Sunday Times 4900 by David McLean – pandemic edition

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
9:53. A fairly straightforward puzzle from Harry this week, with nothing unknown to me in the answers and only one unfamiliar city in the wordplay. A few rather painfully topical clues in this age of pandemic and lockdown. A good fun puzzle in spite of that!

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

Across
1 One slice of damson on a cold tart
ACID – A, C, I, Damson.
4 Alicia’s not worried self-isolating
ANTISOCIAL – (ALICIA’S NOT)*. Very topical.
9 America, get rowdy about grasping president
ORTEGA – contained in ‘America get rowdy’, reversed. I knew Daniel ORTEGA as the leader of the Sandinista government of Nicaragua in the 80s but I had somehow missed that he is also the current President, and has been since 2007.
10 I throw mud at one from eleven, perhaps
ISLANDER – I SLANDER (throw mud at). 11 being BARBADOS.
11 Country pub associated with poor sailor
BARBADOS – BAR, BAD, OS (ordinary seaman).
12 Ducks like going around space
AVOIDS – A(VOID)S.
13 Singer criminal stabbed in error
ROBIN REDBREAST – (STABBED IN ERROR)*.
16 Old royal that freed large snakes
ALFRED THE GREAT – (THAT FREED LARGE)*.
20 A kid free from any awkwardness
AT EASE – A, TEASE.
22 To cheer up British nurse, it’s correct to get inside!
BRIGHTEN – B(RIGHT), EN (enrolled nurse). Another very topical one!
24 Dope smuggled by stooge with loud voice
PLANGENT – PLAN(GEN)T.
25 Casually read a service
PERUSE – PER (a), USE (service).
26 Small drinks … accept shorts?
SPORTSWEAR – S, PORTS, WEAR (accept).
27 Not even one sister on the radio
NONE – sounds like ‘nun’.

Down
2 My manner entertains southern brigand
CORSAIR – COR(S), AIR.
3 One royal society girl hugs is a nerd
DWEEB – D(WE)EB. The royal we, appropriately.
4 Ban on dead bats is crazy
ABANDONED – (BAN ON DEAD)*. And another topical one!
5 Port tastes sweet and drinkable ultimately
TRIESTE – TRIES, sweeT, drinkablE. One end of the Iron Curtain.
6 Latin entertained by special men with a dance
SALSA – SA(L)S, A.
7 Is it possible that moods lead to explicit language? (9)
CANTONESE – CAN TONES, Explicit.
8 Revolutionary story about extinction plans
AGENDAS – reversal of SAGA containing END.
14 One who’s just taken on a local negotiator
BARGAINER – or BAR GAINER, geddit?
15 Might one really be into 6 stars in a group?
BIG DIPPER – the constellation, or a hungry person with a large bag of tortilla chips.
17 Riotous pets I’ll give away
LET SLIP – (PETS I’LL)*.
18 Frequent visitor rather enthralled by southeast Asian city
HABITUE – H(A BIT)UE. This city in Vietnam was new to me.
19 Senator suffering great betrayal
TREASON – (SENATOR)*.
21 Editor meeting with topless writers? Heavens!
EDENS – ED, pENS. A bit of an odd word to see in the plural.
23 Horse that kicks one bird
HERON – HEROiN.

38 comments on “Sunday Times 4900 by David McLean – pandemic edition”

  1. I got through this quickly, and it didn’t seem to leave an impression; no notes, and a couple of biffs: ORTEGA, where once again I didn’t see a hidden, BIG DIPPER, where I guess the 6 didn’t register; and HERON, which I never did parse. K, you’re short of an N at 24ac.
  2. I think I only had one query about who the ISLANDERS were. I assumed they were a football team I didn’t know, or possibly cricket. I don’t recall ever seeing a clue cross reference in the times that didn’t use digits (“11” vs “eleven”). My only other doubt is the initials nurses use and used. SEN, EN, etc. I have no idea which ones are current.

    Not that anyone will be confused, but you have too many “E”s in 3down.

    1. I assume that the Arabic numeral/written word distinction is another not followed in the ST.
      1. I don’t think PB is particularly hung up on most of these “unwritten rules” of ours, provided the clue does work
        1. Indeed. He’s a pragmatic chap, our PB. The somewhat more rigid regime in the daily puzzles does give them a certain something though and I like both flavours.
  3. Thanks for 23d HERON. I should have got that straight off as “Horse Under Water” by Len Deighton is my favourite spy novel. Horse there has the same meaning as it does here.
    I understand the BIG DIPPER is a constellation but I don’t get the rest of the clue.
    1. someone really into 6=SALSA might be a BIG DIPPER; as I said, I overlooked the 6 and just biffed.
      1. As I’ve just said to Kevin, I completely failed to realise the significance of ‘6’!
  4. 31 minutes. I thought that PERUSE meant the opposite of ‘casually read’. I did get how a BIG DIPPER would hog the SALSA, so that’s my COD, even if it’s the American name for the constellation and that I would have clued it with respect to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. No wonder ALFRED burnt the cakes though if there were snakes in the kitchen. A reasonably straightforward puzzle which I made a bit of a meal of. He hadn’t burnt the main course. Thank you K and David.
    1. I’ve always used peruse in a brows,e or casually read sense .. but the same word came up a day or two back in another crossword with the def. “examine carefully,” or words to that effect.
      So I look it up in Collins, only to find it has BOTH definitons!:
      “1. to read or examine with care; study
      2. to browse or read through in a leisurely way “
      There should be a law against that..

