Sunday Times Cryptic 4957, by David McLean — strange games

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

Ah, I’ve missed traveling lately, as a second spring has passed without my leaving the country. A few months ago, I discovered YouTube videos shot from the engineer’s cab of trains passing through exotic climes—hours long, and some are endless, livestreaming. They provide a relaxing background as I read or work, and a refreshing virtual getaway. As does a puzzle like this, where we do a bit of globe-trotting.

I indicate (a man’s rag)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Put down mount out of view of the house (8)
OFFSTAGE — They shoot horses, don’t they? OFF, “Put down” (kill), STAGE, “mount” (verb)
 5 Hot male filled with endless passion being 27 (6)
INFIRM — IN(FIR[-e])M, with IN being “Hot” meaning popular and M “male.” The last time I blogged, we had to refer to another clue for the wordplay; this time, it’s the definition.
 9 Banged-up, but ready for release (2,3,3)
IN THE CAN — DD
10 Members back wingers from England fired from the Den (6)
SNIPED — PINS, “Members” <=“back” + E[-nglan]D… Well, there’s a Sniper’s Den Gym in Ontario (hockey) and Snipers (sic) Den Paintball (!) in Melbourne. The latter popped up first on Google.
11 Burden of European police about to arrest husband (5)
THEME — E, “European” + MET, yer “police” <=“about” nabbing H for “husband”
12 Stylist working on Bush is patriot, surprisingly (9)
TOPIARIST — (is patriot)*
14 One enrolled in foreign art trips to mug artist, perhaps (11)
PORTRAITIST — (I + art trips to)*
18 Sign seen outside a locksmith’s premises? (7,4)
BARBERS POLE — CD
21 Publishing restrictions making Garbo seem happy (9)
EMBARGOES — (Garbo seem)*
23 One tweeting point men put another way (5)
ROBIN — NIB, ”point” + OR (other ranks), “men” <=“put another way”
24 Little way to get over very long depression (6)
VALLEY — ALLEY, “Little way” gets, over (it), V(ery)… This took a minute to parse!
25 Manufacture ducks? Do it! (4,4)
MAKE LOVE — MAKE, “manufacture” + “ducks,” LOVE (as a pet name)
26 A republican turning on paper’s most unusual (6)
RAREST — A, literally + R(epublican) <=“turning” + RE, “on” + S(unday) T(imes), “paper”
27 A foreign desk admitting head of state’s weak (8)
UNSTABLE — UN(S)TABLE

DOWN
 1 A number good and worried after circular letter (6)
OPIATE — PI being “good” (pious) and ATE being “worried” after O, “circular letter” Using “number” this way is a cryptic cliché, or staple; in fact, both Kosman & Picciotto puzzles I was one of the test-solvers for last weekend featured it (these puzzles will actually run some months apart), and my slowness in picking up on it here I attributed to a subconscious feeling that it couldn’t be appearing yet again so soon…
 2 Female giving support to portly cloth rep? (6)
FATHER — “Female” is HER and FAT, “portly”; the definition is rather cryptic and deceptive: a “man of the cloth” represents that… métier, I guess you could say.
 3 US trade leader seen with disguised peephole (3,6)
THE PEOPLE — (T[-rade] + peephole)*
 4 Expedition vehicle UI Armstrong rebooted (4,7)
GRAN TURISMO — (UI Armstrong)*
 6 Silent killer of men in Japan (5)
NINJA — Hidden
7 Absolute little fiend tolerated by the fuzz (8)
IMPLICIT — IMP, “little fiend” + LICIT, “tolerated by the fuzz”
 8 Think deeply about time-consuming referee (8)
MEDITATE — MEDI(T)ATE
13 Capital in Barcelona? (4,2,5)
PORT OF SPAIN — The capital of Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean!
15 Seriously, two homes require internal attention (2,7)
IN EARNEST — IN(EAR)NEST
16 One watching old boy against McEnroe? (8)
OBSERVER — OB, “old boy” + SERVER, and McEnroe is one.
17 Possibly baby one of the babes of Busby? (8)
DRIBBLER — I found the football reference rather mystifying, of course.
19 Consume a British dessert, but not last two portions (6)
ABSORB — A + B(ritish) + SORB[-et]
20 A file containing news supplement (6)
ANNEXE — A(NN)EXE, looks quite strange to me with the second E, but it’s a variant in the dictionaries.
22 Hums number ones of recent era (except KLF songs) (5)
REEKS — First letters, “number ones”

