Independent 7,133 by Dac
Posted by Simon Harris on August 26th, 2009
Seamless clueing as always. Mostly straightforward, but there were a few terms, or at least definitions, I wasn’t familiar with. Still, everything came together nicely as expected. I was particularly taken with one or two of the anagrams, e.g. 5dn.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BUFFET – apparently a “buffet” can be “a low (esp. rectangular) stool”. |
| 5 | PASSPORT – (SS + PO) in PART. |
| 9 | ABYSSINIAN – ABYSS + IN + I + AN. |
| 10 | NADA – N[ew] A[s] D[etective] A[bandons]. A flashback to the excellent Anax Saturday puzzle we had recently. |
| 11 | INTEREST – IN + TE[rm] + REST. |
| 12 | UNPICK – UN + hom. of “pic”. |
| 13 | STUM – MUST* &lit. A very convenient anagram! |
| 15 | HANDMAID – (HM “gets about” AND) + AID. |
| 18 | DOWNCAST – dd. |
| 19 | NINE – [b]ENIN<. |
| 21 | CHACHA – CHA[t] “about” A CH. |
| 23 | WEEKENDS – KEEN* “during” WEDS. |
| 25 | BOMB – dd. |
| 26 | PERSECUTED – (DUE RESPECT)*. |
| 27 | REVEREND – R + EVER + END. |
| 28 | SENILE – (E + LINES)*. |
| Down | |
| 2 | URBAN – [fo]UR BAN[ks]. |
| 3 | FISHERMAN – IF< + SHERMAN. Liked this one. |
| 4 | TOILET – I in TO LET. |
| 5 | PAINT THE TOWN RED – (PINOT WHEN RATTED)*. |
| 6 | SANGUINE – dd. |
| 7 | PIN-UP – IN in PUP. |
| 8 | REDUCTION – ED in RUCTION. |
| 14 | TOOTHSOME – (TO SOME) “eating” HOT*. |
| 16 | MANNEQUIN – (ANNE + QU) in MIN. |
| 17 | MAY APPLE – MALE “protects” (YAP + P). |
| 20 | RECESS – RE + CESS. |
| 22 | CABLE – C + ABLE. Reference to Vince Cable. |
| 24 | DWELL – W in DELL. |
August 26th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Blimey, bit quiet over here today.
(Lots of whingeing about dictionaries over at the Guardian blog)…
Just wanted to register the fact that I thought this was very nice and tidy.
I particularly liked (as Simon says) 3d.
August 26th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I’d take silence as contentment with puzzle and blog.
August 26th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Right you are, nms…
August 26th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
In my opinion this was one of Dac’s best, and since he is never worse than excellent that means I liked it. How he always manages to make things fit so tidily is unfathomable. 26ac was particularly elegant.