A few weeks ago someone commented on the relative rarity of the two Dons meeting but here it is happening again. An enjoyable puzzle that once again largely eschewed the use of the anagram QC staple, with only one full anagram clue and two others I think in which anagrams make a contribution. Many thanks to Izetti.
FOI was 1A and I think LOI was 11D. I’ll also give that the COD award because the WAR bit tends to misdirect by confusing the parsing at first glance (to the lazy eye WAR may look as though it could be ‘dispute’ before you notice the ROW), although in practice it is quite biffable as soon as you see the month of JAN.
Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it is as simply as I can.
| Across | |
| 1 | One being given sustenance by another (8) |
| CANNIBAL – cryptic definition. A CANNIBAL eats ‘another’ and therefore derives sustenance from them. | |
| 6 | Some music, a feature in place of refreshment (4) |
| CAFE – hidden word: ‘some’ musiC A FEature. | |
| 8 | Senseless maiden in retro hairstyle (4) |
| NUMB – a BUN is a hairstyle, and if it is ‘retro’ then we need to write it backwards: NUB. Insert M for maiden and you get comfortably NUMB for all you Pink Floyd 22As. | |
| 9 | Criminal venture to achieve mastery (8) |
| CONQUEST – CON (criminal, short for ‘CONVICT’) + QUEST (venture). | |
| 10 | Meant to have eaten outside — is in France stuck inside (8) |
| DESTINED – I don’t know, is there any rule against cluing part of an answer twice? It seems to me here that the definition is ‘meant to have’. Then we have DINED (eaten) ‘outside’ EST (French for ‘is’, i.e. ‘is in France’). But then we also have ‘stuck inside’, i.e. DINED with EST (‘is in France’) ‘stuck inside’. So both of those lead to the answer but one is superfluous. | |
| 12 | Dog beginning to twitch and be ill (4) |
| TAIL – T (‘beginning to’ Twitch) + AIL (be ill). Dog here is of course a verb, as in ‘to dog one’s footsteps’. | |
| 13 | Company car once made by Ford (6) |
| ESCORT – double definition. | |
| 16 | Choose out-of-this-world person to encourage workers to strike (6) |
| PICKET – PICK (choose) + ET (extra-terrestrial: ‘out-of-this-world person’). | |
| 17 | Droop when encountering a lengthy account (4) |
| SAGA – SAG (droop) + A. | |
| 18 | Poetry with awful lines entertaining everyone (8) |
| BALLADRY – BAD (awful) + RY (railway, therefore ‘lines’) ‘entertaining’ ALL (everyone). | |
| 21 | Owls flying towards county lose speed (4,4) |
| SLOW DOWN – anagram of OWLS (‘flying’) = SLOW + DOWN (county in Northern Ireland). | |
| 22 | Expert‘s device for adding polish (4) |
| BUFF – double definition. | |
| 23 | In gale we rescue vessel (4) |
| EWER – hidden word: ‘in’ galE WE Rescue. | |
| 24 | Place for waiter bringing thick slice of bread (8) |
| DOORSTEP – double definition, the first one being slightly cryptic as people often have to wait on doorsteps until someone answers the doorbell. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Article pretty sharp-witted? (5) |
| ACUTE – A (indefinite article) + CUTE (pretty). | |
| 3 | Good Parisian, upwardly mobile bigwig (3) |
| NOB – BON (French, therefore Parisian, for ‘good’) ‘upwardly mobile’ (i.e. reversed in this down clue). | |
| 4 | What may be brought home by the successful artist (5) |
| BACON – double definition &lit. BACON may be brought home (as in ‘bringing home the bacon’), and Francis BACON was a successful artist. But of course, if an artist is successful then he or she may well be bringing home the bacon which is what the whole clue suggests. | |
| 5 | Impertinence involving naughty nude in a row (5,2) |
| LINED UP – LIP (impertinence) involving an anagram (‘naughty’) of NUDE. | |
| 6 | “Crabby” types making a living, excellent actors originally (9) |
| CRUSTACEA – CRUST (a living) + ACE (excellent) + A (Actors ‘originally’). | |
| 7 | Money paid to secure very good person, one very merry (7) |
| FESTIVE – FEE (money paid) ‘securing’ ST (saint, very good person) + I (one) + V (very). | |
| 11 | Month in dispute — something black about that old conflict (6,3) |
| TROJAN WAR – JAN (month) ‘in’ ROW (dispute) with TAR (something black) ‘about’. | |
| 14 | Believe what could be a sign of summer coming? (7) |
| SWALLOW – the saying ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ implies that a number of swallows may make a summer. So one single swallow ‘could be’ a sign of summer if followed by others. | |
| 15 | Paper a bit “old”, in need of redesign (7) |
| TABLOID – straight anagram (‘in need of redesign’) of A BIT OLD. The first and only full anagram clue today. | |
| 19 | Slow time of abstinence before Easter egg (5) |
| LENTO – LENT (time of abstinence) before O (Easter egg). It is an occasional device in crosswords to clue something by the shape of letters although I must admit it jars a little bit with me. So here O ‘looks like’ an egg. Sometimes you get OO clued by ‘a pair of spectacles’. I think I have also seen J clued as a hook. You get the idea. But I suppose I shouldn’t complain. I mean there isn’t really much difference between letters ‘looking like’ something and dodgy homophones ‘sounding like’ something (and sometimes not all that much). Anyway, they do happen and just thought I’d mention it being aware of the ‘educational’ aspect of the Quickie. Also lento is one of those musical directions that appear on sheet music and which come up from time to time (I remember a few weeks ago an anonymous contributor having a problem with ff for ‘very loud’ (fortissimo) so again I thought it worth mentioning). | |
| 20 | Front bit missing from toy weapon (5) |
| RIFLE – take the ‘front bit’ from tRIFLE (toy). | |
| 22 | Vehicle has creepy-crawlies — not good! (3) |
| BUS – BUGS are creepy-crawlies, and ‘not good’ tells us to take out the G to leave BUS. | |
FOI 6A
LOI 6D
COD 13
Place for waiter = DOORSTEP was a bit of a MER TBH. Otherwise a totally challenging and interesting puzzle.
Thanks to the two dons!