52 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4957, by David McLean — strange games”

  1. DNK IN THE CAN in the ‘banged-up’ sense, DNK Busby, or the non-basketball use of DRIBBLE, didn’t understand the Den, didn’t understand the EXE, but managed nonetheless. I liked OFFSTAGE. NINJA shows up rather too often, always as a hidden, which I suppose makes sense.
  2. 28 minutes. I had two queries, firstly ‘the Den’ reference at 10ac which I suspect there’s more to than has been revealed so far, and secondly ST at 26ac.

    Whilst FT has made it to the dictionaries because it’s in common use as a shorthand name for the Financial Times, I’ve never heard anyone use ST for Sunday Times other than here occasionally when discussing the Sunday crossword puzzle. No doubt staff at Murdoch Towers use it all the time but does that really justify its appearance in wordplay?

    I can’t find anything to confirm it but I suspect the ‘Busby’s Babes’ football thing was based on a reference to the lavish musical films of director Busby Berkeley featuring large numbers of showgirls, some of which had the word ‘Babes’ in the titles.

    Edited at 2021-06-06 04:35 am (UTC)

    1. I wondered if there was something more generally idiomatic about “snipe” and “den,” but didn’t unearth anything. One sense of a den is a secret place, where nefarious characters hang out. But where snipers fire from is determined by where their target happens to be.

      As for ST, I’ve seen it used here for Sunday Times fairly often, but it quite likely has never been used in a clue before. Does that mean it can’t be? Anyway, I just couldn’t think of any other possibility.

      Edited at 2021-06-06 04:56 am (UTC)

      1. I’m sure your parsing is what was intended, but it’s not usual to allow an abbreviation that isn’t in one or more of the usual sources – notable exceptions being N = no and Y = yes, but they’re in everyday use all over the place on forms etc.
    3. Sir Matt Busby was manager of Man U 1945-69, says ODE, during which time they won 5 League championships. I thought of B. Berkeley, too, and no doubt I was intended to.
      1. Despite my loathing of football, even I knew about Matt Busby and his ‘Babes’. The coinage of the expression is credited to a local sports journalist in 1951 at a time when the film director/choreographer was world famous and still very active so it seems highly probable that was why it occurred to the writer.
    4. I don’t think there’s any more to 10ac. A sniper’s den, or nest, is an idiom that I recognise. I’m a bit surprised it hasn’t made it to any of the usual dictionaries but you can find plenty of other examples online. Amazon has a ‘Kids Army Sniper Den Play Tent’ for sale, which is a singularly horrible thing to buy for a child!
      [I am just talking about the wordplay here – I was, perhaps mistakenly, taking the surface reading reference to the football ground for granted]

      Edited at 2021-06-06 09:11 am (UTC)

  3. The main reason for “Busby babes” as a name is surely their youth – they won two successive first division titles (when that was the top tier), with average ages if 21 the first time and 22 the second. Most of them died in the 1958 Munich air disaster so they never acquired any other nickname. Whether the Manchester journalist who coined the name was a fan of Busby Berkeley movies seems anyone’s guess — it seems possible that he just chose something alliterative.

    The Den is the traditional nickname for Milwall FC’s stadium. The crowd at the one used for most of the 20th century had a reputation as one of the most hostile to opposition teams.

    1. And I can only guess that Millwall Football Club is connected to “snipe” thru some soccer-specific definition that hasn’t made it into Collins online…?
      1. As I understand the definition, the significance of “den” is just that snipers fire from concealed places.
        1. I see. That didn’t work for me, as I explained. A sniper’s nest is temporary; a den is a more permanent abode.

