Sunday Times Cryptic 4863, Aug. 10 ’19, by Robert Price — “I can do that time standing on my head!”

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
This was very enjoyable, and maybe a bit harder than the last one by Bob that I blogged. My COD is 5, can you see why?

My title is a (loose) reference to the clue to DEVIL MAY CARE, my FOI. (The date is abbreviated because there seems to be a character limit on the headline field, which I never noticed before.) I actually have spent some time in police custody, on a few occasions, after riding in a SQUAD CAR or even a (ahem) paddy wagon—strictly for exercising my constitutional rights, of course—but the longest was a(n interminable) weekend in the NYC Tombs (okay, that was for grass; I was stopped and frisked). Now, see, I thought I had nothing to say this week, but if you get me started…

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

ACROSS
 1 Prune fed to bird in crate (6)
JALOPY — JA(LOP)Y
 4 Cops would use this bluff around court (5,3)
SQUAD CAR — You gotta watch those cops! S(QUAD)CAR
 9 Disease social worker keeps missing (6)
ABSENT — A public health hazard! A(BSE)NT, the ailment in question being bovine spongiform encephalopathy, aka “mad cow disease”
10 Did coach, being married, stop collecting rent? (8)
MENTORED — M, “married” + EN(TORE)D
12 Left runner with right outer garment (9)
OVERSKIRT — ”Left,” OVER + SKI, “runner” + RT, “right”
13 Plant in the middle of issuing many envelopes (5)
LOTUS — LOT([-iss]U[-ing])S
14 Sniper, quiet operator, worried about silence (12)
SHARPSHOOTER — SH + (operator)* around SH, “silence”
18 Cavalier endured around 31 days custody (5-3-4)
DEVIL-MAY-CARE — LIVED<= + the merry month of MAY + CARE, “custody.” Since the clue doesn’t (and couldn’t) read “in custody,” the knight (or Royalist) in the surface meaning could be putting up with having custody of someone…
21 Stones’ backing band needs so long to tour India (5)
TIARA — T(I)ARA. Clever definition! TARA is much rarer than “Tata!”
22 Awful panic finally spread into government (9)
DIRECTION — “Awful,” DIRE + [-pani]C + (into)*
24 Fitness update is wrong to cover sex appeal (8)
APTITUDE — (update)* with IT inside
25 Flap in coat men close at the back (6)
FURORE — FUR, “coat” + OR, “men” + [-clos]E
26 Adders regularly avoided old city’s ruins (8)
DESTROYS — aDdErS + TROYS, “old city’s”
27 Barber cutting while arguing (2,4)
AT ODDS — A(TODD)S. The demon barber Sweeney of Fleet Street…

DOWN
 1 Miss Brodie half concealed a terrible resentment (8)
JEALOUSY — JE[-an] + A + LOUSY, “terrible.” We actually have three-fourths of the famous fictional schoolmistress’s first name here, but that wouldn’t have made as smooth a surface…
 2 Star taking young woman around city (3,5)
LAS VEGAS — LAS(VEGA)S
 3 Blows from boxers (5)
PANTS — DD
 5 Doubt the Gospel? (8,4)
QUESTION MARK — ”Doubt,” QUESTION + the Gospel of MARK
 6 Vessel carrying poorly soldiers (9)
ARTILLERY — ART(ILL)ERY
 7 Heel grazed on one in the church (6)
CURATE — ”Heel,” CUR + ATE, “grazed on”
 8 Vegetable starters to rival any course (6)
RADISH — R[-ival] + A[ny] +DISH, “course”
11 Nobly inclined to stop exalted lady being heartless (4-8)
HIGH-MINDEDLY — HIGH, “exalted” + L[-ad]Y, with MINDED, “inclined,” plugging in
15 Bad writer’s operettas needing work (9)
POETASTER — Hey, are you knocking Poe…? (operettas)*
16 Chap providing antique engine component (8)
MANIFOLD — ”Chap,” MAN + “providing,” IF + “antique,” OLD
17 Way to hold back ruddy snakes! (8)
MEANDERS — MEAN(RED<=)S
19 Stockport wingers run with abandon (6)
STRAND — S[-tockpor]T + R + AND, “with”
20 French drink wine in the outskirts of Paris (6)
PASTIS — French drink wine everywhere! P(ASTI)S
23 Uneasy truce that takes bottle on both sides (5)
CRUET — (truce)* This had to be the answer, but I didn’t see the point of the last three words of the clue. (They were an attempt, I guess, to make it harder, but most of us who didn’t get it likely just shrugged and moved on.) After a nudge from Vinyl, I found out that over there in Merrie Olde “cruet” tout court can mean a cruet-stand, which you see on the tables of restaurants and which do typically hold two bottles, and maybe salt and pepper as well.

22 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4863, Aug. 10 ’19, by Robert Price — “I can do that time standing on my head!””

