Sunday Times Cryptic No 4887, 26 I 2020, by Robert Price — Quoit the puzzle!

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

A very enjoyable, solid effort, in which the definitions (except those for CDs and &lits) are consistently epitomes of succinctness. The Arab bazaar may be a new word to someone out there, but the Americans reading this have probably seen the British spelling of NETT before (right here). Most of the clues seemed fairly straightforward. It did take me a minute to see what was going on with UNSELFISH.

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

ACROSS
 1 Big shots fail in competitions (5-3)
CLOSE-UPS — C(LOSE)UPS Cleverly deceptive definition. The French term for this kind of shot is gros plan, quite close.
 5 Update backing state politician (6)
REVAMP — AVER<=“backing” + MP, “politician”
 9 Editor’s study vacated by a cast member (8)
REDACTOR — RE[-a]D + ACTOR
10 Lad taken short behind peer’s summerhouse (6)
GAZEBO — GAZE, “peer” + BO[-y]
11 Insufficient time to finish examination (5)
SCANT — SCAN, “examination” + T(ime)
12 Kind of advice ignoring the company angle (9)
UNSELFISH — [-co]UNSEL + FISH, “angle”
14 Pint pots? (4,7)
BEER BELLIES — CD. One reason I stick to hard liquor.
18 Count and mountaineer scrambled together (11)
ENUMERATION — (mountaineer)* “Together” would not be necessary for the anagrind, but it helps the surface and isn’t doing anything else.
21 Wastes spies infiltrating European partners (9)
EMACIATES — E(uropean) +MA(CIA)TES
23 Help to protect country markets (5)
SOUKS — SO(UK)S
24 Secular figures in formulaic altarpieces (6)
LAICAL — Hidden
25 Papers found by a fellow in Ilium, possibly authentic (4,4)
BONA FIDE — BONE, “Ilium” with A + F(ellow) + ID (“papers”) inside
26 Evil is clear to men in retrospect (6)
ROTTEN — NETT, “clear” + OR, “men” (Ordinary Ranks) <=“in retrospect”
27 Slanders by fools are spread around (8)
ASPERSES — AS(PER, “by”)SES

DOWN
 1 Visiting church raised father’s tone (6)
CERISE — C(SIRE<=“raised’)E
 2 Nightmare of French exam is overwhelming (6)
ORDEAL — OR(DE)AL
 3 Volatile lover of old guy keeps it hidden (9)
EXCITABLE — EX, “lover of old” + C(IT)ABLE, “guy” being CABLE
 4 Sticking up for public transport, issue a tirade (11)
PROTUBERANT — A worthy cause! PRO, “for” + TUBE, “public transport” + RANT, “tirade”
 6 A Green revolutionary’s gripping message (5)
EMAIL — LI(A)ME<=“revolutionary,
 7 Cocktail of pear vermouth provided as this? (8)
APERITIF — (pear)* + IT, “vermouth” + IF, “provided”; &lit That’s specifically Italian (or red) vermouth. Google gives results for “sand pear vermouth,” at least, so that’s really a thing.
 8 Pray, keeping high hopes, ignoring a forecast (8)
PROPHESY — PR[-a]Y holding (hopes)*
13 Contributions from U-boat patrols? (11)
SUBMISSIONS — SUB MISSIONS, typically goofy CD
15 Come down south to head Panorama (9)
LANDSCAPE — LAND, “Come down” + S(outh) + CAPE, “head”
16 Fit mock rings? He might do (8)
JEWELLER — JE(WELL)ER, &lit
17 Painter’s spirit tipped over a table (8)
MURALIST —RUM<=“tipped over” + A + LIST, “table”
19 A game even love comes into (6)
QUOITS — QU(O)ITS
20 How some feathers were used in trees (6)
ASPENS — AS PENS
22 Creature caged in that is furious (5)
IRATE — I(RAT)E

22 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4887, 26 I 2020, by Robert Price — Quoit the puzzle!”

  1. Succinct all right; a little less than 6 words per clue. I think I moved through this fairly steadily, if a bit slowly, other than at 25ac, where I only thought of Troy for ‘Ilium’ until at last I remembered it’s also a bone. ROTTEN took too much time, too, since I was slow to think of NETT. COD to BEER BELLIES, with SOUKS a close second. This is a pangram, by the way.
  2. I hardly ever notice pangrams, and I feel that one could easily be produced by accident, so they’re no great thrill. But congrats for being the first to point it out.

    And yes, it’s not just the definitions but the whole puzzle that is a model of succinctness.

    Edited at 2020-02-02 01:16 am (UTC)

  3. 40 minutes with no queries – the sign of an excellent puzzle – though I can’t say I have ever used ‘asperse’ as a verb and am not sure I have seen it written before.

    I am always impressed with pangrams, and although I am not a setter myself I wouldn’t have thought they’re that easy to produce by accident, judging by the number of times we have puzzles that fall one letter short. The Saturday puzzle blogged yesterday for example. On the other hand I’d find it quite hard to miss one as I am immediately alerted when two or more of the letters X, Q and Z turn up in the answers.

