Sunday Times Cryptic No 4891, 23 II 2020, by David McLean — It’s apposite day!

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Happy Leap Year! I’m glad last month had an extra day, as I needed some time to catch up…

What struck me about this puzzle was that among the generally quite straightforward and succinct definitions were a handful (12, 26, 4, 13…) that did not exactly define the answer, even by example, but rather alluded to an aspect of it. Of course, this is standard operating procedure (“flyer” or “singer” for any old bird, for example). Perhaps what made me think about this kind of definition a little longer in the case of this puzzle is that there is one clue here made up entirely of such a definition, sans any discernible wordplay, and which I cannot in good conscience call a CD; it just seems to somewhat obliquely describe the desired object, lacking any feint, comical or otherwise, at any other sense. (As you may recall, Keriothe abandoned the puzzle two weeks ago because of a clue to which he had a similar reaction.) If there is any part of 7 that is simply too clever for me to see, I am sure some kind soul will let me know below.

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

ACROSS
 1 Programme cooker, putting rump inside (6)
AGENDA — AG(END)A
 5 Produce box filled with quince at last (6)
CREATE — CR([-quinc]E)ATE
 9 Fruit on elm gone in a storm (4,5)
OGEN MELON — (on elm gone)*
10 Couple one encountered bound for port (4)
ITEM — I + MET<=“bound for port”
11 A servant knocked around by husband again (6)
AFRESH — This kind of thing, sadly, happens far too often… A + H(usband) + SERF<=“knocked around” (On closer investigation, it seems the husband is just standing there…)
12 One needing props to pass the ball and then prevent movement (8)
CROSSBAR — CROSS, “to pass the ball” (football) + BAR, “prevent movement”
14 British force boarding rather quiet puffer (8)
BLOWFISH — B(ritish) + LOW(F)ISH
16 Potentially bad forecast captain rejected (4)
OMEN — NEMO<=“rejected” An omen can augur good or ill, actually—though the adjective “ominous” is always baleful.
18 Two notes can get you a piece of furniture (4)
SOFA — Sounds like a deal! SO + FA
19 Suited work secretary repulsed by spot (8)
APPOSITE — OP (“work”) PA (personal assistant, “secretary”) <=“repulsed” + SITE, “spot”
21 Lark or duck with an internal bill (8)
ESCAPADE — ESCAP(AD)E
22 King tucks into unhealthy-looking croissant? (6)
PASTRY — PAST(R)Y
24 Foreign capital aficionado slowly collects (4)
OSLO — Hidden
26 At sea, aim at land one’s spotted (9)
DALMATIAN — (aim at land)*
27 One who is trying not to eat quickly (6)
FASTER — DD
28 Think highly of events European backed (6)
ESTEEM — MEETS+E <=“backed”

DOWN
 2 Old golf woes diverted blithe companions (11)
GOODFELLOWS — (Old golf woes)*
 3 Relative peace finally found in resort (5)
NIECE — NICE is the French resort town, where [-peac]E is to be found
 4 A jolly church tune in which one finds comfort? (8)
ARMCHAIR — A + RM (“jolly,” for Royal Marine) + CH(urch) + AIR, “tune”—I suppose not all armchairs are very comfy, hence the quirk?
 5 High-flyer right to support Tory party (6)
CONDOR — CON, “Tory” + DO, “party” + R
 6 English Socialist leader admits campaign issues (9)
EMISSIONS — E(MISSION)S
 7 What one might push firmly in before driving? (3)
TEE 
 8 Foolishly, bold and cheeky lad going walkabout (13)
BLOCKHEADEDLY — (bold + cheeky lad)*
13 Mole on Ohio pasture that could destroy crops (5,6)
AGENT ORANGE — AGENT, “Mole” + O(hio) + RANGE, “pasture”
15 Do you fancy a fight after whiskey nightcap? (4,5)
WHAT ABOUT — No, it always mellows me out… A BOUT, “a fight,” preceded by W(hiskey, NATO alphabet) + HAT, “nightcap?”
17 Piano track with Snoop on as well as U2? (8)
SPYPLANE — ”Snoop,” SPY, on P(iano) + LANE
20 One who helps to support resistance marauder (6)
RAIDER — R(esistance) + AIDER
23 Penniless family taken in by good person (5)
SKINT — S(KIN)T This was a pretty easy Sunday, I thought, which seems confirmed by this word’s having appeared (with a similar clue) in Wednesday’s QC.
25 Main of steak entrecôte after starters (3)
SEA — First letters

30 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4891, 23 II 2020, by David McLean — It’s apposite day!”

