Sunday Times Cryptic No 4933 by David McLean — Take it easy on the curves…

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
What
    a
      tonic
        for
          my
            nerves…

I indicate (man as rag)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Country girl on booze university … (8)
PORTUGAL — PORT, “booze” with GAL, “girl” + U(niversity) attached
 5 … lectured for worst performance grading? (6)
ORATED — zer0-RATED
 9 Royal papers about popular Conservative leader (8)
PRINCESS — PR(IN)(C)ESS
10 A tendency to ring son that’s not working (6)
ABSENT — Lay off, Dad! A B(S)ENT
12 Description of socialism in business doctrine (5)
CREDO — C(RED)O
13 USA union forced to adopt first of mandates in accord (9)
UNANIMOUS — (US union + M)*
14 Hairy and light-skinned part of the hand (5-7)
WHITE-KNUCKLE — WHITE, “light-skinned” + KNUCKLE… Seems the adjective dates at least as far back as the 1970s and is often applied to amusement park rides. From how your hands look when you’re hanging on to something for dear life, typically in some sort of vehicle, as to the steeering wheeeeeeel of a car in a 27.
18 A district, attractive and gaining recognition (5-7)
AWARD-WINNING — A + WARD, “district” + WINNING, “attractive”
21 Couple of rounds coming from the pitcher? (9)
BASEBALLS — CD
23 A despicable type back to pinch one half crown? (5)
TIARA — A RA(I)T <=“back” The question mark is there because a tiara is only sometimes, not always, semi-circular, whereas crowns are always full circles.
24 You could say 45 minutes? (6)
RECORD — DD, and both Ds together plausibly make a CD (but how can I add a second, unbroken underline?). You could say 45, or you might say 33 or 78. (Right, Vinyl?) The second definition is the RECORD of what went down at an organizational meeting, “minutes.” The CD (by example) would be a reference to the quickest time so far achieved in some hypothetical competition. The previous 45-minute Guiness World Record for a 10K race while pushing kids in a double stroller was soundly beaten in October this year by an Ontario man, who clocked in at 36:06.
25 Teacher and principal picked up for naughty acts (8)
MISCHIEF — MIS, “teacher” or “miss” + CHIEF, “principal” The first part might be “picked up” as the word “miss” by hearing, but the second would have to be “picked up” as meaning “principal” by sight.
26 Crimes religious types won’t keep quiet (6)
ARSONS — [-p]ARSONS
27 Small child rubbishes driving proficiency sites (8)
SKIDPANS — S(mall) + KID, “child” + PANS, “rubbishes” Had to guess at this, but my first guess was close, SKIDPADS—no idea why I thought of that. But it’s a synonym of the answer. A circular area of flat pavement used for various tests of a car’s performance as well as of a driver’s. What I learned today.

DOWN
 1 Office secretaries with case for company (6)
PAPACY — P(ersonal) A(ssistant) twice + C[-ompan]Y I might have biffed AGENCY if I had been (hah) in a hurry—but that wouldn’t parse. Not another general term for an office of some sort but a very particular office.
 2 One up around front of Argos could be a looter (6)
RAIDER — R(A)IDER… “one up” meaning one mounted on a horse
 3 Change! He couldn’t out of habit! (9)
UNCLOTHED — (He couldn’t)*
 4 One aimed to shoot broadcast as full satire (7,5)
ASSAULT RIFLE — (as full satire)* I would hope you would aim before pulling the trigger…
 6 Religious scholar with gas head of teaching avoided (5)
RABBI — RABBI[-t] With “gas” meaning “yak,” “yap,” “jaw,” “yammer”… Hey, I think I’ve finally made sense of the surface. The RABBI is afraid he’ll embarrass himself if he meets the head of his educational establishment right now. Phew
 7 Time that bloke goes for full treatment (3,5)
THE WORKS — T(ime) + HE, “that bloke” + WORKS, “goes”
 8 I’m one that hates grass turning up outside of trial (8)
DETESTER — DE(TEST)ER is “grass” or REED<=“turning up” with TEST, “trial” inside
11 Travelling supporter? (7,5)
WALKING STICK — CD
15 French article on edict poor, but not in the view of The Observer (9)
UNNOTICED — UN, “French article” + (on edict)*
16 Dress crab and earn capital abroad (8)
CANBERRA — (crab + earn)* Anagrind of the Week.
17 Bag up footwear in cloth covers? (8)
CASSOCKS — ”Bag” or SAC<=“up” + SOCKS, “footwear”
19 Pet wearing a coat (6)
PATINA — PAT, “Pet” + IN, “wearing” + A
20 Bosses ignoring Republican blunders (6)
GAFFES — Not my bosses! GAFFE[-r]S A gaffer is the head electrician on a film set (among other things… not even mentioning Joe Biden), but, more relevantly here, it’s also British slang for “boss,” “foreman” or “old man.”
22 Group of beats performing for a powerful businessman (5)
BARON — Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Corso sell out! BAR as a measure of music, “Group of beats” + ON, “performing”

