As usual of course. When is Dac ever anything but as usual? Such simply-constructed clues, nothing remotely tortuous.
Definitions underlined.
Across
1 US president largely contains a distressing experience (6)
TRAUMA
Tr(a)uma{n}
4 Where to find military aircraft when going round various parts of Serbia (3,5)
AIR BASES
(Serbia)* in as
9 Soup to take round school (6)
BORSCH
(rob)rev. sch — various spellings of this word, usually a t there somewhere
10 Stable, one available for horse (8)
STALLION
stall 1 on
12 Private detective’s protection for Reagan, leader of moderate Republican movement (9)
GIRONDISM
GI (Ron) DI’s m{oderate} — GI = private, DI = detective — the Girondists were a group of republican politicians around the time of the French Revolution
13 Athlete who looks happy to lose the lead? (5)
MILER
{s}miler
14 I will ally with left-winger, overshadowing Tory? That’s unwise (3-10)
ILL-CONSIDERED
I’ll (Con) side red
17 Assortment of chocolates fellow presented to right classy employee? (13)
SCHOOLTEACHER
(chocolates)* he r — classy because a schoolteacher takes classes
20 English author hard on sect member (5)
AMISH
Amis h — which, if either, of Kingsley or Martin will survive? Never mind if neither does, they’ll still be used in crosswords. Who reads Elia nowadays?
22 Hate navigating a boat with me in (9)
ABOMINATE
(a boat me in)*
23 Cane endlessly used by head of house? (8)
DOMESTIC
dome stic{k} — at least I think that’s what it is: head = dome as in P.G.Wodehouse
24 Retired religious scholar, say, gets with it: see what I mean? (6)
GEDDIT
(DD eg)rev. it
25 Wayward traveller going over lines (8)
PERVERSE
(rep)rev. verse
26 A short step for a woman (6)
ASTRID
a strid{e}
Down
1 Bandage that you finally put on enormous gash (8)
TUBIGRIP
{tha}t {yo}u big rip — well I’d never heard of it but that doesn’t mean much
2 A university rector’s spoken about dawn (7)
AURORAL
A U R oral — nicely misleading since ‘spoken about’ usually indicates a homophone
3 Bull chases after Scotsman wearing raincoat (9)
MACINTOSH
tosh following (Mac in) — Mac = Scotsman, in = wearing
5 Fear suggestion to withhold passport? (12)
INTIMIDATION
intim{ID}ation — withhold as an inclusion indicator stretches my comprehension a bit: I suppose in the sense ‘restrain’
6 Name of English actor in Rambo lampoon (5)
BOLAM
Hidden in RamBO LAMpoon — ref James Bolam
7 Talented saint committed deadly sin (7)
SKILLED
S killed — a deadly sin in two senses
8 One way to preserve tomatoes of various kinds (6)
SUNDRY
One way to preserve tomatoes is by sun-drying them
11 Preachers fail to reach Christian centre, having no heart for travels (12)
MISSIONARIES
miss Iona ri{d}es
15 Being prepared to study, I’ll get taken to head (9)
READINESS
read I ness
16 Apprehended criminal trader pinching French art? (8)
ARRESTED
(trader)* around es [je suis, tu es, …] — es = French art is rather a chestnut but forgiveable in such a nice surface
17 Wife comes in to boil fish perhaps (7)
SWIMMER
s(w)immer
18 Saver with nothing, in less easy environment (7)
HOARDER
h(0)arder
19 Settled in flat round island, towards the north (4,2)
PAID UP
pa(i)d up [= towards the north — not a reversal indicator]
21 Hurry inside Gurkha’s temple (5)
HASTE
Hidden in GurkHA’S TEmple
*anagram
Defeated by the unheard-of tubigrip, which left me with too little to see Girondist. Otherwise enjoyable — thanks to blogger and setter.
Another enjoyable and fairly clued Dac puzzle. My last two were the two mentioned above by Ian, and GIRONDISM, once I’d unpicked the wordplay, led me to trust the wordplay for TUBIGRIP.
Have used Tubigrip for cut fingers so no problem there but didn’t see French art – very clever. I finished in three short sessions. LOI was Skilled as I kept trying to make it Stifled using ST for Saint ! The penny dropped finally!
Thanks both.
Took me a while to get going on this, fearing another problem day, but things finally got going.
I’ve seen Abel Gance’s Napoleon enough times to know about the Girondists, so 12ac gave no problems allowing me to guess 1dn (although the word was in the back of my memory somewhere).
Count us as another two who needed help for 1d – in our case it was a Chambers Thesaurus!
We also hasn’t heard of 12ac.
An enjoyable solve which we started too late last night and had to finish this morning!
Thanks to both S&B.
Es for French art is a chestnut? It’s a new one on me and rather good.
A reasonable solvable crossword , as above “tubigrip” and geddit, beat me, I must be getting better as I have classed DAC on the difficult side of compilers in the past.
Nice one, Tortoise @7. Do you know about idothei? We typically have half a dozen or more of us discussing the i cryptic on the day of publication. You’d be very welcome, plus the link to Fifteensquared is always provided, and a Clue Of the Day choice.