Sunday Times Christmas Cryptic 4778 by David McLean

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
27:30. For the first time ever I managed to remember that the Sunday puzzle that appears just before Christmas is a jumbo, so I was able to give myself plenty of time to solve it. I didn’t really need it in the end: this wasn’t a particularly hard puzzle. It was a lot of fun though, with the odd seasonal touch to get us in the mood and some very original devices. Some of these are arguably pushing it a bit, but I’d rather setters did that than play it safe all the time and all in all I thought this was excellent.

The fact that this was a jumbo prompted me to try mohn’s automatic blog-generation script for the first time, and it worked a treat. I’ll definitely be using it again. So thanks to mohn for that, and many thanks to Harry for an enjoyable pre-Christmas treat.

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (THIS)*, anagram indicators like this.

Across
1 Note run by editor, but published incorrectly
MISPRINTED – MI (note), SPRINT (run), ED.
7 Somehow create a phone message for the Times?
PEACE ON EARTH – (CREATE A PHONE)*.
13 Best not start to boogie around my chaperone
ESCORT – bES(COR)T, where the removed B is the first letter of ‘boogie’.
14 Commonplace as men gyrating in informal photo
PROSAIC – PIC (informal photo) containing a reversal (gyrating) of AS, OR (other ranks, men).
15 Marshland painting by Kent that’s all about light
FENESTRA – FEN (marshland), reversal (all about) of ART, SE (Kent). A stickler might ask for a question mark here, since there are parts of the South-East that aren’t Kent so this is a definition by example. A FENESTRA is a window, which will come as no surprise to anyone who speaks French, Italian or German.
16 Terribly nervous head stifling a strong desire to scoff
RAVENOUSNESS – (NERVOUS)*, NESS (head) with an A slipped in (or stifled) among the anagram fodder.
17 Old people’s home hooked on methamphetamine
ICENI – ICE (methamphetamine), reversal of IN (home). I don’t remember seeing ‘hooked’ as a reversal indicator before.
18 Harvest festival’s second in charge
REAP – R(fEstival)AP.
19 Vicars entertaining one model for “experiences” again
REVISITS – REV(I, SIT)S.
21 West-bound roads close to diner and a Shell store?
ARSENAL – reversal (west-bound) of LANES, dineR, A. Here the definition by example (since an ARSENAL might contain things other than shells) is indicated by the question mark.
22 A large portion of party rejected ballot
DOLLOP – DO, reversal of POLL.
23 Absorbing news ultimately, the solver’s really the setter!
YOURS TRULY – YOUR(newS), TRULY. The solver is you, hence the solver’s is YOUR. The setter is me. Well not actually me of course, I’m the blogger. But you get the idea.
26 Starchy maids must loosen up for the present time
CHRISTMAS DAY – (STARCHY MAIDS)*.
28 Old king queen covered in kisses (European style primarily) (6)
XERXES – X(ER)X, European Style. Ancient king of Persia.
29 Abominable English deeds hurt blokes on board?
ABLE-BODIED SEAMEN – (ABOMINABLE E DEEDS)*
33 I am sex mad and recline with abandon, doctors!
MEDICAL EXAMINERS – (I AM SEX MAD, RECLINE)*.
35 New corset bishop must get out of? Fat chance!
NO DICE – N, bODICE.
37 Dad brought round mum, maybe with cape’s obvious quality
APPARENTNESS – reversal of PA, PARENT, NESS (cape).
40 Talk about a Panorama broadcast that’s not complimentary!
PAY-PER-VIEW – reversal of YAP, PER (a), VIEW (panorama).
41 Dancer is likely to pull this when working
SLEIGH – CD. Dancer being one of Santa’s reindeer, of course.
43 Club kit returned by large baseball assistant
BATGIRL – BAT, reversal of RIG, L. ‘A girl who works at baseball games, carrying bats to players and moving other equipment’, says Collins, so not a precocious superheroine.
45 Energy-advancing herb put on top of side scantily
SPARSELY – Side, then PARSLEY with the E (energy) ‘advanced’.
47 Continent as hypothetical person drinking unlimited kir
ASIA – AS(kIr), A. One of the definitions of A in ODO is ‘denoting the first of two or more hypothetical people or things’, given the example ‘suppose A had killed B’.
48 Squad crossing lake as fire not yet started?
UNLIT – UN(L)IT.
49 WI must expand part in Jerusalem, say, collectively
WITH ONE VOICE – I’m not entirely sure about this but I think we have to ‘expand’ W and I into their longer/unabbreviated forms (WITH and ONE, respectively), and then a VOICE is a singing part. I had to work this out for the blog: when solving itjust went in based on the checkers and definition.
51 Popular revolutionary Henry is lit up? I deny everything!
NIHILIST – reversal of IN, H, (IS LIT)*. I tried to become a NIHILIST but it never came to anything.
52 Bravery of woman with honour saving lives
HEROISM – HER (of woman), O(IS)M.
53 This promotes erection of fancy vicarage, not church
VIAGRA – (VICARAGE)*. I’m not entirely happy with the way CE for church is split up here, without any indication.
54 Discourage lectures screening single slides
DETERIORATES – DETER(I), ORATES.
55 Really out of line lawyers unmanned boozer
HONESTY BAR – HONESTlY, BAR (lawyers).

