Hi everyone. This took me very slightly above my median Quickie time. Perhaps Alex has used up a tiny bit of her super-gentleness on the Graun’s new originally titled “Quick Cryptic” (highly recommended by the way).
My last in was 17d where I became distracted by different kinds of milk producers, and my inner monologue piped up with the old one, “what kind of bees produce milk?” (answer in the blog heading) … which then led to me trying to remember the joke to which the punchline is “teat owl”. I’d like to think that this kind of thing is the barrier to my doing these in Verlainesque speeds – but in reality that’s a combination of slowness in pattern matching, anagram descrambling, thinking of synonyms … I could go on!
Anyway, I much enjoyed this as expected, with Clue of The Day 14a. How was it for you?
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are usually in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 8a | Warm up poultry for infidel (7) |
| HEATHEN — HEAT (warm up) HEN (poultry) | |
| 9a | Farm managed by Switzerland (5) |
| RANCH — RAN (managed) by CH (Switzerland) | |
| 10a | Subject head in charge (5) |
| TOPIC — TOP (head) + IC (in charge) | |
| 11a | Futile as miles off (7) |
| AIMLESS — AS MILES anagrammed (off) | |
| 12a | Unfortunately I peter out going into a spin (9) |
| PIROUETTE — An anagram of (unfortunately) I PETER OUT | |
| 14a | Pat is evil when knocked back (3) |
| DAB — BAD (evil) when reversed (knocked back) | |
| 16a | Bad actor has me missing final bits (3) |
| HAM — HAs Me without the last letters (missing final bits) | |
| 18a | More certain about right conclusion being capitulation (9) |
| SURRENDER — SURER (more certain) around (about) R (right) and END (conclusion) | |
| 21a | Screen short, first class adaptation at last (7) |
| CURTAIN — CURT (short) + AI (A1: first class) + the final letter of (… at last) adaptatioN | |
| 22a | Factory design taking time (5) |
| PLANT — PLAN (design) + T (time) | |
| 23a | Head of acquisitions donated tequila ingredient (5) |
| AGAVE — The first letter (head) of Acquisitions + GAVE (donated) | |
| 24a | Light aquatic bird following short path (7) |
| LANTERN — TERN (aquatic bird) following LANe (path) without its last letter (short …) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Cabin unknown secretary placed in church showing gall (8) |
| CHUTZPAH — HUT (cabin), Z (unknown) and PA (secretary) all placed in CH (church) | |
| 2d | Juliet pares ragged stone (6) |
| JASPER — J (Juliet, NATO codeword, technically Juliett) + an anagram of (… ragged) PARES | |
| 3d | Fashionable bird losing kilo (4) |
| CHIC — CHIC[k] (bird) losing K (kilo) | |
| 4d | One part of play involving books is untouched (6) |
| INTACT — I (one) and ACT (part of play) containing (involving) NT (books, biblical ones) | |
| 5d | First screening about to follow Empire broadcast (8) |
| PREMIERE — RE (about) to follow an anagram of (… broadcast) EMPIRE | |
| 6d | Straighten out a French divan around noon (6) |
| UNBEND — UN (a French) + BED (divan) around N (noon) | |
| 7d | In this way sleuth uses envelopes (4) |
| THUS — SleuTH USes envelopes the answer | |
| 13d | Opened beer in shifting dunes (8) |
| UNSEALED — ALE (beer) in an anagram of (shifting) DUNES | |
| 15d | Singer is exposed while keeping it on (8) |
| BARITONE — BARE (exposed) when containing (while keeping) IT ON | |
| 17d | Numberless mass milk producer upset (6) |
| MYRIAD — M (mass) + DAIRY (milk producer) reversed (upset) | |
| 19d | Annoy heads of research and nearly kindle limitless enmity (6) |
| RANKLE — Initial letters (heads) of Research And Nearly Kindle Limitless Enmity | |
| 20d | Initially drop less refined piece of furniture (6) |
| DRAWER — Initially Drop + RAWER (less refined) | |
| 21d | Cliff caught worn scrap of cloth (4) |
| CRAG — C (caught) + RAG (worn scrap of cloth) | |
| 22d | Slab of glass is tiresome thing we hear (4) |
| PANE — Sounds like (… we hear) PAIN (tiresome thing) | |
18:00, completed at about 1AM to give me a rare excursion from the SCC. Perhaps I should solve when half asleep more often!
👏👏👏
Another lousy day, no surprise there!
You came close to getting a positive comment from me today, but my talent for self-destruction knows no bounds.
Same old story. Sailed through this and was on course for an excellent time until I got to MYRIAD.
Took me at least 10 mins (probably more), and so I finished with 23 mins on the clock and my usual place in SCC.
Zero satisfaction in that and another miserable Monday. My ability to find new ways to finish the QC feeling dejected knows no limits.
I can’t catch a break with this puzzle! Not happy 😡, although I suppose I should be thankful it wasn’t a DNF given my recent performances!
Thanks for the blog.
If you got MYRIAD and managed to finish you did better than me!
I think that’s a one-off 😊