Sunday Times Cryptic No 4931 by Dean Mayer — The 5 across the merrier!

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic

…comme on dit. At 12 we have a bittersweet reminder of when we used to go out and get together; at this state of the siege, there may be more than one 17 (virtually) among us. There’s a wonderfully minimal definition for 24, and I was then gratified to remember the (actually quite widespread) dialect word that answers 21 before solving my COD, 26, whose “wordplay” is secreted between the words.

In keeping with my solemn promise to my constituency, 8 came last.

I indicate (ma ran gas)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Save lady who sings more like a man (7)
BUTCHER — BUT, “Save” + CHER, “lady who sings” (to say the least!)
 5 Story parts added for playwright (7)
MOLIERE — MO(LIE)RE
 9 My work’s hardly finished (9)
ENAMELLER — CD
10 Trump exposed by party (5)
OUTDO — If only! OUT, “exposed” + DO (see 12)
11 Was aware of novel being read out (4)
KNEW — “new”
12 Do guests break up lesson? (4-4)
PLUS-ONES — (up lesson)* Invitees (of your invitees) to your “Do”
15 Double small holes? I am mature (8,5)
SPITTING IMAGE — S(mall) + holes (“pitting,” as a noun) + I + AM + AGE, “mature” (Examples of the relevant sense of “pitting” from Merriam-Webster: “The car’s paint showed some pitting from flying gravel. Her face had some minor pitting from the chicken pox.”)
17 One suffering cramps? (13)
CLAUSTROPHOBE — CD
19 Ran straight over good journalist (6,2)
LEGGED IT — LEG(G)(ED)IT
20 Check on a Scottish architect (4)
ADAM — A + DAM, “check” This could be William or one of his sons, Richard or James.
23 Old carmaker in Italy serving Russian orders (5)
BLINI — Pancakes, the ingredients here being B(ritish) L(eyland) + IN + I, “Italy” (not the NATO alphabet but the International vehicle registration code) Not sure I’d ever heard of the short-lived (1968–75) auto manufacturer.
24 But the horse is not tailless (4,5)
THEN AGAIN — THE + NAG, “horse” + AIN[-’t]
25 Was jogger’s time spoilt? (7)
TROTTED — T(ime) + ROTTED
26 Well-to-do joiners (7)
HYPHENS — (Brilliant!)

DOWN
 1 10 about to weep, which is most depressing (8)
BLEAKEST — B(LEAK)EST You might first take 10 for a clue reference…
 2 Go unnoticed (6,9)
TRAVEL INCOGNITO — CD, at least slightly C
 3 Order given to dog or swine (4)
HEEL — DD
 4 From river, see bank (4)
RELY — R(iver) + ELY, which is a diocese or “see”
 5 Medium has spoken; lie about “backbone” (5,5)
MORAL FIBRE — M(edium) + ORAL, “spoken” + FIB, “lie” + RE, “about”
 6 Don’t drag feet bearing cross (4,6)
LOOK SNAPPY — LOOK, “bearing” + SNAPPY, “cross”
 7 Ile de Centre, not a bad French accommodation (7,8)
ENTENTE CORDIALE — (Ile de Centre, not a)* OK, an anagram for a foreign phrase, but at least you’re told what language it’s in.
 8 It concerns me if work is stopping me retiring (6)
EGOISM — GO, “work” + IS (literally) plugging ME<=“retiring”
13 I understand song and dance, maybe, over street planner (10)
STRATEGIST — I GET ARTS <=“over” + ST(reet)
14 Solo and its uses when playing (10)
UNASSISTED — (and its uses)*
16 End of semester? (8)
TERMINUS — IN the US, a (school) TERM is called a “semester.”
18 Liberals kept in touch, just about (3,3)
ALL BUT — A(LL)BUT
21 Feeling cold in mineshaft (4)
NESH — Hidden
22 Fighting pressure, buckle (4)
WARP — WAR, “fighting” + P(ressure)

29 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4931 by Dean Mayer — The 5 across the merrier!”

  1. I had more trouble with the north of England dialect than I did with the frequently encountered French term. Then Again, Legged It, and All But split my vote for why this was extra fun. Thanks, Guy, nice blog. Except for the Mollier pun.
    1. C’est Molière, tu sais…
      When I previewed the pun the other day, I did not hear you groan.
        1. I thought it helped the pun that Molière was a master of the comedy of manners. Oh, well…
  2. Started off slow–FOI 4d–and continued that way. DNK PLUS-ONES, NESH. A bit of a MER at TRAVEL INCOGNITO, as it doesn’t seem like a lexical item. Biffed STRATEGIST, THEN AGAIN, parsed post-submission. This wasn’t my favorite Dean puzzle, but I did love LOI HYPHENS. Guy, you forgot the underline at 12ac.
  3. I thought this was a superb puzzle but I had to use aids to solve a couple of clues: BLEAKEST (where I was fixated on ‘blackest’) and LOOK SNAPPY. I just couldn’t think of SNAPPY.
    NHO PLUS ONES. Wasn’t it Payne Stewart who used to wear Plus Twos on the golf course?
    Among the contenders for COD were CLAUSTROPHOBE, TRAVEL INCOGNITO and EGOISM but I go with Guy and call HYPHENS as my COD.
    1. Plus fours, for Payne, Martin. For reference, see “The Magic Plus Fours” by Wodehouse.
  4. 58 minutes. Super puzzle. We were always urged at school to show MORAL FIBRE (abbreviated to MF) in adversity. COD to THEN AGAIN by a short head from HYPHENS. Discussion elsewhere has revealed NESH to be in common currency in parts of the Midlands too as well as in all the North of England. We would use it to describe someone who didn’t handle inclement weather well. As the great Alfred Wainwright said, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” He had MF. Thank you Guy, and to Dean for this terrific stuff.
  5. MER! Ain’t cold in my book, but weak. ‘Don’t be so nesh!’, were the words of my mother – ‘Butch-up!’ My WOD!

