Sunday, June 30, 2013 — ST 4540

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4540
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, June 2, 2013
Setter Tim Moorey
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4540]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Dave Perry's Solving Time
★★★★
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, June 22, 2013
Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun Saturday, June 29, 2013
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Times for the Times
Notes This puzzle appears on the Sunday puzzles pages in the Saturday, June 29, 2013 edition of The Ottawa Citizen.

Introduction

Having had a break from cryptic crosswords for the best part of a month, this was a daunting challenge to face as I plunged back in. Granted my puzzle-solving skills are undoubtedly a bit rusty, but Dave Perry's solving time would seem to indicate that this puzzle was no walk in the park for him.

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.

Across

1a   The earliest you can answer appeal quietly (4)

The wordplay is A (answer) + SA ([sex] appeal) + P (quietly; piano).

SA^[5] is an informal, dated abbreviation for sex appeal.

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either soft or quiet (as an adjective) or softly or quietly (as an adverb).

4a   Nag firmly established couple (10)

The wordplay is STABLE (firmly established) + MATE (couple; as a verb meaning, for example, to engage in sexual intercourse).

9a   Balls turn and one’s tense in play (5,8)

Balls^[5] is a British term meaning nonsense or rubbish (often said to express strong disagreement).

10a   Marches banned in South Coast resort? Correct (6)

Marches^[5] is an area of land on the border between two countries or territories, especially between England and Wales or (formerly) England and Scotland ⇒ the Welsh Marches. It would appear that the word "Marches" is always written with a capital letter and always ends in -es (that is, Marches would seem not to be a plural form of March or Marche).

Brighton^[5] is a resort on the south coast of England, in East Sussex; population 127,700 (est. 2009). It was patronized by the Prince of Wales (later George IV) from circa 1780 to 1827, and is noted for its Regency architecture.

Righto^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing agreement or assent ⇒ ‘Coming to pick up the kids?’ ‘Righto.’.

The wordplay instructs us to delete the borders [first and last letters] (Marches banned) from BRIGHTON (South Coast resort). The usage here may be a bit suspect in that Marches refers to an area on the border between two territories, whereas the setter seems to have used it to mean areas on two different borders of a single territory. I suppose that one might argue that this is acceptable given that England has Marches on its border with Wales as well as on its border with Scotland.

11a   Not an immediate promise of marriage from great admirer (8)

12a   Cultivation of remote dynasty (7)

Ming^[10] refers to the imperial dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644.

13a   Heard copper so long (3,3)

Cu^[5] is the symbol for the chemical element copper.

14a   Travel period reduced? That’s the absolute truth (6)

16a   Mabel’s beaten after spades and hearts shuffle {7)

18a   Look after famous engineer with Italian red wine (8)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel^[7] (1806 – 1859) was an English mechanical and civil engineer who built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.

Lo^[5] is an archaic exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event ⇒ and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.

Brunello di Montalcino^[7] is a red Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino located about 120 km south of Florence in the Tuscany wine region. 

20a   Lustful Romeo having been bedded was exhausted (3,3)

Romeo^[5] is a code word representing the letter R, used in radio communication.

22a   They should succeed perhaps in English art work {5,8)

The fodder for the anagram is PERHAPS IN E ART where E is the abbreviation for "English". I recall having encountered a similar construction recently in another puzzle, in which part of the anagram fodder consists of an abbreviation for a word that appears in the clue.

23a   Is new remix one of Jagger’s band brought about, rock creating a stink? (10)

Swinestone^[10] (or stinkstone) is a type of limestone that emits an unpleasant odour when rubbed or struck.

Mick Jagger^[7] is the lead vocalist and a founding member of the British rock band The Rolling Stones.

24a   London area broadcast excited but tails off (4)

Soho^[7] is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable transformation. It now is predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues.

Down

2d   Arab troubled by US aid (5)

3d   American player in jug (7)

This American is a baseball player.

4d   Styled as tailor? About right (9)

This is an & lit. clue — a type of clue in which the entire clue functions as both the definition (under one interpretation) and the wordplay (in accordance with a second interpretation).

5d   Loving party in first-class arena (7)

6d   Miss old rope (5)

7d   Give authority to Member, one not entirely old-fashioned (7)

Contrary to Dave Perry, I interpreted the wordplay to be M^[10] (Member) + AN (one) + DATE {DATE[D] (old-fashioned) with the final letter deleted (not entirely)}. [Upon reading the comments section on Times for the Times, I see that my interpretation is confirmed by Peter Biddlecombe, the crossword puzzles editor for The Sunday Times.]

8d   Three in order overlook what's next? Reportedly so (9)

The wordplay is an anagram (in order) of THREE + something that sounds like (reportedly) FOUR (what's next [after three]).

12d   Cabaret that surprises greatly and how! (5,4)

In Britain, the term "cabaret" refers to a form of entertainment, whereas in North America, it refers to the venue in which this entertainment is performed. Cabaret^[10] is (1) a floor show of dancing, singing, or other light entertainment at a nightclub or restaurant or (2) (mainly US) a nightclub or restaurant providing such entertainment.

13d   Flight is scariest in turbulence, enthralling all initially (9)

15d   Nice little hotel is what oldies may have earned (7)

Nice^[5] is a resort city on the French Riviera, near the border with Italy; population 348,721 (2007). A pension^[5] is a small hotel or boarding house in France and other European countries.

16d   Is poor car getting a run out abroad a Ford model? (7)

The Ford Scorpio^[7] is an executive car (intended to compete with Mercedes and BMW) that was produced by the European division of the Ford Motor Company from 1985 through to 1998. A variant known as the Merkur Scorpio was sold briefly on the North American market during the late-1980s

17d   They could reproduce  bats (7)

Bonkers^[5] is an informal, chiefly British term meaning mad or crazy ⇒ you’re stark raving bonkers!.

In Britain, bonk^[5] means to have sexual intercourse ⇒ the young couple bonking upstairs. Thus a bonker is someone having sexual intercourse.

19d   Rolls is entering for nothing in parking areas (5)

I was slightly surprised by this clue as I had learned from a previous puzzle that parking lot^[5] is a North American term for what would be called a car park in Britain. In the surface reading, Rolls refers to a Rolls-Royce automobile.

21d   Gag about small person? Censor it! (5)

Titch^[5] is an informal British term for a small person ⇒ the titch of the class.

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