As New Year’s Day is a Wednesday this year, it is not surprising that Dac starts us off on the 2014 Independent cruciverbal journey.
Normally, Dac serves up a good solid old fashioned crossword, free of gimmicks or messages. However, today we have a rarity with a seasonal message appearing in the unchecked letters in the perimeter. Starting at the bottom right and going clockwise we have
FOR THE SAKE OF AULD LANG SYNE
Only four of the entries play no part in the message.
I thought this was a fairly gentle puzzle to start the year, but I know from experience that others will disagree. Favourite clues today were those for FEARLESS (10a, but only after I fully understood the links between FESS and heraldry), APPENDIX (1d,for all its component parts) and LEMONADE (16d, for its surface).
Finally, a very Happy New Year to everyone.
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Across |
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|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay |
Entry |
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7
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Dad’s word of gratitude for food (5)
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PA’S (dad’s) + TA (thank you; word of gratitude)
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PASTA (food)
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8
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Abolish pot after voter rebels (8)
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Anagram of (rebels) VOTER + URN (pot) OVERT* URN |
OVERTURN (abolish)
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10
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Courageous noble in ordinary clothing (8)
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EARL (noble) contained in (in … clothing) FESS Isimple [ordinary] heraldic form [relating to coats of arms for noblemen]) F (EARL) ESS |
FEARLESS (courageous)
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11
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Watching East European leaders come together in chorus? (6)
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EE (first letters of [leaders of] each of EAST and EUROPEAN. The two Es come together in the entry) contained in (in) SING (chorus [as a verb]) S (EE) ING |
SEEING (watching)
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12
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Inane sort returning to the lines in Ukranian location (6)
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ODE (lines [of poetry]) + (ASS [inane sort)] reversed [returning]) ODE SSA< |
ODESSA (city in Ukraine)
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13
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Selector smashed plates (8)
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Anagram of (smashed) SELECTOR
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ELECTROS (short for ELECTROPLATE; plates)
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15
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Heroic deed of one involved in conspiracy formerly (7)
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EX (formerly) + (I [one] contained in [involved in] PLOT [conspiracy]) EX PLO (I) T |
EXPLOIT (heroic deed)
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17
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Educational instititution in which a scoundrel’s beginning to excel? Gosh! (7) |
A + CAD (scoundrel) + E (first letter of [beginning to] EXCEL) + MY (gosh!)
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ACADEMY (educational establishment)
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20
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Sounds like two guys meeting at a party in eastern city (8)
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KAT (sounds like CAT [slang for man or chap]; one guy) + MAN ([another] guy) + DU (sounds like DO [party])
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KATMANDU (one spelling of the name of the capital city of Nepal; eastern city)
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22
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Such as little Annie going about for help mostly (6)
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PRO (in favour of; for) reversed (going about) + HAND (assisatnce; help) excluding the final letter (mostly) D ORP< HAN |
ORPHAN (reference ‘Little ORPHAN Annie’, an American comic strip)
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24
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Old woman ultimately comes in with a to-do list (6)
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(N [last letter of {ultimately} WOMAN contained in [comes in] AGED [old]) + A AGE (N) D A |
AGENDA (to-do list)
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26
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Lass found most of glossy magazine eaten by rodents (8)
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(HELLO [title of a glossy magazine] excluding the final letter [most of] O) contained in (eaten by) MICE (rodents) MIC (HELL) E |
MICHELLE (girl’s name; lass) |
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27
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View, we’re told, sportswear for divers (3,5)
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SEA (sounds like [we’re told] SEE [view]) + DUCKS (garments made of coarse cotton or linen (also used for making sails); sportswear)
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SEA DUCKS (red-headed diving birds of the Pochard family)
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28
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Edition of newspaper featuring very minor player (5)
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EXTRA (special edition of newspaper)
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EXTRA (a person temporarily engaged for a minor part in a film; very minor player) double definition
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| Down | |||
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1
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Reading matter a writer included in page ten of Paris Match? (8)
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A + (PEN [writer] contained in [P {page} + DIX {ten in French}] A P (PEN) DIX |
APPENDIX (an addition to a book or document; reading matter)
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2
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Seizes (illegally) king’s palace originally guarded by Americans (6)
