The year may well have changed, but it appears that Dac is still here to accompany our Wednesday mornings, thankfully.
I progressed at a fairly measured pace through this puzzle, solving the longer entries early on and then slotting in the shorter ones around them. 8, 17 and 18 held me up at the end, with 8 being the last one in. I hope that I have solved and parsed 8 correctly, but stand to be corrected should I not have done so. 3 was a word I only vaguely knew, but the wordplay led one unequivocally to the answer. I don’t recall having met the feminine form at 16, but again, the anagram clearly pointed the solver in the direction of this word.
My favourite clue today have to be 21, for maintaining the maritime theme through definition and wordplay alike, and 20, for its smoothest of surfaces. More of the same in 2014, please, Dac!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | SPINE-CHILLER | German writer pens long work of horror
PINE (=long, i.e. yearn) in SCHILLER (=German writer, i.e. Friedrich Schiller) |
| 09 | ARSENAL | Learns manoeuvres on A-Team
A + *(LEARNS); “manoeuvres” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | SEGOVIA | Following directions, travel through Spanish town
S E (=directions, i.e. compass points) + GO (=travel) + VIA (=through) |
| 12 | DALAI LAMA | A country boy turns to welcome a spiritual leader
A in reversal (“turn”) of [A + MALI (=country) + LAD (boy)] |
| 13 | EGRET | Bird goes west in winter, generally
Reversed (“goes west”) and hidden (“in”) in “winTER GEnerally” |
| 14 | AVENGE | Get even with cleric in time
VEN (=cleric, i.e. venerable) in AGE (=time) |
| 15 | HAPSBURG | Royal family has food brought over round front of palace
P<alace> (“front of” means first letter only) in [HAS + BURG (GRUB=food; “brought over” indicates reversal)] |
| 16 | EMPHATIC | Clear front of my slippery path, covered in treacherous ice
[M<y> (“front of” means first letter only) + *(PATH)] in *(ICE); “slippery” and “treacherous” are anagram indicators |
| 20 | PAELLA | A learner bound to suffer setback in Spanish course
A + L (=learner) + LEAP (=bound, i.e. jump); “to suffer setback” indicates (here full) reversal |
| 23 | PEARL | Gem set in ring is right
R (=right) in PEAL (=ring, i.e. of bell) |
| 24 | TERMAGANT | Scold a good worker after some time?
TERM (=some time) + A + G (=good) + ANT (=worker); a scold is “a person, usually a woman, who constantly finds fault in a strident or clamorous manner” (Chambers) |
| 25 | STUN GUN | Hurt by a foreign weapon
STUNG (=hurt) + UN (=a foreign, i.e. French/Italian word for a) |
| 26 | GLOSSES | Provides explanation for German financial disasters
G (=German) + LOSSES (=financial disasters); to gloss is to explain a difficult word in a text, often in a footnote or margin |
| 27 | DISCONTINUED | Stopped playing, having broken record United overturned
ON (=playing, i.e. on stage) in [DISC (=record) + *(UNITED)]; “overturned” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 02 | PENDING | Phasing out of smallest British coin imminent
P (=smallest British coin, i.e. penny) + ENDING (=phasing out) |
| 03 | NULLAH | Invalid taken to a hot stream
NULL (=invalid, i.e. void) + A + H (=hot); a nullah is a watercourse, stream or drain, from Hindi |
| 04 | CAST AWAY | Actors missing for Tom Hank’s movie
CAST (=actors) + AWAY (=missing); the reference is to the 2000 American adventure drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis |
| 05 | INGRESS | French artist’s singular entry
INGRES (=French artist, i.e. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres) + S (=singular, i.e. in grammar) |
| 06 | LIVERPUDLIANS | Scousers wanting meat, then ‘escargot’ served up after dessert
LIVER (=meat) + PUD (=dessert) + LIANS (SNAIL=escargot; “served up” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 07 | ROAST | Regular offering as Sunday treat, principally?
R<egular> O<ffering> A<s> S<unday> T<reat>; “principally” means first letters only are used; partially & lit. |
| 08 | HARD CASE | Brief problem, perhaps, for tough guy
A hard (legal) case could be problematic for a brief, i.e. lawyer |
| 10 | SALTED PEANUTS | A pale student’s ordered nibbles
*(A PALE STUDENT’S); “ordered” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | GIANTESS | Big woman developing in stages
*(IN STAGES); “developing” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | DISTINCT | Individual detective’s first to testify in court
DI’S (=detective’s, i.e. Detective Inspector’s) + T<estify> (“first to” means first letter only) + IN + CT (=court) |
| 19 | ALLEGRO | Everything I wanted the dealer ultimately installed inside old Austin
<deale>R (“ultimately” means last letter only) in [ALL (=everything) + EGO (=I)]; the Austin Allegro was manufactured by British Leyland from 1973 to 1982 |
| 21 | ABALONE | Seaman meets shellfish seller not initially supplying seafood?
AB (=seaman) + <m>ALONE (=shellfish seller, i.e. Molly Malone in the popular song; “not initially” means first letter dropped) |
| 22 | DRAGON | Something tiresome regarding 24
DRAG (=something tiresome) + ON (=regarding); the definition is “termagant” (=entry at 24) |
| 23 | POSED | Sat for artist, showing self-control? Not I
PO<i>SED (=showing self-control), “not I” means letter “i” is dropped |
I agree with your parsing of 8dn RR.
This was another enjoyable Dac puzzle even though it seemed very much towards the easier end of his spectrum. I had come across NULLAH before so it went straight in. For some reason I needed all the checkers for my LOI, SALTED PEANUTS.
Thanks Dac for a very enjoyable puzzle and RR for the blog. I agree with you about 8dn – I had not thought of that meaning of “Brief”. My favourite clue was 6dn for its construction from well matched parts.
My one small grumble with this puzzle is the cross reference between intersecting clues at 24ac/22dn.
13ac: This is the type of “hidden reversal” where I would still expect “goes west” if it were a down clue.
Excellent puzzle to start the year from Dac. I was tickled by LIVERPUDLIANS today.
I have the sense that the -ESS ending, as in GIANTESS, is becoming less common in modern English. MURDERESS and POETESS exist, but aren’t widely used any more. Even some ACTRESSES are insisting on being called ACTORS these days.
Thanks for blogging, RR.
Beautiful as usual. I was all ready to nit-pick and point out that it was Castaway not Cast Away, and should have been (8) not (4, 4), but I’m wrong. This sort of thing often happens with Dac.
Too tired last night so only finished this puzzle this morning.
Yet another good Dac! Joyce, who solved 4d would like to thank Wil for his comment as she thought exactly the same thing but hadn’t bothered to check!
Thanks Dac and RR.
There was a film Castaway, 1986, starring Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohoe naked on a tropical island. When the Hanks film came out I noticed the similarity in names and the difference in spelling so this clue was no problem for me.