Independent 7,605/Dac

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Wednesday = Dac = it’s all good.

Some tricksy Down clues in this one I thought, but everything perfectly justifiable and well put together as ever.

Across
1 SLIP-UP – PUPILS rev.
5 CROCKETT – ROCKET in CT.
9 DISCLOSURE – [-gir]L in DISCO + SURE
10 TEAM – TEA + M[-atch]
11 ADMINISTRATION – AD + MINIS + TRA[-c]TION
12 DOGIE – DOG (plague) + I.E
13 RICKSHAW – RICKS + H[-amper} + A W(ife)
15 DAUGHTER – (DUG EARTH)*
17 TABLE – Double def.
19 MOTION PICTURES – (IS INTO COMPUTER)*
22 PARR – PAR + R(ecipe)
23 BEST IN SHOW – (HE ISN’T + BOWS)*
24 FAREWELL – FAR + EWELL
25 MARKED – ARK in MED
Down
2 LAIRD – LAIR + D(uke)
3 PECKING – PEC KING
4 PROVIDENT – (DEVON TRIP)*
5 COUNTERPROPOSAL – (CAROL’S OPPORTUNE)*
6 OMEGA – Hidden in fearsOME GAng
7 KITTIES – KIT + TIES
8 TRAIN FARE – TRAIN (school) + “fair”
12 DHARMSALA – HARM in A LAD’S rev.
14 CATECHISM – A (best possible mark ) in C(atholic) TECH (college) IS + M(ark)
16 GUTHRIE – GlUm + (REITH)*
18 BRUISER – 1 in BR(itish) USER
20 OMBRE – [-s]OMBRE
21 EVOKE – O.K in EVE

13 comments on “Independent 7,605/Dac”

  1. Thanks for the blog, Ali, and Dac for another easygoing puzzle.

    Favourites were 11A ADMINISTRATION, 3D PECKING, and 16D GUTHRIE, referencing the father and son folk singers. Last one in was 12D DHARMSALA, easy enough from the wordplay, but confusingly the word itself has these alternative forms Dharmashala and Dharamshala.

  2. I was a bit dubious about Dharmsala. I can’t find that spelling anywhere and in any case it seems to be a place rather than a building. I’d also never heard of a dogie, which unfortunately intersected with Dharmsala, meaning I spent quite a while getting those two. Other than that, it was mostly very good, although 1 across is probably a bit hackneyed now. 2 down was quite inventive and 11 had some neat wordplay.

  3. Thanks Ali. This was all good as you say, except for 12dn. While the city in Himachal Pradesh is sometimes spelled Dharmsala, the uncapitalised word for the roadside ‘religious building’ only appears as dharamshala as far as I can tell.

  4. Excellent from Dac as always. DOGIE and DHARMSALA were new to me too but I was able to get them from the wordplay. DHARMSALA is in Chambers. Thanks for the blog, Ali.

  6. Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’. Though the streams are swollen. Keep them dogies rollin’. Rawhide!

  7. Dharmsala, dharamshala, dharmashala – the Oxford gives all three with the same common noun meaning.

  8. Odd to find these bones of contention in Dac. Perhaps they were ‘dogie’ bones??!! But a rare instance of Homer nodding I would say. Come back, Dac, come back!

  9. DOGIE as I said in #4 was new to me, it means a motherless calf. In view of #8, it might have been thought I meant when I said that that I could find only DHARMSALA.

    No, that was not meant at all. DOGIE is in Collins, so Dac has not nodded…

    And, as I said, the wordplay led me to both of them.

  10. The two 12s we tricky I felt, got the right answers but never heard the term before as for 12d wordpla left little choice but glad to see I was right. Certainly not a 5 minute job today for me though filling most of the 30 minute train ride (I do read some of the paper as well..) Thanks Ali for confirming 12a/12d for me.

  11. OK with dogie – thanks to beermagnet @6 for reminding me where I knew it from. Great series. Dharmsala was new and the last to go in. Thought 8d was very neat even though straightforward. Thanks to Ali for the blog.

  13. At last! Been doing your fiendish-at-times x-words for six months now and have never finished one until today! I’m normally embarrassingly short on answers but now so happy I could spit!

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