Independent 8324 / Dac

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With a Dac puzzle, bloggers tend to be repetitive in their praise for the smoothness of the surfaces of the clues.  It’s very difficult not to be and this week the puzzle illustrate some more excellent examples of clue writing.

 

 

 

The last few down clues in particular don’t read like clues at all.  They all read like sensible sentences.  I can easily imagine a Hamlet production at the open-air Globe theatre being interrupted by rain and nomads certainly wander over independent lands.  Singers can definitely be drowned out by loud noises and asparagus tips could well feature in an antipasto dish.  I could go on about other clues as well, but these examples will suffice this week.

Some people might find the banking reference at 23 across rather obscure, but I’ve banked with Smile now for nearly 13 years so I had no problem there.  The link between churchwardens and pipes at 1 across is something I have come across quite often in barred puzzles.

None of the entries were obscure, although I don’t bring DOS-SI-DOS and BELUGA whales into the conversation very often.

The only clue that I have had some difficulty parsing to my complete satisfaction is the one for ACCIDENT at 17 down where I can’t find a reference book that gives T as town or NT as northern town.  I’ve probably missed something blindingly obvious.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry

1

 

Maybe churchwarden and kid briefly began to speak (5,2)

 

PIPE (a CHURCHWARDEN is a long-stemmed clay PIPE) + DUPE (deceive; kid) excluding the last letter (briefly) E

 

PIPED UP (began to speak)

 

5

 

Dancing figures one’s seen in celebrations (2-2-3)

 

I (one) contained in (DOS [parties; celebrations] + DOS [parties; celebrations]

DO S (I) DOS

DO-SI-DOS (square-dance figures in which dancers pass each other back to back)

 

9

 

Something wrong as hymn finishes early (3)

 

SING (hymn [as a verb]) excluding the last letter (finishes early) G

 

SIN (something wrong)

 

10

 

 Friend tucked into fish ignoring starter; food’s not tasty (11)

(PAL [friend] contained in [tucked into] [TUNA {example of fish} excluding the first letter {ignoring starter} T]) + TABLE (supply of food)

UN (PAL) A TABLE

UNPALATABLE (unpleasant to taste; not tasty)

 

11

 

Empty barge having to pull a large marine creature (6)

 

BE (BARGE excluding the letters between the first and last [empty] ARG) + LUG (pull) + A

 

BELUGA (the white whale; large marine creature)

 

12

 

Welshman takes ring road near small market town (8)

 

S (small) + TAFF (Taffy; Welshman; often a derogatory usage) + O (ring) + RD (road)

 

STAFFORD (a market town in England)

 

15

 

Fighters turn and go off course, badly overcome by poisonous fumes (10)

(U [u-turn] + ERR (wander from the right way; go off course] + ILL [badly]) contained in (overcome by) GAS (could be poisonous fumes)

G (U ERR ILL) AS

GUERRILLAS (members of an irregular force engaging in warfare or in the harassment of an army; fighters)

16

 

Apparel twee pairs regularly sported (4)

 

WEAR (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [regularly] of TWEE PAIRS

 

WEAR (apparel)

 

18

 

Record number at Spielberg movie comeback (4)

 

NO (number) + (ET [film directed by Steven Spielberg] reversed [comeback])

NO TE<

NOTE (record)

 

19

 

Political skill, say, shown by Conservative leader a lot (10)

 

STATE (say) + C (first letter of [leader] CONSERVATIVE) + RAFT (a large number; a lot)

 

STATECRAFT (political skill)

 

22

 

Thoughtlessly followed wicked predator (8)

 

Anagram of (wicked) PREDATOR

 

PARROTED (repeated by rote; thoughtlessly followed)

 

23

 

I’ll open online bank account as easy as pie, perhaps (6)

 

I contained in (will open) SMILE (the name of the online bank operated by the Co-operative Bank)

