Saturday Times 26064 (April 4)

Author   oliviarhinebeckPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Excellent one.  One clue – 20a –  gave me all kinds of trouble (but fortunately couldn’t be anything else) thanks to a giant lacuna in my knowledge of venerable pop culture.  This puzzle took me rather North of 20 minutes – certainly under 30 but I can’t give an exact time because the Club site was buggy last Saturday and the timer seemed to go haywire (I was not alone).

Andy (linxit) will be back next week so normal service will be resumed.  I will be posting this remotely on Friday evening, so I hope it works because this is the weekend that we open up the Rhinebeck place and I won’t be able to fix anything.  We’re in a deep glacial valley and while we have a satellite dish that works for the tv, we long since gave up trying to harness the internet via wifi there because the planets are too seldom in alignment, and cell phones don’t work at all.  I’ll be back in NYC Saturday or Sunday afternoon (depending on the weather) and will respond to any comments then.  In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to correct any gaffes.

Across
1  Inside lorry it’s elegantly designed (8)
ARTISTIC – ITS scrambled inside ARTIC=lorry.  In the US it’s a big rig or a semi (truck).
5  Capital right back’s minor unsteadiness (6)
TREMOR – So it wasn’t an anagram of MINORR as I first thought.  It’s ROME=capital and RT=right all going backwards.
9  Game battle briefly to cross river (5,4)
WATER POLO – PO=river contained in WATERLO[o]=battle.
11  Viola piece with piano not in time when put over (5)
PETAL – The flower not the instrument. P[iano] plus LATE reversed (put over).
12  Saint’s bone perhaps full of power, a model (7)
REPLICA – P[ower] contained in RELIC=st.’s bone plus A.
13 Break up a day in Rome, not starting with the old ruined city (7)
DESTROY – [I]des=day in Rome plus Troy=old city, not Ur this time.
14  Relief going on manoeuvres in force (7,6)
FOREIGN LEGION – Anagram of RELIEF GOING ON.
16 Unsophisticated but good worker studied, maintained by your manoeuvring (5-3-5)
ROUGH-AND-READY – G[ood] plus HAND=worker plus READ=studied contained in an anagram of YOUR.  Very minor quibble – that’s 2 manoeuvres in 2 adjacent clues indicating the anagram.  I think of this more as describing the kind of result I get with the Mephisto or the Club Monthly (or when we try a stopgap measure to fix a plumbing leak on a long holiday weekend) than as “unsophisticated”, but it works anyway.
20  Police empty a box of theirs, losing one – crackers (7)
PETARDS – Small bombs used to crack open walls or entrances.  Also the item one is hoist with when scoring an own goal.  I’ll leave you to research the French origin of the term on your own.  P[olic]E plus TARD[i]S.  This took me light years in crossword time to parse post-submit.  I haven’t watched Dr. Who since I was 16 when my little brother was an addict.  In the series, the Tardis was a time machine resembling a police box.  Sort of like Clark Kent going into a phone booth in Gotham (there aren’t any left) and emerging as Superman.  Apologies to the aficionados for rehearsing the obvious.  Very good clue.
21 Produce from cell in corner of greek island? (7)
SECRETE – S[outh] E[ast]=corner plus CRETE=island.  In biology cells secrete stuff.
23  Cold sea repelled Schumann (5)
CLARA – C[old] plus ARAL= sea reversed (repelled).  Wife of Robert and a distinguished musician and composer herself.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Schumann
24  Coach goes round the front, then right, arriving at port (9)
STAVANGER – VAN=front contained in STAGE=coach plus R.  Port in Norway.
25  Gave a nasty look before coming into the light (6)
LEERED – ERE=before contained in LED=light.
26  Not entirely happy about animal round projector (8)
MERCATOR – CAT=animal plus O=round contained in MERR[y].  Familiar flattened-out projection map of the world, used to this day but invented by Flemish genius Gerardus Mercator in the 16th century.  Pretty amazing.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardus_Mercator

