Sunday Times Cryptic No. 4815, by Dean Mayer — Yon lone nagaram…!

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

And it isn’t even the entire clue. My goodness, has this ever happened before?

(nagarams)* like this

ACROSS

 1 Indian dish served in food halls (4)
DHAL — Hidden in food halls
 4 Boss with little experience receiving question mark (10)
TASKMASTER — T(ASK M)ASTER
 9 Colour in, like circle (6)
INDIGO — IN + DIG, “like” + O
10 Check temperature in main warship (8)
CORVETTE — “Check” = VET, with T(emperature) in CORE, “main”
11 A ceremonial linking of arms? (7,7)
SHOTGUN WEDDING — Cryptic def. Rather as if the firearms themselves were getting hitched.
12 Bathroom cleaner as well, in the old days (10)
TOOTHPASTE — TOO = as well + TH (PAST, “old days”) E. That last part’s a nice trick.
14 Right time to blow a fuse (4)
RAGE — R(ight) + AGE, time
16 Priest will go topless soon (4)
ANON — [c]ANON
18 Church altar broken by moving crane (10)
TABERNACLE — TAB (crane)* LE
20 Sorry to see interest on the house (4-3-7)
GOOD-FOR-NOTHING — “Interest” is GOOD (as a noun), FOR NOTHING = “on the house.” “To see” is just connective tissue.
23 Official advice given to workforce (8)
TIPSTAFF — TIP + STAFF
24 Travel? I’m in many places (6)
PASSIM — PASS (“Travel”) + I’M. Bibliographical notation.
25 Perhaps puppy bites first bit of loo paper? (10)
NEWSLETTER — NEW S(L)ETTER
26 Square yet flat (4)
EVEN — Triple definition!

 

DOWN

 2 Simply leaves (5,4)
HANDS DOWN — Double definition.
 3 Heard song suspect arranged (4,3)
LAID OUT — “Lay” “doubt”
 4 Crowd with no right to see band (5)
THONG — TH[r]ONG. “To see” functioning again as in 20.
 5 Support for those who are not well off (8,7)
SICKNESS BENEFIT — Somewhat impoverished cryptic definition
 6 Seller’s counter receiving support (9)
MARKETEER — MARKE(TEE)R
 7 Remote transmitter found across lake (7)
SLENDER — As in “a slender chance.” S(L)ENDER
 8 Each cardinal gets fed (5)
EATEN — EA + TEN, which is plain enough, but I was initially reluctant to put this down as an answer, as the clue did not seem to work. But of course “to feed” can mean “to eat” (says here, “especially of an animal or baby”). The wombat has fed, the wombat has eaten.
13 Business section of newspaper, about a market place (9)
PATRONAGE — As in, you give a certain shop your business. The “section” of the newspaper is a PAGE, of course, and inside you have… TRONA? A TRON? It’s the latter, Collins informs me, with TRON being a weighing machine or, metonymically, a place where such a machine is in operation (if it’s located in Great Britain, that is), or “a marketplace” (one word).
15 Banger overturned, on fire (9)
GELIGNITE — LEG overturned, which is an “on” in cricket parlance (and that’s all I know about it), on “fire,” or IGNITE
17 Strippers keen to hide nether regions (7)
NUDISTS — NU(DIS)TS. “Nether regions” means the underworld of DIS. Cute clue. Sounds like they might want to don 4 downs.
19 One matter being discussed (2,5)
AT ISSUE — A TISSUE. “Matter” seems a little vague for “tissue.”
21 Old fine to be dealt with later (2,3)
ON ICE — O(ld) NICE
22 To appear regularly in boozer (5)
TOPER — TO + every other letter in “appear”

18 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic No. 4815, by Dean Mayer — Yon lone nagaram…!”

  1. This has to be a PB for a Dean puzzle. I had thought SHOTGUN WEDDING was a bit of a stretch, as there’s only one (metaphorical) shotgun, but I suppose ‘of arms’ does the job. I liked the misleading ‘bathroom cleaner’ in 12ac, and indeed it’s my COD, with GELIGNITE & NUDISTS sharing the podium. On edit: I’m pretty sure TRON showed up here not that long ago, or I wouldn’t have (sort of) recognized it.

    Edited at 2018-09-16 03:01 am (UTC)

  2. Got there eventually but it took 47:17. PASSIM from wordplay. DHAL FOI. Not sure, but I think MARKETEER was my LOI. TOOTHPASTE took a while as I also considered Toothbrush. Quite a challenge, as usual from Dean. Thanks Guy and Dean.
  3. A steady solve completed in 39 minutes. Like Kevin above I vaguely knew TRON from somewhere and having just searched TftT I found it appeared here clued as ‘marketplace’ as recently as July when both he and I (in consecutive posts!) claimed not have known it.

    I looked twice at the definition of GOOD-FOR-NOTHING which I now can see clearly as a synonym for ‘sorry’, but I think I was distracted by it being followed by ‘to see’ which, as noted in the blog, was just padding.

    Edited at 2018-09-16 05:01 am (UTC)

  4. A steady solve in 49 minutes. Took me a long time to parse GOOD-FOR -NOTHING. It was GOOD as a noun meaning “interest” that I couldn’t see. I think it’s probably because they’re usually preceded by different prepositions :”in the public interest”, “for the common good”, “in your own interest”, “for your own good”. I’m pleased PASSIM meant what I thought it did. LOI PATRONAGE, eventually remembering TRON as a market from previously. COD to SHOTGUN WEDDING. Good puzzle. Thank you Guy and Dean. thank

    Edited at 2018-09-16 09:06 am (UTC)

  5. 50 minutes for me, with the last ten of ’em spent on 10a CORVETTE and 6d MARKETEER, neither of which I could see, for some reason. They seem fine in retrospect (though “MARKETEER” makes me shudder a bit as a word…)

    Luckily “tron” went on my list of crossword words when it came up the last time.

    Edited at 2018-09-16 07:26 am (UTC)

  6. This was way too hard for me. I got 8 and a half clues before giving up -a Fellini perhaps.
    I did get Toothpaste and Patronage so I had something to work on. And Dhal went in immediately.
    Otherwise it was a long stare at clues which did not lead me anywhere.
    Now I’m going to study the solution. David
  7. Pleasant Dean job, easier than usual; I think I blogged the one in July with TRON in it so it actually rang a bell. 16 minutes. Thanks for nice blogging, Guy.
  8. 58:37 I found this the standard, tricky Sunday fare from this setter. The bottom half seemed to be tougher than the top half. When it came up in July I said remembering tron would be my Tron Legacy. Of course, I had completely forgotten it. Fortunately patronage was gettable without it. Hopefully I’ll remember it for next time. I thought it was the rain that was indigo (well purple) and the Corvette was a little red one, not an indigo one.
  9. 12a was so clearly (the misspelt) Ladiesmaid that the middle of my grid took a very very long time to clear itself up. Nice blog, Guy. And a nice puzzle, too.
  10. 17:39. Not too hard, but not too easy either. I thought 11ac was a bit weak.
    I can’t finish this week’s, which is a bit worrying as I’m on blogging duty.
    1. Let me know if you’re still struggling, and I can point you in the direction of the cribs I used.
      1. Yes please. It’s just one clue and I can’t work out the answer even if I cheat. I have identified every word that fits the checkers and I still can’t see a definition!
            1. Grr here too! Glad I wasn’t alone. I did find the definition, but it’s only looking now with fresh eyes that I can see how everything works.
          2. I appreciate the hint, I really do, but I think we’ve said enough about this now in this venue.

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