This was stretching it for a QC in my opinion, and I will be interested to hear how you all got on. There is some very tricky wordplay, and a few left-field definitions. I spent ages trying to crowbar a B into 3 down until the penny dropped. 10 minutes for me, way over target.
| Across | |
| 1 | Rubbished chronic type of fireworks (11) |
| PYROTECHNIC – anagram (‘rubbished’) of CHRONIC TYPE | |
| 8 | Less easy to restrain old obsessive person (7) |
| HOARDER – HARDER with O for old inside | |
| 9 | Early religious leader favoured by former queen (5) |
| PETER – PET (favoured) + ER | |
| 10 | Agitated man’s valid destructive behaviour (9) |
| VANDALISM – anagram (‘agitated’) of MANS VALID | |
| 12 | Individual working with energy (3) |
| ONE – ON (working) + E | |
| 13 | Aristocrat, oddly, regularly seen as unimportant figure (6) |
| NOBODY – NOB (aristo) + alternate letters of OdDlY | |
| 15 | Coin showing delicate line around head of King (6) |
| NICKEL – NICE + L round K for king. Slightly odd definition of ‘nice’. My dictionary says it can mean ‘slight’ or ‘subtle’, but ‘delicate’ seems a bit of a stretch. | |
| 17 | Chicken shed emitting quiet bird sound (3) |
| COO – COOP minus P | |
| 18 | Severe rain and storms surrounding company (9) |
| DRACONIAN – anagram (‘storms’) of RAIN AND outside CO. Tricky for a QC | |
| 20 | Consider flirting with detective at university (3,2) |
| EYE UP – (private) EYE + UP | |
| 22 | Dishonourable recording about a good-looking person (7) |
| CADDISH – CD outside A DISH | |
| 23 | Dicky hated milder setting for fantasy novels (6-5) |
| MIDDLE-EARTH – anagram (‘dicky’) of HATED MILDER | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Person easily manipulated to accept right component of cocktail? (5) |
| PRAWN – PAWN round R | |
| 2 | Editor and assistant interrupting revolutionary in the act (3-6) |
| RED-HANDED – ED and HAND inside RED | |
| 3 | Passionate Dorothy, embracing one bishop after upset (6) |
| TORRID – DOT with IRR inside all backwards. Poor QC-ers. You’ve just got the hang of bishop always meaning ‘B’, then they chuck in RR for Right Reverend. | |
| 4 | Top article amongst leaders of Conservative Party (3) |
| CAP – A inside C[onservative] and P[arty] | |
| 5 | Year away from US city brought about start of television channel? (7) |
| NETWORK – NEW YORK minus Y for year, around T for television. Another one with too many moving parts for a QC. | |
| 6 | Free access that’s arranged for central beach (5,7) |
| CARTE BLANCHE – anagram (‘arranged’) of CENTRAL BEACH. Another odd definition. Freedom of action, rather than access, surely? | |
| 7 | Son in possession of the best male toiletry (7,5) |
| SHAVING CREAM – S + HAVING + CREAM | |
| 11 | Protective gear delivered to religious group — delivered by post? (4-5) |
| MAIL-ORDER – MAIL (protective gear as in chain mail) + [religious] ORDER | |
| 14 | Reserved about new library item (7) |
| BOOKEND – BOOKED outside N | |
| 16 | Awkward Frenchman’s left (6) |
| GAUCHE – double definition | |
| 19 | Certain European flag over top of hall (5) |
| IRISH – IRIS is a flag, plus H for HALL | |
| 21 | Drink up, finding mate (3) |
| PAL – LAP (drink) backwards | |
Well that’s yet another week blown. Missed my 2-hour goal and, to add salt to the wound, missed the chance for 20 consecutive solves.
I was sailing along, well inside SCC cut-off, with only 19dn and 15ac to get. Put IRISH for the former but spent ages worrying about it. Not a good clue.
Thought 15ac might be FINKEL. Went to check on Google. Entered ‘Finkel coin’ as search term and, very annoyingly, the correct answer appeared, depriving me of the chance to work it out.
Would I have worked it out eventually had this not occurred? I’ll never know, but it’s a DNF so the question is academic. A truly awful way to end the week – I can’t decide whether it was just a poor clue or (more likely) ineptitude on my part.
All I needed today was a 32-minute finish to achieve my target. Was that really too much to hope for?
In recent months the QC has become less and less enjoyable, as I fail miserably week in, week out. Progress is non-existent and has been so for some time. I have a good day and then follow it up with something like this. It’s beyond infuriating.
Thanks for the blog. Have a good weekend everyone.
Back for more torment on Monday. I would say my confidence is shot to pieces, but that boat sailed a long time ago.
My aim is just to finish. Did so, and therefore chuffed, but took a good while.
Nothing stopped me dead, just ploughed on. FOI 1ac, saw it straight away, so that was a help. LOI TORRID, got the gist from the definition but NHO of RR being a Bishop clue until reading it here.