A bit harder than the usual Dac, I found. Some of the bottom-half clues were peculiarly impenetrable, although in the end there was the usual satisfaction with Dac’s skills.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | HIT THE JACK, POT |
| 9 | CAN(NAB 1)S |
| 10 | UP STICKS – up “Styx” |
| 11 | HEART H. Feeling = heart. This seemed a bit weak, but I suppose it’s as in “give your piano-playing some heart”. |
| 12 | CRUD(ites). I don’t quite see how “crud” (a noun) is defined by “Ugh” (an interjection) |
| 14 | S TAR RATING |
| 16 | MAPLE SYRUP – (plum pear s(ogg)y)*. |
| 21 | thaT RAVI Shankar. The name wasn’t, I have to admit, very familiar, but Google confirms. |
| 23 | SHOEBILL. This refers to Imelda Marcos’s penchant for shoes. |
| 25 | FAIR GAME – (image RAF)* |
| 26 | AM A ZON(e). “By” always throws me – I forget that it doesn’t indicate the order of words. |
| 27 | STREET THEATRE – CD |
| Down | |
| 1 | HOT S (UP rev.)R. Hotspur was an English rebel. |
| 3 | HARD CASES – (has scared)* |
| 4 | JO CAST A. For Jocasta see Oedipus the King by Sophocles. |
| 5 | (C IN C) H |
| 6 | PLAY-ACTOR – (royal pact)* |
| 13 | DELIVERER – re-reviled rev. I’m not 100% sure either that deliverer = white-van man or that re-reviled even exists. It seems to me that at the very least a question mark is needed. |
| 15 | RE PROBATE |
| 17 | AIRWAYS – 1 in (war say)* |
| 20 | (LAW rev.) POLE. I was thrown by “European” and thought it was simply E. |
| 22 | STAKE – CD |
| 24 | BE A ST – can be read as “be a saint”. Lovely. |
I had problems in the lower half too, at least until I got the excellent 16a.
12ac (never heard of crudites, and with only the final D had little chance of finding crud from the definition) and 1d / 4d were the ones I didn’t get in the end. 27ac I would have got a lot quicker if I hadn’t written in ‘stamp’ inexplicably for 22d (and was the definition really that cryptic?) 16ac I got without fully untangling the wordplay -‘compote’ / ‘soggy’ / ‘crust’ giving me lots to play with.
Jon, have you perhaps instead heard of crudités (crew-dit-ays)?
Testy, thanks! Must admit, I didn’t check the pronounciation. You can see now why I only managed a C in ‘O’ Level French…
And it appears that my spelling has gone to pot too (only a C in English Lang, too, alas…)
HEARTH I read as H (hot) EARTH (i.e. here).
Nmsindy (HEARTH): Yes this is OK too I think, although perhaps it’s a bit loose to define “earth” by “here”. I think either are possible, but the explanation I offered at first seems to me to be the more likely one (not that I’d even thought of yours until you mentioned it).