1. Gulf Stream – brings us milder weather. A huge opening (GULF), flower of the flowing water variety (STREAM).
8. Patriot – nationalist. Glib (PAT) about three things (TRIO).
9. Whale – enormous creature. Wide (W), robust/healthy (HALE).
10. Yank – double definition.
11. Disliked – unpopular. Anagram (awful) of IDLE KIDS – nice surface.
13. Deign – stoop. I won’t deign to explain this one – oh, alright then – homophone (pronounced) of Dane.
14. Annoy – needle. Leading letter missing from PA system t(ANNOY).
16. Tap dance – perform on stage. Anagram (trained) of PANDA ETC.
17. Asps – snakes. Donkey (ASS) is circumventing quietly (P).
20. Virgo – sign of the zodiac. The clue ‘Miss sign?’ Comes with a question mark to get us to think of a zodiac sign represented by a young woman (a miss) and so get the answer Virgo.
21. Imagine – fancy. Yours truly’s opposed to (I’M AGIN), styl(E). Any relative newcomers to the QC who got that one reasonably easily are on their way to the 15×15.
22. Asterisked – with a star. Not the most obvious definition. Let’s get onto the word play – anagram (dicky) of EAST, took chances (RISKED).
DOWN
1. Guppy – small fish. The answer is in the words coilin(G UP PY)thon – indicated by ‘constricts’.
2. Luton Airport – an airport in Bedfordshire where a pilot could run a tour. Anagram (potentially) of PILOT RAN TOUR. I took a long time to solve this clue but was then quick to appreciate it’s cleverness – COD.
3. Skip – double definition.
4. Retail – sell. Track again (RE-TAIL).
5. As well as – into the bargain. A toff (A SWELL), and a (A) saint (S).
6. Walking stick. Cryptic definition. A constitutional is a walk so a staff providing support for such activity is a walking stick.
7. Heyday – prime. LOI by a mile. Homophone (it’s said) of time to cut grass – hay day.
12. Infamous – notorious. Anagram (sorted out) of MAFIOSi UN – all but one – except for one I.
13. Dative – case (grammatically). Fruit (DATE) with four (IV) inside.
15. Scribe – writer. Plagiarism (CRIB) going in(side) different directions – south and east (SE). I confess to not having worked this parsing out until writing the blog.
18. Steed – horse. I(S) pu(T) outsid(E) th(E) fiel(D), finally.
19. Saki – little monkey. Any of several small mostly arboreal New World monkeys of the genera Pithecia and Chiropotes, having long hair and a long bushy tail. Part of (S)h(A)r(K) o(I)l – at regular intervals. Dnk this monkey but the cluing was fair enough.
Edited at 2017-09-26 06:22 am (UTC)
I didn’t really find it that difficult overall, with only ‘annoy’ a bit difficult. No idea how I heard of ‘Luton Airport’, but there you go.
Edited at 2017-09-26 05:50 am (UTC)
Staggered over the finish line in around 30 minutes with 20a unparsed.
Thanks for the blog
Imagine – Haven’t heard of AGIN. Seems like northern slang.
Couldn’t parse steed or the miss in virgo.
Asterisked! Initially I had asterisks and wondered where the last letter was coming from, asterisksa?!
Took a while to see crib for plagiarism.
COD GULF STREAM or DATIVE.
Edited at 2017-09-26 11:22 am (UTC)
informal. – a theft, esp of another’s writing or thoughts.
So there is the noun.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/crib
2dn LUTON AIRPORT I was looking for the little Bedfordshirfe village of UPTON something-or-other whe Miss Marple hangs out! COD no less!
Does anyone apart from Mohn look at the Club Monthly!?
WOD HEYDAY – I’m past mine after today’s showing!
Mood Meldrew!
The quaint, sleepy village of St. Mary Mead was home to the renowned detective spinster Miss Marple. However, Christie first described a village of that name prior to Marple’s introduction, in the 1928 Hercule Poirot novel The Mystery of the Blue Train. In that novel, St. Mary Mead is home to the book’s protagonist Katherine Grey.
It must then be Lorraine Chase who hangs out at UPTON something-or-other!
My FOI was 17a and after 30 minutes I had four left -3d 7d 19d and 22a.
I took a break then and need another 5 minutes to complete things. DNK Saki but it had to be. That left me with the star and I had anagram fodder of DICKY EAST A. Eventually I saw the way the clue worked -not easy but a good clue, and maybe too hard for a QC. David
Big DNF for me, after at least an hour. Nothing more to be said, others have pointed out the challenges of several of the clues.
FOI 1d GUPPY, LOI 15d SCRIBE. Got SAKI from the satirist, and there is speculation that he got it from the monkey…
Thanks setter and blogger.
Crispian.
Bloggers always get to see comments – you’d get an email to the address you give on registering should someone reply to you. It’s free and safe.
As for your efforts – excellent commitment and attitude – you sound like a true Times for the Times-er. Well done.