Times Quick Cryptic 2782 by Izetti

Hello everybody.  This felt a little tricky for a quickie: although it didn’t last much longer than usual, certainly no Monday picnic.  (Cue lots of reports of scorching times!)  I was surprised to see who the setter was as it didn’t feel quite up to his usual quality.  Still enjoyable though – thanks Izetti.

Times Cryptic No 29021 — Lift and separate

DNF. I think a lot of the wordplay here was quite tricky (more lifting and separating than you might find in a pilates class), but I fairly raced through this one until I got to the upper-left corner. After 15 minutes of beard-scratching, I still wasn’t able to get 1 Across or Down, so I threw in the towel.