Independent 8,426 / Dac

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Dac is at home today in his regular Wednesday slot.

A set of smooth, sound and concise clues, up to Dac’s usual high standard, which offered me a decent work-out to start the day. For me, this was a puzzle in two halves, since I solved the lower half of the puzzle fairly swiftly, but then took a long time to complete the top half, especial the NW quadrant. However, the last one in was 15, a word which I only vaguely knew from other languages.

My favourite clues today are 17, for its clever splitting device, and both 18 and 20, for their misleading agent nouns, i.e. “shopper” and “setter”.

 

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues

 

Across  
   
01 SPOILSPORT Party-pooper overindulges on wine

SPOILS (=overindulges, e.g. a child) + PORT (=wine)
   
07 GLEE Feel good, bouncing back, full of this?

Reversed (“bouncing back”) and hidden (“full of”) in “fEEL Good”; & lit.
   
09 CONVERSE Student of poetry will take part in discussion

CON VERSE (=student of poetry will, i.e. con=study)
   
10 EQUIPE Last in race, behind European crack racing team

E (=European) + QUIP (=crack, i.e. joke) + <rac>E  (“last in” means last letter only)
   
11 TWITTER ACCOUNT Laugh at report about women’s social media arrangement

W (=women) in [TITTER (=laugh at) + ACCOUNT (=report)]
   
12 SAME HERE Enclosure will accommodate most of men, female and me too

[ME<n> (“most of” means last letter dropped) + HER (=female)] in SAE (=enclosure, i.e. stamped addressed envelope)
   
15 ALEVIN Very fresh salmon is ace with the Chablis maybe

A (=ace, i.e. in cards) + LE VIN (=the Chablis maybe, i.e. “the wine” in French); an alevin is a young fish, especially a salmonid
   
16 SPRINT To make fast progress, it’s a mistake avoiding motorway

<mi>SPRINT (=mistake); “avoiding motorway (=M1)” means the letters “mi” are dropped
   
18 BETRAYER Shopper has carrier filled with ale? The opposite

TRAY (=carrier) in BEER (=ale); a “shopper” is someone who shops, informs on someone else, hence “betrayer”
   
20 RECOMMENCEMENT Briefly advise setter to make a fresh start

RECOMMEN<d> (=advise; “briefly” means last letter dropped) + CEMENT (= “setter”, i.e. something that sets, hardens)
   
23 MARMOT Creature making cat and sheep recoil

TOM (=cat) + RAM (=sheep); “recoil” indicates (here full) reversal
   
24 INUNDATE One tree planted by sister in swamp

NUN (=sister) in [I (=one) + DATE (=tree)]
   
25 ETON College admitted expelling learner

<l>ET ON (=admitted); “expelling learner (=L)” means letter “l” is dropped
   
26 DISHEARTEN Girl involved in attack around mid-morning, perhaps, is put off

[SHE (=girl) in DIAR (RAID=attack; “around” indicates reversal)] + TEN (=mid-morning, i.e. ten o’clock]
   
Down  
   
02 PROST Toast // ex-Formula 1 champion

Prost is German for Cheers!, hence “toast”; the reference is to Alain Prost, former Formula 1 champion from France
   
03 INVOICE Bill, popular singer

IN (=popular) + VOICE (=singer)
   
04 SPRAT Waterproof sheets for covering up fish

TARPS (=waterproof sheets for covering, i.e. tarpaulins); “up” indicates vertical reversal
   
05 ONE-ARMED BANDITS Man in debt adores malfunctioning cash dispensers?

*(MAN IN DEBT ADORES); “malfunctioning” is anagram indicator; one-armed bandits are slot machines, hence “cash dispensers” to winners!
   
06 TRENCHANT Incisive comment ultimately about new song

<commen>T (“ultimately” means last letter only) + RE (=about) + N (=new) + CHANT (=song)
   
07 GLUCOSE Lettuce coated in sticky substance, syrupy stuff

COS (=lettuce) in GLUE (=sticky substance)
   
08 EXPENSIVE Dear old mate engaged in thought

EX (=old mate) + PENSIVE (=engaged in thought)
   
13 APPLE TART Dessert page brought in plate, arranged with skill

[P (=page) in *(PLATE)] + ART (=skill); “arranged” is anagram indicator
   
14 ESTIMATED Worked out rough date and times

*(DATE + TIMES); “rough” is anagram indicator; “rough(ly)” seems to do double duty as part of both definition and wordplay
   