  1. Rather a meh feel to this one, rather as if Harry didn’t have his heart in it. One biff, BLOWFISH, parsed post-submission. No COD. Not pleased to see AGENT ORANGE for the second time in a week. I thought the ? at ARMCHAIR was for the DBE: not that some armchairs aren’t comfy–some aren’t– but that one can find comfort in other than armchairs.
  2. I remember this being very easy. I didn’t think twice about TEE, it seemed to be a cryptic definition that wasn’t very cryptic, which is too often the case. I suppose you are meant to think of pedals in a car, but “driving” is such an obvious reference to golf, nobody is going to be fooled.

    I actually liked the U2 clue, although I wonder how younger people fare, if they have even heard of it.

  3. Nothing wrong with 7dn – TOE would have done if one didn’t like TEE.

    Kevin – DBE – please enlighten!? Are we all sitting comfortably? Sorry,but I’m not on the wavelength of whether armchairs are comfortable or not. Please note there is a question mark at the end of the clue. Gentlemen, I’ll take the sofa!

    FOI 2dn GOODFELLOWS

    LOI 16ac OMEN

    COD 26ac DALMATION

    WOD 9ac OGEN MELON of which my mother was very fond.

    Paul, U2 was a good, clue Gary Powers and all that – some youngsters may even be unaware they were also a rock band.

    Edited at 2020-03-01 02:09 am (UTC)

    1. If the clue worked for TOE, that would be a problem, methinks.

      The clue for ARMCHAIR doesn’t give an example of something that might make you feel a certain way (comfortable) but an example of how the object in question might—or might not!—make you feel (comfortable). Maybe we need two question marks. Haha.

  4. Easy. Solved it in 24 minutes and moved on to something else without over- analysing it. Briefly wondered if at 4dn the setter may have been thinking of Monty Python’s ‘Comfy Chair’. It comes about 2:50 minutes into this sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxkcPoLYcQ

    Edited at 2020-03-01 06:11 am (UTC)

  5. ….er….TEE. I initially entered “toe” with one eyebrow having elevated status, but the truth dawned later when I revisited the NW. I’m a fully paid-up member of the “Good Walk Spoiled Club”, so my confusion could perhaps be excused.

    I also had “blowpipe” at 14A for a while, but fortunately I had that CONDOR moment soon enough. I miss the old tobacco adverts – they were an art form in so many cases. The rubbish we get now…. don’t even start me on meerkats.

    FOI CREATE
    LOI ESCAPADE
    COD SPYPLANE
    TIME 10:07

  6. 27 minutes, without quite feeling the spark I usually get from a David McLean puzzle. The reminder first of Gary Powers and then the Vietnam war suited my knowledge base well though. BLOCKHEADEDLY was a tricky anagram too. Never having called the posts props, I wasn’t that keen on CROSSBAR. But still a decent puzzle. Thank you Guy and David.
    1. So what? You might not habitually call them supports, or holdy-up poles, but that’s indubitably what they are.
      1. What with you and Peter below I’m being ganged up on. I only said I wasn’t keen on it, not that it didn’t work. I think it was the thought of the sacred objects that are goalposts being likened to a washing line. Now it the posts had been piled up jumpers, that would have been acceptable.
        1. Sorry, no bullying intended! It just seems a bit of an odd objection in the context of a crossword, where finding new synonyms for familiar words is kind of the point!
  7. An easier puzzle may not thrill the “wolves”, as one well-known setter used to describe me and other expert solvers in my blogging days, but looking at the number of entries sent electronically, this one has more than any other since the beginning of December, and possibly longer than that (the information on the email account providing a very visible count is removed for older puzzles from time to time). If the extra numbers include a few who finished an ST cryptic for the first time, that’s a result worth having.

