Welcome, this is my first ever blog. All comments and feedback appreciated. Slightly harder than an average QC, I felt (notwithstanding struggling with technology), came in at eleven minutes. Some super clues (8ac, 23ac, 1d), just possibly too many anagrams with obvious indicators. Really enjoyable to be blogging.
Across
1 It’s a risk to display this traditional dress (4)
SARI – It’(S A RI) sk – answer contained in clue.
3 End spoof, badly spoiled (5-3)
SPOON-FED – Anagram (badly) of ‘End spoof’, meaning spoiled. Liked this as I think spoon-feeding is very bad education indeed.
8 Seeing red globe and one short cane (9)
BALLISTIC – as in the phrase ‘going ballistic’ rather than the literal meaning. BALL (globe) + 1 + STIC (shortened STICK). This was my LOI (last one in) as I was thinking the definition was ‘cane’.
10 We’re told to make a brewing vessel (3)
URN – Homophone (we’re told) of ‘earn’, meaning ‘make’, as in the Americanism ‘how much do you make?’ Slightly unsatisfactory, I felt, the ‘to’ being redundant/confusing.
11 Ordinary university in America — large (5) o
USUAL – U (university) in USA – L (large), meaning ordinary.
12 Irritation of church met with a smile (7)
CHAGRIN – CH (church) + A GRIN, meaning irritation.
13 Denied in favour of evil European (7)
FORBADE – FOR (in favour) + BAD (evil) + E (European, very common in crosswords), meaning denied.
18 Supply more weapons to back leader of militia (5)
REARM – ‘supply more weapons to’ – REAR (back) + M (leader of militia)
19 Bother: our belt is ruined! (7)
TROUBLE – anagram of ‘our belt’, meaning bother.
20 Ape is only, strangely, seen in Pacific islands (9)
POLYNESIA – Pacific islands, anagram (strangely) of ‘Ape is only’
22 Alternatively keeping a blade dipped in water (3)
OAR – OR (alternatively) keeping A, meaning ‘blade dipped in water’
23 Clothes: they’re pants? (4)
DUDS – Duds, meaning clothes, not heard this for years, and ‘pants’ in the sense of no good, just like DUDS, things that fail to work properly.
24 Like aircraft meal or magazine at home — form of escape (2-6)
IN-FLIGHT – IN meaning at home, FLIGHT a form of escape. Ghastly meals and dull magazines in my limited experience. Nice double definition since they do provide a distraction from toilet queues, cramped legs and bad thoughts….
Down
1 Make quiet reminder to pay membership fee? (6)
SUBDUE – ‘make quiet’ is the definition, SUB (subscription/membership fee) + DUE, SUB DUE being a message you might receive, although some societies put up lists of late paying members. My COD (clue of the day).
2 Show handmade cigarette (4-2)
ROLL-UP – although the answer is obvious from the definition, the parsing is not. It’s true that ‘roll up, roll up’ is the cry used to attract people to shows, and that if you attend, you do roll up. ‘Show’ here is short for ‘show up’, or perhaps somehow connected to the noun phrase ‘no-show’. Comments welcome.
4 Mine is advice you should send back! (3)
PIT – TIP (advice) backwards
5 A single showing of U-rated film is thus put on finally? (4,3,3,3)
ONCE AND FOR ALL – ONCE (a single showing) + FOR ALL (U for Universal, or Suitable for all in the British film classification)
6 Like warm coat covering top of leg in sudden snowfall (6)
FLURRY – ‘Like warm coat’ (FURRY) covering/containing L (top of leg, this is a down clue – if a n across clue might say ‘front of leg’ or suchlike).
