Today saw my monthly encounter with Dac, who is occupying his customary Wednesday slot.
For me, this was towards the easy end of the Dac spectrum, and I made swift progress through the puzzle. That said, I couldn’t fathom out 24, which I did not know, from the wordplay, since I wrongly assumed that the letter “i” was merely transposed from the clue and that I was looking for a 5-letter word for “goat” that would be shortened to 4 letters. I suppose you could say that Dac had the last laugh today, then!
Overall, a trademark Dac puzzle, although perhaps with more proper nouns as entries – 1A, 4D, 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 17, 20, 27, 28 – than one might have expected from him. My favourites today were 6, for the cleverly disguised definition, and 20, for sustaining the university reference through definition and wordplay.
(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PALMA | Tree area in Spanish city
PALM (=tree) + A (=area) |
| 04 | MORALISED | Lectured sailor splashing in sea
*(SAILOR) in MED (=sea, i.e. the Mediterranean); “splashing” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | RAMBLER | Walk between two rivers? I might
AMBLE (=walk) in R R (=two rivers, i.e. 2 x R=river); & lit. |
| 10 | THEROUX | The sauce of this writer!
THE + ROUX (=sauce, made of butter and flour); the reference is to US travel writer Paul Theroux (1941-) |
| 11 | MONORAIL | Trouble on heath, installing new train track
[N (=new) in MOOR (=heath)] + AIL (=trouble) |
| 12 | NEWTON | Scientist discovered weight in gas
WT (=weight) in NEON (=gas); the reference is to English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) |
| 14 | UNCONFINED | A foreign prisoner punished? Such great joy
Un (=a foreign, i.e. the French word for a) + CON (=prisoner, a in ex-con) + FINED (=punished); joy is unconfined in, for example, Lord Byron’s poem The Eve of Waterloo |
| 16 | JAMB | In auditorium, wedge part of door
Homophone (“in auditorium”) of “(to) jam” (=wedge, block) |
| 19 | TERM | Mister Magoo’s shortened name
Hidden (“shortened”) in “misTER Magoo” |
| 20 | BULLINGDON | Being cruel to lecturer not unknown in this university club?
BULL<y>ING DON (=being cruel to lecturer); “not unknown (=y, from algebra)” means letter “y” is dropped; the reference is to the controversial Oxford-based dining club, whose former members include David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson, etc |
| 22 | PAIRED | Coupled together, old man and I embarrassed?
PA (=old man) + I + RED (=embarrassed) |
| 23 | ANATHEMA | Hate articles written by graduate
AN + A + THE (=articles, in grammar) + MA (=graduate, i.e. Master of Arts) |
| 26 | ORDERLY | Systematic // hospital attendant
Double definition |
| 27 | TIEPOLO | He painted Ascot, perhaps? Mint!
TIE (=Ascot, perhaps) + POLO (=mint, i.e. confectionery); according to Chambers, an ascot tie is a necktie with broad ends tied to lie one across the other; the reference is to Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) |
| 28 | MANDELSON | Labour politician led back into House, ignoring independent
DEL (LED; “back” indicates reversal) in MANS<i>ON (=House; “ignoring Independent (=I)” means letter “i” is dropped); the reference is to former Cabinet minister and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson (1953-) |
| 29 | RAISE | Beams, say, getting wage increase
Homophone (“say”) of “rays” (=beams, e.g. of light) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PARAMOUNT | Very important soldier on horse
PARA (=soldier, i.e. paratrooper) + MOUNT (=horse, steed) |
| 02 | LEMON | Fruit squeezed by little monkey
Hidden (“squeezed by”) in “littLE MONkey” |
| 03 | ALLURING | Totally posh jewellery item, very attractive
ALL (=totally) + U (=posh) + RING (=jewellery item) |
| 04 | MARTINIQUE | After bombing, airmen quit island
*(AIRMEN QUIT); “after bombing” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | RUTH | Book routine hospital meeting
RUT (=routine, as in to be in a rut) + H (=hospital); the Book of Ruth appears in the Old Testament |
| 06 | LIEDER | Numbers of Germans gave false information about uprising
LIED (=gave false information) + ER (RE=about; “uprising” indicates vertical reversal); “number” in the definition is to be understood as a song, as in to perform a couple of numbers) |
| 07 | SHORTHAND | Writing style of little help?
