It is Wednesday today, so it is Dac’s weekly opportunity to put Indy solvers through their paces.
For me, this was a typical Dac puzzle in terms of level of difficulty. I was able to write in about a quarter of the answers upon first perusal, half of them came to me after a moderate amount of head-scratching, while the remaining quarter required more careful thought. In the end, I was left with the intersecting 23 and 25, and when I worked out 23 (over which I must have had a mental block), 25 fell swiftly into place.
11 was a new word for me, although Dac’s wordplay led me unequivocally to the answer, as it always does. I am not sure of my parsing of 15, as the double duty around “sound of” could be avoided if “yuc” were to be an alternative spelling of “yuck”; my Chambers, alas, does not list such an alternative. Furthermore, “about” could be either “ca” or “a”, although the former tends to be preferred in daily cryptics. Does anyone have any bright ideas to nail this parsing?
If I force myself to single out particular favourites from amongst today’s clues, I would go for 1A, for making me laugh out loud; 5, for being a wonderful anagram spot; and 11, for its surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | BOGART | Old player responsible for graffiti in toilet?
Cryptically, “graffiti in toilet” could be described as “bog art”; the reference is to the late Hollywood actor Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) |
| 04 | OUTPACES | Goes quicker than amazingly fast coupé fellow abandoned
*(<f>AST COUP?); “fellow (=F) abandoned” means letter “f” dropped; “amazingly” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | SHERPA | Conference official succeeded, backed by her assistant
S (=succeeded) + HER + PA (=assistant, i.e. Personal Assistant); a sherpa is an aide to, or personal representative of, a head of government participating in a summit conference, and concerned with negotiations (of texts) behind the scenes |
| 10 | DIVISION | Former princess, person of great beauty in part
DI (=former princess, i.e. the late Princess Diana (of Wales) + VISION (=person of great beauty) |
| 12 | SUN | Newspaper group of students rejected
NUS(=group of students, i.e. National Union of Students); “rejected” indicates reversal |
| 13 | STRAPHANGER | A public house getting in more rum for commuter
[A + PH (=Public House)] in STRANGER (=more rum, peculiar) |
| 14 | PROVENDER | Food certified raw? The reverse
PROVEN (=certified) + DER (RED=raw; “the reverse” indicates reversal, of course!) |
| 15 | YUCCA | Sound of disapproval about tropical plant
Homophone (“sound of”) of “yuck” (=sound of disapproval) + CA (=about); “sound of” seems to do double duty in this clue |
| 17 | GAMER | Less agile // player
Double definition: “gamer” can mean less agile, lamer AND “player”, especially of computer games |
| 19 | SLAVERING | Group of vassals drooling with depreciation
SLAVE RING (=cryptically, a group of vassals) |
| 22 | ATTENDANCES | Audiences at a number of social functions
AT + TEN (=number) + DANCES (=social functions) |
| 24 | DUO | Two people from the French circle
DU (=from the French, i.e. the French for of the) + O (=circle, i.e. pictorially) |
| 25 | AMARETTO | Drink excessively, carried back on a horse
A + MARE (=horse) + TTO (OTT=excessively, i.e. over the top; “carried back” indicates reversal) |
| 26 | BEHIND | Following live animal
BE (= (to) live) + HIND (=animal, deer) |
| 27 | AMNESIAC | A cinema’s refurbished? I can’t remember
*(A CINEMA’S); “refurbished” is anagram indicator |
| 28 | ANNECY | Cézanne cycled, covering city in France
Hidden (“covering”) in “CézANNE CYcled” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | BUSTS UP | Quarrels the result of wearing a bra
Cryptically, the result of wearing a bra is that your “bust’s up”! |
| 02 | GREENROOM | Place for actors lacking experience, with Shakespeare role coming up
GREEN (=lacking experience) + ROOM (MOOR=Shakespeare role, i.e. Othello; “coming up” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 03 | RIPOSTE | With ‘Registered Mail’ stuck on front of envelope I enclosed reply
I in [R (=registered) + POST (=mail)] + E<nvelope> (“front of” means first letter only) |
| 05 | UNIMPORTANCE | Putin/Cameron clash that’s of no significance
*(PUTIN CAMERON); “clash” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | PRIMARY | School // election in America
Double definition |
| 07 | CLING | Stick fish under lid of creel
C<reel> (“lid” means first letter only) + LING (=fish) |
| 08 | SANGRIA | Celebrated with song, not opening alcoholic drink
SANG (=celebrated) + <a>RIA (=song; “not opening” means first letter only) |
| 11 | TRADESCANTIA | Deals with spy agency involving one working hard as plant
TRADES (=deals with) + [ANT (=one working hard) in CIA (=spy agency)]; a tradescantia is any plant of the spiderwort genus |
| 16 | CHILDLIKE | Innocent Democrat impressed by unfriendly president once
[D (=democrat) in CHILL (=unfriendly, as in a chill wind)] + IKE (=president once, i.e. former US President Eisenhower) |
| 17 | GRANADA | Greek encounters a tennis champ briefly in Spanish city
GR (=Greek) + A + NADA<l> (=tennis champ, i.e. Spaniard Rafael Nadal; “briefly” means last letter dropped) |
| 18 | RANKERS | Resentment’s expressed aloud for soldiers
Homophone (“expressed aloud”) of “rancour’s” (=resentment) |
| 20 | EPSTEIN | Beatles manager produced extremely twee, popular records reaching the top
EPs (=records) + T<we>E (“extremely” means first and last letters only) + IN (=popular); the reference is to UK music entrepreneur Brian Epstein (1934-67) |
| 21 | GOOD DAY | Greeting unusual during a form of yoga
ODD (=unusual) in *(YOGA); “a form of” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | TWAIN | Writer initially teetotal, on the wagon
T<eetotal> (“initially” means first letter only) + WAIN (=wagon, as in Constable’s The Hay Wain) |
Thanks, RR. One or two tricky ones in here, but as you say, Dac’s clues always lead you to the right answer if you persevere. I liked the CAMERON PUTIN anagram today.
I think YUCCA is as you’ve parsed it: a charade of YUC and CA. ‘Disapproval’ for ‘yuck’ just about works for me.
Another top quality puzzle from Dac. I agree with K’s D@1 about the parsing of YUCCA. I would always refer to “bust-ups” rather than BUSTS-UP but I have no problem with it.
1D I think Quarrels is a verb, so quarrels (with) equals busts up (with).
Cannot see what the problem is with YUCCA, no double duty.
19A on-line version has the logical “anticipation” rather than “depreciation”.
Some very nicely constructed stuff (STRAPHANGER, UNIMPORTANCE to name but two).
Thanks to Dac and RatkojaRiku
19A DTV has ‘anticipation’ as well
Agree – 5d a wonderful anagram, and very apt
A superb anagram in a great, well-written puzzle. As compared with…. well, never mind. Here we have someone who is in tune with an audience, funny, clever, and neat.
Didn’t help myself putting in Grenada without checking. Thanks dac and RR Found this tough to finish with provender last to fall