A typical Dac, full of elegant and tidy clues. I found most of it easier than usual, until I came up against 6dn.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PATCHES UP — Pa (the cups)* |
| 6 | CIVIC — I think this is i/c rev., Vic, and the whole a rather tenuous definition of civic, hence the question mark |
| 9 | SH IRK |
| 10 | EXECUTION — (exit on cue)*, a nice &lit. |
| 11 | A N GERMAN AGE(ME)NT |
| 13 | RAREBIT — RA Tiber rev. — banker is part of the family of words like number, flower, and (in yesterday’s Times) Mister that don’t always mean what they appear to mean |
| 15 | ARIETTA — (arti(s)te)* a |
| 16 | C(oncert) ABBA GE — eg rev. |
| 18 | INSUL(t) IN |
| 20 | STICK TO ONE’S GUNS — stick (noon guests)* |
| 23 | ABASEMENT — (beaten Sam)* |
| 25 | S(ketches) TILL |
| 26 | SHE’LL |
| 27 | TARN 1 SHED |
| Down | |
| 1 | goATS APparently |
| 2 | TRIGGER — two defs – Roy Rogers’s horse was called Trigger |
| 3 | HI KER(b) |
| 4 | SEE — two defs |
| 5 | PREPARATION — two defs |
| 6 | CAUSERIES — this caused problems, not least because I didn’t know the word, and I was also misled into thinking that ‘about’ meant that something was included in something else. It’s Ca u(nusual) series |
| 7 | V(A IN)EST — I wasn’t sure about this until I had all the checking letters, because it seems that ‘vain’ and ‘senseless’ are not that close in meaning. I suppose it’s OK, and both mean something like ‘pointless’ |
| 8 | CONS TRAIN |
| 12 | A T(THEM OMEN)T |
| 13 | ROCK STARS — (Corrs task)* |
| 14 | BRACKNELL — ref. Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde |
| 17 | B(RIG)ADE |
| 19 | LOUT(I’S)H |
| 21 | S(US)HI(p) — now here, contrary to what I wrote in a recent blog, really is a definition by example: a cruise liner is an example of a ship. So the Indy is going the way of The Times, is it? |
| 22 | S O LID |
| 24 | TOR — rot rev. |
VAINEST Collins gives vain = senseless, so I think this is quite OK. Re SUSHI, I know convention has it sometimes that as all cruise liners are ships but not all ships are cruise liners, you, should have ‘say’ or something like that. Not convinced myself esp in such an obvious case as this. Agree with you re CIVIC, though I felt the ? and ‘London’ cover the point fully and I did not think it was too vague. CAUSERIES was my last also tho I did know the word.
ARIETTA was the last one I got. Haven’t heard of the song. Who sang it?
I’d to look up to confirm, never having heard the word, but the wordplay was friendly – it’s a short aria.