17 IRON MAN Could this be viewed as ‘female’ film?

The word “female” should be split in two to give IRON (=Fe-, i.e. chemical formula)-MAN (=-male); the reference is to the 2008 US superhero film Iron Man
   
19 AMENDER Editor has last word on article from Germany

AMEN (=last word, i.e. of prayer) + DER (=article from Germany, i.e. the German for the)
   
21 ELUDE Puzzle making you feel muddled quite regularly

<f>E<e>L <m>U<d>D<l>E<d>; “quite regularly” means   alternate letters only are used
   
22 TITLE Name tag initially sewn into hat

T<ag> (“initially” means first letter only) in TILE (=hat, in slang)
   

15 comments on “Independent 8,426 / Dac”

  1. Slightly tougher than usual Dac I thought, couldn’t see SAME HERE for ages.

    18A has “the opposite/on the contrary/by no means” element in the clue, which is why it is “tray in beer” rather than the opposite.

    Thanks to Dac and RatkojaRiku

  2. Some spectacularly good clues. The implication that it’s only malfunctioning ONE-ARMED BANDITS that dispense cash is particularly good.

  3. Another excellent Dac puzzle.

    If I ever knew ALEVIN I had forgotten it, but I trusted the wordplay so got to the correct answer. RECOMMENCEMENT was my LOI. I initially entered 4dn the wrong way around until TWITTER ACCOUNT set me straight.

  4. Thanks, RR.

    Another solver who found it a bit tougher than usual, but it’s all there if you go looking for it. I had a flirt with RAIN MAN before deciding that that had naff all to do with the clueing; but I couldn’t understand IRON MAN till I came here – thank you.

    ALEVIN I vaguely remembered, mainly because the various bits of the salmon life-cycle often come up in cryptics. SMOLT, PARR, FRY …

    Thanks to Dac too.

  5. I didn’t follow Iron Man either – had some vague idea that it was a CD about a “man who does the ironing”, therefore appealing to female viewers. I also struggled with the two clues across the middle: not having heard of alevin, I couldn’t get rid of the idea that the answer might simply be acevin and I thought the SAE for enclosure in 12 was quite tricky.

  6. NealH looks to have read my thoughts entirely on this one, still entirely satisfying and lovely surfaces as usual. Thanks DAC and RR

  7. I forgot to mention that PROST is not German for cheers, “prosit” is, but the originally incorrect alternative spelling has worked its way into enough dictionaries for the clue to work without a homophone indicator.

  8. Thanks Dac for an enjoyable crossword and RR for the blog.

    17dn: I have said on many previous occasions that I do not like the unsignalled requirement to split a clue word. I know a lot of people enjoy this sort of thing, and I have no quarrel with them, but I still regard it as a ghastly device, and avoid setters who use it (indeed, I do). However, in this case, the majority of the clue, including the quotation marks, forms the signal that the clue word can be split, and I was completely happy with it.

    4dn: Although I did not spot it while solving, I picked up the point from AndyB@3. This is an ambiguous reversal clue, and it is surprising to find Dac using it. Although it can be said in his defence that the other reversal indicators in this crossword follow their subject matter, that does not have to be the case.

    14dn: No double duty for me here. “Worked out” is a sufficient definition for ESTIMATED.

  9. I don’t think the cryptic grammar supports a reading of 4D as anything other than sprat; ‘fish up’ perhaps, but ‘up fish’ would be very odd to indicate inversion of sprat.

  10. eimi@9 re 4dn: Very odd, I can agree, but not impossible. One could take “up” as the imperative form of the transitive verb “to lift or haul up”.

  11. I’d go for the adverb.

    It’s an ambiguous clue, I think, and as such presents a rare opportunity to kick Dac. We luv ya though baby! Nice puzzle.

  12. We have no concerns with 4d or any of the other clues. To repeat a well-worn phrase on Wednesdays – lovely surface readings throughout. We loved17d in particular. We’d never heard of 15ac but once we had all the checking letters it was obvious.

    Many thanks Dac for the entertainment and RR for the blog.

  13. What one always gets from Dac, except it seems for one clue. And in that one I’m probably missing something, because nobody has mentioned 24ac: how do we get the sister to be planted in the tree? It says ‘planted by sister’, not, as I should have thought was necessary, ‘planting sister’.

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