Dac has given us a crossword today that should be welcomed by the fans of themeless and ninaless puzzles.
Dac sticks to the basics – good and fair clues together with entries that are in most solvers’ vocabulary. Perhaps the noble land, the allusion to the Greek goddess and the World War 1 commander are exceptions to the well known words rule today.
There weren’t many clues with complex word play in this puzzle. I think BONNIE AND CLYDE [11 across] and BALACLAVA [6 down] were the most complex with each having five constituent parts. Some clues were to the easier end of the difficulty spectrum – examples being the final two downs RADON and EAGLE. Assessments of clue difficulty though are very subjective and no doubt someone will tell me they agonised over those two for some time.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Wild beast and tailless dog getting on (8)
|
BOAR (wild beast) + DINGO (dog) excluding the final letter (tailless) O
|
BOARDING (getting on)
|
|
6
|
Boy ran amok in noble land (6)
|
Anagram of (amok) BOY RAN BARONY* |
BARONY (the territory of a BARON; noble land)
|
|
9
|
What about vinyl record, one by the Beatles? (4)
|
EH (what) reversed (about) + LP (long playing record; vinyl record) HE< LP |
HELP (long playing record issued by the Beatles)
|
|
10
|
Thinking about duke, one fighting at Waterloo with no end of spirit (8,2)
|
D (duke) + WELLINGTON (reference the Duke of WELLINGTON who led the victorious armies at the Battle of Waterloo) excluding (with no) T (last letter of [end of] SPIRIT)
|
DWELLING ON (thinking about)
|
|
11
|
007 embraces new nice lady, corrupted before end of the film (6,3,5)
|
(BOND [reference James BOND {007}] containing [embraces] an anagram of [corrupted] [N {new} NICE and LADY]) + E (last letter of [end of] THE) BON (NIE AND CLY*) D E |
BONNIE AND CLYDE (film)
|
|
12
|
Not standing upright, like worker after end of toil (6)
|
AS (like) + L (last letter of [end of] TOIL) + ANT (worker)
|
ASLANT (not standing upright)
|
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14
|
Savages ambassador close to capital city (8)
|
HE (His / Her Excellency; form of address when speaking to or writing to an Ambassador) + ATHENS (capital city of Greece)
|
HEATHENS (savages)
|
|
16
|
Devon’s equivalent to Rushmore, might one say? (8)
|
DART (rush) + MOOR (sounds like [might one say] MORE)
|
DARTMOOR (tourist attraction in Devon. Mount RUSHMORE with faces of four American Presidents carved into the granite face is an American tourist attraction)
|
|
18
|
Approach officers during manoeuvre (6)
|
COS (Commanding Officers) contained in (during) ACT (manoeuvre) AC (COS) T |
ACCOST (approach)
|
|
20
|
Explicit quality of a French book ultimately confiscated by head (14)
|
UN (one of the forms of ‘a’ in French) + RESERVE (book) + D (last letter of [ultimately] CONFISCATED) + NESS (headland)
|
UNRESERVEDNESS (explicit quality)
|
|
23
|
‘Rheinbund” assembled by German commander in WW1 (10)
|
Anagram of (assembled) RHEINBUND + G (German) HINDENBUR* G |
HINDENBURG (reference Paul von HINDENBURG, Chief of the German General Staff [1916 – 1919] and President of Germany [1919 – 1934]; commander in World War 1) German could do double duty in the clue as he was not only a WW1 commander but he was a German WW1 commander) |
|
24
|
Monthly earnings cut for a period of time (4)
|
YEAR (hidden word in [cut]) MONTHLY EARNINGS
|
YEAR (period of time)
|
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25
|
Economist making important points (6)
|
KEY (important) + NES (North, East and South; points of the compass)
|
KEYNES (reference John Maynard KEYNES [1883 – 1946], British economist)
|
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26
|
In conclusion you’ll find me doing editor’s job (8)
|
ME contained in (in) ENDING (conclusion) E (ME) NDING |
EMENDING (making alterations with a view to improving a text; doing editor’s job)
|
| Down | |||
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
