Independent 8,940 by Dac

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When Dac is the day’s setter the preamble to the blog tends to contain the word ‘usual’. Justifiably so. Such good surfaces, nearly every one of which paints a little picture without compromising the quality of the clue.

Across
1 HUDSON
Honour received by old German explorer (6)

hu(DSO)n
4 HEADCASE
Nutter held bag containing ecstasy (8)

h(e)ad case
9 LASHED OUT
Attacked hooligan when he had burst in (6,3)

l(as he’d)out
11 GAMAY
Red wine good with a vegetable turnover (5)

g a (yam)rev. — had never heard of it, but clear enough from the wordplay
12 TRAPPED
Leader of thieves reprimanded, being caught (7)

t{hieves} rapped
13 TROUNCE
Defeat lightweight after little time? Right (7)

t r ounce
14 MEDICINE BALL
Hardly a bouncer where doctors gather socially? (8,4)

Doctors might gather socially at a ball for those involved with medicine, and a medicine ball is so heavy that it bounces little
18 CAIRN TERRIER
Dog, one shouts, biting trainer viciously (5,7)

crier round (trainer)*
21 CAPITOL
Working coal pit, state-owned establishment (7)

(coal pit)* — state-owned in the sense that it is owned by the US
22 LECTERN
Stand made by Hannibal close to Mediterranean? (7)

Lecter {Mediterranea}n — ref Hannibal Lecter
24 TENDS
Nurses in East End sanatorium (5)

Hidden in EasT END Sanatorium
25 VIDEO CALL
Local dive re-established communication (5,4)

(Local dive)*
26 HARD SELL
Shared out £2, the result of such aggressive marketing? (4,4)

(Shared)* LL
27 ASTERN
A small seabird towards rear of ship (6)

a s tern
Down
1 HALF-TIME
The film re-shown without a break (4-4)

(The film)* round a — without in the sense outside
2 DASTARDS
Despicable sorts feature prominently among old men (8)

da(star)ds
3 ONE-UP
Slightly ahead? Tied after losing lead (3-2)

{d}one up
5 ESTATE-BOTTLED
Like some wines, European, said to contain grit (6-7)

E state(bottle)d
6 DOG COLLAR
Is it worn by a Parson Jack Russell? (3,6)

A CD I think, rare for Dac, a little joke which I’m sure you’ll see, but just in case, it’s a reference to the fact that a parson wears a dog collar and a Jack Russell is a dog. Though why it’s Parson rather than parson I’m not sure.
7 ARMANI
Fashion house providing mostly boring clothes for male (6)

Ari{d} round man, with ‘clothes’ a containment indicator, although I can’t quite justify the word ‘for’, which is obviously needed for the surface
8 ELYSEE
Name of palace in Cambridgeshire city, and description of it (6)

Ely see — the Cambridgeshire city is Ely and it is a see
10 ORDINARY LEVEL
Drove in really tricky test, once (8,5)

(Drove in really)*
15 CHARTISTS
Church painters reforming group (9)

ch. artists — the Chartists
16 LITERATE
Well-read youngsters briefly absorbing Education Reform Act (8)

litte{r} round E.R.A.
17 FRANKLIN
American statesman‘s honest policy ignored by English (8)

frank lin(E)
19 SCOTCH
Whisky drunk by companion about start of celebration (6)

(sot CH) round c{elebration}
20 OPENER
Key player at Lord’s? (6)

2 defs, one of them referring to an opening batsman in cricket
23 CROSS
Kick mongrel (5)

2 defs, one of them being a type of kick in soccer
*anagram

8 comments on “Independent 8,940 by Dac”

  1. All very straightforward. Re 6dn the explanation of why it’s a capital P in ‘Parson’ can be found here (I didn’t know till I looked it up!)

    Liked 22ac for its misleading surface.

    Thanks, Dac and John

  2. This took me longer than most Dacs, perhaps because of the gamay-elysee-armani crossing answers, lots of strange words in one place. I eventually found all those. Then I was left with my last empty space, 17D _R_N_L_N , and I stared at that for ten minutes before giving up in despair. Four crossing letters and not a vowel in sight.

    I’m not quite sure what the clue is implying at 6D, but it happens that the John Russell who first bred the eponymous terrier was himself a parson.

    John, thanks for your work on the blog. Dac, my apologies for failing to complete your challenge.

  3. Always enjoy Wednesday’s Dac and today’s was no exception, but mightily held up in SE corner because VOICE DIAL also fits the grid and the clue. Once I’d worked out my mistake it was plain(er) sailing to finish.

    Thanks to Dac and John

  5. Yes, the usual enjoyable Dac puzzle. It looks like I wasn’t the only one who had trouble with the GAMAY/ARMANI/ELYSEE trio, and I biffed ARMANI because I was fixated on male=M and didn’t consider an alternative. I’m not having a good parsing morning because I also biffed one in the Guardian that should have been easy to parse.

  6. One of the rare puzzles that I have solved without resort to external reference or electronic inspiration. Some lovely clues. The Ely See combination of two fairly standard bits of crossword-ese is very smooth. 1dn is a splendidly compact mix of false trails.

    Although there are red wines called GAMAY it is more correctly the name of a grape – the principal ingredient Beaujolais wines

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