Dac’s back in his Wednesday slot again this week.
We found this a little trickier than your average Dac, but it eventually all fell into place, aided by the expected excellent clueing and smooth surfaces. At one point, we thought we might be heading for a pangram, but in the end there were four letters missing.
We’re not big fans of Bob Hope, so the film at 24ac was new to us – but the clue was very clear – there could be no other answer.
A puzzler for Richard – was the blog compiled by Bert or Joyce?
| Across | ||
| 1 | Fair-minded people repulsed by such temper tantrums? (6) | |
| STROPS | SPORTS (fair-minded people) reversed or ‘repulsed’ | |
| 5 | Greek island hosts functions, producing warm feeling? (8) | |
| COSINESS | COS (Greek island) round or ‘hosting’ SINES (trigonometrical functions). We hope that Cos has recovered from the recent tsunami. | |
| 9 | Heard pop duo’s low-key publicity? (4,4) | |
| SOFT SELL | A homophone (‘heard’) SOFT CELL (80s pop duo) | |
| 10 | Holiday going about round Switzerland? Not in these! (6) | |
| YACHTS | STAY (holiday) reversed or ‘going round’ about CH (Switzerland) | |
| 11 | Nice fee R Burton negotiated for film (5,9) | |
| BRIEF ENCOUNTER | An anagram of NICE FEE R BURTON – anagrind is ‘negotiated’ | |
| 13 | Phone engineers at first making things better? (8) | |
| REMEDIAL | DIAL (phone) with REME (engineers) first | |
| 14 | Translation of Breton author (6) | |
| BRONTE | An anagram of BRETON – anagrind is ‘translation of’ | |
| 15 | Developed make of car to accommodate setter (6) | |
| FORMED | FORD (make of car) round or ‘accommodating’ ME (the setter) | |
| 17 | I’m a Tory, confused about Liberal’s awareness of what’s right? (8) | |
| MORALITY | An anagram of I’M A TORY – anagrind is ‘confused’ around L (Liberal) | |
| 19 | Typical salesman (14) | |
| REPRESENTATIVE | Double definition | |
| 21 | Free to leave after middle section of race (6) | |
| ACQUIT | QUIT (leave) after |
|
| 23 | Assume responsibility and head for safety, avoiding cold (4,4) | |
| TAKE OVER | TAKE |
|
| 24 | Refurbished fleapit doesn’t show it with fantastic Bob Hope film (8) | |
| PALEFACE | An anagram of FLEAP |
|
| 25 | Take a spin round London gallery by middle of afternoon (6) | |
| ROTATE | O (round) TATE (London gallery – although there are others in St Ives and Liverpool) after or ‘by’ R (middle letter of ‘afternoon’) | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Tricky, hiding foreign cash in book (11) | |
| TROUBLESOME | ROUBLES (foreign cash) ‘hidden’ in TOME (book) | |
| 3 | Revealed shipping company’s plan (7) | |
| OUTLINE | OUT (revealed) LINE (shipping company) | |
| 4 | German fellow beleaguered about end of working week (9) | |
| SIEGFRIED | SIEGED (beleaguered) around FRI (Friday – end of working week) | |
| 5 | Officer unaccompanied through mountain pass (7) | |
| COLONEL | LONE (unaccompanied) in or ‘through’ COL (mountain pass) | |
| 6 | Uses no words, presumably, to show authority (3-2) | |
| SAY-SO | If one SAYS O (nothing) one would presumably use no words | |
| 7 | Rise of a right-winger leading new party? Impossible! (2,3,2) | |
| NO CAN DO | A CON (Conservative – ‘right winger’) reversed or ‘rising’ + N (new) DO (party) | |
| 8 | Drunkard outstretched initially in middle of street (3) | |
| SOT | O (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘outstretched’) in ‘middle of’ ST (street) | |
| 12 | Northern bird in friendly environment? Right (11) | |
| ENTITLEMENT | N (northern) TIT (bird) in ELEMENT (friendly environment) | |
| 14 | Heckler‘s noise cut short in pub, meeting resistance (9) | |
| BARRACKER | RACKE |
|
| 16 | Name on bottom of large tent (7) | |
| MARQUEE | MARQUE (name) E (last letter or ‘bottom’ of ‘large’) | |
| 17 | Fellow troubled by European sea creature (7) | |
| MANATEE | MAN (fellow) ATE (troubled) E (European) | |
| 18 | Knocked unconscious, oaf receives help (4,3) | |
| LAID OUT | LOUT (oaf) round or ‘receiving’ AID (help) | |
| 20 | Sacred writings, in part useful when read up (5) | |
| SUTRA | Hidden and reversed or ‘when read up’ in ‘pART USeful’ | |
| 22 | Fellow’s not finished cuppa (3) | |
| CHA | CHA |
|
Rattled through this double quick. Didn’t know PALEFACE either but easy to get. 14d with no mention of a former president – how soon we forget? Not really. I think MORALITY was my favourite. Nice to have an easy solve after today’s offerings in certain other cryptics. Thanks all.
