Another Wednesday, another excellent Dac puzzle. As always, excellent surfaces and very fair clueing.
This puzzle includes three proper names – not what we have come to expect from Dac. No criticism, just an observation – is it his way of making the use of crossword solving sites slightly more difficult?
The definitions at 10ac, 26ac and 11d are very inventive.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Small child loves position as pupil down under (8) | |
| SCHOOLIE | S (small) CH (child) OO (loves) LIE (position) | |
| 5 | Boat fit to be used in war, gutted (6) | |
| WHALER | HALE (fit) in W |
|
| 9 | Versatile performers replaced mostly bad actors (8) | |
| ACROBATS | An anagram of BA |
|
| 10 | Caveman following girl beyond home (6) | |
| FINGAL | F (following) GAL (girl) after or ‘beyond’ IN (home) – a reference to the hero of an epic poem after whom ‘Fingal’s Cave’ on Staffa is named. | |
| 12 | One talks a lot about top designer meeting the Queen (9) | |
| CHATTERER | C (about) HATTER (‘top’ designer) ER (the Queen) | |
| 13 | Locatin’ protest (3-2) | |
| SIT-IN | SITIN |
|
| 14 | Gaps regularly appearing in my teeth even now (3) | |
| YET | Alternate letters (‘gaps regularly appearing’) in mY tEeTh | |
| 15 | More covers I ordered, as part of this? (4,7) | |
| ROOM SERVICE | Cryptic definition – an anagram of MORE COVERS I – anagrind is ‘ordered’ | |
| 17 | In Cambridgeshire location, Socialists together speak out in detailed fashion (11) | |
| ELABORATELY | ELY (Cambridgeshire location) round LAB (the Labour party – ‘Socialists together’) ORATE (speak out) | |
| 18 | Turned up first for beer … here? (3) | |
| PUB | Cryptic definition – UP reversed or ‘turned’ + B – first letter of ‘beer’ | |
| 20 | Attendants providing sheets (5) | |
| PAGES | Double definition | |
| 22 | Musicians endlessly fired by return of cultural activities (9) | |
| ORCHESTRA | ||
| 24 | Rogue artist’s name ultimately forgotten (6) | |
| RASCAL | RAS (artist’s) CAL |
|
| 25 | Without thinking, deputy lieutenant probes explosive near ship (8) | |
| MINDLESS | DL (deputy lieutenant) in or ‘probing’ MINE (explosive) + SS (ship) | |
| 26 | Stockholder maybe right to invest in Channel port (6) | |
| DROVER | R (right) in DOVER (Channel port) | |
| 27 | Former Beatle is performing after Prince’s brief appearance (8) | |
| HARRISON | IS ON (performing) after HARR |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Prim celebrity introduces Charlie and Henry (7) | |
| STARCHY | STAR (celebrity) C (Charlie – phonetic alphabet) HY (Henry) | |
| 2 | In this place consumes curry I left, needing a drink (6,3) | |
| HERBAL TEA | HERE (this place) round or ‘consuming’ BALT |
|
| 3 | Cycle part men put at front (5) | |
| ORBIT | BIT (part) with OR (men – ‘other ranks’) at the front | |
| 4 | I’ll introduce solvers from different countries: roll up! (12) | |
| INTERPOLATOR | INTERPOL (‘solvers’ – detectives – from different countries) + ROTA (roll) reversed or ‘up’ | |
| 6 | Hot songs on piano before light musical (9) | |
| HAIRSPRAY | H (hot) AIRS (songs) P (piano) RAY (light) | |
| 7 | It’s OK to run away (5) | |
| LEGIT | LEG IT (run away) | |
| 8 | Wolf Hall actor having lines cut (7) | |
| RYLANCE | RY (lines – railway) LANCE (cut) – a reference to Mark Rylance, one of our favourite actors, who played Thomas Cromwell in the brilliant TV production of ‘Wolf Hall’ | |
| 11 | Theatrical dame tucked into cooked sardine? That’s potty (7,5) | |
| DRESDEN CHINA | DENCH (Dame Judi – ‘theatrical dame’) ‘tucked’ into an anagram of SARDINE – anagrind is ‘cooked’ | |
| 15 | Poor cafés should be refurbished: that’s the view from on high (9) | |
| ROOFSCAPE | An anagram of POOR CAFES – anagrind is ‘refurbished’ | |
| 16 | Balsam perhaps formed by sap in time (9) | |
| IMPATIENS | An anagram of SAP IN TIME – anagrind is ‘formed’ | |
| 17 | Old saintly cardinal possibly ran out (7) | |
| EXPIRED | EX (old) PI (saintly) RED (cardinal, possibly) | |
| 19 | British entrepreneur in a pickle, short of time (7) | |
| BRANSON | BRANS |
|
| 21 | Unidentified item shown by US army medic? (5) | |
| GISMO | GI’S MO could refer to a Medical Officer (medic) for GIs in the US Army | |
| 23 | Church official partly covered lectern over (5) | |
| ELDER | Hidden or ‘partly’ in ‘coveRED LEctern’ reversed or ‘over’ | |
Thank you Dac for an enjoyable puzzle and Joyce and Bert for yet another great blog. I did like DROVER!
