It’s great to see Dac back this Wednesday – all the usual smooth surfaces and straightforward clueing.
Are we showing our age (and Dac’s!) with 6d and 24ac? We don’t think that milk has been advertised with the ‘drinka pinta milk day’ slogan (which we remember featuring briefly in the Tony Hancock ‘Blood Donor’ sketch) since the 1960s – definitely our era!! If only they made Dinky cars nowadays ……
We’re still in Greece this week and will be out on the beach most of the day – we’ll respond to any comments or queries this evening.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Extremely dangerous partition in supermarket? Rubbish (10) | |
| CODSWALLOP | DS (first and last or ‘extreme’ letters of ‘dangerous’) WALL (partition) in CO–OP (supermarket) | |
| 7 | Crepes and fresh eclairs, principally, here? (4) | |
| CAFÉ | First of ‘principal’ letters of Crepes, And, Fresh and Eclairs | |
| 9 | Alter plug fitting (6) | |
| ADJUST | AD (plug, as in advert) JUST (fitting) | |
| 10 | Criminals concerned with concealing very good plot (8) | |
| CONSPIRE | CONS (criminals) RE (concerned with) round or ‘concealing’ PI (very good) | |
| 11 | Spokesperson‘s to reintroduce comeback of musical (14) | |
| REPRESENTATIVE | RE-PRESENT (reintroduce) + EVITA (musical) reversed or ‘coming back’ | |
| 12 | Trouble in prison (4) | |
| STIR | Double definition | |
| 13 | Yes, we all could become deceitful (8) | |
| WEASELLY | An anagram of YES WE ALL – anagrind is ‘could become’ | |
| 16 | Standard shown by group of pupils by middle of term (8) | |
| STREAMER | STREAM (group of pupils) ER (middle letters of ‘term’) | |
| 18 | Bullet will do for garden pest (4) | |
| SLUG | Double definition. Joyce will revert to anything to get rid of slugs although she hasn’t resorted to bullets …… yet! | |
| 20 | Old woman joins in peculiar chat worried about drugs? (14) | |
| PHARMACEUTICAL | MA (old woman) in an anagram of PECULIAR CHAT – anagrind is ‘worried’ | |
| 22 | Fellow plotter turned in assassin, ultimately, wanting all-round protection (8) | |
| CONNIVER | IN N (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘assassin’) reversed or ‘turned’ in COVER (protection) | |
| 23 | Language used by inhabitant on Guernsey (6) | |
| TONGUE | Hidden in or ‘used by’ inhabitanT ON GUErnsey | |
| 24 | Front missing from old toy covered with fluid? (4) | |
| INKY | ||
| 25 | In bank, dealt with in cool fashion (10) | |
| RESERVEDLY | SERVED (dealt with) in RELY (bank) | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | A good amount of pasta, after starter’s polished off (6) | |
| OODLES | ||
| 3 | “Treasure Island” character in new quarrel? Yes, it turned out (6,9) | |
| SQUIRE TRELAWNEY | An anagram of NEW QUARREL YES IT – anagrind is ‘turned out’ | |
| 4 | Worker is getting drug, unusual treatment against disease (9) | |
| ANTISERUM | ANT (worker) IS E (drug) RUM (unususal) | |
| 5 | Asian city‘s good fortune at the moment (7) | |
| LUCKNOW | LUCK (good fortune) NOW (at the moment) | |
| 6 | I pant, desperate for a drink (5) | |
| PINTA | An anagram of I PANT – anagrid is ‘desperate’ | |
| 7 | They’re bound to watch prisoner taking car from ‘ere (7,8) | |
| CAPTIVE AUDIENCE | CAPTIVE (prisoner) AUDI (car) ‘ENCE (‘from ‘ere’) | |
| 8 | Insect eating mollusc once (8) | |
| FORMERLY | FLY (insect) round or ‘eating’ ORMER (mollusc) | |
| 14 | One attacks a holy book verbally (9) | |
| ASSAULTER | Sounds like (‘verbally’) A PSALTER (holy book) | |
| 15 | Director in new post unexpectedly seen to resign (4,4) | |
| STEP DOWN | D (director) in an anagram of NEW POST – anagrind is ‘unexpectedly’ | |
| 17 | Revolutionaries seizing my dossiers (7) | |
| RECORDS | REDS (revolutionaries) round or ‘seizing’ COR (my, as an interjection) | |
| 19 | Top team almost all brought to book (6) | |
| MANUAL | MAN U (Manchester United – ‘top team’) AL |
|
| 21 | Intelligence chief in command of one with progressive ideas (5) | |
| MOVER | M (intelligence chief, as in the James Bond books and films) OVER (in command of ) | |
We shall fight on the beaches … no, try not to.
Pleasing puzzle from Dac as always, with little to comment on (which is a compliment). PINTA and DINKY certainly for those of a certain age. ‘Drink a pinta milk a day’ was the slogan, wasn’t it, by the Milk Marketing Board?
Thanks all three.
Lovely smooth surfaces. Mostly straightforward but a few head-scratchers. CONNIVER, ADJUST and OODLES took a bit of thinking although, I admit, the latter has appeared a few times in previous crosswords. Pleased to get 3d from the anagram fodder, not knowing the character. Only know LUCKNOW from crosswords.
Welcome back to Dac. A lovely puzzle.
Couldn’t quite believe it when 6d turned up – surely not, I thought, but it was indeed a step back in time as was 24a and also 1a.
Had to look up the Treasure Island character and the mollusc but this was an enjoyable solve.
Thanks to Dac and to B&J for the blog.2
Nice stuff from Dac today. Not sure of an accurate difficulty level for me as my solve was on and off due to being AFH and amongst other folks, but I got the feeling it was a bit harder than usual.
I’m more of the Matchbox and ‘gotta lotta bottle’ generation, but got the car-based WP and pinta – though I do use an anagram solver to save time so that helped with 3 and also 6d. I wondered for a bit about the overall def of 7a, but that’s just the culinary circles I move in and, of course, the accent is all!
Lots to enjoy as ever with my fave being the amusing 17d (anyone else read it in the way I did?) so thanks to The Dac-A-Laca-Ding-Dong for the puzzle and to The B&J for the blog (still in Greece, eh? Lucky yous as the weather here is now more typical of Blighty than it has been of late).
Well, I found this hard going for Dac, no less enjoyable for that. Took ages to get a couple of 4 letter answers then struggled with the rest and confess had to get electronic help for two. Brilliant anagrams at 3 and 20- surely Dac is the supremo of that genre. Thanks to him and to B&J.
Am i alone in thinking the ‘top team’ element of 19d. is open to further debate?
4th ref@7 – Not after 25a in last Wednesday’s Eccles…
The usual immaculate clueing from Dac. Like others I stumbled a bit but all fair as ever.