S (I) MILE

SIMILE (‘as easy as pie’ is an example of a SIMILE [ figure of speech in which a person or thing is described by being explicitly likened to another])

 

25

 

Blue material RN stitched on uniform (11)

 

U (uniform) + an anagram of MATERIAL RN

U LTRAMARINE*

ULTRAMARINE (deep blue)

 

27

 

Fitness centre gets your money upfront (3)

 

GYM (first letters of [upfront] GETS, YOUR and MONEY)

 

GYM (fitness centre)

 

28

 

Cost in old money.say (7)

 

EX (previously; old) + PENSE (sounds like [say] PENCE [money])

 

EXPENSE (charge)

 

29

 

Spontaneous 18A (7)

 

NATURAL (spontaneous)

 

NATURAL (a tone (NOTE [18 across] that is neither sharp nor flat)  double definition

 
Down

1

 

Land job principally as carrier for Royal Mail (7)

 

POST (job) + BAG (land)  ‘principally’ implies that POST (job) should come first

 

POSTBAG (a holder [carrier of letters and parcels] for Royal Mail)

 

2

 

See car repairer pop across a north German river (5,6)

 

PATER (father; pop) containing (across) (A + N [north] + ELBE [German river])

P (A N ELBE) ATER

PANEL BEATER (repairer of car bodywork)

 

3

 

Dickens hero forced into boring menial work (8)

 

RUDGE (reference Barnaby RUDGE [Charles Dickens hero]) contained in (forced into) DRY (uninteresting; boring)

D (RUDGE) RY

DRUDGERY (menial work)

 

4

 

Old man cut soft fruit (4)

 

PAPAW (papaya; green skinned edible soft fruit) excluding the final letter (cut) W

 

PAPA (father; old man)

 

5

 

Arty type translated title penned by Italian writer (10)

 

Anagram of (translated) TITLE contained in DANTE (reference DANTE Alighieri, Italian poet)

D (ILETT*) ANTE

DILETTANTE (a person who loves the fine arts but in a superficial way and without serious purpose ; arty type)

 

6

 

Leave group of fellows at the outset (3,3)

 

SET (group) + OF + F (first letter of [at the outset] FELLOWS)

 

SET OFF (leave)

 

7

 

Expert lawyer, No 1 among barristers (3)

 

DA (district attorney; lawyer) + B (first letter of [No 1 among] BARRISTERS)

 

DAB (expert)

 

8

 

Poet, writer captured by Communists in revolution (7)

 

PEN (something used to write; writer) contained in (captured by) (REDS [Communists] reversed [in revolution])

S (PEN) DER<

SPENDER (reference English  poet Stephen SPENDER [1909-1995])

 

13

 

Performer’s hesitation to appear in soap broadcast in Germany (5,6)

 

(ER [hesitation] contained in [to appear in] an anagram of [broadcast] SOAP) + IN + GER (Germany)

OP (ER) A S* IN GER

OPERA SINGER (performer)

 

14

 

Not mad to hoard silver now (3,3,4)

 

ALL THERE (completely sane; not mad) containing (to hoard) AG (chemical symbol for silver)

ALL THE R (AG) E

ALL THE RAGE (very much in fashion; now)

 

17

 

Mishap, one probed by investigators near northern town (8)

 

(ACE [one] containing [probed by] CID [Criminal Investigation Department {of the police force}; investigators]) + N (northern) + T (town)  Note: I can’t find T as an abbreviation for town in any dictionary I have.