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(R [Rex; king] + P [first letter of {originally}]) contained in (guarded by) (US [United States; American] + US [United States; Americans] giving Americans) US U (R P) S |
USURPS (seizes without right; seizes illegally)
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3
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Helping to support learner, one offers rent (10)
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L (learner) + ACE (one) + RATION (fixed allowance or portion; helping)
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LACERATION (tear; rent)
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4
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A collection of papers is good-for-nothing, I admitted (7)
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DOSSER (vagrant; good-for-nothing) containing (admitted) I DOSS (I) ER |
DOSSIER (collection of papers)
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5
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Photographer’s accessory from town in France (4)
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LENS (photographer’s accessory)
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LENS (town in the Pas-De-Calais department of northern France) double definition
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6
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Provided proof of corrupt state, note, backed by Democrat (8)
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Anagram of (corrupt) STATE + TE (note of the tonic sol-fa) + D (Democrat) ATTES* TE D |
ATTESTED (provided proof of)
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9
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Youngster finally performing encore in musical piece? (5)
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R (last letter of [finally] YOUNGSTER) + ON (performing) + DO (ditto; repeat in the same manner; encore)
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RONDO (a musical composition whose principal subject recurs in the same key in alternation with other subjects, often the last movement of a sonata)
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14
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Nasty con with car – here one’s trespassing (10)
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Anagram of (nasty) CON and CAR HERE
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ENCROACHER (one who intrudes beyond boundaries; one who is trespassing)
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16
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English article in French newspaper is something refreshing (8)
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(A [indefinite article in English]) contained in (in) (LE MONDE [a national daily newspaper in France]) LE MON (A) DE |
LEMONADE (refreshing drink)
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18
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With lunch perhaps lout will gobble first portion of this food (4,4)
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(MEAL [lunch is an example of a MEAL] + OAF [lout]) containing (will gobble) T (first letter of [first portion of] THIS) MEA (T) L OAF |
MEAT LOAF (food)
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19
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You see French lady wearing reddish-brown? Most bizarre (7))
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(MME [Madame; French lady]) contained in (wearing) RUST (reddish-brown colour) RU (MME) ST |
RUMMEST (most bizarre)
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21
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Early settler‘s viewpoint (5)
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ANGLE (a member or descendant of the German tribe from Schleswig that settled in Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia during the 5th century)
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ANGLE (a way of looking at something; a point of view; viewpoint) double definiiton
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23
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At speed, train’s last seen leaving northern city (6)
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PRESTON ( a city in northern England) excluding (seen leaving) N (last letter of [last] TRAIN) – mutter, mutter about references to ‘northern’ cities that lie more than a 100 miles south of where I live
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PRESTO (very quick; at speed)
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25
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Roguish group of researchers (4)
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ARCH (hidden word in [group of] RESEARCHERS)
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ARCH (roguish)
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Thanks Duncan and Dac.
Polished this off on the tube to work, while many appear to still be making their way home somewhat unsteadily.
I needed your help to understand where FESS and also DUCKS came from, but that didn’t prevent solving, and that’s two things I’ve learned this year already!
Thanks Duncan and Dac,
A very enjoyable crossword and blog, but are you sure that SEA DUCK = pochard? I should have thought Eiders, Goldeneye and some other species would suit that term.
Like Simon, I couldn’t see where FESS and DUCKS came from, but I knew that there would be an explanation here.
I thought this was about your average Dac, which is clever considering there was a message to fit in. Only saw it at the end though.
Agree with Muffyword about the ducks: I’ve never seen a Pochard in the briny. Gravel pits maybe. And Duncan, your frustration about Preston being described as a ‘northern’ town will perhaps be lessened when Scotland becomes an independent country later this year …
Fine blog as always, thank you.
Muffyword @ 2 and Kathryn’s Dad @ 3
I make no claim to be an expert on birds; my source is solely Chambers which defines SEA-DUCK as “any duck of the pochard group”
I enjoyed the puzzle but, as usual, needed help to finish it.
Please note, by the way, that the phrase ‘for the sake of auld lang syne’ does not appear in the song, although most people sing it! As a (keen) Scot, I always sing the right words (against the throng). See below:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
– and similar in the other verses though some have ‘since auld lang syne’.