  1. A very enjoyable puzzle from Bob, which didn’t take ages to solve, but had lots of satisfying moments when the wordplay came together. I was confused by CRUET until I looked it up afterwards and found it as Guy describes. Liked JALOPY and QUESTION MARK. POETASTER is word I’ve only met in these puzzles, but at least it has imprinted itself on my brain. 22:39. Thanks Bob and Guy.
  2. 1) I think you need to extend the underline at 4ac to include ‘this’.
    2) I think SHARPSHOOTER needs to be parsed as SH (quiet) + SH ‘silence’ enclosed in (OPERATOR)* (‘operator worried’) (‘about silence’).
    1. 1) Of course, thought I had! Thanks!
      2) The notation has been amended. I was seeing SH as one unbreakable unit, but I guess that wasn’t implicit.
      1. Just spotted another nit, too late to edit my posting:
        3) MANIFOLD You mean ‘providing’ =IF
        1. Well, yes. That’s one crazy typo. That’s what I get for starting this at the office. Merci bien!
  3. Like Guy and John, I wondered about CRUET; unlike them, I just wondered. Biffed SHARPSHOOTER, parsed post-submission. Liked AT ODDS and JALOPY, inter alia, but COD to QUESTION MARK. Robert rivals Dean for economy of cluing: an average of 6.2 words per clue (today Dean reached 5.4).
  4. Pretty straightforward. I did like CRUET; used to cruet sets.
    COD was definitely QUESTION MARK. Made me laugh.
  5. ….and they’re all livin’ DEVIL-MAY-CARE” (Viva LAS VEGAS by Elvis Presley). The question here is obviously whether Bob was listening to the King while compiling this, or to the later cover by ZZ Top !

    Cilla Black’s valediction at 21A always reminds me of a Black Country colleague many years ago, whose departure was usually preceded by the phrase “Ta-ra a bit !”

    CRUET sets with bottles can often be seen on “Bargain Hunt”, so no problem there.

    Stockport’s wingers ran with abandon through our defence on four separate occasions last season ! Another excellent puzzle – thanks Bob and Guy.

    FOI DEVIL-MAY-CARE
    LOI CURATE
    COD LOTUS
    TIME 12:54

  6. Two minutes under an hour for this one. CRUET went straight in once I got to it although I then wondered briefly about ‘bottle’ as in our household as a child our cruet consisted only of salt (which was in a salt cellar) and pepper (in a pepper-pot) and I think later we acquired one which held mustard too (in a mustard-jar). Elsewhere e.g. at my grandparents’ house there was a slot for vinegar too, and that’s where we move into legitimate ‘bottle’ territory, so I passed on to the next clue satisfied enough not to worry about the bottle on the other side.

    Edited at 2019-08-18 06:14 am (UTC)

    1. What threw me, of course, is that cruet by itself (also) means a kind of bottle—precisely the kind that might hold your olive oil or vinegar, but also a kind that used in the Catholic rite of the Eucharist. The clue had me wondering at first if there was something peculiar about such a bottle’s construction…

      Edited at 2019-08-18 06:41 am (UTC)

      1. Fortunately I didn’t know that meaning.

        It’s reputed that in some boarding houses at one time it was common practice to offer ‘use of cruet’ as one of the facilities to attract business. I certainly saw ‘pepper and salt’ listed on a menu in a not inexpensive Scottish hotel in 1969.

        Edited at 2019-08-18 10:25 am (UTC)

  7. I agree that this seemed harder than previous puzzles from Bob, and I nearly gave up a couple of times. But it was very satisfying each time a clue yielded. Don’t have any notes but late in were CRUET ( I remember those sets well) and TIARA -very clever, I thought.
    PASTIS was a reminder of overindulgence in France once. You’re only meant to have one before a meal. Haven’t drunk it since.
    David
  8. Many liked this one. However, I found it a bit of an old pun as opposed to a currant one. Too many British and Foreign Bible Society Crosswords as a lad, methink.(No Concordance!)

    FOI 1dn JEALOUSY

    LOI 23dn CRUET wasn’t quite sure.

    COD 27ac AT ODDS demonic

    WOD 1ac JALOPY Lord Peter Wimsey come to mind.

    Time parsed quickly.

    Edited at 2019-08-18 04:30 pm (UTC)

  9. Like Jack I thought of salt and pepper seeing the word CRUET, but the reference to bottles reminded me of the Oil and Vinegar combination. Nice puzzle from Bob, as ever. I was a bit slow getting started with 13A my FOI. I see I had tried for a bit getting BESTOWED for 10A before I found MENTORED. I liked SQUAD CAR, DEVIL-MAY-CARE, PASTIS and, my LOI, CURATE. Thanks Bob and Guy. 23:31
  10. Overshirt for Overskirt. I had my doubts. Otherwise all done correctly in 17:22.

    COD: Squad Car.

  11. 10:38. I wondered about CRUET if only because I don’t remember coming across it without the word ‘set’, but I just shrugged and moved on. The ones I see most often are in our local pizza place, and they have three bottles: oil, vinegar, chilli oil.
  12. Very fast for me. I don’t time my Sunday attempts as alcohol is invariably involved. No problems.
  13. 29:11. Excellent puzzle. Not too difficult but still satisfying. COD to 5dn.
  14. Thanks Bob and guy
    Took 3-4 sittings to get this one out and enjoyed the challenge in doing it. A good mixture of thinking required to unravel quite a few of the clues. Even though the use of a punctuation mark in itself being the clue has become quite well used, it still took to pass the half way mark for the penny to drop with 5d.
    Dunno why I didn’t look up Brodie afterwards to find JE[AN], so came here with that one not properly parsed.
    Finished in the NE corner with MENTORED and CURATE which in retrospect were a couple of the easier clues in the puzzle.

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