Sunday Times Cryptic 4857, June 30 2019, by Robert Price — Fences of Eden

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
It’s alright, Ma… I can make it. When I worked this last Saturday, with pleasantly surprising ease, I was, mercifully, in an air-conditioned room at St. Francis College, right around the corner from my flat (sans climatisation), at the evening’s Left Forum Plenary—I must admit, though, that I was mainly there for the AC… (I was happy to know that my friend Delphine got through the previous day all right in le Gard, where the temperatures reached a never-before-recorded-in-France—in any month—45.9ºC, or almost 115ºF.)

There was only word that I didn’t know, and that was in a clue, not an answer. My biggest problem was trying to parce 7d post-solve before dispelling the hallucination that the word between the quotemarks was “Oil.”

I do (sarmgana)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Remaining? No more! (4)
OVER — DD
 4 Live tennis shot in advance (10)
BEFOREHAND — ”Live” is BE and the stroke a FOREHAND. We had a similar tennis clue earlier that week, if memory serves.
 9 Men fed horse first to enrage another equid (6)
ONAGER — ”Men” being the old standby, O(ther) R(anks), which swallows a “horse,” NAG, and E[-ngage]
10 Sales for everyone wearing suits (8)
AUCTIONS — A(U)CTIONS, U being the rating Universal, “for everyone,” and the kind of ACTIONS here being legal ones
11 Short bloke with hair styled something like a cabbage (8)
KOHLRABI — Serge Gainsbourg, peut-être ? (blok[-e] + hair)*
12 Discard top of swimsuit? See, that’s disgusting! (6)
SLOUGH — Prude! S[-wimsuit] + LO + UGH
13 Keeping Status Quo waiting on the phone (7,3,4)
HOLDING THE LINE — DD. I guess the capitals could mean this is supposed to be a reference to a Brit rock band I’d never heard of before.
16 Damaged enamel? It’s mints being too sweet (14)
SENTIMENTALISM — (enamel? It’s mints)* In 1932, in an essay about Joyce’s Ulysses, Carl Jung wrote: “Sentimentality is the superstructure erected upon brutality.” (Just thought I’d throw that in…)
20 Several footballers going to the ground, needlessly (6)
DIVERS — DD. I had to resort to Wikipedia—“In association football, diving is an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by falling to the ground and possibly feigning an injury, to give the impression that a foul has been committed” (but most of y’all probably know that!)—because I suspected that my first thought (a dishonest player might “take a dive”—throw a game—for a payoff) missed a football-specific sense.
22 Yet to lock in support for Notre Dame? (8)
BUTTRESS — Very timely, as just a couple weeks ago it was announced that only 9 percent of the funds pledged for restoring the cathedral have been received. “Yet” is BUT, next “to” TRESS, or “lock” (with “in” just a connection to the DBE).
24 Mixed veg and Brie covering a waffle (8)
VERBIAGE — (veg + Brie + a)*
25 Country houses start to confiscate gum (6)
CHICLE — CHI(C)LE. Whence the brandname Chiclets.
26 Six-footer women not allowed to scamper (4,6)
STAG BEETLE — STAG, “women not allowed” + BEETLE, “to scamper.” (The top result on the Google search page offers the definition “make one’s way hurriedly or with short, quick steps.”)
27 The first habitat lacked enough fences (4)
EDEN — To keep the serpent out? Hidden. As paradise so often is… or even must be.

