Sunday Times Cryptic No 4923 by Robert Price — Not so fast!

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
I worked this while watching the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, and as my eye casually swept over the new clues, I first saw LENTO, which I should have taken as a watchword. Right after that, I recognized one of my favorite painters, which gave me 10, and then, with just the B and the U, I got BOUGAINVILLEA and right after that, with only the L, and before parsing, I flashed on ELECTROCUTION! And so it went. The time elapsed between start and finish would be hard to say, but whenever I turned back to the puzzle, I saw another answer with little effort. STET and TESTATE were put in with parsing put off till later (I rarely do that, at least on purpose). When only a few blanks were left, I got to the double definition for SLIP and had to think a little longer (DDs are often what hold me up the longest), so I put the puzzle aside, and when I returned to it, all soon seemed clear and I thought I had finished. But then I was trying to come to terms with the definition for FLIGHT ARCS (sic!). Which was there because I had unthinkingly and overconfidently put in a wrong answer for DEBATERS, one so off the wall that i’m not even going to tell y’all what it was (no one else will have put that in, I’m sure). I hadn’t even checked the anagram! (SNL was a gas.)

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

ACROSS
 1 Force blonde to dress in front of the plane (6,4)
FLIGHT DECK — F(orce) + LIGHT, “blonde” + DECK, “dress”
 6 Drop underwear (4)
SLIP — DD
 9 Step one in turning traitors (5)
STAIR — R(I)ATS<=“turning”
10 Put money on an artist becoming rasher (4,5)
BACK BACON — BACK, “put money on” (see 20) + BACON, “an artist” (Francis, who could be very rash indeed)
12 Speaking about cert being beaten is shocking (13)
ELECTROCUTION — EL(cert)*OCUTION “Cert” is strictly a Britishism, in the sense of something deemed a certainty, like a particular horse’s winning a race, as found in the phrase “a dead cert” (one mustn’t beat a dead cert. Ha). The surface seemed odd before I remembered that.
14 Fragment an archaeologist might clean the drops off (8)
POTSHERD — (the drops)*
15 Mostly fruit the French crush (6)
MANGLE — MANG[-o] + LE, “the [in] French”
17 Pirate’s last encounters brought back treasure (6)
ESTEEM — [-pirat]E + MEETS<=“brought back”
19 Glad lots of petrol stores finally perish (8)
THANKFUL — Yay—to hell with fossil fuels! T(H)ANKFUL, “tankful” keeping [-peris]H
21 Policemen in favour of helping inequality (13)
DISPROPORTION — That’s even their original and main purpose, some say. DIS, “policemen” (Detective Inspectors) + PRO, “in favour of” + PORTION, “helping”
24 Give directors a hand making timber (9)
CLAPBOARD — CLAP, “a hand” + BOARD, “directors”
25 Fast disc played slowly (5)
LENTO — LENT, “fast” (for observant Catholics before Easter) + O, “disc”
26 Tart has bottom pinched. Leave it alone! (4)
STET — ST[-rump]ET But it’s too tempting… My COD, because it was the hardest to parse. And the surface is delightful.
27 Press modern health resorts to limit training runs (10)
NEWSPAPERS — NEW, “modern” + SPAS, “health resorts” bounding PE, “training” + R, “runs”

DOWN
 1 Not liable to run like the wind (4)
FAST — DD
 2 Most silly hobbies begin life here (7)
INANEST — IN A NEST, “hobbies” being a kind of bird
 3 Creature of rocky shores or beach (9,4)
HORSESHOE CRAB — (shores or beach)*
 4 They argue debts are misrepresented (8)
DEBATERS — (debts are)*
 5 About two times over what is needed to make chocolate (5)
CACAO — CA, “about” or circa, twice + O, “over”
 7 Conservative admitted to weakness in heavy defeat (7)
LICKING — LI(C)KING “Liking” may not be the first synonym that comes to mind for “weakness”; “admitted” as in “admitted to hospital.”
 8 Christmas tree feature that’s long to wind up (4,6)
PINE NEEDLE — LONG, “pine” + NEEDLE, “to wind up” or tease
11 Bloomer made by a violin a bugle disguised (13)
BOUGAINVILLEA — (a violin a bugle)* When the plant was discovered in Rio de Janeiro in the 1760s by French botanist Philibert Commerson, he selflessly named it after a friend, the sailor Louis de Bougainville. (Admittedly, “Commerson” does not evoke much.)
13 Software aims to include cool extra sections (10)
APPENDICES — APP, “software” + END(ICE)S, “aims” with “cool” inside
16 Game at first, con artist enters the underworld (8)
CHARADES — C, “at first, con” + HA(RA)DES
18 Leaving will prove a trifle gutless (7)
TESTATE — TEST, “prove” + T[-rifl]E
20 Intended to protect one’s centre back (7)
FINANCE — FI(N)ANCE
22 Romeo’s departing expression leaving stage (5)
PHASE — PH(R)ASE What an excellent surface!
23 Banks stood up for auditors (4)
ROWS — “rose”

22 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4923 by Robert Price — Not so fast!”

