Independent 6971/Dac

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As always, a high Dac standard, although today I found more to raise an eyebrow at than usual.

Across
1 S(OUR)CREAM
6 P(L)AID
9 LoOkS wEaRy
10 ROOMMATES — OM in (are most)*
11 D{ecision-making} OODLE{s}
12 MILL INER{t} — I’m not convinced by “has” as a link-word (Hat-maker has factory that’s largely idle). Perhaps it’s OK if seen as an elliptical form of “has as its construction”
14 ON THE CARDS — 2 defs
15 {j}IFFY — has the jiffy bag become so well-known that it can be referred to as a jiffy?
18 JUD{g}E — the Letter of Jude
19 PRO GRAMMER — “grammar” — again, as in 12, I’m less than happy with the link-word
21 T{ake} O{ff} M{aking} J{ust} ONES
23 P(R)OLES
26 ARTIC H(OK)E
27 CAME L
28 MusT A SERviceman — uncomfortably minimalist hidden indicator
29 T(URNS)INTO
 
Down
1 SALAD — (Dal{l}as)rev.
2 UNSPOTTED — 2 defs
3 CAROLLER — (collar)* (re)rev.
4 EZRA — ref. Ezra Pound
5 MOO DIN DI{d} GO
6 PO(ME)LO
7 ACTON — a C (not)rev.
8 DESTROYER — {mone}y in (restored)*
13 CARRIED OUT — 2 defs
14 O B JET DART
16 FAMILY MAN — (many a film)*
17 BAR RACKS
20 B OX CAR{e}
22 MITES — (items)*
24 SALT O — had to confirm this although it was easy from the wordplay. Dac obeys Ximenes’s advice to clue a difficult word easily.
25 WEAR — 2 defs

6 comments on “Independent 6971/Dac”

  1. Excellent from Dac as always. I thought the links in both 12 and 19 across were OK and worked logically in the cryptic reading – while ‘needs’ would ideally be better in 19 down the surface forced the past tense but I think it still works. 25 down WEAR was tricky enough.

  3. On the subject of making difficulties for oneself, I started with ‘TEES’ for 25D. I think 19A would read better simply as “Hatmaker’s factory largely idle”. Not a complete sentence, of course, but if that were a requirement a goodly proportion of clues would go up in smoke.

  4. I wasn’t sure about the “making” in 11 across but decided that the way to read the clue was that “lots shortly after the start of decision” is making doodle. I don’t think it was just that the d was the first letter of decision-making.

    I enjoyed this one. Dac’s rapidly becoming one of my favourite compilers. I find the puzzles about the right level for me – I can generally finish them without having to take a day off work !

  5. I think “has” in the MILLINER clue is a clever idea.

    “Has” can mean “is characterised by”…

  6. A very nice puzzle. Some gentle head-scratching though nothing that didn’t become clear very quickly. But see my post in General Crossword Discussion prompted by 14d.

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