Sunday Times 4884 by Robert Price – galled rocks

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
19:29. I thought this was quite tricky, but a really interesting puzzle with some excellent clues and a nice range of references. No literature to speak of, but nothing too obscure other than perhaps the rocks: one of them looked very likely but the other was more of a fingers-crossed job even if the wordplay was as clear as it could possibly be.

I have one query at 15ac, which perhaps someone can help me with, but otherwise this was all very clear. Edit: it’s not surprising I had a query with this clue as my answer was wrong! See below.

So thanks to Bob for a lovely puzzle and here’s how I think it all works…

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

Across
1 Change direction about food, say, backing something meat-free
VEGEBURGER – VEER containing (about) a reversal of GRUB, EG. A bit of déjà vu all over again with this one, as the same answer appeared in the same place in puzzle 27,323 (11 April last year) and prompted a bit of comment on the basis that some people would expect it to be spelled VEGGIE BURGER. It can be, of course. There is a new breed of vegetarian burgers (called things like ‘miracle’) that are supposed to mimic the taste of meat very closely. I haven’t tried one.
6 Cease endless pressure or crack
QUIP – QUIt, P.
9 Second scorer for West Ham’s drunk
LISZT – CD, because Franz is the second composer (scorer) in the Cockney (West Ham) rhyming slang expression for ‘squiffy’, after Brahms.
10 Soldier in an attempt to win victory for England
AGINCOURT – A(GI)N, COURT (attempt to win).
12 Faultless record held by sailor regarding fish
ABOVE REPROACH – AB, OVER(EP), ROACH. This took a while because ‘beyond’ is the more familiar form of this expression to me.
14 Canine still loves the fancy collars
EYETOOTH – (THE)* containing YET, OO (loves).
15 Failing, move treacherously from side to side
DEFECT – I’m struggling a bit with the first definition here. Collins has ‘fail (someone) when most needed’ as a definition of ‘desert’, but I can’t get from that to ‘failing’. You could describe a piece of ‘desert’ land as ‘failing’ to produce crops, perhaps? I’m not sure what’s intended though. What do you think? The reason I couldn’t explain my original answer of DESERT is, of course, because it was wrong. But it was close enough for me to think I must just be missing something. DOH!
17 Upset tin full of fish
SHAKEN – S(HAKE)N. Sn being the chemical symbol for a can, of course.
19 Laundry instruction one’s left in red lacy pants
DRY-CLEAN – (iN RED LACY)*. Or more accurately perhaps (IN RED LACY)* with an I removed.
21 It’s partly imaginary, this obsession with ketamine?
COMPLEX NUMBER – COMPLEX (obsession), NUMBER (thing that numbs, e.g. ketamine). ‘A complex number is a number that can be expressed in the form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers, and i is a solution of the equation x2 = −1. Because no real number satisfies this equation, i is called an imaginary number.’ I remember doing complex and imaginary numbers at school and finding it all very interesting, but that’s pretty much all I remember.
24 Can the first one in help in the kitchen?
TIN-OPENER – TIN (can), OPENER (the first one, i.e. batsman, in).
25 It’s among the last components of an older explosive
NITRE – aN (IT), oldeR, explosivE. Nitre (saltpetre) is one of the components of old gunpowder, so this is a clever &Lit.
26 Little bother
DASH – DD.
27 They’re not fair only plugging trendy gelati
INJUSTICES – IN(JUST), ICES. ‘Gelati’ being Italian for ice creams.

Down
1 Animal passion almost rising to ecstasy
VOLE – reversal (rising) of LOVe, E.
2 Blow up a game reserve
GO SPARE – GO (a game), SPARE (reserve).
3 Only undergarment visible after fastening belt up
BUTTON ONES LIP – BUTTON, ONE SLIP.
4 Chemicals are dropping down a toilet
REAGENTS – ARE with the A dropping to give REA, then GENTS.
5 Skip over some novel ideas
ELIDE – contained in ‘novel ideas.’
7 Howl from girl over spilt tea
ULULATE – reversal of LULU, (TEA)*.
8 Rock song originally separating two musical qualities
PITCHSTONE – PITCH(Song), TONE. The first of two rocks that were unknown to me.
11 What might display China’s control over ministers
CORNER CABINET – CORNER (control, as in a market), CABINET (ministers). This one took me a while to see: these items of furniture are not a prominent part of my everyday existence.
13 Did hound rescue pet mistreated by duke?
PERSECUTED – (RESCUE PET)*, D.
16 Ornamentation adjusted for uniform twice
FROUFROU – (FOR U)* x2.
18 Nuts topped fish dish every now and again
ALMONDS – sALMON, DiSh.
20 Sort of rock Cartier fashioned
ERRATIC – (CARTIER)*. ‘A piece of rock that differs in composition, shape, etc, from the rock surrounding it, having been transported from its place of origin, esp by glacial action.’ The second unknown rock for me, and one that looked sufficiently unlikely that I needed all the checkers to believe it could possibly be the answer.
22 Finally, burn energy by turning on gas
XENON – reversal (turning) of burN, E, X (by), then ON.
23 At shed, perspiring, lifting trees
YEWS – reversal of SWEatY.

