Independent 7,240/Dac

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A lovely way to round off my 2009 blogging. Dac’s puzzles are always a pleasure, never a chore. Long may he continue.

Thanks from me to Eimi and the rest of the hugely talented team for a very enjoyable year of crosswords and to all fellow bloggers and commenters for their input and help pointing me in the right direction when I’ve been stumped. Happy 2010 to all.   

Across
1 COLD TURKEY -Cryptic def.
6 WIMP – W1 MP
9 PECKING – C[-old]in PEKING
10 DOGBANE – GB + A in DONE
12 TRIPLY – TRI[-m]+ PLY
13 INGRATES – A T(first signs of artistic talent) in INGRES
15 NON-BELIEVER -N.B in NOB ELI EVER
18 HORSE OPERAS – R[-egular] in (SOAP HEROES)*
21 MILLRACE – ILL in M RACE
22 RUNNER – Double def.
24 SAMURAI – (ARM US)* + A1
25 LEAFAGE – A FAG in LEE
26 STAR – STAR[-t]
27 ENGAGEMENT – Cryptic def.
Down
1 CAPOTE – CAP + O.T + E
2 LOCK-IN – [-b]LOCKIN[-g]
3 TRIAL AND ERROR – Cryptic def.
4 RIGA – RIG + A
5 END IN TEARS – (A SET DINNER)*
7 INACTIVE – (ANTI-VICE)*
8 PLEASURE – LEAS in PURE
11 GARLIC SAUSAGE – GAS rev. In (SAUCE A GIRL)*
14 INSPECTION – P(iano) in IN SECTION
16 SHAMUSES – SH + AMUSES
17 TRILEMMA – TRIL[-lion] + EMMA
19 INHALE – “in hale”
20 ARREST – (SARTRE)*
23 ELLA – Hidden in cELLAr

6 comments on “Independent 7,240/Dac”

  1. Thanks, Ali, for this and all your other blogs in 2009.

    Put TRIPLE instead of TRIPLY, but otherwise got there with a bit of effort and a few wordsearches – but you’re right, it’s a pleasure and never a chore. Several words new to me – SHAMUSES, HORSE OPERAS, TRILEMMA, MILLRACE and DOGBANE – but all succinctly clued, so now added to the memory bank (for tonight at least …)

    Was interested by the use of ‘champion’ for A1 giving AI at 24ac. In the sense of ‘fine, excellent’, I’ve never heard this outside my native north-east. Typical exchange: ‘How ye doing, bonny lad?’ ‘Champion, man, champion.’ Not that it should have prevented anyone getting the answer.

    Best surface today was 11d, in my humble opinion.

    Looking forward to more Dac next year.

  2. Me too. Thanks to Ali and his fellow bloggers for their efforts which I know are appreciated by the Indy setters and editor.

  3. Odd, isn’t it? This really good puzzle gets one comment, the ghastly offering elsewhere has people slavering over it.

    My thanks to all Indy setters and bloggers for this year (not forgetting the ed 🙂 )

  4. Quite right Sidey, and a bit of mea culpa on my part – I really enjoyed this Dac outing but got caught up in doing other stuff for the rest of the day. I suppose the thing with Dac is that his clues are so flippin’ good there’s rarely any sort of controversy, and that tends to be the thing that engenders comment. If you read through those blogs with the most comments several of them tend to be exchanges of polarised opinion over one or two “debatable” clues.

    But I’d hesitate to use the word “ghastly” when referring to any puzzle. My own experience is that any individual setter’s style appeals to one audience while leaving another cold, and that’s the way it should be; otherwise all setters end up being clones of each other, which nobody wants.

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