7 Row One — no good for eating (6)
DINING – DIN (row) + I (one) + NG (no good)
9 Extraordinary if no males here? (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN – Anagram (extraordinary) of IF NO MALES
12 Measure once requiring copper coin (5)
CUBIT – the distance from the tip of the elbow to the tip of the middle finger in the olden days, used as a unit of length in e.g. the Bible. Leads to all sorts of problems with people using their own cubit, so the Egyptians got round this with the ‘royal cubit’ at a fixed length. This fixation of measure has been important for thousands of years – many marketplaces, and Greenwich observatory, provide plaques or models of the lengths and what they should be.
14 Nearly fall — after rising, do stand (6)
TRIPOD – TRIP for ‘nearly fall’ (not quite satisfactory) + OD (do after rising)
15 Friend with cover for pasty (6)
PALLID – PAL (friend) + LID (cover), meaning pasty, whitish, pale, rather than the foodstuff – nice distraction
16 Shape of outside broadcast extended (6)
OBLONG – OB (outside broadcast abbreviation) + LONG (extended), meaning shape. Not a mathematical word.
17 City brute I put right (6)
BEIRUT – anagram (put right) of ‘brute I’.
21 Wrong trig function (3)
SIN – equating the wrong (sin) with the trigonometric function sine, abbreviated to sin. (Like 16d, this slightly upsets my mathematically rigorous approach, as evidenced by generations of schoolchildren pronouncing the function incorrectly).
Across
1 It’s a risk to display this traditional dress (4)
SARI – It’(S A RI) sk – answer contained in clue.
3 End spoof, badly spoiled (5-3)
SPOON-FED – Anagram (badly) of ‘End spoof’, meaning spoiled. Liked this as I think spoon-feeding is very bad education indeed.
8 Seeing red globe and one short cane (9)
BALLISTIC – as in the phrase ‘going ballistic’ rather than the literal meaning. BALL (globe) + 1 + STIC (shortened STICK). This was my LOI (last one in) as I was thinking the definition was ‘cane’.
10 We’re told to make a brewing vessel (3)
URN – Homophone (we’re told) of ‘earn’, meaning ‘make’, as in the Americanism ‘how much do you make?’ Slightly unsatisfactory, I felt, the ‘to’ being redundant/confusing.
11 Ordinary university in America — large (5) o
USUAL – U (university) in USA – L (large), meaning ordinary.
12 Irritation of church met with a smile (7)
CHAGRIN – CH (church) + A GRIN, meaning irritation.
13 Denied in favour of evil European (7)
FORBADE – FOR (in favour) + BAD (evil) + E (European, very common in crosswords), meaning denied.
18 Supply more weapons to back leader of militia (5)
REARM – ‘supply more weapons to’ – REAR (back) + M (leader of militia)
19 Bother: our belt is ruined! (7)
TROUBLE – anagram of ‘our belt’, meaning bother.
20 Ape is only, strangely, seen in Pacific islands (9)
POLYNESIA – Pacific islands, anagram (strangely) of ‘Ape is only’
22 Alternatively keeping a blade dipped in water (3)
OAR – OR (alternatively) keeping A, meaning ‘blade dipped in water’
23 Clothes: they’re pants? (4)
DUDS – Duds, meaning clothes, not heard this for years, and ‘pants’ in the sense of no good, just like DUDS, things that fail to work properly.
24 Like aircraft meal or magazine at home — form of escape (2-6)
IN-FLIGHT – IN meaning at home, FLIGHT a form of escape. Ghastly meals and dull magazines in my limited experience. Nice double definition since they do provide a distraction from toilet queues, cramped legs and bad thoughts….
Down
1 Make quiet reminder to pay membership fee? (6)
SUBDUE – ‘make quiet’ is the definition, SUB (subscription/membership fee) + DUE, SUB DUE being a message you might receive, although some societies put up lists of late paying members. My COD (clue of the day).
2 Show handmade cigarette (4-2)
ROLL-UP – although the answer is obvious from the definition, the parsing is not. It’s true that ‘roll up, roll up’ is the cry used to attract people to shows, and that if you attend, you do roll up. ‘Show’ here is short for ‘show up’, or perhaps somehow connected to the noun phrase ‘no-show’. Comments welcome.