Duncan@4
My Chambers says that too! I know a bit about ducks, and have checked on the internet. I think Chambers is probably wrong, but I can’t be absolutely certain, particularly as I have never seen or heard the term “sea duck” before – it could be an illogical but valid name for pochards, which dive in freshwater rather than the sea, I believe.
Another quality puzzle from our usual Wednesday setter, but because it was Dac and he very rarely includes a nina in his puzzles I didn’t look for one. D’oh! If I had seen the nina it would have helped me with my last two in, the DOSSIER/ELECTROS crossers. Although I sussed that ELECTROS was almost certainly the answer to 13ac I wanted to solve 4dn before I was happy to enter it.
With nothing better to do due to the weather and therefore not time bound I gave it my best shot before giving up but could only manage 1d,2d,5d, 7a ,11a 12a & 24a.
Got the sea part of 27a but never heard of ducks.
I put together elecros for 13a but dismissed it as a none word.
Spend ages trying to solve the anagram of con with car at 14d thinking it meant a place where a person is trespassing.
Had never heard of rondos at 9d which doesn’t help.
Of course if I got even one more answer that may have led to another and so on but if you are completely stuck and can get no furher that is that.
Re the debate on hard Indie crosswords should be, I don’t mind only getting this far but I do find it depressing when I try the harder ranked setters and 45 mins yields only one answer.
Practice is the key, Bamberger: don’t be discouraged. From discussion elsewhere on this site it does seem like a couple of the Indy setters are recognised as among the toughest in the daily cryptic world. But there’s the Quiptic and the Everyman (as well as Quixote on a Monday here) to keep going at.
As for ‘pochard’, I’d stick by my previous comment, but on looking in one of my bird books I see that the Red-Crested Pochard is ‘in winter also found on open lakes, sometimes along seashores’. ‘Sea ducks’ are a category in the same bird book, but there are no Pochards listed there, only Scoters and Eiders. So I’d go along with Muffyword and say that Chambers is wrong (waits for flash of lightning from the heavens …)
Many thanks Duncan for the blog – I needed help to understand Fess and wasn’t too sure about Electros, but all came together; thanks to Dac for a nice one and for the effort involved in the Auld Lang Syne nina which I completely missed (cos I didn’t look for it……)
As for Preston being a northern settlement or not, it might be worth pointing out that Haltwhistle has a reasonably good claim to being the geographical centre of Britain, so Carlisle, approx 85 miles north of Preston, is still in the south (and Preston is therefore really another part of London).
Thanks d and D. Some quite tricky stuff here, I thought, but very fair overall. Personally I had an early night yesterday – was cumbrian@10 on the (late) sauce? If Preston’s part of London, my part of the world (Cardiff area) must be part of Dublin! Another Guinness would be fine, thank you . . .
As someone who grew up in the north, I remember looking at maps as a child and thinking the north must go down about as far as York, Leeds and Lincolnshire were in the Midlands, and Derby and Birmingham were in the south. Got a surprise when I started at Leeds university and found many of my fellow students didn’t agree with this. 🙂
As usual, I totally failed to spot the Nina, which would have helped getting 4dn sooner. I was wondering if there was a word “toisser” meaning a collection of papers.
I did know “ducks” meaning clothing and I was vaguely aware “fess” was a term in heraldry.
Not a gentle start to the year (and the weather compounds this) but I did finish it without aids, which is a plus.
Well, for once I spotted the nina – and in a puzzle by a setter who doesn’t normally do ninas at that! Not only that, it helped me to complete the grid.
Re 23dn, surely everyone knows that the dividing line between south and north is the latitude of Watford?
I don’t see the problem: so far as I can see there are several different types of pochard, and the common pochard is the duck we know. But that doesn’t stop there being other ones, which can perfectly well be sea-birds.
Thank you Heather at 5 for mentioning this. Like you, I have always pointedly omitted ‘the sake of’, but this error has become widespread. When people make these errors with language people shrug their shoulders and say that’s how the language is used so there we are, but in this case it’s quite simple: look at what Burns wrote.
A late comment as I sometimes take a couple of days to get the last ones in. With SEA DUCKS it was the “ducks” for clothing which eluded me, rather than the debatable ornithology. I enjoy bird-watching but assume, for the purpose of crossword mischief, that the term “diver” can be stretched to include not only the loons but also any marine duck.
Thanks to Dac and Duncanshiell. A lovely challenging Wednesday puzzle as usual.