Sunday Times Cryptic 4963 by David McLean — Not amateur hour

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

…with maestro McLean displaying his usual level of 7 (and I’m glad there are no Spoonerisms), presenting us with two deftly executed &lits amid a plethora of other excellent clues, which all seem fairly 2 after all, when the penny finally drops. My only quibble is that a few of the surfaces do not paint a clear picture.

My cryptic-creating friends Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto (formerly at The Nation, now producing the Out of Left Field cryptics blog via Patreon) have published a new e-book, Word Salad, “the most comprehensive guide to cryptic crosswords ever published in the United States. There are dozens of chapters on cryptic clueing, with hundreds of examples, preceded by a big-picture introduction and followed by a tour of the cryptic scene in North America and the debates that liven it up. The intended audience ranges from the cryptic newbie to the seasoned constructor. Will Shortz, crossword editor for The New York Times and public radio’s puzzle-master, writes: ‘Solving cryptic crosswords is one of the joys of my life, and I don’t know of any better or more entertaining introduction to the puzzle than this book.’ Word Salad is in an e-book format (epub) that can be read on just about any device. You can purchase it here.”

I indicate (snag a ram)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Ready for the future? (4,3)
NEST EGG — CD, playing with the sense of “Ready” as cash on hand
 5 Group in the know about attack (3,4)
SET UPON — SET, “Group” + UP ON, “in the know about”
 9 Top player first to be sent off pitch (3)
TAR — [-s]TAR
10 Server wear seen in hosts needs fixing (6,5)
TENNIS SHOES — (seen in hosts)* This surface seems a bit opaque.
11 Scamp dashes to net a kipper (14)
WHIPPERSNAPPER — WHIP(PER, “a”)S + NAPPER, “kipper”
13 Grass arresting officers abroad grilled again? (8)
REHEATED — I doubt if that weed is any good RE(HEAT)ED… “The HEAT” being one of our colorful Yank expressions for the fuzz, coppers, Johnny Law…
15 A question and answer about liberal state (6)
ALASKA — A(L, “liberal”)ASK+ A, “answer”… This state isn’t particularly “liberal.”
17 Delighted benches Conservative angered (6)
HUFFED — [-c]HUFFED “Delighted” is a strange subject for the verb “benches,” and an equally odd adjective for “benches” as a noun. Though “benches” is a neat way to put the C out of play, I don’t see any other sports reference here. Paul_in_london (figuratively) has alerted me to a bit of British parliamentary slang that I’m now trying to wrap my head around. I was sure I was missing something… about sports!
18 Plant training volunteers around Stirling? (4,4)
PEAT MOSS — PE, “training” (physical education) + AT<= “Volunteers [Territorial Army] around” + MOSS, last name of the race car driver Stirling—not surprisingly, my LOI.
20 Am I certain this dispersed adders? (14)
ARITHMETICIANS — (Am I certain this)* Ironically enough, in light of the anagrist, I bunged in MATHEMATICIANS at first, so had to rethink for STRAIGHTFORWARD.
23 Passable food tucked into by partygoers (11)
TRAVERSABLE — T(RAVERS)ABLE
24 Tribe discovered in Thai wilderness (3)
IWI — Hidden A social unit among the Maori
25 Petrifying women in America involved in drugs (7)
MEDUSAS — MED(USA)S, where MEDS = “drugs” + “America” is USA, inside
26 Where corporation is in bother over British boys (7)
ABDOMEN — A(B)DO + Men, for “boys”

DOWN
 1 The Tory won after a landslide? Remarkable! (10)
NOTEWORTHY — (The Tory won)* Remarkable anagrind of the week!
 2 Direction that’s easy to follow (15)
STRAIGHTFORWARD — DD… could even be seen as a CD
 3 Scoff all is in ruins apart from Belgium (3,2)
EAT UP — [-b]EAT UP… B being Belgium’s international vehicle registration code
 4 Dope tires stoned groups of high people (8)
GENTRIES — GEN, “Dope” (probably from “general information”) + (tires)*
 5 Sport in which runners are stood on? (6)
SKIING — CD
 6 Inspection by nuns possibly finds guinea pig (4,5)
TEST PILOT — TEST, “Inspection” + PI(ous) LOT, “nuns possibly”… I am a TEST PILOT for Joshua and Henri’s outlandish contraptions.
 7 Poor Spoonerisms fail to display this (15)
PROFESSIONALISM — (Spoonerisms fail)* &lit!
 8 London hospital making good northern grub (4)
NOSH — The G(ood) in the renowned GOSH (Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children) becomes N(orthern).
12 Improvised performance in WI event? (3,7)
JAM SESSION — One of the most famous civic-minded activities of the Women’s Institute was making fruit preserves. From https://iwm.org.uk: “In 1939, realising that much of the fruit from the summer’s bumper harvest might be wasted unless it were made into jam, WI’s headquarters secured sugar supplies direct from the Ministry of Food. WIs across the country gathered in surplus fruit from gardens and allotments or growing wild. In their first wave of jam making, it is estimated that the WI saved 450 tons of fruit from rotting.”
14 A department head might have it (9)
ADEPTNESS — A + DEPT, “department” + NESS, “head”… and another &lit!
16 Bit of backbone shown by green energy supporter (8)
VERTEBRA — Go team! VERT, “green” + E(nergy) + BRA, “supporter”
19 When coming across inspiration is funny (6)
AMUSES — A(MUSE)S
21 Church split by concerning democratic dogma (5)
CREED — The C of E is cleft by RE, “concerning” and then we have D for “democratic” (as a party affiliation).
22 Piece of paper? (4)
ITEM — CD

