Independent 9,024 / Dac

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”

   
   

 

11 comments on “Independent 9,024 / Dac”

  1. 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”.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.).

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

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