Today offers me my once-monthly opportunity to blog a Dac puzzle on a Wednesday.
And I don’t suppose that I’ll say anything today that I haven’t said many times before: we have before us another set of consistently sound, neat and tidy clues with silky smooth surfaces.
For me, this was towards the easier end of the Dac spectrum, although the SW corner held me up for a while at the end and 9 was my last-one-in – I don’t think that I have ever since this name written down before, at least not for a long time. I hope I have parsed the definition at 23 correctly, since Chambers didn’t resolve matters unequivocally for me.
My favourites today are 14, 24 and 27, all for surface; and above all 20, for incorporating so much Formula One content into the clue.
(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
Across | ||
01 | ALPACA | In a US city see tailless pack animal
PAC<k> (“tailless” means last letter dropped) in [A + LA (=US city, i.e. Los Angeles)] |
04 | BALMORAL | Royal house party rejected? Right
BAL (LAB=party, i.e. the Labour Party; “rejected” indicates reversal) + MORAL (=right, ethical) |
09 | EVADNE | Cameron, perhaps, turn to Geordie woman
EVAD (DAVE=Cameron, perhaps; “turns” indicates reversal) + NE (=Geordie, i.e. from NE England); for me, this forename was immortalised by Dame Evadne Hinge of Hinge and Bracket! |
10 | DAIRYMEN | Mary and Enid working as farmers?
*(MARY + ENID); “working” is anagram indicator |
12 | HAMPSTEAD | A politician’s time in main part of London
[A + MP (=politician, i.e. Member of Parliament) + ‘S + T (=time)] in HEAD (=main) |
13 | TASTE | Sample part of banquet – a steak
Hidden (“part of”) in “banqueT A STEak” |
14 | SAINT BERNARD | Terribly bad trainers tethering new dog
N (=new) in *(BAD TRAINERS); “terribly” is anagram indicator |
18 | MOTORCOACHES | Carrying something that burns endlessly, medic sets fire to buses
COA<l> (=something that burns; “endlessly” means last letter dropped) in [MO (=medic, i.e. Medical Officer) + TORCHES (=sets fire to)] |
21 | LAILA/LEILA | The French girl oddly lacking a name
LA/LE (=the French, i.e. a French word for the) + <g>I<r>L (“oddly lacking” means odd letters are dropped) + A |
22 | ADVERTISE | Publicise reissue of a Verdi set
*(A VERDI SET); “reissue of” is anagram indicator |
24 | SQUADDIE | Soldier did manoeuvres in quadrangle ignoring regimental leader
*(DID) in SQUA<r>E (=quadrangle; “lacking regimental leader, i.e. first letter, means letter “r” is dropped); “manoeuvres” is anagram indicator |
25 | REPAST | Meal with no end of wine after theatre
REP (=theatre, i.e. repertory) + AST<i> (=wine; “no end of” means last letter dropped) |
26 | TUTORING | Teaching noted mathematician about origins of theorems, oddly
[T<heorems> O<ddly> (“origins of” means first letter only)] in TURING (=noted mathematician, i.e. Bletchley Park hero Alan Turing) |
27 | HEEDED | Male journalists given notice?
HE (=male) + ED ED (=journalist, x2) |
Down | ||
01 | AMETHYST | Most pathetic, heading off after pinching your old gemstone
THY (=your old, i.e. an old way of saying your) in <l>AMEST (=most pathetic, e.g. excuse; “heading off” means first letter dropped) |
02 | PEARMAIN | Apple and a different fruit, one consumed by a chap
PEAR (=a fruit other than an apple!) + [I (=one) in MAN (=chap)] |
03 | CANES | Sticks around with individuals going short of nothing
CA (=around, i.e. circa) + <o>NES (=individuals; “going short of nothing (=O)” means letter “o” is dropped) |
05 | ALADDIN’S CAVE | A young man warning about rackets in the Treasury?
DINS (=rackets) in [A + LAD (=young man) + CAVE (=warning)]; cryptically, the treasure trove that was Aladdin’s cave could be described as a “treasury” |
06 | MORATORIA | Speaker stuck in middle of motorway, facing a number of delays?
[ORATOR (=speaker) in M1 (=motorway)] + A |
07 | REMISS | Careless teacher of religion
Cryptically, an “R.E. (=Religious Education) miss” could be a “teacher of religion” |
08 | LINDEN | Source of timber left in private room
L (=left) + IN + DEN (=private room) |
11 | REDECORATION | Communist writer gets allowance for makeover
RED (=Communist) + ECO (=writer, i.e. Italian novelist Umberto Eco) + RATION (=allowance) |
15 | TWO-HANDER | Play doctor wrote without help
HAND (=help, as in to give someone a hand) in *(WROTE); “doctor” is anagram indicator; a two-hander is play written for two actors |
16 | THAILAND | A thin lad abandoned country
*(A THIN LAD); “abandoned” is anagram indicator |
17 | ASSENTED | Agreed when children might absorb religious work
AS (=when) + [NT (=religious work, i.e. New Testament)] in SEED (=children)] |
19 | CLOSET | Small room’s oppressive temperature
CLOSE (=oppressive) + T (=temperature) |
20 | PIQUET | Racing driver that at Le Mans enters refuelling area
QUE (=that at Le Mans, i.e. the French word for that) in PIT (=refuelling area, as in to make a pit-stop); the reference is to retired Brazilian Formula One racing driver Nelson Piquet (1952-) |
23 | REEVE | Representative section of free verse
Hidden (“section of”) in “fREE VErse”; reeve can mean “a local administrative agent – hence “representative”, as a noun – of an Anglo-Saxon king” |
Re 23d. For ‘reeve’ Collins has “(English history) the local representative of the king in a shire (under the ealdorman) until the early 11th century”.
Re 21a, the solution is Leila.
Yes, Leila was the first, and last, I hope, dog in space. Thanks to Dac and RR – excellent puzzle and blog
Laika (not Leila) was the first dog in orbit, though other dogs had been launched into space.
Since the definition is only ‘name’, why should it be a particular name, whether of the first dog in orbit or not?
As the second letter of the five-letter word is unchecked, it could well be LAILA. I can think of many Lailas, but perhaps the most famous of them all is Laila of the Hindi movie Laila Majnu.
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laila_Majnu_(1976_film)
Thank you, Polly. Those of us who remember these events are now at an age when we remember incorrectly. I would be interested to know which name was intended.
I think that Dac must adjudicate the Laila/Leila controversy since the clue does not actually indicate the gender of the name (Laila m, Leila f.).
Hm, I put LEILA too, and Wikipedia says they are just variant spellings of the same Hebrew name (means night in both Hebrew and Arabic). Both spellings are women’s names. Muhammad Ali’s daughter is called Laila and I remember Leila Khaled, the Palestinian hijacker back in the sixties.
Curiously, for me the SW corner went in before I even looked at the rest of the puzzle.
I did it online, entered LEILA, and got the congratulatory message at the end. For some reason “Laila” didn’t occur to me, although it does seem to be a valid alternative.
Re Andy @9: Ah, that means it’s accessible on Crossword Solver again. Good news.
I have amended the blog to reflect the above discussion on the two possible answers at 21 – thanks to all for pointing out the other, perhaps more natural, alternative.