Independent 7,073/Dac

by

A little tougher than usual for Dac today I thought, but great stuff as ever.

Across
1 PARADE – “RAID” on P.A
4 CHAIRMAN – C(onservative),HAIR MAN (barber!)
9 LAVISH – LAV-ISH, ‘John’ as in ‘toilet’
10 PALMETTO – PAL + TT,O on ME
12 SPRING ROLL – SPRING,ROLL
13 DISH – Double def.
15 SEASON TICKET – ON,TICK in SEA SET
18 COUNTENANCES – Double def.
21 DORY – 0 in DRY
22 VIEWFINDER – Double def.
24 OUTRIDER – OUT,RIDER
25 ADIEUX – 1 in A,DEUX
26 KASHRUTH – “CASH”,RUTH
27 GRATIS – G(erman),RAT,IS
Down
1 POLISH – Double def.
2 REVERB – BREVE,R rev.
3 DISINFESTS – (FINDS SITE’S)*
5 HEADLINE NEWS – (IN LEEDS WHEN A)*
6 IAMB – Nicely hidden in willIAM Blake
7 METHINKS – INK in METHS
8 NEOPHYTE – (ONE)* + (THEY)* under P
11 PRESENTIMENT – MEN in PRESENT I.T.
14 SIDEWINDER – SIDE,WIN,RED rev.
16 ACID ROCK – I’D in A CROCK
17 QUIRITES – IT in QUIRES
19 ADVENT – AD,VEN,T[-ire]
20 PRAXIS – X in PRAISE[-e]
23 LIAR – The ending of unfamiLIAR

5 comments on “Independent 7,073/Dac”

  1. As a comparative newcomer to Dac’s puzzles I thought this was excellent with some glorious deception. The IAMB clue is a great find and I really enjoyed VIEWFINDER. Unfortunately I didn’t quite finish as I couldn’t get KASHRUTH or QUIRITES, so ended up cheating.

    Many thanks for the blog Ali – you cleared up what I thought at first was an error, having convinced myself that 20D needed the components PRA(y), IS and X – which, of course, would have made the unindicated “following everything else” part IS a mistake. Shows what happens when you fail to look closely enough.

  2. I failed on METHINKS as I had HASH for 13a and assumed I was looking for some word for, say, a Japanese Buddhist—I failed to consider either METHS or INK. I had similar problems to Anax with those two words but luckily guessed at both KASH and RUTH.

  3. I thought this was excellent, even by Dac’s high standards, and, also, as you say, a little harder. Thanks for explaining PARADE where tho I’d guessed the answer from the start, I could not fathom the wordplay. Favourites – ADIEUX and QUIRITES (the latter esp for the surface reading).

  4. Kashruth was the last one I got, mainly because I was convinced it was a homophone of “kosher” and must therefore begin “kosha”. I’m still not sure I follow viewfinder. I understand it’s a device in a camera, but why exactly is it a “sounder”. Is that in the sense of “sounding out” ?

  5. Is that in the sense of “sounding out” ?

    Indeed! That is what I thought. One who sounds is a view finder. “Sounder” is indeed in Chambers as “a person who sounds”.
    As a verb, it’s usually with ‘out’ as you have mentioned.

Comments are closed.