Hello all. No prizes for guessing my favourite clue today. I also enjoyed the rest of the puzzle, particularly 4d and 18d. Thanks Alex!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 7a | Engineer can hide a country house in Spain (8) |
| HACIENDA — Make an anagram of (engineer) CAN HIDE A | |
| 8a | Ring Kitty returned (4) |
| LOOP — POOL (kitty – a pool of funds) reversed (returned) | |
| 9a | Select the French relish (6) |
| PICKLE — PICK (select) + LE (the, French) | |
| 10a | Lamp weighing relatively little (5) |
| LIGHT — Two definitions | |
| 11a | Regularly inserts trap (3) |
| NET — Every other letter of (regularly) iNsErTs | |
| 12a | Rank supervised detectives (6) |
| RANCID — RAN (supervised) CID (detectives) | |
| 14a | Regularly ahead of time by end of day (6) |
| YEARLY — EARLY (ahead of time) next to (by) the last letter of (end of) daY | |
| 16a | Fanatic to laze around (6) |
| ZEALOT — TO LAZE anagrammed (around) | |
| 18a | Detain trainee (6) |
| INTERN — A double definition | |
| 19a | Hear song of praise for that man (3) |
| HIM — You might hear the answer as HYMN (song of praise) | |
| 20a | Display on stone step (5) |
| STAIR — AIR (display) by (on) ST (stone) | |
| 21a | Quietly increase approval (6) |
| PRAISE — P (quietly) + RAISE (increase) | |
| 23a | Go by licence (4) |
| PASS — A double definition | |
| 24a | Nervous as second tyrant initially telephoned (6,2) |
| STRUNG UP — S (second) + Tyrant initially + RUNG UP (telephoned) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Banter is not good at home over time (8) |
| BADINAGE — BAD (not good) + IN (at home) above (over) AGE (time) | |
| 2d | Quirk of king with tattoo (4) |
| KINK — K (king) with INK (tattoo) | |
| 3d | Popular nurse is mean (6) |
| INTEND — IN (popular) + TEND (nurse) | |
| 4d | Imperfect university department’s caught out (6) |
| FAULTY — FA[c]ULTY (university department) has C (caught) absent (out) | |
| 5d | To draw attention to tirade is outrageous (8) |
| FLAGRANT — FLAG (to draw attention to) + RANT (tirade) | |
| 6d | Measure force returning as well (4) |
| FOOT — F (force) + reversal of (returning) TOO (as well) | |
| 13d | Failure as everyone gets upset in wood (8) |
| COLLAPSE — ALL (everyone) is reversed (gets upset) in COPSE (wood) | |
| 15d | Plant’s branch supporting bird (8) |
| LARKSPUR — SPUR (branch) underneath (supporting) LARK (bird) | |
| 17d | Push gist of argument (6) |
| THRUST — Two definitions | |
| 18d | Bring in setter’s drink (6) |
| IMPORT — I’M (setter’s – setter is) + PORT (drink) | |
| 20d | Drench small tree (4) |
| SOAK — S (small) + OAK (tree) | |
| 22d | Frequently visit topless relative (4) |
| AUNT — [h]AUNT (frequently visit) without the first letter (… topless) | |
Straight forward, enjoyable puzzle that we finished in 15.20. A few months ago were were beginning to think this was our new target until the run of toughies put paid to that idea!
Started with hacienda and badinage then pretty much worked anti-clockwise to finish with flagrant. Having seen the blog title for todays biggie might pop over there and have a go
Thanks Alex and Kitty
5.35
Nice puzzle with lots of smooth surfaces. Liked BADINAGE.
Thanks Kitty/Alex
8 minutes. No problems.
I can never see HACIENDA without being reminded of the opening spoken lines of a song made famous by Pat Boone in 1962. I hadn’t thought of it in years until the word ADOBE appeared in Friday’s 15×15:
It was a moonlit night in old Mexico
I walked alone between some old adobe haciendas.
Suddenly, I heard the plaintive cry of a young Mexican girl:
You better come home, Speedy Gonzales….
You brought back this memory for me!
Ah yes! “Rosita – down at the cantina they’re giving Green Stamps with tequila!”
