Owing to a mix-up over dates on my part, I missed my last Wednesday blog four weeks ago (and thus my opportunity to blog a Dac puzzle), and I think I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms. What a pleasant feeling it is as a blogger to be able to enjoy solving a puzzle AND to know that when it comes to writing the blog, you will be able to present the reader with a set of reliably parsed solutions!
The entries that I struggled most with today were at 3 and 13: with 13 I just couldn’t get Little Red Riding Hood out of my head, while with 3, although I spotted the second word easily, the first word proved highly elusive, since both “bound” and “milk” change their grammatical form surface reading to wordplay.
I very much appreciated the surface readings in 1, 2 and above all 5. My favourite, however, was 23: I guessed the answer from the letters, but was foxed by “leaves” for a long time, as I did not spot yet another change in part of speech.
*(…) indicates an anagram
| Across | ||
| 1 | COSH | COS (SOC=society; “in recession” indicates reversal) + H (=hard, as in HB pencils) |
| 3 | HOUSE PARTY | [USE (=milk, as a verb, i.e. exploit) in HOP (=bound, as a verb/noun, i.e. jump)] + ARTY (=cultured) |
| 9 | ERSE | Hidden in “… writERS Especially …”; “used by” indicates hidden answer. |
| 10 | TARANTELLA | [RAN (=organised) in TATE (=art venue, i.e. gallery in London)] + LLA (ALL=everybody; “doing the twist” indicates reversal) |
| 11 | PREACHINESS | <m>ACHINE (=powerful group, as in the Communist machine; “deposing leader” means first letter dropped) in PRESS (=newspapers) |
| 15 | INDIE | IN (=much favoured, i.e. popular, fashionable) + D (=daughter) + I.E. (=that is, id est in Latin) |
| 16 | WRITE DOWN | Homophone of “right down” (=towards bottom of charts); “do you say?” is homophone indicator. |
| 17 | LANDSCAPE | LANDS (=acquires, e.g. a job) + CAPE (=costume for Batman) |
| 18 | INDRA | IN (=during) + DRA<w> (=game, as in no-score draw; “finally abandoned” means last letter dropped); Indra is the Hindu god of the firmament and of rain, hence “cause of rain”. |
| 19 | BRECONSHIRE | *(ONE RICH SERB); “resettled” is anagram indicator; Breconshire was one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. |
| 23 | SALVADORAN | V (=five, in Roman numerals) in [SALAD (=leaves) + ORAN (=port in Algeria)] |
| 24 | OGRE | Hidden in “…alsO GREedy…”; “to some extent” indicates a hidden answer; & lit. |
| 25 | EXPEDITION | Double definition: EXPEDITION means “speed”, haste AND “journey”, outing. |
| 26 | FRET | RE (=about) in FT (=daily newspaper, i.e. Financial Times) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CAERPHILLY | *(<s>PHERICALLY); “slice top off” means first letter dropped; Caerphilly is an “item from cheeseboard” (=solution at 12) |
| 2 | SUSPENDING | US (=the States) in SPENDING (=consumerism) |
| 4 | OMANI | IN A MO (=shortly, i.e. abbreviation of “in a moment”); “turned up” indicates a vertical reversal. |
| 5 | SLATE MINE | *(MAIN STEEL); “works” is anagram indicator and fits the surface reading of the clue perfectly. |
| 6 | PATISSERIES | P<ies> A<nd> T<arts> (“first of all” means first letter only of each is used) + IS + SERIES (=order, i.e. sequence); & lit. |
| 7 | RILL | <b>RILL (=fish; “headless” means first letter dropped) |
| 8 | YEAR | YEAR<n> (=long (for), as a verb; “never-ending” means last letter dropped) |
| 12 | CHEESEBOARD | *(OBESE) in *(CHE<d>DAR); “daughter‘s cut” means the “d” is dropped; “sort” and “fresh” are anagram indicators; & lit. |
| 13 | GOLDFINGER | [OLD (=getting on, i.e. ageing) + F (=female)] in GINGER (=red, as of hair); the definition is “film villain”, from the James Bond film of the same name from 1964. |
| 14 | ENGAGEMENT | Double definition: ENGAGEMENT is “one’s intended (=fiancé) to be part of this” AND “battle”, military action. |
| 16 | WEASEL OUT | EASEL (=support, i.e. for artist) in [W (=wife) + OUT (=determined, as in “to be out to do something”)] |
| 20 | OTAGO | O (=old) + *(GOAT); “wild” is anagram indicator; Otago is a region of New Zealand, located on the South Island. |
| 21 | ASHE | A + SHE (=female); the reference is to the African-American tennis player Arthur Ashe, who won Wimbledon in 1975. |
| 22 | SLIP | Double definition: SLIP is “cricketer”, i.e. one of the fielders next to the wicketkeeper AND decline, lapse, deteriorate. |
A very clear blog, RatkojaRiku, for which thanks.
The usual fine puzzle from Dac, with – as usual – the surface readings as smooth as a baby’s bottom. I couldn’t understand HOUSE PARTY or SALVADORAN, so thank you for those. LANDSCAPE and WEASEL OUT were stand out clues today.
Great puzzle from Dac as usual. Thanks, RatkojaRiki, for ‘Indra’ which I didn’t get. Everything else finished in 25 minutes.
Yes, the usual top quality puzzle from Dac. My favourites today were CAERPHILLY, PATISSERIES, YEAR and CHEESEBOARD. Many thanks, RatkojaRiku and Dac.
For some reason I struggled a bit with this unlike most Dacs, no complaints about the clues, just my brain not working I suspect. Thanks for the blog RatkojaRiku and of course Dac.
Very tasty fare. Bravo Dac, and COD is the nice anag at CAERPHILLY. Good stuff.
I enjoyed today’s Dac as others seem to have done. But I always enjoy a good Dac, and Dac is always good.
There’s the meticulous clueing, plus the silky-smooth surfaces – and also today, he cleverly hides those essential household items, RUG and URN, in his unches.
Walruss: COD is fish, not cheese!