Sunday, March 25, 2012 - ST 4474

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4474
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, February 26, 2012
Setter Tim Moorey
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4474]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, March 10, 2012
Notes According to the Saturday Star Cryptic Forum, the Saturday Star seems to have reversed the order of publication of ST 4473 and ST 4474.

Introduction

Today we have a fairly typical Sunday Times puzzle - undoubtedly made a bit more difficult for North Americans by the generous helping of British references incorporated into it.

Meet the Setter

Here is what Crossword Who's Who has to say about today's setter:

Tim Moorey

Tim Moorey is a professional crossword setter with many years' experience of teaching adults how to solve crosswords.

He sets puzzles for a wide range of publications, including The Sunday Times (Mephisto), The Week, MoneyWeek, The Sunday Telegraph, The Listener (as Owzat), and tailored puzzles for special occasions such as wedding anniversaries and so on.

He is a Consultant for Chambers Dictionaries and is the Cluru (Agony Uncle) for The Crossword Club.

Tim Moorey's Website

Tim Moorey is the author of How to Master The Times Crossword.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

4a   Hookers trounce ass in a scrum (10)

In rugby, the hooker^[5] is the player in the middle of the front row of the scrum, who tries to hook the ball. The Oxford Dictionary of English characterizes the alternative meaning of a prostitute as being chiefly North American. However, this is the meaning being invoked by the cryptic reading of the clue.

10a   Scraps in shower after match (8)

Having actually passed over CONFETTI, I concluded that the solution must be CONTESTS which would have made this a rather poor clue. "Scraps" could be pugilistic contests and a scrap could be a match. To complete the wordplay, S would have be a British abbreviation for shower. Although it seemed inconceivable that two such similar definitions for CONTEST and CONTESTS would be employed, I could not make CONFETTI work.

Even after discovering that CONFETTI is, in fact, the correct solution, I bashed my head against a brick wall trying to decipher the wordplay. Having nearly beaten it to a pulp, the answer finally came  to me. The clue is a cryptic definition, the solution being the scraps of paper that are showered on the bride and groom following their wedding (match).

11a   Wood and lake (8)

Victoria Wood^[7] is an English comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano. Much of her humour is grounded in everyday life, and includes references to popular British media and brand names of quintessentially British products. She is noted for her skills in observing culture, and in satirising social classes.

Lake Victoria^[5] is the largest lake in Africa, with shores in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, and drained by the Nile.

12a   Venomous creatures found in Columbia and Brazil, for instance (6)

CO^[5] and BR^[5] are the International Vehicle Registration codes for Columbia and Brazil respectively.

16a   Reconstructing roughly? (7,7)

I confess that I failed to see the magnificent anagram here, supposing the clue to be merely a rather pedestrian cryptic definition.

24a   Detective's request for food in mess (8)

A detective inspector (DI)^[5] is a senior police officer in the UK.

Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

25a   English writer for a toddler? (6)

Eric Ambler^[7] (1909 – 1998) was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre.

27a   Notable achievements except for the first of Friar Tuck (4)

Tuck^[5] is an informal British name for food eaten by children at school as a snack. The word on its own does not seem to be used in North America, but I do recall the expression tuck shop being used at my Boy Scout camp – and I never knew why it was called this until I started doing British cryptic crosswords.

2d   Gathered little resistance shown by United (7)

The surface reading is likely a reference to the Manchester United Football Club^[7], an English professional football [soccer] club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the English Premier League.

3d   Leave work during strike (3,2)

Hop it^[5] is an informal British expression meaning go away quickly • I hopped it down the stairs.

4d   Tory going round one capital is covering for the Shires? (9)

A caparison^[5] is an ornamental covering spread over a horse’s saddle or harness. In Britain, a shire is a county, especially in England. The Shires is a term used in reference to parts of England regarded as strongholds of traditional rural culture, especially the rural Midlands. A shire horse^[5] (which undoubtedly might be shortened to just shire) is a heavy, powerful horse of a draught breed, originally from the English Midlands.

5d   Open University plan to be involved with Civil Service (7)

In the UK, The Open University^[5] is a university that teaches mainly by broadcasting, correspondence, and summer schools, and is open to those without formal academic qualifications. [Thanks to Peter Biddlecombe for pointing out that The Open University is a single institution and not a category of educational institution as I had originally supposed.]

6d   One cracking a couple of hundreds gives a boost (5)

In Britain, ton^[5] is an informal term for a hundred, in particular a speed of 100 mph, a score of 100 or more, or a sum of £100 • [a description of a cricket match might read] he scored 102 not out, his third ton of the tour. The second hundred is the Roman numeral, C.

