Dac has again given us the usual style and content of puzzle that we expect on a Wednesday.
I think all the entries in today’s puzzle would be fairly well known to Independent crossword solvers. I also think the clues were towards the easier end of Dac’s spectrum of difficulty as it didn’t take me many passes through the clues to complete the puzzle.
I wasn’t fully aware of the origins of the song at 20 across [AIN’T THAT A SHAME] but a little bit of research for the blog showed that it was co-written and performed by Fats Domino.
The clueing was clear and that helped with the parsing of the wordplay.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Experts eat cheese with holes in regularly (4)
|
ACES (letters 2, 4 ,6 and 8 [leaving holes at letters 1, 3, 5 and 7] of EAT CHEESE)
|
ACES (experts)
|
|
4
|
Newspaper reviewers write so seriously? (10)
|
CRITICALLY (newspaper reviewers of television, film, theatre, restaurant etc are CRITICs so they write CRITICALLY)
|
CRITICALLY (seriously) double definition
|
|
9
|
Clothes worn in school and higher education classes (8)
|
UNI (university [institutions of higher education]) + FORMS (classes)
|
UNIFORMS (clothes worn in school)
|
|
10
|
Girl’s secluded spot in church (6)
|
LAIR (den or retreat; secluded place) contained in (in) CE (Church [of England]) C (LAIR) E |
CLAIRE (girl’s name)
|
|
11
|
In places like London, reflected about William IV’s personal rights (5,9)
|
(RE [with reference to; about] + BILL [William] + IV) all reversed (reflected) contained in (in) CITIES (places like London) CI (VI L LIB ER)< TIES |
CIVIL LIBERTIES (personal rights)
|
|
12
|
Commemorate someone who joined the Royal Engineers? (8)
|
RE (Royal Engineers) + MEMBER (someone who joined [an organisation])
|
REMEMBER (commemorate)
|
|
14
|
Hunters taking lead off dogs (6)
|
BEAGLES (dogs) excluding the first letter (taking lead off) B
|
EAGLES (predatory birds; hunters)
|
|
16
|
Way convict goes around a prison camp (6)
|
(ST [street] + LAG [convict]) containing (around) A ST (A) LAG |
STALAG (German camp for prisoners of war)
|
|
18
|
Suggest I should avoid bully (8)
|
INTIMIDATE (bully) excluding (avoid) I’D (I should)
|
INTIMATE (hint; suggest)
|
|
20
|
In the words of the song, it’s anathema travelling round Panama, perhaps (4,4,1,5)
|
Anagram of (travelling) IT’S ANATHEMA containing (round) HAT (a Panama is a type of hat) AIN’T T (HAT) A SHAME* |
AIN’T THAT A SHAME (song co-written and made famous by Fats Domino in 1955)
|
|
22
|
Nurse keeping a volume in cubicle (6)
|
(A + V [volume]) contained in (in) CELL (cubicle) C (A V) ELL |
CAVELL (reference Nurse Edith CAVELL, British First World War nurse responsible for saving the lives of soldiers in from all sides whilst working in Belgium. Executed for treason by German firing squad in 1915)
|
|
23
|
Guy is engaged by record company for show (8)
|
CAT (chap [slang]; guy) contained in (engaged by) INDIE (independent record company) INDI (CAT) E |
INDICATE (show)
|
|
24
|
Middlesex inhabitant possibly bitter about the old railway company (10)
|
(SOUR [bitter] containing [about] THE) + NER (North Eastern Railways formed in 1854 [old], incorporated into LNER (London & North Eastern Railways in 1923] SOU (THE) R NER |
SOUTHERNER (An inhabitant of part of Southern England, possibly Middlesex [now mostly part of Greater London])
|
|
25
|
Boy brought round hot food (4)
|
SON (boy) reversed (brought round) + H (hot) NOS< H |
NOSH (food)
|
| Down | |||
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
2
|
Happy to have home within Europe, perhaps (9)
|
CONTENT (happy) containing (to have within) IN (home) CONT (IN) ENT |
CONTINENT (Europe is an example of a CONTINENT)
|
|
3
|
Do guzzle cold dessert? No time! (7)
|
(STUFF [feed gluttonously; guzzle] + ICE [cold dessert]) excluding (no) T (time)
|
SUFFICE (be enough; do)
|
|
4
|
Seasonal song Lorca composed (5)
|
Anagram of (composed) LORCA CAROL* |
CAROL (seasonal song)
|
|
5
|
In sea-going vessel, loud noise interrupting speech shows disrespect for authority (15)
|
