Sunday Times 5008 by Robert Price

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

11:13. I really enjoyed this puzzle, and writing the blog up it was striking how simple many of the clues are. It’s a real model of concise elegance. So thank you to Bob, and here’s how I think it all works…

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

Across
1 Simply help Conservatives work for children
JUST SO STORIES – JUST, SOS, TORIES.
10 Trip over visiting former dogs’ home
EXCURSION – EX CURS I(O)N.
11 Too much expected by a Parisian
UNDUE – UN (a Parisian), DUE (expected).
12 Opening or almost not opening
EARLY – nEARLY.
13 Brave comedian, overly detailed
STAND UP TO – STAND-UP, TOo.
14 Rubbish sent back by one university to a plagiarist
IMITATOR – I, MIT, A, reversal of ROT.
16 Poles ordered to protect a border city
EL PASO – (POLES)* containing A.
19 Some PCs work these things out
NIGHTS – (THINGS)*.
20 Docklands bank following auditor’s guide
QUAYSIDE – sounds like ‘key’ (guide), SIDE (bank of a river, say).
22 Meat course mostly stewed in wine
LAMBRUSCO – LAMB, (COURSe)*.
24 Some advice about saving time making bread
PITTA – reversal of A TIP (some advice) containing T.
25 Endless preparation by old group of big shots
SALVO – SALVe, O.
26 Emotionally releasing two animals I caught
CATHARTIC – CAT, HART, I, C.
27 Opportunities to advance in stiff footwear?
DEAD MENS SHOES – CD.
Down
2 Opening a country club? Excellent!
UNCORKING – UN, CORKING. ‘Country club’ for the UN is neat.
3 Stay as you are after falling on the pitch?
TARRY – two definitions, one a slightly cryptic reference to pitch/tar.
4 Task under second in command’s oversight (8)
OMISSION – cOmmand, MISSION.
5 Fail badly like Japanese poems
TANKAS – TANK (fail badly), AS (like). I had to trust the wordplay here.
6 Song about a university uprising
ROUNDELAY – ROUND (about), reversal (uprising) of YALE.
7 Arrive close to the top
END UP – END (close), UP (to the top).
8 Something clearly colourful an evangelist’s concocted
VENETIAN GLASS – (AN EVANGELISTS)*. Historically made in Murano rather than Venice itself. Glassmakers weren’t allowed to leave the island – on pain of execution – to protect the trade secrets.
9 One way to police love and play
ZERO TOLERANCE – ZERO (love), TOLERANCE (play).
15 Rider in search of news
AFTERWORD – AFTER (in search of), WORD (news).
17 Noble story left by a philosopher
ARISTOTLE – ARISTO, TaLE.
18 Cryptic clues include too much women’s clothing
CULOTTES – (CLUES)* containing OTT (too much).
21 Spirit tipsy chefs must have included
PSYCHE – contained in ‘tipsy chefs’.
23 Edges of mousseline sleeves regularly fray
MELEE – MousselinE, sLeEvEs.
24 Fruit dish
PEACH – DD.

25 comments on “Sunday Times 5008 by Robert Price”

  1. What Keriothe said about elegance; and natural surface readings. I started off very slow, with only IMITATOR, EL PASO, CATHARTIC, & TANKAS in before I headed off to lunch. (TANKAS a gimme, since it couldn’t be HAIKUS.) DNK DEAD MENS SHOES, had trouble spelling CULOTTES. LAMBRUSCO, which I guess I knew, took time because I was trying to make something of (meat cours)*. Liked (and was fooled by) ‘country club’. COD to SALVO.

  2. 41 minutes. Nice puzzle. Didn’t get the UN thing in UNCORKING and wasn’t quite sure of TANKAS.

    It’s a pangram, btw.

  4. 47 minutes. UNCORKING was my LOI and seeing the UN for ‘country club’ was a nice way to finish. NHO TANKAS, though crossers and wordplay helped. I wasn’t sure about TARRY and bunged it in seeing little beyond ‘Stay’ and ‘pitch’. I’ve also learnt what a ROUNDELAY is and what the expression DEAD MEN’S SHOES really means.

    Thanks to Robert and keriothe

  5. Another really good one by Robert, taking 45 minutes. LOI was DEAD MENS SHOES which I’d had as DEAD MANS SHOES until PSYCHE helped me out. I’d uncorked a bottle the previous evening or otherwise COD UNCORKING might have been trickier. It was Rioja and not LAMBRUSCO though. I was hoping that 18d was AFTERWORD. Another sort of rider to close. “One little kiss and Felina, Goodbye.” Thank you Robert and K.

