Sunday, August 4, 2013 — ST 4545

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4545
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, July 7, 2013
Setter Dean Mayer (Anax)
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4545]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Dave Perry's Solving Time
★★★
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, July 27, 2013
Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun Saturday, August 3, 2013[see note]
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 █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Times for the Times
Notes This puzzle appears on the Sunday puzzles pages in the Saturday, August 3, 2013 edition of The Ottawa Citizen. Due to a recently implemented paywall on its web site, I am no longer able to personally verify the puzzle appearing in the Vancouver Sun.

Introduction

I did much better on this puzzle than I did on the last puzzle from Anax. Yet there were several instances where I was able to work out the correct solution without understanding a part — or even all — of 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.

Across

1a   Run into boy cooking piece of bacon (6)

Lardon^[4,11] is a strip or cube of fat or bacon used in larding meat [Note: found in one of the two American dictionaries at this site].

4a   Where you’d find a diamond in the rough? (8)

9a   Movement of bass in jazzy music (6)

I kicked myself for not getting this one. I fell into the trap of concentrating on a musical movement.

10a/12a   Stirring first line, hence a part of this introduction? (5,3,5,8)

Perhaps the entire clue should be viewed as a semi-& lit. which would mean that the entire clue would be the definition.

15a   Every second of prog rock confirms its esoteric background (5)

The second letter of each word in the sequence "pRog rOck cOnfirms iTs eSoteric".

16a   Harp on about bandaging one after injury (9)

18a   A duke arranges lectures (9)

19a   Loud transports sound? No (5)

Forte (abbreviation f)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) loud  or (as an adverb) loudly.

20a   Dead butterflies conduct electricity through this (9,4)

The butterflies would be found in one's stomach.

The definition "electricity through this" is a rather terse way of expressing 'something through which electricity flows'.

Lead^[5] and flex^[5] [the latter appearing in the definition of cord cited later] are British names for a cord^[5] on an appliance. In Britain, an extension cord is known as an extension lead^[5] or extension cable.

23a   Run through really unusual sort of story (8)

25a   Bowl — it chiefly contains fruit (6)

26a   Sound of thunder — bet it's extremely rare (3,3)

This is a homophone clue as indicated by "sound of". North Americans will have no difficulty with the latter part as STEAK certainly sounds like "stake". However, 'roar' (the "sound of thunder") only sounds like RAW when pronounced with the soft R of a British accent.

27a   VIP, as it were, topless — wot a babe! (6)

I did eventually twig to the solution, but I was at a loss to explain the wordplay.

Sex is the Latin word for six (thus appropriately clued by the Roman numeral VI). We see the term having been adopted into English in the prefixes sexi-^[5] and sex-^[5] meaning six.

Down

1d   Devilish clue in 22, possibly (10)

The number "22" is a cross reference indicator telling us that the solution to clue 22d is to be substituted in its place to complete the present clue. However. like Dave Perry, I actually solved this clue first and then extracted the solution to 22d from the answer.

2d   Mischief-maker tossed old flower pots over house (5,10)

Robin Goodfellow^[5] is a mischievous sprite or goblin believed, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, to haunt the English countryside. Also called Puck.

The British version of bingo^[7] bears very little resemblance to the North American game of the same name (or one might say that they are about as similar as cricket and baseball). The British game (formerly called housey-housey) and the North American version both involve matching numbers drawn at random to those on tickets (Britain) or cards (North America). However, the format of British tickets is totally different from that of North American cards — and, consequently, so are the winning combinations. In Britain, it is common for winners to yell "House!" (rather than "Bingo!") when a winning combination is attained.

3d   One nose visible under ex pupil's old hat (11)

In Britain, an old boy^[5] (abbreviation OB^[2])  is (1) a former male student of a school or college ⇒an old boy of Banbury County School or (2) a former male member of a sports team or company ⇒the White Hart Lane old boy squared the ball to present an easy chance from 12 yards. It is also a chiefly British affectionate form of address to a boy or man ⇒ ‘Look here, old boy,’ he said.

5d   A short stump up a tree (5)

Never having encountered the British term found in the clue — or, at least, not remembering having done so — I could not decipher the wordplay, although the solution was quite obvious from the checking letters. Like Dave Perry, I mistakenly thought that "up" would be a reversal indicator.

In Britain, stump something up^[5] is an informal way to say pay a sum of money ⇒ a buyer would have to stump up at least £8.5 million for the site.

6d   Resinous material in vinyl acetate (3)

7d   Something that's blown up - leaves frantically? (1,5,2,1,6)

In North America, we have tempests in a teapot^[7]. In Britain, such a great outrage or excitement about a trivial matter is known as a storm in a teacup^[5].

8d   Sharp  cry (4)

11d   Soprano leaves crude manuscript for composer (6)

Johannes Brahms^[5] (1833 – 1897) was a German composer and pianist. He eschewed programme music and opera and concentrated on traditional forms. He composed four symphonies, four concertos, chamber and piano music, choral works including the German Requiem (1857–68), and nearly 200 songs.

13d   Foul is even - odd is not foul (11)

After figuring out the solution from the definition and checking letters, I surmised that in-off must mean foul but I had no idea why. I learned from Dave Perry's review that in-off^[5] is a foul in snooker referring to the pocketing of the cue ball by by bouncing it off another ball ⇒ (i) he attempted a very difficult in-off; (ii) going in-off on the penultimate red. However, should you be playing billiards instead of snooker, this is a scoring stroke rather than a foul.

14d   Folded film initially confused military force (6,4)

Again I arrived at the right solution without understanding why. It turns out that the clue is a Spoonerism — although Anax doesn't mention that fact.

17d   You might say I'm in a hurry to find land (6)

Similar to 26a, this is another homophone clue that relies on the soft British pronunciation of the letter R — which results in "rusher" (someone in a hurry) sounding (you might say) like RUSSIA. Who knows why I was able to see one easier than the other.

21d   Mostly ordinary girl (5)

22d   Light  show? (4)

24d   Empty water tower, inverted (3)

Tower is defined in a whimsical cryptic crossword sense as 'something which tows'.

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