33 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4963 by David McLean — Not amateur hour”

  1. thanks, guy. Nice blog as usual. I took “benches” to refer to the front benches (cabinet positions) and back benches (day to day MPs) in Parliament.
    1. Aha… That must be it. “Bench” as symbol of an office is in Collins. The use of “bench” to apply to the person holding an office is probably in Chambers, though. (In sports, I guess there is only one bench per team.)
  2. Rather quick for me. What Paul said about ‘benches’. (Well, what Paul said about the blog, too.) DNK the abbreviation for the hospital (OrmOnd, Guy) and flung in GUYS in desperation, but soon retracted it. DNK IWI. Biffed 11ac and 25ac, parsed post-submission. I liked REHEATED & TEST PILOT.
    1. Thanks. I’m glad you always get here early.

      Edited at 2021-11-07 03:25 am (UTC)

  3. Not STRAIGHTFORWARD for me, even after the penny had dropped and I found this to be at the hard end of the spectrum for this setter in his various guises.

    I liked the ‘Server wear’ def, the ‘Stirling’ MOSS reference, the PI LOT for ‘nuns possibly’ and the non-‘Spoonerism’ PROFESSIONALISM &lit. Took me a while to parse NOSH at the end, so just scraped in under the hour.

    Thanks to Guy for the blog (including the interesting WI info) and to our setter

  4. 25 minutes. Easy apart from he unknown IWI and the HEAT reference in 13ac. Is 25d, ‘Piece of paper = ITEM in a newspaper’ or am I missing something?
    1. That’s all I could get out of it… “piece” being synonymous with “article,” which is synonymous with ITEM. Not terribly cryptic. An anticlimactic end!

      Edited at 2021-07-18 05:27 am (UTC)

  5. Finished with a shrug of the shoulders about HEAT for officers abroad. I might have heard of the cops called that, but if so not memorably. I’ve not noted a time, which probably means it was in the usual territory. I liked the JAM SESSION best, with PROFESSIONALISM, TEST PILOT and the reference to Stirling Moss all part of the fun. It’s only in recent years that I’ve noticed Great Ormond Street Hospital using its acronym, so I can sympathise with anyone from outside London not knowing it. Thank you David and Guy.
  6. ….(“Night Life” by Foreigner). This caused a MER at 26A, where I felt “chaps” or something similar might have been an improvement.

    NHO IWI, and, although the grid was filled in exactly 10 minutes, I declined to submit until I could parse 8D. It was almost 3 minutes before I realised which hospital I should have visited.

    FOI TAR
    LOI TEST PILOT (the nuns didn’t jump out at me)
    COD JAM SESSION
    TIME 12:47

  7. 10A: I think the intended surface is about the hosts and servers behind things like this blog.

    17A: the sporting meaning of “bench” was my interpretation and is in both ODE and Collins, tho’ marked as N American. I can’t see a similar connection between parliamentary benches (unspecified) and withdrawal/deletion.

    7D: “poor” is the anagram indicator, and “fail” is part of the fodder.

    1. Oops, I certainly meant to italicize “Poor”! Fixed. Everyone had it right, of course, so just breezed right past my parsing.

      I assumed Internet Service Providers were the “hosts” in 10, but how the “wear” could be “seen in” them was obscure.

      It seemed the “withdrawal” sense of “benched” might possibly be relevant to the cryptic meaning only. What would occasion delight for the benches of both sides in a sports match, and what Conservative has to do with it, was, and is, an enigma.