Cryptically, if to lend a hand is to help, then a “short hand” would offer “little help”!! |
| 08 | DIXON | TV policeman once cross about being under inspector
DI (=inspector, i.e. Detective Inspector) + X (=cross, as on a ballot paper) + ON (=about, concerning); the reference is to the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, which ran from 1955-1976 |
| 13 | WELLINGTON | Fly towards north, covering short distance in old bomber
ELL (=short distance) in [WING (=fly, as verb) + TO (=towards) + N (=north)]; Wellington bombers were used especially as night bombers in the early years of WWII |
| 15 | CARRIED ON | Continued showing 70s horror film along with The Godfather?
CARRIE (=70s horror film, based on Stephen King’s novel) + DON (=the Godfather, i.e. mafia boss, such as Don Corleone) |
| 17 | BANGALORE | Stop girl meeting soldiers near E Indian city
BAN (=stop) + GAL (=girl) + OR (=soldiers, i.e. other ranks) + E |
| 18 | KNITWEAR | Woollen garments? New kit surprisingly upset the Gunners!
*(NEW KIT) + AR (RA=the Gunners, i.e. the Royal Artillery; “upset” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 21 | DEGREE | Qualification, say, received by doctor getting firsts in every examination
[E.G. (=say, for example) in DR (=doctor)] + E<very> E<xamination> (“firsts in” means first letters only) |
| 22 | PRO-AM | Concert involving a combination of paid and unpaid players
A in PROM (=concert); a pro-am golf tournament, for example, brings together both professional and amateur golfers |
| 24 | ENOKI | Type of mushroom I served up with goat, mostly
ENO (ONE=I; “served up” indicates vertical reversal) + KI<d> (=goat; “mostly” means last letter dropped); enoki is a thin white edible mushroom with a very small cap, native to Japan |
| 25 | BYES | Leader in biathlon certainly runs
B<iathlon> (“leader in” means first letter only) + YES (=certainly); byes are extras, i.e. extra runs, in cricket |
I had the same trouble with 24dn (once I’d found ENOKI to be a type of mushroom) but otherwise everything was very smooth as one expects from Dac. Just a couple of minor quibbles: I’m open to correction, but I would say that a ROUX is not a sauce in itself – it’s the mixture of butter and flour that is the basis for a variety of sauces; and ANATHEMA is something hated rather than hate itself (although ‘hate’ can be used in the sense of something hated, as in “my pet hates are …”).
JAMB was my CoD for its surface, conciseness and the novel (to me) homophone indicator.
Thanks, Dac and RatkojaRiku
I have so many crosswords on the go at the moment, I wrote on the bottom of the sheet of paper for this one ‘Easy peasy for a Dac’ so that I wouldn’t forget what I thought when I’d finished. 27a made me smile.
Thanks to setter and blogger
The usual elegant clueing, with nothing too taxing.
Slight quibble with explanation of 6D. It is not “number” in the definition but “numbers”, since lieder is the plural of lied.
Thanks to Dac and RakojaRiku.
17 Down: I had Cannanore as the Indian city initially, can (stop it)-nan (girl)-or-e; but then got stuck with -a-c for 14ac and changed to Bangalore. (Cannanore and Bangalore are both Anglicised spellings and the cities are now known as Kannur and Bengaluru.)
Enjoyable and not too difficult but as you say quite a few proper nouns. 7d, I just thought a charade, short=little, hand=help. I liked 3d & 15d. Many thanks Dac & RakojaRiku
We were also fooled by 24d – even when we had the answer we still missed the parsing. We would like to blame it on the fact that we are tired.
We had same thoughts about ROUX as allan_c@1.
Thanks RR and Dac.