Apologies for the lateness of posting, but some intravenous drugs managed to lay me low for a little while longer than expected today.
Solving time: 19 minutes.
Always a joy to solve Dac’s puzzles that contain amusing topical references or nice twists on old clues. 26 across made me smile a lot, 10 down a nice anagram. 9 across was another great clue.
ACROSS (*) = Anagram (CD) = Cryptic definition (R)= Reversed
1 RATE CAPS AS CARPET*
5 STICKY Double def.
9 PRICE REDUCTIONS RICE in PRE + DISCOUNT* Well worked clue.
11 SALESWOMAN She sells (def) ALES inside S W OMAN (S W State)
12 JUNE Nice take on the film and (CD)
14 ERASMUS SUMS + A R.E. (REV)
16 TAHITI TA (Territorial Army) + HIT (reached) + I (Island)
18 GRATIS GR + (D)AT(E) + IS. Date is clued as “no frills vacation”. Nice!
19 CHIMERA I’M inside CH + ERA – new def of CHIMERA to me.
21 ITCH How a Cockney might pronounce “hitch”.
22 AIR PASSAGE Double def.
25 MOONLIGHT SONATA Does extra hours = MOONLIGHTS + ON (working) + AT +A (Introduction to Atonal)
26 AUSTEN My favourite clue!
27 ADHESIVE HE’S inside A DIVE
DOWN
1 RIPOSTED R (Final part of letter) + I POSTED
2 TRIAL First letters
3 CHEESE MITE SEE THE MICE* Nice clue with a clever image
4 PREPOSSESSING POSSE inside PRESSING
6 TATI TAHITI minus HI
7 CROQUETTE CROQUET + TE(A) [Drink shortly)
8 YES MEN ENEMY’S*
10 UNANTICIPATED UNITED CAPTAIN*
13 CHAIN STORE CHAIN (Measure) + STORE(Y) (“Most of” floor)
15 ATROCIOUS OU inside of ACTOR IS*
17 LACERATE One to make me smile LACE RATE (The cost of delicate fabric)
20 MIA MIA MIAMI + A
23 AMATI Hidden answer
24 FLEE FLEET minus T
And I have just opened a parcel containing a book I purchased on E-bay. The Pan Crossword Solver’s Dictionary by Mike Hutchinson. A bargain at 99p. What became of the author? !
I noticed that the online version of this crossword had a distinct lack of apostrophes (“mens” and “enemys”). Is this a regular problem with the online version or was it just this crossword?
I really liked 9A but thought that in 18A “no-frills vacation” for AT was a bit cheeky.
Yes, frills = 3/4 of the word was unusual, but just about logical so OK. Fairly easy puzzle, good as always from Dac.
Thanks Testy. It’s not always a problem, but I think I’ve identified the culprit. For some reason Dac’s copy comes with curly apostrophes rather than straight ones (not the technical term, obviously) and the java can’t seem to cope with them. Now I’m aware of the problem I’ll be able to replace them in future.
I am happy to defer to my colleagues above over the parsing of AT in 18 across.