      Edited at 2021-07-18 10:25 am (UTC)

      1. Surely ‘benches’ is a verb in the wordplay (meaning retires) and a noun in the surface reading, which refers to the benches in parliament. Somehow the benches (which is used to refer to the MPs who sit on them) are simultaneously delighted and angered – or perhaps they were delighted until the Conservative angered them.
        1. Exactly right. I am unaware of any requirement for the meaning of a word like “benches” as a deletion indicator to apply in both the wordplay and the surface reading. In my understanding of cryptic clues, differences in meanings between the two are part of the fun.
          1. I don’t see where anyone suggested that the surface meaning had to correspond to the cryptic; I said the exact opposite. You seemed to be saying the sporting sense pertained to your interpretation of the surface. Now I don’t know why you mentioned it.
            1. Well all I can say is that the way you phrased your comments did not clearly indicate to me (or possibly Keriothe) the position that you now say you were putting forward.
              1. It was a direct response to your comment that you interpreted “benches” in the sports sense, which I found rather bizarre, as it seemed you could only be referring to the surface meaning, as it was the only one about which I’d had any question.
                I had already amended the blog to show that I’d accepted Paul’s explanation about yer parliament.
                I really don’t understand why you posted at all about the sports sense of “benched” at that point. I thought, in fact, that James was responding to you!

                1. Sorry, I seem to have missed your initial statement that your only quibbles were with surface readings, and thought you were talking about the cryptic reading.
                  1. Ah, well, that would explain it! I said about the cryptic level that “benches” is a nice way to put the C out of play.
          2. “In my understanding of cryptic clues…”
            Well, good for you, sir!
            I’m quite sure that’s how everyone here understands them.
        2. Yes, even seeing that “benches” can refer to various members of Parliament, as our pal Paul pointed out with alacrity, it’s not exactly clear what is supposed to be happening in the surface with, or to, this lone Conservative. It could also be that the delight of those benches angered this Tory.
      2. I thought of tennis immediately. Surely for the IT reference to work ‘server’ would be followed by ‘ware’ as in software, hardware, spyware etc?

        Edited at 2021-07-18 12:24 pm (UTC)

          1. Yes, I see that since you point it out. Off-duty as blogger so wasn’t paying full attention once I’d seen what was clearly the correct answer.
  8. There were some excellent clues in this puzzle. Perhaps COD to NEST EGG.
    But I didn’t find it easy overall and failed to get ADEPTNESS and REHEATED. I think I had REHASHED when I gave up and looked for help.
    I’d thought of PEAT MOSS but couldn’t see how to parse it and failed to put it in.
    Not my best performance but a good puzzle overall.
    David
  9. I enjoyed this puzzle. Liked MEDUSAS particularly. TENNIS SHOES brought a smile too. STRAIGHTFORWARD was LOI. 25:13. Thanks Harry and Guy.
  10. 13:45. Another good ‘un. There is a very funny movie starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock called The Heat which helped me with that clue. NHO IWI. I also put in MATHEMATICIANS initially but STRAIGHTFORWARD was straightforward so I quickly realised my error.

    Edited at 2021-07-18 10:34 am (UTC)

    1. I haven’t heard that word for some time, but I remembered Buffalo Springfield’s “What a field day for the heat; / a thousand people in the street”, although I’d forgotten it was Buffalo Springfield.
  11. In the end I gave up on trying to work out 22d and put in ATOM, given that it fits and definitely, at least, means “piece”. I was wondering whether there was something clever going on with “A to M”, or something. Oh well.
  12. 14.31. A decent time for me on a Sunday puzzle. I was a bit hesitant at the end over LOI item. I could see that a piece or an article in the newspaper could be an item but it seemed a little vague.
  13. I’m another who put in ATOM (even though I couldn’t see what it had to do with paper) but ITEM didn’t seem cryptic in the slightest so I figured it couldn’t be right. Otherwise I don’t remember any particular problems.

    I was a bit uncertain about MEDUSAS since MEDUSA was one particular Gorgon, I thought, so couldn’t really be plural. But the wordplay was clear so in it went.

    Edited at 2021-07-19 02:25 am (UTC)

  14. 90 minutes. Found this one really challenging and yet (almost) completely logical as it fell into place. FOI 5Ac SET UPON, LOI 6d TEST PILOT, though I needed this blog to understand how it’s the answer. Loved the STRAIGHTFORWARD clue.
  15. FOI 3dn EAT UP

    LOI 18ac PEAT MOSS!

    COD 1ac NEST EGG

    WOD 11ac WHIPPERSNAPPER

    Time unrecorded

  16. Thanks David and guy
    Able to complete this in a couple of shortish sessions – 42 minutes overall, which is about as fast as it gets with these puzzles. Still a lot going on with most of the clues and was fun to unravel.
    Thought that I had heard of the African tribe of IWI, but seems that they were much closer to home, just ‘over the ditch’. Needed help to fully parse NOSH – with N-S- and H for hospital in the mix, was confident of the answer, and although having seen that London children’s hospital previously, it didn’t come to mind here. Didn’t know the HEAT term for police, so that was more a hopeful than scientific entry.
    Liked putting together the pieces for WHIPPERSNAPPER (a word that was common here years ago, not so much now).
    Finished in the NE corner with the cleverly defined TENNIS SHOES, the neat SKIING cd and that NOSH the last one in.

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