The powers that be nowadays would soon “stamp” THAT out 😂
Speedy Gonzales was the first record I ever owned, and it still makes me happy after all these years 😅
A gentle top to bottom solve.
Only very minor issue I had was that I thought that the expression was STRUNG out but I see from Chambers that I was wrong, and the wordplay was clear.
Started with HACIENDA and finished with THRUST in 4.50.
Thanks to Kitty and Alex
Brisk!
No accurate time today as I put my phone down without pausing the app, but it felt fast-ish. I didn’t spot that 1a was an anagram, was trying to fit “a” into an engineer’s name for a while.
Thanks to Alex and Kitty.
Tealford maybe?
Nice puzzle. I had finished in 14 mins apart from 7a but a complete blind spot meant that it took me another 5 mins to see HACIENDA. What a nana! I can’t explain why.
Thanks to Alex and Kitty.
Tricky grid for me, since I am a self-confessed First Letter Junkie. Picked my way through for a bog standard 08:33. It took me an age to realise that HACIENDA was an anagram, not involving RE, and that LOI FLAGRANT really wasn’t an anagram of “tirade is” (which involved me triple checking all the crossing clues!).
Many thanks Kitty and Alex.
Took me a while too to see HACIENDA, focused on trying to work RE into an answer, but otherwise a nice Mondayish solve without getting within coffee range of the SCC.
Hopefully Alex is not too dejected by Kitty’s rejection! Thanks both for the entertainment.
Found the right hand side easier than the left – HACIENDA took some digging out – but both were friendly enough and led to an 8:15 finish. Very pleasant start to the week.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
strung up – hung up, going round in circles
strung out – not at the races, wasted
14 so a good start to the week
Gentle and nice Monday puzzle, 7:03.
thx Kitty and Alex
21:21 – average time for me for a steady solve with LARKSPUR my LOI. A neat puzzle.
A nice and enjoyable puzzle and a great way to start our hols, many thanks Alex & Kitty
And the big one today is very friendly to us mere mortals of the quickie.
All very fair, but the three I didn’t get were just a bit too far-fetched for me: KINK, NHO HACIENDA (though knowledge of Spain better than zero I had thought) or LARKSPUR – these plants!
Plants / bushes / herbs / flowers are always a struggle for me. The only reason I have heard of them is 20+ years of doing crosswords. Consequently, larkspur (no idea what it looks / smells / tastes / feels like) came quite easily for me.
LARKSPUR won the Derby in 1962. Honestly, us gamblers…..
I found several clues a bit of a struggle – yearly, pass, light, flagrant – only then to wonder why they’d taken me so long as they were perfectly fair and suitably deceptive. No complaints – a good puzzle. 12:02.
For 7ac, as soon as I read it I thought HACIENDA, but couldn’t see why (?!) Of course I thought HACIENDA straight away, I was at university in Manchester in the early 1990s. Then I completed the rest of the puzzle in about 8 minutes and still couldn’t get 7ac, despite all the checkers. After thinking about it for another 5 minutes I finally realised that “engineer” was not one of the usual abbreviations, none of which I could make fit, but maybe an anagrind, and the checkers, hitherto not really considered, and “can hide a”, were all telling me it had to be HACIENDA. D’oh! Sometimes you just can’t see the copse for the oaks…
Ho ho! Copse/oaks.
If you had been at Manchester U in the ’80s you might have come across a club in Deansgate called ‘Badinage’!
HACIENDA – a nicely concealed anagram which I didn’t spot until afterwards!
A lovely QC. Perhaps under 30 mins but I forgot to close the app when I was doing other things.
Some clues tested me, but the PDMs made the struggle more than worthwhile.
I know some here like the harder QC, but this standard suits me. Enough to stretch me, but still enjoyable.
Many thanks Alex and Kitty.
( Sorry to hear about your relationship problems in 8ac 😹)
A gentle run through in 17 minutes, although it seemed faster because there were no real hold-ups. Everything parsed as I went along.
FOI – 9ac PICKLE
LOI – 22dn AUNT
COD- 4dn FAULTY
Thanks to Alex and Kitty.
13:54. LOI STRUNG UP, was not familiar with this phrase.
