Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times
ST 4545
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Date of Publication in The Sunday Times
Sunday, July 7, 2013
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Setter
Dean Mayer (Anax) |
Link to Full Review
Times for the Times [ST 4545]
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Times for the Times Review Written By
Dave Perry
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Dave Perry's Solving Time
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| ★★★ |
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star
Saturday, July 27, 2013
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Date of Publication in the Vancouver Sun
Saturday, August 3, 2013[see note]
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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
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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.
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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 "p
Rog r
Ock c
Onfirms i
Ts e
Soteric".
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