Thanks, both.
I know we keep saying it, but you run out of things to comment on when Dac is providing the puzzle. Excellent as always, and like Hovis, I was pleased to have a straightforward solve here before having a go at the offering in Another Place (I find him just as hard here as Tyrus, but then that’s the beauty of daily cryptics offering a range of difficulty).
I liked the BRIEF ENCOUNTER anagram. Whenever I want to remind myself what RP sounds (or sounded) like, I watch a few minutes of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.
Thanks to Dac too.
Probably my PB for solving a Dac but still witty and fun. Agree with Kathryn’s Dad re Johnson & Howard (“Are you heppy?”).
Minor grump – you’ll hate me – but the Hope film is “THE Paleface”.
Shut up, Grant.
Yes, a little trickier than the usual Dac; we had to resort to a wordfinder for our last but one in, OUTLINE – we kept thinking the ‘shipping company’ had to be PO (for P&O) or that SOFT SELL might be wrong and ‘shipping company’ an insertion indicator to put CO in something meaning ‘revealed’. But then at least STROPS was obvious as our LOI. Otherwise all pretty straightforward except we hadn’t encountered ‘siege’ as a verb before – we would normally use ‘besiege’ or even ‘lay siege to’ – not that that’s a criticism of Dac since use as a verb is in Chambers. And we had to kick ourselves for not getting BRONTE till we had the crossing letters.
Favourites were COSINESS, the aforesaid BRONTE, PALEFACE and BARRACKER.
Thanks, Dac and B&J
Really enjoyed this. Seems to be a bit of a divide on the difficulty front, and I’ll nail me colours to the flag of Hovis, KD and GB on it being easier rather than trickier than yer normal Dac. I’d also say, though I hasten to add all Dac’s are good, that some Dac’s are better than others and this one was in the better category for me. Honours today go to the solve as a whole so thanks to his Dacness for a very enjoyable puzzle and to either B or J for the blog (though I have my suspicions which blogger it wasn’t!).
Aha! Wholesomeness!
Well, I dunno about that, crimper @6 – if you are talking about the setter He can be a rogue when upset 🙂
I was defeated by 13a because I didn’t think of the word “dial” in connection with “phone” despite the fact that I used the things for at least 30 years. I wonder if that’s a case of “How quickly we forget,” or that at my age one forgets everything.
This went in without too much trouble. I knew the Bob Hope film, but couldn’t remember it was actually The Paleface. There’s a Buster Keaton film of the same name. When I was growing up, the BBC was always showing the sequel, Son of Paleface.
In a caravan in Wales at the moment, and had the rare pleasure of solving the puzzle together with my wife (I almost said for the first time, but she tells me it wasn’t). She thought it was hard but understood everything and she saw SOFT SELL before I did.
So that made it a special puzzle, thanks Dac, and thanks B&J, or B, or J.