Independent 7,097/Dac
Posted by Ali on July 15th, 2009
Lovely stuff as ever from Dac, and pleasingly not too difficult to solve post-midnight
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | RUSTLE – ST. in RULE |
| 4 | TAFFRAIL – A,FF in TRAIL |
| 9 | SARONG – SA,”Wrong” |
| 10 | SCHEDULE – “Shed Yule” |
| 12 | BACON AND EGGS – Double def. It’s a ‘birdsfoot trefoil’, so says Chambers |
| 15 | CANNONEER – ONE in ANNE, all in CR |
| 17 | TAHOE – O in (HATE)* |
| 18 | ELSIE – E + 1 in LSE |
| 19 | LAGER TOPS – SPOT REGAL rev. |
| 20 | STAGE MANAGER – NAME rev. in STAGGER |
| 24 | EMIGRANT – E.M.I GRANT |
| 25 | UNDONE – Hidden in foUND ONEself |
| 26 | FAMISHED – A.M in FISHED |
| 27 | PAST IT – (PITTA’S)* |
| Down | |
| 1 | RUST BUCKET – R,(TUBE STUCK)* |
| 2 | SPRUCENESS – SPRUCE,NESS |
| 3 | LENIN – LE,[-natio]N,IN |
| 5 | ANCIEN REGIME – (IN GREECE MAIN)* |
| 6 | FREIGHTER – I think this is a double def. |
| 7 | ARUM – A[-llen's] on RUM – Great clue |
| 8 | LEER – Alternate letters of bLuEbEaRd |
| 11 | INTELLIGENCE – Double def. |
| 13 | THROUGHOUT – “Threw out” |
| 14 | SEA SERPENT – (PARENTS SEE)* |
| 16 | OVERTURES – Double def. |
| 21 | NINJA – N (Knight),IN,J(apan),A |
| 22 | PELF – Hidden in chaPEL Funds |
| 24 | FIRM – Double def. |
July 15th, 2009 at 9:24 am
I do the puzzle on-line and I am used to the little pop-up congratulating me on finishing (whether I actually finish myself or finish using REVEAL). I completed all the answers today but no pop-up. So, I must have got something wrong. I double-checked and realised I still had the remnants of ELISE for ELSIE at 18ac. I corrected that, still no pop-up. So, I went through each answer double checking it with REVEAL. The error? 5dn! I had ANCIEN REGIME. The “official” solution had ANCIEN RÉGIME, with the accent.
Very nice puzzle despite this foible.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I suppose there is some way of getting an e acute into 5d. (other than REVEAL), but I don’t know what it is. I read 6d. as RE (on) in FIGHTER.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
As a fan of groanworthy homonyms, I particularly savoured ‘SHED YULE’ – very nice clue.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Very good from Dac as always – found it a little easier than usual from him. Nice to be able to work out two answers that were new to me from the clear wordplay – TAFFRAIL and LAGER TOPS. I read FREIGHTER also as petero did.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I saw FREIGHTER as RE (Royal Engineer) in ‘fighter’ plane, but that meant no definition, so petero must be correct.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
To get É if you’re on a Windows PC (DOS underneath really):
Hold down Alt key and type 144 on the Numeric keypad (make sure the Num Lock is “on” first), then let go the Alt key.
This Wiki explains more: wiki/Code_page_850
I’m not sure how many of the odd characters will show up on this blog. (OK. Nobody say we’ve got enough already.)
July 15th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
6dn is as Petero said, and ‘aircraft’ is the definition: Military man (FIGHTER) ‘s carried on (RE); aircraft (FREIGHTER.)
LAGER TOP’s just a pint of lager with a squirt of lemonade in the top (as I remember from my bartending days, it’s a bad idea to put the lemonade in first – or is it the other way round?)
July 15th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
In my comment I used the HTML element É I have a Mac so I’m not sure how I would enter the single character into a Java applet grid square.
Anyway, I suppose my point—more directed to eimi than anyone else—is that the solution grid should contain an E rather than an É. Other than a thematic puzzle about accents, accents themselves don’t appear in the answers. If they did then surely the anagram fodder would have to contain an É otherwise the clue would be faulty.
July 15th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Mick H: The last lager top I ordered, not for me I hasten to add, had the lemonade added after the pint was poured.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Fair point, Colin. Obviously it hasn’t been an issue until the advent of the online version. I’ll look out for it in future.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
The diacriticals, that is, not the lager tops.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Beermagnet,
Danke schön
July 16th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Regarding lager top, the lemonade must go in last else it would be a lager bottom. It sounds disgusting – how to make nasty fizzy stuff even worse.
I enjoyed the puzzle, especially rust bucket.