It’s Wednesday. Which means it’s Dac. Which means it’s the usual excellence and nary a thing to complain about. I loved it all, but special mentions for 9A and 6D.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | RIGHTABLE – H(usband) in RIG TABLE |
| 6 | COWES – WE in COS |
| 9 | PROJECT – PRO + C in JET |
| 10 | AINTREE – AIN’T REE[-d] |
| 11 | YAM – Initial letters of You’d Avoid Mushy |
| 12 | BROAD-MINDED – BROAD (American woman) + MINDED (taken care of) |
| 13 | DOMESTIC – DO ME STIC[-k] |
| 14 | TURN ON – ON rev. = NO. Turn on = interest |
| 17 | SUNTAN – (TUN[-i]S[-i]AN)* |
| 18 | ROULETTE – LETT in ROUE |
| 20 | BASTILLE DAY – B.A + TILLED in SAY |
| 22 | EGO – E(arth) + GO (move) |
| 24 | ATELIER – (RETAILE[-r])* |
| 25 | VERDANT – RD. + ANT on V[-illag]E |
| 27 | ELSIE – ISLE rev. + E(nglish) |
| 28 | DIRT CHEAP -(HAT PRICED AT)* |
| Down | |
| 1 | REPLY – P (little money) in RELY (bank) |
| 2 | GROOMSMEN – ROOMS + M(arried) in GEN |
| 3 | TIE – Even letters of sTrIkEr |
| 4 | BUTTON IT – BUTTON (driver) + IT (i.e. Italian Vermouth) |
| 5 | ELANDS – Hidden in irELAND, Surprisingly |
| 6 | CONTINUALLY – TIN (money) + U(niversity) in CON ALLY |
| 7 | WORLD – L[-abour] in WORD |
| 8 | STEP DANCE – Initial letters of Every Partner Delighted in STANCE |
| 12 | BASMATI RICE – (A BASIC TERM I)* |
| 13 | DISC BRAKE – (RIDES BACK)* |
| 15 | NOTRE DAME – RED + A M(ass) in NOTE |
| 16 | HOLD OVER – HOL + DOVER |
| 19 | FLY ROD – FLY (clever) + ROD (fellow) |
| 21 | SPECS – Double def. |
| 23 | ON TOP – POT NO rev. |
| 26 | REC – “Wreck” |
Thanks Ali for the blog, and Dac for another enjoyable puzzle.
Favourites were 20A BASTILLE DAY, 2D GROOMSMEN and 8D STEP DANCE.
A wee observation: 22A EGO – “I’ll make earth move”, I think the clue might have been neater with “I” instead of “I’ll”.
Did this on the train on way in, a very satisfying way of ignoring my fellow commuters! Thanks to DAC and Ali per usual, last in suntan.
Excellent puzzle from Dac, and excellent blog, Ali, thanks to both. Not too difficult, my favourites were TURN ON, SUNTAN, and DIRT CHEAP.
A strong one and an antidote to the not-so-great around other journals. keep up the good work Dac and The Indy!!
Thanks, Ali.
I did solve this one this morning, but haven’t had a chance to get to the blog before now.
Great puzzle. As I went through it, I was thinking ‘that’s really good’, and after that happened about half a dozen times I just decided that Dac was on his usual excellent form.
I’m going to pick TIE as my favourite today. Short clues are always difficult to clue, I guess, but this was elegantly done as always with this setter, and the surface was impeccable.
Thanks Ali.
Can only echo the above comments,perhaps a little easier than some Dac’s,but as impeccably clued as ever.
Favourite for me was TURN ON,one of those where you know you must have the right answer but it takes a bit of thought to twig the wordplay.
I’m not sure about the clue 17 across. The wordplay appears to me to suggest that only one “i” is to be taken out of “Tunisian” before the remaining letters are re-sorted.
Richard
I thought the same as you at first about 17a, but then guessed that it meant you had to remove “one” (=i) as well as “i”, thus removing both i’s.
Thanks, Ali, for the explanation of 4d; I got the answer but couldn’t see how it worked.
Allan
Thanks – I hadn’t thought of that.