The Sunday Times Christmas crossword by Tim Moorey.

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
39:15. I wasn’t expecting a Jumbo when I opened this puzzle, and I might have waited for a better moment if I had known, because I was feeling decidedly under the weather. However having started I thought I’d press on, and I managed to figure out the theme pretty early. Unfortunately however I don’t know how to spell Mrs Beeton’s name, so that gave me one error. Common or garden stupidity gave me another, so all in all I didn’t cover myself in glory with this one. I still found it a highly enjoyable puzzle though, and I thought the theme made a nice change. It was fun trying to figure out all the ingredients, some of which are a little surprising.

I have one query at 60ac, but it’s question for the lexicographers (Collins, specifically) rather than the setter.

Across
1 WILSON – WI, awfuL rumpuS, ON.
5 VARICES – Venice, A(RICE)S.
9 NEWPORT – because the traditional Left would be the old port. Ah, Newport: as the poet said, ‘Concrete jumble, nothing in order/ Not far from the border.’
14 MRS BEETON’S CHRISTMAS CAKE – and not MRS BEATON’s. The original recipe does indeed contain only ten ingredients, which you will find here, and also in ten of the answers in this puzzle.
15 SUGAR – the first of our ingredients.
16 INGESTA – (SEATING)*.
17 CINEMATIC – CrITIC surrounding a reversal of AMEN (approval).
18 IOTA – contained in Cypriot? Apparently.
19 GORAL – GO(R)AL. Not an antelope I knew. They usually end in ‘bok’.
20 NORMA – NORMAl. Marylin Monroe was originally Norma Jean something or other. This is a Jumbo, I can’t be expected to google everything for you.
21 NUDGE – NUD(Get)E.
24 ENCYCLOPAEDIA – (CLEAN COPY)*, then a reversal of AIDE. ‘Work’ is the rather vague definition.
27 SESTERCES – reversal of SECRETS containing E (English), S (society) ‘Roman brass’ is the definition.
30 GINGER – our second ingredient.
31 GASES – DD.
33 SURPRISED – sounds like ‘Sir prized’. Definition ‘hit for six’.
36 GRADUATES – (GUARD)*, A, TESt.
38 FORUM – FOR(U)M.
39 ENIGMA – A, M(GIN)E, all reversed.
41 STRAIGHTS – sounds like ‘straits’ of Gibraltar.
44 TRENCH WARFARE – (NEW CHARTER)* containing RFA.
47 FLOUR – another ingredient.
49 MUSIC – M (mass), In (‘Beethoven’s ending cut’ telling us to remove the N), C surrounding US.
50 CREAM – another ingredient.
52 SPAR – reversal of RAPS.
55 LEGISLATE – LEG (member), IS, LATE (behind).
57 RAISINS – ingredient number… I’ve lost count.
58 ULTRA – contained in fault rabid.
59 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT BOOK – I thought it was called the ‘Book of Household Management’, but it turns out it’s just called ‘Household Management’, so I guess either way round is fine.
60 DEAD SET – DEAD SEA, egypT. The definition is ‘absolutely’, which I don’t recognise. Collins has it, with the example ‘he is dead set against going to Spain’, but I think it means ‘absolutely determined’, including in that example. Strange.
61 RUN PAST – (TURN P AS)*.
62 SORBET – reversal of BRO in SET.

