Sunday Times 4972 by David McLean

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
13:07. I have left it very late to blog this, so I’d better just get on with it. I thought this was a lovely puzzle. Not hard, but I struggled for perhaps five minutes over 25ac before realising it was an &Lit.

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

Across
1 He daren’t put out a party girl
ADHERENT – (HE DARENT)*. A political party, of course. Good use of unconscious sexual stereotypes in the service of misdirection!
5 Cut close to nose’s hard to endure
SEVERE – SEVER, nosE.
9 Resort opening following strikes
RAMSGATE – RAMS, GATE.
10 Touch of worry with second son
CARESS – CARE, S, S.
12 Are papers with Rolling Stone?
WATER SAPPHIRE – (ARE PAPERS WITH)*.
14 Bloody excellent in an unusual way
RARE – DD.
15 Trend suave criminal exploits
ADVENTURES – (TREND SUAVE)*.
17 The divestment game?
STRIP POKER – CD.
19 I’m told one might long for a port
ACRE – sounds like ‘acher’.
22 Deepest affections for A&R?
HEART OF HEARTS – because the middle letters (hearts) of ‘hearts’ are…
24 Twin reviews news chief praised
LAUDED – reversal of DUAL, ED.
25 Singer in company, soprano ultimately?
CASTRATO – CAST(RAT), sopranO. Brilliant.
26 Rather attractive
PRETTY – DD.
27 Choppers seen out in middle of night?
DENTURES – CD, and a rather obvious one.
Down
1 One indicating informer is a plant
ARROWGRASS – ARROW (one indicating), GRASS. We had a rat singing just a couple of clues ago, now we have a GRASS doing the same thing.
2 Troll drawing in young lady’s a beast
HAMSTER – HA(MS)TER. ‘Troll’ here being the variety that is unpleasant on social media rather than the kind that hides under bridges waiting to be fooled by billy-goats. I’m not sure about MS: I thought the whole idea of the term was to avoid disclosing information about age and/or marital status.
3 Way in which Fury raised concern
REGARD – R(EGAR)D*.
4 Basic facts? Fresh buns don’t last!
NUTS-AND-BOLTS – (BUNS DON’T LAST)*.
6 Thin spies probing European pal
EMACIATE – E, MA(CIA)TE.
7 Say I use blindfolds?
EYEWEAR – homophone of ‘I’, WEAR.
8 Don’t start contract for lack of labour
EASE – lEASE.
11 Perhaps some Brownie in child’s play (1,5,2,4)
A PIECE OF CAKE – this is almost a double definition, but the first part is ambiguous so I’m calling it wordplay.
13 Slurs like folk drinking drop of IPA
ASPERSIONS – AS, PERS(Ipa)ONS. I love an IPA. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in Cornwall recently and Proper Job is one of my favourite beers.
16 Dad upset mum? That’s obvious!
APPARENT – reversal of PA, PARENT. Statement of fact much of the time…
18 Move as rivers overwhelm English hotel
REHOUSE – R (E, H), OUSE. The rivers here are one abbreviation and one actual river, which appears very frequently in crosswords for obvious reasons.
20 My voice enthrals southern pirate
CORSAIR – COR (my), S, AIR. Give voice to = give public expression to = give air to. A bit oblique but kosher I think.
21 Get lost in rhythm with no boundaries
BEAT IT – BEAT (rhythm), wITh.
23 Make-up friends brought around
SLAP – reversal of PALS.

20 comments on “Sunday Times 4972 by David McLean”

  1. I couldn’t figure out HAMSTER (LOI), and thought at one point that “young lady’s”=HER. And I’m not happy with ‘troll’=HATER. SEVERE & PRETTY are rather QC-ish. But I liked WATER SAPPHIRE (DNK) and LAUDED, and loved CASTRATO.
  2. I took RARE to be a triple definition rather than a double.
    Never heard of a water sapphire or arrowgrass, but the anagrist of the former and the parsing of the latter left little doubt. I took a while to get going but made steady progress. 23:45
    Thanks to David & Keriothe
    2. ‘In an unusual way’ would have to be RARELY, no? The relevant Collins definition is ‘exhibiting uncommon excellence’ (my emphasis).

      Edited at 2021-09-19 07:34 am (UTC)

  3. The ‘stone’ at 12a and ‘plant’ at 1d were new to me too but not difficult to work out. Excellent surfaces for CASTRATO and APPARENT brought a smile as did the ‘party girl’ misdirection for 1a. Highlight though was 2d; Hammy HAMSTER – some ‘beast’!
  5. ….for a Sunday, but enjoyable enough. I only now realise that I didn’t parse CASTRATO. My COD was going to be either DENTURES or my LOI….

    FOI SEVERE
    LOI HEART OF HEARTS
    COD CASTRATO
    TIME 6:04

  6. 27 minutes. Mainly straightforward but with some tricky bits. I didn’t know the stone but the anagram and crossers were kind. CASTRATO brought tears to my eyes so I’m giving COD to STRIP POKER. A naughty but nice puzzle, so no nasturtiums to be cast. Thank you to David and K.
  7. Done in two sessions totalling 90 minutes, and I’m sorry to say I really didn’t enjoy this. Seemed the clues were overstretching to somehow fit the answers, leading to several biffs which I still couldn’t parse, which thus seems pointless. Usually I can go, “Ah, I see.” Today was more “Huh?” EG, 19, 22 & 25 ac., 2 & 20 d. 6d, EMACIATE: dictionary has EMACIATED (adjective) and EMACIATE (verb) but clue seems to me to indicate EMACIATE as the adjective. Didn’t like EYEWEAR for blindfolds. NHO ARROWGRASS or WATER SAPPHIRE. So, done, but it’s left me feeling grumpy rather than satisfied.
    1. ‘Thin’ is a verb here. ‘To make or become thin’ (Collins), which matches the definition of EMACIATE (‘to become or cause to become abnormally thin’) pretty exactly.

      Edited at 2021-09-19 08:37 am (UTC)

  8. I made a careless mistake by putting WHITE SAPPHIRE at 12a and then finding LOI 2d impossible.
    Otherwise I solved this enjoyable puzzle in about 45 minutes.
    David
  9. Time not recorded, but around 45 mins.

    FOI 5dn NUTS AND BOLTS

    LOI 27ac CASTRATO

    COD 12ac WATER SAPPHIRE

    WOD 17ac STRIP POKER

    I notice that 1dn ARROWGRASS is edible (if fresh!) and makes an attractive addition to a sushi roll.

    Edited at 2021-09-19 09:53 am (UTC)

  11. A very pleasant 32:11 on this one. I didn’t understand CASTRATO but now see how good it is. I’m not so keen as the blogger on the distracting girl in 1ac: an unsatisfactory twist too far somehow. In CORSAIR I liked the pdm from my=cor, I always do, like a goldfish. COD to ASPERSIONS
  13. 48 minutes, but a pleasant puzzle. No real difficulties except my own inertia. COD to CASTRATO, of course.
  14. Thanks David and keriothe
    Took a couple of sessions and just over the hour and a quarter all up. STRIP POKER jumped out of the clues to be the first one in. Got through most of it quickly enough, but like a couple of others had not gone through the anagram fodder thoroughly enough and written WHITE SAPPHIRE in at 12a, making the NW corner take twice as long as the rest.
    Wasn’t enamoured with the EYEWEAR clue but others such as HEART OF HEARTS and CASTRATO more than made up for it.
    After finally fixing up 12a, finished with REGARD, RAMSGATE (which curiously enough appeared in the Monday FT puzzle, so was solved much quicker there) and the tricky HAMSTER as the last one in.

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