Sunday Times Cryptic 4939, by David McLean — A 23ing good time!

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

As I’m sure was had by all 23ing the codes here! Some of you 23 solvers may have even made 23ing good time. Mine was more of a 6’s pace, but I was savoring the journey all the way. The clue I’m highlighting is truly amazing, and may have set a new world record—someone check Guinness! Clue 24 (across) had already set a high bar, but it’s like 23 (down) said, “Hold my beer!”

I indicate (MAGAs ran)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 One in gorgeous hat moving around island (5,7)
SOUTH GEORGIA — (I, “One” + gorgeous hat)* An addition to my geographical knowledge, a British Overseas Territory that I guess most of y’all will know
 9 Bit of elastic attached to a jumper? (6,4)
BUNGEE CORD — CD (barely), playing on two senses of “jumper”
10 Talk about a lengthy series of events (4)
SAGA — GAS<=“about” + A
11 Medals hung around one lad for actions (6-2)
GOINGS-ON — GO(I)NG, “Medal[’]s hung around one” + SON, “lad”… This would work just as well, or better, with singular “Medal”; seems either the apostrophe is missing or the pluralization is simply a mistake.
12 Exclude pilot one’s regularly seen in pub (6)
BARFLY — BAR, “exclude” + FLY, “pilot”
13 Large as well as light (4)
LAND — L(arge) + AND, “as well as”
15 Foreign article about one apt to shoot swimmer (3,7)
RED SNAPPER — DER<=“about” + SNAPPER, “one apt to shoot”
17 Toy bible a lord manufactured (6,4)
BARBIE DOLL — (bible a lord)* Odd to see “bible” uncapped; ”biblical,” yes, but…
19 Slightly contrary information (4)
DATA — A TAD<=“contrary”
20 Give out a wave, perhaps, using radio (6)
ASSIGN — “a sign”
22 Former royal a cold-hearted bandit shot (8)
ABDICANT — A + (bandit + C, “cold”)* LOI
24 Attractive and tan Polish expert (4)
BUFF — Four definitions!!!!
25 Cook a lamb with ease, adding new salt (4,6)
ABLE SEAMAN — (a lamb + ease + N)* Spelled out, for a change
26 Cobblers found in Bow and Sweden (12)
FIDDLESTICKS — FIDDLE STICK, ”Bow” + S for “Sweden” in the international vehicle registration code. “Cobblers” in the relevant sense of “nonsense” is British rhyming slang, which I knew, but I didn’t know that it is derived from “cobbler’s awls,” meaning (oh, my goodness) “balls” or testicles. “Bow,” though not at all part of the definition, might nevertheless give a nudge in the right direction.

DOWN
 2 Men on horse held up music producer (5)
ORGAN — OR, “Men,” our old standby “other ranks” + NAG<=“held up”
 3 Might I grab your lime and cut it? (4,7)
TREE SURGEON — CD
 4 Mongrel dog ran around earl and whined (7)
GROANED — (dog ran + E for “earl”)* And we have a winner of this installment’s Creative Anagrind Prize.
 5 Not even funny (3)
ODD — DD
 6 Pat dogs or different creature (9)
GASTROPOD — (Pat dogs or)*
 7 Decoration-wise, one has tree up inside at Xmas! (5)
ANGEL — CD. Ouch!
 8 Car half-made by mostly rubbish robots (8)
AUTOMATA — So hard to get good help these days… AUTO + MA[-de] + TA[-t]
12 National labs heading into distribution (11)
BANGLADESHI — (labs heading)* Unusual anagrind; it’ll do, though “in distribution” would seem more appropriate—but not for the surface.
14 Barperson caught in act is questioned (9)
DEBRIEFED — DE(BRIEF)ED… BRIEF being slang for a barrister
16 Head of school entertained by schoolboy language (8)
ESTONIAN — E(S)TONIAN
18 Old people procuring line for high priests? (7)
ORACLES — O + RAC(L)ES Plural RACES for “people” is unusual.
21 Completely pack up belongings (5)
STUFF — Hit the road, Jack! A merely double definition. How boring (Ha).
23 Try fun class A drug hit: lose it, gag and snap (5)
CRACK — Eight definitions!!!!!!!! The one unfamiliar to me was “fun,” which I found deep inside Collins, where I learned the Irish equivalent craic (about which, it seems, there is some controversy). POI
25 Unopened post creates trouble (3)
AIL — [-m]AIL

26 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4939, by David McLean — A 23ing good time!”

  3. Usually I only grin inwardly at a good clue but I know had a silly smile on my face when I solved CRACK, a not untypical Hoskins subject. Brilliant.
    Have to admit I thought buff was only a triple, parsing ‘attractive and tan’ as one definition, but I see now that the colours tan and buff are almost indistinguishable.

    I had BUNGEE not BUNGIE. Both might be legit though.

    Thanks to setter and blogger – Blorenge

  4. 32 minutes, LOI LAND. One or eight CODs TO CRACK? The four for BUFF makes it appear lightweight but published by the Bolton Evening News it was also the name of my favourite weekly read until t’internet rendered football papers redundant. South Georgia wasn’t on my mind until the Falklands War. Tricky in places, but enjoyable. Thank you David and Guy.
  5. 11A wordplay with extra S was a mistake, which I failed to spot. Strangely, no solver told me about it until very late on Friday. An apostrophe will be added to the online version now that we’re post closing date.
  6. Nearly 20 minutes for this, some of them admiring both the multiple definition clues. Unusually (for a Sunday) the opportunities for risqué cluing seem to have been eschewed, so DEBRIEFING went without reference to trousers, GOINGS-ON, ORGAN and STUFF without a nudge-nudge, and BUFF wasn’t in it. Are we cleaning up our act?
    1. I don’t ask setters why they haven’t used a chance for risqué cluing. There have been one or two words in grids that have been replaced on the basis of “we’re not quite ready for this”, but “nudge-nudge” in the clues is not barred and there was no censorship in the editing of this puzzle, despite there being several alternatives to cobblers=nonsense in the 26A clue.
  7. ….which saw me spend less time in actually solving the puzzle than I did in going back over the clues afterwards to enjoy Harry’s handiwork.