    Edited at 2020-02-02 06:24 am (UTC)

    1. …it might be slightly easier to produce pangrams in American than in British spelling, as over here we use a few more Zs.
      1. Not necessarily as -ize is the preferred spelling of the suffix in Oxford dictionaries so that if you search on a word using -ise you are redirected to -ize.

        Edited at 2020-02-02 07:08 am (UTC)

        1. I wonder: -ise is the preferred suffix in the Times, but I don’t know if the paper’s style guide applies to the crosswords.
          1. As far as the ST crosswords are concerned, I do my best to follow our style guide in the factual General Knowledge clues. In theory this applies to the concise crossword too, but mostly single-word clues don’t raise many style issues. In the cryptics, the style guide is mostly ignored, and I would not ask for an answer or word in a clue to be replaced just because it used -ize rather than -ise.
  4. ….bloodshot “ize” at me, because I will for evermore correct the annoying predictive text to an “s” before submission. Mr.Millard at my old alma mater, Altrincham Grammar School, would turn in his grave were it not so !

    Another great puzzle from Bob. I almost started to enter “Murillo” at 17D, but restrained myself.

    FOI REVAMP
    LOI ASPENS
    COD BEER BELLIES
    TIME 14:02

    Edited at 2020-02-02 07:19 am (UTC)

  5. … my first Latin text book. 48 minutes, including two arguments with myself on clues I solved easily. Does PROPHESY really mean ‘pray’? In the Old Testament, the prophets foretold doom and exile for Israel as a consequence of its wicked ways, sometimes if not always after the dreaded event had happened! But I see the dictionaries permit it. And I worried about ASPERSES, which I accept can be a verb, although it’s more customary to cast nouns. In my O level Latin days (sat in 1961), I remember (falsely?) translating per as ‘through‘, using ab for ‘by’ or ‘from’. The latter took the ablative, the former either accusative or dative. Has the passage of nearly sixty years blurred the memory? If only we had a classicist who does crosswords who could put me right! Another terrific puzzle. COD to BEER BELLIES which in old age can also result from cakes. I’m living testimony. Thank you Robert and Guy.

    Edited at 2020-02-02 07:36 am (UTC)

    1. …doesn’t mean “pray” at all, and no one said that it did. “Pray” is merely part of the wordplay.
  6. I have notes that I finished this at 8.39pm and had three left at 8pm; so at least I finished it on the day, particularly after the bruising Saturday puzzle which preceded it.
    FOI was ORDEAL,then LAICAL. Last three were BONA FIDE, ASPENS and QUOITS where I needed to invoke the See a U rule. ASPERSES was guessed and unknown as a verb.
    Another high quality and enjoyable puzzle from Robert. Lots of potential CODs; Beer Bellies of course, but also QUOITS and SOUKS.
    David
  7. 23:35. BEER GLASSES. No. BEER BOTTLES. No. It took LANDSCAPE to get me to the required BELLIES and accompanying groan of appreciation. I was held up most by the NE corner also taking a while to see the FISH in 12A. LOI ASPERSES got a tick on my copy, as did IRATE, QUOITS and EXCITABLE. Good to know Sand pear vermouth is a thing, but I can’t say I’ll be rushing to find some. Thanks Robert and Guy.
  8. A very enjoyable puzzle, with BEER BELLIES a highlight. CLOSE UPS was well disguised and took me quite a while to see. Managed to parse JEWELLER eventually. No problem with SOUKS, which seem to be a regular visitor to crosswordland. ASPERSES was slow to appear, but QUOITS helped. 27:42. Thanks Bob and Guy.
  10. 1dn CERISE (that sort of tone!) totally escaped me as I also failed at 11ac. Doh!

    FOI 27ac ASPERSES

    (LOI) 5ac BONA FIDE – Ikean horror

    COD 23ac SOUKS

    WOD Doh!

  11. A very elegant, wonderful puzzle. It took me ages to get started (and to finish as well: 52 minutes), but I chuckled at nearly every clue (and let myself be properly misled by the setter over just about everything). My COD might be CLOSE-UPS, but there are many others which would come a close second.
  12. 22:01. A lovely puzzle for which I seemed to be on the wavelength. I enjoyed so many clues but COD to beer bellies.
  14. Thanks Robert and guy
    This almost brought up the ton (of minutes) that were spread across a couple of days to get this finished. Was unable to parse UNSELFISH which was my last one in – very clever and not all that hard once one knew.
    Recognised that a pangram was highly likely with the NE quadrant left to go … and for once it did actually help with a couple of clues up there.
    Wandered through some SOUKS in Morocco quite a few years ago, love the word and ti was a fairly early entry in the course of the solve. Thought that BEER BELLIES was brilliant and did enjoy putting all of the parts of PROTUBERANT together.

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