10 across: Hawk or Magpie spun ball’s outside point to control ball… (askance) (7)
To control ball = dribble, but nothing else makes sense.
6 across: Revolutionary ran to embrace one Zeno disciple (5)
One Zeno disciple = stoic, or, more likely, Zeno disciple = stoic. The rest, though?
8 down: Twisted bachelor-ess action sequence in The Dish?
The Dish = casserole, and bachelor-ess without the b and h is an anagram of casserole, but how that all works is beyond me.
4 down: They are common students, wearing beanies (9)
Wearing beanies = ebeians, which leaves students = pl so that students, wearing beanies = plebeians = they are common, but why does students = pl?
22 across: In Sydney, train horse to drop tail after smack (7)
Google tells me that a tangara is a type of train used in Sydney (this should technically be a DA Teaching, but I don’t find it interesting enough to bother reporting), which makes In Sydney, train = tangara. Everything else, however, I can’t work out (although mustang = horse could have something to do with the explanation).
13 down: It is crazy, perhaps, for desktop to be clean (9)
To be clean = sanitised, but I can’t quite make out the rest.
With the help of AJ again this week, we were able to get it all out bar 6 across, 7 down, 8 down and 22 across.
I can’t believe we didn’t get 7 down: Uncapped elixir for ears, containing a lot of salt. Elixir = potion, uncapped elixir = uncapped potion = otion. Ears = sounds-like indicator. Hence otion = OCEAN = containing a lot of salt. Grrr.
10 across: Hawk or Magpie spun ball’s outside point to control ball… (askance) (7). Hawk or Magpie = bird; bird spun = drib; ball’s outside = bl; point (of compass) = E. Hence, drib bl E = DRIBBLE = to control ball (as in soccer, or football if you will).
4 down: pl = P- or L-platers = learner drivers = students
No ideas about the others. Suggestions welcome.
My suggestion for 13 down: It is crazy, perhaps, for desktop to be clean (9)
It is = itis; crazy = insane. It is crazy = itis insane = itis IN sane (where IN is the containment indicator) = san itis e; desktop = d. Hence san itis e d = SANITISED = to be clean.
re 22 across: This one is a bit Sydneycentric, but I think it goes like this:
horse = Arab(breed of horse) to drop tail “b” gives “ara”.Tang is another word for “smack” as in “this smacks of trickery”.Hence tang followed by ara gives Tangara.
re 8 down: this is a regular “twister” or reversal that DA regularly throws in to jerk your brain around and can be found in “bachELOR -ESSACtion. Turn round the capitals and you get “casserole”.
I can’t believe I missed CASSEROLE!
I’ve been foiled by those clues three weeks in a row!
13 down is super nasty. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clue like that where the synonym becomes an instruction for wordplay.
Thanks for the info everyone.
As for 6 across, Castro = Revolutionary might be a possibility given that Castro contains all the letters from STOIC except for the I.
re 6 across: AS, I have been cudgelling my alleged brain for days over this one. It’s interesting that I went down the revolutionary i.e.Castro route , some letters seemed to correspond. But no. After a somewhat sleepless night ( I’m not really a DA tragic) I had a eureka moment. Revolutionary seemed to me to be the cue instruction for an anagram. It all comes down to “ran to” which expression is quite often used in such phrases as: “Oh the amount I had to pay for renovations ran to thousands of dollars” In other words “ran to ” is a synonym for “cost” . So , anagram of “cost” gives “stoc” embracing “i” gives stoic. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it . ( Would love to know DA’s thoughts) He really is a legend.
I am convinced Andy.
I was on the same track, trying to think of which synonym for ran could be the anagram fodder. I didn’t think of ran to = cost. Brilliant!
Now if you would like to turn your mind to 22nd August
1 across: Before circling in, produces contraceptive (3, 4), answer = THE PILL, you would do us all a great service.
re 22nd August 1 across:
I think DA was really pushing the boundaries with this one as it involves three steps for each component of the solution , so if you’ll bear with me…….
(by the way , the dictionary confirms both definitions), anyway it goes like this:
BEFORE= UNTIL= TILL ( as in time or event) “until you change , I can’t go out”. Then IN or TRENDY= HIP = HEP(alternative spelling).So we get TILL circling HEP gives THE PILL .Phew! It’s actually a beautifully concise clue but very tricky. Is this DA gold , nastiness or maybe DA’s three degrees of separation?
P.S. I can understand why some cryptos refuse to walk down DA’s street.
Awesome explanation, Andy.
That one has been bugging my subconscious for ages. It’s so good to have it put to bed. What do you think, AS? I can see Andy is going to be our go to man in future for DA confusions, when all else fails.
Damn, that’s awesome.
Andy is officially the go-to man.
Personally, I’d like to see Andy go up against the cryptic crossword champion, Peter Biddlecombe. http://anagrammatically.com/cryptic/2008/05/25/a-23rd-of-may-perplexity/#comments