Sunday Times 4944 by Robert Price

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
17:34. An absolute corker of a puzzle from Bob this week, with a bonus theme. As well as the explicit references to the comedians at 14ac and 23dn, there are three references to their work hidden in the grid: see if you can spot them all. I confess I didn’t notice any of them until they were pointed out to me, but I have never watched a Marx Brothers film. Maybe I should.

Great fun, so thank you very much to Bob.

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

Across
1 Rough breeches worn by a king
HOARSE – HO(A, R)SE.
4 Worries that an article breaks down
FEATHERS – FEA(THE)RS. How do you get down off an elephant?
9 Drummer’s initial present alongside a stick
ADHERE – A, Drummer, HERE.
10 Restrict set in order to be heard
STRAITEN – sounds like ‘straighten’ (set in order).
12 Tree putting area in shade
LIME GREEN – LIME (tree), GREEN (putting area in golf).
13 Newspaper taking offence
THEFT – or THE FT.
14 Comics made by Mrs Batty with her art box
MARX BROTHERS – (MRS HER ART BOX)*.
18 Bistro boss’s resistance to trust EU area bananas
RESTAURATEUR – R, (TRUST EU AREA)*.
21 Don’t take time off work
LEAVE – DD.
22 Soldiers held back by cuts in manoeuvres
EXERCISES – reversal or RE in EXCISES.
24 Free cheese announced by a Parisian
UNFETTER – UN (a Parisian), sounds like ‘feta’.
25 Angry outburst from one stuck in traffic
TIRADE – T(I)RADE.
26 Condemn directors’ pay scale?
EXECRATE – or EXEC RATE. Directors aren’t necessarily executive, hence the question mark I assume.
27 Turn bridge partner makes you pass on
GO WEST – GO (turn), WEST (bridge partner to East).
Down
1 Director recording outside in the morning light
HEADLAMP – HEAD, L(AM)P.
2 Palace play badly after City up support
ALHAMBRA – reversal (up) of LA, HAM (play badly), BRA (support).
3 Show lack of interest in English rugby
SHRUG – contained in ‘English rugby’.
5 One’s moved enough seats around for diners
EATING HOUSES – (ENOUGH SEATS)* containing I. The S in “one’s” is short for ‘has’ here.
6 Even Mafia characters go off pastry served up here?
TRATTORIA – reversal (served up) of mAfIa, ROT, TART. A fine semi-&Lit.
7 European actress finally lifted suitable prize
ESTEEM – E, actressS, reversal of MEET.
8 Reason for one to eat egg
SANITY – SA(NIT)Y.
11 Not sporting pants here?
BELOW THE BELT – two definitions, one whimsical.
15 Guard drink that a fête’s ordered in
BEEFEATER – BEE(AFETE)*R, or indeed BE(AFETE)*ER.
16 Small key locking in a painting
SEASCAPE – S, E(A)SCAPE. This key usually appears as just ESC.
17 First of cops on track for Bow Street?
CRESCENT – Cops, RE, SCENT. A cryptic definition (street in the shape of a bow). Neat.
19 In speech, scratches part of a sentence
CLAUSE – sounds like ‘claws’. I thought initially that this might be PHRASE, and thought ‘frays’ for scratches was a bit iffy!
20 Stump wizard raised and rolled pixie under
BAFFLE – reversal (raised) of FAB (ace, wicked, wizard), reversal (rolled) of ELF.
23 Musical losing a good pianist: one of the 14
CHICO – CHICagO.

17 comments on “Sunday Times 4944 by Robert Price”

  1. I agree, keriothe! This was an absolute cracker! I spotted all three film references as well as the names in 14ac and 23d. I did wonder, briefly, if 1d/17d (HEADLAMP CRESCENT) might form a reference to match SANITY CLAUSE but as Chico might have said “there ain’t no HEADLAMP CRESCENT.
    There is also a probably unintended sub-theme:
    EATING HOUSES/RESTAURATEUR/TRATTORIA as well as a possible extra one in BEEFEATER. There are also plenty of ALHAMBRA restaurants around the world.
    LOI & COD: FEATHERS. (Yes, how do you get down off an elephant, keriothe?! 😀)
    In addition Double plus marks to THEFT, LEAVE and EXECRATE.
    Again, a gem of a puzzle
  2. (It’s political!)
    But it’s in A Night at the Opera that CHICO says, “You can’t fool me. There ain’t no SANITY CLAUSE.”
    I didn’t see the references at all, but now I see them, involving six clues, and one homophone.
    Yeah, this was great.

