Sunday Times Cryptic 4945 by David McLean — Pass Go, collect £143.68?

I (obviously) don’t know anything about the UK version of Monopoly, but was confident enough of what was going on in 1A that I only now (Friday night) got around to checking it. On the other hand, I needed to look up the Briticism in 20 to make sure it worked as an &lit.

The Beetle was instantly recognizable (FOI). The two adjacent CDs were resolved fairly quickly, for a change. This was chewy in places, fairly tasty throughout, and went down easy.

I indicate (Rama sang)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Perhaps where you might find Park Lane property? (2,6)
BY CHANCE — In the US version of the game, Park Lane is Park Place. A player can also land on Chance in two other places on the board, and, of course, it is between two squares in each case.
 5 Small vehicle: a black Beetle (6)
SCARAB — S(mall) + CAR, “vehicle” + A + B(lack) A very similar clue appeared in Thursday’s QC, but this one was better.
 9 Cabinet committee backing Conservative leader in revolt (8)
CUPBOARD — C[-onservative] + UP, “in revolt” + BOARD, “committee”
10 Double helping of red fish (6)
MAOMAO — The Great Helmsman twice. Not sure I’d ever heard of this species, so checked what I got from the wordplay.
12 One piercing awfully long tongue (5)
LINGO — (long + I or 1, “One”)*
13 News chief’s admission was moving (9)
IMPRESSED — I’M PRESS ED!
14 A drop of water some tourists take in visiting America? (7,5)
NIAGARA FALLS — CD
18 What could give troubled pilot a much-needed boost? (8,4)
EJECTION SEAT — CD
21 Winger unlocked dog sheds close to club (4,5)
BALD EAGLE — BALD, “unlocked” + [-b]EAGLE That this soaring predator (the American national bird, despite Ben Franklin’s arguments for the pacific turkey) is not extinct nor even endangered today is largely because of the dedicated work of 24s.
23 This year it’ll be 245 years in employment (5)
USAGE — As y’all know, my native country was founded in July 1776. Do the math!
24 An intense green? (6)
ECONUT — CD… I was somewhat surprised (and disappointed) to find this word in the dictionary. Consider me a proud tree-hugger. See 21.
25 Wobbly set a danger for star (8)
ASTERISK — (set a)* + RISK, “danger”
26 German youngsters can be more compassionate than others (6)
KINDER — DD
27 Laurel near church on Islington’s outskirts for example (8)
INSTANCE — I[-slingto]N + STAN, “Laurel” + CE, “church” (Church of England)

DOWN
 1 Resist the French or give in? (6)
BUCKLE — Pas de choix, je trouve ton français irrésistible, chérie… BUCK, ”Resist” + LE, “the[,] French”
 2 Beat a gangster (6)
CAPONE — CAP, “beat” + ONE, “a”
 3 Argumentative defender I grabbed by attacked goalpost (9)
APOLOGIST — (goalpost + I)*… Creative Anagrind Award!
 4 Sport many clothes good for hairdresser’s helpers (7,5)
CURLING TONGS — CURLING, “sport” + TON(G)S
 6 Stop drug being injected into patient (5)
CEASE — C(E)ASE
 7 Bank broken by woman without thinking (8)
REMISSLY — RE(MISS)LY
 8 Quite like American lady being fairly vulgar (8)
BROADISH — (“Quite like a mid-20th-century American lady, to a rude person,” maybe.)
11 As a sample, pitcher displays a conjugal product (12)
SPORTSPERSON — SPORTS, “displays” + PER, “a” + SON, “conjugal product” My LOI, as the long-winded DBE is quite misleading!
15 Apartment unit loaned out with gas problems (9)
FLATULENT — FLAT, “Apartment” + U(nit) + LENT, “loaned out”
16 On vacation, member has ball (3,5)
LEG BREAK — LEG, “member” + BREAK, “vacation” This is a cricket term, to which I can only say “Meh.”
17 King visiting really good French noble (4-4)
WELL-BORN — WELL, “really” + BO(R)N: bon, “good” holding R, “King”
19 Bad side dominated by Millwall initially (6)
MALIGN — M[-illwall] over ALIGN, “side”… as a particular country might ALIGN/side with another in an international dispute
20 Disruptive cheek hampering foremost of luvvies? (6)
HECKLE — (cheek + L)*, &lit. Collins defines the last word as a “facetious” British term for “a person who is involved in the acting profession or the theatre, esp one with a tendency to affectation.” “Foremost” here means center-stage. Perfect, bravo! COD!
22 Treble’s final duet ruined piece (5)
ETUDE — [-trebl]E + (duet)*

20 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4945 by David McLean — Pass Go, collect £143.68?”

  1. NHO MAOMAO or ECONUT. I haven’t played Monopoly for decades, but isn’t it Park Place? Park Ave is in NY, but the streets in the game all were in I think it was Atlantic City.
      1. I know (or inferred from the clue). Guy had originally written ‘Park Avenue’ for the US version (Park Place), and I corrected that. As, then, did Guy.
  2. Yes, of course. Guess I checked only the British name… and, of course, I’m somewhat New York–centric! Although I did play a good deal of Monopoly as a child in West Virginia. TA!

