This was one of those terrible puzzles that allowed me to get around three-quarters of the way through, thinking it a complete doddle, then brought me up short with a handful of utter stinkers.
I still have no idea about 24ac. – I’m sure you helpful folk will lend a hand. In any case, thank-you, Sayang.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PARDON | Let off mean Mafia boss (6) |
| Par [mean, average] Don [Mafia boss] | ||
| 4 | ESCAPE | Key to flight (6) |
| Double definition, alluding to the Escape key on a keyboard | ||
| 8 | PARTNER | Confederate south to north, perhaps (7) |
| Double definition, alluding to the partnership of North and South in the game of bridge | ||
| 9 | CONTROL | Rein in power (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | RESILIENCE | Senile Eric treated for flexibility (10) |
| Anagram of senile eric | ||
| 12 | CHOP | Dissect Chinese seal (4) |
| Double definition; a chop is a Chinese printing stamp or seal | ||
| 13 | TWAIN | Mark a couple (5) |
| Double definition, alluding to the author Mark Twain | ||
| 14 | ESOTERIC | Mystic so engrossed in extra- terrestrial at Morecambe (8) |
| So within ET [extra-terrestrial] Eric [Morecambe] | ||
| 16 | DECADENT | Depraved rascal in river not heartless (8) |
| Cad [rascal] within Dee [river] n(o)t | ||
| 18 | STATE | Country, say (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | BAIL | Security for part of wicket (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | PLAGIARISM | As a pilgrim is whipped for piracy (10) |
| Anagram of as a pilgrim | ||
| 23 | ARSENAL | Team magazine (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | RAIN MAN | Software split for drama film (4,3) |
| NOT A CLUE about this one… any ideas? | ||
| 25 | SETTER | Dante’s dog (6) |
| Double definition, alluding to the FT crossword setter Dante | ||
| 26 | DELETE | Cancel grant indeed – no end to that (6) |
| Let [grant] within dee(d) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PEACE | Calm pronouncement of man on board (5) |
| Sounds like piece [chess piece, man on board] | ||
| 2 | RETSINA | Retains fermented wine (7) |
| Anagram of retains | ||
| 3 | OBEDIENCE | Respect and honour for princess, hence hatless (9) |
| OBE [honour] Di [Princess (Diana)] (h)ence | ||
| 5 | SCORE | Twenty points (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | ARTICLE | Perhaps an account in the Financial Times (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | ECONOMISE | Useless advice to save? (9) |
| Cryptic definition: to economise is to “use less” | ||
| 10 | ANCESTRAL | Inherited Lancaster’s mess (9) |
| Anagram of lancaster | ||
| 13 | THESAURUS | The South African game is in American reference book (9) |
| The SA [South African] RU [Rugby Union, game] within US [American] | ||
| 15 | OBSTINATE | E-boat isn’t constructed to be inflexible (9) |
| Anagram of e boat isnt | ||
| 17 | AILMENT | Food slightly modified, causing complaint (7) |
| Slight modification of aliment [food] | ||
| 19 | ARRANGE | A right class to organise (7) |
| A R [right] range [class] | ||
| 21 | PLANE | Tree sounds simple (5) |
| Sounds like plain [simple] | ||
| 22 | SNAKE | For instance, adder for former EC currency band (5) |
| Double definition, alluding to the so-called “currency snake” of the former European Community | ||
Thanks Ringo
I too was perplexed about the parsing of 24ac. However, googling “rainman software” reveals several computer programs/software companies with that name, particularly a program relating to weather records and analysis.
I assume therefore that the intended wordplay is ‘split’ rainman to get RAIN MAN. If this is the case then I would suggest that the indirect reference to get rainman via ‘software’ is very obscure.
This crossword contained not one but two examples of one of my pet hates.
Without the crossing letters you are unable to work out whether the answer to 1D is peace or piece
and the answer to 21D is plane or plain ie when the homophone indicator is placed in such a position that it could refer to either part of the clue.
I was not familiar with the second definition of snake in 22D.
Thanks to Ringo, Gaufrid and Sayang
Glad I wasn’t the only one who found this one tough going.
@ ernie – I feel the same, although happily, in this case, I happened to have the relevant crossing letters in place before I considered the clue.
@ gaufrid – yes, I found that too, but surely that’s too obscure? I thought “drama” must play a part in the construction, because “drama film” doesn’t quite ring true as a definition, but I’m dashed if I can figure it out.
Thanks, both, for commenting.
…but, on looking at it again, Gaufrid, your reading does seem very plausible.
Ringo
From Wikipedia – “Rain Man is a 1988 American comedy-drama film …”
Similar experience to Ringo. Romped thrpough threequarters of this but then got stuck and couldn’t get any more. I totally agree with Ernire about 1d and 21d.
12a was typical of a clue I couldn’t get. No crossing letters and didn’t know that a Chinese seal was a chop. So what do you do?
Some real stinkers amongst a mostly straightforward puzzle.
If 24a is indeed RAIN MAN (and I can think of nothing else) then it seems to me a completely unreasonable clue … I have been in software tech for 30 years and I have never heard of it – neither has Wikipedia. Of course Google can find you anything!
I hope to wake up tomorrow to find it is something much more reasonable!
For you, Ringo (and many thanks for blogging), this was “one of those terrible puzzles etc.”.
Well, for me, it was too but not for that reason.
I found this incredibly easy (despite 24ac), very unsatisfying.
Did anyone notice that in 16 across clues we had 9 double definitions (including the awful 9ac)? That can’t be true, or? Another 3 were added in the down clues including the awful 5d.
I did like Sayang’s previous puzzles but this one was really under par. Of course, Sayang knows who I am and, perhaps, he thinks I am targeting him once more but that’s not it.
Today’s cluing was just not imaginative enough.
Utter stinkers, Ringo?
Where are they (apart from 24ac)?
Yes, there are some – what I call – Guardianisms. Like the ‘use/less’ thing in 7d or ‘in/dee[d]’ in 26ac which is one step further down that line. Perhaps, even one step too far.
I share ernie’s concerns about 1d and 21d, although I think in both cases Sayang’s choices are the right ones.
I didn’t like Dante’s dog as, I think, the presence of our beloved setter should be indicated by at least a question mark.
Not a very positive review, I know.
Sayang can surely do much better than this, so I am looking forward to his next effort.
Also looking forward to Sayang’s explanation of 24ac.
Hi Sil. I wouldn’t disagree with much of what you say, to be honest.
My difficulties all came from not knowing the words or phrases in question – with ‘snake, ‘chop’ and ‘Rain Man’, the wordplay was easy enough but the allusions were too obscure for me (a pet hate: I simply find no fun in solving workaday wordplay and then having to guess/Google outlandish vocab – can’t abide Azed in the Observer for the same reason).
Re #9 and the reference to Azed, I think he indicates the Chambers dict as the reference source for his puzzles so the answers can be found there. Not saying the vocab isn’t “outlandish” but it can be found in a (widely available and well-known) dict.