Sunday Times 4946 by Dean Mayer

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
14:19. Good fun, as usual. Lots to enjoy, and I particularly liked ‘near waterworks’. There were a few unknowns in here for me but the wordplay was sufficiently helpful.

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

Across
1 Bound to get back a little more time
LEAP SECOND – LEAP (bound), SECOND (back). ‘A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to accommodate the difference between precise time (as measured by atomic clocks) and imprecise observed solar time (known as UT1 and which varies due to irregularities and long-term slowdown in the Earth’s rotation).’
6 Single, almost cherished thought
IDEA – I, DEAr.
10 Watch girl leaving right after sex
VIGIL – VI, GIrL. I’ve never been quite convinced by this VI = sex thing. In an English crossword it somehow seems to miss a step, or at least an indication that it’s Latin.
11 One in green pants after gold, black, purple
AUBERGINE – AU, B, (GREEN)* containing I. A controversial vegetable in our household because I adore them and my kids detest them, and guess who is more likely to be cooking for whom?
12 Go without an undergarment in farce
TRAVESTY – TR(A, VEST)Y. I struggled a bit with this, having put the wrong answer in at 2dn (see below). Eventually fond memories of a production of Travesties a couple of years ago helped me out. God I can’t wait to get back in a theatre.
13 It’s old liquid, hard to stir
STOLID – (ITS OLD)*.
15 Thanks for the review
APPRECIATION – DD.
18 Outrun bear in wagons near waterworks
CLOSE TO TEARS – C(LOSE, TOTE)ARS. Like the old joke: where are you going, you can’t outrun a bear! No, but I can outrun you.
21 Assuming ship’s off course, wrong heading?
UPPISH – UP (wrong, as in ‘what’s up doc?’), (SHIP)*.
22 Heading away from empty hotel with American plant
ACANTHUS – vACANT, H, US. A plant I had heard of, almost certainly from crosswords. I wouldn’t be able to pick one out in a line-up.
24 Before long, one deserts old flame?
INAMORATO – IN A MO, RAT, O. The question mark helps us skate over the fact that a ‘flame’ is only usually a (ex-)lover when combined with the word ‘old’, but we need that for the wordplay.
25 Novel’s end, novel’s theme
LEMMA – noveL, EMMA. ‘An argument or theme, esp when used as the subject or title of a composition’. News to me, but the wordplay was kind.
26 Talk about name for tug
YANK – YA(N)K. The feelings of no Americans were hurt in the making of this clue.
27 Old city street and a girl waving
STALINGRAD – ST, (AND A GIRL)*. Formerly Tsaritsyn, now Volgograd.

Down
1 Silliness? It’s in demand
LEVITY – LEV(IT)Y.
2 Dog blanket
AFGHAN – my last in, this took me way longer than it should have done to see. I just couldn’t get my first effort of ARGYLL out of my head, even after Tom Stoppard made it clear that wasn’t right. Good old Stoppard. Did you read about how he spent years fixing Hollywood blockbuster scripts for dosh? Anyway it turns out an ARGYLL is a kind of cloth and a type of dog, but not a kind of blanket.
3 Sadly, no sex life restrains urge for creativity?
SELF-EXPRESSION – (NO SEX LIFE)* containing PRESS.
4 I keep talking about mad character — Punch
CHATTERBOX – C, HATTER, BOX.
5 Biblical peak featured in one book
NEBO – never ‘eard of it. Fortunately unambiguously contained in ‘one book’.
7 Boring part of school had an impact
DRILL BIT – DRILL (school), BIT (had an impact).
8 PM about to start making improvements?
AMENDING – because if AM is ending then…
9 Broken heart, and a sincere line by popular singer
ARETHA FRANKLIN – (HEART)*, A, FRANK, L, IN.
14 Bird food left under loose rocks (7,3)
SCREECH OWL – SCREE (loose rocks), CHOW, L.
16 Nearly clean before microscopic analysis
SCRUTINY – SCRUb, TINY.
17 Clubs order unseasoned beef
COMPLAIN – C, OM (Order of Merit), PLAIN.
19 Fancy not having a robe
CHIMER – CHIMERa. ‘A sleeveless red or black gown, part of a bishop’s formal dress though not a vestment’. And there was me thinking it was definitely a vestment.
20 One extremely small and isolated place
ISLAND – I, SmalL, AND.
23 Not moving or gaining time?
FAST – DD, the second arguably a little oblique.

