As usual from Dac, very efficient pleasant clues with good surfaces.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | dropPED LARge. A well-concealed hidden, which was one of the last I did. |
| 9 | A(S)LOPE I think. I only have doubts since Chambers says the word is archaic and this is not signposted. But I don’t think they use Chambers. |
| 10 | PIECRUST, which is apparently a type of table. I didn’t know this and initially entered VISCOUNT, hoping that it might be both a type of table and a cut of meat, but it isn’t. |
| 11 | MONARCHIC – (manor)* chic, def. “Ruler’s” |
| 13 | VIN DIEsel. To indicate a hidden clue simply by an apostrophe seems to me to be at the edge of acceptability. |
| 14 | CHARTER FLIGHT – char (fret)rev. light. Excellent clue. |
| 17 | GLORIA SWANS ON. Gloria is an accompaniment to (i.e finishes) a psalm, rather than a hymn in the usual sense, but since a psalm is “a devotional song or hymn” the clue is OK, I think. Strange, as soon as I saw (6,7) the answer occurred to me, but I rejected it, because I couldn’t justify it. |
| 21 | OWN (have) UP (Appearing for trial?). Another excellent clue. |
| 22 | TOMBSTONE, which is both a memorial and the venue of the gunfight at the OK Corral |
| 24 | TRI(MET)ER, which is a line of verse. Yet another excellent clue. |
| 26 | (b)ROADSIDE |
| 27 | HEP TAD, a group of seven |
| Down | |
| 1 | P(HARM)ACY. I was less than happy with “moving quickly” = “pacy”: surely, “quickly” = “pacy” and “moving quickly” = “being pacy”? But perhaps you could argue that “moving” simply indicates what we do with the word “pacy”. |
| 2 | D(Y)LAN. Old penny really, but the lovely surface would be destroyed. |
| 3 | Presumably APPAR(ently) A T, a word I only deduced from “apparatchik” |
| 5 | PRINCELY SUM |
| 6 | N(ational)E(xhibition)C(entre) KING. “From” is just about OK to mean “following”. |
| 7 | I(NUN)’D ATE (tear)S. Yet another e c. |
| 8 | G(A THE)R |
| 15 | ARGENTINA – (Tangier)* NA. And another. |
| 16 | UNTENDED, being “intended” with a different first letter |
| 18 | O P PRESS |
| 19 | AUST(ER)E(n) |
| 20 | FOSTER – 2 mngs |
21ac I read as ‘preparing for trial’ = ‘gOWN UP’, remove first letter to get…
21ac I read own as ‘have’ so ‘have first’ = own before up.
21a – I read it the same as Conrad. I don’t think “[-g]own up” works as there’s nothing in the clue to indicate removing the first letter – “have first” doesn’t really do the job. Also, GOWN UP, in the COED anyway, relates to medical, rather than legal, gowns.
Quite a toughie I thought.
Can we defined UP = ‘preparing for trial’? I suppose so, thinking about it…
OWN UP One of the first I solved – I too read it as “Appearing for trial?” = UP Have = OWN first = put OWN before UP.
Excellent as always – did not find it too hard a puzzle.
My mistake – why did I get it into my head that it was ‘preparing’, and not ‘appearing’???? Doh!
Younger solvers will not appreciate a subtlety in 27A defining heptad as ‘Temperance Seven apparently’. The ‘apparently’ is necessary as there were actually nine members in that group.