          Edited at 2021-06-06 06:26 am (UTC)

          1. Well, if it makes sense to speak metaphorically of a sniper’s “nest”, “den” is just an alternative animal dwelling.
            1. Almost, not quite. “Sniper’s nest” is an idiom that has nothing to do with animals (birds). There’s a reason no one uses “sniper’s den” for something like the sixth-floor perch Lee Harvey Oswald shot from. The hockey gym and paintball establishment are permanent places where people hang out.
              1. The “secluded place for a human” meaning of den, nest and lair has nothing to do with animals — except that it uses the name of a critter’s dwelling place metaphorically. I cannot see how “sniper’s nest” does anything else. And I cannot see that using den instead is any worse in a cryptic clue than flower=river, except that it might be something new that needs a bit of thought, rather than the umpteenth use of stock material.
                1. They do, not as often as “sniper’s nest”, but one has to assume that “sniper’s den” and “sniper’s lair” have been understood when they have been used. When one of these words is used idiomatically without a particular creature as in “crow’s nest” or “mare’s nest”, it seems pretty likely that some people will use one of the others instead and be understood. And it also seems fair to expect solvers to recognise that “den” is a perfectly logical alternative if they’ve only come across “sniper’s nest”. I don’t remember doing web searches when editing, or looking in reference books for “sniper’s” anything – I simply understood what the setter meant and didn’t imagine that others wouldn’t. There are phrases like “den of thieves” and “nest of vipers” where one possibility rules the roost, so to speak, but “sniper’s nest” seems not to be one of those. (And “sniper’s roost” is unsurprisingly another choice in real-life use.)

                  There is a place waiting for an “idioms and phrases” version of Eric Partridge on slang. Judging by the one I bought, dictionaries of English Idioms are far from complete. My ideal version of one would distinguish between the definite single choices and the variable idioms.

                  Later note: “brood of vipers” just recalled …

                  Edited at 2021-06-06 10:43 am (UTC)

                  1. My reaction was similar to yours: I solved it from wordplay and then just said to myself ‘oh right, as in a sniper’s den’ and moved on without thinking any more about it.
            2. The question here is surely not whether it makes sense, but whether people say it (which in this case they do).
              1. I’d never heard “sniper’s den” before, but I did find two usages of it, neither of which have the same sense as “sniper’s nest,” being establishments where people hang out and not a temporary location for a surreptitious shot at a target (for which “den” still seems to me inapt).

                That is why I wondered whether there was another sense of “snipe” that is relevant to soccer… or paintball.

                1. It’s a usage I’ve heard, and it’s clear from googling that it’s a reasonably widely-used idiom, even if ‘nest’ is more common (although still not common enough to appear in any of the usual dictionaries).
                  1. I got to “sniper’s den”, which I have never heard (it might be a Britishism) from “machine gun nest” which I do know. . After the Busby reference I did try to find a connection to something via Millwall’s Den, but without success. Millwall doesn’t care.
  4. 41 minutes, all eventually parsed, but for me this tried a bit too hard. Even the Busby Babe , Bobby Charlton being the dribbler perhaps, was convoluted, but I’ll make that COD. It’s amusing for us Brits to hear some others struggle on football, even to think of basketball of all things first. Football is after all the number one game in Europe, Asia (apart from where it’s cricket), Africa and South America. But,hey, we all come from where we come from. Thank you Guy and setter.
    1. I threw “globe-trotters” into the intro mainly because PORT OF SPAIN is found in the Caribbean, and the fact that other sports were mentioned in the blog and puzzle. (If that’s what you were alluding to.)
  5. I also thought 10ac slightly odd. Nor was I keen on 24ac because I could not, and still can’t, see in what way the alley is “over” the v. Beside, yes, or beyond. Not over. Can’t see that one getting very far in the clue competition!
    1. Well, when I checked, I found “on the other side of, beyond” as a meaning of over. If you count left to right as a natural direction for the letters in a word, ALLEY is beyond V. And if you use “the other side of” with no guidance, you have a 50/50 choice between V ALLEY and ALLEY V. Will it catch on? Unsure
  6. It was Kevin’s comment I was alluding to but, as I say, we all come from where we come from.
  7. ….I absolutely hated this puzzle. Not immediately solving 1A (eventually COD), I then found that I couldn’t tackle the next clue because it cross-referenced 27A. I detest this device with a vengeance.

