Sunday Times 4960 by David McLean – do you speak-a my language?

Posted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
13:38. I really liked this puzzle, but I have left blogging until very late (as I write it’s just after midnight on Saturday) so I’m a bit rushed and my memory of solving it is a bit hazy. There are a couple of really excellent cryptic definitions, which are a bit of a Harry speciality: something he has in common with his fellow Sunday setter Dean Mayer. Having gone through the clues checking I can confirm the impression of a really excellent set, and this was a lot of fun both to solve and to blog, so thank you Harry and here’s how I think it all breaks down.

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

Across
1 High Barnet as American might call it
MOHAWK – CD. A ‘barnet’ is hair (Barnet Fair, CRS), and a MOHAWK is a sticky-up style so ‘high’. This is the American term for what we Brits would call a Mohican.
4 Ran out of kit at a sporting event
STREAKED – another CD.
10 Horseman skipping initial horse trial
NIGHTMAREkNIGHT, MARE..
11 One’s to arrest Tory sex symbols
ICONS – I(CON)S.
12 East German radical opens liquor stand
ROSTRUM – R (radical, a chemistry term), OST (east in German), RUM (liquor).
14 Spooner’s declared Starmer “lacklustre beast”.
MEERKAT – Spoonerism of ‘Keir matt’.
15 I hold mid-course at sea for salt
SODIUM CHLORIDE – (I HOLD MID-COURSE)*. A rare appearance of ‘salt’ with the meaning that is most obvious to normal people.
18 IM isn’t seen sat playing with a GM
INSTANT MESSAGE – (ISNT SEEN SAT A GM)*.
22 What He is mostly limiting?
ATHEISM – contained in ‘what he is mostly’. In practice of course He has not been entirely successful in this endeavour, perhaps hampered by non-existence.
24 Clearly Men at Work had no part in these hits
STRIKES – two definitions, one mildly cryptic. A reference to the Australian band that had a couple of massive international hits in the 80s, most notably Down Under, a great song. The little flute hook in it was the subject of a long-running legal dispute.
25 Strange story appearing in article
ALIEN – A(LIE)N.
26 How’s rep dancing along with In the Navy?
SHIPOWNER – (HOWS REP IN)*.
28 Diplomatic insult island caught on wiretap
DISCREET – either DIS followed by a homophone of ‘Crete’, or a homophone of ‘diss Crete’, depending on your spelling preference.
29 In a heartless way, seized and released grouse
GRIPED – GRIPpED. Or possibly GRIpPED.
Down
1 Day ultimately spent on wine and port
MONTROSE – MON (day), spenT, ROSE. This clue confused me a bit because AFAIC MONTROSE is a wine, a chateau in Saint-Estephe that makes excellent, very long-lived wines. It’s also a port in Scotland. The connection between Bordeaux and British or Irish names is quite common: see Talbot, for instance, or Lynch-Bages. People often say Haut-Brion is a bastardisation of O’Brian but that’s probably a myth.
2 I’m exasperated about nasty old lady
HAG – reversal of gah!
3 A barrel containing heaven-sent Adam’s ale?
WATER BUTT – CD, ‘heaven-sent Adam’s ale’ here being rain.
5 Happily, her malt is what can give winger a lift
THERMAL – (HER MALT)*.
6 Eusebio’s header fired up final for George Best
ELITE – Eusebio, LIT georgE.
7 Drunk quickly given the cold shoulder?
KNOCKED BACK – DD.
8 Tyrant has no power over explorer
DE SOTO – DESpOT, O. A Spanish conquistador I hadn’t heard of. He was apparently the first European to cross the Mississippi, and was otherwise as hideously destructive as you’d expect.
9 Jack up part of car that’s stuck on the road
TARMAC – TAR (sailor, Jack), revesal of CAM (part of car).
13 Seats held and carried by Labour?
SEDAN CHAIRS – a CD, and a really excellent one.
16 Errors I’ve rectified in VAT
RESERVOIR – (ERRORS IVE)*. A great clue.
17 Certain to tuck into boozy drink? Steady!
MEASURED – MEA(SURE)D.
19 Indian greeting celebrity holding short drink
NAMASTE – NAM(ASTi)E.
20 Flash bag holding one’s artwork
MOSAIC – MO (minute, flash), SA(I)C.
21 Top team occasionally ignored linesman
TABARD – TeAm, BARD.
23 Offender letting slip small secret
INNERsINNER.
27 Little crash … pot kicked over?
NAP – reversal of PAN.

