An unusually easy crossword from Dac today, it seemed. But that is not to denigrate it: there are as always some lovely surfaces and all is sound — even 24ac, about which I have slight misgivings, may possibly be included in this.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Glass fitter’s no good, being less inclined to work (6)
LAZIER
{g}lazier
5 Crossing town in France, bounder made petty comments (8)
CAVILLED
ca(ville)d — ville = town in French
9 Judge wanting harmony about court meeting (8)
JUNCTION
j un(ct)ion
10 Steamy saunas somewhere in the Bahamas (6)
NASSAU
(saunas)*
11 Insects from various parts of France – whoppers (5,5)
CRANE FLIES
(France)* lies
12 Smooth operator harbours feeling of confidence (4)
HOPE
Hidden in SmootH OPErator
13 Talk about American Great Lake (8)
CAUSERIE
ca US Erie — according to Chambers causerie is ‘a chat or gossip’
15 Actor‘s introduction to porn film (6)
PLAYER
p{orn} layer
16 Out of shape (6)
SQUARE
2 defs — in one of them out = unfashionable = square
18 After trance, oddly I become very quiet (8)
TACITURN
t{r}a{n}c{e} I turn
20 American citizen made little noise, presumably (4)
WASP
was p — a WASP is a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
21 Express and Financial Times containing article on Conservative leader’s latest show of political skill (10)
STATECRAFT
state (C {leade}r a) FT — an unusually long clue for Dac, but worth it
23 Passionate tale about maiden (6)
STORMY
stor(M)y
24 One swallowing drug during race is likely to be followed (8)
IMITABLE
1 mi(tab)le — I think, but am not comfortable with this: in the wordplay the swallowing is done by the race, not by 1, so is Dac using a rather strange sense of ‘swallowing’, where swallowing = causing the word that follows to do the swallowing, or am I just missing something?
25 Infamous Victorian wearing extremely flashy showy trinkets (8)
FRIPPERY
Ripper in f{lash}y — Jack the Ripper was the infamous Victorian
26 Gluttonous journalist tucked into a sort of mullet (6)
GREEDY
Gre(ed)y — the Grey Mullet is a type of fish, as one can reasonably assume, although I’d never heard of it
Down
2 With a couple of pints almost top up water tanks (7)
AQUARIA
a quar{t} (A1)rev. — a couple of pints is a quart, A1 = top
3 Native of South America imprisoned? (5)
INCAN
in can — this suggests that one is in the can, or in prison
4 Give extra support to sappers in army unit (9)
REINFORCE
RE in force
5 Rampant deflation in City? That’s something you may never know (15)
CONFIDENTIALITY
(deflation in City)*
6 More than one climber struggles to cross Matterhorn ultimately (5)
VINES
vies round {Matterhor}n
7 See there’s a problem and be discouraged (4,5)
LOSE HEART
lo (there’s a)*
8 Formerly buxom model (7)
EXAMPLE
ex-ample
14 Bargain hunter reflected stainless kitchenware will save very little money (7-2)
SNAPPER-UP
p in (pure pans)rev. — p = pence, very little money
15 Supporting strike action, choose, say, to collect money (9)
PICKETING
pick e(tin)g
17 A fraction of compassion? (7)
QUARTER
2 defs
19 Upset, finding females were in control all round (7)
RUFFLED
ru(ff)led — were in control = ruled
21 One way of contacting people that’s a bit risky perhaps (5)
SKYPE
Hidden in riSKY PErhaps
22 Study English writer (5)
READE
Read E — refers to Charles Reade
*anagram
And it’s a pangram. The usual smooth stuff from Dac, very enjoyable.
Re 24,can’t we interpret it like this:
One – I
swallowing – merely in the sense of taking, so position indicator
drug – TAB
during – container/content signal
race – MILE
is likely to be followed – def
I, MI(TAB)LE
Yes certainly Rishi I agree if you accept that swallowing is a juxtaposition indicator, but can one really accept this, even though your suggestion of swallowing = taking = being next to is possibly what Dac meant? My suspicion is that he didn’t, though.
Thanks to setter & blogger,
Fairly kind offering today, but with a few more difficult ones. Grr! Missed WASP despite it being almost a cryptic cliché. 13 was new to me but gettable from the word play & I had to dredge up 5a from my list of rarely encountered words.
I couldn’t really parse 24 either. Do you think “swallowing” could be meant in an adjectival sense, as in a tab(let) being regarded as a type of “swallowing drug”. Yes, a bit (very!) iffy but at least the word play would (sort of) work.
The usual enjoyable Dac solve that I thought was toward the easier end of his spectrum.
I had most of the puzzle finished quickly but I took slightly longer over my last three. They were IMITABLE, because it took me a while to unlock the wordplay (I didn’t mind the way “swallowing” was used), CRANE FLIES, because it took me a while to see that “France” was anagram fodder, and my LOI, WASP, for which I had to go through the alphabet before the penny dropped.
Not really sure it was all that easy, quite a few rareish words, wordplay fine once you saw them.
wasp and square difficult with crossing help.
Ta john and dac.
Thanks Dac for a very enjoyable puzzle and John for the blog. I missed the pangram – somehow I do not expect them from Dac.
24ac: Chambers 2011 gives tab³ n short for tablet; a pill or drug, esp Ecstasy or a small square of paper containing LSD. I think you can find “swallowing drug” = “drug that is swallowed” in that lot, leaving “during” as the containment indicator, so I am agreeing with WordPlodder@4 and Andy@5, but without WordPlodder’s reservations.
20ac: When solving, I wondered why Dac put “American” in the clue, but Chambers 2011 marks this meaning as (US).
We missed the pangram unfortunately but we did start it very late and came here as soon as we had finished!
We’ve no concerns about 24ac and enjoyed 20ac which took a while for the penny to drop. 13ac was new but we were familiar with both grey and red mullets – red being much tastier in our opinion.
Thanks Dac and John.