Sunday Times Cryptic No 4881, 15 XII 2019, by Robert Price — Let’s drink to the hard-working people…

Author   guy_du_sablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Rather than quote Jesus Christ in reference to my FOI, 13, I prefer to evoke the Rolling Stones, especially since the track in question is one of the few where a lead vocal is sung by Keith Richards, with whom I share a December 18 birthday. And why not start the new cycle with a fresh avatar, at least for a few rounds? This is a fairly recent picture, but I got my hair cut a couple weeks ago.

A repeated feature here—in clues 10, 24, 6 and 7—is the anagram with another element inserted, but we have no clue this week where an anagram is the entire wordplay. I indicate (angrasam)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Letters from abroad and when they might arrive? (4)
ETAS — I nearly classed this as a DD, but I don’t think anyone really uses the term “Estimated Time of Arrival” in regards to postal missives, so the second definition is cryptic, a bit jocular.
 4 A line taken by a green conservation group concerning food (10)
ALIMENTARY — A + LIME, “green” + N(ational) T(rust) + A + RY, “line” in the sense of railway
 9 Sound not diluted by speakers (6)
STRAIT — ”straight”
10 Things not right about American election events (8)
HUSTINGS — Not to mention those in the United Kingdom! US, “American,” surrounded by (things)*, ultimately from Old Norse hūsthing, from hūs house + thing assembly
11 Traveller that’s much less biased we hear (8)
WAYFARER — ”way fairer”
12 Drink mostly tea or periodically something sweeter (6)
NECTAR — NEC[-k], “Drink mostly” + alternate letters in TeA oR, makes “something sweeter” (than “tea,” implicitly).
13 Finest people categorised as AB, not out of this world (4,2,3,5)
SALT OF THE EARTH — SALT, as an Able-Bodied seaman + OF THE EARTH
16 Chances to learn about girls after getting flat (7,7)
EVENING CLASSES — C, “about” + LASSES, “girls” following EVENING, “getting flat”
20 Notice daughter’s left before son heads off (6)
AVERTS — A[-d]VERT + S(on)
22 Court case features turning point (8)
TRIBUNAL — TRI (NUB<=”turning”) AL
24 Stretch one leg out introducing a tango (8)
ELONGATE — (one leg)* encompassing A T(ango)
25 Witness attending trial (6)
ATTEST — AT, “attending” + TEST, “trial”
26 Amateur puzzling title held by a poet (10)
DILETTANTE — D (title)* ANTE
27 Sheer class (4)
RANK — DD

DOWN
 2 Uplifting place hosting jazz quartets (7)
TETRADS — SET<=”uplifting,” opening for TRAD
 3 It may be wound and fastened at the front (5)
SCARF — &lit, SCAR + F[-astened]
 4 PM of old drafted in following refusal from Brussels (9)
AFTERNOON — AFTER, “following” + NON, “refusal from Brussels,” with O conscripted to join
 5 It’s at the crease their bats get left (7)
INHERIT — IN + (their)* IN and “crease” are cricket terms, aren’t they? You tell me!
 6 Dye one used in one’s pants (5)
EOSIN — (one’s)* with I, “one,” inserted
 7 At Tosca, playing in Lyon, he wears formal garments (9)
TAILCOATS — (At Tosca)* worn by IL, “he” en français (“in Lyon”)
 8 Ruling expecting a child to doff its cap (7)
REGNANT — [-p]REGNANT
14 Pine variety spanning great distances (4-5)
LONG-RANGE — LONG, “Pine” + RANGE, “variety,” and a rare clue with a definition longer than the wordplay.
15 Remove a goddess after her first heartless command (9)
ERADICATE — [-h]ERA + DIC[-t]ATE
17 He managed to score every season (7)
VIVALDI — CD (also available on vinyl, magnetic and digital tape, DVD…)
18 Old instrument: it keeps time in a research facility (7)
CITTERN — C (I(T)T) ERN
19 Underwear being worn prolongs a visit (5,2)
STAYS ON — What is going on in there?! STAYS, “underwear” + ON, “being worn”
21 Hurt as vehicles overturned (5)
SMART — TRAMS<=”overturned”
23 Speak about territorial displays (5)
UTTER — Hidden

33 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4881, 15 XII 2019, by Robert Price — Let’s drink to the hard-working people…”

  1. Never having heard of NECK=drink, I was at a loss to figure out 12ac, and had to wait for all the checkers to be in place. I casually typed in CITHERN at 15d, no doubt confusing it with zither; I suspect I’ve always spelled it wrong, assuming I’ve ever actually spelled it. Fortunately, I decided to check the wordplay beyond CERN, and realized my error in time. COD to TAILCOATS.
      1. For all I know, I may indeed have learned that meaning back then; it may have been driven out of my mental dictionary by the more recent acquisition of ‘neck’=insolence, which I also learned here, recently. I probably can only handle so many meanings at a time. (ODE doesn’t have the insolence meaning, but my Japanese-English dictionary does.)
        1. ‘Neck’ as ‘insolence’ or ‘impudence’ is in most of the usual sources. I think it came up recently and I wasn’t sure about it at first because I’m more used to the expression ‘brass neck’ in that context.
    2. One suspects that a good number will have fallen into the “cithern” trap. Not least because that and a CITTERN are actually one and the same. It’s not unlike a lute in frontal appearance, but has a pear-shaped sound box.
      1. It would be a comfort to know that I wasn’t thinking of the zither, since the two look nothing alike.
  2. CITTERN was unknown, but I’m familiar with CERN so I was pretty confident. I thought VIVALDI was neat. Took far too long to see TAILCOATS.
  3. ….was a film I recall seeing in my youth, which was a vehicle for Acker Bilk among others. Trad jazz was popular at the time, with Kenny Ball in particular enjoying hit singles. I seem to recall Robert Morley featuring as an old fogey. It had a barely discernable plot, but the music was good. Then the Beatles turned up and the musical landscape changed entirely.