    FOI SOUTH GEORGIA
    LOI ABDICANT
    COD CRACK (quite astonishing !)
    TIME 7:52

  8. FOI was ODD; then I made pretty good progress. The three which went in last were DATA,ESTONIAN and LOI ORACLES where Races as Peoples did not immediately occur to me. I put a star next to 23d, so another vote for CRACK as COD.
    I enjoyed this. Spelt BUNGEE correctly and finished in around an hour spread over a couple of sessions.
    Did not parse FIDDLESTICKS so thanks for that.
    David

  9. When will we get the solution to the cryptic jumbo from January 16th? The solutions usually appear after two weeks.
  10. An enjoyable puzzle which took me 31:40, but I was tripped up by the spelling of BUNGIE. I may remember this in future! Thanks Harry and Guy.
  11. 20.09 very enjoyable. Hard not to give COD to the impressive feat of the 8 definition crack – I’d only counted 7 defs when solving, not separating Class A from Drug. I didn’t spot the error with the plural medals in goings-on while solving. The CDs for tree surgeon and angel had me perplexed for a little while as CDs often do.
  12. Enjoyable, either four-fold or eight-fold, except for the bit at 22a where the word “medicine” doesn’t quite parse in spite of having two choices for ex royals (Di, and Medici) in addition to fitting the crossers and the definition (shot = jab). That held me up for a good five minutes.
    Nice blog, Guy. You might also mention that CRS is found in the East End, aka Bow, adding even more juice to 26a
      1. Ah. On re-reading I see it. You were too subtle for me; without an explicit “Bow is the home of CRS” I missed it.
        1. Well, I didn’t want to—because I couldn’t!—be more explicit, specific, or pedantic.
          Just recalled “the sound of Bow bells,” and the use of the word as a metonym in these puzzles from time to time.
  13. as 7n ANGEL and 12ac BARFLY were not fully completed. I should have had another look. Was it not Leicester Band ‘Family’ who wrote and recorded ‘Saturday Night Barfly’? – but I digress.

    FOI 1ac SOUTH GEORGIA philately gets one everywhere.

    (LOI) either of the above

    COD 16dn ESTONIAN – I wasn’t as thrilled by 23dn CRACK as ‘the house’, as it was so very obvious, and there was no mention of bottom – of either variety

    WOD 26ac which was a euphemistically bad word back in the day. Oh! Timothy!

    1. Paul in London – Straight-up matie, why have you barred me from your ‘Reply’ link!? Touche laroche!?

      Cobblers was around in the thirties but not mainstream CRS. It came out retirement in the sixties mainly due to Galton & Simpson’s ‘Steptoe & Son’ who inserted ‘a load of old cobblers’ into the language. In Lunon ‘Balls’ is used where you guys would use BS.

      Whitechapel is the real centre of Cockneyland and not Bow! The Bow Bells of St Mary le Bow were cast in Whitechapel and hang in the church of that name, between Bank and St. Pauls, four and a half miles from Bow as the crow flies!

      ‘Whilst I was walking by St. Pauls, a spider grabbed me by the balls.’ is an old East End ditty with other slightly different grabbers and arm instead of testicles, to keep things pleasant. My avatar is wearing a ‘Pearly King Hat’ all the way from Bell Yard, Gracechurch Street.

      Edited at 2021-01-31 03:24 pm (UTC)

      1. I haven’t done anything to my “reply” button, horryd. The management, possibly?

        The only thing I’ve noticed about it is the usual thing that I cannot edit or update my entry after someone has replied. In this case, Guy.

        And fair enough about Whitechapel vs Bow. Thanks for that. I didn’t know about the Bow Bells, though I have been in the church, and have probably walked past the distant foundry.

        Americans do, at times though less frequently, use balls’to mean exactly the same; we wouldn’t say Bullshit or even BS in front of our grandmothers; we wouldn’t say balls in front of our parents; amongst friends probably all. What we don’t usually say is bollocks

        1. Indeed Galton & Simpson as writers of radio comedy were at their best in the fifties and I would imagine Eric (from NZ) hung on every word of Bill Kerr’s as ‘Bill’ in Hancock’s Half Hour.

          When once asked what he did for a living Hancock repied,
          ‘I’m a comedian – I comede! And Lobb & Co. were Cobblers to the Queen.(Tim Brooke-Taylor?)

  14. 9:18. I confess I didn’t spot how many definitions there were in 23dn. I just registered that it was several, and moved on. Very clever.
  15. Very enjoyable, though it took me nearly an hour. It was in the nature of this puzzle that things would fall VERY slowly into place, but at least fall they did. BUFF and CRACK are truly marvellous.
  16. Thanks David and guy
    Leisurely done across a few sessions poolside … and an enjoyable solve, highlighted by the multi-definitioned clues. Didn’t count the definitions at 23d until doing the post-solve wrap up – an impressive feat, don’t think that I’ve seen more than 5 previously.
    Hadn’t come across SOUTH GEORGIA before and not sure that I’d seen ABDICANT either.
    Started off with ORGAN and finished with BARFLY (clever construction together with a great surface) and that ABDICANT the last one in.

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