Thanks, both.
Hardest Dac I’ve tried for a long while, which as you say wasn’t helped by the number of proper nouns in the solutions and clues. HARRISON I could guess, but RYLANCE is a bit unfair if – like me – you’ve never seen the series and don’t know the actor.
But at least I could access this puzzle, unlike in Another Place, where the site doesn’t want to come out to play this morning. We do keep telling the techie foetuses who redesign these sites in an attempt to make them ‘better’ that it was fine before. Don’t arse about with it giving us multi-coloured stuff. Crosswords are designed to be solved in black and white. And yes, I know we can get them for nothing and income is needed from ‘our sponsors’.
End of rant and thanks to Dac.
A pleasant mid-week solve. I didn’t know SCHOOLIES was a particularly Australian (and ? NZ) term, nor the link between IMPATIENS and ‘balsam’. Enjoyed GISMO, INTERPOLATOR and HAIRSPRAY amongst a number of other good clues.
Thank you to Dac and B&J.
Twice recently I’ve come across GISMO in crosswords; I’ve always spelt it ‘gizmo’. Interestingly Collins gives it as ‘gizmo or gismo’ but Chambers has ‘gismo or gizmo’. Just an observation.
Hadn’t heard of RYLANCE but it was obvious from the wordplay. Liked the clue for BRANSON, but my CoD was for FINGAL – most ingenious.
Thanks, Dac and B&J.
K’s D@2 – Joyce feels the same way as you do about Rylance, when footballers are featured in puzzles! After last week’s cricket themed puzzle we had comments which included various memories of Brian Close. It was lovely for us this week to have one clue which brought back fantastic memories of the different plays which starred Mark Rylance.
@ksD tell me about screwed up web sites, twice in three days ain’t funny. Thought rylance unfair, ok the wordplay works but not convinced. Thanks burton Joyce & Dac
Surprised at the comments about Mark Rylance. He has a significant part in the international film success Bridge Of Spies, there is also Wolf Hall as mentioned and he is currently starring at the Duke of York’s in the West End in Farinelli And The King.
In my experience, the term SCHOOLIES in Australia is only used in reference to those who have just finished important exams at the end of the academic year and descend en masse to Gold Coast and other coastal resorts for a week of celebrations.
Thanks to Dac and Bertandjoyce.
Hi all,
Newbie solver from across the pond here, still struggling to complete my first puzzle, but working away diligently. Can someone please explain 17D, where “PI” equates to “saintly?”
Thanks!
Welcome to 225 Owen. Hopefully this will be the first of many comments!
Pi is short for pious and is often found in cryptic crosswords. We use Chambers dictionary on our iPad which is great for word searches etc when we are really stuck.
Self inflicted wounds held me up today. I wouldn’t let go of interlocutor for 4d and like a caveman put fingle for fingal. Got there in the end though. ?