Sunday Times 4926 by Robert Price

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
8:47. I completely forgot that it was my turn to blog until the last minute, so I am writing this hurriedly late on Saturday evening and I’m going to have to keep comments to a minimum and just get on with it. I found it pretty easy, but it was fun as always from Bob.

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

Across
1 For example, Lima to Landlord
CAPITAL LETTER – CAPITAL (eg Lima), LETTER (landlord). &Lit. The definition is the whole thing, and refers to the fact that L (Lima) is the CAPITAL LETTER in Landlord, which for the purposes of the clue has to be artificially capitalised. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to read the surface: Landlord is a brand of beer (Timothy Taylor’s) but that doesn’t really work.
9 Service to erase computing bug
LURGY – LitURGY. I prefer the spelling in the original Goon Show script: LURGI.
10 Boxers may get sick of this underworld character
DISTEMPER – DIS (underworld), TEMPER (character).
11 Need Scotch, say, to mature
SHORTAGE – SHORT (Scotch, say) AGE.
12 Sound accommodation for animals
STABLE – DD.
14 Pals protect one beginning to defy bullies
INTIMIDATES – INTIM(I, Defy)ATES.
16 Passion found in diaries now and again
IRE – alternate letters in ‘diaries’
18 Shelter inside from freezing rain
LEE – sLEEt.
19 Job on set playing an explorer
LIVINGSTONE – LIVING (job), (ON SET)*.
20 Faint on vacation, giddy after drink
GROGGY – GROG, GiddY.
21 Burning wood abandoned by English tree hugger
EMBRACER – EMBeR, ACER.
24 Nice cheers, not so cruel
MERCILESS – MERCI (cheers in Nice, geddit?), LESS.
25 Scale from cayman’s front leg?
CLIMB – Cayman, LIMB.
26 Embarrassment results from misdirecting soldiers
EGG ON ONES FACE – the soldiers being the kind you dip in your morning egg, of course.

Down
1 Divine lilac trees from which rook’s taken off
CELESTIAL – (LILAC TrEES)*.
2 Average salmon aimed at vulgar types we hear
PAR FOR THE COURSE – sounds like ‘parr for the coarse’, a parr being a young salmon found in crosswords. Groan (but in a good way).
3 In poetry, star-crossed lovers’ meeting
TRYST – contained in ‘poetry, star-crossed’.
4 Wife who barely got up to protest
LADY GODIVA – CD. Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and her naked ride was in protest at sanctions he had imposed on local universal credit recipients, or something.
5 Drugs said to make you relax
EASE – sounds like ‘Es’.
6 Cryptic setter is concealing answer papers
TREATISES – (SETTER IS)* containing A.
7 Pub life, a chronic drunken state for some
REPUBLIC OF CHINA – (PUB LIFE A CHRONIC)*. ‘For some’ points delicately at the fact that Taiwan is not universally recognised as a state.
8 Drive ultimately ending in river
URGE – UR(endinG)E.
13 Craftsman’s pit working to bring in graduates
STONEMASON – STONE(MAS), ON.
15 Evening Mass comes over as vilifying
MALIGNING – M, ALIGNING.
17 River crustacean larvae, extremely vile
EXECRABLE – EXE, CRAB, LarvaE.
20 Clogs seen as superior heading north
GUMS – reversal of SMUG.
22 People’s careers
RACES – DD.
23 Meagre tip
LEAN – another DD.

23 comments on “Sunday Times 4926 by Robert Price”

  3. 19 minutes. I just saw 1a as LIMA as a capital, a landlord as a LETTER and LIMA as the capital to LANDLORD. That was clever enough for me. I also loved PAR FOR THE COURSE and EGG ON ONES FACE. I struggled at the end to see aligning as evening, but once I stopped feeling GROGGY I could accept it. A lovely puzzle. Thank you Robert and K.
  4. Nearly QC standard, I thought, but pleasant nonetheless.
    No real COD but thumbs up to LITURGY, MERCILESS, EGG ON ONE’S FACE, PAR FOR THE COURSE and URGE.
    Thanks, keriothe!
  5. ….the URGE to biff 8D, but finally did so after spending 4 minutes looking for alternatives. The River Ure just didn’t occur to this Yorkshire exile !

    FOI CAPITAL LETTER
    LOI URGE
    COD LADY GODIVA
    TIME 15:00

  6. Re- 7dn Steady Rob! If Joe wins the election it may not exist much longer. Could we not have had Republic of Congo? And a bit rearrangement in the South East.

    FOI 1ac CAPITAL LETTER

    LOI 9ac LURGY

    COD 4dn LADY GODIVA

    WOD 17dn EXECRABLE

    Time not recorded

    Edited at 2020-11-01 09:56 am (UTC)

  7. FOI was EASE and then I made pretty quick progress around the grid. I made a short visit to the Republic of Chile, must have had Lima in mind, but that was soon corrected.
    My last two were LURGY which I managed to parse and 23d where I thought- could this be an elephant trap? And in fact I did not fill the clue in as I could not improve on MEAN. So a DNF for me in just under 45 minutes.
    There was much to enjoy here. David
  8. An enjoyable puzzle which I polished off in 24:02. I slotted it in from the holiday home in Amble, where I managed to go with my family bubble just before the lockdown. Phew! Thanks Bob and K.
  10. 22:45. Enjoyable as ever from Robert. Stymied by having INITIAL LETTER for 1A at first and needed an alphabet trawl to find GROGGY. COD to EGG ON ONES FACE.
  13. 23:16. Fun solve. Liked Lady Godiva. Held up a bit in the SW with groggy, gums, merciless and maligning. LOI lean.
    1. Out of interest, M, to what extent to you know whether a puzzle you have set is easy or difficult? I’ve heard it said by other setters that they find this very hard to judge.
      1. I find it really hard to judge. That is why it is great to get feedback about how long they take and any irritations.
        1. Interesting, thanks. I have no objection to easy puzzles: variety is good and they make you feel clever! Clues can be witty and elegant without being difficult to solve.

          Edited at 2020-11-01 06:23 pm (UTC)

    2. ‘On vacation’ is an indication that you have to ‘vacate’ the word in question, i.e. take all but the outside letters out. Sorry, I could have explained this more clearly I guess: it’s a trick that does appear from time to time but it’s not very common. As a blogger it’s sometimes hard to tell if you’re over- or under- explaining so please don’t hesitate to ask!
  16. Yes, quite easy. 38 minutes, but I spent the last five wondering about what EGG ON YOUR FACE had to do with the definition, until the penny dropped, and even then I spent a while agonizing about whether it couldn’t be EGG IN YOUR FACE. CODs to MALIGNING for its evening and MERCILESS for being just the opposite of “not so cruel”. Fun clues.
  17. Thanks Bob and keriothe
    Was able to get through this much quicker than normal, as it seems did most others. Got off to a good start my immediately seeing EASE at 5d and was able to follow up by getting 1a and then most of the down clues off of it soon after.
    Didn’t fully see the cleverness of CAPITAL LETTER until coming here – and it probably made it my COD.
    Finished in the SW corner the tricky GROGGY, MALIGNING and last of all LEAN (after initially filling in an unparsed MEAN).

Comments are closed.