Independent 7181/Dac
Posted by John on October 21st, 2009
I was slowed by two words of which I’ve never heard, one of which I can find in no English dictionary; and there’s one more I’m not very comfortable with. Otherwise (at least) the usual high-class crossword from Dac.
Has anyone noticed the time when the new day’s puzzle goes online? I often like to do my blog in the small hours, but at 12.20 this morning yesterday’s crossword was still there, so I decided not to wait and went to bed instead.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BERE(F)T |
| 4 | BUSH TEA{m} — an increasingly popular drink that some people (like Mma Ramotswe ) swear by |
| 8 | SALOON BAR — two senses of this expression |
| 10 | GRAFT — two defs |
| 11 | ANTONIA — (a nation)* |
| 12 | mONTH E.G. October — a nicely-hidden hidden |
| 13 | CIVIC CENTRES — (revisit C C C)* around {K}en{T} |
| 17 | PETERBOROUGH — P (bother rogue)* — the anagram indicator seems to be ‘created’: a bit tenuous? |
| 20 | P(REV 1)EW |
| 21 | AC(CU’S)E {lawye}R |
| 23 | ECLAT — C in (tale)rev. |
| 24 | RES(TRAIN)T |
| 25 | SAMO{s} YE’D |
| 26 | GANG(E)S |
| Down | |
| 1 | BISMARCK — not sure here: ‘his currency’ is the mark, which gives MARCK, and I suppose that BIS is a Swiss bank. Is it the ‘Bank for International Settlements’ mentioned in Chambers? |
| 2 | RELATIVE — (ate liver)* |
| 3 | F{ea}R OWN |
| 4 | BORLOTTI BEANS — (on bistro table)* — some research needed here, as I’d never heard of them |
| 5 | SIGHTSEER — “site sere” — good bit of misdirection: the definition is simply ‘Tourist’ |
| 6 | T RACES |
| 7 | {f}ACTION |
| 9 | B RAVE NEW WORLD — ref. Dvorak’s symphony |
| 14 | CHEMISTRY — two defs |
| 15 | NURSLING — (run)rev. sling |
| 16 | CHA RITES — but I can find nothing in the dictionaries here. Is it simply the French word charités? |
| 18 | U(P SET)S |
| 19 | BEDLAM — (blamed)* [edited after my silly mistake first time round] |
| 22 | internationAL RACket — hidden rev. |
October 21st, 2009 at 12:41 pm
It’s the Graces from mythology,
October 21st, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Yup…THE KHARITES (or Charites), also commonly known as the Graces, were three goddesses of grace, beauty, adornment, mirth, festivity, dance and song.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:56 pm
John
CHARITES is in Chambers, under ‘Charis’, which is the singular.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Hello John,
I don’t know how the puzzle wasn’t available to you at 12.20.
I started mine at shortly after midnight, which is when they usually become available…
October 21st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Great stuff as ever from Dac, though he beat me on GRAFT and SIGHTSEER.
I had 25A as SAMO[-a],YE’D, but probably just a typo above.
I didn’t check this morning, but yesterday’s Virgilius was definitely online just after midnight.
October 21st, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I think it’s SAMOS as John says, that’s an island (in the Aegean) whereas Samoa is more a group of islands, I think.
October 21st, 2009 at 4:15 pm
19d is (blamed)*
I thought of SAMOA as I had not heard os SAMOS
October 21st, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Collins says BIS =
Bank for International Settlements: an institution, based in Basel, Switzerland, that accepts deposits, makes loans for national central banks, and assists in offsetting speculative movements of funds between the major currencies; set up in 1930.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I’d slightly take issue with whether BIS is a Swiss Bank. It seems to be an international institution which happens to be based in Switzerland. It seems a bit like describing the UN as an American organisation because it has offices in New York. Other than that, I really enjoyed this one. 5 down was particularly good – I was really convinced for a long time that it had to be “sun something”.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Probably the fact that before midnight I had called up the Virgilus puzzle was the reason why my machine (but what part of it I’m not sure) couldn’t recognise that a new puzzle was on the site. In future I must be careful not to look at the previous day’s puzzle.