This is the third Dac in a row that we’ve had the pleasure of blogging.
As usual, lovely surfaces and clear wordplay. We had to check a few items for background information, such as the character at 9ac and the composer at 10ac, but both names stirred the memory banks somewhere – we just needed confirmation. We also needed to check 3d and 19d, but Dac’s clues are always clear and you can be pretty confident from the wordplay that the entry is correct even if you don’t know the word.
Nice to see our county get a mention!!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Secretary going round factories, recruiting one hundred potential employees (10) | |
| APPLICANTS | PA (secretary) reversed or ‘going round’ PLANTS (factories) round or ‘recruiting’ I (one) C (hundred) | |
| 7 | Bird back after leaving Sweden (4) | |
| TERN | ||
| 9 | Billy and his teacher, initially follower of religion (8) | |
| BUDDHIST | BUDD (Billy Budd – the fictitious sailor created by Herman Melville) HIS T (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘teacher’) | |
| 10 | A French composer’s release (6) | |
| UNCAGE | UN (‘a’ in French) CAGE (John Cage, American avant-garde composer) | |
| 11 | Speaker’s less sensible to interrupt right-wingers seeking agreement (12) | |
| CONCILIATORY | A homophone (‘speaker’s’) of SILLIER in or ‘interrupting’ CON and TORY (conservatives, ‘right-wingers’) | |
| 13 | Staying on line? (8) | |
| RESIDING | RE (on) SIDING (line, as in a railway siding) | |
| 14 | Remember to drop in again (6) | |
| RECALL | If you were to CALL (drop in) again, you might RE-CALL | |
| 16 | Man with old revolver stuck in rib (6) | |
| JOSEPH | EP (record – ‘old revolver’) ‘stuck’ in JOSH (rib) | |
| 18 | One likely to panic after a mistral blows (8) | |
| ALARMIST | A + an anagram of MISTRAL – anagrind is ‘blows’ | |
| 20 | Causing trouble? A theatre set designer might be (6,1,5) | |
| MAKING A SCENE | A theatre set designer, when creating scenery for a play could be described as MAKING A SCENE | |
| 23 | Nosh, presumably very cheap, recalled the taste of France (3,3) | |
| PIG OUT | I P (one penny – ‘very cheap’) reversed or ‘recalled’ + GOUT (French for ‘taste’) | |
| 24 | Do something new in November and at end of June (8) | |
| INNOVATE | IN NOV (November) AT E (last letter or ‘end’ of June) | |
| 25 | Group of passengers going round loch (4) | |
| NESS | Hidden in (‘group of’ letters of ) paSSENgers and reversed or ‘going round’ | |
| 26 | Crack, smallest amount briefly stashed in cupboard (10) | |
| PLEASANTRY | LEAS |
|
| Down | ||
| 2 | Publication’s first “Listener”advertisement (4) | |
| PLUG | P (first letter of ‘publication’) LUG (ear or ‘listener’) | |
| 3 | Row about medic getting top quality anaesthetic (9) | |
| LIDOCAINE | LINE (row) round DOC (medic) AI (first class – ‘top quality’) | |
| 4 | European wine: after revolution, China has promoted it (7) | |
| CHIANTI | An anagram of CHINA (anagrind is ‘after revolution’) + IT reversed or ‘promoted’ | |
| 5 | Cricket team by no means sound as a bell, wanting players to take on (15) | |
| NOTTINGHAMSHIRE | NOT (by no means) TING (sound as a bell) HAMS (players, as in bad actors) HIRE (take on) | |
| 6 | A cruise at sea making you fresher (7) | |
| SAUCIER | An anagram of A CRUISE – anagrind is ‘at sea’ | |
| 7 | Understood first bits of the Albanian constitution in translation (5) | |
| TACIT | First letters or ‘bits’ of The Albanian Constitution In Translation | |
| 8 | Lacking affection, despite everything (10) | |
| REGARDLESS | Affection, in the sense of ‘care’ or ‘concern’ can be a synonym for ‘regard’, so lacking affection could be described as REGARDLESS | |
| 12 | Completely put off protest over reforms in Israel (10) | |
| DEMORALISE | DEMO (protest) + an anagram of ISRAEL – anagrind is ‘reforms in’ | |
| 15 | A male voyeur lurking in Canadian vehicle (6,3) | |
| CAMPER VAN | A M (male) PERV (voyeur) ‘lurking’ in CAN (Canadian) | |
| 17 | School head’s description of some trainers? (4-3) | |
| HIGH-TOP | HIGH (school – we had to check this!) TOP (head) | |
| 19 | It’s hell, students declare first of all (7) | |
| AVERNUS | NUS (National Union of Students) with AVER (declare) first | |
| 21 | Rubric on screen will include such graphics? (5) | |
| ICONS | Hidden in (‘will include’) RubrIC ON Screen | |
| 22 | Here’s porridge, and what to do when cooking it (4) | |
| STIR | When making porridge, one needs to STIR it | |
I had to do this in a limited time and it was a bit trickier than it looked initially. As the first clue I happened to see, I fell good and proper for 10a, for which I immediately put ‘unravel’ until I realised it didn’t work for very good reasons! Had to dig a bit to get AVERNUS and I found both JOSEPH and PLEASANTRY needed a few crossers before they became clear.
In my ignorance I’d never heard of HIGH-TOP trainers. Having now looked them up, I think sandshoes and desert boots are more my style.
Thanks to Dac for another as usual very enjoyable puzzle and to B&J
Hadn’t heard of Lidocaine, knew the word Avernus but not what it meant, but I was done in normal Dac time. Nottinghamshire opened most of it up, favourite Camper Van for veering very slightly in the Harry direction. Thanks to S & Bs.
About a week ago the Independent puzzle stopped becoming available on the Crosswords app platform. Since then the average number of comments per day has been around 5/6. Might the two be connected?