We look forward to a classic solve when we’re tackling a Wednesday Dac, but unfortunately we found this one a little disappointing.
However, we can’t quite put a finger on why we feel this way – perhaps we’ve just had too many other things encroaching on our time recently! Maybe it had something to do with 1d. Bert is an architect and is rather disappointed every tine WREN features in crossword clues – there are plenty of other well-known architects.
| Across | ||
| 1 | A growth affected small creatures (8) | |
| WARTHOGS | An anagram of A GROWTH (anagrind is ‘affected’) + S (small) | |
| 5 | Disregard temperature at rear of smithy (6) | |
| FORGET | T (temperature) after or ‘at rear of’ FORGE (smithy) | |
| 10 | Bank customer loses capital after investing unknown amount, one claims (9) | |
| EXPOSITOR | ||
| 11 | Aspect of skiing, sport hosted by gasthof? (5) | |
| INRUN | RU (Rugby Union – sport) in or ‘hosted by’ INN (‘gasthof’). Not a phrase we’ve come across before – even as former skiers – and it’s not in Chambers either!! | |
| 12 | Revolutionary London College near an area of the capital (7) | |
| CHELSEA | We feel that this is a rather loose clue for a Dac – it’s CHE (Guevara – revolutionary) + LSE (London School of Economics) ‘near’ A. Either the ‘A’ is ‘area’, in which case it is doing double duty here as it is also part of the definition, or the final ‘A’ is actually ‘an’ – both indefinite articles, but not usually interchangeable in wordplay – if this is Dac’s intention, the clue could possibly have read ‘near a district of London’ or something similar | |
| 14 | Horn’s sound reverberates less, mostly in Scottish town (7) | |
| PEEBLES | BEEP (horn’s sound) reversed or ‘reverberating’ + LES |
|
| 15 | Old fogey having little time among those people in the South of France (5-2-3-3) | |
| STICK-IN-THE-MUD | TICK (little time) IN (among) THEM (those people) in SUD (French for ‘south’) | |
| 17 | Stuck in new airport, Daisy gets on the blower (5-8) | |
| NORTH-EASTERLY | ASTER (daisy) after or ‘getting on’ THE ‘stuck’ in N (new) ORLY (airport) | |
| 21 | Set of books registered, brought in by trendy master (7) | |
| CONTROL | NT (New Testament – ‘set of books’) R (registered) ‘brought’ in COOL (trendy) | |
| 22 | Unscrupulous sort causes hysteria to some extent (7) | |
| SHYSTER | Hidden in (‘ to some extent’) ‘causeS HYSTERia’ | |
| 24 | Type of cream? (5) | |
| ELITE | Double definition | |
| 25 | OK, old car bashed at the front could create this? (9) | |
| ROADBLOCK | An anagram of OK OLD CAR and B (first or ‘front’ letter of ‘bashed’) – anagrind is ‘could create’ | |
| 27 | Suffering extreme discomfort? Then take it easy (6) | |
| SOREST | SO (then) REST (take it easy) | |
| 28 | Supporter, one captured during Spartan wars (8) | |
| PARTISAN | I (one) in or ‘captured during’ an anagram of SPARTAN – anagrind is ‘wars’ | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Tool architect left on top of church (6) | |
| WRENCH | WREN (Architect) on CH (church) | |
| 2 | Rand worth more against European and oriental currency (5) | |
| RUPEE | R (rand) UP (worth more than) E (European) E (eastern – ‘oriental’) | |
| 3 | Takes drug endlessly (3) | |
| HAS | HAS |
|
| 4 | Retrieve Beatles record (3,4) | |
| GET BACK | Double definition | |
| 6 | Actor in musical, in fine fettle (6,5) | |
| OLIVER HARDY | OLIVER (musical) HARDY (in fine fettle) | |
| 7 | My journey with Brit round centre of Torbay (9) | |
| GORBLIMEY | GO (journey) LIMEY (Brit) round RB (middle letters or ‘centre’ of ‘Torbay’) | |
| 8 | Northern region – Yorkshire’s capital – it needs to be redeveloped (8) | |
| TYNESIDE | An anagram of Y (first letter or ‘capital’ of Yorkshire) and IT NEEDS – anagrind is ‘to be redeveloped’ | |
| 9 | Doctor has surgery before noon: I —? (4,2) | |
| DROP IN | DR (doctor) OP (surgery) with I before N (noon) | |
| 13 | The rare Meissen smashed into little pieces (11) | |
| SMITHEREENS | Another pernickety point – this must be an anagram of THE R and MEISSEN (anagrind is ‘smashed’), but this assumes that ‘R’ is an abbreviation for ‘rare’ – this is not in Chambers, but maybe it is elsewhere? | |
| 15 | One is hemmed in by type of spaniel more likely to jump? (9) | |
| SPRINGIER | I (one) ‘hemmed’ in SPRINGER (type of spaniel) | |
| 16 | Bloomers made by footballers about middle of final (8) | |
| KNICKERS | KICKERS (footballers) round N (middle letter of ‘final’) | |
| 18 | Charm of entire northern river (6) | |
| ALLURE | ALL (entire) URE (Northern river) | |
| 19 | Fried food – fighting dog eats small amount (7) | |
| TOSTADA | TOSA (fighting dog) round or ‘eating’ TAD (small amount) | |
| 20 | Monk named Kenneth needing a fix? (6) | |
| BROKEN | BRO (brother – ‘monk’) KEN (Kenneth) | |
| 23 | Sounds horn as well on way northbound (5) | |
| TOOTS | TOO (as well) + ST (street – ‘way’) reversed or ‘northbound’ | |
| 26 | Risk boarding tube train (3) | |
| BET | Hidden in or ‘boarding’ tuBE Train | |
I quite liked this, although I do share some of your reservations eg for 1d and the clueing for CHELSEA. Initially I thought it was going to be plain sailing with almost half the answers in straight away, but then I met a 25 with a few clues, notably NORTH-EASTERLY. Unlike WREN for ‘architect’, ORLY is at least not a word that immediately springs to mind for ‘airport’. I’d never heard of INRUN either, another one to hold me up. I liked GORBLIMEY – a variation on the usual ‘cor’ for ‘my’ – and OLIVER HARDY.
Maybe ‘R’ for ‘rare’ is a restaurant menu abbreviation? I found some admittedly not very authoritative looking websites where it is listed, including one giving advice to a would-be waitress in a hamburger restaurant!
Thanks to Dac and B & J.
‘r’ = rare is in Collins, possibly philately or numismatics or books. I rather enjoyed this despite a niggle or one.
Inrun being the ski jumping run down the ramp.
Thanks to Dac and Bertandjoyce, most enjoyable
Did this whilst waiting for a flight at Kansas City airport. Just about right for the situation. Started quickly, then got stuck on the bottom left corner, but got there eventually. 16dn was my LOI, which made me smile.
Maybe a tad too easy. Still over an hour to my flight. 🙂
I’m with you, B&J – I didn’t find it quite as smooth as Dac’s puzzles usually are.
Didn’t get 27ac – my best guess was ‘stress’ which of course I couldn’t parse satisfactorily.
Thanks all the same to setter and bloggers.