Independent 7,133 by Dac

by

Seamless clueing as always. Mostly straightforward, but there were a few terms, or at least definitions, I wasn’t familiar with. Still, everything came together nicely as expected. I was particularly taken with one or two of the anagrams, e.g. 5dn.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
1 BUFFET – apparently a “buffet” can be “a low (esp. rectangular) stool”.
5 PASSPORT – (SS + PO) in PART.
9 ABYSSINIAN – ABYSS + IN + I + AN.
10 NADA – N[ew] A[s] D[etective] A[bandons]. A flashback to the excellent Anax Saturday puzzle we had recently.
11 INTEREST – IN + TE[rm] + REST.
12 UNPICK – UN + hom. of “pic”.
13 STUM – MUST* &lit. A very convenient anagram!
15 HANDMAID – (HM “gets about” AND) + AID.
18 DOWNCAST – dd.
19 NINE – [b]ENIN<.
21 CHACHA – CHA[t] “about” A CH.
23 WEEKENDS – KEEN* “during” WEDS.
25 BOMB – dd.
26 PERSECUTED – (DUE RESPECT)*.
27 REVEREND – R + EVER + END.
28 SENILE – (E + LINES)*.
Down
2 URBAN – [fo]UR BAN[ks].
3 FISHERMAN – IF< + SHERMAN. Liked this one.
4 TOILET – I in TO LET.
5 PAINT THE TOWN RED – (PINOT WHEN RATTED)*.
6 SANGUINE – dd.
7 PIN-UP – IN in PUP.
8 REDUCTION – ED in RUCTION.
14 TOOTHSOME – (TO SOME) “eating” HOT*.
16 MANNEQUIN – (ANNE + QU) in MIN.
17 MAY APPLE – MALE “protects” (YAP + P).
20 RECESS – RE + CESS.
22 CABLE – C + ABLE. Reference to Vince Cable.
24 DWELL – W in DELL.

4 comments on “Independent 7,133 by Dac”

  1. Blimey, bit quiet over here today.
    (Lots of whingeing about dictionaries over at the Guardian blog)…
    Just wanted to register the fact that I thought this was very nice and tidy.
    I particularly liked (as Simon says) 3d.

  4. In my opinion this was one of Dac’s best, and since he is never worse than excellent that means I liked it. How he always manages to make things fit so tidily is unfathomable. 26ac was particularly elegant.

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