Times Quick Cryptic 1797 by Felix

I hope I’m not alone in finding this one a bit of a struggle. The problem with blogging after solving is that in trying to break clues down and make the parsing clear, it all starts to look very easy and you wonder what all the fuss was about! I’ll give myself a pass on 14ac (despite having seen this tricky defintion before, it still went straight over my head) and 21dn which I think (assuming I’ve understood it correctly) crosses the line from ‘creativity’ to “wilful obstruction’.

Still, there was lots to be enjoyed along the way (the surface readings made me chuckle, as did some of the crafty definitions), as well as afterwards. Hat-tip to Jackkt for reminding me of this setter’s penchant for sneaking something extra into his grids…

Across
7	Proceeded casually — risked losing the lead (6)
	AMBLED – gAMBLED (risked) minus the first letter (losing the head).
8	Feeble Hollywood movie: but it’s hard to shake off! (6)
	LIMPET – LIMP (feeble) and ET (Holywood movie).
9	Dumbest fool, finally moving, nearly fell (8)
	STUMBLED – anagram of (moving) DUMBEST with the last letter of (finally) fooL.
10	Got larger plug rewired, partially (4)
	GREW – hidden in (partially) pluG REWired.
11	State of king meeting an elite army unit (6)
	KANSAS – K (king), AN, then SAS (elite army unit).
13	Sporting events: matches? (5)
	MEETS – double definition, the second as in ‘meets/matches the specification’.
14	I turn on stove in the end (3)
	EGO – GO (turn) next to (on) the last letter of (in the end) stovE.
15	Did DIY in bathroom I’d let out (5)
	TILED – anagram of (out) I’D LET.
17	Expedition’s endless voyage, covering a great distance (6)
	SAFARI – SAI{L} (voyage) without the last letter (endless), containing (covering) FAR (a great distance).
19	Try second helping of this? Just starters (4)
	SHOT – first letters from (just starters) Second Helping Of This.
20	Singular spicy dishes can give you runs (8)
	SCURRIES – S (singular) and CURRIES (spicy dishes).
22	Stop to deliver outside of zone (6)
	FREEZE – FREE (to deliver) then the first and last letters from (outside of) ZonE.
23	Article first put together for believer (6)
	THEIST – THE (article) and IST (first).

Down
1	Skip round little boy, jumping up (4)
	OMIT – O (round) and a reversal of (jumping up) TIM (little boy).
2	Article borne by diminutive, climbing, pack animals (6)
	LLAMAS – A (article) inside (borne by) a reversal of (climbing) SMALL (diminutive).
3	I had poor Isolde worshipped (8)
	IDOLISED – I’D (I had) and an anaram of (poor) ISOLDE.
4	Cruel old ruler’s verse on youth (4)
	VLAD – V (verse) then LAD (youth).
5	One who’s fled bad regime? (6)
	EMIGRE – anagram of (bad) REGIME.
6	One turning back from minister and queen twice embracing son (8)
	REVERSER – REV (minister), then ER ER (Queen twice) containing (embracing) S (son).
12	Unconventional star upset before hit national shows (8)
	ANTIHERO – reverse hidden in (upset… shows) befORE HIT NAtional.
13	Ticks abandon old fly (8)
	MOSQUITO – MOS (moments, ticks) QUIT (abandon) and O (old).
16	Permissive character? (6)
	LETTER – cryptic definition.
18	Person having stock of bacteria for germ warfare — murder, ultimately (6)
	FARMER – last letters from (ultimately) oF bacteriA foR gerM warfarE murdeR.
20	Appear to understand spy chief (4)
	SEEM – SEE (to understand) and M (character in James Bond, spy chief).
21	Rest of newspaper oddly skipped (4)
	EASE – every other letter from (oddly) nEwSpApEr then reversed (skipped). Chambers has ‘skip” = ‘overleap’ = ‘to leap over’ so I suppose it’s a very clever reversal indicator that is easily misconstrued as part of the instruction to remove letters. MER from me though.

The perimeter squares around the grid read: OLIVER TWIST ASKS FOR MORE