IN + SUB (submarine; sea going vessel) + (DIN [loud noise] contained in [interrupting] ORATION [speech]) IN SUB OR (DIN) ATION |
INSUBORDINATION (disrespect for authority)
|
|
6
|
Member of ancient civilisation destroyed, you might say? Wrong (9)
|
INCOR (sounds like [you might say] INCA [member of a S American people of Peru before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century]) + RECT (sounds like [you might say] WRECKED [destroyed])
|
INCORRECT (wrong)
|
|
7
|
American with a joie de vivre that’s awesome (7)
|
AM (American) + A + ZING (zest; spirit; joie de vivre)
|
AMAZING (awesome)
|
|
8
|
Primate is following God no end (5)
|
LORD (God) excluding the final letter (no end) D + IS
|
LORIS (slender lemur of Sri Lanka; example of a primate)
|
|
13
|
A weapon concealed in cracker? It’s of little importance (9)
|
(A + GAT [gatling gun; weapon]) contained in (concealed in) BELLE (beautiful woman or girl; cracker) B (A GAT) ELLE |
BAGATELLE (trifle, trinket; something of little importance)
|
|
15
|
Large cars equipped with one metre gauges (9)
|
ESTATES (large cars) containing (equipped with) (I [one] + M [metre]) EST (I M) ATES |
ESTIMATES (gauges)
|
|
17
|
Middle part of evening during pre-Easter period is mild (7)
|
ENI (central three letters of [middle part of] EVENING) contained in (during) LENT (in the Christian religion, the time from Ash Wednesday to Easter observed in the Western Churches) L (ENI) ENT |
LENIENT (mild)
|
|
19
|
One having hair specially styled in macho fashion? (7)
|
Anagram of (fashion) IN MACHO MOHICAN* |
MOHICAN (hairstyle in which the head is shaved except for a central strip from the nape to the brow, based on a Mohican style but now esp associated with punk fashion, in which the hair is spiked into a [usually brightly-coloured) crest]) The definition in Chambers seems to apply only to the hairstyle and not the person having their hair in such as style
|
|
20
|
Site of battle in Kampala mountain (5)
|
ALAMO (hidden word in [in] KAMPALA MOUNTAIN)
|
ALAMO (site of battle during the Texas revolution [1836])
|
|
21
|
Helpful person I read about (5)
|
Anagram of (about) I READ AIDER* |
AIDER (one who helps)
|
I liked this. A good mix of the fairly straightforward and others that needed a bit of nutting out. The wordplay for the song title was very clever and the def. for SUFFICE nicely concealed. My favourite was BAGATELLE – we’ve had GAT for ‘weapon’ before but it always takes me a while to spot it.
Thanks to Dac and Duncan.
I liked this puzzle. All the clues were in English, as were the answers. I’m not saying that because I belong to UKIP( heaven forbid) but because it’s something of a novelty. As was the app finally displaying the setter’s name, after only six months! I needed the blog to understand the parsing of a couple of answers, due to brain cell deficiency, but really all was good and fair as I knew it would be with Dac at the controls.
My favourite was also BAGATELLE, a lovely word, and probably originally not English, but I can stretch a point.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Bagatelle is English ?? Mange tout Rodders, mange tout ….
(And I won’t go near MOHICAN and STALAG) …
:-).
All good sound stuff apart from one minor niggle and a problem of my own making. The minor niggle is 6dn where I would never pronounce INCORRECT as ‘Inca-rect’ The ‘rect’ part, yes, but not the Inca. The ‘o’ should be pronounced as in CORRECT, i.e. a distinct short ‘o’ rather than the indistinct vowel known as a schwa. End of pedantic moan.
The problem of my own making was in 22ac where I was convinced the definition was ‘cubicle’.
A toss-up for CoD between SOUTHERNER and LENIENT
Thanks, Dac and Duncan
All as good as we have come to expect from Dac but I was all prepared to quibble with Dac himself over 12ac, where it initially seems that we have to read member as someone, not as someone who joined, for otherwise there would be no way of knowing that RE came first. But what Dac is saying is that an RE member is possibly someone who joined the Royal Engineers.
Fabulous crozzie. I thought I’d done my las DAC. 12 across is very neat and timely.