Independent 6816/Dac
Posted by neildubya on August 20th, 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BE in (ANIMAL)* - LIMA BEAN. |
| 10 | MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD - I can’t decide if this is a cryptic definition or if there’s some aspect of the wordplay that I’m missing because I can’t work out what “long before that” might mean. |
| 11 | OZ in ALE,LIME (all reversed) - EMILE ZOLA was the first French writer to spring to mind, which was then confirmed by “Australia” (OZ) in the wordplay. |
| 12 | COMBS - I used Reveal to confirm this as I can’t find COMBS for “old-fashioned underwear” in either of the dictionaries I have access to. I expect it’s in the Big C. |
| 13 | PHRASE - sounds like “frays”. |
| 15 | EP(I)TOME |
| 19 | BEET,ON - a reference to Mrs Beeton, author of the Book of Household Management. |
| 21 | hidden in “chAP PLEasure” - I liked “a small portion will do” as the indicator. |
| 26 | N,(MEASLES)* - I have to say that it surprised me that NAMELESS could mean “too horrific to be described”. Seems like an odd meaning for such an innocuous word. |
| Down | |
| 1 | L,UMBER |
| 2 | MIDNIGHT EXPRESS - the film directed by Alan Parker. “Sleeper” is a reference to sleeper trains, of which the midnight express might be one. |
| 6 | IMP,ACTIVE |
| 7 | T in (SOME COAL)*,(MOVE IT)* - STEAM LOCOMOTIVE. Cleverly done; I guess this must be an &lit as there isn’t a direct definition in the clue. |
| 8 | OD-[d] in (ITEMS)* - MODISTES was new to me but not too tricky to get from the wordplay. |
| 9 | DEB,AT,E - “treat” can mean to negotiate with someone to settle a dispute so I guess that could be the same as DEBATE? |
| 14 | GAME,M in ANON |
| 16 | SAS in (TRIED)* - DISASTER. |
| 19 | BUSH TEA[-m] |
| 20 | AMI,[-l]ENS |
| 23 | hidden in “BrowNIE CEremony”. |
August 20th, 2008 at 11:42 am
10a MIDDLE AGES (medieval period) PRE AD (a time long before the middle ages)
August 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am
COMBS is short for combinations, large one-piece garment of yore.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
We sometimes speak of nameless fears, don’t we?
August 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
2D: Sleeper is also a Woody Allen film of the 1970s.
I thought this was very good and wondered why I’d never seen the Beeton clue before - it seems so obvious.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Peter I think that’s what’s so brilliant about Dac: his clues are simple and seem easily created, but at the same time they’re original.
I thought 7dn and 8dn were quite magnificent.