After Dac’s impressive April 1st puzzle last week, it’s back to the smooth surfaces and straightforward clueing we have come to expect on a Wednesday.
If you completed last week’s Dac and only looked at the blog in the morning or did not look at it at all, it is definitely worth checking out. John H@17 is the important comment to look for.
No theme or Nina as far as we can see today, but after last week, who can tell?
Thanks Dac for another great solve!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Wine left in Metro, bizarrely | |
| MERLOT | An anagram of L (left) and METRO – anagrind is ‘bizarrely’ | |
| 4 | Plant with label attached, it’s found near main road | |
| WAIT-A-BIT | W (with) + TAB (label) IT after or ‘near’ A1 (main road) | |
| 9 | Spy agency recruits scoundrel, chirpy sort | |
| CICADA | CIA (spy agency) round or ‘recruiting’ CAD (scoundrel) | |
| 10 | Archdeacon’s appearing during, say, late church service | |
| EVENSONG | VEN’S (archdeacon’s) ON (appearing) in or ‘during’ EG (say) | |
| 11 | Return translation after lessons in religion | |
| REVERSION | VERSION (translation) after RE (lessons in religion) | |
| 13 | Coffee and butter up endlessly | |
| LATTE | ||
| 14 | Wear this red, crumpled material | |
| HARRIS TWEED | An anagram of WEAR THIS RED – anagrind is ‘crumpled’ | |
| 18 | Girlfriend keeps private place for crockery item | |
| DINNER PLATE | DATE (girlfriend) round or ‘keeping’ INNER (private) PL (place) | |
| 21 | Work out temperature drops? | |
| TRAIN | T (temperature) + RAIN (drops) | |
| 22 | In time, I’ll get married, it’s suggested | |
| INTIMATED | IN + T (time) + I + MATED (married) | |
| 24 | Putting together a musical work in German | |
| AMASSING | A + MASS (musical work) + IN + G (German) | |
| 25 | Tar, black, put round about base | |
| ABJECT | AB (tar, as in able-bodied seaman) + JET (black) round C (about) | |
| 26 | Fit odd numbers of unit in farm building | |
| SUITABLE | U |
|
| 27 | Spot British group near church | |
| BLOTCH | B (British) + LOT (group) + CH (church) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Cricket club’s extremely hasty admitting cunning US campaigner | |
| MCCARTHY | MCC (cricket club) + H |
|
| 2 | Rally in park about beginning of year | |
| RECOVERY | REC (recreation ground – park) + OVER (about) + Y (first letter of Year) | |
| 3 | Rule book? | |
| ORDER | Double definition | |
| 5 | Promotion shown by stickers either side of vehicle | |
| ADVANCEMENT | AD and CEMENT (both examples of ‘stickers’) round VAN (vehicle) | |
| 6 | Soldiers, distressed, plunged in confusion | |
| TANGLED UP | TA (soldiers) + an anagram of PLUNGED – anagrind is ‘distressed’ | |
| 7 | No end of punch: drinking too much could make you this | |
| BLOTTO | BLO |
|
| 8 | Newfangled gadget with label on | |
| TAGGED | An anagram of GADGET – anagrind is ‘newfangled’ | |
| 12 | Conscious in accommodation near Scottish location, overlooking loch | |
| INTENTIONAL | IN + TENT (accommodation) + IONA (Scottish location) + L (loch) | |
| 15 | Island with noise and bustle? Several islands | |
| INDONESIA | I (island) + an anagram of NOISE AND – anagrind is ‘bustle’ | |
| 16 | Cricketer getting single in match? Most peculiar | |
| BATTIEST | BAT (cricketer) + I (single) in TEST (match) | |
| 17 | Town close to Folkestone in road near channel | |
| REDDITCH | E (last letter or ‘close’ of FolkestonE) in RD (road) + DITCH (channel) | |
| 19 | Homeless dogs beneath street lights | |
| STRAYS | ST (street) + RAYS (lights) | |
| 20 | Sausage provided by woman, Pierre’s friend | |
| SALAMI | SAL (woman) + AMI (French for ‘friend’) | |
| 23 | Name of female murder victim married earlier | |
| MABEL | ABEL (murder victim) with M (married) earlier | |
Thanks, both, especially for the link back to last week’s puzzle. I hadn’t read the last few comments, but now that I have I can appreciate what a clever construction it was – well done, Dac.
Must have been roughed up by last week’s, because it took me ages to get going with this one. But then with Dac’s puzzles, you look over it at the end and wonder why, because it’s all clearly clued if you go looking for the answers. WAIT-A-BIT was my only unknown today. No favourites: all good stuff.
Thanks Dac and Bertandjoice.
I found these clues had good surfaces after struggling recently, but MCCARTHY and REDDITCH had me stumped, thanks again B&J for the parsing. I did like ABJECT and BLOTTO.
An excellent Dac puzzle as ever. Count me as another who needed the wordplay for WAIT-A-BIT.
I began to wonder why I was not stumped by the WAIT-A-BIT plant when others were, so I googled.
Then it came back, Wait-a-Bit is a little town in Trelawny at the edge of the Cockpit country in Jamaica, it is named after the plant (I lived in Jamaica for 7 years). It is said the plant was brought to the island by African slaves who used it for hedging to keep out wild animals (hardly necessary in Jamaica, but they could have landed up somewhere else where it was!).
Ah, this is more like it! None of yesterday’s controversies.
I’d not heard of wait-a-bit, but did manage it and “blotto” from the excellent wordplay. And I was highly amused by the two different types of “stickers” in “advancement”.
This was relatively straightforward to solve but was still highly entertaining. Thanks!
Forgot to mention, the ‘tree’ is called WAIT-A-BIT since you have to take a little time to get the hooked prickles out of your skin or clothing.
4ac defeated me, too. I could see that the phrase WAIT A BIT fitted the available letters, but I couldn’t see what it had to do with the clue.
Wait a bit was one of the last in but back assembling helped get the others in the corner, cracking stuff as ever from the master. Thanks B&J for the usual tasty blog.
Rather disturbing that Dac considers nearly 14,000 to be “several” – unless he knows something we don’t and the vast majority of Indonesian islands have been spirited away!
Otherwise, typically crystal clear.
Thank you Dac