Another great crossword from The Don. I find he pitches them just right for daily cryptics – this wasn’t really tough but did require switching on the rusty old brain cells for some very elegant clueing.
Across
1 SCHEMA S+CHEM+A
4 CIRCULAR cryptic/double def.
9 OSCAR O+SCAR
10 ARCHITECT A+R(CH)ITE+CT this took me a while to work out the wordplay, writing down all the possible combinations until something popped up!
11 DINING CAR cryptic/double def.
12 SPAWN S+PAWN with ‘man’ being ‘pawn’
13 WAYS AND MEANS SWAYEDMAN*+ANS from Chambers: ” Committee of Ways and Means – the House of Commons sitting in the character of a committee to consider methods of raising money supplies”
17 STANDARD ROSE sounds like past improvement
20 REPRO REPRO(OF)
21 POINTLESS cryptic def.
23 PANTALOON PAN+TA(LOO)N who was a character in Italian comedy, a feeble old man
24 TRAIN to school is to train, and a train is also an alternative to a bus – I like this clue.
25 PULITZER UP(rev)+LIT+ZER(O)
26 THETIS THE+TIS the memoir is ‘Tis” from Frank McCourt, the rather disappointing follow-up to Angela’s Ashes
Down
1 SHOWDOWN ie show the county, part of Ulster
2 HACKNEYS HACK+NEYS (knees)
3 MORAN MO+RAN Churchill’s doctor friend and confidant, which makes this an &lit!
5 INCARCERATION IN+CAR(C)E+RATION nicely misleading – the whole thing is porridge – slang for jail, under custody is ‘in care’ with fixed portion of food being ‘ration’ with a ‘c’ for cold in.
6 CRIMSONED CRIM(SON)E+D
7 LEEWAY L(WEErev)AY
8 RATING RA(TIN)G
10 ACCIDENT-PRONE cryptic def
14 ASTRONAUT UNTOASTAR* another &lit
15 FOREPART FOR(RAPErev)T
16 PEASANTS P(EA+S)ANTS
18 TRIP UP cryptic/double def.
19 S(PIN)AL
Goodness, I found this one rather difficult compared the the past week of dailies… Thanks for the blog on it – particularly the explanation of THETIS, which had me completely baffled.
I think the surface of 13 across is referring the committee of the same name in the US Congress, which is better known to fans of the West Wing, anyway 😉
There were lots of very satisfying clues in this puzzle… (TRAIN and INCARCERATION also particularly appealed to me.)
Of course, the Congress part refers to the American version, thanks for pointing that out mhl. I’ve never watched West Wing!
Crimsoned??
‘crimson’ as in ‘to blush’
Geoff: I think the reference is to having blood on one’s hands, but personally I’ve never seen crimson used in this way, i.e. to be crimsoned.
That was my first reaction, John, then somewhere in the back of the mind stirred the memory of ‘O’ Level Literature: ‘Signed in thy spoil and crimsoned in thy Lethe’ [Julius Caesar III i 75].
I found this one quite tough to begin with but much more satisfying than some recent puzzles. I knew 26 was THETIS and looked up Collins to see if there was such a word as “tis”. I found “’tis” – and still the penny didn’t drop! Thanks, Golgonooza – I’ve actually read the book but, as you say it’s [obviously!] less memorable than ‘Angela’s ashes’.
I liked 25ac and also 17ac, although I was looking for a homophone to begin with, because of ‘report suggesting’. Am I missing something? [I think there should be an acronym for this – we use it so often – but AIMS would be a bit confusing.]
John
I originally thought the boy must have ‘blushed with shame’ but on revisiting the clue I can see that you have a valid point regarding the hand becoming red.
I agree with Eileen — I too was looking for a homophone. golgonooza say “sounds like past improvement” but why “sounds like”?
In 23A, another meaning for pantaloon is a buffoon in pantomimes, the butt of a clown’s jokes.
Could it be school report?
Jvh: Standard Rose is a sort of homophone where the words are the same but they have two meanings; you could say “last year the standard rose” if you were talking about improvement in the past, and obviously it also is a type of Rose. As a teacher this is the sort of thing I might well find myself saying!
Thanks. I like John’s school report suggestion. I was taking “report” to mean different words could sound the same.
Golgonooza – as one [ex] teacher to another, I totally agree with what one might [hope to] say! However, although Collins defines a homophone as ‘one of a group of words pronounced in the same way but differing in meaning OR spelling’, I would have thought that, in general usage, and on this site in particular, the latter definition, i.e spelling, is more usual eg ‘standard rose / rows’ Wouldn’t this solution be more normally defined as a double definition? The presence of both ‘report’ and ‘suggesting’ did definitely lead me towards a ‘sounds like’! [I’m beginning to wonder if either word was strictly necessary, especially in view of the question mark!]