4 Mine is advice you should send back! (3)
PIT – TIP (advice) backwards
5 A single showing of U-rated film is thus put on finally? (4,3,3,3)
ONCE AND FOR ALL – ONCE (a single showing) + FOR ALL (U for Universal, or Suitable for all in the British film classification)
6 Like warm coat covering top of leg in sudden snowfall (6)
FLURRY – ‘Like warm coat’ (FURRY) covering/containing L (top of leg, this is a down clue – if a n across clue might say ‘front of leg’ or suchlike).
7 Row One — no good for eating (6)
DINING – DIN (row) + I (one) + NG (no good)
9 Extraordinary if no males here? (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN – Anagram (extraordinary) of IF NO MALES
12 Measure once requiring copper coin (5)
CUBIT – the distance from the tip of the elbow to the tip of the middle finger in the olden days, used as a unit of length in e.g. the Bible. Leads to all sorts of problems with people using their own cubit, so the Egyptians got round this with the ‘royal cubit’ at a fixed length. This fixation of measure has been important for thousands of years – many marketplaces, and Greenwich observatory, provide plaques or models of the lengths and what they should be.
14 Nearly fall — after rising, do stand (6)
TRIPOD – TRIP for ‘nearly fall’ (not quite satisfactory) + OD (do after rising)
15 Friend with cover for pasty (6)
PALLID – PAL (friend) + LID (cover), meaning pasty, whitish, pale, rather than the foodstuff – nice distraction
16 Shape of outside broadcast extended (6)
OBLONG – OB (outside broadcast abbreviation) + LONG (extended), meaning shape. Not a mathematical word.
17 City brute I put right (6)
BEIRUT – anagram (put right) of ‘brute I’.
21 Wrong trig function (3)
SIN – equating the wrong (sin) with the trigonometric function sine, abbreviated to sin. (Like 16d, this slightly upsets my mathematically rigorous approach, as evidenced by generations of schoolchildren pronouncing the function incorrectly).
Agree that this was tougher than usual as I was home in 12.08 – twice as long as yesterday.
LOI 1ac SARI just didn’t see it.
FOI 4dn TIP which quickly became PIT!
WOD trigonometric
Well done the new Mr. Bloggs
horryd Shanghai
Our setter, Des, is a rare visitor to the Quickie. He set the very first QC puzzle on 10th Mar 2014 which I blogged and it took me a good 30 minutes to solve because the enumeration was incorrect so that two- or three-word answers appeared as if they were one word. He set one more in 2014, three in 2015 and the New Year’s Day puzzle in 2016 before turning out for us today. My solving record against him so far is not very favourable but I managed this one in 10 minutes by skin of teeth.
Edited at 2016-08-12 05:17 am (UTC)
No problem, with (eg) someone who you thought would fail to show deciding to roll up after all ..
Welcome to the blogging fraternity Rob. Don’t forget to PM Jackkt, and ask for a look at his time machine 😉
I found this a bit obscure despite previous comments above
I thought this was good fun (which I needed after the 15 x 15).
Anon above is correct on the anagrist for 9d.
To answer Anon above, my understanding is that two bits is a colloquialism for 25 cents in the US.
Finally, well done Rob on your first blog. Invariant
Would 9d be an example of an &lit, since the whole clue including the anagrist is needed for the definition ?
Edited at 2016-08-12 03:20 pm (UTC)
And nice crossword as well – at 15 mins on the money, I found it the hardest of the week by a small margin, and liked the slightly different feel to some of the clues.
I struggled with this one (took around 30 minutes) and couldn’t seem to find any ‘flow’, if that makes sense to anyone. I wasn’t helped by seemingly losing any ability to solve anagrams, especially at 3a, which made the NE corner particularly obdurate. I couldn’t parse 2d. LOI 1d, COD either 1d or 8a.