Time: 17:09. I blame not so early morning torpitude for my slow time. Enjoyable, but for me at least not easy with few write-ins. My favourite was the ‘old-school communications?’ at 8a.
There’s a currency appearing in the grid but I don’t know if this is an intended Nina; probably not.
Thanks to Jalna
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in clues not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Insincere praise is more boring and ultimately yucky (8) |
| FLATTERY – FLATTER (‘more boring’) and |
|
| 5 | Plan is pretty much perfect (4) |
| IDEA – IDEA |
|
| 8 | European on newspaper staff supporting old-school communications? (9,4) |
| TELEGRAPH POLE – POLE (‘European’) following in an across clue (‘on’) TELEGRAPH (‘newspaper’)
Nice def. A few decades ago, those staff (Guilty, M’lud) probably weren’t too receptive to 13a’s message. |
|
| 10 | Might start to pity somebody with an overdraft? (5) |
| POWER – P |
|
| 11 | Destroy rapper regularly involved in commotion (7) |
| TORPEDO – R TORPEDO here as a verb. |
|
| 12 | Last part of bowls match you pester people to finish (6) |
| ENDURE – END (‘part of bowls match’) then last letters of (‘to finish’) |
|
| 13 | Computer pro primarily told every client how IT’s essential (6) |
| TECHIE – First letters (‘primarily’) of T I remember the days when there was just one person in a Department who knew anything about computers and who spent his (usually) time telling everyone how important computers were going to be. Turns out he was right. |
|
| 16 | At no extra cost, add flimsy boxes to scrap (5,2) |
| THROW IN – THIN (‘flimsy’) contains (‘boxes’) ROW (‘scrap’) | |
| 18 | Minutiae so perfectly encapsulates fabulous writer (5) |
| AESOP – Hidden (‘encapsulates’) in MinutiAE SO Perfectly
He of the Fables, so ‘fabulous’ as in mythical, to do with fables. |
|
| 20 | Legal investigations I see in TV broadcast needing specific characters? (4-9) |
| CASE-SENSITIVE – CASES (‘Legal investigations’) then anagram (‘broadcast’) of I SEE IN TV
‘Characters’ referring to letters of the alphabet in the answer, though not in the surface reading. |
|
| 21 | Trickle of water runs inside sink (4) |
| DRIP – R (‘runs’) contained in (‘inside’) DIP (‘sink’) | |
| 22 | Sources of fruit or leafy vegetables (8) |
| ORCHARDS – OR (‘or’) CHARDS (‘leafy vegetables’)
Another good one. Seems as though I should have seen this one before, but if so, I don’t recall it. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Place provided to lift frame (3,2) |
| FIT UP – Reversal (‘to lift’) of PUT (‘Place’) IF (‘provided’)
As in falsely accuse or incriminate. |
|
| 2 | Acknowledged love after everybody married (7) |
| ALLOWED – O (‘love’) following (‘after’) ALL (‘everybody’) then WED (‘married’)
ALLOW for ‘acknowledge’ = admit the truth of, as in “I allow / acknowledge that you are correct”. |
|
| 3 | Large crustaceans in springwater, oddly (5,6) |
| TIGER PRAWNS – Anagram (‘oddly’) of SPRINGWATER
Good surface: not a freshwater species as I understand. |
|
| 4 | Money in Brazil they cleared out for property (6) |
| REALTY – REAL (‘Money in Brazil’) T I think of this as more of an American term – condos in Florida etc. |
|
| 6 | PhD’s title about electronic flying device (5) |
| DRONE – DR (‘PhD’s title’) ON (‘about’) E (‘electronic’) | |
| 7 | Compound of excellent quality (7) |
| ACETONE – ACE (‘excellent’) TONE (‘quality’) | |
| 9 | Pungent plant — sorrel, perhaps — is hard to move (11) |
| HORSERADISH – HORSE (‘sorrel, perhaps’) then anagram (‘to move’) of IS HARD
A sorrel is “a horse with a light reddish-brown coat” (Oxford Dictionaries). |
|
| 12 | Lured knight to be taken in by terrible deceit (7) |
| ENTICED – N (‘knight’ (in chess notation)) contained in (‘to be taken in by’) anagram of (‘terrible’) DECEIT | |
| 14 | Eats part of wedding cake, possibly showing more eagerness (7) |
| HASTIER – HAS (‘Eats’) TIER (‘part of wedding cake, possibly’) | |
| 15 | Increasingly stupid way everyone finishes, right? (6) |
| INANER – IN AN E (‘way everyone finishes’) R (‘right?’)
The word ‘everyone’ finishes in an E – very good. Not sure about the question mark at the end; maybe just for the surface. |
|
| 17 | Gentleman rises before greeting Hindu sage (5) |
| RISHI – RIS = a reversal (‘rises’ in a down clue) of SIR (‘gentleman) HI (‘greeting’)
The recent PM usually gets a look-in for this word, but not today. |
|
| 19 | Push for media coverage (5) |
| PRESS – Double definition | |
Spent 2 hours on 15 x 15 and was still 3 clues short! Snitch was quite low and I see from the blog that the other QC regulars who attempted it put me to shame with their good times.
What a dreadful day. Over 3 hours on cryptic puzzles and nothing to show for it. I feel bruised and battered by these daily failures and my total inability to improve.
I thought attempting the 15 x 15 would help me to improve on the QC. It hasn’t, and, if anything, has in fact set me back. Truly infuriating.
I enjoyed it! Pretty much my average time, with just a few pauses along the way. I wonder if a sorrel horse is like a roan?
10:09 FOI Flattery LOI Orchard COD Tiger prawns
Thanks Jalna and BR – very enjoyable blog 😊
For only about the 4th time managed to finish a QC (started trying to do them a few months ago). Couldn’t parse quite a few of these and took ages, but the dog seemed to enjoy me muttering as we worked our way around the fields and this grid. I found it tough, probably the hardest one I’ve finished, but also thought it was worth sticking with. Always grateful for the blog to explain why! Thanks.