It’s Wednesday, it’s Dac – What else can we say? Another excellent puzzle!
| 1 | Attack viciously? Proceed towards jail, having broken a rule wrongly (2,3,3,7) | |
| GO FOR THE JUGULAR | GO FORTH (proceed towards) + JUG (jail) inside or ‘breaking’ an anagram of A RULE – anagrind is ‘ wrongly’ | |
| 9 | Puzzle’s remaining part (5) | |
| STUMP | Double definition | |
| 10 | Dashing to produce second impression of book (9) | |
| SPRINTING | S (second) PRINTING (impression of book) | |
| 11 | Drama initially introduced in O’Neill plays is well-established (3-4) | |
| OLD-LINE | An anagram of O’NEILL around or ‘introducing’ D (first or ‘initial’ letter of Drama) | |
| 12 | Most humble mate vacated a home (7) | |
| MEANEST | M |
|
| 13 | For example 26, note, and 11(6) | |
| TETRAD | TE (note) TRAD (old-line or traditional) – The Four Feathers (26ac) is an example of a tetrad | |
| 14 | Former influential Russian ruler principally like present-day leader (8) | |
| RASPUTIN | R (first or ‘principal’ letter of ‘Ruler’) AS (like) PUTIN (present day leader of Russia) | |
| 17 | British gents maybe expired, covered in gore (8) | |
| BLOODIED | B (British) LOO (gents maybe) DIED (expired) | |
| 18 | Rustic cultivated tree (6) | |
| CITRUS | An anagram of RUSTIC – anagrind is ‘cultivated’ | |
| 21 | German wine, some briefly knocked back by French female (7) | |
| MOSELLE | SOM |
|
| 23 | Valuable old article stuck to wood, say (7) | |
| ANTIQUE | AN (article) TIQUE (sounds like TEAK – wood) | |
| 24 | Like the disciples, a co-pilot’s undergoing conversion (9) | |
| APOSTOLIC | An anagram of A CO PILOT’S – anagrind is ‘undergoing conversion’ | |
| 25 | Broadcasting old and new song (2,3) | |
| ON AIR | O (old) N (new) AIR (song) | |
| 26 | Quartet of chick lit? (3,4,8) | |
| THE FOUR FEATHERS | A play on the fact that chicks have feathers and THE FOUR FEATHERS is a novel – Not the most successful Dac clue in our opinion – unless we are missing something! | |
| 1 | Hampshire town‘s success with soccer, say (7) | |
| GOSPORT | GO (success) SPORT (soccer perhaps) | |
| 2 | Discovered near newly-built station: a single piece of masonry (10,5) | |
| FOUNDATION STONE | FOUND (discovered) + anagram of STATION – anagrind is ‘newly built’ + ONE (single) | |
| 3 | Carpet salesman has to deliver piece for inside (9) | |
| REPRIMAND | REP (salesman) RID (deliver) around MAN (piece, as in chess) | |
| 4 | Leading trio of Hasidim allowed pork product (6) | |
| HASLET | HAS (first three letters or ‘trio’ of Hasidim) LET (allowed) | |
| 5 | Book mentioned German and South American civilisation (8) | |
| JEREMIAH | JERE (sounds like JERRY – German) MIAH (sounds like MAYA – SA civilisation) | |
| 6 | Hooligan jailed, inhaling cannabis (5) | |
| GANJA | Hidden, or ‘inhaled’ in the clue HooliGAN JAiled | |
| 7 | Small piece of cheese supplied in part of the West End (9,6) | |
| LEICESTER SQUARE | A play on the fact that LEICESTER is a type of cheese, of which a small piece might be a SQUARE, and LEICESTER SQUARE is in the West End | |
| 8 | We’re told to continue as author you’ll need PC (5-2) | |
| RIGHT-ON | Sounds like WRITE-ON (continue as author) | |
| 15 | Indicates compass direction’s inaccurate (6,3) | |
| POINTS OUT | If a compass was inaccurate the POINTS would be OUT | |
| 16 | Party-goer climbing on bar, drinking litres (8) | |
| REVELLER | RE (on) LEVER (bar) reversed or ‘climbing’ around or ‘drinking’ L (litres) | |
| 17 | Pompous language in most of old Mumbai thoroughfare (7) | |
| BOMBAST | BOMBA |
|
| 19 | I stray, running into soldiers in mountain ranges (7) | |
| SIERRAS | I ERR (stray) inside or ‘running into’ SAS (soldiers) | |
| 20 | Old European region replacing Liberal with revolutionary? That’s awkward (6) | |
| GAUCHE | GAU |
|
| 22 | Drop building bricks, carrying tons (3,2) | |
| LET GO | LEGO (building bricks) around or ‘carrying’ T (tons) | |
Dash it all! I smugly finished this in record time with no written workings. 26 had me stumped until I remembered 1960s close-harmony quartet The Four Kestrels. Ah-ha! And now Grr! Pride cometh…
After yesterday, we deserved this!
Thanks Dak and B&J
(I keep forgetting to thank compiler & blogger, so big ups to Dak & B & J for being so early-morning-life-enhancing ly clever & witty)
A quick, if satisfying, solve, with 13A the last one in; a bit stumped with 11A (not really familiar with old-line – meaning as in a line of clothing?) turning into TRAD, but that had to be the answer.
The “a” is missing from the parsing of 12A.
Thanks to Dac and Bertandjoyce.
This was very enjoyable with only reprimand and tetrad causing me a few problems. I had trouble with the parsing of reprimand – kept thinking there had to a word for “for” inside it. Tetrad also held me up as I kept thinking the 4 feathers gave the tetra bit plus a D for note, but then tetrad did obviously seem to have much link to old-line.
Didn’t, I mean.
To gwep (‘the A is missing…’). Crikey, all of us are pedantic but still…
Yrs in fellowship,
Gx
@7 Grant Baynham. I plead guilty. So that’s what the “p” in gwep stands for.
Don’t think it is. Mate vacated is me plus a home is a nest
Must be missing something here! The a is in the clue. Don’t mean to be pedantic
But not in the parsing of the clue by the bloggers.
Apologies for not sorting this out earlier – you are all correct the A is missing. We’ve been somewhat busy all day and have not switched the computer on to correct the blog. We hate using the ipad for blogging!
My first day back after surgery. So GLAD it was one I could do. Thanks to both.