This crossword from Raich is to the usual high standard that we have come to expect from him. All the clues seem to me to be neat and uncontroversial with good surfaces, and the theme is something you don’t really need to know in order to solve the crossword, which is as it should be.
Raich always seems to appear on Tuesdays, which I find a little hard to understand. I wouldn’t say this was a doddle, but it was much easier fare than the sort of stuff we often get on a Tuesday, a day which sometimes competes with Thursday for the title of ‘most difficult day’.
The theme is the songs of 1ac, Sam Cooke — someone I feel I should have heard of since he seems to be a fairly major figure. There are references to several of his songs: You Send Me, Cupid, Chain Gang, Bring it on Home to Me, and no doubt others that I have missed. But Raich has clued them all so that the solver doesn’t need to be aware of the songs. I even managed to solve You Send Me and Bring it on Home to Me, although they are not expressions that you’d find in dictionaries.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SAM COOKE | Singer’s morning business satisfactory in London area (3,5) |
| S(am co OK)E | ||
| 5 | EGG CUP | Say, grand cutlery to begin with, leading feature of table? (3,3) |
| eg g c{utlery} up [= leading] | ||
| 9 | AGNES | Girl gets on about noon (5) |
| ag(n)es | ||
| 10 | CHAIN GANG | Tea in Georgia extremely nourishing for detainees (5,4) |
| cha in Ga n{ourishin}g | ||
| 12 | ELEVEN | Calm about the French team (6) |
| e(le)ven | ||
| 13 | EASY-CARE | After repair English cars most of year needing little attention (4-4) |
| (E cars yea{r})* | ||
| 15 | YOU SEND ME | “I’m delighted with you”! As letter said to Mailer? (3,4,2) |
| If a postal letter could speak, then as it was being put into the letterbox it might say to the mailer “You send me” — I don’t quite see what is meant in the surface by ‘Mailer’: surely no reference to Norman Mailer? | ||
| 17 | CUPID | Trophy I’d gained – for archery? (5) |
| cup I’d — alluding to Cupid’s bow | ||
| 18 | CADDY | Container parent replaced at first (5) |
| Daddy with the D replaced by a c — I’m never all that happy with this type of clue and feel that the precise letter should be specified, but this was quite easy so it was no problem | ||
| 19 | ALIGNMENT | Group of malign men torpedo alliance with party (9) |
| Hidden in mALIGN MEN Torpedo | ||
| 21 | ADRIATIC | Describing maritime communities having a medic, oddly inapt, in charge (8) |
| a Dr i{n}a{p}t i/c | ||
| 23 | BODICE | Bertha’s first party on return – reserve her garment (6) |
| B{ertha} (do)rev. ice | ||
| 26/29 | BRING IT ON HOME TO ME | 1A’s number recollecting one-time bright moon? (5,2,2,4,2,2) |
| (one-time bright moon)* — 1ac is Sam Cooke and this is one of his numbers | ||
| 27 | AWAIT | Expect a load to be picked up (5) |
| “a weight” | ||
| 28 | RASHER | More thoughtless brass there ignoring outsiders (6) |
| {b}ras{s} {t}her{e} | ||
| 29 | See 26 | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHAPELY | Wary snatching copy left in attractive form (7) |
| sh(ape L)y | ||
| 2 | MANSE | Unusual name describing small minister’s house (5) |
| (name)* round s | ||
| 3 | OBSCENELY | In outrageous way former pupil put on display of emotion – lady disheartened (9) |
| O.B. scene l{ad}y | ||
| 4 | KICK | Quit Keswick after expressing points (4) |
| K{ESW}ick — expressing in the sense of chucking out | ||
| 6 | GUNNY | Fabric for sacks initially getting used near New York (5) |
| g{etting} u{sed} n{ear} N{ew} Y{ork} — didn’t know the word, but the clue made it easy | ||
| 7 | CRAB APPLE | Start of Christian parable reinterpreted to cover soft fruit? (4,5) |
| C{hristian} (parable)* round p | ||
| 8 | PIGFEED | Like famous Piper accepting good metal for provender? (7) |
| pi(g Fe)ed | ||