18 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4933 by David McLean — Take it easy on the curves…”

  1. 25′ online, leaving 4 clues in the SW. 1ac is one of the rare cases where the suspension dots have a function: the clue by itself makes no sense, but when linked to the next clue at least becomes grammatical. DNK SKIDPANS either, and checked in the dictionary. ARSON as a count noun is new to me. I think the head of teaching is avoiding the gassy rabbi.
    1. Clues 1a and 2, without the connecting dots, are no more or less a sentence fragment than… clue 3.
      I think 6 can be read either way, but one way yields something like a normal English sentence, with the subject coming before the verb (the object is oddly placed in both cases).
      1. If the meaning is ‘scholar avoided head’, then it’s a pretty odd sentence. If the meaning (my interpretation) is head avoided scholar, then it’s not a sentence but a complex noun phrase containing a relative clause: (the) religious scholar (that the) head of teaching avoided.
        1. It would be “Scholar avoided [principal, dean, whatever],” not “head” tout court. There’s nothing odd about that.
          As I said, I opted for the version with the complete sentence structure.
          Different strokes.
          (But I thought somehow relevant to your comment about the dots connecting 1a & 2. I must confess, though, that I thought “on booze university” made sense on its own. On reflection, I’ve heard of “booze universities”—ha—but not of being “on” one.)

          Edited at 2020-12-20 02:49 am (UTC)

  2. Thanks for the blog, Guy. I’ve written N.T.R. in my notes on this puzzle so…nothing to report!
  3. I took 47 minutes. on this, liking WHITE KNUCKLE RIDE as a regular at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in my own and my children’s youth although, as you say Guy, the expression wasn’t in use in the fairground fifties. RECORD is very clever and took me several ‘minutes’ afterwards to see the second definition. I suppose that has to be my formal COD. The first record I ever bought was a 78, Frankie Vaughan’s Garden of Eden, second-hand on Fleetwood Market. I hoped there might be more to BASEBALLS than meets the eye, but it doesn’t appear so. A decent challenge.Thank you Guy and setter

    Edited at 2020-12-20 07:21 am (UTC)

  4. ….is a favourite of mine by Taj Mahal. I avoided those blues once I changed “walking frame” to WALKING STICK.

    FOI PRINCESS
    LOI CASSOCKS
    COD RECORD
    TIME 10:59

  5. 23:19. Tricky but fun. I was baffled by 21ac, wondering why ‘a couple’ and thinking there must be more to it than there appears to be. Not a brilliant clue. The rest of it was very good though, and I particularly liked RECORD.
    I thought the Sunday puzzle before Christmas was always a jumbo? Not this year. As the duty blogger I’m not complaining.

    Edited at 2020-12-20 11:12 am (UTC)

  6. I managed to solve 16 clues in my first session, a good start. I had four troublesome ones at the end just after lunch. PATINA was unparsed but felt OK. Unparsed LAPSES were eventually replaced by GAFFES after MISCHIEF emerged.
    RECORD was guessed and only properly understood today (COD to that).
    Unfortunately I had changed SLATED to PRATED (with a doubt) at 5a and not considered other options. So one error.
    David
  7. I first heard the expression in the early eighties when we pitched for the Alton Towers account. My WOD

    FOI 4dn ASSAULT RIFLE – my mother’s sweet confection with too much sherry

    LOI 24ac RECORD – one of my first 45s The Pretty Things ‘Big Boss Man’

    COD 18ac AWARD WINNING

    Time: 78RPM

  8. As for Phil, a biffed WALKING FRAME held up the SE corner for a while. BASEBALLS was a late entry with a shrug. PORTUGAL was FOI and CANBERRA was my LOI. 28:41. Thanks Harry and Guy.
  9. 50 mins all done and dusted. No real problems. I liked WHITE-KNUCKLE and AWARD-WINNING. I remember SKIDPANS, as the drivers of the red London double-decker buses used to train on them. Probably still do. Thank you Guy and setter.
  10. White-knuckle rides, not my thing. The idea of paying good money to be scared witless I find quite bizarre, especially since just watching the news does the same thing.
    The phrase itself dates from the 1960s, (and of course, possibly before) according to the OED, which gives as its first example: “1968 Washington Post 15 Aug. She belongs to the white knuckle club as far as flying’s concerned.”
    1. Ah, Merriam-Webster bested by the OED. It happens! (I amended to “at least as far back as…”)

      Edited at 2020-12-20 07:54 pm (UTC)

  12. Thanks David and guy
    Was able to slowly work through the clues around the grid until getting a foothold in the NW. Needed a second sitting to finish off in what turned out to be quite a quick fashion.
    Needed to come here to confirm why BASEBALLS was such – spent time vainly trying to make BASE = ’round’ for a while … and then just shrugged. SKIDPANS was a new term as was the plural version of ARSON.
    Finished in the NE corner with ABSENT (tricky definition), ORATED (only guessing the zero-rated bit) and the clever THE WORKS as the last one in.

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