Independent 9,635 by Dac

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One of Dac’s typically smoothly-constructed crosswords. The usual good clues and nothing to take any sort of exception to.  I found most of this quite easy and then came to a halt on the quartet of 1ac, 9ac, 1dn. 3dn, failing to see the equivalence of a card game to cards, expecting the church bell’s noise to be a ring, thinking the female would be either f or a girl’s name, and expecting a bit of dope to be d.

Definitions in maroon, underlined.

Across
1 CLASSICAL Refined female visiting Channel Islands and California (9)
C(lass)I CAL
6 SIGHT State out loud what could be affected by 23 (5)
“cite” — sight could be affected by EYESTRAIN
9 DATUM Digest antidepressants initially, then stomach a bit of dope (5)
D{igest} a{ntidepressants} tum
10 SHOWING UP Making an appearance is embarrassing (7,2)
2 defs
11 NATURAL Talented actor, perhaps, not wearing make-up? (7)
2 defs again
12 ANTONIA Newly-formed nation led by a woman (7)
a (nation)*
13 PRESIDENTIAL Democrat absorbed by awful peril in East, as Roosevelt was (12)
D in (peril in East)*
17 DRESSING-DOWN Carpeting and gauze reduced in price (8-4)
dressing [= gauze] down [= reduced in price]
20 ANTIOCH One who’s against old church in Turkish city (7)
anti o ch.
22 VIOLONE New novel about one old music maker (7)
(1 o) in (novel)* — a musical instrument
23 EYESTRAIN Problem for reader – that’s right – in English school (9)
E (yes) train
24 EXILE Ban last of the X-Files (middle section only) (5)
{th}e X {f}ile{s}
25 TUDOR House outwardly unfinished in rocky place (5)
t(u{nfinishe}d)or
26 RAINTIGHT Waterproof is not suitable when going outside (9)
r(ain’t)ight
Down
1 CEDING Allowing church bell’s noise? (6)
CE ding
2 ASTUTE Shrewd like trustee, every now and then (6)
as t{r}u{s}t{e}e
3 SOMBREROS Sister hides cards inside very big hats (9)
s(ombre)r OS — sr = sister, ombre is a card game
4 CASTLES IN THE AIR Flying Fortresses just daydreams? (7,2,3,3)
2 defs, one of them literal, one of them metaphorical — a very common way for setters to handle such expressions
5 LEONARDO DA VINCI Famous Italian diva can do role in broadcast (8,2,5)
(diva can do role in)*
6 SHIFT Extremely stylish twelve inch dress (5)
s{tylis}h 1 ft — twelve inches = one foot
7 GIGANTIC Great music show with singer Adam in charge (8)
gig Ant i/c — sign of age that the first singer I thought of was Adam Faith
8 TOPSAILS Part of boat’s equipment seen as pilot’s turned (8)
(as pilot’s)*
14 NEW FOREST Ferns originally and now trees spreading … here? (3,6)
(F{erns} now trees)*
15 ADJACENT John briefly in a bit of a depression? That’s touching (8)
a d(Jac{k})ent — I wonder how many of those people nowadays who call their son Jack realise that Jack is a diminutive of John
16 MEATHEAD Dine with fellow, hosted by crazy screwball? (8)
m(eat he)ad
18 COPING Successfully handling piece of masonry (6)
2 defs
19 DESERT Leave pudding son heartily rejected (6)
des{s}ert — the ‘heartily tells you that s is removed from the heart of ‘dessert’, not, as I initially thought, that we needed the middle letter of ‘son’
21 OUTER External device on computer with top missing (5)
{r}outer — on? My router isn’t on my computer, it’s by it; which is, I suppose another sense of ‘on’

*anagram

3 comments on “Independent 9,635 by Dac”

  1. All fairly easy in retrospect though a few clues proved tricky. The linked pair of EYESTRAIN and SIGHT held out till near the end as did TUDOR and RAINTIGHT. We couldn’t parse SOMBREROS though it was obvious from crossers and definition, and we spent too long thinking the ‘fellow’ in 16dn had to be F or ‘don’.

    A nice pleasant workout as one expects from this setter.

    Thanks, Dac and John.

  2. Hadn’t heard of Violone, so my strange anagram held me up in the SE corner, but otherwise nice as always to have Dac on a Weds. Thanks to S&B

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