Saturday Times 26376 (2nd April)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
13:44 for this, which seemed about average until I looked at the stats on the Crossword Club and found that there were no genuine times under 10 minutes. Now having blogged it, I still can’t see where the difficulty was, and I even spent a long time trying to figure out 20ac (my LOI) when it was staring me in the face!

Across
1 Compose, from lace, beautiful bags, after retiring (6)
BECALM – hidden reversed in “from lace beautiful”.
4 Start to smile? Not true (3-4)
OFF-BEAM – OFF (start) + BEAM (smile).
9 Form of media report unknown (5)
TELLY – TELL (report) + Y (unknown).
10 Private Eye, like the FT, not about to backtrack (9)
PINKERTON – PINK (like the FT) + [NOT + RE (about) reversed].
11 Tenor needs something mechanical to reach holiday island (9)
LANZAROTE – LANZA (Mario, tenor) + ROTE (something mechanical).
12 Fly from US city after reduction in staff (5)
CANNY – NY (US city) after CAN(e) (reduction in staff).
13 Warning sound maybe dish picked up (4)
BELL – sounds like “belle” (dish).
14 Used to drink after writing note (4-2-4)
HAND-ME-DOWN – DOWN (drink) after HAND (writing), ME (note).
18 During which sailors rest, or else have reels (5,5)
SHORE-LEAVE – (or else have)*.
20 Deal in fact leaving out government at first (4)
FLOG – first letters of Fact Leaving Out Government.
23 The same song, but with different ending (5)
DITTO – DITTY (song), with the last letter changed.
24 Firm’s way of working: head to bring in a long-distance traveller (9)
COSMONAUT – CO’S (firm’s) + MO (modus operandi, way of working) + NUT (head) around A.
25 To twig, see in a new light? (3,4,2)
GET WISE TO – (to twig see)*, &lit.
26 One easily led escape, slowly straddling horse (5)
SHEEP – SEEP (escape slowly) around H(orse).
27 Isn’t genuinely appreciating when this note accompanies service (7)
PAYSLIP – i.e. “pays lip service (to)”. Strange clue, not really a cryptic definition, but there’s no real definition and wordplay either (at least, not to the answer).
28 No wheels: settle for walking or running (2,4)
ON FOOT – NO reversed + FOOT (settle).

Down
1 Subtle manoeuvres with club coach during campaign (9)
BATTLEBUS – (subtle)* next to BAT (club).
2 Mustard for one’s heart, so they say (7)
COLONEL – sounds like “kernel” (heart). One of the suspects in Cluedo.
3 Put down endless bags — one’s not cloth)
LAYMAN – LAY (put down) + MAN(y) (endless bags).
4 Cat spotted / crumb? (5)
OUNCE – double definition.
5 Line crossed by go-getter, the source of quarrel? (8)
FLETCHER – L(ine) inside FETCHER (go-getter).
6 Terminal on fixture, a shade old, to corrode (3,4)
EAT INTO – (fixtur)E + A TINT (shade) + O(ld).
7 Gravy’s goodness: I should tuck in! (5)
MONEY – MY (goodness!) around ONE (I).
8 Capable of meeting boyfriend now? (2-2-4)
UP-TO-DATE – UP TO (capable of meeting) + DATE (boyfriend).
15 Fellow hugging one girl is lifting arm (8)
DIVISION – DON (fellow) around [I (one), VI (girl), IS reversed)].
16 Around the corner, child seen outside betting club (9)
NIGHTSPOT – NIGH (around the corner) + TOT (child) around SP (betting).
17 Mark — or email, exceptionally — serving as reminder (8)
MEMORIAL – (M or email)*.
19 A bad thing to do to welcome wrong guy (7)
OUTSTAY – OUT (wrong) + STAY (guy).
21 Plain person quite bowled over by legendary fiddler (7)
LLANERO – ALL (quite) reversed + NERO (legendary fiddler).
22 US actor and singer to combine with orchestra for one (6)
JOLSON – JOIN (combine), with LSO (London Symphony Orchestra) replacing the I.
23 Find Barb cheerful (3,2)
DIG UP – DIG (barb) + UP (cheerful).
24 Steal / fawn (5)
CREEP – double definition.

12 comments on “Saturday Times 26376 (2nd April)”

  1. 45 minutes, so not too bad for me for a Saturday puzzle. I completely missed the finer details of 28ac and biffed ON FOOT from the general thrust of the clue. I expect if I’d been blogging I’d have given it more consideration.

    There have been quite a few adverse comments about arcane stuff both in the QC and the main puzzle recently which generally I don’t tend to agree with, but even I start to wonder if anyone under about 40 should be expected to come up with Mario Lanza and Al Jolson from such vague descriptions as “tenor” and “US actor and singer”. Neither hindered me for a moment but I’m trying to see things as others might.

    Edited at 2016-04-09 06:44 am (UTC)

    1. Did Jolson ever act, other than in ‘The Jazz Singer’? I can see expecting him to be in the GK of the not yet gray, given his appearance in the first talkie, but Lanza? (I thought I remembered him because Arthur Godfrey (who?) fired him, but I just checked, and it was Julius la Rosa.)

      Edited at 2016-04-09 08:37 am (UTC)

    2. Lanza is perhaps a bit much, but personally I would say JOLSON is fair game. I’m not quite under 40 but I am generally very ignorant of old music and movie stars, so for me to have heard of them they have to be properly iconic! As ever though the important point is that if you don’t know either, there is another way to get the answer. With ‘holiday island’ and L_N_A_O_E I doubt anyone’s going to have any trouble.
      This took me 19:52, but I can’t remember anything about it now.
  2. i made hard work of this, with a lot of definitions I didn’t see or was misdirected on, and several DKs. I thought the ‘can’ part of canny referred to firing workers. Two good ways to get. It would be interesting to hear if the setter and editor both used the same one, eh?. thanks, Andy
  3. No problems at all with Lanza or Jolson but I suppose that’s me. When all the clues are about Ice Cubes and Jelly Chews or Grandmaster Plop or Eastenders or whatever I will be in deep doodoo. Really I’m only commenting at all because I thought 28ac was a magnificent clue, as good as they get. Such a neat surface…

  4. Mario often pops up in any programmes/articles about popular tenors. He was amazingly famous in the 50s. I think the clue is fair enough. I have a struggle with cricket terms but have to accept that cricket is part of blokish GK. It’s often said that a question is only hard if you don’t know the answer… This puzzle was a game of 2 halves for me. The left-hand side was a virtual write-in but the rest took about 40 minutes. Ann
  5. I normally try the Saturday puzzle to test my progress. I found this one very difficult. Despite spending lots of time on it I found many impossible. Unknowns were Fletcher (why the source of quarrel?) and LLanero. I still think Payslip was very hard after seeing the parsing. And many more,including Canny.
    On the upside I enjoyed the challenge and managed to solve over half of it. No problems with Jolson and ,as stated above, Lanzarote was obvious with a few checkers. David
  7. Found it very tricky – FLOG was last in, even though it’s staring you in the face. Saw how BECALM worked on first read but couldn’t get it without 2 checkers; I’d decided from was a link word not part of the fodder. LANZAROTE only vaguely known, and LANZA not at all. JOLSON known only as a singer, and LSO only known from crosswords, ditto BATTLEBUS. LLANERO never seen, and not expecting Spanish words in English dictionaries. COLONEL needed all crossers – wondering what mustard was an example of. And finally beaten by PAYSLIP because I had the dead-set certainty CREAM at 24 dn: fawn = cream (beigish colour) and cream (money off the top) = steal. A slow 35 minutes before stymied.
    Rob

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