Down
2 How a PM may lie breathlessly as put in office
INSTATE – or IN STATE, how a dead (breathless) PM might lie.
3 Sort of gin I export to entertain the Queen Mum?
PROGENITRIX – (GIN I EXPORT)* containing R.
4 Opening one present, mostly expecting bits of tatty rubbish!
INTRO – again, I’m not sure about this one. The best I can do is I (one), then NOw (present mostly) which is expecting/pregnant with the first letters of ‘tatty rubbish’. This containment device is, um, adventurous, so I wonder if I’ve missed a more conventional explanation.
5 Tympanists obliterating man and those on keyboards? (7)
TYPISTS – TYMPANISTS. Again, we have a word (MAN) eliminated in pieces. However in this case I don’t mind: you can read MAN as just a collection of letters, rather than an indivisible lexical unit. In 53ac, by contrast, CE is only a church when it’s CE, so splitting it up seems to me less pukka.
6 One with the hump dreary mod wound up
DROMEDARY – (DREARY MOD)*.
7 Spin passages to express Liberal commendations
PRAISES – PR (spin), AISlES.
8 After a shake-up, introduce a big old card game
AUCTION BRIDGE – (INTRODUCE A BIG)*. A precursor to contract bridge, apparently, which I guess makes it old. I assumed when solving that O was part of the anagrist.
9 Punch Ben feels barkeeper essentially makes weak
ENFEEBLES – (BEN FEELS barkEeper)*. Another unusual anagrind.
10 Gran sat on nitrogen bomb, and took care of some unrelated issue
NANNIED – NAN, N, IED.
11 Savage air assault engulfing a place down under
AUSTRALASIA – (AIR ASSAULT)* containing A.
12 Sailor hauled up fish close to a Spanish city
TARRAGONA – TAR, reversal of GAR, ON (close to), A.
20 Passed dude with no will to take right off US road
INTESTATE – INTErSTATE. INTESTATE is a noun here, and this is a great definition!
24 Old boy and earl eating last bits of mince pies might become thus
OBESE – OB(mincE pieS), E. Semi-&Lit.
25 Treatment upset English unionist with trapped wind
USAGE – reversal of E(GAS), U.
26 Cold kids sending up a number of Hackney workers
CABBIES – C, then BABIES with the A moved up (because this is a down clue) to the top.
27 Parts of the gut some enzymes enter aggressively
MESENTERA – contained in ‘enzymes enter aggressively’.
30 Holiday island hotel aboard rubbish junk, stop there now?
LEAVE IT AT THAT – LEAVE (holiday), I (island), TAT (rubbish), TAT (junk) containing H.
31 Fool around with looker briefly outside bash?
ESSAY – reversal of ASS in EYe.
32 Those topping early May chart employed expert rapper
EMCEE – first letters of ‘early May chart employed expert’
34 Wise men invested in island local full of ideas
IMAGINATIVE – I(MAGI), NATIVE.
36 Idealist in support of detective forming a partition
DIVISIONARY – DI, VISIONARY.
38 Sulphur-filled beer can found in training area abroad
PALESTINE – S (sulphure) is contained in ALE TIN, which in turn is contained in PE. The definition is vague but it’s hard to be more precise without starting an argument.
39 I put facts in columns New Labour toast, oddly
TABULATOR – (LABOUR ToAsT)*.
40 One swimming with sharks, fit Polish lunatic?
PILOT FISH – (FIT POLISH)*.
42 Dog one’s fed turns tail, getting paper for magician
HOUDINI – if you ‘feed’ I to HOUND, you get HOUNID. If you then turn the ‘tail’ (although here the tail is half the word) you get HOUDIN. Add i (newspaper).
44 During conflict, heads of detachment struck at the interior
INWARDS – IN WAR, Detachment, Struck.
45 Stony-eyed type with a nose for the horses?
SNOWMAN – CD. Because a SNOWMAN’s eyes are typically made of stones, and his nose of a carrot.
46 Group of stars hepcat recalled elevating shows
LACERTA – contained reversed (elevating) in ‘hepcat recalled’.
50 Seasonal workers personalities initially ignored
ELVES – sELVES.

