Independent 7139/Dac

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A typically pleasant crossword. Unusually for Dac, there are one or two things I’m not completely comfortable with: no doubt someone will come to the rescue.

Across
1 TAR BOOS H
6 EX(PO’S)E
9 SIGN OF THE TIMES — 2 defs, the gap before the last two words
10 LITTER — again 2 defs
11 LANDRACE — yet again 2 defs
12 headacHE ALtogether
13 {s}E{n}T AILING
16 SE VERITY
17 MIN X — &lit.
19 PERFECT 0 — a perfecto is a type of cigar
21 TOPPER — 2 defs — I remember the Topper with joy from my childhood — Beryl the Peril etc
22 APPLES AND PAIRS PEARS [thanks, Draig, what a fool] — Cockney rhyming slang for stairs, which are I suppose steps up, although they are also steps down
23 LEVERS — (s revel)rev.
24 ADRIENNE — (a dinner)* E
 
Down
2 AU SPICES [or rather, as Richard points out, AU(SPICE)S] — although I can’t see why the clue says ‘Sign’: a sign is an auspice not an auspices — what was wrong with having ‘Signs’ in the clue?
3 BAGATELLE — (Get a ball)* {hol}e
4 {T}O(DO)UR{s}
5 HOTEL CALIFORNIA — (in the local fair o)*
6 ETERNALLY — (nearly let)*
7 PR(1)O R
8 S PENCE — I’m not quite sure how this works: OK the architect Basil Spence, but it looks as if pre-decimal is S and coins is pence: how is pre-decimal = s unless it’s some oblique reference to shillings or solidi, which would seem a bit thin?
13 EX(ER)CISES
14 NAMEPLATE — CD using the name sense of handle
15 AND ERSE N
18 WEE PIE
20 supposEDLY Fashionable — hidden rev.
21 TAPIR — I in (trap)*

4 comments on “Independent 7139/Dac”

  1. Wordplay for 2Dn is SPICE “in AUS(tralia)” (= down under). Agree with you that the defn ought to be ‘Signs’.

    Re 8Dn: ‘Pre-decimal coins’ refers to both S(hillings) and PENCE (though of course the latter is post-decimal too).

  3. Tougher than usual from Dac, I thought, great variety in clueing and trickery. May be wrong but I read the AU SPICES wordplay as John did. Read S PENCE as Richard Heald in comment 1 though took quite a while to get it, toying with florins, tanners, (half-)crowns etc. Favourite, WEEPIE.

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