I hope I am not tempting fate by encouraging Quickie fans to try this one, which I managed to complete in 26 minutes.
ACROSS
1. DEMOBBED – DEED around anagram* of BOMB.
5. RASCAL – RAS (Royal Academician’s) + CAL[l].
8. AUTOCRATIC – RAT in C-I-C after AUTO.
9. AWRY – WARY with the W going back in the word (or forwards if your prefer); COLLINS has ‘askew’ as the second sense of ‘tipsy’.
10. SALISBURY PLAIN – BULL IN PARIS SAY*; Stonehenge is on the edge of Salisbury Plain.
11. TRAMPLE – T[umble]R + AMPLE.
13. SPUTTER – PUTTERS with the S going to the front (or back if you prefer).
15. PRESIDE – SE (points of compass) in PRIDE.
16. PROGRAM – PRO + GRAM. I probably took longer on this clue than any other, as I struggle with the American styling of this word, as well as with all geekspeak, of course.
21. GRAVEYARD SHIFT – this is nothing more, I think, than a riff on the fact that Highgate, in north London, is home to a large cemetery – or two. The most famous monument belongs to Karl Marx, who has a lot to answer for in my book.
22. COMB – CO + MB.
23. MUTILATION – I L in MUTATION.
24. FLAXEN – LAX in FEN. A nice violin version of the Debussy number here.
25. BONE IDLE – NEED BOIL*. Say no more!
DOWN
1. DEAD SET – DEAD + SET; I’m more familiar with the phrasal verb t(‘to be dead set on something’), but the adverbial (‘dead set against’) use is of course very common.
2. METALWARE – MET + L in AWARE.
3. BACKS UP – if you are prostrate, you are on your front, so your back would be up. Moving along rapidly…
4. EVACUEE – A CUE in EVE.
5. RICE PAPER – um, yes. Or should that be yum, yes? Think about it, but not too much, I would suggest.
6. SEALANT – SEA + [p]LANT.
7. ARRANGE – RA (Royal Artillery this time) reversed + RANGE.
12. LADIES MAN – AND IS MALE*; an &lit of considerable concision.
14. TERRIFIED – ERR + IF in TIED.
16. RAG DOLL – RAG (event to raise money) + two-thirds of DOLL[ar].
17. SOAP BOX – SOAP (serial) on BOX (TV).
18. PORTICO – I + C in TROOP*.
19. ONSTAGE – ON (cricketing leg side) + STAGE (led of a race).
20. MATINEE – MATE around (embracing) IN + E; the literal is ‘early appearance for thespian’.
ONSTAGE was unparsed as I took ONS to be the two legs (NB typo in blog!).
FOI 1dn DEAD SET
COD 4dn EVACUEE
WOD 25ac BONE IDLE!
All going in ok, then I hit the wall with about 10 minutes at the end spent on my LTI:
COMB, SOAP BOX and FLAXEN. With hindsight can’t see why they took so long… maybe because I was so sure the second part of 17dn had to be ‘set’. Or maybe ‘row’. Ho hum.
LOI 22a, had _omb and was thinking I might have to guess until comb came to mind.
Wanted to bung in wary for 9a but persevered to get awry and had to watch the spelling of Salisbury.
COD 12d ladies man
Mostly I liked Graveyard Shift, Onstage and my understated COD to 15ac for the excellent surface.
Thanks setter and Ulaca.
I must admit I didn’t realise that the primary def. of PROSTRATE involves being face down, though it does of course compute in a ‘prostration’ sense. I spent a while considering various parts of the human body that might be pointing skyward when lying down, which proved to be dangerous if entertaining ground.
I really like GRAVEYARD SHIFT, but hands-down COD to FLAXEN — fantastic surface, which put a smile on my face. There’s something about Slough
Yes, Owl Service emphasizes the dark side. Check out their stunning version of ‘Cruel Mother’.
I’m probably sticking my neck out, but I only spotted one clue that was “just” a cryptic definition, the rather loquacious one for RICE PAPER, which was indeed cryptic definitiony, but I didn’t see any others. Am I being obtuse? Or forgetful?
FOI 1a (I remember Spike Milligan taking the mickey out of the ill-fitting demob suits issued to his erstwhile artillery mates in one of his excellent autobiographies); LOI SEALANT, which I’ve never really connected with “proofing agent”; I thought it might have something to do with yeast; COD 12d LADIES MAN.
Thanks to setter & Ulaca.
For 12d, is ‘flirtatious’ really an acceptable anagrind?
Edited at 2017-09-18 12:41 pm (UTC)
Richard
John Murray
Edited at 2017-09-18 05:53 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2017-09-18 07:07 pm (UTC)
Was tipped in the QC blog that the 15×15 was doable today. Ended up a few clues short. I had SUBLANT, as in SUB+(P)LANT, which is the head of the NATO underwater command. Fair shout.
With SUB (editor) as proofing agent.
Made fairly steady progress to finish with Evacuee. Onstage was unparsed and 23a held me up a bit.
COD to 24a. David