Down
2 INSIGHT – I, N(Species)IGHT.
3 SHERRY – S (bob), H (Henry), mERRY. ‘Not Mike’ tells us to remove the M. I don’t think of SHERRY as a Christmas drink, but I suppose it could be.
4 NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT – DD, one crypticish.
5 VINEGAR – another ingredient: I’m not sure I’d put vinegar in Christmas Cake, but then I’ve never made Christmas Cake. We used to have a tradition whereby my mum would make a Christmas cake every year, no-one would eat it and then we’d throw it away in January. These days she doesn’t bother. She does make Christmas Pudding, but that gets eaten.
6 ROCK SOLID – (CROOKS)*, LID.
7 CURTAIN RAISER – (IRAN CUT)*, then a homophone (broadcast) of ‘razor’ (sharp personal item).
8 SASH CORDS – CD.
9 NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS – two definitions, one a whimsical reference to a major golf tournament.
10 WISEMAN – (NEWSMedIA)*.
11 OP ART – O(PAR)T.
12 TREACLE – another ingredient.
13 EMISSIVE – E, MISSIVE (letter).
22 DOC – DOCk. I managed to put DIC in here, thinking it was DICe but failing to take into account that DIC doesn’t mean anything. I told you I wasn’t feeling well.
23 SCAG – Some Called, AG (silver).
25 CHINA – CH(IN)A.
26 AEGIS – A, EG, IS.
28 EAR – regular letters from Le Carré.
29 SODA – (bi)carbonate of, another of our ten ingredients.
32 SAFETY CURTAIN – (NT, SECURITY, F, A)* containing A (answer).
33 SUMAC – reversal of CAMUS. I’ve seen this before.
34 SAMOA – SAM (the book of Samuel), O (disc), Appeal.
35 EGGS – another ingredient.
37 UNI – contained in communication.
40 INRO – contained reversed in morning-after.
42 RIO – RIOt.
43 SUSPENDER – S(US)PENDER.
45 ENCHILADA – (HACIENDA)* containing L.
46 EARMARKS – RM, ARK in (SEA)*.
47 FILCHED – Finance Department around (CHILE)*.
48 RUSSETS – the T (tons) in TRUSSES (bundles up) has dropped.
51 EXIGENT – EXI(Guy’s Extra Neatness)T.
53 POTHOLE – PO(TH)OLE.
54 BUTTER – last but not least.
56 GOUDA – reversal of A(DUO)G.

26 comments on “The Sunday Times Christmas crossword by Tim Moorey.”

  1. I thought this was an Australianism but apparently not. Is the definition ‘absolutely’? Dead set.
    terencep
  2. Re dead set, I think when ‘set’ can be used in both a determined/resolved sense and also an extended sense where the word has lost much of its semantic meaning. Compare ‘Her parents were dead set (absolutely resolved) against the marriage’ and ‘I was dead set (absolutely) against the idea’. It seems odd that Collins does not first record the first meaning, as, for example, the free dictionary does.

    Edited at 2015-01-04 06:59 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks. In the second example I still hear ‘absolutely determined against the idea’. I suppose it’s a subtle distinction though.
  3. Collins does illustrate the first meaning in several other example sentences. Part of the problem is that the phrase has been transplanted from its original more specific meaning of what a hunting dog does, when it sights game. In these vaguely analogous settings it can mean more or less whatever you want it to mean..
    Not for the first time, I find Mrs Beeton’s recipe rather off-putting, but I did enjoy the crossword
    1. Again, thanks. I confess I only looked at the free dictionary, which reflects an old and perhaps partial version of Collins. As I said a above it’s a fine distinction and I’m quite prepared to accept that the meaning may have shifted.
      Is hunting the origin of the phrase? I can’t find anything on the subject and I don’t have access to the OED, but the meanings strike me as sufficiently different that they could have developed separately. Incidentally I had the privilege of watching these dogs (pointers actually, but the principle is the same) in action recently and they really are quite amazing.
      1. The current, full version of Collins is available free online
        I do have access to the OED (through KCC libraries – worth looking into!) but the OED is not very forthcoming, as I find it often is not with compound words/phrases
        A well trained gundog is a joy to watch in action.. except spaniels!
        1. Again, thanks. For some reason I have thought for a long time that the online version of Collins was something other than the full dictionary. I can’t remember why, or indeed what exactly I thought was wrong with it!
          I will ignore your outrageous spaniel comment…
  4. I have a facsimile of the first edition and its name on the title page is “The Book of Household Management”. But for all that I still managed to write the editor’s name as BEATON.

    I don’t like Jumbos which is why I never tackle them on Saturdays so I wasn’t particularly pleased to find this as the only ST offering two Sundays ago. Nevertheless I set about this one and completed it in just under 2 hours, albeit with one error as already noted, but I’m afraid I can’t be bothered to think it all through again now.

