Sunday Times Cryptic 4813, by David McLean — Not the end of the world

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

Rather a mundane vocabulary for this one. I pick as my COD the clever, though quite easy, 7, which is also probably the most interesting word here. But 6 also stands out, as &lit.s have been rare on my watch (and a perfectly executed one is, in my estimation, rare anywhere). EDIT: Let’s call it a semi-&lit (see below).

(gramanas)* like this, definitions underlined…

ACROSS

 1 Places one can get on with boob jobs, I’m told (3,5)
BUS STOPS — “Bust ops.” Oh, dear. The clue is just as crass as the answer some objected to in Sunday Times Cryptic 4806 (1 down). But it surely put my mind on the right track to get 26!
 5 Pop over to visit son and pop (4)
SODA — O(ver) dropping in on S(on) and DA, which is British dialect, says here, for “father,” “pop,” “dad”… It’s that bit that threw me.
 8 Band name that’s confused A&R (4)
TEAM — TERM with an A instead of R.
 9 The way one pitches things at home to people (10)
INTONATION — “At home” = IN + TO + NATION or “people”
11 Detective leaving gap in policy (6)
STANCE — If the detective, a DI (Detective Inspector), were here, we’d have DISTANCE, gap.
13 Miss turn-off, but carry on regardless? (2,3,3)
GO TOO FAR — Cryptic definition.
14 Beer scam drunk takes to heart (8)
EMBRACES — (Beer scam)*
16 Extras in Cheers (3-3)
BYE-BYE — Double definition, the first relating, as I guessed, to cricket. Cheers was one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, especially in the Shelley Long days.
17 Perhaps one’s intended caretaker (6)
KEEPER — (S)he’s “a keeper”? So put a ring on her, or him (or them).
19 Cold English wife splits, stealing heart of Harry Styles (8)
CREWCUTS — C = “Cold” + E = “English” + W = “wife,” with CUTS = “splits,” swiping [Har]R[y], with the definition Deceptively Capped to make you think this might pertain to an English pop star.
21 Story about member fit to raise Cain? (8)
FARMABLE — FABLE with an ARM stuck in. Second Deceptive Capitalization, I guess to make up for the lack of one on my last outing. However, it’s not an alternate spelling of “cane,” as I presumed, or an unsignaled homophone as Kevin, below, suspected. I believe the answer is found in Collins, where we have “cain” (uncapped) “or kain (keɪn  ) | noun | history | (in Scotland and Ireland) payment in kind, usually farm produce paid as rent.” Only “usually farm produce,” hence the question mark.
22 Very pleasant touring eastern city (6)
VENICE — V(ery) + NICE (“pleasant”) going around E(ast). Of course, Nice is a city too. I’ve never been there, strange to relate, though I’ve been to Venice.
23 The French Connection? (10)
EUROTUNNEL — Another cryptic def. La connexion anglaise, de l’autre côté.
24 Bit of opinion vicar rejected as “load of balls!” (4)
OVER — Cricket again. O(pinion) + REV<—
26 Direction one could take being bust post-Brexit? (4)
EAST — If the BRitish were to leave BREAST…! (Good grief.)
27 Superficial secretary upset Young Ones producer (8)
APPARENT — P(ersonal) A(ssistant) <— + “Young Ones producer” = PARENT. More Deceptive Capitalization! In The Nation, we would’ve added italics!

DOWN

 1 Might one buzz in during summer competition (3)
BEE — Double definition.
 2 Religious college? Cut class! (7)
SEMINAR — SEMINAR[y]
 3 Rubbish journey, ending in trouble (5)
TRIPE — TRIP + (troubl)E
 4 17 perhaps tucking in to finish up French soups (7)
POTAGES — The number is not a reference to another clue but only to a random AGE, inserted into “to finish,” STOP <-—going up.
 6 Some about rodeo did this to those they beat (7)
OUTRODE — &lit.! Incorporating a hidden word, “some” of “about rodeo.”
 7 A typical cop raging like there’s no tomorrow! (11)
APOCALYPTIC — (A typical cop)* It’s always irked me that this word is so often used nowadays for any earthshattering calamity, although the literal meaning is an “uncovering,” a revelation, as in the Apocalypse of St. John, which is indeed about the “end times.” These “typical” cops can be a problem, ’nuff said.
10 Celebrity performing with a turn on board (7)
NOTABLE — ON<— + TABLE or “board”
12 Hoisted film cast up a tree with Mr T (11)
TEMPERATURE — Nicely hidden def. ET <— + (up a tree + Mr)*
15 Motor I purchased with 50% off is a beast (7)
CARIBOU — CAR I BOU[ght]
18 Arrogant English cat (according to vocal Aussie) (7)
POMPOUS — A Brit, or “English cat” is a “pom” to Aussies (and New Zealanders) and POUS sounds like “puss”—to most of us Anglophones, no?
19 Make loads of bread and put it all away (5,2)
CLEAN UP — Another double definition.
20 Pardon prisoner number 24 (7)
CONDONE — CON = “prisoner,” and “number 24” refers back to our answer above, OVER, meaning DONE.
22 Very Russian girl—one with a big mouth? (5)
VOLGA — V for “very” again, with OLGA. I hear the Volga is indeed a mighty river.
25 Consume with worry (3)
EAT — Always a lot of double definitions on Sunday, it seems.