| 11 | ACADEMIC | Scholarly account media found complicated, cold (8) |
| ac (media)* c — ‘complicated’ the anagram indicator | ||
| 14 | IDEALIST | Troublesome detail is ignored by him? (8) |
| (detail is)* — semi &lit. | ||
| 16 | UNDERPINS | Nursing home strangely spurned supports (9) |
| (spurned)* round in [= home] | ||
| 17 | CANNONADE | Bombardment soon over – 500 stick around (9) |
| cane [= stick] round ((anon)rev. D) | ||
| 18 | CHAMBER | Check warning light in room (7) |
| ch. amber | ||
| 20 | TRESTLE | Story featuring relaxation for a horse? (7) |
| tale with its a replaced by rest | ||
| 22 | ANGLE | Early settler’s point of view (5) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 24 | IDAHO | State deceived about having involvement in satellite (5) |
| (had)rev. in Io — Io is a moon of Jupiter | ||
| 25 | UNDO | Reverse effects of being bound over – to some extent (4) |
| Hidden in boUND Over — ‘being’ is simply a link-word | ||
*anagram
A previous Times crossword editor made me remove SAM COOKE (already deceased) from a jumbo, because he had not heard of him. Some crossword editors are like that!
I thought Raich was being very gentle with us. I have to own up to never having heard of Sam Cooke (though I wouldn’t exclude him for that reason), nor of the song clued at 26/29 – which was, however, easily worked out from the anagram and crossing letters. Proof again that knowledge of an underlying theme is not necessary.
Some very neat clues. I particularly liked EGG CUP, CUPID and IDAHO. GUNNY was new to me but quickly checked in Chambers, and I share John’s reservations about CADDY.
Thanks, Raich and John
For what it’s worth, in Chuck Berry’s song, Johnny B Goode ‘carried his guitar in a gunny sack’ l never did know (or care) what that was, but now I do.
Agree with both comments, quite gentle for a Tuesday and no knowledge of the theme needed.
Thanks to S&B
Thanks Raich and John
Cautiously dipping my toe in the water, as an alternative clue for 18A, how about
Container parent reduced by 80% initially
Thanks, both. You’ll always get a sound puzzle from Raich, and this was no exception. I thought it was all clearly clued (I didn’t mind CADDY, as it goes). The singer and the song were among my last in, but I worked them out from the wordplay once I had a few crossers.
Not familiar with the singer, but it was obvious that a lot of the answers would be songs that he recorded. I had a brief look on the internet and know a bit more about him now.
Well, all I can add is that I have been listening to Sam Cooke for decades now, and it took me some time for the penny to drop – even after getting “CHAIN GANG,” “CUPID,” and “YOU SEND ME,” all of which are songs I know well and love. So it doesn’t seem like theme knowledge is any replacement for puzzle-solving skill, at least here.
Thanks to bletter and sogger both.
I’d heard of 1A, but knew nothing about him. (Wasn’t even sure if it was a him.) 26/29 gave me the most trouble. Had to get a lot of crossing letters before I felt able to work out the anagram.
Due to a prolonged stay in the North (after the splendid York do) withou any form of Internet (!!), I am far behind with solving Indy crosswords.
Did this Raich puzzle only tonight.
I am completely flabbergasted by Quixote’s post @1.
Sam Cooke was one of the Very Greats in the early stages of pop music.
And another one who met his maker through a bullet.
Love live America!
With Trump everything will become much better – will it?
Apart from the songs that Raich included there are ‘Twistin’ The Night Away’ (Rod Stewart), ‘Another Saturday Night’ (Cat Stevens), ‘Wonderful World’ (Herman’s Hermits – ‘don’t know much about biology ….’) and ‘Only Sixteen’ (Craig Douglas) and a few more.
Thanks John and our beloved setter (who we really missed in York but then, true, it was another awful weekend for Sunderland – a reason to get into hiding).