Down
1  Informed about daughter selling programmes (6)
ADWARE – D[aughter] contained in AWARE=informed.  The stuff that pops up on the screen and thinks it knows what you want.
2  Calculate the full value of babe in arms? (3,2)
TOT UP – Sort of double definition.  Adding up and holding the baby.
3  Nervous type, with shrew initially for wife, is more pitiful (7)
SORRIER – Substitute S[hrew] for [W]ife in WORRIER=nervous type.
4  I insist a lot, so foolishly – they won’t get involved (13)
ISOLATIONISTS – Anagram of I INSIST A LOT SO.  Once a significant force in US politics, particularly in the Republican party.  Now not so much.
6  Sally, I notice, runs to the front (7)
RIPOSTE – I plus POSTER=notice, moving R[uns] to the beginning.
7  Sort of leave ward and dress (9)
MATERNITY– Triple definition.
8  Friend breaking cartel is driving competition (8)
RALLYING – ALLY=friend contained in RING=cartel.
10  A bit of company, not what the lion expects? (8,5)
ORDINARY SHARE – That would be one disappointed lion.  In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.  A wimoweh.  This one made me laugh.
14 Inhibit initially fast oxidation speed (9)
FRUSTRATE – F[ast] plus RUST=oxidation plus RATE=speed.
15  Extremely warm temperature damaged coral – good to intervene (8)
TROPICAL – T[emp] plus anagram of CORAL containing PI=good (in crosswordland).  Easy but nicely done.
17  Some woman’s brief roll in the grass (7)
HERBAGE – HER=woman’s plus BAGE[l]=roll.
18  Ancient New Testament language church introduced, not in the morning (7)
ARCHAIC – Aramaic was the language used by Jesus and the disciples.  Substitute CH=church for AM=morning.
19  Servant that’s giving birth? (6)
BEARER – Double definition.  A woman bears a child, and in the days of Empire a bearer carried the Englishman’s (or woman’s) luggage.
22  No volunteer among the flipping crew (5)
EIGHT – That would be as in rowing.  GI (setter’s favourite soldier) contained in THE, all reversed (flipping).  Originally they were conscripts, so not volunteers, but it came to mean US soldiers generally.

23 comments on “Saturday Times 26064 (April 4)”

  1. Lots to enjoy in this one. Particularly liked the equality inflicted on the lion, and thought RIPOSTE was neat. The Tardis clue was fun too.

    DNK Clara, but was able to guess her from the wordplay and the checkers. The unworthy thought crossed my mind that Robert might have led a double life, becoming “Clara” on Friday nights in some dodgy Berlin bar before I looked her up and put to rest such scurrilous musings.

    Good luck with the grand opening Olivia, and thanks very much for the blogs over the last few weeks which have been most enjoyable.

    Edited at 2015-04-11 12:04 am (UTC)

  2. This was certainly a good crossword, with MERCATOR and PETARDS having the best clueing of a classy bunch. I too put in Aramaic after reading only half of the clue. More haste, less pace. Thanks for an interesting blog.
  3. I did it in bits and pieces so no time. But “Tardis was a time machine resembling a police box” implies it is something like the final scene of Casablanca was in the past. But it still is, amazingly, an old police box despite such things not having existed for 50 (?) years. I also can honestly say that I saw the first episode when it first appeared in 1963 when I was 9 with William Harnell as the doctor.
    1. My god, so did I.. 13 at the time.
      Surprisingly there are still a few police boxes about. I saw one the other day near the Guildhall in London. It even had a phone in, though whether it worked I don’t know as I would never dare try to use it. The shape is a registered trademark owned by the BBC!
  4. Enjoyable and quite easy for a Saturday puzzle at 38 minutes.

    It’s a shame there is an identical answer with a substantially similar clue in today’s puzzle.

    I echo the praise for PETARDS.

