Times Quick Cryptic No 2412 by Hurley

Oh my goodness, I found this to be a real toughie. I knew I was in for a workout when I only had 6 clues after 5 minutes, and it was a full 20 minutes more before I put in my last answer, which I didn’t manage to parse until I was writing the explanation for the answer. I’ve never needed my dictionary quite so much when writing the blog.

I hope it isn’t just me. If all the early commenters indicate that they breezed through it with no difficulties, I shall go and sulk in a corner. But I suspect that there will be a shortage of available chairs in the SCC today.

The SW corner was where I finished, with the crossing FARMYARD and HALF being my last two in. My COD goes to LEVER, with an honorary mention to DEFT.

Definitions underlined in italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.

Across
1	Furniture item some French linked with king (4)
	DESK – DES (some, in French) + K (king).
3	Important committee type here (8)
	KEYBOARD – KEY (important) + BOARD (commitee). “Type here” as in an instruction to someone using a keyboard for the first time, perhaps?
8	Remarkably so, a plus in relation to marriage? (7)
	SPOUSAL – (so a plus)* [remarkably].
10	Tell everyone after some characters have left bar (5)
	LEVER – Hidden in [after some characters have left] “telL EVERyone”. One of the best hiddens I’ve seen for a while, a lovely smooth surface reading of pub gossip.
11	Nice article about sparks (11)
	ELECTRICIAN – (nice article)* [about] The SOED’s 6th definition for “spark” is “A nickname for a radio operator or an electrician. Usu. in pl. (treated as sing.). slang“. Not a usage known to me. Although I believe I have seen “chips” for “carpenter” used in much the same way in naval fiction.
13	Pay, alas, in retrospect, really just peripheral (6)
	SALARY – ALAS reversed [in retrospect] + the outer letters [just peripheral] of R{eall}Y.
15	Number crossing river — this one? (6)
	SEVERN – SEVEN (a number) crossing R for river. The River Severn is in the UK, separating Wales and England for much of its length, which is an excellent use of a river.
17	Group of islands having geographical change, not the first (11)
	ARCHIPELAGO – (eographical)* – [change] The anagrist is ‘geographical’ without the first letter [not the first].
20	Bring an end to deal, unnatural to some extent on reflection (5)
	ANNUL – Reversed hidden [to some extent on reflection] in deaL UNNAtural.
21	The pool — new problem for motorist (7)
	POTHOLE -(the pool)* [new].
22	Force give weapons to detectives in rural setting? (8)
	FARMYARD – F (force, as in Royal Air Force) + ARM (give weapons to) + YARD (detectives, referring to Scotland Yard).
23	Extremely distinctive, fluent, skilful (4)
	DEFT – first and last letters [extremely] of D{istinctiv}E F{luen}T.

Down
1	Daughter is persecutor (not half!) — scatter! (8)
	DISPERSE – D (daughter) + IS + PERSE{cutor} [not half].
2	Society bound to move obliquely (5)
	SLOPE – S (society) + LOPE (bound, as in jump or leap). I initially thought of “slope” as in “slope off”, and thought “that’s not a very good definition”. But looking in my dictionary, the first definition of the verb is “verb intrans. Move in an oblique direction”, as in “the road sloped steeply”. [I shortened the example.] So that’s a classic MER, the feeling that a clue is wrong, and then finding out that it isn’t.
4	Clear at work I tucked into cake (6)
	ECLAIR – (clear + I [tucked into])* [at work].
5	Ready to fight, call jingoes regularly, payment to follow (11)
	BELLIGERENT – BELL (call) + alternating letters [regularly] of jInGoEs + RENT (payment). When I was in my teens we would tell people we would “give them a bell”, meaning we would call them on the phone. Not sure how much this is still in use, if at all.
6	Progress loan of money (7)
	ADVANCE – double definition
7	Cook railway fish (4)
	DORY – DO (cook) + RY (abbreviation for railway). Another MER at DO for COOK, but I can see that DO in the sense of “swindle” is similar to COOK as in “cooking the books”, but it feels a bit tenuous for a QC.
9	Was in session, ironically dismissing cricket side in mocking way (11)
	SATIRICALLY – SAT (was in session, as parliament) + IR{on}ICALLY [dismissing ON, a side of the field in cricket].
12	Naive love taken in by pub money (8)
	INNOCENT – INN (pub) + CENT (money) with O (love – tennis) [taken in].
14	Student’s ultimately doubtful source of income (7)
	LEARNER – last letter [ultimately] of doubtfuL + EARNER (source of income, as in “nice little”).
16	One giving extra money for unloading truck (6)
	TIPPER – double definition. I’m much more familiar with the phrase “dump truck”, rather than “tipper”, but perhaps that’s a Britishism that I’ve forgotten in 30 years abroad.
18	Make amends? Agreed (5)
	ATONE – Double definition, the second being “at one”. With A_O_E from the crossers, I thought the “agreed” definition would be “as one”, but then the “make amends” half didn’t work. Still not entirely convinced that I’ve ever heard “at one” used to mean “agreed”, but it was at least conceivable.
19	Healthy in the end making English fine drink (4)
	HALF – HALE (healthy) with E for English replaced by F for fine [making English fine]. My LOI, and last one parsed, about 20 seconds before writing this. “A half” is shorthand for a half pint of beer.

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