Many thanks to Gaufrid for standing in for us last week. We missed blogging Harry’s offering, but were glad we didn’t have to. Internet access was dodgy and we had very little time (or energy!) after walking all day to look at the puzzles let alone blog one!
On to today (back home and recovering)…….until last month we hadn’t blogged a Dac since last July – we now have the pleasure of two in a row!!
As we have come to expect, an excellent puzzle with smooth surfaces and no unusual words. However, we were quite surprised (although we’re not quite sure why) to find references to two Rock bands in a Dac puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 1 | First and foremost, some beer – usually pints – knocked back here? (4) | |
| PUBS | Cryptic definition – ‘first and foremost’ letters of Some Beer Usually Pints reversed or ‘knocked back’ | |
| 3 | Garment sends girth out of all proportion (10) | |
| NIGHTDRESS | An anagram of SENDS GIRTH – anagrind is ‘out of all proportion’ | |
| 9 | Virtuous prude drinks type of milk? The opposite (7) | |
| UPRIGHT | PRIG (prude) in UHT (type of milk) – the clue suggests that the milk is inside (drunk by) the prude, but it is the other way round (‘the opposite’) | |
| 11 | Writer the French celebrate (7) | |
| LESSING | LES (French for ‘the’ in the plural) SING (celebrate) – a reference to Doris Lessing the novelist, poet and playwright | |
| 12 | It’s wet: motorist should avoid high terrain (5) | |
| MOIST | MO |
|
| 13 | Excitedly go to uni, getting tips for graduates’ expenses (9) | |
| OUTGOINGS | An anagram of GO TO UNI (anagind is ‘excitedly’) + G |
|
| 14 | Queen’s insistence that Royal Variety Performance will happen? (3,4,4,2,2) | |
| THE SHOW MUST GO ON | Cryptic definition – a reference to the 1991 song THE SHOW MUST GO ON by Queen, the Glam-rock headed by Freddie Mercury, but could also apply to the Royal Variety Performance (or any other performance for that matter) | |
| 17 | Husband avoids misadventure with that woman over in guest house getting the wrong idea (15) | |
| MISAPPREHENSION | MIS |
|
| 19 | School with mean person teaching one who’s not very bright? (9) | |
| SLOWCOACH | S (school) LOW (mean) COACH (person teaching) | |
| 22 | I … er … join operation to locate drug (5) | |
| OPIUM | I UM (‘er’) after or ‘joining’ OP (operation) | |
| 23 | Storm a sailor mentioned (7) | |
| ASSAULT | A homophone (‘mentioned’) of A SALT (sailor) | |
| 24 | Hold up in South American train: robbers’ leader escapes (7) | |
| SUSTAIN | S (south) US (American) T |
|
| 25 | Put off food consumed around middle of afternoon (10) | |
| DISHEARTEN | DISH (food) EATEN (consumed) round R (middle letter of ‘afternoon’) | |
| 26 | Private room vice-chancellor’s reserved (4) | |
| CELL | Hidden or ‘reserved’ in ‘vice-chanCELLor’ | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Drop I’m surprised can be squeezed into pint (7) | |
| PLUMMET | LUMME (‘I’m surprised’) ‘squeezed’ into PT (pint) | |
| 2 | Stakes placed all round collieries? That’s mad (9) | |
| BARMINESS | BARS (stakes) round MINES (collieries) | |
| 4 | Piece of music in final part of concert having men standing up (5) | |
| INTRO | IN T (last letter or ‘final part’ of ‘concert’) +OR (other ranks – ‘men’) reversed or ‘standing up’ | |
| 5 | Flat racing after horse badly hurt? That’s not entirely correct (4-5) | |
| HALF-TRUTH | An anagram of FLAT (anagrind is ‘racing’) after H (horse) + an anagram of HURT (anagrind is ‘badly’) | |
| 6 | Stopping and starting music, dancing out in sun (13) | |
| DISCONTINUOUS | DISCO (music) + an anagram of OUT IN SUN – anagrind is ‘dancing’ | |
| 7 | Directions to get round Roman road in French spa town (5) | |
| EVIAN | E and N (east and north – ‘directions’) round VIA (Roman road) | |
| 8 | Indications about what new job seeker does (5,2) | |
| SIGNS ON | SIGNS (indications) ON (about) | |
| 10 | Won art auction, it’s understood (3,3,7) | |
| GOT THE PICTURE | If you ‘won’ at an art auction, you would have GOT THE PICTURE | |
| 15 | Loud, belligerent type, I’ll guarantee (9) | |
| WARRANTER | A ‘loud belligerent’ type might be a WAR RANTER | |
| 16 | Start to spout after swallowing one drink (9) | |
| ORIGINATE | ORATE (‘spout’) round or ‘swallowing’ I (one) GIN (drink) | |
| 17 | Lost flipping phone card (7) | |
| MISLAID | DIAL (phone) SIM (card) all reversed or ‘flipping’ | |
| 18 | Very small lion man shot (7) | |
| NOMINAL | An anagram of LION MAN – anagrind is ‘shot’ | |
| 20 | Group‘s vocal slips, every now and then (5) | |
| OASIS | Alternate letters (‘every now and then’) of vOcAl SlIpS | |
| 21 | Virgin removing top in hurry (5) | |
| HASTE | ||
Lovely stuff I thought. Wasn’t aware that S could mean ‘school’ in 19a. Looked in my Chambers but it wasn’t there. Thanks to Bertandjoyce for the blog and to Dac for the workout.
