Independent 8246/Dac

by

As happens on many Wednesdays, we have a neat and perfectly-formed object. You wouldn’t think that such excellent surfaces were possible from the simple material used.

Across
1 HO AXER
4 ROASTING — (organist)*
9 L{eveson} A TEST
10 K NIGHTLY
12 BAR(RENNES)S
13 ACES — 2 defs
15 CROWD-PLEASER — press [= crowd] P{alladium} (releas{e})*
18 C(RASH BARRIE){a}R
21 mortgAGE Deeds
22 TIGER SNAKE — (Greek saint)*
24 HELL {V}ENIC{e} — def ‘Athens is such’
25 MAOIST — (to Siam)*
26 LA(N)D LAD {length}Y
27 STING Y — set by police? — well Chambers says so, although I’d thought it was set by anyone — the police didn’t set the trap in the film The Sting
 
Down
1 H(ALF B)ACK
2 ANTERIOR — ant (ire)rev. OR — how carefully Dac avoids the definition by example by saying ‘Maybe soldier …’, although in crosswords few setters take such trouble
3 {procedur}E AS TENDERS
5 OMNISHAMBLES — (son blames him)* — relatively recent I suppose because it is a fairly new word — Word of the Year 2012
6 ShAnGhAi
7 INT ACT
8 GO YI(ddi)SH — a Goy is a Jewish word for a non-Jew, so this is an &lit.
11 UN(CLASS)IFIED
14 DE(PRESS)AN T
16 FIXATION — (no i(taxi)f)rev. — not quite sure how ‘that’s the thing’ is a definition of ‘fixation’ beyond the fact that a fixation is a thing one fixates on
17 U R(GENT)LY
19 WAR HOL{e}
20 sumMER LINe-up — here
23 FELL{ow}

4 comments on “Independent 8246/Dac”

  1. That could be a The Police ref there, John, for Gordin Sumner./ Sting. A very nice puzzle, very neat as you say, with tight vlues.

    Cheers
    Rowly.

  2. Did anyone else consider Hard (Howard – ow) for 23d before getting the across answers contradicting it?

  3. Re 5d, today is Budget day and last year’s was widely described as an Omnishambles over pasty, granny, caravan and church steeple taxes which were hastily reversed – so relatively recent maybe?

  4. You could maybe quibble about the “by” in 22 across, but apart from that a well-constructed and quite absorbing crossword.

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