It’s Wednesday today, so time for my weekly dose of Dac.
I thought I was going to race through this one, and indeed I did speed through the first two thirds; the final third, however, kept me guessing for quite some time, especially 3, 9, 6, 14, 15.
More specifically, 3 held me up, as I was sure that the answer was to be Picasso, since the first and fifth letters both tallied until I solved 12. I hesitated over 9, since I don’t think I’ve ever had the abbreviated form of the football club as an entry in a crossword before.
In the end, I was left with 22, where I felt the definition was to be “captain” rather than “tot”, and had to search Chambers for the wholly fair answer. Incidentally, I am not sure I have ever seen this word written down before.
It is never easy to pick favourites from a set of Dac’s quality clues, but if pressed, I would go for 6D, for its novel use of “hungry”, for 21 for its smooth surface, and for 7 and 18, for their topical & lits.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | HEN PARTY | Male given role in extremely noisy pre-wedding bash
HE(=male) + [PART (=role) in N<ois>Y (“extremely” means first and last letters only)] |
| 06 | FLESHY | Plump female, half pale and demure
F (=female) + <pa>LE (“half” means half of letters only) + SHY (=demure) |
| 09 | MAN U | Team lacking power to get tough
MAN U<p> (=to get tough); “lacking power (=P)” means letter “p” is dropped; the reference is to English football club Manchester United |
| 10 | BLUEBOTTLE | Policeman low on courage
BLUE (=low, i.e. depressed) + BOTTLE (=courage, i.e. nerve) |
| 11 | CONSTITUTIONAL | Exercise // of the law?
Double definition: a constitutional is a walk for the benefit of one’s health, hence “exercise” |
| 12 | PRINTS | Pictures showing leader in race coming last
S-PRINT (=race); “leader…coming last” means first letter moved to end of word |
| 14 | TEARAWAY | Hooligan lacking in refinement after drink? Yes
TEA (=drink) + RAW (= “lacking in refinement”; i.e. unrefined, unprocessed) + AY (=yes) |
| 16 | ADELAIDE | Singer receiving help in Australian location
AID (=help) in ADELE (=singer, i.e. from UK, born 1988) |
| 18 | EXPATS | They moved abroad quietly, overwhelmed by various taxes
P (=quietly, i.e. piano) in *(TAXES); “various” is anagram indicator; & lit. |
| 20 | CAUGHT ON THE HOP | Surprised dance at first became popular with most of those people
CAUGHT ON (=became popular) + THE<m> (=those people; “most of” means last letter dropped) + HOP (=dance) |
| 22 | KIDDIEWINK | Captain I knew getting squiffy after imbibing one tot
KIDD (=captain, i.e. 17th century pirate Captain William Kidd) + [I (=one) in *(I KNEW)]; “squiffy” is anagram indicator] |
| 23 | TREE | Box, perhaps, in theatre expensive
Hidden (“in”) in “theaTRE Expensive” |
| 24 | CLOSET | Small room near rear of apartment
CLOSE (=near) + <apartmen>T (“rear of” means last letter only) |
| 25 | GUYANESE | South American chap joins some Europeans heading off east
GUY (=chap) + <d>ANES (=some Europeans; “heading off” means first letter dropped) + E (=east) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | ENAMOURED | You are picked up and embraced by dame, one madly in love
U R (homophone – “picked up” – of “you are”) in *(DAME ONE); “madly” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | POUSSIN | Artist’s opus turned out wrong
*(OPUS) + SIN (=wrong, as a noun); “turned out” is anagram indicator; the reference is to French classical painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) |
| 04 | RABBI | Religious scholar shelters bishops in endless wet weather
B B (=bishops, i.e. 2 x B) in RAI<n> (=wet weather; “endless” means last letter dropped) |
| 05 | YOU MUST BE JOKING | Buy some junk I got that’s rubbish, absolute rubbish!