7d   School nobs here? About right (9)

Sherborne School^[7] is a British public school for boys, located in the town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England. In the UK, a public school^[5] is a private fee-paying secondary school, especially one for boarders.  In England, public school (a term recorded from 1580) originally denoted a grammar school under public management, founded for the benefit of the public (contrasting with private school, run for the profit of the proprietor); since the 19th century the term has been applied to the old endowed English grammar schools, and newer schools modelled on them, which have developed into fee-paying boarding schools. Unlike the institutions which North Americans refer to as public schools, British public schools are not supported by public funds. Rather they are financed by tuition fees, gifts and endowment funds. In North America, such a school would be called a private school.

Nob is chiefly British slang for a person of wealth or social standing^[3] or a person of social distinction^[4].

8d   Eccentric Head hard going, put to flight (7)

While British dictionaries spell the solution as a single word, nutcase^[2,5,10], American dictionaries have it as two words, nut case^[3,9].

15d   Form of punishment region put up before start of police trouble (9)

Historically, the strappado^[3] was a form of punishment or torture in which the victim was secured to a rope and made to fall from a height almost to the ground before being stopped with an abrupt jerk.

18d   Tea served with smirk can be an annoyance (7)

In Britain, cha^[5] (as well as chai or char) is an informal term for tea.

19d   Who may be caught in crooked set-ups? (7)

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] indicates caught (by) • ME Waugh c Lara b Walsh 19.

21d   Teams from the Borders? (5)

The Border or the Borders^[5] refers to the boundary and adjoining districts between Scotland and England.

23d   Lord's famous volunteer army not wanted (5)

In the UK, the Territorial Army (TA)^[5] is a volunteer force locally organized to provide a reserve of trained and disciplined manpower for use in an emergency.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, March 18, 2012 - ST 4473

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4473
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, February 19, 2012
Setter Dean Mayer
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4473]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, March 17, 2012
Notes According to the Saturday Star Cryptic Forum, the Saturday Star seems to have reversed the order of publication of ST 4473 and ST 4474, with the former puzzle having been published just yesterday while the latter puzzle appeared last weekend.

Introduction

I found this to be one of the most - if not the most - difficult puzzles that I've ever encountered. I only managed to solve a handful of clues before I was forced to call my electronic assistants into action. I used the entire spectrum of them extensively, and managed to complete the puzzle. However, I only fully understood the wordplay for a couple of clues after I had read Dave Perry's review.

Meet the Setter

Here is what Crossword Who's Who has to say about Dean Mayer, the setter of today's puzzle.

Dean Mayer

Dean Mayer's first foray into published cryptic crosswords was as a member of the Birmingham Post team, headed by Roger Squires, in the mid-1980s.

He now sets crosswords for The Independent (as Anax); for the Financial Times (as Loroso); for the Toughie series in The Daily Telegraph (as Elkamere); and anonymously in The Times.

He also sets the Sunday Times Concise Crossword and, under his real name, sets one in three of the Sunday Times cryptic crosswords (as of September 2011).

Outside crosswords he is a keen musician and songwriter. As well as writing and recording original material he plays bass for a funk/soul/disco covers band.

Anax Crosswords, Dean Mayer's crossword blog.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

9a   Cars may have these fitted for a trip through ice (4,5)

Although I managed to find the correct solution, I missed the wordplay here. The definition is "cars may have these fitted" and the wordplay is an anagram (trip) of FOR A contained in (through) ROCKS (ice) with the solution being ROOF RACKS.

11a   Pub with posh lady as host in alleyway (6)

I spent a long time cracking this clue. Gel^[5] is an informal British term for an upper-class or well-bred girl or young woman • fastidiously reared Home Counties gels. In Northern England, a ginnel^[5] is a narrow passage between buildings; an alley.

17a   One battered tent - are cops checking body? (12)

Inspectorate^[5] is a chiefly British word meaning a body that ensures that the official regulations applying to a particular type of institution or activity are obeyed • the factory inspectorate.

20a   Initially exchanged bill, perhaps, for lottery (5,3)

Luckily, I recalled this British game of chance from a previous puzzle. A lucky dip^[5] is a game in which small prizes are concealed in a container and chosen at random by participants. The wordplay is based on a Spoonerism, where ducky lip would be the bill of a duck.

1d   Piano music over mature rock music (6)

Garage^[5] (also known as UK garage) is a form of dance music incorporating elements of drum and bass, house music, and soul, characterized by a rhythm in which the second and fourth beats of the bar are omitted.

According to Oxford Online, the name comes from Paradise Garage, the name of a Manhattan dance club as opposed to, as Dave Perry, suggests "from the sorts of places these bands were thought to practice" [which certainly sounded like a reasonable explanation to me].

4d   Gun collector's strange place (4)

Unco^[5] is a Scottish word meaning unusual or remarkable. The definition ("strange") is found in the middle of the clue with "piece" acting as the hidden word indicator.