32 comments on “Sunday Times 4960 by David McLean – do you speak-a my language?”

  1. This one sure seemed easier than the Sunday before.
    I didn’t know yer Mr Starmer, but got there anyway. And I’m surprised that you hadn’t heard of de Soto—so we’re even, ha.
    It’s funny that Brits call the haircut by the name of a different Native American tribe from the one… Americans call it by. But I don’t know how Mohawks or Mohicans feel about it either way.
    Allow me to ♥ your comment on the hidden-word clue.

    Edited at 2021-06-27 04:28 am (UTC)

  2. Held up by 18a, getting the wrong end of the clue as the definition, and therefore seeking a grandmaster or something genetically modified using the anagrist IMISNTSEENSATA. There are a lot of famous chess players with unusual combinations of letters for names, but none I could think of fitted the bill! Sorted out finally in 39’40”
  3. DNF as I needed aids for the unknown NAMASTE.

    Along with the unknown ‘call’ HAO that turned up on Friday I now have GAH as an expression of exasperation to add to my list of 3-letter words never seen before.

    1. A colleague “at” our (still virtual) office uses it all the time, but it was new to me before Anna joined the team.
      1. Dilbert! Who in America has heard of ‘The Gambols’ or ‘Giles’? Simply gahstly English!
        1. Historically, not just Dilbert. ODE citations for “gah”, with dates from 1917 to 1966, are from one US and 3 UK authors including C Day Lewis writing under a pseudonym. The American is Arthur Miller in The Crucible.
          1. And ‘The Crucible’ is set in the late 17th century (although of course Miller wasn’t).
  4. GAH is a word?? no wonder I found this puzzle very hard. I note Kevin’s comment but although I occasionally see Dilbert cartoons I can’t recall seeing the word there.

    Edited at 2021-06-27 07:19 am (UTC)

  5. 50 minutes on this, but worth the effort. I had all the knowledge apart from DE SOTO, which was LOI. Mind you, it was as well that STRIKES was could be solved without needing to know an eighties band, at least two decades too late for me. COD to SEDAN CHAIRS. Apropos of very little, my barber’s is in High Barnet, not that I was planning a mohican or even a MOHAWK any time soon. Thank you David and K.
    1. Some older solvers (like me) may remember DE SOTO as an American car maker, in the days of twin headlights and enormous tail fins. That at least was my circuitous way to having heard of the explorer.
  6. My favourite ST compiler because I can usually complete his puzzles, eventually, as with this one. FOI 25ac ALIEN, LOI 29ac GRIPED, though I can’t quite parse GRIPED past tense for “grouse” in present tense… Otherwise everything pretty much made sense. Completed in a total of 90 minutes over two sittings.
    1. The definition is ‘released grouse’ so ‘grouse’ is actually a noun!
  7. I agree this was an enjoyable puzzle. But there were two I failed to get: DE SOTO and MOSAIC. My list of explorers is very short and I had never heard of De Soto. I thought of quite a few tyrants but not the right one to get the answer from the cryptic. I had the SAC for Mosaic but not the rest.
    Namaste known from Indian restaurants amongst other things.
    My first thought for 1a was UP (high) TOWN (Barnet) but I was saved by COD MONTROSE.
    David
  8. ….as I pressed submit without checking, and failed to enter NAP into the grid ! Not my LOI as I’d solved on paper. GAH !!! (as I wouldn’t have said before meeting it here for the first time).

    IM threw me too, but the anagrist was smoothed out without too much trouble when I came back to it with all the crossers in place

    Slight MER at “Navy = SHIPOWNER”, as surely HMS means that the owner is actually Her Maj.

