Another really top-quality puzzle from Dac, with some excellent &lit type constructions. Not too difficult, 26 mins.
* = anagram
1 SOCIALIST SO (thus) CIA (US agency) LIST (index of names) Great surface reading.
6 Sir Vivian FUCHS (Antarctic explorer etc) CH (Companion of Honour) in FUS(s)
9 GRANT Hidden in immiGRANTs’
10 SECOND (back) ACT (work)
11 SIMON CALLOW brilliant & lit clue re this TV and stage personality I’M ON CALL (available) in SOW (broadcast)!
13 AIL “ale”
14 PERISHER Double definition, go west = to die (like sun setting in the west)
15 ENDING DIN (racket) in P(ENG)e
17 LARKIN Took me a while to understand this being distracted by KIN which means family.
Think it refers to both the poet Philip Larkin and the Larkin family ie from HE Bates novels also dramatised for TV eg Darling Buds of May.
19 REFORMAT (for a term)*
22 CON ARTIST Clue of the puzzle for me First letters of Roguish Type in (actions)* & lit
23 GARDEN PARTY GAR (fish) PART (some) in DENY (refuse). ‘eat’ indicates containment.
25 CLIP (piece of film) J (judge) OINT (into)*
27 NICHE H (husband) in NICE (holiday resort – in France) Very well constructed surface giving a really smooth reading
28 RUGBY (GUR)u reversed BY
29 THRESH (strike) OLD (former)
DOWN
1 SIGNS G (good) in SINS (wrongdoings) Another excellent surface.
2 CRAMMER New ‘heart’ ie central letter for THOMAS CRANMER (historical figure, first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury burnt as a heretic, 1556)
3 ASTONISHING N (note) in (a hit song is)* Well-concealed anagram I saw only near the end.
4 IN (fashionable) SPADES (Suit of cards)
5 TACKLE Double definition
6 FAN Hidden in oF ANderson indicated by ‘shelters’ with the surface giving misleading context of those WWII constructions.
7 CHA (tea) PAT (some butter) I (one) Bread, originally from India
8 SET ALIGHT (The last GI)*
12 WINDOWPANES N (northern) in WIDOW “pains”. Good seamless join at ‘northern lights’ suggesting stars (thanks to commenters who pointed out that the northern lights are not stars but the Aurora Borealis, I shd have checked before writing that)
14 POLICE CAR L (learner) I (one) in RACE (speed) COP both reversed
16 RECEPTOR EP (old record) in RECTOR (clergyman) a sense-organ
18 RUNNING NN (names) in RUING (regretting)
20 MOROCCO OM (Order of Merit) reversed ROC = little ROCK ie last letter off, CO (company)
24 YIELD Double definition
26 JAY J (Japan) AY (yes)
I’m with the blogger entirely. As I went through I marked my favourite clues. There were so many I was spoilt for choice and finally plumped for 2 &lits: SIMON CALLOW and CON ARTIST, the latter being my last entry. What makes the setter stand out for me is the superb surface readings. Well done, Dac.
Thank you nmsindy, I needed your help to understand some of the answers. I got through this OK but I had to resort to “guess and Google” frequently due to answers which were obscure to me. I have never heard of Simon Callow so even though I worked out his name from the clue it is hard for me to consider it a brilliant clue. Similarly I don’t know either Crammer or Cranmer or the Bates Larkins. I was convinced someone had written a novel called ‘Lar’. But I enjoyed others, such as 12dn and 14dn.
A couple of comments on your explanations – although it has no bearing on the parsing of the clue, I think ‘northern lights’ is a reference to the Aurora Borealis, rather than stars. And I am still puzzled by 26dn. I am not entirely convinced that ‘Ay’ is yes. ‘Aye’ certainly but it doesn’t seem right as just ‘Ay’. So perhaps Dac intended ‘Ja’ as the abbreviation for Japan and plain ‘Y’ for yes. ‘jp’ is most common but there are some contexts where ‘JA’ denotes Japan.
Hi Tokyo Colin
Chambers, Collins and COED all give ‘ay’ as a variant spelling of ‘aye’. The usual country abbreviations in the dictionaries, and hence crosswords, is the IVR which for Japan is J (JA is Jamaica).
Thank you also, nms. This was for me a curious mixture of some very easy and some frankly difficult clues; but as usual with a Dac, I did enjoy it. Just to show how people’s brains work differently, ASTONISHING was one of my first in, but like you I enjoyed SIMON CALLOW (which was my last to go in).
Colin, you’re right about the reference to the Aurora Borealis – is there an equivalent in the southern hemisphere? But ay, lad, tha’s off the mark with 26dn, as anyone from oop north (in this country at least) will tell you. And with reference to your pants comment in Another Place today, it was me, you’re welcome, and I’m enjoying your contributions to these blogs!
Glad I’m not the only one to search my memory for Lar. Some very nice &lits today.
Kathryn’s Dad, I am afraid your comment arrived after my bed-time and this is now presumably after yours… But thank you anyway for the correction on ‘ay’ and of course for ‘pants’.
There is indeed a southern equivalent to the northern lights called the Aurora Australis (meaning South). But the phenomenon is much less known and observed because no-one lives at the latitudes where it is visible. The southernmost tip of Australia for example is at 43 degrees S, which is equivalent in the Northern hemisphere to the French Riviera.
Thanks, Colin – you’re right about my bedtime, and interesting stuff about the Southern Lights.
Didn’t finish but with some good inspired guesses did quite well.11a 14a 29a and 16d sadly defeated me but enjoyable.