    1. I’m 75 on Tuesday and only now do I learn that her name was Felina and not Selina, as I thought!

      1. You’re better giving those Mexican girls a miss, even if Spanish is the loving tongue. Mi amor, mi corazon. Happy birthday for Tuesday. You’re catching me up.

  6. This took me 90 minutes over four sittings and was tough going but pleasing to finish.
    All parsed other than EARLY and after reading the blog, I should have seen that.
    I had two NHO’s ROUNDELAY and my LOI: CULOTTES both gettable from the wordplay and crossing letters.
    I don’t normally tackle the Sunday puzzle as I find it hard but I did enjoy the mental workout and may continue as I can spread it out.

  7. 47m 16s but I don’t know if I got them all right. I couldn’t access the puzzle on the club site so tackled it through ‘Puzzles’ in the paper but didn’t print the result.
    My notes say there were some excellent clues including UNCORKING (“a country club”) and DEAD MEN’S SHOES (“stiff footwear”)
    I was puzzled by TANKAS and ROUNDELAY so thank you, Keriothe.

  8. Fifty Eight minutes for a fine Sunday afternoon ‘stroll’ with Mr. Price.

    This utilised the rare ‘Stan Cullis’ grid – as opposed to the unloved ‘Portcullis’ grid.

    FOI 16ac EL PASO
    LOI 21dn PSYCHE
    COD 8dn VENETIAN GLASS if one likes that sort of thing!
    WOD 1ac JUST SO STORIES neatly constructed clue

    If think we’ve had rather too much 22ac LAMBRSUCO recently – the frizzante, vino rosso/ locale from Emilia-Romagna, which doesn’t travel.

  9. This one reminded me of the old UK TV game show Catchphrase, and presenter Roy Walker’s advice to “say what you see”. As Keriothe commented, concise and elegant clueing. It still took a while, mind – over the hour mark, but eventually done, with guesses for the NHO ROUNDELAY and TANKAS. Also fell into the singular trap of DEAD MAN’S SHOES for a while, and took ages on JUST SO STORIES – yet it was in plain sight all along. Thanks to setter and bloggers.

  10. I was able to complete this after a bit of a struggle. LOI was TARRY where I struggled with the parsing; TARDY lay in wait but I put in the right answer and saw the now obvious parsing later.
    ROUNDELAY went in without knowing what it really was. And NIGHTS was another question mark.
    Lots of good stuff throughout this. COD nearly went to TARRY but I’ve chosen UNCORKING.
    David

  11. 56 mins. Very nice. For some reason I had to keep going back to VENETIAN and EARLY before seeing them. COD STAND UP TO, DOD (definition of the day) stiff footwear

  13. I found this one tricky! 45 minutes before DEAD MENS SHOES and the WORD of 15 materialised. A tour de force again. Needed UNCORKING before I could see EARLY, and I’ve only spotted how TARRY worked after submitting. UNDUE and END UP were first 2 in. Thanks Bob and K.

  14. Finally got there in 94 enjoyable minutes. Really liked country club, simply help, falling on the pitch and group of big shots. Thought of entering St Malo or Le Mans before realizing it was an actual border city wanted. Also spent a long time trying to do something with meat instead of seeing lamb. I guiltily admit there was a time (early 70’s?)when my wife and I used to order and enjoy LAMBRUSCO. TANKAS was unknown but looked right. COD to STAND UP TO. Thanks for explaining it all!

  15. Excellent puzzle which I was all but done after 25 minutes but didn’t know ROUNDELAY and the w/p suggested too many possibilities (for me at any rate). That meant I couldn’t get QUAYSIDE either

    Usual smooth surfaces from Bob which I always admire. Thought VENETIAN GLASS was excellent

    Thanks Bob and Keriothe

  16. Thanks Bob and keriothe
    Took just on the hour across a number of sessions on a cold rainy Melbourne weekend, starting with the pieced together MELEE. Was one of those puzzles that I just ground through clue by clue with a nod of appreciation as the penny dropped or one saw the elegance of how it was put together.
    Hadn’t heard of the term DEAD MEN’S SHOES before, but it was a classic example of that appreciation – ‘stiff footwear’, really !
    Finished up at the top with TANKAS (did cheat and googled Japanese poems, only knowing HAIKUS), JUST SO STORIES (another classic example of his elegant word play) and UNCORKING (superb way to finish off).

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