The majority of these clues might have been out of place in a Quickie, but only because they were too easy. However, interlaced with these was some tricky stuff, so how you did will depend to some extent on how familiar you were with the unusual ones and how tolerant you are of crosswords that mix things up in this way.
I got home in 18:40. How did you do?
| Across | |
| 1 | Beg mischief-maker to take on new role (7) |
| IMPLORE – IMP anagram* of ROLE | |
| 5 | Attend police station, not having caught one-time dropout (7) |
| BEATNIK – BE AT (attend) NI |
|
| 9 | State of hair in dogs outside bars? (9) |
| CURLINESS – LINES (bars can be used to mean bar lines in musical notation) in CURS | |
| 10 | Month the Spanish produce literary work (5) |
| NOVEL – NOV EL | |
| 11 | Chap inside stole tea (5) |
| BOHEA -HE in BOA (stole, as in furry thing round neck) | |
| 12 | Irish island where drinks are on the house? (9) |
| INNISFREE -if an INN IS FREE, the drinks may well be on the house; INNISFREE (a small island in Lough Gill in Co, Sligo) is best known for its appearance in Yeats’ early poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ | |
| 13 | Control plant’s rebirth (13) |
| REINCARNATION – REIN CARNATION | |
| 17 | C-in-C’s orders one’s studied at first in car (13) |
| GENERALISSIMO – GENERA (orders) + IS (one’s) S |
|
| 21 | King Edward, possibly, digesting poem about a crawler (9) |
| TOADEATER – TATER (potato, of which the King Edward is a variety) containing A in ODE; a TOADEATER (originally a mountebank’s assistant who would pretend to eat toads [believed to be poisonous]) meant a crawler or servile flatterer; the more familiar ‘toady’ is believed to be derived fron this | |
| 24 | Enemy captures leaders of soldiers storming ditch (5) |
| FOSSE – S |
|
| 25 | For all players, express disapproval with note (5) |
| TUTTI – TUT TI (as in do, re, me, fa, so, la) | |
| 26 | Young farm animal initially swimming lake during trial (9) |
| SHEARLING – S |
|
| 27 | US landowner managed revolutionary rabble to begin with (7) |
| RANCHER – RAN CHE R |
|
| 28 | Foot of gigantic bird that’s legendary in the East (7) |
| TROCHEE – ROC (gigantic bird that’s legendary) in THE E | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Popular youngster primarily interpreting nightmares (6) |
| INCUBI – IN CUB I |
|
| 2 | Maybe one astride a heavy carthorse? (9) |
| PERCHERON – if someone was perching on a horse, s/he might be said to be astride it; a Percheron is a compact heavy breed of carthorse; Le Perche (after which it is named) is a former province of France approximately occupying a place in modern-day south-east Normandy | |
| 3 | Old friend in Paris collecting gear for pastime in Japan (7) |
| ORIGAMI – RIG (gear) in O (old) AMI (French for friend); as far as solvers are concerned, the only Japanese pastimes are origami, bonsai, noh and haiku | |
| 4 | Mournful English supporter going over Iowa and California (9) |
| ELEGIACAL – E LEG IA CAL | |
| 5 | Member of cattle tribe thus invading waste container perhaps (5) |
| BISON – SO in BIN | |
| 6 | Memory defect mother raised upset first-class nurse once (7) |
| AMNESIA – reversal (raised) of MA followed by reversal (upset) of AI (first-class) SEN (state enrolled nurse) | |
| 7 | New girl meets head of Roedean? I don’t believe it! (5) |
| NEVER -N EVE R |
|
| 8 | Scene of cat fights? Type disturbing a fellow (8) |
| KILKENNY – ILK (type) in KENNY (random man); the Kilkenny cats are a fabled pair of cats from County Kilkenny in Ireland, who fought each other so ferociously that only their tails remained at the end of the battle. | |
| 14 | Bring back army corps court covering most of county (9) |
| RESURRECT – SURRE |
|
| 15 | Artisan travelling north is crossing motorway (9) |
| IRONSMITH – M in NORTH IS* | |
| 16 | A contemptible person on a hill, one causing trouble (8) |
| AGITATOR – A GIT [on] A TOR | |
| 18 | New shrine ultimately south of a European river (7) |
| RHENISH – SHRINE* |
|
| 19 | Big fire? Deduce otherwise (7) |
| INFERNO – if others think the fire is big but you deduce otherwise, you may be said to INFER NO | |
| 20 | Alliance placing silver urn originally in shelter (6) |
| LEAGUE – AG (silver) U |
|
| 22 | Continue to perform in part of West London (5) |
| ACTON – ACT ON | |
| 23 | Stunner posed again, given rise (5) |
| TASER – reversal of RESAT | |
Yes, definitely a puzzle of two halves: I whipped through the top half ( thinking “I’ll do well here”) only to come to an abrupt halt at the obscurities mentioned : BOHEA, KILKENNY, SHEARLING, TROCHEE. No problems with PERCHERON, as I’ve lived a fairly horsey life. Managed the tea, and the Irish cats, but put in STEERLING and nothing at all for TROCHEE. But overall enjoyed, nevertheless.