    24A might conceivably work if “get” were “jump”, but otherwise it fails for me. In 25A, the usage of “ducks” struck me as weak. I didn’t particularly like the use of “ST” in 26A, although I suppose it just about works for regular readers.

    NHO “exe” in the context of 20D. Any Catalonian readers are probably glued to the ceiling by their eyebrows at the concept of Barcelona being a PORT OF SPAIN.

    I’m a great fan of out-of-the-ordinary anagram indicators, but I thought “happy” was pushing it a bit at 21A.

    Maybe I’m just overly grumpy at the moment, but I got very little enjoyment from this one.

    FOI IN THE CAN
    LOI FATHER (“cloth rep” was rather clever)
    COD OFFSTAGE
    TIME 14:32

  8. James Cordon got it right. During the Olympics American TV only shows events where they are favourites to win medals. Here in China it is the same – China First. One would have no idea that GB or any other country were taking part! Fortunately Bolt stole the show in Beijing in 2008! Good old Jamaica!

    Also hats off to Jesse Owens in 1936. Owens received no Presidential telegram of congratulations for his record-breaking haul of medals. On his return, there was no invitation to the White House to shake hands with the President. That honour was reserved for white Olympians only. Astonishing!

    The Great ‘Dixie’ Dean (Everton) never played for England! Astonishing!

    The Capital of Tobago is Scarborough. Tobagoans really do not like to think they come under PoS.

    The Straits Times in Singapore is locally referred to as the ‘ST’.

    I went to the DEN in 1960 for Millwall v Wrexham 0-0.

    FOI 2dn FATHER

    LOI 11ac THEME

    COD 3dn THE PEOPLE

    WOD 12ac TOPIARIST – it’s a peacock! – I think!

    Busby’s top dribbler was Georgie Best – astonishing!

    My Time 45 minutes.

    Edited at 2021-06-06 07:47 am (UTC)

    1. Come on H, where did I nick The World’s my Football Pitch from, even if he was the wrong sort of Wanderer?

      Edited at 2021-06-06 08:01 am (UTC)

      1. Billy Wright of course – but have you heard Matthew McConaughey on the same subject – now I know where he knicked it from! My veryfirst footyshirt was Wolves Old Gold.
  9. My FOI was OBSERVER and I got quite a few in my first session. My notes say I had 5 left at 19:50 (on Sunday) and I eventually got SNIPED,MEDITATE and IMPLICIT. ANNEXE also a problem.
    I failed on LOI 5a where the best I could think of was INDIUM -perhaps an unstable element?
    There is an unstable element at the New Den which I have been to a few times to watch Preston. It’s a very good ground to watch from and apparently the first English all-seater. But they still work on the basis that there will be trouble as the away fans are held back after the game until the home fans have dispersed.
    My favourite in the puzzle was Port of Spain.
    David

  10. I found this a bit of a challenge. I got there eventually but it took 52:37. Same reservations as many others. LOI was ANNEXE, where despite my career in IT, it took an age to recognise the .EXE – Doh! I rather liked BARBERS POLE. Thanks Harry and Guy.
  11. I took a few seconds over 16 minutes in what was my first Sunday Post. If the American members find English Sport beyond their ken, they should brush-up on You Tube! I love American Football, but not live! COD PORT OF SPAIN.
    1. I am no more interested in learning about English sport than I have ever been in knowing anything at all about American sport(s).

      Edited at 2021-06-06 11:17 am (UTC)

        1. Oh, dear. For shame.

          If I can’t find out enough from dictionaries and other online references to explain the usages of language in a puzzle, which is rather the point, without my having to study sports videos(!), certainly our colleagues here are always glad to fill in the gaps in any blogger’s knowledge.

          Everyone has their areas of relative strength and weakness.

