Sorry for the late, quick blog. Busy day! Nice puzzle as always from Dac, some of which I found a little tricky
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SPRY – [afte]R[noon] in SPY |
| 4 | SEAM BOWLER – “SEAM”,BOWLER |
| 9 | ROUND THE TWIST |
| 10 | CHEETAHS – CHE,(HATES)* |
| 11 | EXPAND – EXP,AND |
| 14 | CONGREVE – CON,GR,EVE – Poet and playwright William |
| 16 | PROCURED – PRO,CURED |
| 19 | LAUNCH – L,A,UN,CH |
| 21 | NONAGONS – SNOG ANON rev. – A lovely clue |
| 23 | OVERNIGHT CASE – (CONGREVE,HAS,IT)* |
| 24 | WELL-HEELED – WELL,”HEALED” |
| Down | |
| 2 | PURCHASER – PUR[-e],CHASER – Another excellent clue |
| 3 | YOU NEVER CAN TELL – A Chuck Berry song. And also a play by George Bernard Shaw |
| 4 | SUDRA – Hidden reversal is dockyARD USually |
| 5 | APHASIC – A[-l]PHA,SIC |
| 6 | BUTTERNUT – BUTTER,NUT |
| 7 | WHISPERING GRASS – (G GERSHWINS PARIS)* |
| 13 | PERCHANCE – PERCH + N in ACE |
| 15 | VOLUNTEER – (LOUT NEVER)* |
| 17 | DONEGAL – D,ONE,GAL |
| 20 | ADORE – “A DOOR” |
| 22 | NOTED – NO,TED |
I’m not quite sure I understood “round the twist”. Obviously, the definition is “crazy” and the twist is a dance, but I wasn’t sure how the “round the” bit was a song.
After my third scan of the dictionary, I noticed that a round can be a “canon sung in unison” and “the twist” must be the dance.
Thanks for the blog Ali. For 11a I put ‘expand’ without understanding the wordplay. I get the exp bit, but could anyone explain why principally = and? Also, from 19a, I’ve not come across ‘companion’ to denote ‘ch’ before – what’s the reasoning behind that?
NealH: did you never sing ‘London’s burning’ or ‘Frere Jacques’ as a ’round’?
Steve M: CH is an abbreviation for the title Companion of Honour and often features in crosswords
SteveM
‘Principally’ is an indicator that EXP (experience) is put before AND (‘with’ = ‘and’).
Eileen, Geoff – thanks both. That knocking you can hear is the sound of me kicking myself.
Yes, NONAGONS was great fun. And an excellent Dac puzzle as always.
I liked “goat’s head” for BUTTER+NUT.