In ‘Logical Chess’, by Irving Chernev, the author takes it upon himself to make a comment on every single move. As you might expect, the commentary on the opening moves of games become rather repetitive. It’s rather the same when I blog a Dac crossword: he is always so tidy and efficient that it is tempting to repeat myself.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PAL A TABLE |
| 6 | CO(W)E’S — very useful to crossword setters Sebastian Coe is turning out to be: I expect his fame will long outlast the Olympics, although perhaps one could say that he deserves it for his athletic exploits |
| 9 | CO(M)P ACT — I suppose a cop act is what a policeman does, but it looks to me that there should at least have been a question mark |
| 10 | DE(ME)TER — who was so far as I can see amongst other things a protector of women, although it has been quite hard to find out how |
| 11 | SHARED OWNERSHIP — (hears)* downer’s hip — gorgeous clue |
| 12 | BRAZIL — OK a Brazil is a nut and so can be called nutty, but it doesn’t actually mean nutty, so I’m uncomfortable with this clue — ref Angela Brazil |
| 13 | V(END)ET TA |
| 15 | TAPESTRY — (pretty as)* — nice semi &lit. |
| 17 | BEN GAL{e} |
| 20 | CO N(FRONT)ATIONAL |
| 22 | ASHANTI — (Hait{i}ans)* |
| 23 | LECTER {campaig}N — ref Hannibal Lecter |
| 24 | fearlesS ARGEntines |
| 25 | HA(MP)STE AD |
| Down | |
| 1 | PICKS — “pics” |
| 2 | LAM(BAD)A |
| 3 | TRAVEL INSURANCE — (Venice trans-Ural)* |
| 4 | BOTTOM — 2 defs |
| 5 | END ANGER |
| 6 | CAMBRIDGE CIRCUS — I think it’s simply ‘some students’ = ‘Cambridge’, ‘rowdy behaviour’ = ‘circus’, but this seems a bit thin and perhaps I’m missing something elegant |
| 7 | WAT CHIT |
| 8 | S(TRIP)MALL — something of which I’d never heard (although the wordplay was easy enough), but it seems to be an American thing |
| 12 | BATH CHAPS — food that may be well known to those of a certain age |
| 14 | F(RANK)ISH |
| 16 | PANT HER |
| 18 | GE((ON)rev)ESE |
| 19 | CALL UM |
| 21 | LI(N)ED |
Excellent, as always, from Dac, tho I found it much harder than usual maybe as some of the answers were a little unfamiliar.
I didn’t know the author at 12 but it was easy enough. I had no problem with nutty. These are supposed to be fun, aren’t they?
An excellent observation, Mr Tyro!
I’d no real problems with ‘nutty’ as a BRAZIL is just that.
I thought this was an excellent crossword. I’m comfortable with “nutty”, and, although I’d never heard of “bath chaps”, I was delighted to find it in the dictionary after having worked it out from the clue. So, as usual, many thanks to Dac both for diversion and for education.