          Edited at 2021-06-06 02:38 pm (UTC)

          1. As far as online references go, the first hits on Google searches for ‘Busby babes’ and ‘Den football’ have the information needed to understand the clue reference.
            1. I provided a link for the Babes, y’know. I didn’t recognize that “wingers” related to football.
              1. So you did. For “winger”, most dictionaries (including a couple of American ones) mention sports including soccer.
                1. Looks like I was reading that only for its cryptic significance, ignoring the surface. Oops.
                  But are there wingers in paintball too? (Ha ha)

                  Edited at 2021-06-06 04:20 pm (UTC)

          2. Guy – reading back over today’s comments you have been rude to almost everyone – jackkt – keriothe – boltonwanderer – myself and even petebiddlecombe. I have only been contributing for a short while but find your attitude as the blogger, rather unpleasant. It does you no credit. But let’s leave you with the last word, hopefully in the form of an apology. Edward

            Edited at 2021-06-06 03:46 pm (UTC)

            1. Funny, and I thought you were being rude.
              So it goes.
              I only made your acquaintance yesterday so may not know quite where you’re coming from. I honestly don’t think I’ve riled anyone else here.

              I appreciated that Jackkt mentioned his issues with two clues and I offered what I thought was a well-considered reply. I was glad that Peter provided some elucidation.

              I had missed seeing the remark by Kevin that boltonwanderer was referring to re “basketball” and I was worried that my blog intro had seemed off the wall, hence the superfluous explanation (which may itself have been off the wall).

              And I replied to a comment by my good friend Keriothe in the same spirit as ever.

              Edited at 2021-06-06 04:16 pm (UTC)

            2. Thank you for articulating exactly what I was feeling as I read the comments. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) Guy seems unable to see how offensive he is. . . .and may I add unhelpful. My heart sinks when I see he is the blogger. I am an enthusiastic but far from expert solver and find the explanations on the blog invaluable. e.g. a little more info here would be useful –
              Expedition vehicle UI Armstrong rebooted (4,7)
              GRAN TURISMO — (UI Armstrong)*
              I had the answer from the anagram and crossers but the answer meant nothing to me.
              Thankfully most bloggers are GREAT!!
              1. If you, Anonymous (from 194.223.75.23), are not Pedwardine responding to himself, I’d like you to let me know. The prose is very much in his style. “Gran turismo” is Italian for “grand tourer,” so it stands to reason that cars designed for long voyages have stylishly been called that—even as names of models: There have been (Wikipedia says) a BMW Gran Turismo, a Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk and a Mercedes GranTurismo (no space), a two-door coupe. I had no desire to be abstruse—nor in any way offensive(?!). I thought the definition was sufficient, but if you had asked for more information (just speak up!), I would have at least offered a link, or (at most) explained all that myself (at the risk of seeming pedantic).

                Edited at 2021-06-13 01:07 pm (UTC)

  12. 17:42. I thought some of this was a bit borderline. The wordplay for VALLEY is worse than borderline: it just doesn’t come close to working IMO.
    There was some good stuff though. I liked ‘locksmith’s premises’.

    Edited at 2021-06-06 09:27 am (UTC)

  13. Done in just on the hour. I agree with others that some of these clues were rather obtuse. The SNIPED (my LOI ) argument is definitely not conclusive and I still don’t really get VALLEY or LOVE for ducks. I did like BARBERS POLE and IN EARNEST though. Thank you Guy and setter.

  14. ….I had that Sir Matt Busby in the back of my cab once. It was a privilege.
  15. Forgot I’d finished this one. FOI the final clue, 22d REEKS, LOI 11ac THEME. COD 3D THE PEOPLE. A week on, I don’t remember anything traumatic about it, nor easy. I usually find Mr McLean quite tricky, but doable, and enjoyed this one.
  16. Thanks David and guy
    Found this one quite hard work and took over an hour across three sessions to get it out. Had a few MER moments, but nothing as serious as has been discussed above. Quite a few terms, both in the word play and surfaces that went over this antipodean head – but only too happy to learn them !
    Missed the parsing of 26a with the RE ST bits and didn’t remember the British term ‘ducks’ for dear / love. EXE jumped off the page at me though at 20d and was an early entry.
    Thought that both PORT OF SPAIN (for it’s brevity and wit) and BARBER’S POLE were both excellent clues.
    Finished in the NW corner with FATHER (tricky definition), THEME (didn’t know that meaning of ‘burden’) and IN THE CAN (didn’t know that meaning of ‘banged-up’ and forgot about the film ready for release meaning of the phrase).

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