Solving time: 9:40
Looking back at the completed grid, I’m not entirely sure why this took the time it did, as there are no especially difficult words there….
My favourites were 11a – I usually like this style of clue but it took a while for the penny to drop – and 5d which was significantly helped by having the first and last checkers in place.
This is Beck’s second visit to the QC setters’ table following his/her inaugural outing back in November (QC2273).
How did you all get on?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Question asked after second demonstration (4) |
| SHOW – HOW (question asked) after S (second) | |
| 4 | Curiously pro-Amish saying (8) |
| APHORISM – Anagram [curiously] of pro-Amish
An APHORISM is a memorable expression of a general truth or principle e.g. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” or “Winners never quit and quitters never win” |
|
| 8 | Haphazardly put South African currency in something small (2,6) |
| AT RANDOM – AT(RAND)OM – RAND (South African currency) put in ATOM (something small) | |
| 9 | Return things to the way they were during sundown (4) |
| UNDO – Hidden [during] in sundown | |
| 10 | Both of us said, “this is fun!” (4) |
| WHEE – Homophone [said] of WE (both of us) | |
| 11 | Spooner’s to ignore indicator for warm weather (8) |
| SUNSHINE – SHUN (ignore) SIGN (indicator) is what the Rev. Spooner, renowned for mixing up his syllables, might have called SUN SHINE
My LOI – took a while to spot this, even with four of the eight letters in place! |
|
| 12 | Mental make up of Republican leaving jumbled cyphers (6) |
| PSYCHE – Anagram [jumbled] of CYPHE{r}S missing the R (Republican leaving) | |
| 14 | Hold up street ballad (6) |
| WAYLAY – WAY (street) LAY (ballad) | |
| 16 | Food shop, remarkably, bringing shipment (8) |
| DELIVERY – DELI (food shop) VERY (remarkably) | |
| 18 | Curve of a conifer with its top cut off (4) |
| ARCH – {l}ARCH (conifer) missing the first letter [with its top cut off] | |
| 19 | U-shaped pipe component backed up (4) |
| TRAP – PART (component) reversed [backed up]
….such as you’d find in a sink or loo |
|
| 20 | Tree surgeon sees Yeltsin getting into paintings, etc (8) |
| ARBORIST – AR(BORIS)T – ART (paintings, etc) containing BORIS (Yeltsin – first president of Russia 1991-1999) | |
| 22 | Almost the entire spoilt baker’s dozen (8) |
| THIRTEEN – Anagram [spoilt] of THE ENTIR{e} [almost = all but the last letter] | |
| 23 | Discovered limitless pocket (4) |
| EARN – {l}EARN{t} (discovered) without its first or last letter [limitless] | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Problems created by hot reactions (7) |
| HITCHES – H (hot) ITCHES (reactions)
Not sure that reactions is the best synonym for ITCHES. Thankfully, the definition and checkers made the answer fairly clear. |
|
| 3 | Violently hit big mammal (5) |
| WHALE – Double definition
Apparently you can WHALE (hit or beat) someone or something in North America. Coincidentally, I heard the first definition of this word just this weekend while watching the film Good Will Hunting (1998) so it was fresh in my mind. |
|
| 4 | Join in broad daylight (3) |
| ADD – Hidden in [in] broad daylight | |
| 5 | Confine good route for author (9) |
| HEMINGWAY – HEM IN (confine) G (good) WAY (route)
Clue of the day for me. |
|
| 6 | Violently toss holy rug (7) |
| ROUGHLY – Anagram [toss] of HOLY RUG | |
| 7 | Dean’s refurbished car (5) |
| SEDAN – Anagram [refurbished] of DEAN’S
A saloon car in Britspeak |
|
| 11 | Hertfordshire town theatre space hosting fair (9) |
| STEVENAGE – ST(EVEN)AGE – STAGE (theatre space) containing [hosting] EVEN (fair) | |
| 13 | Conservative, trendier and cheerful (7) |
| CHIPPER – C (Conservative) HIPPER (trendier) | |
| 15 | Whistleblower perhaps accrues nuts (7) |
| ACCUSER – Anagram [nuts] of ACCRUES | |
| 17 | Where we all are, heading from fireplace (5) |
| EARTH – {h}EARTH (fireplace with first letter removed [heading from]) | |
| 18 | Get along with an environmentalist mostly (5) |
| AGREE – A GREE{n} (an environmentalist – missing the final letter [mostly]) | |
| 21 | Turning up, snatch block (3) |
| BAN – NAB (snatch) reversed [turning up – pertinent as this is a down clue] | |
43 minutes to successful completion. I’ve been lurking but been using the site when Beck has been linking to his work. Nothing too odd here given I’m an American solver besides having to back-link the wordplay to get STEVENAGE. Still relatively new to these things and trying to figure out enough (both procurement and solving) to consider doing more, so I may end up being more regular here sometime later.