| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | A,CAN in VT |
| 9 | TO,FORE in LA (all reversed) – the much-mocked national carrier AEROFLOT. Excellent clue with a great surface. |
| 11 | TRADE,SCANT,AI< – last one in. I saw TRADE (for “business”) fairly early on but couldn’t see the rest until I had all the checking letters in place. |
| 15 | C,IN in ROSTI – I saw “Toasted bread and cold…” and rashly filled in CROUTONS but immediately realised this wasn’t right as “at home” is almost always IN. |
| 16 | MOCCASIN – dithered for a while thinking that this might be spelt MOCASSIN. |
| 18 | (SEANCE)* – ENCASE. |
| 20 | DOUBLE-HEADER – which is a train pulled by two locomotives. I guess a “bent [dodgy] copper” might have two heads instead of heads and tails |
| 22 | (IN DORM)* – NIMROD. For six letter words, this and 18A took me much longer than they should have. |
| 24 | S,CANNING – George CANNING had the shortest reign of any British PM at 119 days. I got the clue from the definition and checking letters as I’d never heard of him – don’t know whether to be embarrassed by that or not. |
| 26 | (f)ACTION |
| Down | |
| 3 | A,ST in POLE |
| 4 | TALL,AHA’S,SEE – there can’t be that many Norwegian pop groups famous enough to appear in a UK cryptic crossword but I wonder if this tripped a few people up. I would provide you with a Youtube link to their innovative video for “Take on Me” but access to Youtube is blocked where I’m writing this so you’ll have to make do with their Wikipedia entry. |
| 5 | T in (SHORES OF FRANCE)* – FATHER CONFESSOR. |
| 7 | hidden in “roAD JUNCTion” |
| 8 | (INTO A DRESS)* – ADROITNESS. |
| 19 | OR,ONE in CT – very good &lit clue. |
| 21 | hidden in “raIN FOrest” |
| 23 | DEE(p) – a reference to the Phil Spector-produced “River Deep Mountain High”. |
1 comment on “Independent 6493/Dac”
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I remember Canning from history at school, but mainly for his duel with Castlereagh. Perhaps Blair and Brown could have settled their differences in the same way?
I knew the word double-header in a sporting context, but neither of the definitions Dac has used here. Chambers gives all three, the coin definition apparently being mainly Australian.