Independent 7163/Dac

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Smooth and neat as always from Dac. The naturalness of his clues never ceases to amaze me.

Across
1 SECOND — 2 defs, pronounced differently
4 A DV(AN CE)D
9 EX POUND
11/12 PRESENT LA(UGH)TER — this comedy by Noel Coward
13 MASH IE
15 NEEDY — ed in (yen)rev.
16 SHEBEENS — She “beans” — both She and shebeens are frequent appearers in crosswords
18 TA(L)KING TO
20 DAC HA{lf}
23 RAPPER — “wrapper” — I’d never heard of him but evidently Kanye West is a rapper
24/26 SATURDAY MORNING — (many a stor{e} during)* — a typical example of Dac’s facility with anagrams
27 RETSINA — (tries an)*
28 LAND SEER
29 PRAGUE — (gear up)*
 
Down
1 SPELLING — the American producer Aaron Spelling, and a little joke
2 C(A PT)URE
3 NAUGHTY NINETIES — the answer indicates the wordplay — Einstein/nineties — I can’t believe this hasn’t been done before, but very nice even so
6 DO PE
7 CHE CHE {rebellio}N
8 banDIT HERoes
10 DRESSAGE — ss in (agreed)*
14 DEB ON AIR
17 MAR (Y) JAN E
19 A SPI(R 1)N — it’s not common for take = r to be found in a daily cryptic, but it does appear from time to time in the Indy
21 COD LING — two types of fish (or alternatively a small cod) making up a cooking apple
22 P(RIM)AL
25 cOnGeR eEl

8 comments on “Independent 7163/Dac”

  1. Thank you John.
    I actually had 20ac. as HA = half “have” (semi-detached).

    So many lovely, tidy clues.
    Even the little ones are excellent, like 6d.

  3. 27 across is a fine example of why I like Dac’s style.

    But I think including the word ‘Irish’ in the clue to 16 across is giving us the answer on a plate. You scarcely need to consider the wordplay.

  4. It didn’t for me, since I didn’t actually know shebeen was specifically Irish.

    Excellent puzzle that was mostly easy, but I did struggle slightly with the unfamiliar terms Mary Jane and dacha (I briefly thought it might be Dacca). Also, the definition for 22 down was quite well concealed.

  5. Another really excellent puzzle from Dac, re SHEEBENS, I did not get it too quickly as the clue, deliberately misleading, I’m sure, suggested a possible anagram of ‘snack, say’ which set me off on the wrong track. I agree with IanN14 re DACHA, it was very tricky and satisfying when seen. And even in relation to the references I did not know (Aaron Spelling, Kanye West, Present Laughter) the rest of the clue gave me the answer eventually, verifying after.

  6. Thanks for explaining DACHA, which I got without realising how it worked. I fell down on SPELLING though, despite knowing who he is and having all the crossing letters.

    I found this puzzle tough in places, but I can’t find a single fault with any aspect of it. Dac is easily up there with the best setters out there at the mo IMHO.

    I don’t think I’ve seen DVD used in wordplay before. I guess there aren’t many occasions it could be used, but it’s very neat here.

    Agreed on 3D too. I’m a big fan of these ‘the answer indicates the wordplay’ clues!

  7. Apologies, got mixed up with 5dn and 6dn. I won’t bother to redo the whole thing, which will be a fiddle: 5dn is DO PE and 6dn is AVERAGE ADJUSTER — aver (a judge rates)*

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