Like many I thought HACIENDA was going to be RE + VILLA. Wouldn’t have thought of BADINAGE but we had in in a puzzle a few months back.
Alex caused me a few problems today but, after a fast start, I was home in 14 minutes. Tough grid for me.
LOI HACIENDA where I missed the anagram indicator and looked for RE … for too long, and then a Brunel type of guy, not Pat Boone!
COD to FAULTY.
Nice puzzle.
David
All green in 13:45. This feels slow for what was a pretty benign and enjoyable offering from Alex. Like many of the rest of you I unfathomably took an age to spot HACIENDA slightly unforgiveable as a a New Order completist and occasional attendee of nightclub of the same name. Thanks for blog Kitty.
A gentle start to the week. From HACIENDA to LARKSPUR in 5:32. Thanks Alex and Kitty.
Relatively straightforward today although I did spend the best part of a minute on my LOI KINK, where I originally thought King was accounted for by the final letter K, and of course it was the first. Elsewhere nothing too taxing, and I crossed the line in 8.02.
If there is one thing worse than struggling to solve a QC, it’s then reading how easy everyone else found it. Really not at the races this morning, with my last pair, the Flagrant Loop, twisting the knife for a 30min solve. Invariant
Don’t worry Invariant – I managed to balls it up.
I had the same experience last week. You’re in good company.
maybe that’s why…?
Something about that felt really odd, but I’m not sure what it was – I think that perhaps Alex and I are not so much on different wavelengths as in different universes. Anyway, despite my discombobulation (which I cheerfully accept is my problem and no criticism of Alex) I enjoyed it and polished it off in 14:51.
Thank you for the blog!
Quite slow today, not helped by the portcullis grid and not thinking of Hacienda for ages. The word was sitting there just out of reach, and laughing at me. I hadn’t identified the anagrind so “can hide a” just looked like words.
Thanks Kitty & Alex, no longer an item after 8a.
Dnf…
For some reason I struggled on 20ac “Stair” (putting “Space”) and 17dn “Thrust” (putting Theism) – the latter didn’t really parse, but I was struggling to see what else it could be at the time.
The rest was fairly gently and, apart from the errors, filled the grid in 20 mins.
Had a feeling Kitty would enjoy 8ac “Loop” which also took longer than it should have.
FOI – 2dn “Kink”
LOI – 17dn “Theism” (incorrect)
COD – 7ac “Hacienda” – happy times…
Thanks as usual!
Dotted about all over the grid this morning but did finish all correct in just about usual ‘one coffee time’. Inexplicably held up by STAIR and IMPORT. Wasn’t entirely convinced by STRUNG UP, but it did parse so I left it in (more used to strung out). COD FLAGRANT 😆 Didn’t parse FACULTY (doh – thanks kitty). Thanks Alex.
Hopefully HACIENDA the run of difficult Monday quickies (I’m trying for the Dodgy Homophone of the Year Award).
A nice puzzle that didn’t hold me up for long – thanks Alex and Kitty.
FOI HACIENDA
LOI LARKSPUR
COD KINK
TIME 3:50
See what you did there 😆
😂 I think your dodgy homophone is bordering on a heterophone! Funny though.
¡Olé!
Having considered Hoop for 8a I did wonder if Winnie the Pooh had been a cat but thought a bit harder and Loop came to mind. Nice clue.
Very happy with this QC for a Monday. Just the right level of difficulty.
Thanks Alex and Kitty. Nice to see you get a mention.
4:45. Held up for a while by my LOI SOAK needing an alphabet trawl to see the tree. otherwise a gentle start to the week.
Thanks Alex and Kitty.
45 minutes. Some problems.
A bit of hopping and skipping around the grid but no particular challenges. LOI AUNT which for some reason required an alphabet trawl to drop out H. Plenty of sun here in Florida for R&R for revitalising body and spirit on sea and Green.
Thanks Kitty and Alex
I came up with a fine wrong answer – etna instead of loop. I thought that was a bit tricky for a Quickie, so didn’t completely trust it. As I did the puzzle, it became apparent it was wrong, and the right answer still appeared. I was also afraid of some obscure engineer until I saw the anagram.
But as I solved, I sped up, and biffed more than a few.
Time: 6:11.
