Wednesday and back with the Dac goodness, one new word to me but quite get-able, oh and sorry K’sD no hat trick I’m afraid you were on one but Dac’s not played ball. Lots of lovely surfaces as usual from Dac. No themes etc as far as I can tell but happy to be corrected.
Across.
1 Scraps – S(pades) + CRAPS. Clue nicely misdirecting to card games.
4 Cooked up – OK + ED in COUP
9 Peseta – PE + (EATS)*
10 Storeman – (A MONSTER)*
12 Launching – LUNCHING around middle of (d)A(y)
13 Tonto – Hidden in alTON TOwers
14 Rolling Stone – ROLLING (in it) + S(ingular) + TONE (Probably not an &lit!)
18 Pleasantries – LEA’S in PAN + TRIES for cracks. My last one to get.
21 Troop – POOR T rev
23 St Andrews – DD
24 Indiaman – MAID in NAN + I all reversed
25 Rumble – MB in RULE
26 Gardener – forest of ARDEN in GER
27 Spirit – DD
Down
1 Supply – SUP + PLY
2 Risque – E + SIR rev about QU
3 Put across – DD (Across in a down clue…?)
5 Octogenarian – O(ld) + (RAINCOAT)* about GEN for dope. Lovely clue.
6 Karst – (STARK)* New word on me for a rock formation
7 Dominion – DO + MINION
8 Pin Money – IN in PM + ONE + Y(en)
11 Billingsgate – BILL GATE(s) about Dutch bank ING’S
15 Speed Hump – (MEP PUSHED)*
16 Spotting – S(hip) + POTTING (snooker)
17 Recorder – RECORD + ER
19 Berber – BEER about BR rev.
20 Aspect – A SECT about P(riest)
22 Plate – P(a)LATE
Could there please be no solutions in the preamble?
Sorry Sil, I thought I’d put enough breaks in it, but the editing software strips them out. Fixed I hope.
I would think that 3d is a charade: PUT ACROSS from “PUT A CROSS” (“basic instruction at the ballot box”).
Nowadays in most Indian elections we have what are called EVMs (electronic voting machines) on which we are told to punch a button.
Thanks flashling, and Dac for another enjoyable crossword.
Kicking myself for the one fumble I made: 4A: COOKED UP. Had the answer but rejected it because I couldn’t get the parsing. “Sanction” is one of those two-faced words, and for some reason, I was fixed on the negative meaning (as in “sanctions against a rogue nation”), and didn’t latch on to the positive OK meaning, possibly also because by association with the negative “putsch”. Duh!
Favourites were 5D OCTOGENARIAN, 18A PLEASANTRIES, a clever bit of misdirection with the capital F(ields’) and 11D BILLINGSGATE.
Thank you, flashling.
Always a pleasure to solve a Dac – for me, he’s the perfect example of a setter ‘losing gracefully’. He rarely produces a bad clue, so it’s hard to pick out favourites, but if I had to today I’d go for RUMBLE, RECORDER and PUT ACROSS.
I have two questions, if someone could oblige. I don’t get the gen = dope connection in 5dn – is it drugs slang? Also, in RISQUE doesn’t the ‘about’ suggest an insertion of QUE in RIS? Dac’s always very precise with his clueing, so I’m sure it’s just me missing how it works.
As flashling indicated, the only disappointment today was not having a valid excuse to mention my beloved Sunderland three days in row. So I’ll just have to use an invalid one.
Sorry, Gaufrid, I’ll stop now, honest.
Hi K’sDad, the “dope” = GEN refreshingly refers to “knowledge” or “info”.
I think for RISQUE, it’s QU(estion) + E(nglish) SIR with “upset”=reverse, and “about”=surrounding.
Thanks, scchua, never come across the dope/information definition before.
That was my point about RISQUE, though: ‘about’ does suggest surrounding, in other words an insertion of QUE in RIS; but it’s just a charade of the two, so I’m still not seeing it.
Enjoyable puzzle, quite easy I thought, favourite COOKED UP. Re RISQUE, as the blog says, the question is just QU, I think, with the E coming from English, teacher = sir. upset indicating going up (in a down clue)
I agree. Favourite also COOKED UP. OCTOGENERIAN too I liked well.
Thanks nms – I see it now, just had a blind spot to it before.
Thanks, flashling. A nice puzzle, though I’m slightly aggrieved at having fluffed it. I plumped for GET ACROSS, leaving 1ac unsolvable. Never mind, maybe tomorrow I’ll break my recent streak of not-quite-finishing crosswords!
@ Simon Can see where you got that, perhaps I was lucky to get 1ac straight away. You tomorrow? About time for an anax but he was in the ft today as loroso. If it’s Nimrod then I pity the poor sod on duty. Thought this was as gentle as the indy gets, not that I’m complaining as I’ve had a few bleeding hard ones recently. @Rishi #3 you’re quite right. @KD sorry if I didn’t make it clear enough, I’m sure black and cats will appear tomorrow!