25 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4813, by David McLean — Not the end of the world”

  1. I agree with your assessment Guy, but might have to quibble with you about OUTRODE being &lit, as there’s plenty of ‘extended definition’ going on there.
    1. Well, first I had only “beat” underlined as the definition. Then I figured that everything that wasn’t wordplay had to be def., so I underlined “did this to those they beat.” But then I realized that you needed “rodeo” to justify the reference to riding as what “they” were specifically “beat” in (by “Some”). In my view, the definition and the wordplay are inextricably linked.

      Edited at 2018-09-02 12:03 am (UTC)

      1. They are linked but for the clue to by &Lit the whole thing has to be both definition and wordplay. Here the whole thing is the definition but only the first half (‘some about rodeo’) is wordplay. So I would call this semi-&Lit.
        1. OK, but I don’t think “semi-&lit” is a real category. Aren’t there only more or less successful &lits?

          Edited at 2018-09-02 11:28 am (UTC)

          1. ‘Semi-&Lit’ is a category used (and I think devised) by Don Manley for exactly this kind of clue.
  2. A couple I never figured out, so thanks to Guy for STANCE and EAST. And POTAGES; I mistakenly thought the rule held in the ST that an Arabic number points to a clue. 1d should have had a ?, given the syntax. ‘boob jobs’ and ‘load of balls!’; it’s Sunday, but still. And if land is farmable, one might raise cane on it, but Cain? Don’t we need a homophone indicator, or is the question mark supposed to do the job? Guy, you forgot ‘splits’ in CREWCUT.
    1. Ah, I did have CUTS in there at one point. Thanks.
      As for Cain, I have, belatedly, come up with an answer for that. Amending.
      1. Yeah, I looked ‘cain’ up before writing, in ODE (not there) and in my English-Japanese dictionary, where it’s marked ‘historical’; seemed too unlikely to mention. As Special Bitter says, mephisto-ish (not just a bit, I’d say, but).
  3. 30:42 for me. I found this mostly straightforward but biffed 4dn struggling to see it’s connection with 17ac. I see now that’s because there wasn’t one. 21ac was entered on the basis of wordplay. I did not know the word cain. It may be well known to others but I thought it a bit mephisto-ish. For the record, having looked it up in Chambers, it is “(hist) Scotland and Ireland, rent paid in kind esp. in produce from a tenanted farm; tribute.”
  4. Sorry Guy, I posted the comment above before seeing your exchange with Kevin and the amended blog re. 21ac.
  6. 36 minutes on this more straightforward than a normal David offering. However crass, I’m giving COD to BUS STOPS as the clue that made me smile. And isn’t the German “büsten halten”? It’s strange how The Apocalypse or Revelation got into the canon anyway. I guess it was a mix of traditionally being included in the Johannine writings and that it ended in the eternal city, a nice literary reversal of the Bible starting in a fertile garden. I’d prefer my heaven in a garden though! I read an interesting book by Emmanual Carrere “The Kingdom” last year, which claimed that “whichever John” was anathematising Paul’s churches in his rants. I’d better stop or I’ll be anathematised for being off topic. Thank you Guy and David.

    Edited at 2018-09-02 07:21 am (UTC)

  7. I think 7dn might be simpler than suggested.. Cain was a farmer, Abel a shepherd. So farmable land would be for Cain. Not a brilliant clue however you cut it .. I doubt the arcane Scottish meaning of cain was intended, but who knows?
      1. Raise him to the ranks of a farmer? David presumably wanted to include the expression “raising Cain” as in riotous behaviour.
        1. That doesn’t make much sense to me, to be honest. I suspect the origin of this clue was David spotting a clever way to use the archaic word ‘cain’.
  8. ….VOLGA, but, as with Bolton Wanderer, it gave me a chuckle. What it didn’t do was help me with EAST, which, along with TEMPERATURE, remained unparsed until I came here.

    First attempt at a Sunday puzzle for some years, and I didn’t time myself. I’d guess about 25 minutes at a pinch.

    COD EUROTUNNEL

  9. 14:01. I have no problem with 1ac, or with naughty words in general: I swear like a trooper when I can get away with it but I try to avoid inherently demeaning or discriminatory words. I thought the word in 4806 was one of those, but these things are a matter of taste and context.
  10. I enjoyed this and managed to finish it. Last two were 1d and 8a.
    I still do not know how Bee = Competition.
    Also could not parse Potages so thanks for that.
    I liked 1a and 26a and Eurotunnel.
    As I had finished it I decided to submit on the paper’s website only to be turned down several times. This seems to happen quite a lot. Is the system overwhelmed by successful solvers trying to enter the prize competition?
    David
  12. At 38:43, this took me a little bit longer than usual for one of Harry’s puzzles. I did smile at 1a, which was my FOI. KEEPER, POMPOUS and FARMABLE held me up most. I didn’t worry too much about the definition of CAIN and just saw the ? and shrugged. I was puzzled by how 17a might apply to 4d, so thanks for clearing that up Guy. Thanks to Harry too.

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