29 comments on “Sunday Times 4884 by Robert Price – galled rocks”

    1. That’ll be why I’m stuggling to understand it! It seemed close enough, but the old adage that if you can’t parse it it’s probably wrong applies doubly to blogging days! How embarrassing.
  2. A toughie, but fun. It would have been a bit less tough if I had known, say, what ketamine is, or GO SPARE, or where West Ham is, or the CRS phrase. I never did parse XENON; the N_N suggested the X, which with the U_B suggested the answer to 21ac. DNK the rocks either, of course, but the wordplay was clear. POI 2d, where I finally thought of SPARE for ‘reserve’, which forced LOI LISZT on me, whether I will or nill.
  3. I had DEFECT too. A defect is a failing, and defect is moving from (eg) Soviet union to the West. I thought this was a nice puzzle.
    1. Indeed, thanks. I didn’t think twice about it when solving, although I can’t now remember what sense of ‘failing’ I didn’t think twice about.

      Edited at 2020-01-12 06:36 am (UTC)

  4. I just checked my grid now that it can be scored and DEFECT is all green. Unfortunately I discovered I put VEGIBURGER so I had one wrong too. I wish I’d not looked since I’d never have noticed otherwise.
  5. We have a pangram. 6 minutes short of an hour for this one but at least 20 of those were spent at the end coming up with CORNER to go with CABINET (okay, I had a blind spot, it shouldn’t have been that difficult), and a lengthy alphabet trawl on ???E?T at 15ac before arriving eventually at DEFECT.

    I think we were due a puzzle from Dean today but instead we have another one from David McLean.

    Edited at 2020-01-12 06:33 am (UTC)

    2. I think I’d convinced myself that when the jumbo moved from 22 Dec to 29 Dec, I swapped David and Dean’s spots, when I actually didn’t. When I sent out the 2020 schedule, I adjusted the sequence to “compensate”. None of the setters noticed this at the time, so my current intention is to continue the sequence with Dean next week, rather than have this kind of discussion again …
      1. Thanks for explaining, Peter. It’s no big deal of course (especially to me as someone who prefers the anonymity of the daily Times setters), but it’s a point of interest for many around here so that if I hadn’t raised it I’m sure somebody else would have.
  6. ….A GIN COURT ?

    I was slow to start this, but, once I got a foothold, things went fairly smoothly. My initial tardiness wasn’t helped by trying to find a dog at 14A which was fine example of a “blind alley” clue.

    When I spotted the pangram, it was of no help, since my last couple of clues contained no “obscure” letters.

    The penultimate answer was the biffed ERRATIC, and checking Chambers later revealed a “block or boulder”.

    FOI DRY-CLEAN
    LOI DASH
    COD CORNER CABINET *
    TIME 12:38

    * Whenever I watch an antiques show, I remember my parents’ CORNER CABINET, which went to a house clearance along with its contents in 1994. There was a Japanese coffee set in there which, with hindsight, I should have retained. I’m sure it was more valuable than I realised.

  7. I had PITCHBLEND at 8dn which made 15ac nigh on impossible. As a word PITCHBLEND is far superior to PITCHSTONE IMHO – but it doesn’t parse as well.

    FOI 13dn PERSECUTED

    COD 9ac LISZT one of the CROs where both words are generally used. It should be noted that ‘squiffy’ was not used around the Boleyn Ground (Upton Park) but ‘pissed’.
    More PC folks from the West End might use ‘Thames and Liffey’.

    WOD 7dn ULULATE

    My Grandparents had a splendid pair of Curzon Cabinets, which might not have fitted.

    Time immemorial

    Edited at 2020-01-12 07:21 am (UTC)

    1. The other problem with PITCHBLEND is that it wouldn’t fit; it’s spelled PITCHBLENDE.
  8. the alternative is to be found as a band of rock at Reading in Berkshire. Please check out Wikipedia.

