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