A very pleasing puzzle from Dac.
There was much to enjoy. We thought that the surface reading of many of the clues was excellent – 12 ac, 14ac and 24ac for example. 19d brought back some memories of listening to our son’s music! 2d was a ‘write-in’ when we had a few crossing letters but it took a while to remember that the Oasis hit had an extra word at the start!
There was a lovely misdirection in 11ac which we enjoyed too!
There is a very minor comment about a possible superfluous word in 23ac but we may be missing something. It certainly didn’t spoil the pleasure! Thanks K’s D for your comment which on reflection Joyce would agree with – also thanks for your comment about 18d which I altered on the blog this morning but failed to change in the preamble!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Pressure put on old college to achieve growth | |
| POLYP | POLY (old college) + P (pressure) = growth | |
| 4 | Watering holes, mostly cold and uncivilised | |
| BARBARIC | BAR BAR (watering holes) + ICY (cold with last letter removed or ‘mostly’) = uncivilised | |
| 10 | Backward individual – poor pupil head expelled, say | |
| ENOUNCE | ONE (individual) reversed or ‘backward’ + DUNCE (poor pupil) with head removed or ‘expelled’ = say | |
| 11 | Pages of writing found in box close to West Ealing location? | |
| FILM SET | MS (pages of writing as in manuscript) inside FILE (box) + T (last letter or ‘close’ to wesT) = Ealing location | |
| 12 | Vegetable popular in French restaurant | |
| AUBERGINE | IN (popular) inside or ‘in’ AUBERGE (French restaurant) = vegetable | |
| 13 | Friend from abroad taking a journey on motorway | |
| AMIGO | A + GO (journey as in the verb) on MI (motorway) = friend from abroad | |
| 14 | Mounted action to sort paperwork | |
| DOCUMENTATION | Anagram of MOUNTED ACTION (anagrind is ‘sorted’) = paperwork | |
| 17 | Social security payment, I note, is for discussion by the Left | |
| INCOME SUPPORT | I + N (note) + COMES UP (is for discussion) + PORT (left) = social security payment | |
| 21 | Panic, as marines do? | |
| ALARM | A LA (in the manner of or ‘as’) + RM (marines) = panic | |
| 23 | Former student and university friend meeting over a period | |
| GRADUALLY | GRAD (former student) + U (university) + ALLY (friend) = over a period. ‘Meeting’ seems a little superfluous to the parsing of the clue but it is needed to help the whole clue make sense. | |
| 24 | Author, say, needs to have working PC | |
| RIGHT ON | RIGHT (sounds like author as in the verb – to write) + ON (working) = PC as in Politically Correct | |
| 25 | Worried animal will go round nibbling one flowering plant | |
| GODETIA | ATE (worried) + DOG (animal) reversed or ‘go round’ outside or ‘nibbling’ I (one) = plant. We were thinking of making a comment about the fact that we didn’t do this in Vietnam (ate dog) but decided against it! Mind you, if they taste as good as all the rest of the food we had while we were there, they are no doubt delicious! | |
| 26 | Scandinavian calls Reagan ’regressive’ | |
| NORSEMAN | NAMES (calls)+ RON (REAGAN as in Ronald Reagan) reversed or ‘regressive’ = Scandinavian | |
| 27 | Live comfortably after start of downturn | |
| DWELL | WELL (comfortably) after D (start of Downturn) = live | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Trotters in pastry dishes? British lad surprisingly gets stuck in | |
| PIEBALDS | B (British) + anagram of LAD (anagrind is ‘surprisingly’) inside PIES (pastry dishes) = trotters as in horses who trot! | |
| 2 | Play Oasis hit? No don’t! | |
| LOOK BACK IN ANGER | DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (THIS Oasis hit) with DON’T removed = the play by John Osbourne. This clip from Judi Dench’s 1989 production features Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thomspon. | |
| 3 | A Roman gathering in photo giving full view | |
| PANORAMIC | A + anagram of ROMAN (anagrind is ‘gathering’) inside PIC (photo) = giving full view | |