    Edited at 2020-01-12 08:16 am (UTC)

  9. Started this on paper and finished on the computer so I can see that after my first session I had completed the NW and SE. FOI was VOLE, a nice start. Can’t remember my LOI but probably QUIP, after remembering the See a U try a Q mantra. Hold-ups were SHAKEN and DEFECT and ALMONDS. ERRATIC went in with a shrug; DNK this meaning.
    Another enjoyable puzzle from Robert with some interesting clues. Needed all the checkers for LISZT; but when I got it eventually I smiled, so COD to that.
    David
  10. Geology is one of the few areas where I generally don’t have trouble. When I say ‘areas’ in the plural I can only think of birds to accompany geology. Now you know why these crosswords take me 30 minutes.
    K I rather enjoyed the irony of ‘failing’.
    Thanks all.
  11. 32 minutes, with the DESERT to DEFECT taking time as I pondered anew and came up with the answer that fitted both definitions. I’m not sure I knew FROUFROU but when I constructed it I seemed to know its meaning. COD has to go to complex number from a physicist. I apparently have an ancient relative who fought at Agincourt. Some place names around Heptonstall in Yorkshire bear witness to a bunch of mercenaries including one with my surname joining the band of brothers. The surname had only started a few decades before, after the Black Death caused the break-up of the manor of Utley fifteen miles further north. Lovely puzzle. Thank you K and Robert.

    Edited at 2020-01-12 08:57 am (UTC)

  12. 17:48… but a pink square for VEGIBURGER (sic). Time I learnt to spell. I got to 19A before being able to put one in and struggled with a few. NHO FROU-FROU (my LOI) so had to look that up to check as well as that meaning of ERRATIC. I liked ALMONDS (my SLOI) when I saw it, but EYETOOTH was fun too. Thanks Bob and K.
  13. Oh how I wish I had delayed two seconds and submitted at 14:15! It would have been a nice link to 10 across.

    I enjoyed this and managed a decent time.

    COD: LISZT.

  14. I thought this was a nice, tightly clued, puzzle. I particularly like that the definitions are not telegraphed by some nuance or usage in the rest of the clue. I was chuffed to get and parse Xenon, and I mis-parsed Erratic as something that rocks back and forth could be erratic. NHO Brahms and Liszt, but now I’m wised up. thanks robt, pb, and keriothe
  15. A most enjoyable puzzle. I think COMPLEX NUMBER is my COD too. FROUFROU was from wordplay but didn’t seem at all unlikely. LISZT raised a smile, as did AGINCOURT. DEFECT sprang straight to mind fortunately. Had look up ERRATIC rocks after the event though. Lots to like! 26:30. Thanks Bob and K.

    Edited at 2020-01-12 11:25 am (UTC)

  16. I can sympathise with getting a letter wrong, as I realised I’d submitted today’s with one letter wrong about five minutes after I pushed the button. Curses!

    This one I found quite difficult, but at least finished correctly. I found the top half harder going than the bottom, starting off with 23d YEWS and finishing off with 11d CORNER CABINET. I spent ten or more years as a vegetarian, so at least I knew there were different spellings of VEGEBURGER to choose from…

    Nice to see a bit of maths and science here; COD 4d REAGENTS and I enjoyed 21a though I biffed it almost as soon as I’d seen “It’s partly imaginary…” and the enumeration. (Makes a change from feeling undereducated because I’ve not heard of some 15th century composer or other!)

  17. 27:17. I found this quite testing. Pitchstone and erratic were derived from wp. I had a moment’s hesitation over the first word at 11dn and at 26ac where I wondered if there weren’t better alternatives that I hadn’t considered.
  18. I didn’t know the two stones either, but the only thing unparsed before I read the blog was the CRS… though I know I’ve come across that one before. CORNER CABINET was slow in coming to me too. COMPLEX NUMBER gets my vote for COD.
  19. One of the bloggers, (perhaps it’s yourself Keriothe, the old grey mare ain’t what she used to be)  spends some time in Canada. If you/they are ever travelling on the southbound Spadina streetcar there’s a great example of an erratic, a  large black boulder,  right outside Lord Landsdowne Public School on Spadina Crescent. The nearest rock of its type is in the Parry Sound area, 250km away.

    BTW, thank you all for your hard work at the blogging, always much appreciated.

    Tom McGuirk Toronto.

    1. Yes, that’s me. My wife is Canadian and hence so are my kids, and we spend every summer and every other Christmas at our cottage in the Kawarthas. We don’t make it into the city very often but I’ll look out for it next time I’m in the vicinity!
  20. Thanks Robert and keriothe
    The serendipity of doing puzzles from different time spans – it was only recently when I did the Times cryptic with the VEGEBURGER discussion !
    Found this one quite difficult, taking over two hours across a number of sittings to finally get it finished. Fortunately DEFECT came without any thoughts of DESERT – still took a little time to get my head around the second bit … and thought that it was quite clever when I did.
    Thought that a pangram was in the making during the solve and then forgot about it with all of the breaks, so it was of no benefit.
    COMPLEX NUMBERS was my cod – they were a favourite area of maths at the time. For some reason, PERSECUTED was the first one in and quite some time later the next day DASH put the puzzle to rest.

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