What more is there to say about Dac? The surfaces and the accuracy of construction are right up to their usual standards.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FIRST PERSON | I trained ref in sports (5,6) |
| (ref in sports)* — I suppose strictly speaking it should be something like ‘Maybe I’ … since ‘we’ is also a first person | ||
| 9 | LIGHT UP | Appear pleased to start smoking (5,2) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 10 | PIRATIC | Film about one seaman recalled such as Captain Hook? (7) |
| pi((1 (tar))rev.)c, or p(1 (tar)rev.)ic — take your pick | ||
| 11 | MARRY | Within a few weeks Republicans come together (5) |
| Ma(R R)y | ||
| 12 | SNOW BOOTS | Winter footwear currently available in small chemists shop (4,5) |
| s (now) Boots — Boots the chemists | ||
| 13 | INSECURE | Not safe in botched rescue (8) |
| in (rescue)* | ||
| 15 | ALTAIR | Star‘s key tune (6) |
| Alt air — alt being a common sequence of letters in words, this key is becoming more andmore common in crosswords | ||
| 18 | GAFFER | House needs extra rewiring at the front – electrician required (6) |
| gaff e{xtra} r{ewiring} | ||
| 19 | ANDROGEN | There’s no information, doctor admitted, on a sex hormone (8) |
| a (n(dr)o gen) | ||
| 21 | COPARTNER | Torn carpet sent back by business associate (9) |
| co. (rent rap)rev. — this seems rather a silly word, since you can hardly have a ‘non-co-‘ partner, the word ‘partner’ connoting the ‘co-‘, but it’s in the dictionaries so we can say no more | ||
| 22 | WOLFE | Freely hang around with English writer (5) |
| Well it had to be WOLFE sice 22dn was WILDE and there were no others that I could think of, but I find this a bit hard to parse: it seems to be (flow)rev. E, but how does flow = freely hang? | ||
| 23 | ATELIER | Studio more imposing in appearance? No way (7) |
| {st}atelier | ||
| 24 | HELLENE | Greek ambassador repulsed European girl (7) |
| H.E. (E Nell)rev. | ||
| 25 | HIGH SOCIETY | After-school club showing film (4,7) |
| high [= school] society [= club] — this wonderful film, which will be well-known to people of my age but not perhaps to those who are younger | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FIGURES OF SPEECH | Orators using similes and metaphors? (7,2,6) |
| 2 defs, the first of them whimsical | ||
| 2 | RATTY | Ill-tempered piper helped solve such a problem? (5) |
| Again 2 defs, the second of them referring to the Pied Piper of Hamelin | ||
| 3 | TAPESTRY | Records attempt to produce work of art (8) |
| tapes try | ||
| 4 | EMPLOY | Use my pole when dancing (6) |
| (my pole)* | ||
| 5 | SCRABBLER | Game player in university staff room interrupted by noisy lot (9) |
| SC(rabble)R | ||
| 6 | NATIONAL GALLERY | London building redesigned again? Not really, with pounds needed for investment (8,7) |
| L in (again not really)* | ||
| 7 | GLAMPING | Light drink taken outside at end of evening, enjoying posh tent holiday? (8) |
| g(lamp)in {evenin}g — Chambers hasn’t caught up with this word yet, but Collins has | ||
| 8 | ACIS | Galatea’s lover partly ostracised (4) |
| Hidden in ostrACISed — Acis and Galatea, perhaps most famous for the Handel connection | ||
| 14 | CLEARWING | In garlic we cultivated new kind of moth (9) |
| n [= new] in (garlic we)* — this kind of moth | ||
| 16 | RENDERED | Frenchman drinks last of aged wine, getting plastered (8) |
| Ren({age}d)é red | ||
| 17 | ANARCHIC | Lawless article revolutionary published? Cool (8) |
| a (ran)rev. chic | ||
| 20 | INGRES | Artist using restored frames (6) |
| Hidden in usING REStored | ||
| 21 | CHAD | African country runs out of green vegetable (4) |
| cha{r}d | ||
| 22 | WILDE | Unrestrained, outspoken author (5) |
| “wild”, the homophone indicated by ‘outspoken’ | ||
*anagram
Thanks John
In 22ac, I justified ‘flow’ by the Chambers’ definition “to stream or hang, loose and waving”.
A little bit more difficult than Dac usually is. I puzzled for ages over WOLFE and WILDE – couldn’t think of a word meaning ‘hang freely’ that would fit, and thought that 22dn had to be a word meaning ‘outspoken’ minus its first and last letters. Eventually got them from a word finder which happily includes names.
CLEARWING was new to me but plain enough from the clue.
Thanks, Dac and John.
I’d say the “flow” equates to “freely hang” in the sense of a “flowing garment,” but I’m only seeing that now in retrospect. Having the two authors connect with the same crossers was slick.
I suppose a puzzle answer of SCRABBLER would probably be preaching to the choir of word freaks, I had no trouble with it despite having no understanding of the rest of the clue besides the RABBLE part.
DAC & John – thanks!