The puzzle is available here.
Hi everyone, and sorry for the later than usual post. It completely slipped my mind.
Many thanks to Raich for what was for me a trouble free solve – especially appreciated in the circumstances! A cluster of down clues tickled my fancy: ARCHIPELAGO at 5d for the smoothness of its surface and construction, the cute TRIVIAL (7d) and 13d’s TEST PILOT, in which the clever definition grabbed me at the time (and also fits smoothly in with the wordplay to give another nice surface). Finally, another full anagram, SOFTBALL (15d), gets a mention because of the appropriateness of the anagram indicator to the fodder.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. Link words are generally omitted for clarity.
Across
1a Share of party vote going west? (6)
DOLLOP
DO (party) + POLL (vote) reversed (going west, in an across entry)
4a Some lass! A man thanks her (8)
SAMANTHA
Some lasS A MAN THAnks
9a Times covering row – with United missing goal (6)
TARGET
T T (times: t = time, repeated) around (covering) ARG[u]E (row) without U (with united missing)
10a Arachnid is on crop unfortunately (8)
SCORPION
IS ON CROP anagrammed (unfortunately)
11a Expert sorts nice ticket for play (6,9)
ROCKET SCIENTIST
An anagram of (… for play) SORTS NICE TICKET
13a Frankly discuss seasonal meal? (4,6)
TALK TURKEY
A cryptic definition, or perhaps a precise definition (frankly discuss) plus a cryptic hint
14a Smear, brutal, unfair – extremely (4)
BLUR
BrutaL UnfaiR, outer letters (extremely)
16a Dress is taken back over a rip primarily (4)
SARI
IS reversed (taken back) around (over) A and Rip’s first letter (primarily)
18a Both sides upset with Panorama? Hard to explain (10)
PARANORMAL
An anagram (upset) of R L (both sides: right and left) with PANORAMA
21a Do wrong in lowdown way? (3,4,4,2,2)
PUT ONES FOOT IN IT
A cryptic definition playing on a literal interpretation of the idiom
23a Was first to go around India certainly not needing to work (8)
LEISURED
LED (was first) to go around I (India) and SURE (certainly)
24a Excellent upright character with article favouring gradual change (6)
FABIAN
FAB (excellent) + I (upright character) + AN (article)
25a Cross about ultimately bitter Bible parody (8)
TRAVESTY
TESTY (cross) around (about) the last letter of (ultimately) bitteR and AV (Authorised Version, Bible)
26a Kinnock maybe good Labour leader? Electorate not yet sure, for a start (6)
GLENYS
G (good) + the first letter (leader) of Labour + Electorate Not Yet Sure, first letters (for a start)
Down
1d Discourage careful eater, second to quit (5)
DETER
DiETER (careful eater) without its second letter (second to quit)
2d Enthusiastic rally, regularly itch to get involved (7)
LYRICAL
RALLY and alternate letters of (regularly) ItCh anagrammed (to get involved)
3d Home let – tenant brings in food (8)
OMELETTE
hOME LET Tenant contains (brings in) the answer
5d Ship carrying computer equipment and beer going north supplying islands (11)
ARCHIPELAGO
ARGO (ship) containing (carrying) CHIP (computer equipment) and ALE (beer) reversed (going north)
6d Out-and-out guarantee leader’s been ousted (6)
ARRANT
wARRANT (guarantee) without the first letter (leader’s been ousted)
7d Enter four or six in test? Of little importance (7)
TRIVIAL
Insert (enter) IV (four) or VI (six) in TRIAL (test), before or after the I respectively
8d Lacking cover, relative introduces a bizarre rule (2,7)
AU NATUREL
AUNT (relative) goes around (introduces) A + an anagram of (bizarre) RULE
12d As chambermaid might for computer program (11)
SPREADSHEET
A chambermaid might SPREAD SHEET
13d He’s up with what’s new, distributing top titles (4,5)
TEST PILOT
To get our answer we need to be anagramming (distributing) TOP TITLES
15d Flab lost exercising in US game? (8)
SOFTBALL
FLAB LOST anagrammed (exercising)
17d Wine selection from clarets in Athens (7)
RETSINA
A selection from claRETS IN Athens
19d House island boy, first person to be admitted (7)
MANSION
MAN (island) + SON (boy) with I (first person) to be inserted (admitted)
20d Last stop – overlooking Northern River (6)
ENDURE
END (stop) preceding (overlooking, in a down entry) URE (Norther River)
22d Casks I observed inside port (5)
TUNIS
TUNS (casks) with I seen inside
As Kitty says, reasonably straightforward from Raich today with my only raised eyebrow being the equation of computer program with SPREADSHEET. I’m no tecchie but I would have thought a spreadsheet to be an application or tool rather than a program. Otherwise, plenty to enjoy including all those mentioned by our blogger. The definition of TEST PILOT in particular was very neat.
1a brought a smile to my face; when my the fiancee and I visited Brittany on our first joint vacation overseas, she dusted off her schoolgirl French and attempted to order dessert in a restaurant, delighting me and confusing our waiter by requesting “deux dollops de glace“. No idea where that came from! (For any non-French speakers, the correct term in the situation is “boules” – quite literally “balls“). A la recherche du temps perdu!
Thanks Raich and Kitty
Pleasant diversion for a Sunday afternoon. I liked the ones that Kitty has mentioned, particularly the tricky parsing for ARCHIPELAGO and the nice def for TEST PILOT. The other ones that caught my attention were an original LYRICAL for ‘Enthusiastic’, which I don’t recall having seen before in crosswords and the timely reference to ‘Panorama’ in 18a – ‘Hard to explain’ indeed.
Thanks to Raich and Kitty
PostMark @1 as an ex-techie, I have no problem with describing a spreadsheet as a program. You and I may use a spreadsheet as an application, but some poor soul has had to write it in the first place using a programming language, so by definition it’s a program.
Oh, and a cracking puzzle by the way.
We’ve not encountered Raich for some time (although we have met his alter ego in the FT) So this was a very welcome
ideal Sunday solve. Nothing too taxing, although having said that, we took a while to see SPREADSHEET, which finally settled whether 25ac was ‘traverse’ (‘cross’) ot TRAVESTY – we couldn’t parse either at first but then saw the parsing of the correct answer. Lots to like – ARCHIPELAGO and TEST PILOT to name but two.
Thanks, Raich and Kitty.
Another thumbs up for TEST PILOT from me. Also liked 7D for the IV / VI cluing and 26A.
Postmark @1 my programming days are a good few years in my past, and never involved anything as new fangled as apps, but I think it’s fair to say although a spreadsheet user isn’t programming there’s a suite of programs behind the scenes making the spreadsheet work.
Ah, looks like my screen hadn’t refreshed in a long time and I hadn’t seen Deezzaa @3 commented before me.
Deezzaa & Sheepish: many thanks for the correction. Hopefully you understand my query and I think I understand your responses.
Almost a health mini-theme with the dieter, the flab lost and the omelette helping you to look good au natural. Thanks to Raich and Kitty
I’ve recently had to clue both spreadsheet and test pilot and Raich’s knocked me into a cocked hat on both, the bastardage! Good Sunday crossword. Thanks to him and the Kit-Kat.
ARCHIPELAGO was clued differently in the version of the crossword I got in my newspaper in New Delhi: Islands providing a rest, calm, initially popular with the Spanish in past (11)
Many thanks, Kitty, for the excellent blog and thanks also to all who commented. Raich spends more time on spreadsheets than most but did wonder about program as definition of SPREADSHEET. Collins gives it as its main definition so in it went.