    As cryptic definitions don’t have a set of rules like “construction kit” clues, I’m not sure how one decides what qualifies as a cryptic definition. All we really have is the possibility that it makes you think of the wrong thing, and that did happen for some people. Although there’s also the notion of a “novelty” clue, my idea in the past was that any clue I couldn’t classify as something else had to be a CD.

    “DBE” because other things could match the definition? That’s just the norm – we say “dog”, for example, and the solver has to work out which kind of dog from other information in the clue. Similar point about boltonwanderer’s “never having called” — when have you ever called a river a “flower”, or used “the French” to mean what it nearly always means in cryptic clues?

    Edited at 2020-03-01 09:03 am (UTC)

      1. I feel sure this has been covered more than once, but it stands for “definition by example”, which is contrary to crossword tradition, in which it’s OK for “dog” in the clue to indicate “corgi”, or any other kind of dog, in the answer, but not OK for “corgi” in the clue to indicate DOG in the answer, unless we add a question mark, “say”, or similar — even though there are dozens of types of dog, and AFAIK, a lower case corgi is a dog and nothing else. In more radical moments, I have suggested abandoning this tradition, and I’ve even told ST setters that I’ll at least consider clues that do so, but few have been keen to be that radical.
        1. It is in the Glossary, too.
          It’s a funny old cruciverbal world, where inclusion or exclusion of a question mark is seen as a radical move!
  8. 14:37, held up for 1 1/2 minutes at the end by CROSSBAR, needing a 2nd alphabet trawl to come up with the BAR at the end. I liked SPYPLANE and OMEN best.
  9. I don’t understand how “quickly” = FASTER. More/relatively/comparatively quickly, yes. Nobody else seems to have a problem with this so what am I missing?
    1. In real life, I think there are contexts where a request like “quickly please” really means “faster than usual”, or “faster than you’re currently doing it”.
        1. Are you the Neil Shepherd who went to the moon, or am I mixing you up with someone else?
  10. I also found this on the easy side taking 19:58 to complete. I liked SPYPLANE. Just worked steadily through. No clue particularly raised any eyebrows. Thanks Harry and Guy.
  11. 7:41. Well I found this very easy but I thought it was an excellent puzzle. The clues are largely models of simple but elegant clue construction and the surfaces are very good.
    They can’t all be beasts!
  12. I managed to solve this in about an hour all told -so fast for me. LOI was CROSSBAR -ironic as I have been at football matched these last two Saturdays.Prior to that EMISSIONS,OMEN and AGENT ORANGE held me up. As these all intersect I had a fast finish.
    I liked SPYPLANE.
    David
  14. Sorry, I should have looked in said Glossary.
    I notice that The Club Monthly Special was rather too special this month. Nice to see Riddlecombe out and about.
  15. Peter, does your inclination to abandon the DBE convention extend to the clue writing contest? Asking for a, um, friend.
  16. The first alternative I thought of—après TEE—was “nail,” as you might press one in firmly before driving it (in). Since I don’t drive, I didn’t think of the even more obviously impossible BRAKE PEDAL.
  17. NHO Ogen melon( even my spell checker wants to change it to Ogden! ). Rock, water and honeydew yes. I see it is a hybrid rock melon and musk melon. I don’t think we have them here in SW Australia. It went in anyway, as Oneg melon seemed even less likely.
    The long 8d anagram was made harder by having Blowpipe for 14a. This was justifiable by British Expeditionary ( the force sent to France at the start of WW2 ) around ‘ low pip ‘ , and blockheadedly clung to until forced to reconsider.
    All correct finally in 36mins.
  18. Thanks David and guy
    Just over the half hour to get this one out which is on the quicker side for me after getting a flying start with SEA and the ‘only in a crossword’ fruit OGEN MELON almost straight away. There were really no holdups along the way except having to look up U2 to confirm that it was indeed a SPYPLANE.
    Enjoyed working through the word constructs – both ways building up the answer from them and seeing the definition and then working out the play.
    Finished in the NW corner with BLOWFISH, GOODFELLOWS and AFRESH the last few in.

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