    I shifted this quickly, but the biffometer reading was pretty high. Thanks due to Guy for NECTAR and SALT OF THE EARTH (hope you had a good birthday !). DNK EOSIN although it seemed familiar and “eison” didn’t look viable. I parsed ALIMENTARY afterwards.

    FOI ELONGATE (slow start)
    LOI LONG-RANGE
    COD VIVALDI
    TIME 9:59

    1. ‘It’s Trad Dad’ is current doing the rounds on Talking Pictures TV* under its alternative title ‘Ring-a-Ding Rhythm’. I saw it earlier this year and I can definitely recommend it for those nostalgic for early 1960s pop. Directed by Dick Lester just before he moved on to his Beatles films:

      The cast included: Helen Shapiro, Craig Douglas, John Leyton, The Brook Brothers
      Chubby Checker, Del Shannon, Gary U.S. Bonds, Gene Vincent, Gene McDaniels
      The Paris Sisters, The Dukes of Dixieland, Chris Barber’s Jazz Band, Ottilie Patterson
      Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band, Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen, Terry Lightfoot and His New Orleans Jazz Band,Bob Wallis and His Storyville Jazzmen, The Temperance Seven, Sounds Incorporated

      also
      David Jacobs, Pete Murray, Alan Freeman

      *TP-TV is on Freeview 81, Sky 328, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445.

      1. Thanks Jack – I shall watch out for that alternative title in the schedules. Can’t beat a good bit of nostalgia (even if it isn’t what it used to be !)
  4. I was about 55 minutes on this excellent offering by Robert. I gave COD to VIVALDI, a lucky man to score so often. The reference to Trad brought back memories of all the names Jack mentions. Here’s an ear worm from Chris Barber for those of a certain vintage. https://youtu.be/_vmNrV-4rnY. My youngest is doing his PhD on the data being received from the CMS on the LHC at CERN, so the unknown CITTERN was correctly constructed. Look them up if you’re interested. Very enjoyable. Thank you Guy and Robert. I wish my eyes and iPad made avatars clearer.
    1. Thanks for that link, I enjoyed it. One of my university mates is a trombonist and was a great fan of Chris Barber. I’ve been reading a collection of Clive James’s writings on Larkin recently and the latter’s views on jazz, his love of trad and hatred of John Coltrane features.

      Edited at 2019-12-22 10:36 am (UTC)

    2. Thanks, I enjoyed the Barber track. Not everyone knows that Lonnie Donegan started out as banjo player with Barber’s band and out of the jam sessions he played with others between the band’s main sets his fame as a pioneer of the skiffle movement was born.
    3. Plus, we all know CERN as the proper source of faster than speed of light neutrinos.
  5. I started off with ETAS and kept going. EOSIN and CITTERN were the only not quite knowns, but I knew CERN and the wordplay was clear enough. I can’t remember where I finished, but it was with 27:20 on the clock. Thanks Bob and Guy.
  6. 14:41. I was unhindered by any knowledge of the CITTERN, CITHERN or any other spelling of the word. I also crossed my fingers slightly (can you cross your fingers slightly?) that EISON wasn’t a thing. It looked marginally less likely.
  7. Only CITTERN and EOSIN unknown.
    Thanks for all of the trad discussion above. Great memories.
    In 1979 I bought a house from Acker Bilk; it was three one-up/one-down canal cottages near Bath knocked into one (£21,000 I think).
  8. I was lucky enough to have a little microscope set as a lad, and it included EOSIN as one of the slide stains, else that might’ve caused more of a problem. As it was, my only unknown was LOI CITTERN (despite me playing its apparent modern equivalent, the six-string acoustic guitar.)

    41 minutes. Enjoyed 3d SCARF and 16’s racy surface.

  9. 20:26. I enjoyed this a lot, finishing with the excellent ETAS and SCARF. I liked AFTERNOON, INHERIT and EVENING CLASSES too. No problem with CITTERN knowing both spellings, but I couldn’t parse ERADICATE thinking ATE the goddess in question. Thanks Bob and Guy.
  10. I was defeated by a few clues but I now see was annoyingly close.
    1a -guessed it had to be Greek letters but did not think of the right one and the correct meaning. 2d- thought of Trad immediately but DNK that Tetrads are quartets. At 18d thought of CERN but failed to find the unknown Cittern.
    I did get the unknown EOSIN and the rest. All very enjoyable if a bit frustrating. Liked Vivaldi and several others.
    David
  11. The Sunday puzzle before Christmas is usually a jumbo, but not this year. It makes my blogging job easier but I confess I was a bit disappointed (although the puzzle was an absolute corker).

    Edited at 2019-12-22 12:49 pm (UTC)

    1. Different timings this year – extra puzzle content including cryptic jumbo is on the 29th.
  13. 26:09 for a very pleasant solve. I did not know the resin or the instrument but neither held me up particularly. I was a while on the parsing of eradicate.
  14. A tough one which I spoiled by accidentally looking at this blog when checking another puzzle to find that my initial RSVP (more apt if the clue read ‘that they might arrive’) at 1a was the issue causing the NW corner to have come to a grinding halt. Sadly enough, it still took more time than it should have to finish off TETRADS, WAYFARER (which I’d also had incorrectly written in WANDERER) and SCARF (where PLAID had originally fitted with the crosser of RSVP). Knew EOSIN (which was actually my first correct entry in) but CITTERN was new. Was only able to parse ERADICATE post solve, also got trapped with the ATE goddess. Thought that VIVALDI and AFTERNOON were both quite good.

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