    Edited at 2021-03-14 03:31 am (UTC)

  3. I agree with Guy: a lady is never a broad, and a broad is never a lady except in crosswordland. It’s possible you could mildly offend either by getting the naming backward, and unless you were a tough-guy detective in a cheap bar it’s very likely you could raise eyebrows amongst most gentle Times readers by tossing the term around indiscriminately. I liked the Bald Eagle, but not so much the Econut. I’m not looking forward to the next fortnight, when tomorrow’s puzzle won’t show up until 8pm.

    Edited at 2021-03-14 03:35 am (UTC)

    1. I of course have never used the word ‘broad’, and none of the kids in my set do, but I would not expect anyone who does, if in fact such there be, to discriminate; ‘a high-class broad from Park Avenue’ doesn’t sound odder to me than ‘that broad chewing gum’.
  4. That was a nice puzzle with a few tongue-in-cheek clues.
    Thank you, Guy.
    I tagged HECKLE as “very good” but my COD was BALD EAGLE because of “unlocked”.
    A B747 captain in a cargo airline I used to work for once told me of an occasion when he was checking in at a downtown 5-star hotel in Sydney with his two colleagues when Telly Savalas approached him and asked “Where are the broads?” The captain had to explain they were a cargo crew….

    Edited at 2021-03-14 06:33 am (UTC)

  5. 36 minutes finishing in the tricky NE. I didn’t know LOI MAO MAO which emerged only when I thought of BROADISH. Isn’t it usually called an ejector seat by the way? COD to USAGE by a short head from the unlocked BALD EAGLE. I don’t know about your Meh for LEG BREAK, Guy, which I used to bowl, or would have done if the batter had let them bounce, but I struggled with the SPORTSPERSON pitcher as I couldn’t think what a jug had to do with it. Decent puzzle. Thank you David and Guy.
    1. Martin-Baker, the world’s foremost maker of them, calls them EJECTION SEATS, and that’s what we called them in the RAAF.
  6. Fairly straightforward though a little surprised by 11dn… “conjugal product” conjured up images, and a mer at pitcher, which is hardly a proper example when bowler is available.
    Nho maomao but it went in easily enough, once cheche would no longer fit.
  7. Unfortunately a DNF as I couldn’t see the NUT or SPORTSPERSON. Shame, as the rest was enjoyable. Thanks Guy for the blog.
  8. FOI was SCARAB; then a couple of sessions totalling an hour or so got me down to the difficult six which remained.
    I had guessed ECONUT and presumed that EJECTION was for this purpose the ejector part of SEAT. The Sportsperson failed to appear. I remembered Broads from Frank Sinatra films but never managed to get Broadish from whatever the definition was. I had RELY but not the missing woman. Did not got IMPRESSED and the definition is a stretch for me. Lastly the fish; I was fishing in Russia and other places, but not China.
    So quite a big DNF for me. I too liked BALD EAGLE.
    David
  9. I found this a struggle and eventually gave up on the fish and looked it up. Managed to work out the rest of the parsings. 64:11. Thanks Harry and Guy.
  10. ….liberally covered in critical comments. I eventually resorted to aids for MAOMAO and ECONUT, and I’ve never seen Harry’s interpretation of an ejector seat before, although it was dead cert biff.

    I’m not sure why I took ages to spot LINGO.

    FOI SCARAB (nice easy starter)
    LOI ECONUT (even the spellchecker on here doesn’t recognize it !)
    COD BY CHANCE (absolutely brilliant)
    TIME 15:32 (with aids)

  11. I gave up after 65 minutes, defeated by MAOMAO and ECONUT. I had to force myself to write in EJECTION (rather than ejector) SEAT, but lots of good stuff elsewhere. I liked BALD EAGLE and ASTERISK
  12. LOI 10a. A clue for antipodeans. The fish is common in NZ, where there’s a diving spot called Blue Maomao cave. Liked ECONUT and BY CHANCE. 22’20”
  13. A technical DNF. I failed on the unknown MAOMAO, ECONUT and the PC SPORTSPERSON which I’m sorry I think is a rubbish clue. Also NHO EJECTION (as opposed to ‘ejector’) SEAT although I went with it.
  14. 7:10. No time to comment, or indeed to solve yesterday’s puzzles, this weekend. Work work work. I confess I’m surprised that a clue that asked you to find two ‘reds’ in which the checkers were _A_M_O caused so many problems. The letters are all there!
  15. Thanks David and guy
    Took longer than usual to do this, but with distractions along the way. The normal good quality clues throughout and a a couple of new terms in MAOMAO and ECONUT. Was another who thought that BY CHANCE was very good and also liked BALD EAGLE. Had to use a word finder to get SPORTSPERSON and didn’t really sort out the PERSON part of it until coming here.
    Finished in the NE corner, after not helping myself by initially writing in GARNET in at 10a (was chuffed to see the unusual cluing for a word meaning ‘red’ with two meanings of ‘fish’ in GAR (noun) and NET (verb)). Finally saw the light with BROADISH and REMISSLY which allowed me to check that MAOMAO was in fact the name of a fish.

Comments are closed.