| 5 | Fear lad upset woman | |
| ALFREDA | Anagram of FEAR LAD (anagrind is ‘upset’) = woman | |
| 6 | Timber transported by Hannibal’s army | |
| BALSA | Hidden within or ‘transported by’ hanni(BAL’S A)rmy = timber | |
| 7 | Euro’s stature nil after crash? It’s a risky business | |
| RUSSIAN ROULETTE | Anagram of EURO’S STATURE NIL (anagrind is ‘after crash’) = risky business | |
| 8 | German wearing extremely clean fabric | |
| COTTON | OTTO (German) inside or ‘wearing’ C |
|
| 9 | Kingdom of Spain enlisting private army | |
| LEGION | LEON (Kingdom of Spain) around or ‘enlisting’ GI (private) = army | |
| 15 | I’m beaten up and incarcerated | |
| IMPOUNDED | I’M + POUNDED (beaten up) = incarcerated | |
| 16 | Vessel crossing river has trouble in part of the rigging | |
| STAYSAIL | SS (vessel) around or ‘crossing’ TAY (river) + AIL (trouble) = part of rigging | |
| 18 | Brief colleague, having received information before a battle | |
| MAGENTA | MAT |
|
| 19 | Rap singer drooping about second part of show | |
| SHAGGY | SAGGY (drooping) around or ‘about’ H (second part of letter of sHow) = rap singer. One of the few rap singers we know as we were subjected to THIS song when we were skiing one year with our son and his friend! | |
| 20 | Right turn, changing direction to take in a short cut? | |
| RAT RUN | R (right) + anagram of TURN (anagrind is ‘changing direction’) around or ‘taking in’ A = short cut | |
| 22 | US College course in religion that goes over a cleric’s head? | |
| MITRE | MIT (US college) + RE (course in religion) = this thing that goes over a cleric’s head! | |
You run out of things to say about Dac’s Wednesday Indy puzzles, because week in, week out, they are well-constructed and entertaining. LOOK BACK IN ANGER I enjoyed, but SHAGGY? Is Dac trying to get down with the kids, or what? We’re all middle-aged obsessives, for goodness’ sake: we don’t want any of this modern stuff …
I don’t think there’s anything superfluous in 23ac: GRAD, U and ALLY are ‘coming together’ or ‘meeting’. And I’m not sure which superfluous word you are referring to in 18dn? But thanks for a comprehensive blog as always.
Hi K’s D. Bert checked the blog this morning after it was posted and pointed out a glaring mistake I’d made in parsing 18d. When there are two of you solving together the other person doesn’t always notice how the clue was parsed by the other one – well at least that is my excuse! I altered the blog but forgot I hade made mention to the clue in the preamble.
Thanks Dac for a crossword that was completely enjoyable apart from 19dn (I gave up on this one) and thanks also to B and J for the blog, especially for 9dn which I had guessed correctly but not been able to parse.
As usual there is very little to say about a Dac crossword. One think I particularly like is when a multi-word answer is broken up into parts crossing the word break – 11ac, 17ac, and 20dn were good examples of this.
Correction to 3: “One thing I particularly like …” What was I thinging of?
My musical background clearly differs from Pelham’s as I got Shaggy fairly easily and I got Leon in 9D from the band Kings of Leon (even though I don’t actually know any of their music).
As is always the case I got held up on what, once I saw it, was blindingly obvious; in this case ‘rat run’.
I think the Indy likes to stay hip, so Shaggy would be just fine!
Smooth stuff, Keep Calm and Do Dac.
Rowly.
As far as the Indy staying ‘hip’ Rowly – the link included for Shaggy’s track goes back to 2000!
Still not bad for ‘crossword hip’!
I refer you all back to my previous comment – for most of the existing audience ‘hip’ will be something they are looking forward to getting replaced one of these days …
Seriously, I do enjoy the contemporary feel of the Indy crosswords – some new young setters bringing a breath of fresh air, and those who might be described as ‘senior’ compilers still young at heart. Which hopefully will mean a younger generation getting into cryptics.