DOWN
 2 Painter very excited about new hotel (3,4)
VAN GOGH — V(ery) AGOG around N(ew) + H(otel). A rusty revolver thought to be the one with which he killed himself was recently AUCTIONed off in Paris, for the ungoghly price of €162,000.
 3 Uplifting beverage fit for the Queen (5)
REGAL — LAGER<=
 4 Uncivilised nature of pub is shown in yeasty froth on liquor (9)
BARBARISM — BAR (“pub”) + IS (‘is”!) are inside—a new one to me—BARM, “yeasty froth on liquor”
 5 Worried about fine jewellery losing its centrepiece (7)
FEARING — F(ine) + EAR[-r]ING
 6 Stacks of wrenches (5)
RICKS — DD
 7 God alters intro to “Oi!” in greeting commoners (3,6)
HOI POLLOI — H(OIPOLLO)I, Apollo having dropped “A” for OI. Literally, “the many.” “Oi!” is an exclamation meaning various things in various languages, including several varieties of English—most relevantly here, perhaps, working-class and Cockney slang.
 8 Twelve having bother getting in shape (7)
NONAGON — NO(NAG)ON. With the word-insertion clue disguised as part of the def.
14 Puppies annoy one leaving droppings (9)
LITTERBUG — ”Puppies” being a LITTER and “annoy” meaning BUG… If I really must spell it out!
15 Suffering? Try toothbrush, perhaps? (9)
HEARTACHE — ”Try” is HEAR, and “toothbrush, perhaps” is, uh, (mus)TACHE. I’ve never grown one, for precisely this reason.
17 Obvious occasion to carry a passport? (7)
EVIDENT — EV(ID)ENT
18 Nut in case most generous (7)
NOBLEST — ”Nut” is NOB and “in case” LEST
19 Maureen’s in Alsace, she makes wine … (7)
MOSELLE — MO’S + ELLE (“in Alsace, she”)
21 … but without love for wine (5)
SOAVE — A job’s a job… S(O)AVE
23 Approval to demolish the front and rear (5)
RAISE — [-p]RAISE

24 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4857, June 30 2019, by Robert Price — Fences of Eden”

  1. I didn’t expect to get through one of Robert’s so fast; it’s probably only fair that today’s looks likely to take me the week. I biffed AUCTIONS, HOI POLLOI, and VAN GOGH, solving post-submission. Nothing really stands out, as my time suggests, but maybe COD to RAISE.
  2. ….Bob gives us (BE)FOREHAND. Not content with that, he nods to the cricket World Cup with OVER, and the Copa America with DIVERS (I note that Lionel Messi was red carded last night).

    Like Guy (not Bruce !) I parsed HOI POLLOI later.

    In my IT days with Independent Insurance, one of my jobs was to test that the VERBIAGE (“Terms and Conditions”) were printed correctly when a new document was designed. My boss would usually hand me the form with the words “Pay attention to the waffle – even if nobody else is going to”.

    NHO CHICLE, but biffed it confidently.

    FOI KOHLRABI
    LOI BUTTRESS
    COD SOAVE
    TIME 9:38

  3. In the end I got most of this. Very pleased to work out KOHLRABI and CHICLE (both words seemed familiar when they emerged). Interesting to have a bottle of Moselle so soon after Mosel -compare and contrast?
    I did not get ONAGER and AUCTIONS.
    OI is a word I use frequently, as years ago a dog trainer used it to show us how to get a dog’s attention and I have used it ever since; it works if you mean it.
    We had a lot of barm cakes in Lancashire but I don’t remember the yeasty froth. David
    1. Ha yes I say ‘oi’ all the time to our dogs, usually to get them to take their noses out of the bin.
      1. Barm cakes (bread) fondly remembered from my Stockport days.

        Edited at 2019-07-07 01:07 pm (UTC)

  4. 40 minutes. LOI was DIVERS as seeing the word ‘football’ in a clue is enough for me to move right on and not return until all or most of the checkers are in place.

    NHO CHICLE but it was getable from wordplay.

    DK BARM in the sense required, only having heard of it in the expressions ‘barmpot’ (a crazy or foolish person) and ‘barm cake’ (a bread roll originating in Lancashire, something often purchased at the corner shop in Coronation Street in the days of Florrie Lindley). Incidentally, on checking just now what exactly a ‘barm cake’ is, I found that one of its characteristics is that it’s flat, which seems a bit odd as barm, being a yeast product, would surely make the dough rise?