6.26. LOI was STAIR and was also held up by THRUST and STRUNG UP after a fast start. Thanks to Alex and Kitty.
Not sure why, but I had real trouble getting started today. I know the speed merchants among us move on in a flash during their first pass if a solution doesn’t immediately come to them, but I prefer to give each clue some thought (maybe 30s?) before doing so. My first pass therefore typically takes 12-13 minutes and by that time today I had just four solutions written in – NET, HIM, PRAISE and SOAK. Precious little to work from then as I embarked on my second circuit. Actually, I notice that at least 13 contributors above had already finished by then and several more very nearly had.
Fortunately, however, my second pass proved more productive. I worked my way up from the bottom and, bit by bit, the grid started to fill up.
No idea where HACIENDA came from, as I DNK what it meant and I hadn’t clocked it as an anagram when it occurred to me. BADINAGE was also a DNK, even though I knew I’d seen it here before, but I did at least parse the clue to get there.
In the end, I finished (much relieved) in something around 37-38 minutes. So, quite a challenge, but not ridiculously so.
Many thanks to Kitty and Alex.
I do exactly the same Mr R, and it does make for a lovely leisurely solve as you appreciate each clue fully before moving on 😃
Indeed!
6:38
FOI and COD HACIENDA. Slowed down by STAIR and LOI PRAISE.
Nice puzzle, thanks Alex and Kitty.
9:58 Everything fit together nicely.
Another one where we should have been happy enough with our 10:30 but it felt like we made heavy weather of a very small handful of clues, especially LOI STAIR where I still struggle with ‘x’ on ‘y’ means that y comes before x in an across clue. Consequently, even with checkers in place, I find it difficult to see the solution easily. Good puzzle though. Thanks, Kitty and Alex.
5:55
No horses worried. LOI KINK took a few moments to bubble to the surface though.
Thanks Kitty and Alex
Like many, I should have spotted HACIENDA sooner. As a lover of Hacienda Monasterio, it should not have been my LOI in 15 minutes
21:57
Well, the easy ones were easy enough. However, NHO BADINAGE or LARKSPUR so they required piecing together from the wordplay. LOI KINK.
12m
6m on the clock. Then got stuck on intern, larkspur, kink, and LOI Hacienda.
I also went to the Hacienda at Uni , only once and it closed soon after.
COD Hacienda.
Enjoyable puzzle, slow start but picked up speed. s.ow to see loi 6d foot.
14.23 Just slow today, especially KINK and LOI HACIENDA. Thanks Kitty and Alex.
Think I finished this in just over 20 mins. A puzzle of 2 halves for me. With some quick write ins and some painfully slow solves in the grids top half. Pleased to have solved and parsed all. Thanks Alex and Kitty
Are we seeing week 2 of the Return of the User-Friendly Crossword? It seems like it 😊 I liked this neat puzzle – lots of nice surfaces despite their brevity. RANCID got a smile, LARKSPUR got a tick, and LOOP was a good one too. No biffing, all parsed in 6:01, although I wasn’t 100% sure about STRUNG UP.
FOI Ring LOI Larkspur COD Faulty
Many thanks Alex and Kitty
BTW Even if you don’t usually do the biggie, check out 10a ‘ What could be DC Andy Walterson’s workplace?’ (3,8,4) – an absolutely terrific clue IMO!
No problems today. A nice relaxed solve over my Costa.
FOI 9a Pickle
LOI 8a Loop
COD 15d Larkspur – simply because I do badly on plants but saw this quickly.
Thanks both!
6:08 for the solve. Lots going in on first read and with the second runthrough I spent 30secs on HACIENDA and then another 30secs at the end on LARKSPUR which came up in an Orpheus puzzle at the beginning of 2024 clued Birds sound contented mostly, finding flowering plant (8) unfortunately we had different checkers then and I went for the hawkspur.
But back to today where it was all done and dusted for what I believe is my third fastest solve ever. March coming in at 24/26 solves – 6 sub 10s but also 6 over 30mins whereas I only had two of those across Jan/Feb and my mean average time for March was just over 20mins. Median for the YTD currently at 15:44 with 66/77 solves (86%) and 51 escapes.
Thanks to Kitty and Alex.
👏👏👏
Great time!