A surprisingly easy puzzle for a Wednesday, particularly considering it was set by Cinephile, with a theme involving British Prime Ministers from 1963 to date and a ‘hopeful’.
Early solving of 4a quickly revealed the theme and the rest was plain sailing, something 13a used to enjoy. One or two pleasing surfaces (eg 16a,13d) but overall not much to get one’s teeth into.
Across
1 BRANCH B (second) RANCH (place for cattle)
4 WILSON LSO (capital musicians) in WIN (success)
8 CASTILE LIT (bed, in French) reversed in CASE
9 PLUMAGE PLUM (best) AGE (time)
11 IRONMASTER *(ARM IN STORE)
12 TATE cd
13 HEATH dd
14 THATCHER THAT (who) C (caught) HER (lady)
16 STEP ON IT dd
18 MAJOR dd
20 HOME dd
21 BAROMETRIC BA (graduate) ROME (capital) *(CRIT)
23 CAMERON cd
24 STRETCH dd
25 OSTEND *(DOESNT)
26 CRISIS C[ruise] R (river) ISIS (Thames)
Down
1 BLAIR BL (barrel, what’s shortly to be rolled out) AIR (song)
2 ANTENNA ANTE (before) ANN (girl) reversed
3 CALLAGHAN CALL (visit) GHANA (African country) with the A misplaced
5 IDLER *(D LIRE)
6 SEMITIC SEMI (half) TIC[ker] (half heart)
7 NIGHTWEAR *(RANGE WITH)
10 STATUTORY TUTOR (teacher) in STAY (support)
13 HOT POTATO A TOP (a crown) reversed in *(TOOTH)
15 ALMA MATER MA MA (degrees) in ALTER (change)
17 PRESENT dd
19 JITTERS JIT (just in time) *(REST)
21 BROWN dd
22 INCAS IN CAS[e] (lest English not there)
Even easier that today’s easy Brendan in the Guardian, I would say..
(Blimey, it’s quiet over here.)
…easier THAN…
Yes, I got thru the Brendan so quickly, I thought I would take advantage of the new FT format to tackle this one and found it was a breeze, which is not a word I would normally associate with Araucaria/Cinephile!
Trickier than today’s Brendan if you don’t spot the theme, I think…
Since I feel the need to comment when computer-related or internet-era acronyms come up, it’s nice to see the use of JIT for “just-in time” from Cinephile!
mhl
I’m sure you’re right – it depends how quickly you spotted the theme but, once you did [my lead-in was 23ac] the clues were easier than we would expect from Rev John, I think. [I didn’t know JIT, though!]
It’s nice to see Guardian friends over here – maybe there will be more now that the format is more friendly, which will be good for the bloggers, who fairly often get no response at all.
My entry to the puzzle was Wilson. I was thinking along sporting lines for a while. And Eileen, mhl and Andrew, nice to see you here too. I need to solve on paper so the new format has made a big difference to me, tho I usually find one puzzle a day is enough!
I didn’t know JIT either.
Like Gaufrid, I got WILSON first and guessed the theme from that (unlike that youngster mhl I’m old enough to remember all the PMs involved!). But I also work in IT so JIT was familiar too.