      Edited at 2020-05-03 07:10 am (UTC)

      1. Nonsense, this is one of the wonderful things about language. Words can have different meanings in different contexts and they’re changing all the time so pay attention. ‘Best’ and ‘worst’ are antonyms and synonyms. ‘Disinterested’ has two meanings. Get used to it, pedants!
          1. Well yes OK perhaps Horryd, but it does seem that there are rather a lot of people nowadays who want to move things along faster than some people think is right. If you have a perfectly good word (disinterested) which for many years has been used in a way that is different from uninterested, why should we rush to leave that sense behind and just lump them in together? Why is that being pedantic?
            1. As I’ve no doubt said on here before, the ‘not interested’ meaning of ‘disinterested’ predates the ‘impartial’ meaning. There is absolutely no reason both meanings can’t coexist, as indeed they do. You can object to it if you want but you might as well object to the weather.
        2. I’ll cleave to one interpretation, but cleave from the other.
  5. ….about the “nun-U” homophone at 27A, but that ship sailed long ago. I’m not going to complain about the cross-referenced clue either, since it made me smile when I eventually parsed it afterwards, earning a posthumous COD.

    After 7 minutes I was left with the NE corner, and my LOI took up the last minute and a half of my time.

    FOI ACID
    LOI AGENDAS
    COD BIG DIPPER
    TIME 10:35

  6. 32 minutes with only ORTEGA unknown. Didn’t understand the second bit of 15dn until I made a return visit later in the week. DWEEB having come up towards the end of February was useful.
  7. No real trouble with this, though I mainly know salsa as a dip and ortega as a grape variety..
    1. I’m quite a wine geek so I’m surprised to learn that there’s a grape variety I have never heard of. Having said I’m also quite a wine snob and I see see that it’s a derivative of Muller-Thurgau so perhaps it’s not so surprising after all.
      1. It is one of those varieties like Muller-Thurgau, Bacchus, Reichenstainer which were deemed suitable for growing in England, back in the days before global warming.. like quite a lot of varieties, the wine it produces can be very good, provided the winemaker is also very good – not always the case in England, at least back in the day. Better now, perhaps …
        1. Interesting. Reichenstainer is another I’ve never heard of! At least 90% of the white wine I drink is made from Chardonnay so my horizons are a bit limited. Chardonnay also does very well in English vineyards these days.
          1. Yes, I have a number of vines in my garden, uprooted (with permission!) from a local vineyard. they comprise Bacchus, Chardonnay and Ortega.
            Not heard of Reichensteiner? Ha, you will be telling me you haven’t heard of Kerner, Seyval Blanc, Huxelrebe or Kanzer, next 🙂 .. and they are all “authorised varieties” for growing in England within EU rules and grant structure.. but seriously, there are SO MANY grape varieties around, that you never ever see in Sainsburys or Majestic. Next time we’re in the George …
            1. Indeed, I have not heard of any of those… and I’d be surprised if they had any of them in the George!
  8. Did reasonably well on this. FOI ABANDONED. Last in were SPORTSWEAR which required a very long look and ORTEGA continuing my inability to spot the hidden (so COD to that).
    Could not parse Big Dipper and Hue was also new to me. Haway the lads.
    This was just right for a Sunday I thought. David

  9. DNF in 22:48. Another day another stupid typo sSlsa instead of salsa. Ho hum. I breezed through this puzzle without any difficulty (or so I thought). I think I’ve been to Hue. I may have had a pair of trousers made there but it was so long ago I can’t say for sure.
  10. 13:25. All good fun. I liked the 6D/15D cross-reference which was quite clever and the 10A/11A one too. LOI ORTEGA. COD to DWEEB for the “One royal”.
  11. Fascinating to learn about the grape variety et cetera but I thought that living characters were not allowed to be referenced in the crossword. Stephen
    1. Hi Stephen. That rule applies in the daily puzzles but not on Sundays. There are a few other areas where the regime is slightly different in the Sunday Times (which is a separate publication from the daily paper): naming the setters, for instance.

      Edited at 2020-05-03 02:06 pm (UTC)

  12. FOI 27ac NONE – one of my parents said none and t’other nun. How lucky was I?

    LOI 11ac BARBADOS just didn’t get round to it.

    COD 3dn DWEEB

    WOD 13ac ROBIN REDBREAST

    I see the sqaubbling mice are out today. And Lord K out and about some nine times after much wining and ‘trauben-sour’! I was home and dry in thrice times nine minutes – reasonable for me on a Sunday.

    Edited at 2020-05-03 04:17 pm (UTC)

  13. Got through this OK but on and off so no time. Dnk dweeb and was another who missed the cross references – getting the answers but leaving their full explanation for the blog. Thanks.
  14. I liked Dweeb for the word, Acid and Peruse for the clever, terse, and misdirecting clues
  15. Thanks David and keriothe
    Not too many issues whilst doing this in the first weekend of relaxed lockdown – can at least celebrate the son’s birthday with family and a few beers on a gorgeous autumn Melbourne afternoon now !!
    Took a little while to sort out both cross referenced clues and they both brought separate aha moments. Knew the Vietnamese city, although I’m pretty sure that I have never had trousers made there :). Had to look up the Nicaraguan president though.
    First in was HABITUE, with that known city, and the last couple were SPORTSWEAR (trickier than it should have been) and PLANGENT.

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