2
|
Old nurse arranged to accept nothing too demanding? (7)
|
O [old] + an anagram of (arranged) NURSE) containing (O [nothing]) O NER (O) US* |
ONEROUS (burdensome; too demanding)
|
|
3
|
Sorry company’s competitor has lost heart (9)
|
REP (repertory theatre; company) + ENTRANT (competitor) excluding the middle letter (lost heart) R
|
REPENTANT (sorry)
|
|
4
|
Film company popular before decline (5)
|
IN (popular) + DIE (decline)
|
INDIE (independent film production company)
|
|
5
|
Environmentalist added to graph on recycling; that’s the spirit (5,10)
|
GREEN (informal word to describe an environmentalist) + CHART (graph) + RE-USE (recycling)
|
GREEN CHARTREUSE (liqueur; spirit)
|
|
6
|
A holiday with a dog, proceeding northwards round lake somewhere in Ukraine (9)
|
(A + VAC [vacation; holiday] + A + LAB [labrador; dog]) reversed (proceeding northwards; down clue) containing (round) L (lake) BAL A C (L) AV A< |
BALACLAVA (possible spelling of BALAKLAVA, a town in the Crimean peninsula. Technically in Ukraine, but the Crimean peninsula is currently not under the control of the government in Kiev)
|
|
7
|
Oddly nude, streak about, being so lustful? (5)
|
RAY (streak) containing (about) ND (odd letters of [oddly] NUDE) RA (ND) Y |
RANDY (lustful)
|
|
8
|
Very tearful female relative accepts one award (7)
|
NAN (grandmother; female relative) containing (accepts) (I [one] + OBE {Order of the British Empire; award]) N (I OBE) AN |
NIOBEAN (like NIOBE [a daughter of Tantalus, turned into stone as she wept for her children, slain by Artemis and Apollo]; tearful)
|
|
13
|
Many in south condemned female writer (9)
|
SAND (reference George SAND, pseudonym of the French female writer Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin [1804 – 1876]) contained in (in) an anagram of (condemned) SOUTH THOU (SAND) S* |
THOUSANDS (many)
|
|
15
|
Dull journalist’s wish overturned by editor (9)
|
HACK (journalist) + (YEN [wish] reversed [overturned]) + ED (editor) HACK NEY< ED |
HACKNEYED (dulled by excessive use)
|
|
17
|
In Lincoln you’ll see us four inflicting cruelty (7)
|
(US + IV [Roman numerals for four]) contained in (in) ABE (Abraham Lincoln) AB (US IV) E |
ABUSIVE (inflicting cruelty)
|
|
19
|
Support South American fighters at home (7)
|
S (South) + US (United States; American) + TA (Territorial Army; fighters) + IN (at home)
|
SUSTAIN (support)
|
|
21
|
A party held by sailors: it’s a gas (5)
|
(A + DO [party]) contained in (held by) RN (Royal Navy; sailors) R (A DO) N |
RADON (gas)
|
|
22
|
Hunting dog decapitated bird (5)
|
BEAGLE (hunting dog) excluding the first letter (decapitated) B
|
EAGLE (bird)
|
Fans of themeless and ninaless puzzles? That’d be me then.
I was a fan of this one, but then I’m always a fan of Dac. There were – unusually for Dac – a couple of strange words in this one, BARONY and NIOBEAN. But I got there in the end.
I didn’t help myself by putting AGES in for 24ac: [W]AGES makes perfect sense to me as an answer. And I can’t really see how THOUSANDS works: if it’s SAND in (SOUTH)* then where is the insertion indicator? Or are we supposed to take ‘condemned’ as both the anagrind and the insertion indicator?
Good puzzle, fine blog. Thanks both.
Kathryn’s Dad @ 1
Good to see that one of the fans was pleased.
At 13 down I think the insertion indicator is the second word in the clue – ‘in’
My interpretation is that the clue is saying : In an anagram (condemned) of the word SOUTH [there is a] female writer [SAND]
Thanks, Duncan, that makes sense. Just had a blind spot for it.
I enjoyed this one, despite one or two hiccups on the way; for example 12ac clearly ended in ‘ant’ and I went off on a wild goose chase through heraldic terms (think ‘passant’, ‘couchant’ etc) before I thought of the obvious ASLANT. Some great surfaces too, such as 20ac – a contender for CoD.
Thanks, Dac and Duncan.
This was the first puzzle I got fully out unaided in yolks! I had a whale of a time. Thanks to both.