Independent 6828/Dac
Posted by John on September 3rd, 2008
As usual an apparently perfect crossword from Dac — nothing remotely controversial, strong anagrams, sound clues with good surfaces. How he does it week after week I just don’t know.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | RUMP US |
| 5 | VISCONTI — (is con) in ITVrev. |
| 9 | AGATHA CHRISTIE — c in (Hair a stage hit)* |
| 10 | (p)REPARATORY |
| 11 | cOPY That — hidden rev. |
| 12 | HAG GIS |
| 14 | IN DEB TED — I suppose the woman is a debutante rather than Deborah, since she’s young |
| 16 | RE W RITES |
| 18 | P(L)AYER |
| 19 | FIRE — 2 defs |
| 21 | PEARL WHITE — a silent movie star of whom I’d never heard |
| 23 | CAST LES(IN)S PAIN — utterly brilliant |
| 24 | R AS PUTIN |
| 25 | P(ELM)ET |
| Down | |
| 2 | UKASE — “UK’s” |
| 3 | PHALANGER — a in (Help gran)* |
| 4 | S(CH)NAPS — I’d thought it had a double p, but Chambers gives both spellings; Google gives 2.2 million entries for Schnaps (despite questioning whether I meant ‘Schnapps’), but only just over 1.5 million for Schnapps. It seems there are other references with one p. |
| 5 | VICTORIA STATION — (visit to Croatian)* |
| 6 | STRAYED — St (ready)* |
| 7 | (c)ONSET(t) |
| 8 | TAILPIECE — “tale peace” |
| 13 | AMERICANA — a in (rain came)* |
| 15 | B EACH BALL |
| 17 | TIP PETT(y) |
| 18 | PULLS UP — 2 defs |
| 20 | ESTOP — (topes)* |
| 22 | writTEN SEntences |
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I read FIRE is F IRE strong criticism but I think your explanation may be right. Good puzzle, as always from Dac.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
This never occurred to me. I’m not sure which is the right explanation, since both seem OK. Perhaps the 2 defs one is marginally more likely, since f is more ‘loud’ than ‘strong’, and ire is more ‘anger’ than ‘criticism’, and these are the sort of slightly off-key synonyms that I don’t associate with Dac.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I think you’re definitely right, John.