As we have come to expect, another neat puzzle from Dac with excellent surfaces and crafty misdirections – a pleasure to solve and blog!
We particularly liked 16A for its use of ‘setter’ – which usually suggests that the answer includes the compiler’s name, or ‘I’, ‘me’ etc. – a completely different meaning this time!
We’d never come across the wild dog in 3D before – we learn something new every day!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Creature spinning around on food at party | |
| SPIDER | RE (on) DIPS (food at party) reversed or ‘around’ | |
| 5 | Forsaking 19, she and Italian leader get into bed? | |
| SEDUCE | S |
|
| 8 | Do everything possible to take a trip alone? | |
| FALL OVER ONESELF | If you were to trip or fall over yourself, you would be the only one falling! | |
| 10 | Fellow leads driver out of odd parts | |
| EDDIE | Odd letters of lEaDs DrIvEr omitted | |
| 11 | Two qualifications available in reform school once | |
| ALMA MATER | MA MA (two qualifications) in ALTER (reform) | |
| 12 | What’s principally dangerous at any time, likely to explode? | |
| DYNAMITE | D (first or principal letter of Dangerous) + anagram of ANY TIME (anagrind is also the definition – ‘likely to explode’) | |
| 14 | European law enforcer in a spin about UN attack | |
| POUNCE | E (European) COP (law enforcer) reversed or ‘in a spin’ around UN | |
| 16 | Partly suspecting this setter’s in a jam | |
| PECTIN | Hidden in or ‘part of’ susPECTINg – we were fooled into looking for DAC in this one until we had all the checking letters! | |
| 18 | Christian who makes weapons | |
| FLETCHER | A reference to Fletcher Christian, leader of the Mutiny on the Bounty | |
| 21 | Belching quietly before tucking in? Extremely rude, first and foremost | |
| REPEATING | P (quietly) + EATING (tucking in) after R(ud)E (first and last or ‘extreme’ letters) | |
| 22 | Early sign of repentance by youngster, following a crime | |
| ARSON | R (first letter or ‘early sign’ of Repentance) + SON (youngster) after A | |
| 23 | Flight, last arranged between Paris, possibly, and Ireland: luggage is extra | |
| SPIRAL STAIRCASE | Anagram of LAST (anagrind is ‘arranged’) in an anagram of PARIS (anagrind is ‘possibly’) + IR (Ireland) + CASE (luggage) | |
| 24 | Story of cricket side’s demise | |
| LEGEND | LEG (cricket side) + END (demise) | |
| 25 | You and I wear man’s garments | |
| TWEEDS | WE (you and I) in or ‘wearing’ TED’S (man’s). Thanks to Kathryn’s Dad for pointing out the misprint! Yes, we can blame each other although Bert wrote up the blog this time. Mind you, Joyce checked it – obviously not very well! | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Young fellow with smart clothing is a champion | |
| PALADIN | LAD (young fellow) in or ‘clothed by’ PAIN (smart) | |
| 3 | Wild dog finally found place to hide | |
| DHOLE | D (final letter of ‘founD’) + HOLE (place to hide) | |
| 4 | Once more performs in problematic scene with art | |
| RE-ENACTS | Anagram of SCENE and ART (anagrind is ‘problematic’) | |
| 5 | Report about millions affected by bad weather | |
| STORMY | STORY (report) about M (millions) | |
| 6 | Dishy sort doctor met abroad | |
| DREAMBOAT | Anagram of MET ABROAD (anagrind is ‘doctor’) | |
| 7 | Deceive guerrilla leader a great deal | |
| CHEAT ON | CHE (Guevara – ‘guerrilla leader’) + A + TON (great deal) | |
| 8 | Stop rifles – about five hundred – being deployed for deadly pursuits | |
| FIELD SPORTS | Anagram of STOP RIFLES (anagrind is ‘being deployed’) around D (five hundred) | |
| 9 | Self-control shown by soldiers facing defeat, cut off in foreign country | |
| FORBEARANCE | OR (soldiers) + BEA |
|
| 13 | Here, BBC studios produced a film for broadcast | |
| MAIDA VALE | Sounds like (‘for broadcast’) of MADE A VEIL (‘produced a film’) | |
| 15 | Outrageous, accommodating old woman in apartment | |
| FLAGRANT | GRAN (old woman) in FLAT (apartment) | |
| 17 | I prance about acting the goat? | |
| CAPRINE | Anagram of I PRANCE (anagrind is ‘about’) | |
| 19 | Mate is hot on Aerosmith, perhaps | |
| HUSBAND | H (hot) on US BAND (Aerosmith being an American rock band) | |
| 20 | Didn’t attend audition for film | |
| MISSED | Sounds like (in ‘audition’) MIST (film) | |
| 22 | Grassy area cut after a match | |
| AGREE | GREE |
|
Thanks, both.
As always, a pleasing puzzle from Dac, though a little harder than usual. DHOLE was new to me as well, and PALADIN was somewhere in the remote reaches of my passive vocabulary. PECTIN was nicely misleading and I thought MAIDA VALE was good too.
In 25ac, you have mistranscribed the clue. I’m sure you meant to say that WE was inserted in TED’S (‘man’s’) not in ‘men’. The joy of blogging in pairs is that you can blame each other.
Thanks Kathryn’s Dad for checking the blog better than either of us did!
“Dishy sort doctor met abroad (9)”, apart from the smooth surface, tickled me with its three possible anagram indicators. COMETTROD?
Have to agree with Alan about dream boat but you can’t really argue too much about a dac to do. Ta b&j wot not travelling today??
A nice steady solving experience with nothing particularly holding me up. Maida Vale was the last in – had to dig around in the memory for that one after my initial thought of White City clearly didn’t make any sense.
Too much snow in Scotland for travelling. Actually not quite true, flashing but we are still away!
I thought this was a little harder than most Dac puzzles, although maybe I just wasn’t on the right wavelength this morning. DHOLE came up not so long ago, in a Times puzzle if memory serves, and if I hadn’t seen it before I’m not sure I’d have got it because it is one of those words that doesn’t look right.
Andy B.
I thought this was a lot harder than is usual for Dac and he doesn’t usually have more obscure words; I’d never heard of caprine but I thought it fine as the anagram was clear and capricorn points in the right direction, but I reckon Dhole needed a more obvious clueing: if you don’t know the word it was going to be a struggle. Having eliminated wolf and hyena I concluded a synonym for wild was the answer.
Mind you, I can’t remember the last time I had a grumble about a Dac clue
Thanks Dac for a puzzle of the usual enjoyable standard and B&J for the blog. I did not comment yesterday because I did not really have much to say, but thought I would join in the discussion about DHOLE. It was my last word in, and I was glad to be doing the puzzle online, so that I could check the answer, but I was happy enough with the clue. I just wonder why Dac chose that word. Perhaps he has used all of the other possibilities for D-O-E recently: ones that spring to mind are DIODE and DROVE, and possibly (Lorna) DOONE.