Independent 7,223 by Dac

by

I found this mostly quite straightforward, with lots of double definitions and simple charades. Still the final four took about as long as the rest put together.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
1 FIVE TO – F + I + VETO.
4 SPATLESE – LES in PATÉS*. A potentially troublesome one, but several student years behind the counter at Victoria Wine served me well here!
9 ALLIER – dd/cd. Had to guess this one, but a quick check of the atlas confirms this to be an area – and river – in the Auvergne.
10 AIRSPACE – AIRS PACE.
12 TRATTORIA – TART< + hom. of "tory" + A.
13 MIDGE – (EG + DIM)<.
14 SPREADSHEETS – dd.
18 REGIME CHANGE – REGIME is EMIGRE*. Nice reverse cryptic.
21 CHINA – [ma]CHINA[tions].
22 GIN PALACE – IN in (G + PAL + ACE).
24 ROUNDS ON – ROUND SON.
25 MAKE DO – dd.
26 RETIRING – RE-TIRING.
27 WREATH – hom. of “Reith“.
Down
1 FLATTISH – LATT[e] in FISH.
2 VOLTAIRE – TA in OLIVER*.
3 TREAT – dd.
5 PRIVATE MEANS – PRIVATE + MEANS.
6 TEST MATCH – TEST + MATCH.
7 ELANDS – E. LANDS.
8 ELEVEN – [hot]EL EVEN[tually].
11 DRESSING DOWN – dd.
15 ALEXANDER – dd.
16 IN CAMERA – AMERICAN*.
17 BEHEMOTH – BE + HE + MOTH.
19 SCORER – dd.
20 PIQUET – P + QUIET*.
23 ADAIR – hom. of “a dare”. Paul “Red” Adair, legendary firefighter.

6 comments on “Independent 7,223 by Dac”

  1. Good one this – like you, Simon, I found it a bit more difficult to finish off than usual for Dac.

    18ac is a great clue

  4. Yep, great stuff as ever from Dac. Had to guess at SPATLESE, but seemed the most obvious answer from the letters I had.

    Loved 18A too!

  5. Thanks, Simon. Like you, got off to a good start but found the last half dozen or so more tricky. But a very enjoyable puzzle – and yes, 18ac is very clever now I see what’s going on.

  6. I liked REGIME CHANGE too. Though a reverse cryptic, surely this is a good example of why there’s nothing wrong in principle with nouns as anagram indicators.

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