Thanks for the comment Hovis. You are correct that S for School is not in Chambers but it is in our very old dead tree version of Collins.
All fine, liked the long anagrams. For some reason DISHEARTEN was my LOI.
14A also surely also references HM the Queen, who attends (or certainly used to, now represented by other members of her family) the RVP – it is what is known as a “command” performance and is the show that HM could insist “must go on”.
Thanks to Dac and Bertandjoyce.
Very much enjoyed but glad that B&J were there to shed light on 14a – hadn’t heard of the Queen song so got it purely from the reference to H.M.
1d made me smile – long time since I’ve heard that expression used.
Thanks to Dac and to B&J for the blog – pleased to hear that you’re recovering!
Jane @4, I remember as a child circa 1960 being rebuked for exceeding the ‘Lumme’ quota. I blamed Sub-Lt Philips from the Navy Lark. As always a smooth offering from Dac. Also didn’t know the Queen song so ascribed it to Her Maj. Thanks to Dac and B&J.
Good clues as ever from Dac, with enough to keep you thinking. Bunged in a few such as MISAPPREHENSION from the def and missed some of the finer points of others including the Queen song, which does make the clue more convincing.
Admittedly not a very exciting word, but a great example of misdirection in ‘Piece of music in final part of concert’ for INTRO.
Thanks to Dac and B&J.
Was also only 95% sure of Misapprehension as the clue stopped short of the ‘wrong idea (15)’ bit. The foibles of the iPhone app live on.
Hovis/B&J @ 1/2: S for school is also in our 2006 Collins.
Lots of crosswordy goodness to enjoy. And not too high on the Scoville scale for a day which has been on the warm side.
I was mildly surprised to see the “join” in OPIUM, treating the “I … er” as plural. Not that I minded – it just caused a little “um” as I wondered if that was accepted usage here.
Mildly surprised too at people not knowing the Queen song, but among the many things I don’t know is how well-known things are generally.
Jane @4 – I don’t think I’ve come across that expression anywhere other than in books.
I liked the drinks I found, perhaps just being desirous of refreshment, and DISCONTINUOUS seemed nicely appropriate for today. (Not for me personally, you understand …)
Thanks to Dac and Bertandjoyce.
Kitty @9, recently I had some interesting email contact with Dutch and Anax on the topic ‘singular/plural’, just to find out what’s right (and what’s wrong).
And believe it or not, they’re both right …. (according to His Royal Highness, the Mayer of Dean). It depends on how you look at it.
If you see “I … er” as a unity, one thing, then ‘joins’ would have been fine. If you see “I” and “er” as two separate building stones, then it should be “join”.
As to Queen, in my Dalibor puzzles there are more often than not one or two references to pop music. A couple of years ago, I even had a whole puzzle built around The Bee Gees. While no knowledge of that band was needed whatsoever, I felt that more contemporary themes (well, the only surviving member of the band is 71 now) do not always fare well with solvers. In that sense, it does actually take away some of the fun for the setter. Ah well, we’re all different aren’t we? [which is what I used to say many years ago if commenters disagreed with my thoughts]. And, Kitty, really liked what you wrote after the comma in the third line! 🙂
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce & Dac.
Hello Sil. I had seen the discussion about this, in particular finding your comment here interesting. Any discussion being “buried in advance,” – 🙂 – I mentioned it here only because I was interested to see it in the Indy, where I’ve not seen it before.