  1. Despite it being an anagram, I managed to spell BOUAGAINVILLEA with “IA” at the end. I got STET okay but the “strumpet” bit I never saw.
  2. 2:15 to get THANKFUL. DNK BACK BACON, hobby. Biffed POTSHERD. I liked the crab and PHASE, but my COD goes to STET, now that, thanks to Guy, I understand the clue. But Guy, you’ve parsed it wrong.
    1. Thanks, but I didn’t parse it incorrectly, though my typo, my faute de frappe, might have given the inattentive that impression. I count on you for proofing, Kevin. Keep it up!

      Edited at 2020-10-11 01:01 am (UTC)

      1. Damn! I was going to point out the onnyou. I certainly didn’t mean that you mis-analyzed the clue, Guy–heaven forfend!– only that the parsing you typed was wrong.
        1. HA, you would! 😀
          I was tapping that on my phone. There was also a typo in “faute de frappe” for about three seconds, which would really have been ironic (I thought of leaving it).
  3. I particularly liked STET, though it was definitely a case of bung in first, work out parsing (much) later. Pleased to have resisted the temptation to put in ‘cocoa’ at 5d, which was my first thought seeing ‘two times over’. I liked the surface for FLIGHT DECK.

    An enjoyable Sunday diversion. Home in 46 minutes.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  4. 23 minutes, with the Strumpet’s bottom unpinched and STET unparsed. Yet another excellent puzzle by Robert. COD to CHARADES, although the surface to PHASE was terrific. I liked POTSHERD as an answer too, imagining the archaeologist wiping off the drops of a mess of pottage a few thousand years after the bowl was dropped. Thank you Robert and Guy.
  5. 35 minutes with 26ac unparsed until midweek. I had returned to it several times before the penny dropped. The bloomer at 11dn would have been an easy biff if I had remembered how to spell it, but I had to wait for several checkers before I could write it in. That alone was enough to account for running over my target time.
  7. ….in 10 minutes, and took a further 2 minutes to nail the POTSHERD/APPENDICES crossing. A minute later, I biffed STET. I parsed TESTATE and NEWSPAPERS after submitting, but couldn’t parse STET.

    FOI STAIR
    LOI STET
    COD FAST (but STET in hindsight !)
    TIME 13:01

  8. One of my quicker weekend solves at about 40 minutes. FOI ROWS then LENTO. Question marks next to POTSHERD a word which came up not too long ago when it was new to me; had forgotten what it meant.
    At 26a I thought of Strumpet when I saw Tart but still failed to parse it; assumed it was a tart we eat where there are so many options. But I was sure STET was OK. My LOI was PHASE which I’ll make my COD.
    As ever Robert provided an enjoyable and engaging puzzle.
    David
  9. A beautiful demonstration of how to put together a Sunday crossword. I even parsed STET.
  10. I found some of this quite tricky and never did parse STET until told how it works. Needed plenty of help from the crossers to spell BOUGIAN..whatsit properly. POTSHERD vaguely remembered but needed the wordplay to get it. FLIGHT DECK took a while. 37:43. Thanks Bob and Guy.
  12. A 22 min DNF because of a wretched typo in my appendices. Annoying. I found this a bright and breezy puzzle full of good stuff though the parsing of stet was beyond me.
  13. 12:59. Lovely stuff. But I didn’t parse STET. Very clever. HORSESHOE CRAB my favourite. Thanks Robert and Guy.
  14. 56 minutes, but about 20 of those were spent on a tortuous alphabet crawl to see if there might be any alternative to STET. There wasn’t, but like just about everyone else I simply couldn’t parse it (and strumpet is not a word that pops into my head right away). The rest was not so hard, but it’s hard for me to remember that far back.
  15. I’ve come here late simply in order to see the parsing of STET which has been bugging me all day. I just wish I’d seen it for myself. Lovely clue. Most enjoyable puzzle. 23 minutes. Ann
  16. OK OK, I’m dim, since nobody else questioned or commented on this one. But where do “auditors” come in?

    Ray Scott

    1. It indicates that it’s a “sounds like” clue.
      I typically indicate those by putting the word(s) the answer sounds like within quotemarks, as if it were said.

      Edited at 2020-10-31 12:28 am (UTC)

  17. Thanks Bob and guy
    Well done on being able to parse that STET, it was beyond my ken – did spend ages looking for an alternative answer when I couldn’t. Also messed up the homophone at 23d – had SWOR – as in “swore” as a tenuous ‘stood’ and tipped it up to get the answer, instead of the more obvious.
    Had to double check that ‘hobbies’ were a sort of bird when the rest was clearly the answer. Chuckled at the surface of 1a and liked the double definition of 1d.
    Finished in the SW corner with APPENDICES (which was tricky) and that STET the last one in.

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