Top quality puzzle from Dac, great variety, subtlety and no loose ends. Solving time, 28 mins.
* = anagram < = reversed
1 TO PIC “pick” ‘to’ appearing as itself in the wordplay actually made it harder as I was looking for a five-letter homophone until the penny dropped.
4 BILL (GATE) S
9 1’S (IS) ADORA “adorer” Duncan, famous dancer and personality (originally US) – died in the 1920s
10 SULLIED (ill-used)* & lit
11 DOT hidden reversal
12 The Secret Life of W (ALTER M) ITTY Character originally created by James Thurber that has passed into general use.
14 AIR (PLAN)E US given as that’s a mainly US usage – aeroplane in UK.
15 A STRID(e)
18 EUC LID cue<
20 L (AY)OVERS I got this from the wordplay, another US usage meaning stops on a journey, and not other possibilities that had come to my mind.
23 GREEN SHOOTS (Gets on horse)* A cliché of our times.
24 RUE Je ne regrette rien – her famous song. rue = regret and rue = street in French (=place) is what is meant here, I think. (It occurred to me to be later that the reference in the clue “where she began” is that she began as a street singer)
25 D RUMMER ‘Buddy’ Rich, jazz drummer I think is the reference here.
27 L (bARGES)T
28 TE (RM AGA) NT
29 EATER last letters (‘finishes’) of the last five words in the clue.
DOWN
1 THIRD-RATE (ride that r) * r = traveller ultimately (last letter) This was very good.
2 PLATTER Cleverly hidden 29 = EATER
3 CROMWELLIAN (Cameron will)* Great misleading surface
4 B RAW LING war<
5 LA (SHE) D She is a Charles Aznavour song
6 GEL Double definition
7 T (W) ITTER
8 S (AD) LY Stallone nicknamed ‘Sly’
13 MIS (CON)S TRUE
16 DISSENTER (residents)*
17 W A GO N L IT &lit 5 parts for 8 letters
19 CHE (QU) ER
21 EAR NEST regularly = alternate letters of rEpAiRs
22 SHA RIA (has)* air<
23 GOD OT (to dog)< Vladimir from Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Waiting for Godot’
26 MO (Missouri) A (area) Extinct bird i.e.’no longer found’
Nice to finish one at last this week! Good stuff as ever from Dac, though perhaps a little tougher than usual. WAGON LIT was new to me, but perfectly solvable from the clue. Good to see TWITTER starting to make an appearance now too.
17D held me up for a while as I expected the first component to be “Dutch” (Cockney for wife) and I was tempted to insert Dutch cap.
I rather stupidly put in RIA at 26dn. I read it as a hidden word and thought RIA might be some obsolete alternative to rhea. It didn’t help that the A fitted.
Agreed, excellent puzzle. Not sure how easy it was because I was doing it at the same time as watching the test match.
If 25ac is indeed a reference to that jazz drummer then it seems a strange lapse from Dac to have a definition by example. I suppose he thought ‘Rich (possibly) stranger …’ was too clumsy.
25A – definition by example indeed, and yet I have no complaints. In most cases DBE raises my hackles as it does others, but “Rich” is such a good spot that the smile it raised far outweighed any DBE concerns for me. I think there are times when it’s right that the setter is allowed to get away with it.