    Edited at 2021-03-07 04:24 am (UTC)

  3. 34 minutes to finish this excellent Robert offering. I slowed up a lot in the NE at the end with STRAITEN and FEATHERS, not spotting the ‘down’ definition nor the HOARSE FEATHERS across the top, despite already having the MARX BROTHERS, CHICOand GO WEST. The SANITY CLAUSE had to be pointed out to me later. COD to UNFETTER. Thank you K and Robert.
  4. I missed the comedy theme but I never ‘got’ the Marx Bothers style of comedy so it was no great surprise that I didn’t know or had forgotten the references. I came to appreciate Groucho later in his solo career. Not that it’s relevant here, but I never ‘got’ the Goons either.
  5. Not one bad clue and a great theme. k, the definition in 23a should include ‘pianist’, I think?
    1. Ah yes, so it should, thank you. I didn’t notice that I hadn’t accounted for the word, and I didn’t know that CHICO was a pianist.
  6. Didn’t exactly rocket through this, but it was fun. I particularly appreciated the top line, and felt I was in on a private joke, which is a pleasure. Didn’t spot SANITY CLAUSE, though, which means I’m not in the Inner Circle, I suppose.
  7. An excellent puzzle. I spotted a couple of references to the theme, but missed several others. I didn’t find this easy, especially in the NE where FEATHERS and LOI ESTEEM held me up for ages. 45:53. Thanks Bob and K.
  8. My FOI was SHRUG; and LOI SANITY having failed to see the theme whilst solving. I was a huge fan of the Marx Brothers and remember their films were often on TV.
    I found this puzzle difficult and had to keep coming back to it. I eventually finished at 7.40pm.
    STRAITEN and FEATHERS were close to last in. I tried hard to justify WEATHERS.
    An excellent puzzle on many levels. COD to TRATTORIA and a high five for the theme.
    David
  9. If only I had spotted the Marx Brothers theme, I might not have put WEATHERS at 4a. And in retrospect it wasn’t entirely convincing – somethings like worries=wears, with the article inserted, to give weathers=breaks down, like rocks etc.
    1. Exactly what I did, failing to do the necessary separating, and failing to go back and think about how the clue worked.
  10. ….a programme I recorded on Sky Arts recently — Barry Cryer and Tony Hawks looking back on the career of the MARX BROTHERS. Had I watched it a week earlier, I would have understood the SANITY CLAUSE, and possibly finished a little quicker. I’ve never seen any of the films, but had enough superficial knowledge to get me through. Another fine puzzle from Robert.

    FOI MARX BROTHERS
    LOI SANITY
    COD LEAVE
    TIME 13:02

  11. 41.49. I found this a good challenge. I completely missed the theme even though Hoarse Feathers, the Marx Brothers and Chico were staring me in face.
  12. Worked through this slowly. Never did parse 17d and hence ended up with PROSPECT, assuming it was a street I should know about.

    Thanks to K and Robert.

  14. Thanks Bob and keriothe

    I reckon this would be the pick of the 2021 puzzles to date – took 10 minutes until I could start of with SHRUG and it took four sittings, one for each quadrant to nut it out. Tend not to look for a theme in the Times / Sunday Times puzzles, so it completely passed me by !
    Full of really meaty clues that led to mini fist pumps after each time I could get a run of 2 or 3 in a row. Didn’t help by initially writing in RESTAURANTER at 18a. Think that I liked both TRATTORIA and ALHAMBRA for the clever construction the best, but the ‘putting area’ for GREEN made it close next best.
    Finished, like others in the NE with FEATHERS and ESTEEM the last couple in.

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