39 comments on “Sunday Times 4946 by Dean Mayer”

  1. Ace puzzle, and unusual for this setter of late in not having any cryptic definitions at all.

    The ‘near waterworks’ definition reminded me that one of Anax’s online guides to cryptic crosswords included ways of defining CLOSE TO TEARS as something similar, but the specific clue in this puzzle wasn’t one of them. (I can’t find that guide right now but I saw it fairly recently.)

    Thanks to setter and blogger.
    ____

    Twmbarlwm

  2. A tough one. DNK CHIMER; did anyone? And wasn’t sure about UP; didn’t at the time see how it could be ‘wrong’. Liked CLOSE TO TEARS.

    Edited at 2021-03-21 03:31 am (UTC)

  3. A fun puzzle, and CHIMER was my LOI, mainly because I didn’t know it was a robe (nor a vestment!). I’d nho NEBO either, but it couldn’t really be anything else. I was fine with FAST meaning “gaining time” as in “my watch is running fast”.
  4. Thanks, keriothe, for explaining CLOSE TO TEARS, INAMORATO and CHIMER but is UPPISH really a synonym of ‘assuming’?
    Unusually for a puzzle by Dean, I don’t have a COD.
    NHO CHIMER or LEMMA.
    1. From Collins:
      UPPISH: snobbish, arrogant, or presumptuous
      ASSUMING: expecting too much; presumptuous; arrogant

      .. good enough, I reckon!

      1. We had ‘uppity’ in a cryptic the other day. I guess that would be an Americanised version of ‘uppish’.
        1. ‘Uppity’ isn’t particularly American, although the ODE definition (‘self-important, arrogant’) seems inaccurate for American usage, where ‘insolent’ would be closer. ‘Uppish’ is given the same definition in the New Oxford American Dictionary as in ODE (‘arrogantly self-assertive’), but I’ve never come across it, until it showed up in that cryptic.
  5. Another fine effort by Dean, his crosswords always a high point for me.
    Nho NEBO or CHIMER, like most of us, but nice clear wordplay.
    I love the idea of controversial vegetables, K
  6. A good puzzle, but the answers didn’t flow readily and I was 42 minutes. I didn’t know NEBO or CHIMER but they were straightforward. I had vaguely heard of LEMMA but I couldn’t have defined it. COD to CHATTERBOX and AMENDING jointly. Thank you K and Dean.
  7. ….Julie Etchingham not having a robe (NHO CHIMER).

    10% of my solving time was spent on UPPISH, which required an alpha-trawl.

