26ac PEA SHOOTER!

  11. 39:28. I found this puzzle tricky in parts but very entertaining. DNK the primate in 9ac and went down a couple of blind alleys trying to justify soup for developer in 10ac (peasouper? Oxford University Press?) but “hints” left little room for doubt. Never really thought of Bacardi as an example of 6ac. I suppose it is but that was entered with a shrug. This cat really dug 4ac, 16ac, 24ac, 26ac and 14dn which were all groovy, baby.
  12. 25:30. Enjoyable solve, although I failed to parse SOUPCON. LOI CAROLINE. I enjoyed SIDE-ON, CONGEAL, NERVE and SAGE.
    1. This is officially true since February 2019, but I’ve no doubt the country will continue to be commonly referred to as ‘Macedonia’ for a long time.
    2. “Country” can also refer to a region. First definition under American ones in Collins online: “an area of land, region”; then there’s “the whole land or area of a nation or state”; British: “1. a territory distinguished by its people, culture, language, geography, etc 2. an area of land distinguished by its political autonomy; state.”

      A typical comment, though, from Mr. or Ms. Anonymous!

      1. Indeed, and usage doesn’t necessarily match the official nomenclature. I would certainly expect an ‘old’ qualification for Ceylon these days but the name of what was Macedonia has only just changed (after a very long dispute with Greece).
  15. Only a month after the rest of you. LOI 10a SOUPÇONS, without parsing properly ( another in the primordial soup set) , so thank you Keriothe. 45 mins early on a very hot summer morning before work.
  16. Thanks David and keriothe
    Unusual inasmuch as was able to sit down and complete this in one session – sad that it still took well over the hour to get it out though.
    A couple of new terms for me with OCEANAUT and LORD LIEUTENANT, however I was aware of the Madagascan lemur from another area of puzzle land. As always a good combination of tricky word play and interesting twists with the definitions to keep one on one’s toes all the way through. Chuckled at CAROLINE when the penny dropped.
    Finished in the NE corner with SOUPCONS (that I never did parse the SOUP bit) and DRUGS (when I finally convinced myself that ‘Bacardi’ could be termed as a drug.

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