i Cryptic Crossword 2471 Dac
January 9, 2019
Dac’s back, coming as a bit of light relief after yesterday’s travails. Perhaps not as straightforward as he sometimes can be, but nevertheless eminently solvable and enjoyable throughout. It appears there was a bit of a cock-up back in the day with 5d, but that doesn’t affect us here in the on-line-less world of the i (how about giving us the real cryptic online, Mr Editor? 🙂 ) Elsewhere I didn’t know that BIS can mean twice though guessed it from BI and chucked a question mark beside it. Was also cheerfully ignorant of 25ac, a little unsure about NAT for nationalist, and as a consequence resorted to an ask the audience with Google. 6d was definitely one where a dictionary check was required – I had ARRAS at the back of my mind for some reason, probably getting it mixed up with something else, but there was always the sneaky possibility of an unchecked, alternative K.
Despite these mostly self-inflicted injuries, finish time about par for the i. One I suspect will have appealed to many more solvers than yesterday’s offering, though variety as they say is the spice of life.
COD? With much to appreciate, I particularly liked 3d – “Comic actor in extremely silly film (5)”.
To October 2014:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/10/01/independent-8725-by-dac/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Poor old Polonius got stabbed through the areas, didn’t he, but that Ibsen play is definitely not one of his better known ones. LOI was the actress though.
More smooth as silk excellence from Dac.
Bloomin’ predictive text again – arras!
I wouldn’t describe any Ibsen play as being well known in these parts, but there you go. 🙂
Ha!
In order I’d go : Hedda Gabler, Peer Gynn, A Doll’s House, The Wild Duck, The Master Builder, Ghosts. The rest you don’t need to bother about – except for today!
Peer Gynt – blast this new phone!
Very difficult to solve without a) a functioning pen, and b) my glasses. So much for the notion of amusing myself before an appointment with the optician. I’d have struggled in the time available anyway, because this seemed distinctly chewy for a Dac. Polonius to the rescue for 6d, and 25ac has come up within the last couple of months, surely? The Ibsen was news to me, too. The COD held out for quite a while but gave me a chuckle when the light dawned, and inevitably brought The Plank to mind.
A nice and enjoyable solve today. Struggled a bit with th SE corner: DEBONE eluded me, although It is fairly, indeed simply, clued, and I had to go to an online list of Ibsen plays to get BRAND. BISSET had me puzzled for a while, until I worked my way through the alphabet – fortunately B being at the beginning. Then I remembered BIS = TWICE from biscuit, clued I don’t know when…
Much more user friendly than yesterday’s though I needed a bit of help with 6dn and 18ac which was new to me.
Re 18ac, they make waterproof wrist watches I believe.
😁 very good
Was a blessed relief for me to get through one in more or less a single sitting. Just the Ibsen play that needed checking here.
A bit heavy on the proper names, which I thought some editors frowned on [?] – and some of which might baffle solvers under a particular age, but no probs here.