*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone
Hello everyone. This is my first post here, so I hope you’ll forgive any rookie errors. I think neildubya went easy on me, handing me this enjoyable one from Dac. A satisfying puzzle nevertheless, with a few interesting clues and a couple of new words and terms (new to me, at least).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BARRIO – BAR + RIO. Possibly my favourite clue here. |
| 4 | SING SING – SING + SIN + G. I never really liked “note” for “any letter from A to G”, to be honest. |
| 9 | EVOLVE – [-r]EVOLVE[-r]. |
| 10 | PANDEMIC – PANIC “all round” MED<. |
| 12 | ORDINARILY – DINAR + I in ORLY. |
| 13 | STIR – slang for “prison”, of which 4ac is an example. |
| 15 | HERRING GULL – ERRING + [-flyin]G “into” HULL. |
| 18 | LATENT IMAGE – (LAMINATE + GET)*. Not a term with which I was familiar, but fairly easy to work out. |
| 21 | READ – I’m told that Oxbridge types “read” rather than study. RE and A are straightforward; is “D” usual for “drag” or have I missed the point here? |
| 24 | NUNEATON – NUN + hom. of Eton. |
| 25 | IN FACT – I ACT “to limit” NF. |
| 26 | LADYLIKE – A + D within LIKELY*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | BEE MOTHS – BE[-h]EMOTHS. |
| 2 | REORDERS – RE[-c]ORDERS. “Recorder” being a judge in a city court in England, or so I’ve just discovered. |
| 3 | INVINCIBLE – (BENIN + CIVIL)*. |
| 5 | IN ALL BUT NAME – (A + BLUNT + MENIAL)*. |
| 6 | GIDE – G + IDE[-a]. |
| 7 | INMATE – [-curta]IN MATE[-rial]. |
| 8 | GO-CART – GOT “without” CAR. |
| 11 | BRIGHTON ROCK – hom. of “brighten” + ROCK. |
| 14 | FLUID OUNCE – (I + FOUND + CLUE)*. |
| 16 | LAMINATE – AMIN “imprisoned” in LATE. |
| 17 | DEIGHTON – EIGHT in DON. Good misdirection: I hope I wasn’t the only one wondering how on earth “PUZO” could fit in here. |
| 19 | BRUNEL – L “to replace” I in Brunei. |
| 20 | MAENAD – (DANE + AM)<. |
| 23 | FAIL – “First in” French And Italian Literature. Fairly nice surface reading too. |
Hi Simon
Congratulations on your first blog. Regarding 21a, ‘d’ as an abbreviation for ‘drag’ does not appear to be supported by any of the usual references and I have never come across it previously. However, I can see no other way for this clue to work.
Welcome, Simon. D for drag is in my Collins – not Dac’s usual weapon of choice, which is the COED, as I’ve mentioned here before. I’ve noticed the COED has dextrorotatory for D, but I’ve yet to see it in a puzzle.
Eimi
Thanks for the clarification. I use an on-line version of Collins and it did not list ‘d’ as being an abbreviation for anything, not even day or daughter. I will treat it with more caution in future, though I haven’t found a problem with it for other abbreviations.
Ah, I see – I thought Dac had just lost the rag. Trouble with these dictionary abbreviations is it’s sometimes hard to imagine them in every day use. I suppose d for drag is used in engineering rather than cabaret.
Nice puzzle.
Excellent puzzle, and excellent blog. I looked up the d abbreviations in Collins afterwards and found it (from aeronautics). As it was Dac, I knew I would. Great misdirection in ORDINARILY, I thought.
An equally valid interpretation of the wordplay for 20Dn (but not the one intended by Dac, I’m sure) might be an anagram of E(uropean) AND AM(erican).
Great post but I can’t see any entries for 22a and 27a. The first in particular, has been driving me mad! Can anyone offer some help?
Westy, could you give the clues and the answer lengths?
Westy
22a UNIMPOSING U (posh) *(MINI NO GPS)
27a HEREIN HE (ambassador) REIN (control)
Thanks for the swift responses guys. Was sure 22a was an anagram but was unlikely to solve it as I’m not familiar with U meaning posh. Can anyone explain that?
Westy
U adj (of words, behaviour etc) as used by or found among the upper classes, hence socially acceptable; upper class (Chambers)
Thanks for everyone’s interest and feedback.
Westy – in my defence, I should point out that I omitted those on purpose, as noted in the old version of the FAQ. Sheer bad luck that they corresponded with the two you were after! I notice the FAQ has been updated recently, so I’ll make sure to post every answer in future.
“U” for “posh” is one of the abbreviations that has confounded me in the past too, until fellow blogger Ciaran set me straight.
Nice puzzle. I too couldn’t figure out why D equalled Drag and thought that there must have been an “initially”, or something, left out. Not keen on the use of obscure abbreviations in daily puzzles.
Thanks for the blog, Simon, and welcome to the team. Very nice puzzle – I thought 7dn was beautifully hidden. Your explanation for 24ac gets 10/10 for schoolboy humour potential!