AC (CID) E N T

ACCIDENT (mishap)

 

18

 

New recording on air, Holst piece (7)

 

N (new) + EP (extended play; recording) + TUNE (melody; air)

 

NEPTUNE (one component the Planets Suite composed by Gustav Holst)

 

20

 

Current Hamlet production interrupted by onset of rain (7)

 

Anagram of (production) HAMLET containing (interrupted by) R (first letter of [onset of] RAIN)

THE (R) MAL*

THERMAL (ascending current of warm air)

 

21

 

Nomad wanders over independent land (6)

 

Anagram of (wanders) NOMAD containing (over) I (independent)

 

DOMAIN (estate or territory; land)

 

24

 

Singer‘s solo finally drowned by loud noise (4)

 

O (last letter of [final] SOLO) contained in (drowned by) DIN (loud noise)

DI (O) N

DION (reference DION DiMucci, American singer songwriter and rock-and-roll performer of the 1950s; if you want to be more up-to-date you could consider the name to be a reference to Celine DION Candaian singer who sang the title track of Titanic among many other songs)

 

26

 

Antipasto portion: single piece of asparagus, perhaps (3)

 

TIP (hidden word in [portion] ANTIPASTO)

 

TIP (one [single] of the tastiest pieces of young asparagus shoots)s

 

14 comments on “Independent 8324 / Dac”

  1. Thanks Duncan

    Regarding you query in 17dn about T=town, the COED gives, under ‘T’, “(in names of sports clubs) Town”.

  2. All except 23ac went in very quickly, but then I was left staring at _I_I_E for five minutes before the penny dropped and I realised that “easy as pie” is a simile. If I banked with Smile as Duncan does then I’m sure the answer would have been a write-in.

  3. Thanks, Duncan. As you say, a Dac puzzle is where you expect elegant surface readings, and this didn’t disappoint.

    I couldn’t parse SIMILE, but apart from that, all was clearly signposted. I had Celine DION as the singer, and THERMAL was my favourite today because of the delightful surface.

    Bravo (again) Dac.

  4. Mostly enjoyable, but I’m not keen on a couple. Surely Smile is an online bank, not an online bank account. I might log into my HSBC account, but I don’t think I’d log in to my HSBC. I’m also not enthusiastic about the stitched on in 25, which seems to be working as a sort of combined anagram and joining indicator.

  5. I went off at a gallop with PIPED UP as a write-in but then ground to a halt with about a quarter of the grid completed. But it all came together in the end, including SIMILE, my last one in and a real D’oh moment when I twigged it. Needed the blog to parse quite a few, particularly ULTRAMARINE; I was trying to equate RN with MARINE – was that an intentional misdirection?

    Thanks, Dac and Duncan.

  6. Another smooth and enjoyable puzzle from Dac. We would have got there quicker if Joyce (who had the pen tonight) had spelt 3d correctly. This caused serious problems for 15 ac which was last but one in the grid.

    Thanks for the blog Duncan and also to Gaufrid as we couldn’t sort out T = town either.

    Thanks of course to Dac.

  7. Argh! Without looking too closely at the clue, I entered “pipes up” at 1ac and therefore couldn’t get 3dn. (I’ve even read Barnaby Rudge, although the title character is a simpleton and not really the hero.)

  9. NealH@4: I think in 25ac just ‘stitched’ is the anagram indicator and it’s on U, i.e. it follows U. But agree, it’s not wholly convincing.

    In 5ac, it’s i in dos — at least that’s what the wordplay says — not i in dos dos. Or am I misunderstanding it?

  10. My problem with 5ac was nothing to do with whether “celebrations” can mean dos dos, but that it was not a term I was familiar with and in Chambers it’s two words hyphenated “dosi-dos”.

  11. I’m afraid I’m still struggling to see how stitch can be used as an anagram indicator. It doesn’t contain any sense of rearrangement – if you stitch on a button on, you are simply attaching it, not changing it.

  12. Following the discussion on stitched as an anagram indicator I’ve just had a look in Wordplay Wizard which contains a long list of potential anagram indicators. Stitched is not listed as a potential indicator. I looked in a couple of Thesauri and came up with embroidered, mended and repaired as synonyms for stiched that might just be used as anagram indicators. Wordplay Wizard doesn’t list embroidered or mended, but it does offer repaired as a possible anagram indicator.

  13. 8D And Stephen Spender was of course a Communist Party member for many years, quite actively so in the 1930s.

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