7d   Limit components of hi-hat (8)

A hi-hat^[5] (or high-hat) is a pair of foot-operated cymbals forming part of a drum kit. The "components of hi" are H AND I.

8d   Camper's opening yard - shut it in quick (3,5)

I wondered how one got SH from "shut". It turns out that one doesn't. The SH comes from "shut it". SH is a way of telling someone to be quiet. Depending on how it is expressed, it could be either a polite or rude admonition. I don't believe there is a polite way to say "shut it".

15d   Spike one small drink, getting up when man swallows (8)

A gill^[5] is a unit of liquid measure, equal to a quarter of a pint. Spike Milligan^[7] (1918 – 2002) was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the British government declared him stateless. He was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show^[7], a British radio comedy programme broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, March 11, 2012 -ST 4472

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4472
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, February 12, 2012
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4472]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, March 3, 2012

Introduction

I needed fairly extensive support from my electronic assistants to complete this puzzle.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

9a   Criticize excellent learner after dance (6)

For the benefit of readers who may be newcomers to the blog, the cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

10a   Left a Parisian dessert outside to separate (8)

A coupe^[5] is (1) a shallow glass or glass dish, typically with a stem, in which desserts or champagne are served • serve the jelly in a coupe with whipped cream; or (2) a dessert served in a coupe [origin: French, 'goblet'].

14a   Pan's enemy shot on the side of leg (4)

Captain James Hook^[7] is the main antagonist of Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a play by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A hook^[10], in cricket, is a shot in which the ball is hit square on the leg side with the bat held horizontally. The leg side^[5] (also called just leg) is the half of the field (as divided lengthways through the pitch) away from which the batsman's feet are pointed when standing to receive the ball.

25a   Gathering going out on a Saturday night? (8)

Club^[5], when used in the British expression club together,  means to combine with others so as to collect a sum of money for a particular purpose • friends and colleagues clubbed together to buy him a present. It can also mean to go out to nightclubs • she enjoys going clubbing in Oxford.

2d   Take a short time to promote last of Waitrose's wine (7)

Moselle^[10] is a German white wine from the Moselle valley. Waitrose Limited^[7] is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. It is the 6th largest grocery retailer in the UK and holds Royal Warrants to supply groceries, wine and spirits to Queen Elizabeth II and  Prince Charles.

6d   Covered tracks to protect a senior civil servant (9)

The principal assistant of a UK government minister or ambassador is known as a secretary^[5] • [as title] Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

7d   Slob out with top coach jogging (5,6)

I interpreted the surface reading to mean merely "Slob and top coach out jogging together" (and I think that is all that one need read into it). However, Dave Perry's comment "Separation required on 'slob out'" suggested that "slob out" itself must constitute an expression in Britain - which seems to be the case. In Britain (as in North America), slob(as a noun) means a lazy and slovenly person • he’s a slob and expects others to clean up after him. However, in Britain, slob is also used as a verb (usually slob about or slob around^[2], but also slob out), meaning to behave in a lazy and slovenly manner : (i) he spent his life watching television and generally slobbing around; (ii) .

8d   Swimmer's toupee bobbing round end of pool (7)

The eelpouts^[7] are the ray-finned fish family Zoarcidae. As the common name suggests, they are somewhat eel-like in appearance, with elongated bodies and the dorsal and anal fins continuous with the caudal fin. The International Eelpout Festival that takes place in February in Walker, Minnesota, celebrates the burbot, which is actually a cod-like fish misleadingly known locally as the eelpout.

16d   Small boy stands on a border - such might get you madder! (9)

The exclamation mark warns us to look for something a bit out of the ordinary here. To start with we have an uncommon meaning for list^[5], a selvedge of a piece of fabric. Then we have madder^[5] meaning (1) a Eurasian plant related to the bedstraws, with whorls of four to six leaves [Genera Rubia and Sherardia, family Rubiaceae: in particular R. tinctorum, formerly cultivated for its root which yields a red dye] or (2) a red dye or pigment obtained from the root of the madder, or a synthetic dye resembling it.

21d   Kitsch container on German lace (7)

Tat^[5] is an informal British term for tasteless or shoddy clothes, jewellery, or ornaments • the place was decorated with all manner of gaudy tat.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, March 4, 2012 - ST 4471

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4471
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, February 5, 2012
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4471]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, February 25, 2012

Introduction

There were several instances in today's puzzle where I had to deliberate extensively to decipher the wordplay even after having concluded that there was only one possible solution to the clue. Dave Perry also comments that there were a lot of cases where he had to "work backwards to explain the wordplay".

