Another excellent puzzle from Dac, with all stacking up in the end, some cleverly concealed definitions – very tough, esp SE corner, though this blogger’s cinematic ignorance contributed to that.
Solving time: 43 mins
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
5 W EASEL
10 CUSTOM Pleasing double definition – this type of clue was more common in years gone by, I think.
14 DIS(c) ENGAGEMENT
20 IFS Irish Free State (1922-1938)
21 FOUR-POSTERS Excellent
24 FLANERIE (free in LA)* Anyone else looking first for (LA resort)*?
26 MAIL SHOT “male”
DOWN
2 Hastings BAND A
3 BOA (stole!) TIES
4 O (VERGE) NERO US The old is separate from the ruler, I think.
6 EMU LATE Excellent misdirection.
8 LAMB (t)ASTE(d) Misleading join at “Roast/meat”
11 BRIAN DE PALMA p in (an admirable)* – took me ages to spot the anagram, not to mind solve it. Those who know more about films than me might be able to say if the literal clue wording is also appropriate.
14 DROP SCENE “seen” by audience.
17 S (OFT) TOP
18 AR (S) ENA L The most devious of all – I spent ages trying to fit ample in. L = large as in clothes sizes. Definition is “team”
22 E (ART) H Art in he< Really tricky – definition is “underground home”
Definitely trickier than usual for Dac but some really good stuff here: 3D, 8D and 11D in particular.
Very satisfying. It took me a while to work out why 15D had to be ESTIMATE, since I was connecting ‘house’ and ‘estate’, whereas it’s E (=’end of house’) + ST(IM)ATE.
I had no problem with the SE corner other than FLANERIE — I spotted the anagram but had never heard of the word. I’d not heard of DROP SCENE either despite having -O-P SCENE in the grid.
I have, however, failed in the NW corner with 1dn and 9ac uncompleted. Someone will now tell me how easy those two are!
BE MUSE
and MAN DATED
9ac. I could see the answer was MANDATED but couldn’t understand the ‘goes ahead’ part (don’t have the puzzle to hand). Please explain?
Not got the puzzle now, but, if I remember, the “goes ahead” was telling the solver to put MAN before DATED which was defined, from memory as “old”
Yes, it seems obvious now. Thanks.