Everything a bit late this morning. Usually I do it online either soon after midnight or first thing the following morning, but with the website still giving us crosswords that seem to bear no relation to the actual one I had to go out and buy a paper.
Added to which this was rather difficult, I thought; at any rate unusually so for Dac. No excuse though: it was as smooth and well-constructed as always.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TO BIAS — fairly obvious that ‘bias’ came into it, but the name didn’t spring out at me |
| 4 | RABBI TED — I can’t quite explain this [Judaism’s equivalent to Irish priest wouldn’t stop talking] properly: it seems that rabbi comes from ‘Judaism’s equivalent to Irish priest’ and ted comes from ‘Irish priest’ (Father Ted), but surely this isn’t what Dac would have done, making ‘Irish priest’ do double duty? |
| 9 | TrisTRAM Shandy — hidden rev. |
| 10 | A S(SEN)TING — I assumed that the old coin the sen was made of copper, but according to Chambers it doesn’t have to be: a copper is a coin |
| 11 | MASS-PRODUCER — rod in (super scam)* |
| 14 | ST(OR)AGE |
| 16 | T(ERR)I{g}ER |
| 17 | EVERTON — (V (re)rev.) in Eton — for a long time I thought this referred to 5dn, and then I was misled by the ‘No.’, which is not as I thought the last two letters reversed — No. 5 is simply v |
| 18 | O C(TAG)ON |
| 19 | CONST{ant} RUCTION |
| 23 | DAM A SCENE |
| 24 | P RATE |
| 25 | LAY ASIDE — (a {tiddl}y) in (ladies)* — ‘lay aside’ needs to be a noun to agree with ‘cellar’ [a tip for tiddly old ladies tottering round cellar], and no doubt some dictionary (but not Chambers) supports this |
| 26 | FREEZE — “frees” |
| Down | |
| 1 | TASKMASTER — (Makes start)* |
| 2 | BR(A MS T)OKER |
| 3 | All Classes The Unruly Pupils |
| 5 | ASSAULT COURSE — “a salt coarse” |
| 6 | BUNDESRAT — (trade snub)* — the Bundesrat is one of the five constitutional bodies in Germany |
| 7 | {agreemen}T OIL |
| 8 | DO G{oer}S |
| 10 | ABOVE ONE’S HEAD — 2 defs |
| 12 | PI L{ady} GRIM AGE |
| 13 | GRANDNIECE — (nice garden)* |
| 15 | ART HOUSES — (authoress)* — my last one in since I was slow to see the anagram, despite once being given exactly this in a pub quiz, and was looking for an authoress like Pat someone |
| 20 | CAPE R — Jonathan Cape became an imprint of Random House in 1987 |
| 21 | IDOL — lido with the l moved to the bottom |
| 22 | {h}E{r} M{u}M{m}Y |
I think 4 across is just that the Jewish equivalent of Father Ted would be Rabbi Ted. Which I thought was a funny and good clue.
I too found this on the difficult side today, but enjoyed it once I had finished, if you see what I mean. Thanks to Dac and John.
25ac: You can get the agreement the other way: Chambers (1998, p.262) gives cellar¹ vt to store in a cellar.
Thanks John and Dac
The unavailability of the crossword online is a nuisance – I know it’s free, but it surely can’t be that much of a fix? Anyway, no worries today, because I was out and about and able to pick up the paper itself. Had to do it pm rather than am, so that’s my excuse for finding it a bit harder than your usual Dac.
RABBITED was very good; also enjoyed BRAM STOKER. Well done for explaining TERRIER, John, couldn’t see that for love nor money.
Agree with Pelham about the verbal sense of ‘cellar’.
Another here who found it harder than usual without really knowing why (apart from spoing my grid misspelling bundesrat!) Thanks John
I liked 4 and 25 in particular.
Curiously, perhaps, I found this slightly easier than I normally find Dac, and while unquestionably a good puzzle not perhaps as fine as usual. (Dac and Shed might well be my two desert island setters)
I’m with AndyB on this one. I found it pretty straightforward by my standards.
I chuckled (which is about as close as I ever get to laughing out loud) at Rabbi Ted.
Is there a bit of a hidden theme there? I can see RABBIT, ASS (twice), APE, DOG, RAT (twice) and RAM all hidden among the entries. And of course TERRIER. Coincidence?
(This one was in the “i” recently, hence the comment on an age-old post!)