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

1a   Gallantry award announced for the show director (5)

As I solved the puzzle, I supposed that MC might stand for Medal of Courage. Later, I was to discover that MC^[5] is an abbreviation for Military Cross^[6], which (in the UK and Commonwealth countries) is a decoration awarded for distinguished active service on land, instituted in 1914 (originally for officers).

9a   Genuine stuff on Iceland's parliament (4,5)

Althing^[5] is the bicameral legislative assembly of Iceland.

10a   Actor James changed direction in middle of French opera (5)

James Mason^[7] (1909 – 1984) was an English actor who starred in both British and American films. Manon^[7] is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on January 19, 1884.

11a   After removing top, pal's son stinks (4)

In British slang, hum - used as a verb - means to smell unpleasant (when the wind drops this stuff really hums)^[5] and - as a noun - an unpleasant smell^[2].

12a   Given, say Sun delivered, good also to get refined Guardian (10)

In the surface reading, we have two British newspapers. The first is The Sun^[7], a right-wing daily tabloid published by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The second is The Guardian^[7], a more "refined" centre-left daily newspaper.

I spent a long time puzzling over the wordplay here, eventually concluding that the only way for it to work was if Given happened to be the name of a soccer player - and a check with Wikipedia confirmed that was, in fact, the case. Shay Given^[7] is an Irish footballer [soccer player] who plays for Aston Villa and the Republic of Ireland national team as a goalkeeper.

16a   Showed no tenor needing backing in note sequence (4,3)

A tone row^[5] is a particular sequence of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale used as a basis for twelve-tone (serial) music.

19a   Wolf one's seen around English king (6,1)

In an interesting coincidence, the following clue appeared in yesterday's Cox and Rathvon Cryptic Crossword in the National Post:

• 26d   Current in gorge reversed (4)

where the wordplay is a reversal of WOLF (gorge) giving the solution FLOW (current).

21a   According to reports, noble's arrested in a London district (5,5)

For the live of me, I couldn't decipher the wordplay here until Dave Perry reminded me that Brits would pronounce Court with a soft R making it sound like 'caught'. Earls Court^[7] is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England, located 3.1 miles (5 km) west south-west of Charing Cross [which is considered to be the centre of London].

24a   One month to pen a good picture of important person (5)

Here imago^[5] is used in the psychoanalytical sense of an unconscious, idealized mental image of someone, especially a parent, that influences a person’s behavior rather than with the entomological meaning of the final and fully developed adult stage of an insect, typically winged.

25a   Spoken question about engineer James shows the true state of affairs (5,4)

Jame Watt^[5] (1736 – 1819) was a Scottish engineer. Among his many innovations, he greatly improved the efficiency of [but did not invent - as commonly believed] the Newcomen steam engine, which was then adopted for a variety of purposes. He also introduced the term horsepower.

1d   Very important organ that's played in operas (5-10)

Der Ring des Nibelungen^[7] (The Ring of the Nibelung) is a cycle of four epic operas (or "dramas" to use the composer's preferred term) by the German composer Richard Wagner (1813–83). The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied. The four dramas, which the composer described as a trilogy with a Vorabend ("preliminary evening"), are often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply the Ring.

2d   Smoothie and tea's given me runs! (7)

In Britain, char^[5] (or cha or chai) are informal terms for tea.

5d   Innocent Ealing comedy's first broadcast (7)

Ealing^[7] is a suburban area of west London, England located 7.9 miles (12.7 km) west of Charing Cross.

6d   Potential subs in right-back positions (6,4)

Dave Perry states, "In the days before squad numbers, the right back traditionally wore the number 2 shirt." A squad number^[7] is simply the number worn on a uniform to identify the player. However, in association football [soccer], numbers were originally used to also indicate position, with starting players being assigned numbers 1 through 11 - with the right full back wearing number 2^[7].

8d   Who's for certain ruffled when mobile very loudly goes off? (7,8)

The wordplay is an anagram (when mobile) of FOR CERTAIN RU[FF]LED {with FF (very loudly) deleted (goes off)}. In music, fortissimo (abbreviation ff)^[5] is a direction meaning very loud (as an adjective) or very loudly (as an adverb).

13d   Weapon in small bags given name (10)

In January, one of the meanings given by Oxford Dictionaries Online for bags was a dated name for loose-fitting trousers • a pair of flannel bags. Strangely, that meaning has now been removed from the site. However, Collins English Dictionary tells us that bags^[10] is an informal British term meaning any pair of trousers. The term short sword^[7] or shortsword has been used refer to a number of weapons intermediate between the sword and the dagger.

17d   Aran in middle of harvest can be heaven (7)

The Aran Islands^[5] are three islands, Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer, located off the west coast of the Republic of Ireland.

18d   Doctor's with another one in directory (4,3)

Doctor Who^[7] is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC - but one that should not be unfamiliar to North American audiences.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for this week - Falcon