    FOI 2dn TRAVEL INCOGNITO

    LOI 9ac ENAMELLER

    COD 17ac CLAUSTROPHOBE – one who hates Christmas

    Poor Guy! Leyland were formed 1898 made trucks and later Rovers. They became British Leyland in 1968. And no they did not manufacture Leylandii!

    Edited at 2020-12-06 06:28 pm (UTC)

  6. I found this tough, but it is a Dean puzzle and I am getting better at these. FOI WARP, 2OI KNEW so it was a trip round the grid looking for ways in. I needed two or three sessions and it came down to 21d and 26a.
    After thinking PICT, I saw the hidden NESH but rejected it as, despite living in different areas of the country as a child, it never registered with me- if I ever heard it. I was trying to justify TOPPERS at 26a which had occurred in a recent QC and caused a lot of comment. So DNF but enjoyed it. COD to THEN AGAIN.
    David
  7. ENTENTE CORDIALE: can’t see that this really counts as a foreign phrase – it’s the name used in English (and presumably French) for agreements signed in 1904 and the resulting improved though still sometimes edgy relationship.

    British Leyland: the truth is somewhere between “short-lived” and horryd’s massive over-simplification. The Leyland company founded in 1898 did not make Rovers until they acquired that company in 1967, and merged with the much larger British Motor Holdings (Austin, Morris & Jaguar) in 1968 to form British Leyland. This or “BL” lasted as a group name until 1986.

    1. BL: I had just read about the company’s collapse in April 1975, before nationalization.

      My remark about ENTENTE CORDIALE was prompted by the generous presence of “French” in the clue. I thought that might be meant to forestall complaints about anagrammed “foreign” phrases, something that has never bothered me.

    2. I arrived in Solihull in 1973 and lived next door to the Rover Test Track, so it at that point BL/Rover was very much top of mind especially with the three-day week. In 2006 SAIC (Nanjing) bought the Rover technology and one sees a lot of ‘Roeves’ about in Shanghai. I believe SAIC now own Longbridge. I have amended my comment to ‘later Rover’, in order to decrease your ‘massive’ missive.
  8. 15:52. I enjoyed this one a lot.
    I spent a term studying Molière at university and it was one of the best things I did. I would probably never have appreciated his greatness without it. I could say the same of Shakespeare (that course was non-optional) but his genius is a bit more obvious.
    A small point G but I would underline the whole clue as the definition at 26ac (the joiners of…), otherwise ‘well-to-do’ isn’t doing anything useful.

    Edited at 2020-12-06 10:48 am (UTC)

    1. I didn’t want to, really, because I would argue that this isn’t quite a full &lit. Those three words aren’t doing anything useful; only the punctuation between them is. Maybe could’ve used a question mark. However, I have underlined them, though it doesn’t seem to clarify matters much.
  9. ….and submitted in my slowest ever time for a completed ST. A fine puzzle, and well worth the effort.

    FOI OUTDO
    LOI TERMINUS (I only appreciated the guile later !)
    COD ENAMELLER (closely from TRAVEL INCOGNITO)
    TIME 27:50

  11. I struggled with this for just under an hour before giving up on HYPHENS and using aids. Fine puzzle. 58:10 with 1 look-up. Thanks Dean and Guy.
  12. 35:02. Quite a mental workout, but good fun. LOI with a groan was HYPHENS. Lots of lovely clues. COD to THEN AGAIN.
  13. 47.32. I thought this was a terrific puzzle. Plenty of ticks and PDMs. Claustrophobe, hyphens, travel incognito were all excellent. Legged it had me foxed for ages.
  14. Lovely puzzle. I was quite glad that it was a slow one so a could enjoy it for longer. 40 minutes. Ann
  15. Just over an hour and DNF, because at the last minute I put in LOOK SHARPY for LOOK SNAPPY — I had convinced myself that the bearing would be LOOKS and NAPPY didn’t seem to have anything to do with cross, but of course a HARPY is a cross of sorts. And these puzzles are so full of dialect words I have never heard of (like NESH, which took me ages to see and then only because I couldn’t think of anything else), that I thought LOOK SHARP might turn into LOOK SHARPY somewhere in Britain.

    Edited at 2020-12-06 10:17 pm (UTC)

  16. Like others, my LOI was HYPHENS. I felt a sense of accomplishment to finish this without aids. I didn’t know NESH, but since it was hidden it couldn’t really be anything else.
  17. Thanks Dean and guy
    Right on the hour of solve time across a few sittings to get this very enjoyable puzzle finished. Had to go back and revisit my ill-thought FIATS at 22a (hadn’t checked to see if they were Russian orders or not !). Went out with a Russian lady for a while who introduced me to the joys of BLINI – has come in handy a couple of times now in crosswords.
    Finally ground to a halt with the 21d / 26a crossers. Took quite a while for the penny to finally drop with HYPHENS (a gem of a clue) and after scouring resources to find LECH (yep it is a dirty old man’s feeling), could not get LEH to equate to ‘mineshaft’ and then finally saw the hidden NESH which I had to look up to complete the grid. Having recently been caught out with another hidden 4-letter in the daily Times puzzles was a bit of a good prompter.

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