*(BUY SOME JUNK I GOT); “that’s rubbish” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | FABRICATE | Make fantastic sort of pudding to entertain hungry aunt
FAB (=fantastic) + [A<un>T (“hungry” = with nothing inside, i.e. all middle letters dropped) in RICE (=sort of pudding)] |
| 07 | ESTONIA | European country – Spain – getting more in debt, reportedly
E (=Spain, i.e. IVR) + homophone (“reportedly”) of “stonier” (=more in debt, cf. stony-broke); & lit. |
| 08 | HALAL | Sort of meat arranged for starters during college meal
A<rranged> (“for starters” means first letter only) in HALL (=college meal; cf. to live in hall; hall can be the dinner itself, according to Chambers) |
| 13 | SLIGHTEST | Speaker’s insinuating examination is least important
Homophone (“speaker’s) of “sly” (=insinuating) + TEST (=examination) |
| 15 | AUTHORESS | One writing initially about unfortunate soldiers imprisoned by Hitler’s guards
A<bout> U<nfortunate> (“initially” means first letters only) + [OR (=soldiers, i.e. other ranks) in THE SS (=Hitler’s guards)] |
| 17 | LOURDES | Dark look of the French town
LOUR (=dark look) + DES (=of the French, i.e. the French for of the) |
| 19 | PRESTON | Almost £25 to stay inside northern city
REST (=stay) in PON<y> (=£25; “almost” means last letter dropped) |
| 20 | CHILL | What could make companion poorly?
CH (=companion, i.e. Companion of Honour) + ILL (=poorly); & lit. |
| 21 | TOKAY | Tesco’s No 1 fine wine
T<esco> (“No 1” means first letter only) + OKAY (=fine) |
Nice clueing, I thought I would race through this, then slowed down. 22A couldn’t get tiddlywink(s) out of my head, even though the “y” had to be wrong.
Had to like 16A ADELAIDE, as I have lived here for nearly 50 years.
Although it seems to be a little contentious on this blog, could one say 18A is a (witty) &lit?
3D POUSSIN, his best known work A Dance to the Music of Time, used as the title of his twelve-novel sequence (1951-75) by Anthony Powell.
Thanks to Dac and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks Dac and RR. I thought this was one of Dac’s best. Precise, fair but often ingenious clueing. In 12a, I spent ages trying to see how R (leader of race) would fit into a word meaning “last”. Even though that is not what the clue says!! The real answer is very neat.
Dac just keeps rolling them off the production line. Very enjoyable.
I did the same as MikeC@2 and had been trying to fit “R” into 12ac until I got the checker from POUSSIN and saw how the clue really worked. KIDDIEWINK was my LOI because I had also been thinking that the definition was “captain” until the penny dropped.
Disappointed to learn there wasn’t an unknown Captain Tiddlewink. And caught in the act ( oops) held me up for a while. Well it fitted the frame if not the clue.
Excellent puzzle and blog. Thanks to both.
Yeah, 22ac was my last in, after an e-search. But 3dn was one of my first in, once I realised 1ac wasn’t “hen night”. But I think I’d got 9ac by then.
Couldn’t parse 12ac and 8dn so thanks for that.
Thanks Dac and RatkojaRiku.
I particularly enjoyed 6a, 16a, 22a, 3d, 25a & 12 (last in) and my favourites were 1a HEN PARTY, 5d YOU MUST BE JOKING, 6d FABRICATE & 14a TEARAWAY
I couldn’t parse 19d (25 pounds = pony? puh-lease let’s get a bit more “international”), 13d & 9a ( I couldn’t be bothered to parse this soccer clue).
Great fun to tackle this one, and a very helpful blog. Couldn’t parse PRINTS, so thank you for that. Got KIDDIEWINKS, sparing my blushes as The Captain Kidd is just down the road from me.
I used kiddiewink myself recently but wasn’t sure whether it was actually a word or not, so useful to see that confirmed. I couldn’t quite parse 6 down – got so convinced the definition was “make fantastic” that I thought the pudding must be a fabrice, so went to look for that in vain.
Failed to finish this as bizarrely wrote in sabricate not fabricate and never noticed. Thanks RR and Dac for yet another superb puzzle.
Nice one! Not too difficult but no write-ins either. CoD has to be HEN PARTY because of the way it misdirects one into thinking of a stag night (and failing to find anything that fits either the clue or the enumeration).
Thanks, Dac and RR
We were another pair hooked on tiddlewink but couldn’t make the parsing work! An electronic search sorted that one out near the end when it was getting late.
As usual an excellent puzzle from Dac. Thanks RR for the blog.