A puzzle which I found a mixture of very easy and quite difficult clues, solving time 30 mins. Great stuff as always from Dac.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
1 RESIGNED Good double definition
5 GAMBIT Hidden
10 DO A ROARING TRADE Cryptic definition
11 S (TROP)PY port (left)<
12 EM (PER) OR rep in Rome all< rep = reputation informally, Collins confirms
13 BAR RACKS
15 YA (RN) S say<
18 I S (first letters) SUE (EU’s)<
20 CATARACT Double definition
23 TOPICAL (coal pit)*
25 MANIPLE Double definition (ornamental band and also group of 120 Roman soldiers)
26 GARDEN FURNITURE (ruined turf – anger)* Not much in use today, in this part of the world anyway.
27 TANNER Double definition – sixpence in pre-decimal money
28 TH (mUGGER)Y
DOWN
1 R A DISH
2 ST AIRWAYS st = statute is in Collins
3 GROUPER Type of fish- pun on ‘sole’
4 (n)EARLY
6 AUTOPSY (pays out)*
7 B L A IR
8 THEORIST (tore this)*
9 UNDERSET An ocean undercurret and set of underwear (cryptically)
14 COCK L OFT
15 R (EC) APTURE
17 S (IT T) IGHT
19 EX-CRETE
21 (Ian) RANKIN G Scottish crime writer (Inspector Rebus)- this was my favourite clue
22 JERE(z) (Spanish town famous for sherry) MY
24 PER(s)ON Argentine leader
25 MARCH The month of March having a few weeks
I think we should wish Dac a seriously Cool Yule as a reward for the splendid work he turns out week after week.
I think it was Ali who said last week that Dac is probably the best clue-for-clue setter around.
I think I’d have to agree with that…
Not difficult, but very tidy.
Now I’m getting to know the setters’ styles and idiosyncrasies better, I’m finding I can usually manage a Dac, and nearly did so today, failing on UNDERSET and having to Google for MANIPLE. All I’d say about the latter is that in a dd when both the definitions are quite obscure, unless you’ve come across the word before (probably in a crossword) then you’re pretty much banjaxed. And I have been following the discussion on ‘one person’s obscure is another person’s commonplace’, but still …
A small niggle, though – Dac provided me with a very enjoyable hour or so this morning waiting for the temperature to rise to freezing so I could go and do battle in the local supermarket.
If it’s not too off-topic, why are there usually so many fewer contributions for the Indie blog than for the Grauniad? Is it just a reflection of their relative circulations or are Grauniad readers by nature more garrulous?
It was indeed me Ian, and there ain’t anything in this puzzle
that will make me change my mind! Top drawer stuff as ever, though I was beaten by underset, maniple and Jeremy
Thanks, Conrad, for your kind seasonal sentiments. Christmas greetings to the bloggers and contributors whose comments I read and appreciate week after week.
Happily reciprocated from here, and as well to all the Indy setters who have given us great puzzles over 2009. To my fellow bloggers and all commenters too.
My only small niggle is that I didn’t know that Maniple could be an ornamental band and hence couldn’t see that the clue was cryptic – it seemed to be virtually a straight definition.
But as others have already said – Merry Christmas to all!
Completed about half.To finish in 30 mins impossible for me.Maybe next Christmas I might.Having said that got underset and Jeremy.Loved 14d and 10a!
Very enjoyable. Thankyou, Dac, yet again.
I would not worry about solving times, Bill at #8. When starting to blog, I put them in following the example of Peter Biddlecombe’s Times for the Times blog which was, I think, the very first. I sometimes regretted this later but when I mentioned it to people, they generally asked me to continue giving them. Time is not in fact important – what matters IMHO is whether you enjoyed the puzzle. My solving times would have been reasonably quick with practice over years (decades) while being nowhere near what those engaged in competitive solving, e.g. the Times Championship, would do.