    FOI STREAKED
    LOI INSTANT MESSAGE
    COD SEDAN CHAIR
    TIME 14:54

  9. Agree this was a very top quality puzzle. Or as Stevie G might say “a top top top puzzle” 😀 Superb surfaces every one of them. Loved lots but ATHEISM and INSTANT MESSAGING my favourites the latter as I’m a keen chess player (but I also got the anagrist mixed up for ages). DE SOTO my LOI from w/p

    Thanks keriothe for the usual insightful blog and Mr M for a cracking example of the setter’s art.

  10. At 1ac MOHAWKs are Iroquois and Mohicans are Algonquins and bitter enemies, even though they shared the same punk barbers.

    FOI 6dn ELITE

    LOI 25dn NAMASTE – different tribe of IKEAN Indians

    COD 13dn SEDAN CHAIRS the ‘gull-wing’ version of what was my

    WOD 8dn Hernando DE SOTO – who was well-known to me

    Edited at 2021-06-27 05:11 pm (UTC)

  11. Not my favourite, coloured partly by the CDs which I don’t appreciate as much as others here, and by the much smaller matter of tossing up between HAG and GAH as the required entry. Could have been either. It also took me 34 minutes, though I believe I was much interrupted.
    DE SOTO I vaguely recalled, possibly from his later career promoting lateral thinking.
    1. I see your point about HAG/GAH but a) I think GAH is the more natural reading of the clue and b) checkers to the rescue. I know some people maintain that every clue should be ‘solvable’ independently but
      I think that’s nonsense. What’s the point of a blinking grid?

      Edited at 2021-06-27 09:37 pm (UTC)

      1. Back in my competitive days, I was a bit wary about writing in reversals until I had a checking letter to be sure. There have certainly been championship puzzles where a similar choice (a letter swap choice like FUNCTION/JUNCTION comes to mind) where the wording was vague enough for some serious contenders to choose the wrong one, and those who “misplumped” were slowed down considerably.

        That said, if I’d noticed the ambiguity, I think I would have requested a change.

        1. I only realized now (Monday afternoon in Brooklyn) that the approved answer is HAG and not GAH.
          (This was in the course of dropping a note to the abovementioned Anna in which I am going to include the historical information you provided.)
          But has it been changed? Keriothe said in the comments that he found GAH to be the “most natural” answer… OH, wait! I answered HAG myself in actually working the puzzle. That’s where I got the H in BRIGHT, of course.
          I could delete this, but will leave it in for comic relief.

          Edited at 2021-06-28 09:18 pm (UTC)

          1. I was obviously just getting confused — I found the actual answer the more natural reading.
          2. I’m getting very confused. The H in HAG is also the H in MOHAWK. I’m guessing that BRIGHT was an answer in some other puzzle you’ve recently tackled.
            1. Yeah, it was HOA (which I’d never seen before, and seems to be only in Chambers) crossing BRIGHT in a Friday puzzle, #28013.
  12. I did this one on Friday evening, having been reminded that I’d forgotten to do it. An enjoyable 37:37, with FOI, GAG and LOI MOSAIC. I didn’t know DE SOTO the explorer, but had heard the name associated with aircraft or cars, and the wordplay was clear. Lots of fun in this puzzle with plenty PDMs. MONTROSE and TABARD took a while. Liked the 2 long anagrams. Thanks Harry and K.
  13. Successful completion and enjoyable solve. The last half went in with something of a rush but then MOSAIC held me up at LOI – mo for flash was hard to grind out. Thanks for the blog.
  14. Thanks David and keriothe
    An enjoyable puzzle that I chipped away at across four shortish sessions yesterday, finishing with the clever WATER BUTT (took ages to see that second part) and the tricky to see and parse MOSAIC.
    Messed up the parsing of MEERKAT – used a visual approach to the Spoonerism (“CAR MEET”, shifting the “KA” with the MEE) rather than the proper audio approach – basically because I haven’t heard of your latest Opposition leader
    Was pleasing to see the Men at Work clue – for memories of wresting the ‘Auld Mug’ off the Americans for the first time and for seeing them as the ‘warm-up’ band at a gig at Latrobe University in 1980. when doing my post-grad study.

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