Hi everybody. Trelawney has taken us on a bit of an international tour, so I sought inspiration for the blog title by typing “international” into a search engine and looking at the autocomplete suggestions. This was when I discovered that October 13th is International Day for Failure. I failed to fail today, although there’s still time to find I made a typo or silly error in the blog. If you didn’t finish or made a mistake, this one’s for you.
My favourite clue is the rotten water business in 17d. A certain water company springs to mind, with others not far behind. Thanks Trelawney!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 7a | I give out cards? Perfect! (5) |
| IDEAL — I + DEAL (give out cards) | |
| 8a | Essential part of diet not ripe unfortunately (7) |
| PROTEIN — An anagram of (… unfortunately) NOT RIPE | |
| 10a | Musician beginning to drink with stranger (7) |
| DRUMMER — The first letter of (beginning to) Drink with RUMMER (stranger) | |
| 11a | Farm fodder’s blemishes sent back (5) |
| STRAW — WARTS (blemishes) reversed (sent back) | |
| 12a | Somehow a jerk with bail can escape? (9) |
| JAILBREAK — An anagram of (somehow) A JERK with BAIL | |
| 14a | Odd bits of crude signal (3) |
| CUE — Odd letters of (odd bits of) CrUdE | |
| 15a | Sister’s noise upset nan initially (3) |
| NUN — Noise Upset Nan, first letters (initially) | |
| 16a | Flyer that a cutlery shopper may receive? (9) |
| SPOONBILL — A bit of whimsy: just as a grocery shopper would get a food bill, someone buying cutlery might receive a SPOON BILL | |
| 18a | Force the Spanish to follow mischievous creature (5) |
| IMPEL — EL (the, Spanish) going after (to follow) IMP (mischievous creature) | |
| 20a | Emergency responder’s broken arm fine (7) |
| FIREMAN — An anagram of (broken) ARM FINE | |
| 22a | Natural instrument extremely idiosyncratic (7) |
| ORGANIC — ORGAN (instrument) + outer letters of (extremely) IdiosyncratiC | |
| 23a | Charlie enters Scandinavian ball (5) |
| DANCE — C (Charlie) goes inside (enters) DANE (Scandinavian) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | I adore joiner’s new place in Brazil (3,2,7) |
| RIO DE JANEIRO — I ADORE JOINER is anagrammed (new) | |
| 2d | South American travelling up ravine (8) |
| PERUVIAN — An anagram of (travelling) UP RAVINE | |
| 3d | Criticise bridge contract (4) |
| SLAM — A double definition | |
| 4d | Meagre boxes on floor of vehicle (6) |
| SPARSE — SPARS (boxes) on the last letter of (floor of) vehiclE | |
| 5d | Some aperitif or sake now abandoned (8) |
| FORSAKEN — Some aperitiF OR SAKE Now | |
| 6d | Majority of long 12 months (4) |
| YEAR — All but the last letter of (majority of) YEARn (long) | |
| 9d | Antipodean from north east to stroll around fire (3,9) |
| NEW ZEALANDER — NE (north east) + WANDER (to stroll) around ZEAL (fire) | |
| 13d | Heard some low notes in part of tennis court (8) |
| BASELINE — Sounds like (heard) BASSLINE (some low notes) | |
| 14d | Fried potato brother picked up for animal (8) |
| CHIPMUNK — CHIP (fried potato) + MUNK, which sounds like (… picked up) MONK (brother) | |
| 17d | Rotten form of water business (6) |
| OFFICE — OFF (rotten) + ICE (form of water) | |
| 19d | Summon knight’s assistant (4) |
| PAGE — Two definitions | |
| 21d | Free European roller-coaster, for example (4) |
| RIDE — RID (free) + E (European) | |
11.34, a record for me, usually takes me half an hour.