DA Gold is back because there were a couple of clues that I thought exemplars of their kind.
17 down: Result in RAAF term at Holbrook (9)
I think this might have to go down as the greatest hidden word clue I’ve done. For those that aren’t aware, there’s a submarine museum at Holbrook, and the combination of RAAF and submarine had my mind wandering back and forth along military byways for a long while before the sudden flash of insight: in RAAF term at Holbrook = aftermath = result.
Has there ever been a more superbly hidden word than that? And across four separate words?
17 across: He had to 15-down (RAISE CAIN) with a Mum! (4)
The &lit is exceptionally neat and clever on its own, but in combination with the cross reference, which made an otherwise simple clue a little more difficult, it’s truly a work of genius (although the capital M in Mum is peculiar).
The reasoning: he had to raise cain = Adam = a dam = a mum = he had to raise Cain with a Mum.
Also, A DAM = a mother.
Holbrook had me wondering becuase I know it’s in the middle of nowhere but did’nt know there’s some museum there. Really, he could have chosen anywhere starting with ‘H’.
I liked both but opine that only 17D would qualify as GOLD.
Oops, didn’t make A DAM explicit. Done.
But the Holbrook location was a great choice because of the submarine museum. It had me thinking of terms relating to the army because of the RAAF business and was a spectacularly good red herring.
I suppose the only better location might have been something like Heathrow instead of Holbrook, which would have combined with the RAAF nicely indeed.
It strikes me Holbrook is a silly place to use. To my knowledge, a sub has never been part of an airforce although the silhouette of a dirigible may give that impression.
Would have been better to use “Hunter Region”. http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11157.asp
I agree with 17d, as the only thing anyone knows about Holbrook is that there is a submarine there. I happily put in SUBMARINE, also 9 letters, and almost all those letters are in the clue. Only later did I realise I was wrong. Gold indeed.
17a. Mmmyeeah, didnt think it was worthy of gold.
17 D Fortunately didn’t know about Holbrook – except for Holbrook’s sauce. Saw the result. I wonder how we’d go without google. Probably get to the solution a lot faster – but without the interesting detours.
17 A The capital M should be there – to indicate a mother. Don’t think he raised cain with his mother, but with his brother. Great clue.
spotted the hidden word in 17D almost straight away, one of the first clues I managed to get out last week. I’d presumed Holbrook was an air base, didn’t bother to google it. Did like the clue though, not often you see a hidden word going over more than two words.