    1. So there is, but after being unable to remember Grandma Whatshername after four years, it’s little wonder that this passed me by too. As do nearly all Ninas and pangrams.
  5. 36 minutes for a nice puzzle with my COD vote also going to the non-alpha lion. And another who buffed Aramaic and was stymied on last in SECRETE.

    “Glacial valley.” I am agog!

  6. 22:13 here. I thought this was an excellent puzzle, as indeed was today’s. It’s nice to get something chewy on a Saturday.
  7. I completely missed that, despite doing today’s puzzle and then reading the blog in quick succession!
  8. 15:48 .. yes, some really good Saturdays of late (which is to say, on my wavelength).

    COD .. ADWARE, for the clever definition

  9. Well it makes a change from ST puzzles where we have had a couple of identical clues and answers from the same setters in recent weeks.
  10. 20 mins. Like others the excellent PETARDS was my LOI (after HERBAGE) and I certainly smiled when I finally saw the wordplay. I also thought “projector” for MERCATOR was very good, and I agree that we seem to be having a run of quality prize puzzles.
  11. Thanks for the blog(s), Olivia. Interesting puzzle that went in fairly smoothly apart from LOI SECRETE, where I assumed for a long while that the definition was just “Produce” and couldn’t see how the wordplay was possibly going to work. COD to ORDINARY SHARE. I had ‘TIS in ARTIC as the parsing for 1A, as otherwise the “elegantly designed” has to be doing double duty as an anagrind/definition.
  12. I hesitated over PETARDS because I didn’t recognise the definition. I thought a petard was a bomb. As in the engineer hoist with his own. I couldn’t see “cracker” as a bomb. But, as Olivia says, there was nothing else that fit. I was a bit slow getting the Tardis reference but was impressed when I did. A cracker of a clue. Took 38 minutes (last 5mins spent on the PETARDS) Ann
    1. I also didn’t know PETARD as a firework / firecracker but Collins has it as a secondary meaning. Apparently it comes from the Latin and French words meaning to break wind!

      Edited at 2015-04-11 09:59 pm (UTC)

      1. Ho ho! There’s a book somewhere in the house that used to belong to my late husband. It’s in French and is about a gentleman who used to tastefully and musically fart as part of a Music Hall act. La Petomane, I think. I would never have guessed to connection with PETARD!
  13. As a part-time obsessive Doctor Who fan I wasn’t much slowed down by a reference to the TARDIS, and indeed was delighted to see it making an appearance. I do find the weekend puzzles a bit more challenging – ~16 minutes for this, which I guess is okay? – and of course there’s the main problem, that a week and goodness knows how many puzzles later I can’t remember much about doing them! I do recall having some trouble over 10D, being an unworldly type not dabbling much in matters financial, and count me in as another who enjoyed the ADWARE. On the other hand are they really “programmes” rather than “programs”? I can’t imagine an actual programmer spelling it that way these days, perhaps because America calls all the shots in the tech industry since goodness knows when…

    Edited at 2015-04-11 11:29 pm (UTC)

  15. Thanks, Olivia, particularly for PETARDS. I struggled with that one for ages. Good luck with the gala opening of Schloss Rhinebeck. Trust the glacier doesn’t get any closer 🙂
  16. Thank you everyone. It’s been a pleasure and I’ve really enjoyed all the comments. Mohn makes a subtle point about “t’is” for “it’s” in 1A that sailed completely over my head at the time. I wish I’d thought of the Very Lovely Roberta (Clara) Schumann (thanks Nick). Ulaca – glacial it is, made by the same firm that did the Hudson River. We’re so well hidden that the sheriff’s dept quite often flies a helicopter over us in the summer to make sure we’re not doing anything we shouldn’t. Actually I think we may be allowed to grow marijuana now – but it’s not happening. That bit about the plumbing leak in my intro turned out to be eerily prescient, but I won’t bore you with that.
  17. 11 Ac: Viola piece => PETAL
    23 Ac: Schumann => CLARA
    Each of these clues gives an example – of a petal and of a Clara. Is not a “perhaps”, a “?”, etc. required in the clue?

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