This one took me 6 minutes so I would rate it on the easy side. I have one or two minor quibbles which I shall mention along the way but generally this was an excellent Quickie.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Boxer beaten up, so what! (8) |
| SOUTHPAW – Anagram [beaten] of UP SO WHAT. | |
| 6 | Brood accommodated in Palermo, perhaps (4) |
| MOPE – Hidden [accommodated] in {Paler}MO PE{rhaps} | |
| 8 | Guy getting kiss from Douglas? (4) |
| MANX – MAN (guy), X (kiss). Douglas as the capital of the Isle of Man has come up very recently but possibly in the main puzzle rather than the QC. | |
| 9 | Punch repeatedly, bringing cheers! (4-4) |
|
CHIN-CHIN – CHIN (punch) CHIN [repeatedly]. A rather dated expression perhaps. It can be a greeting, farewell or toast.
Goodbye-ee, goodbye-ee, |
|
| 10 | Development of San Diego struggled (8) |
| AGONISED – Anagram [development] of SAN DIEGO | |
| 11 | Sunday meal doesn’t start in oven (4) |
| OAST – {r}OAST (Sunday meal) [doesn’t start]. A kiln for drying hops. | |
| 13 | Modern country, hot after storms (5-2-3-3) |
| STATE-OF-THE-ART – STATE (country) anagram [storms] of HOT AFTER. I think this is more than modern; it’s the most modern and best available. | |
| 16 | Old Peruvian in outskirts of Canberra (4) |
| INCA – IN, C{anberr}A [outskirts]. | |
| 17 | Family in flashy clothing, damned (8) |
| BLINKING – KIN (family) contained by [in] BLING (flashy clothing). ‘Blinking’ and ‘damned’ can both be used as intensifiers and in that sense may be interchangeable. Not a blinking good clue perhaps, but a perfectly acceptable one. | |
| 19 | Exceptional / money (8) |
| STERLING – Two meanings. I have slight misgivings about the first definition. To my mind, ‘sterling (as in ‘sterling work’ for example) means solid, reliable, worthy and possibly even very good, but not exceptional. | |
| 21 | Look to hold back (4) |
| PEEK – KEEP (hold) reversed [back]. Something of a chestnut, but some newbies may not have seen it before. | |
| 22 | Don’t go south before Scottish river (4) |
|
STAY – S (south), TAY (Scottish river). As mentioned in William McGonagall’s poem “The Tay Bridge Disaster” :
“Beautiful railway bridge of the silv’ry Tay I’ll spare you the rest of it! |
|
| 23 | Tree needing serious treatment, initially (5,3) |
| FIRST AID – FIR (tree), STAID (serious) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Ape having nougat ran off (5-4) |
| ORANG-UTAN – Anagram [off] of NOUGAT RAN | |
| 3 | In bronze, former citizen of Dallas, say? (5) |
| TEXAN – EX (former) contained by [in] TAN (bronze) | |
| 4 | Artist — image like so (7) |
| PICASSO – PIC (image), AS (like), SO | |
| 5 | Strange forms I drew (5) |
| WEIRD – Anagram [forms] of I DREW. | |
| 6 | Laboratory animals about to take bug (7) |
| MICROBE – MICE (laboratory animals) containing [about] ROB (take) | |
| 7 | Appearing in cap, sizeable Greek character (3) |
| PSI – Hidden [appearing in] {ca}P SI{zeable} | |
| 12 | National Park where tiger seen, surprisingly (9) |
| SERENGETI – Anagram [surprisingly] of TIGER SEEN. And it would indeed be surpising to see a tiger there! | |
| 14 | A treaty in motion that carries (3,4) |
|
TEA TRAY – Anagram [in motion] of A TREATY.
Lewis Carroll wrote: |
|
| 15 | One attempting to collect goods for trip (7) |
| TRIGGER – TRIER (one attempting) contains [to collect] GG (goods). I think this is ‘trip / trigger’ as in switches or other mechanisms that set something off. | |
| 17 | Crisp, cheese flavour, originally (5) |
| BRIEF – BRIE (cheese), F{lavour} [originally]. Crisp, clear, brief and to the point. | |
| 18 | End for stick, a stick broken! (5) |
| KAPUT – {stic}K, A, PUT (stick) as in ‘Stick it yer fam’ly alBUM!’ | |
| 20 | Bird rising just the same? (3) |
| TIT – Palindrome [just the same rising] | |
In a really tough puzzle, of course, this is not possible, but the Quickie is not meant to be tough. The definitions are but seldom obfuscated, which makes it easy to go fast.
The cleverly hidden anagram in 1a, great surface in 8a, ditto 12a, unusual anagrind in 5a, 18a only made easy by checkers, to name a few.
This could have been an altogether more fearsome beast had the definitions been less generous.
5’15”
of genuinely high quality; excellent |sterling principles
But the second def. (after “British money”) that comes up at the top of a Google search for “sterling definition” is:
(of a person or their work, efforts, or qualities) excellent or valuable.
“this organization does sterling work for youngsters”
synonyms: excellent, first-rate, first-class, exceptional, outstanding, splendid, superlative, praiseworthy, laudable, commendable, admirable, valuable, worthy, deserving
24:00
After two DNFs last week (both with one clue left) pleased to get a finish.
LOI was Kaput/PEEK, as was sure it would be. KN— word.
No problem with BLINKING, in fact nice to see modern slang such as Bling replacing old chestnuts.
COD Chin Chin.
PlayUpPompey
Enjoyable crossword.
However I put most of it down to user error rather than there being anything wrong with the puzzle.
Completed in 24 minutes with LOI 23a and my COD goes to 12d
Thanks Jack
Edited at 2018-02-19 02:31 pm (UTC)
23a required some deep thinking. 17d looked like STIFF to me at first; but it did not parse. Was struggling with 17a (LOI). Once I got the cheese I was home in about 18 minutes; last 8 on the clues mentioned.
And a lazy unparsed PEEP at 21a means I got one wrong.
Good puzzle. David
PS excellent blog -thanks.
Edited at 2018-02-19 10:56 pm (UTC)