Dac is absolutely back to his best after his illness. The surfaces are as convincing as ever and this was a remarkably simple blog to do since the constructions are all so sound and straightforward. Which is not to say that the crossword is a doddle: yes, on the easy side, but one still has to stop and think from time to time.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DENOMINATIONAL | Agreement about appointment of Methodist, perhaps (14) |
| de(nomination)al | ||
| 8 | FLAGON | Sticker on bottle (6) |
| flag on | ||
| 9 | BEE-EATER | Yeoman releases female bird (3-5) |
| bee{f}eater | ||
| 10 | PROTEA | Shrub showing decay – sort of green all round (6) |
| p(rot)ea | ||
| 11 | APOSTATE | A petty officer, say, guilty of treachery (8) |
| a PO state | ||
| 12 | SPECIES | Group of agents touring the City (7) |
| sp(EC)ies | ||
| 13 | ARCADE | Adult raced around gallery (6) |
| A (raced)* | ||
| 15 | BARRIO | Endless turmoil near café in Spanish quarter (6) |
| bar rio{t} — in this case ‘near’ means ‘following’ | ||
| 17 | BAIL OUT | Be sick during spell of drinking, perhaps, and leave (4,3) |
| b(ail)out | ||
| 19 | HIGHBALL | Drink after school dance (8) |
| high [as in high school] ball [= dance] — after school comes the dance | ||
| 21 | WESTIE | It’s carried back by small dog (6) |
| (It’s)rev. in wee — not that common a type of dog, yet by coincidence it appeared in The Times yesterday | ||
| 22 | IN-FLIGHT | Provided with illumination about mid-morning during plane journey (2-6) |
| i({mor}n{ing})f light | ||
| 23 | IN A BIT | I nail it after a short time (2,1,3) |
| I nab it | ||
| 24 | INCONSISTENTLY | Elected Tories, one like Fox, imbibing wine irregularly (14) |
| in Cons 1 s(tent)ly — with a reference to Liam Fox | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DOLORES | Gold included in benefit payments for woman (7) |
| dol(or)es — can you pluralise ‘dole’? Is it not a mass noun? But some would say that you can pluralise any noun and that Countdown restriction on pluralising mass nouns is wrong. | ||
| 2 | NIGHTWEAR | We’ll be seen in almost black coat and garments for retirement (9) |
| nigh t(we)ar | ||
| 3 | MANDARIN ORANGES | Chap venturing round port getting first of early season’s fruit (8,7) |
| man darin(Oran)g e{arly} s{eason} | ||
| 4 | NUBIANS | In US, ban various people from Africa (7) |
| (In US ban)* | ||
| 5 | THE WOMAN IN WHITE | One new Wham hit – it turned out novel (3,5,2,5) |
| (One new Wham hit it)* — I could see that fortunately I wasn’t going to be required to know any Wham hits | ||
| 6 | OP ART | Painting style adopted by Picasso particularly (2,3) |
| Hidden in PicassO PARTicularly | ||
| 7 | ALERTED | Warned treadle is faulty (7) |
| (treadle)* | ||
| 14 | CROISSANT | Bread roll crusty? Worker consumes one (9) |
| cro(1)ss ant | ||
| 16 | AVIGNON | Go in van touring French city (7) |
| (Go in van)* | ||
| 17 | BOLETUS | Throw up, given suet pudding and fungus (7) |
| (lob)rev. (suet)* | ||
| 18 | TRINITY | College essay one fool submitted (7) |
| tr(1 nit)y | ||
| 20 | HALLO | Good day in Whitehall, ordinarily (5) |
| Hidden in WhiteHALL Ordinarily | ||
*anagram
Thanks for blogging, John.
Indeed, Dac on fine form with a puzzle that certainly wasn’t a write-in (I got stuck on BARRIO and HIGHBALL, which didn’t help in the SW corner).
I think I agree with you, John, about DOLES; doesn’t feel quite right. However, in our little Derbyshire village, I did used to live in DOLES HOUSE. It was named after the field next to it, DOLES FIELD, so called because in past times the field was divided up, or doled out, to villagers for cultivation. But DOLES as a plural for ‘benefit’?
Many thanks to Dac, and good to hear that he is back in good health again.
As you say, “on the easy side, but one still has to stop and think from time to time” particularly with some of the parsing. For instance I got IN FLIGHT at 22ac but was trying to parse it as ‘in light’ = ‘provided with illumination’ and couldn’t see how on earth ‘F’ could equal ‘mid morning’ – the correct parsing only dawned on me later. HIGHBALL wasn’t any problem once I had some crossing letters, but I think ‘High’ for a (high) school is more American usage with ‘High School’ in full more often in Britain. I liked 17dn for its surface.
Thanks, Dac and John.
Pleasant, watching-the-TV solve, with a few more curly ones to keep you concentrating. Thank goodness the dreaded ‘shrub’ wasn’t too difficult and that knowledge of Wham’s hits wasn’t needed, as you say. DOLES may have been a big of a stretch, but I liked 1d and like allan_c @2, the surface for 17d.
Thanks to Dac and to John.