Independent 8,916 by Dac

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I am usually trying to write a clue in some clue-writing competition or other; and it is nearly always tortuous. In Dac’s case none of his clues are tortuous: they all seem to be perfectly natural, and they always have a simple and strong surface. Why it should be that the words Dac clues are so different from those that I try to clue is beyond me. Actually they’re not: it’s just that he is rather better at it than I am.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 PIQUET
Resentment before end of important game (6)

pique {importan}t
4 DISCLOSE
Reveal cad is heartless: that’s on record (8)

disc lo{u}se
9 ALEXIS
Man having drinks about eleven (6)

ale(XI)s
10 ST ALBANS
Briefly pursue outlaws in English city (2,6)

stal{k} bans
12 SENOR
Spaniard returning through Santander, one supposed (5)

Hidden rev. in SantandeR ONE Supposed
13 INANIMATE
Still popular with a friend from Belfast? (9)

in ‘a NI mate’
14 RAP ARTISTS
Little time in French capital to be entertained by amazing star performers (3,7)

Par(t)is in (star)*
15 CAT
Jazz fan celebrating Art Tatum’s No. 1s (3)

c{elebrating} A{rt} T{atum}
17 TOY
Run out of blue play (3)

To{r}y
18 MANAGERESS
One in charge of crew needs time on ship (10)

man age re SS
21 CAME CLEAN
Appeared innocent, having spilt the beans (4,5)

came [= appeared] clean [= innocent]
23 PROSE
Experts’ sound writing style (5)

“pros”
24 TENSIONS
Problems with tennis, so worries (8)

(tennis so)*
25 WIZARD
Old comic, one unknown in part of town (6)

w(1 z)ard — comic in the Beano-Topper-Dandy sense
26 NEAR EAST
Region‘s captured by ten warring countries (4,4)

area in (ten)*
27 LAWYER
In bed with legal representative (6)

la(w)yer
Down
1 PRAISE
Compliments lead to pay increase? (6)

p{ay} raise
2 QUEEN MARY
Doubt about new name for liner (5,4)

(name)* in query
3 ERITREA
A sovereign wants flag raised in African country (7)

(A ER tire)rev.
5 INTRANSIGENT
It’s tough, travelling without information (12)

in transi(gen)t
6 CELSIUS
Temperature in church is fifty, rising and overwhelming us (7)

CE (is L)rev. us — one might perhaps say that Celsius isn’t the temperature itself so much as the way of measuring it, but perhaps this is niggling: it’s quite obvious what is meant
7 OSAKA
Love having endless beer before a port (5)

0 sak{e} a
8 ENSHEATH
Protect ambassador in Athens during turmoil (8)

HE in (Athens)*
11 MILTON KEYNES
New town poet audibly laments (6,6)

Milton “keens” — I had a little trouble with this since I always find myself pronouncing it Milton “canes”, as with (?) John Maynard.  But although I tend to think this is the correct pronunciation I’m clearly in a minority of one.
15 CASSOWARY
Bird getting first of crumbs, when very careful (9)

c{rumbs} as so wary — the cassowary
16 STOCKTON
Northern town with fashion store prominent (8)

ton with stock coming first [i.e. prominent]
18 MACHINE
Appliance companion found in a state (7)

Ma(CH)ine
19 REPLICA
Model I wrapped in parcel carelessly (7)

I in (parcel)*
20 SENDER
Poster creates no end of embarrassment when put up (6)

(rednes{s})rev.
22 MANNA
Heavenly food provided by married woman (5)

m Anna
*anagram

7 comments on “Independent 8,916 by Dac”

  1. John, thanks very much for explaining 18A manageress, which completely stumped me, although I guessed the answer. And, having lived there (and enjoyed doing so very much) I can confirm that the city is definitely pronounced “keens”. The city name is derived from the medieval village, not a conflation of C20 economists.

    I loved the clues for 13A inanimate, and 14A rap artists. So smooth and so precise! And Dac, thanks very much for reminding me yet again of the unexpected spelling of the Swedish astronomer at 6D.

    7D Osaka confused me. I didn’t realise sake was a beer. Too much alcohol! Wikipedia says it is, so it must be true. But I couldn’t see anything else that might fit.

    21A Came Clean was my last answer. Very clever diversion, since “spilt the beans” is a single term, so one naturally expects “appeared innocent” to be a single term to make the clue a DD. But it’s not, “appeared” and “innocent” must be substituted with two separate synonyms in the answer. Devilish cunning!

  2. This was another quality offering from Dac IMHO, but for some reason I found it trickier to finish than most of his puzzles. It may have just been because of temporary brain freeze, but it seemed to take me an age to get the RAP ARTISTS/INTRANSIGENT crossers, and it was only once I had them that I was able to finish with DISCLOSE and OSAKA. I could have entered OSAKA a lot earlier but I always think of SAKE as a rice wine rather than a beer, although I’m sure there will be dictionaries out there that define it as a beer because I trust Dac’s cluing. The other three clues that held me up really shouldn’t have done in retrospect.

  3. When I moved to Milton Keynes in 1976 I was constantly having to correct peoples’ pronunciation. I was taken aback to find that there are still some of you out there, John!

    Thanks for the blog

  4. Apparently, sake is produced by brewing rather than fermenting, so is technically a beer rather than a wine. I managed to get through this in one continuous pass starting from 19D, which is extremely unusual for me, but that’s probably more a statement about how well written the clues were rather than that they were especially easy.

  5. Well, there were several I couldn’t parse – thanks for the explanations – but I did complete it eventually. 7dn was my LOI. As someone known to have the odd flask of sake, I would never think of sake as a beer. To me, it’s more like a fortified wine like sherry. I see from the Wikipedia entry that is production is like neither wine nor beer.

  6. Nice one from Dac again, not too difficult though some clues needed a bit of thinking about and I couldn’t parse 4ac.

    15dn raised a smile as I remembered the verse attributed to Samuel Wilberforce (yes, that Wilberforce!)

    If I were a cassowary
    On the plains of Timbuktu
    I would eat a missionary,
    Cassock, bands, and hymn-book too.

    (not that cassowaries are found anywhere near Timbuktu, being native to Australasia)

    Thanks, Dac and John

  7. allan_c@6: For me, cassowary brought to mind The Bird List Song that Michael Nyman wrote for the Peter Greenawy film The Fall. It begins (quoting from memory), “Capercailzie, Lammergeier, Cassowary, Lark”.

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