Independent 7043/Dac
Posted by John on May 13th, 2009
Dac as usual shows his mastery. One or two things I’m not quite sure about but it’s more likely to be me than him.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SCRAPHEAP — (car)* in (shape)* {dum}p — I like this &lit., although perhaps the definition is a little loose |
| 6 | D{ecorate} 1 dup{lex} |
| 9 | {M}ORGAN — ref Piers Morgan, whose sacking from The Daily Mirror hasn’t quite resulted in a loss of fame |
| 10 | THES{e} TICKS |
| 11 | RE(A L)LY |
| 12 | BUNG A LOW |
| 14 | LOOK SNAPPY — OK ‘look snappy’ is ‘be quick’, and a photograph is a snap, but exactly how it all hangs together I’m not sure |
| 15 | excITEMent |
| 18 | REED — “read” — ref Carol Reed |
| 19 | FROST / NIX ON |
| 21 | HIGH CAMP — 2 defs |
| 23 | F(RIEN)D — Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| 26 | TABLE WINE — (a bin we let)* |
| 27 | A BID E — initially this totally bewildered me, but closer inspection reveals that it is indeed 1 (one) and not I, so 1NT’s the bridge bid ‘one no trumps’ |
| 28 | {l}OVE{s} TT — although for how long we’ll all be familiar with Steve Ovett I’m not sure. I suppose he was an Olympic Gold medal winner, so may eventually justifiably pass into the category of ‘old athlete’ (see 22dn). |
| 29 | SPO(KEN F)OR — likewise Ken Livingstone, who is no doubt a boon to crossword setters but, although probably still well-known to Londoners, may increasingly be losing his fame elsewhere, particularly abroad. But because KEN is such a common letter-pattern he may well eventually become like Elia and Tree (Lamb and old actor). |
| Down | |
| 1 | {journey}S TOUR — I think Dac means ‘point’ to be read as ‘object, reason for’ |
| 2 | RIG MA ROLE |
| 3 | PANG LOSS — ref Voltaire’s Dr Pangloss, for whom “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”. |
| 4 | mEAT Safe |
| 5 | PRESUPPOSE — I’m not quite sure how this works: presuppose = assume, pose = position, pre = prior to (I think), but how they get into that order I can’t see — it looks as if it should be posepresup |
| 6 | DOT A GE{nt} — dot as in full stop, excellent &lit. |
| 7 | DE(C{ompany})AL |
| 8 | POSTWOMEN — (town Epsom)* |
| 13 | DAIRYMAIDS — airy in (MD)rev. aids — beautiful easy surface |
| 14 | LAR GHETTO — Libya (IVR) is LAR |
| 16 | TAX RELIEF — (extra file)* |
| 17 | IN CR EASE |
| 20 | AC CENT — ac “sent” |
| 22 | GA(B)LE — ref Clark Gable |
| 24 | D REAR |
| 25 | NEMO — (o men)rev. |
May 13th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I particularly liked 14ac and 5dn, which work on similar lines. 5dn is essentially a normal definition plus a CD of a charade – a PRE-SUP POSE being a position prior to drinking. It only seems wrong if you expect each part to be clued in turn in the wordplay. Similarly, ‘adopt pose for photo’ is a CD of LOOK SNAPPY. In each case, a ? might have alerted solvers to the trickery, but opinions differ as to when that’s necessary.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I agree with John about Dac’s mastery. I thought 1 down might be TOURS with the S moved to the start. I also read the two clues referred to by Mick H in the same way as he did.