    Edited at 2019-07-07 05:32 am (UTC)

  5. I thought I’d solved BEFOREHAND beforehand. A pleasant puzzle, all complete in 21 minutes. Like David, I’m fond of a barm cake, so I did parse BARBARISM, but without fully knowing the yeasty froth bit. Shame my Mum’s not still around to ask. COD to DIVERS. I saw Franny Lee’s, the greatest diver of them all, first game for Bolton. He was only 15 or 16, and my avatar played next to him at inside-right to ‘look after him’. He didn’t need much of that. We beat City 3-1, Franny getting two and Nat the third. Another field full of shades as I near the shadowy coast. Enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Guy and Robert.
  6. 10:28. No dramas. I biffed BARBARISM so didn’t even notice the unknown ‘barm’. I’ve come across ‘barmpot’ but didn’t know where it came from. ‘Barmy’ has the same root according to Chambers.
    Either CHICLE or the brand Chiclets has come up before, I’m sure, because that’s how I know about both.
    Tiny point Sandy but I think the definition in 16ac is ‘being too sweet.’
  7. DNF. Bah! Worked my way through this in 24:37 but I put racks at 6dn not ricks. I ended up with the two alternatives and found it very hard to choose between them. Ended up going for the wrong option. I was thinking of racks in the sense of storage units where you can stack things up and racks in the sense of stretching / wrenching on the rack, torture device. I liked the rest of the puzzle, just a bit frustrated to have jumped the wrong way on that one.
  8. No problems for me with this one. CHICKLE has come up in puzzles before which is how I knew it. OVER and VAN GOGH were my first ones in but I can’r remember which was LLOI. Nice puzzle. 20:23. Thanks Bob and Guy.
  9. at 25ac was a write-in as I have written about how the raw product had a priority import order from Roosevelt, prior to D-Day. It came through British Honduras from Guatemala and there was a shortage. GIs do not fight without gum! Montgomery Ward’s mail room in Chicago was taken over by the National Guard, twice in 1944, to hasten things along! So my WOD.

    FOI 1ac OVER

    LOI 22ac BUTTRESS

    COD 20ac DIVERS

    Time 32 minutes.

      1. I think this opinion can only be held by someone who simply didn’t think of RICKS at all when working the puzzle.
    1. Well, I did, but what part didn’t you get?
      It’s a wine.

      Wikipedia: “Moselle wine is produced in three countries along the Moselle river: France, Luxembourg (the Musel) and Germany (the Mosel).”

      MO is a nickname for Maureen, so Maureen’s is MO’S.
      ELLE is French (spoken in Alsace) for “she.”

      Edited at 2019-07-13 02:09 am (UTC)

  13. 45m leisurely stroll. FOI Holding the line, LOI Raise, COD Heartache.
    Agree with other comments that 6d was loosely clued since both Racks and Ricks both work.
    Thanks to setter and bloggers.
  14. LOI 6d , after racking our brains to come up with the wrong answer. It doesn’t seem quite as right as ‘rick’, and therefore not as right as rain. 20 mins with this error.
  15. Barm is an alternative word for yeast, hence ‘DriBarm’ is the trade name in Australia for dried yeast.
    And if you have ever ‘ricked’ your ankle you will see why it’s more appropriate than racks for 6d.
  16. At Halloween in Ireland we had Barm Brack, a heavily spiced currant/sultana cake moistened with strong tea instead of water. The name is an Anglicisation of Bairin Breac meaning speckled cake and had nothing to do with yeast although yeast was probably used before people had baking powder. A ring, a bit of cloth and a bit of wood were baked in the cake. The person who got the ring would be lucky (and marry), the one who got the cloth would become a nun (or priest) and the stick meant you would never marry. A pea meant you’d marry within a year, a coin meant you’d be wealthy.

    Jan and Tom, Toronto

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