Saturday Times 26076 (18th April)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Fairly quick but enjoyable solve in 13:25. Got off to a bad start by putting MEOW in for “catcall” at 1D without reading the rest of the clue, but that was soon put right and there were no other hold-ups. I wasn’t too keen on 8D and have some reservations about 2D as well, but the rest was pretty good. Maybe I’ve missed something in those other two…

Across
1 Regular guy’s brief task wielding pickaxes (3,7)
JOE SIXPACK – JO(b) (brief task) + (pickaxes)*. Definitely an Americanism – over here the beer cans come in fourpacks.
6 Wife beginning to cheer for dessert (4)
WHIP – W(ife) + HIP (beginning to cheer, as the first word of “hip, hip, hooray”).
9 Vital queen moves, or one as good (10)
EQUIVALENT – (vital queen)*.
10 Character on staff nearly broken (4)
CLEF – CLEF(t) (nearly broken).
12 Silly fuss put to Americans to resolve (5,2,1,6)
STORM IN A TEACUP – (put to Americans)*.
14 Again gets in GP, say, for boy (6)
ANDREW – ANEW (again) around DR (GP, say). An easy one for me!
15 Relax amid weapons that may be dropped between seats (8)
ARMRESTS – REST (relax) inside ARMS (weapons).
17 Practises to miss out one man in the middle, going over football move (8)
TRANSFER – TRAINS (practises) minus the I + REF (man in the middle) reversed.
19 Right to support the monarch (6)
PROPER – PROP (support) + ER (the monarch).
22 With best intentions, take a reading additionally (3,4,7)
FOR GOOD MEASURE – FOR GOOD (with best intentions) + MEASURE (take a reading).
24 Historian left one going up the wall (4)
LIVY – L(eft) + IVY (one going up the wall). Titus Livius, Roman historian.
25 I may take vehicle through traffic light in attempt to obstruct legal passage (10)
FILIBUSTER – I + BUS (vehicle), inside FILTER (traffic light). I was a bit doubtful of this, but it’s there in Chambers under filter: (at a road junction) an auxiliary traffic light in the form of a green arrow which allows one lane of traffic to move while the main stream is held up.
26 Colour seen in large part to be very loud (4)
YELL – most of YELLOW (colour).
27 Actual score halved — wrong returns in game (4,6)
REAL TENNIS – REAL (actual) + TEN (half of a score) + SIN (wrong) reversed.

Down
1 Full of energy, Yank’s brief catcall (4)
JEER – E(nergy) inside JER(k) (brief yank).
2 Virgin turned up before boy made a scene (7)
ERUPTED – PURE (virgin) reversed + TED (boy).
3 One affecting less classy taste made good in French society? (8,4)
INVERTED SNOB – BON (good in French) + S(ociety), INVERTED. The answer’s obvious, but does that question mark do enough to indicate what’s required?
4 Advice not to print sermon here (6)
PULPIT – “PULP IT” (advice not to print).
5 A very long time to bed in a plant (8)
CENTAURY – A inside CENTURY (a very long time). Apparently a name applied to a lot of different plant species. I knew it was some kind of plant so it went in with no hesitation.
7 The underworld nearly freezes, making twisted shapes (7)
HELICES – HEL(l) (the underworld nearly) + ICES (freezes).
8 Wheezily make it over the line, having snacked in this case? (4,6)
PUFF PASTRY – PUFF PAST RY (wheezily make it over the (railway) line). Definition’s a bit contrived, but then so’s the whole clue.
11 How your cohort tries to make you take a close look? (4,8)
PEER PRESSURE – cryptic definition.
13 In composing letter, I may follow yours without variation (10)
FAITHFULLY – double definition.
16 Journalist often has this problem with broadband? (8)
DEADLINE – DEAD LINE (problem with broadband?). “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams.
18 A bishop merged with competitor for Advent (7)
ARRIVAL – A RR (bishop) merged with RIVAL (competitor – i.e. sharing a letter). Looks a bit strange when one of them’s a 2-letter abbreviation, but I’ve seen the trick before and it went in with a mild shrug.
20 No epicure having Indian bread before function (7)
PURITAN – PURI (Indian bread) + TAN (short for tangent, a geometrical function).
21 Corrupt one imprisoned that may be pardoned (6)
VENIAL – VENAL (corrupt) around I (one).
23 Raise very old statue (4)
EROS – SORE (old word for very) reversed. Famous statue in London, beloved of pedants who insist that isn’t its real name and get all in a tizz whenever it’s mentioned!

12 comments on “Saturday Times 26076 (18th April)”

  1. 17:53 … last in, and favourite, DEADLINE (and thanks, linxit, for the priceless Douglas Adams quote).

    I also felt a bit dissatisfied with the PUFF PASTRY definition, perhaps because the wordplay was great. I spent a while doing something I don’t normally do, trying to come up with a better clue. Best I could manage was:

    Wheezily make it over the line, making case for filling up with fruit (4,6)

    Always good to remind yourself how hard the actual clue writing is!

  2. Found this a bit of a slog, but got there in the end – except undone by CLEF. Had put in OLAF as last one in, who I seemed to recall as a character with a staff but – not surprisingly – could not parse it. My old music teacher would be appalled…

    Enjoyed DEADLINE and – curiously – also liked a couple that our learned blogger seems to have disliked, viz. 8dn and 25ac. Ah well, mark me down as a contrarian…

  3. 16 mins. DEADLINE was also my LOI and I almost biffed “headline” for a reason that escapes me a week later. I noted that the INVERTED SNOB/ANDREW (rather inexplicably) crossers took me a while.

    I also made a note to remind me to comment about the Americanism JOE SIXPACK but Andy beat me to it. A similar American expression is Joe Lunchbucket, which a friend of mine from Chicago used to describe the typical ice hockey fan.

  4. I thought PUFF PASTRY was okay, but it has been clued better. FILIBUSTER was clear enough without knowing the traffic light, which I had to confirm. A pleasant 20 minutes or so.
    Sixpack just as often refers to a part of the anatomy; I wonder if lunchbucket might go the same way.
    2. LUNCHBOX can refer to a part of the anatomy; slightly south of a male’s sixpack.
      Nearly a full day done in snatches, then undone by centaury – seen before but forgotten. Rob
  5. 15m. CENTAURY my last in: it really doesn’t look like a word. But then it is a plant.
  6. Quite fast, especially considering there were for DNKs: 3d (the term I knew is ‘reverse’), 5d, 20d (puri), and 27ac. I don’t recall–not that that means a thing–cluing like 26ac, where 2 out of 6 letters are to be deleted.
  7. Marginally over 40 minutes for this one which I found tricky but enjoyable. Never heard of JOE SIXPACK or PURI. I don’t know about getting in a tizz but errors need pointing out from time to time; I wasn’t planning to mention it on this occasion but since you raised the matter…

    I took it that the French for “good” at 3dn was BONS as used with a masculine plural noun, as in French society one might say or write “bons”, but I’m pretty sure now that the version in the blog is what the setter would have had in mind.

    I liked 8dn.

    Edited at 2015-04-26 08:03 am (UTC)

  8. Thanks for the writeup, Andy. I thought of you blogging this when Andrew went in. How much does product placement like that cost?

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