i Cryptic Crossword 1825 Dac
December 14, 2016
A couple of new words (for me at least) today – 4ac and 21d – plus an obscure politician at 20ac (I’m afraid I’m too young to remember his disappearance) – but with Dac, as ever, everything’s clearly and fairly clued, so no complaints.
COD? Lots to like as ever, but I’ll go with 5d – ‘The way things go during court case is pitiful (5-7)’.
We’re still in the summer of 2012 over on the other side:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/07/18/independent-8037-dac/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Unfortunately I am old enough to remember 20a I also remember my Father buying a 3d which now means something completely different, a 3d picture. 4a and 21d were unknown to me also, my only tut was for describing 24a as a part of South Africa. Thought 6d,15d and 9a excellent.
Exceedingly quick today for some reason. I also remember the brouhaha about 20ac – a real cause celebre at the time – and growing up with something which was called a 3d, but wasn’t. It’s one of those days when we all liked different clues it seems: 8 and 9 for me.
Dac showing us how it’s done again – lovely stuff. I can remember 20a from my early teens – quite the cause celebre.
4a and 21d both completely unfamiliar until I’d worked them out from the wordplay, whereupon I managed to convince myself I’d known them all along.
20ac for me … within my lifetime but too early for me to recall directly. Thankfully the name WAS familiar enough to spring to mind once enough letters were in 🙂
Does raise the question of where the cutoff point should be (if there is one) for historical cultural references. Should today’s new-starter solvers be expected to know about 60s and 70s political stories and scandals?
Heath will reform government (9) :^P
Very good. Bit like a superior Countdown Conundrum 🙂
Re the cutoff point – Gawd only knows. I’ve just been reading a whole load of solvers over on Big Dave’s website hating an admirable clue which necessitated knowing that Gertrude Jekyll was a gardener… Because they’d never heard of her. Eesh!
Nicely done dtw42. 🙂
Moaning about Gertrude Jekyll, Cornick? Good grief – even I’ve heard of her.