    Well done on your unexpected double blogging duty, k, I hope that never happens to me!

    Edited at 2015-01-04 09:06 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks! It was a bit of a shock, but I discovered in the process that including the clues in the blog as I usually do takes up an enormous amount of time, so writing this up didn’t feel too bad.
  5. I also stumbled into this one whilst getting the Mephisto. I get bored with Jumbos and this one was no exception. The two long 14A and 59A were obvious write-ins and the ingredients are reasonably well known so no problem there. Nothing else of interest.

    Marilyn Monroe was teased as a child by being dubbed “Norma Jean the human bean” – a classic example of the ugly duckling.

  6. Mrs Beeton’s book in fact contains two Christmas Cake recipes, the other having more conventional ingredients but more than 10.

    My father gave my mother a copy as a ‘reward’ for having me. A curious choice as he was already in the doghouse for going home to sleep instead of being there. He was a gynaecologist then.

    1. Tee hee. Reminds me of a friend of mine who gave his wife a Dyson vacuum cleaner for Christmas.
  7. Slightly surprised that the jumbo puzzle was a surprise, as the Sunday Times Crossword has been changing size (and offering special prizes) on the Sunday before Christmas for something like 30 years.
    1. Hi Peter,
      Unrelated question that came up on the last puzzle I blogged, which included two four-letter answers where all the letters were checked, so you didn’t need to solve the clue. Someone commented that they had never seen this before. I’m pretty sure I have, and I read elsewhere on this site that of the 90 grids used for the daily puzzles, one has this feature, so I guess it must pop up there occasionally. But I wondered if you use the Times grids (or another set) for the ST or leave it to the setters?
      Thanks.
      1. The Times grid with the 4-letter fully checked words is one devised by Edmund Akenhead, Times xwd ed 1965-83. It’s a bit of personal whimsy as it includes a letter E formed by the black squares. I believe it’s retained in the Times grid set for sentimental reasons. Edmund replaced a set including some poor grids with one following modern rules like all answers having at least 50% checking. Other editors have amended this set – Mike Laws added and subtracted quite a few, and also designed 8 new ones for the ST.

        The ST set has always been different, though we may have one or two grids in common. There is currently a set of about 48 stock grids, but our setters can dream up their own or make minor changes to the stock ones. I don’t quite insist on 50% checking – 13-letter words with 6 checked letters and 15-letter ones with 7 are allowed.

        Edited at 2015-01-06 03:35 pm (UTC)

        1. Thanks Peter. Out of interest was the grid with four checked letters that came up the other week a stock one?
          1. Er, if it’s a Times crossword grid, it must be – they always use stock grids, and my first para was about the Times set of stock grids.
            1. It was a ST puzzle, so my question is whether it was one of your stock grids or one ‘dreamed up’ by Jeff Pearce. It’s relevant to the original question because it would indicate whether we might have seen it before (and might see it again).
              1. Ah, that one (4619). A mistake on my part, not so much because of the fully-checked 4s, but the four under-checked 7-letter answers. It was mistakenly included as a new grid when I revised our set in 2011, and I perpetuated the error recently – when I resent the new grids after one or two deleted ones came back, I sent the wrong version. Now amended, so fully checked answers should be extremely rare in future ST grids. (They’re discouraged rather than banned in custom grids).
                1. Thanks Peter, I think answers the question… if the original asker is still paying any attention!
  8. Dead set in Oz means, inter alia, absolutely, certainly, no argument etc. or it can be used as a question as in really? truly?
      1. I see you’ve heard Australians speaking Strine
        Rob (Strine-speaker)
        Also can’t spell Beeton.
  9. Not sure where or when DEAD SET came to mean ‘against’. I could be dead set to go to the races tomorrow, in its ‘determined’ meaning.

    On keriothe’s side with the dogs, although not a spaniel here

    1. To be fair the spaniel in the picture is not what an unbiased observer would call ‘a joy to watch’ in the field, even if her master thinks her terribly clever.

      Edited at 2015-01-04 10:50 pm (UTC)

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