Independent 7043/Dac

Dac as usual shows his mastery. One or two things I’m not quite sure about but it’s more likely to be me than him.

Across
1 SCRAPHEAP — (car)* in (shape)* {dum}p — I like this &lit., although perhaps the definition is a little loose
6 D{ecorate} 1 dup{lex}
9 {M}ORGAN — ref Piers Morgan, whose sacking from The Daily Mirror hasn’t quite resulted in a loss of fame
10 THES{e} TICKS
11 RE(A L)LY
12 BUNG A LOW
14 LOOK SNAPPY — OK ‘look snappy’ is ‘be quick’, and a photograph is a snap, but exactly how it all hangs together I’m not sure
15 excITEMent
18 REED — “read” — ref Carol Reed
19 FROST / NIX ON
21 HIGH CAMP — 2 defs
23 F(RIEN)D — Franklin D. Roosevelt
26 TABLE WINE — (a bin we let)*
27 A BID E — initially this totally bewildered me, but closer inspection reveals that it is indeed 1 (one) and not I, so 1NT’s the bridge bid ‘one no trumps’
28 {l}OVE{s} TT — although for how long we’ll all be familiar with Steve Ovett I’m not sure. I suppose he was an Olympic Gold medal winner, so may eventually justifiably pass into the category of ‘old athlete’ (see 22dn).
29 SPO(KEN F)OR — likewise Ken Livingstone, who is no doubt a boon to crossword setters but, although probably still well-known to Londoners, may increasingly be losing his fame elsewhere, particularly abroad. But because KEN is such a common letter-pattern he may well eventually become like Elia and Tree (Lamb and old actor).
 
Down
1 {journey}S TOUR — I think Dac means ‘point’ to be read as ‘object, reason for’
2 RIG MA ROLE
3 PANG LOSS — ref Voltaire’s Dr Pangloss, for whom “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”.
4 mEAT Safe
5 PRESUPPOSE — I’m not quite sure how this works: presuppose = assume, pose = position, pre = prior to (I think), but how they get into that order I can’t see — it looks as if it should be posepresup
6 DOT A GE{nt} — dot as in full stop, excellent &lit.
7 DE(C{ompany})AL
8 POSTWOMEN — (town Epsom)*
13 DAIRYMAIDS — airy in (MD)rev. aids — beautiful easy surface
14 LAR GHETTO — Libya (IVR) is LAR
16 TAX RELIEF — (extra file)*
17 IN CR EASE
20 AC CENT — ac “sent”
22 GA(B)LE — ref Clark Gable
24 D REAR
25 NEMO — (o men)rev.

2 comments on “Independent 7043/Dac”

  1. I particularly liked 14ac and 5dn, which work on similar lines. 5dn is essentially a normal definition plus a CD of a charade – a PRE-SUP POSE being a position prior to drinking. It only seems wrong if you expect each part to be clued in turn in the wordplay. Similarly, ‘adopt pose for photo’ is a CD of LOOK SNAPPY. In each case, a ? might have alerted solvers to the trickery, but opinions differ as to when that’s necessary.

  2. I agree with John about Dac’s mastery. I thought 1 down might be TOURS with the S moved to the start. I also read the two clues referred to by Mick H in the same way as he did.

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