We found this a bit tougher than your average Dac, but no less enjoyable – all the usual excellent surfaces were there, but for some reason we had difficulty getting round the misdirections.
We’re still not 100% convinced by 8d, and we hadn’t come across 5d before – it needed an electronic search to confirm the definition.
We’ll have limited internet access again today so if there are any alterations required to the blog, they may have to wait until tomorrow!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Drive off with yours truly (today’s compiler), bowled over after getting a prize | |
| ACADEMY AWARD | DR (drive) + AWAY (off) + ME (yours truly) + DAC (today’s complier) all reversed, or ‘bowled over’ after A | |
| 10 | Animal round front of parlour: unusually big problem | |
| OPOSSUM | O (round) + P (first letter or ‘front’ of Parlour) + OS (outsize – ‘unusually big’) + SUM (problem) | |
| 11 | Trouble a doctor’s encountered, going round African country | |
| SOMALIA | AIL (trouble) + A + MO’S (doctor’s) all reversed or ‘going round’ | |
| 12 | Suggesting petty officer’s wrong to appear in TV show | |
| PROPOSING | PO (petty officer) + SIN (wrong) in PROG (TV show) | |
| 13 | Young swimmer injured in revel | |
| ELVER | An anagram of REVEL – anagrind is ‘injured’ | |
| 14 | Keep quiet, attending this daily noisy gathering? | |
| SHINDY | SH (keep quiet) + INDY (The Independent – ‘this daily’) | |
| 15 | Tough jailbird shown round a prison | |
| CAST-IRON | CON (jailbird) round A STIR (prison) | |
| 17 | Where reporters are showing urge to fight | |
| PRESS BOX | PRESS (urge) + BOX (fight) | |
| 19 | S America imports tea, for example | |
| SUCH AS | S + US (America) round or ‘importing’ CHA (tea) | |
| 22 | Provoke complaint after heading off | |
| ROUSE | ||
| 23 | Bird wailed quite regularly when bitten by dog | |
| BALD EAGLE | Alternate or ‘quite regular’ letters of wAiLeD in or ‘bitten by’ BEAGLE (dog) | |
| 25 | Accounts expert, one hears | |
| AUDITOR | Double definition – an AUDITOR can be a person who checks financial accounts or someone who hears | |
| 26 | Starter in restaurant is fish, pan-fried dish | |
| RISSOLE | R (first letter or ‘starter’ in Restaurant) + IS + SOLE (fish) | |
| 27 | He’s in gallery, constructed in old architectural style | |
| EARLY ENGLISH | An anagram of HE’S IN GALLERY – anagrind is ‘constructed’ | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Beastly film concluded with O Reed and I appearing drunk | |
| CROCODILE DUNDEE | An anagram of CONCLUDED, O REED and I – anagrind is ‘appearing drunk’ | |
| 3 | Division in party as Republican confronts Democrat | |
| DISCORD | DISCO (party) + R (Republican) + D (Democrat) | |
| 4 | Account of me getting stuck in sea near St Malo? | |
| MEMOIR | MOI (‘me’ in French) ‘stuck’ in MER (‘sea’ in French) – the ‘near St Malo’ reference indicating the use of the French words | |
| 5 | Money dating back to 18th century: ill-gotten gains, in a way | |
| ASSIGNAT | An anagram of GAINS (anagrind is ‘ill-gotten’) in A ST (street – or ‘way’) – we hadn’t come across this word before | |
| 6 | Support male taken into nick? | |
| ARMREST | M (male) in ARREST (nick) | |
| 7 | White van man might fulfil promise | |
| DELIVER THE GOODS | Double definition | |
| 8 | Light-hearted film from previous series | |
| ROMP | We weren’t too happy with this one – our LOI – it is hidden in ‘fROM Previous’ – presumably ‘series’ suggests it is a group of letters. Does anyone else have an alternative explanation? We were unsure about ROMP being a ‘light-hearted’ film. It wasn’t in Chambers but Oxford Dictionaries on-line has it. | |
| 9 | Sanctions examples of Churchill’s rhetoric? | |
| WARRANTS | ‘Churchill’s rhetoric’ could be described as WAR RANTS | |
| 14 | Extra duty making Pasteur terribly cross | |
| SUPERTAX | An anagram of PASTEUR (anagrind is ‘terribly’) + X (cross) | |
| 16 | I’m surprised business graduate has settled within Italian region | |
| LOMBARDY | LORDY (‘I’m surprised’) with MBA (business graduate) ‘settled’ within | |
| 18 | Garment supported by Truro consumer? | |
| SWEATER | SW (south-west, represented by ‘Truro’) + EATER (consumer) | |
| 20 | Instrument pipe-shaped, and mostly easy to stretch | |
| UTENSIL | U (‘pipe-shaped’ – as in a ‘U-bend’ – a little bit devious!) + TENSIL |
|
| 21 | Hand holding sovereign and gold coin of old | |
| FLORIN | FIN (slang term for ‘hand’) round or ‘holding’ L (sovereign – as in a pound sterling) and OR (gold) | |
| 24 | Old-time flat | |
| EVEN | Double definition – an old word for ‘evening’ (time) and a synonym for ‘flat’ | |
Thanks, both.
Found the bottom half significantly easier than the top half, for some reason. I hadn’t seen ASSIGNAT before either, but was pleased to get it from the wordplay. MEMOIR was cleverly clued and I liked the CROCODILE DUNDEE anagram.
I think you are on the money with ROMP (my LOI too). You could describe a light-hearted ROM-COM or something similar as a ROMP, I think.
LOMBARDY made me smile, as it reminded me of the LOMBARD acronym for our young friends in the city earning far too much filthy lucre for gambling with other people’s money. ‘He’s a lombard.’ Which translates as ‘loads of money but a right dickhead’.
The usual enjoyable puzzle from Dac, IMHO. ASSIGNAT was my LOI and you can count me as another who was happy to have teased it out from the wordplay, because I certainly hadn’t come across it before. Thanks to K’s D for LOMBARD. Very amusing, and I have no idea why I hadn’t heard it before.
My head hurts.
In World Cup parlance this one took me to extra time, and I lost in the penalty shoot-out. Completely failed to see ROMP, and thought it must be SOAP (it’s the heat ). Apart from that I invented a new form of metal, SLAG IRON, which sort of fitted the clue, but not really. Once I cleared that up, I battled through to my ultimate, but plucky, demise. I now need to go lie down in a darkened room, partly to recover, partly to avoid watching Andy Murray.
Thanks for an excellent blog both.
And thanks to Dac.
I did this on a Eurostar to Brussels. Didn’t have too much difficulty, although I had to guess ASSIGNAT like other here. But I got stuck on 2dn and 20dn – just couldn’t see them. Put the paper away and read for a bit. Picked the paper up and suddenly got them both. Rather pleased to finish it without any aids.