Another excellent puzzle from Dac today with the usual smooth surfaces and a good variety of clue types.
It is often difficult to know what to say in the preamble to Dac’s puzzles. However, on this occasion we would really appreciate some comments about 1ac. We’re really not sure that we have understood the clue correctly which is unusual in a Dac clue. We’d never heard of 26ac and made up the answer only to find that it was correct when we checked in Chambers.
| Across | ||
| 1 | No end of bitter – beer drunk by more mature writer | |
| HAROLD PINTER | We had a bit of a dilemma here with the the parsing of ‘HAR’ as ‘no end of bitter’- it feels as though it should be either HARsh with the last two letters omitted, or sHARp with both the first and last letters omitted – both words being good synonyms for ‘bitter’. There has been some discussion recently over wordplay requiring the omission of more than one letter, rather than the ‘customary’ single letter omission. Dac is always very precise in his clueing, so we wondered whether it might be HAR |
|
| 10 | Fellow giving a form of support to poor actor | |
| ABRAHAM | A + BRA (form of support) + HAM (poor actor) | |
| 11 | Amount of money is hidden over in warehouse | |
| DEPOSIT | IS reversed, or ‘over’ and ‘hidden’ in DEPOT (warehouse) | |
| 12 | Writing by poet, initially something flowery | |
| PROSE | P (first letter or ‘initial’ of Poet) + ROSE (something flowery) | |
| 13 | Left joined with Labour leader in team producing electoral victory | |
| LANDSLIDE | L (left) AND (joined with) + L (first letter of Labour) in SIDE (team) | |
| 14 | 11 dispatched with coin enclosed | |
| SEDIMENT | SENT (dispatched) round or ‘enclosing’ DIME (coin) – the definition being ‘deposit’ (11ac) | |
| 16 | Mother captures wild beast, showing lots of bottle | |
| MAGNUM | MAM (mother) round or ‘catching’ GNU (wild beast) | |
| 18 | Component of fertiliser makes path so slippery | |
| POTASH | An anagram of PATH SO – anagrind is ‘slippery’ | |
| 19 | Film shows Blair’s expelling New Labour opponent | |
| TOY STORY | TO |
|
| 22 | Get journalist involved in course of action | |
| PROCEDURE | PROCURE (get) round or ‘involving’ ED (journalist) | |
| 23 | Recalled African country introducing school for religion | |
| ISLAM | MALI (African country) reversed or ‘recalled’ round or ‘introducing’ S (school) | |
| 24 | Set off, heading for Tasmania by boat | |
| TRIGGER | T (first letter or ‘heading’ of Tasmania) + RIGGER (boat) | |
| 25 | Trendy bachelor snubs English resort | |
| RIGHT-ON | ||
| 26 | Dog to proceed across road, then winding street | |
| GORDON SETTER | GO ON (proceed) round or ‘across’ RD (road) + an anagram of STREET – anagrind is ‘winding’ | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Cooler top displayed by rider in arena | |
| AIR CONDITIONING | AI (top, as in first class) + CONDITION (rider) in RING (arena) | |
| 3 | Colour of brooch – red in part | |
| OCHRE | Hidden in or ‘part of’ broOCH REd | |
| 4 | Chuck away fish and suet-based dish | |
| DUMPLING | DUMP (chuck away) + LING (fish) | |
| 5 | I have meal beneath the moon | |
| IODINE | DINE (have meal) beneath IO (moon – of Jupiter) | |
| 6 | Soldiers get through chocolate stocked in Spanish cafés | |
| TAPAS BARS | TA (soldiers – Territorial Army) + PASS (get through) round or ‘stocking’ BAR (chocolate) | |
| 7 | Badly run USA lotteries risky enterprise | |
| RUSSIAN ROULETTE | An anagram of RUN USA LOTTERIES – anagrind is ‘badly’ | |
| 8 | Page penned by French philosopher in part of uni | |
| CAMPUS | P (page) in or ‘penned by’ CAMUS (French philosopher) | |
| 9 | Group of pupils succeeded, taking first of test papers | |
| STREAM | S (succeeded) + T (first letter of Test) + REAM (papers) | |
| 15 | Courier taking motorway near city to north of Germany | |
| MESSENGER | M (motorway) + ESSEN (city) + GER (Germany) | |
| 17 | I forage about, finding truffles ultimately for pâté | |
| FOIE GRAS | An anagram of I FORAGE (anagrind is ‘about’) + S (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of truffleS) | |
| 18 | Very good hollows for birds | |
| PIPITS | PI (very good) + PITS (hollows) | |
| 20 | Republican enemy trounced one finally | |
| YEMENI | An anagram of ENEMY (anagrind is ‘trounced’) + I (one) | |
| 21 | Page with question and answer? Right, nothing more | |
| QUARTO | QU (question) + A (answer) + RT (right) + O (nothing) | |
| 23 | Metal block in grotto, oddly | |
| INGOT | IN + GrOtTo (odd letters) | |
Thanks, both.
I found this a bit harder than usual for a Dac, with the two clues you mention giving me the most trouble. I think you are right with HARD being the word alluded to in 1ac: ‘bitter’ for HARD just about works, especially with the example you give.
I can’t be doing with dogs, so you’re asking the wrong person for advice about the SETTER. But if it’s in Chambers …
Dac is in good company: Thomas Stearns Eliot.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
GORDON SETTER turned up in Beelzebub a few weeks ago. I had a bit of a problem getting it then (thought it might be a golden setter), so it stuck in my memory.
I was a late finisher today. As so often, I got 1ac without knowing why.
The quotation from TS Eliot, timely as it is, does not show him using hard as a synonym, but thanks, Kathryn’s Dad for reminding us of this lovely poem.
Thanks also to Dac. I was just about up to it today.
Thanks for the quotation K’s D. Bert is out and I have been teaching fellow NT volunteer gardeners how to make bread all day so I have only just checked the blog.
Seems that others agree about our interpretation for 1ac.
Chambers Compact Thesaurus (2008) gives both ‘sharp’ and ‘harsh’ as synonyms for ‘bitter’, and gives ‘bitter’ as a synonym for ‘hard’ in the sense of ‘a hard winter’. So you can take your pick – I go for the latter on the grounds that it only requires one letter to be dropped.
CoD was IODINE
Thanks, Dac and B&J