17 comments on “Sunday Times Christmas Cryptic 4778 by David McLean”

  2. My LOI was also my one error: 46d, where my obtuseness in spotting hiddens came to the fore. With the checkers, all I could think of was ‘Lycurga’, which looked vaguely plausible as the name of constellation–I was influenced by Lycurgus, no doubt, who I once no doubt knew of. I notice that my notes also refer to the C, E of 53ac; I remember my first attempt in the clue competition, which was shot down in part because I deleted an H and an M with ‘Queen departs’ or something. I don’t recall seeing ‘essentially’ (as at 9d) before to indicate the central (at heart?) letter; is it peculiar to Harry? (He’s done it again since.)
    1. Deletions of separate letters: the current ST rule is that it’s allowed without indicating the separation provided that the latters appear in the right order in the word from which they are deleted. I don’t think David is the only setter to sometimes equate “essentially” with “at heart”, interpreted in a literal rather than metaphorical way.

      Edited at 2018-01-07 08:01 am (UTC)

  3. Thanks, Peter; can I assume that outside of STs, it would be frowned on? Given the state of my memory, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if ‘essentially’ shows up every other week.
    1. I honestly don’t know. The setter who explained the rule to me works for other papers and magazines, sometimes without editing by anyone else, so my guess is that it is done in at least some other places. In the only guide for setters I have for a paper other than the ST, it’s not mentioned.
  4. Remember finishing this in an hour and telling Mrs Pip so, but the rest is a blur, by now. I probably had to check LACERTA in spite of thinking I knew my constellations. Thanks for doing the mega-blog K.
  5. I enjoyed this one as well. 53ac was very amusing; he’s probably been hanging out with that naughty Dean Mayer, I thought to myself. I even spotted the concealed seasonal message, which is unusual for me…
    1. Is your tongue in your cheek here or do I have to actually look for a hidden message?
      1. The unchecked letters reading downwards on the extreme left and right hand sides of the grid…
  6. I seem to remember enjoying this, but it was done in a haze of Christmas spirit(+wine and beer) so I’ve not much to say other than it took me 1:33:39, and I don’t seem to have any errors. I didn’t know the constellation or the particular section of the alimentary tract, so it’s a good job it they were hiddens! Thanks Harry and K.
  7. I can see it’s very subjective judging how difficult a puzzle is. I found this tough and after several long sessions -which I thoroughly enjoyed – I had solved 34 clues and not all parsed.
    My big gaps were in the NW and SE. For example I see now 55a was a great clue but impossible for me to understand at the time. Was pleased to get Mesentera despite never having seen it before.
    Thanks for the blog and to the setter for some welcome puzzle time over Christmas. David
      1. Oh yeah! I am hopeless at spotting these things. I confess I had a quick look after reading your comment and didn’t see it, but I thought you were referring jokingly to the more obvious Christmas stuff so didn’t look very hard.
        1. After years of only ever spotting these things when they are pointed out to me, I felt a warm Christmassy glow at getting this on my own 🙂
  9. Solved this over three sessions, about 90 minutes – all except “Lacerta”, could have kicked myself! Spotted fenestra – dimly remembered that defenestration was a method of murder by tossing the victim through a window.

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