    FOI AUBERGINE
    LOI UPPISH
    COD ARETHA FRANKLIN
    TIME 10:10

  8. It’s only a tiny thing, but I don’t get why DESERTS can be RAT – surely it should be RATS?
  9. 18a How does outrun =lose please? I outran him means I beat him not lost to him surely?
    1. “lose” can mean “escape from”, especially in a chase scenario – the Collins usage example is “he soon lost his pursuers”
    2. If someone was chasing you and you outran them, you would lose them. It’s a usage seen more commonly in the context of car chases.
  10. Tough this. My paper version still has TIED SECOND at 1a with a ? After moving online I got LEAP. However at 25a I could not improve on LAYLA, a theme for a book and a song. Could not get unknown CHIMER and Fancy did not easily lead to Chimera. And at 21a I supposed it might be UPPOSE.
    A couple of long sessions to get there, but defeated this time.
    My best moment was finding Aretha Franklin, who was in my mind having just watched a documentary about Clive Davis.
    David
  11. Nice one Dean. Like others I DNK NEBO or CHIMER and I’m still a but puzzled for “outrun” = LOSE. I liked VIGIL and SELF-EXPRESSION in particular. Thanks for the blog K. 17:32.
  12. I was defeated by CHIMER and LEMMA, where I had CHADOR and LYDIA. NHO NEBU either. 2 wrong in 46:40. Liked CLOSE TO TEARS. Thanks Dean and K.
  13. It seems I found this a bit of a whizz, finishing in under 14 minutes. I couldn’t point to Mt NEBO on a map, but it’s the peak from which Moses viewed Canaan at the end of the wilderness years.
    There must be a word for the poignancy of seeing a great name qualified for inclusion in a crossword, in the this case the magnificent Aretha Franklin. Gives me an excuse to post this.
  14. Liked this but was defeated. 4 left after 22 minutes but couldnt make progress with any of them so threw the towel in after 30 minutes. NHO LEMMA and EMMA wouldnt come to mind. Ditto CHIMERA for fancy (never heard of CHIMER either). The other crossers I struggled with were AFGHAN and VIGIL. DDs and animals not my strong point at the best of times. The w/p I was surprised at was SEX = VI. Not sure I’ve seen that before and it meant I was totally baffled by the w/p whilst the nounL sense of WATCH somehow eluded me but I’ll blame it on the lamb roast lunch with dauphinois 🙂
  15. 31.50 an engaging puzzle as always. Chimer and lemma vaguely recollected. Nebo from helpful wordplay. The only time I’ve ever knowingly seen an acanthus in the wild outside of crosswords it would’ve been carved into the head of an ancient Greek or Roman column in a museum, never I don’t think, in nature.
  16. VI and sex: I suppose the indication is that VI is how the Romans wrote it and therefore more “Latin” than 6.
    Fortunately it’s the only Latin number name you really need to remember. II could be indicated by “duo”, but apart from the occasional word like “radii”, it’s not part of English words.
    1. VI could indicate something Latin was going on for an answer including “sex,” certainly. But here it’s “sex” that is in the clue and not indicated as Latin, which is the step missing, in K’s view and mine, between “sex” and “VI” in an English-language crossword.

      Edited at 2021-03-21 10:00 pm (UTC)

      1. I doubt very much that you will ever see VI indicating “sex” in a Sunday Times clue while I’m the editor, as clues are supposed to resemble real-life English, in which VI is not a word unless you can find an excuse for using the forename “Vi” in all caps. VI indicating “sex” may not be ideally fair, but it seems to be understood, and it’s one of several things that “sex” in a clue could indicate. When it was used in 4858, people here seemed happy with it.
        2. Yes, you certainly wouldn’t have “VI” indicating “sex” with no hint of romance.
          And I said that here, it’s the other way around.

          I suppose the only reason “sex” is, as you say, “the only Latin number name you really need to remember” is simply that the other ones are not used here (aside from “duo”), which is attributable to the fact that the others can’t masquerade as English words.

          Edited at 2021-03-22 12:19 am (UTC)

  17. So, Keriothe, you’re saying, “No VI, please, we’re British”?

    Edited at 2021-03-21 09:27 pm (UTC)

    1. Our messages were virtually simultaneous!

      Edited at 2021-03-21 09:28 pm (UTC)

  18. (It must have been around here before.)
    I remembered all that I needed to for this one, and remember enjoying it.
    I’ve had the same qualms as James about sex (as VI, to be clear! ha).
    1. I find it rather sad that only 15 different persons prior to me have entered this blog. (I have a Doctor’s note.)

      For the record:-

      FOI 1ac LEAP SECOND

      LOI 12ac TRAVESTY

      COD 18ac CLOSE TO TEARS

      WOD 5dn NEBO

      Isn’t CHIMERE the correct word for robe?

  19. Thanks Dean and keriothe
    Some really neat clues and a number of new terms to be learnt here, including LEMMA, AFGHAN (as a blanket), Mt NEBO and CHIMER (as a gown, hard to check as CHIMERE seems to be the more common way to spell it). Some oblique slants on words too, especially in the word play – LOST (outrun), UPPISH (assuming) with UP (wrong) and of course that VI=6=sex trick. Couldn’t fully parse CLOSE TO TEARS.
    Did like untangling ARETHA FRANKLIN as the singer.
    Finished in the NW corner with CHATTERBOX (neat wordplay), TRAVESTY and LEVITY the last one in.
  20. Sorry, I’m late to this blog as we get the crosswords a couple of weeks later in Canada. I interpreted sex = VI as a misprint. Should have been six which would still have made sense of the clue.
  21. Got ” close to tears” but still don’t see the reasoning. Old jokes notwithstanding ” lose” does not mean “outrun.”
    1. If someone is chasing you on foot you can lose/outrun them. It’s a narrow example but they seem fine as synonyms to me.

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