A couple of trickier things going on in a very good example of a QC.
I missed out on a good half of the acrosses on the first pass but the downs were more helpful and I finished up in 7:28 with no major hold-ups. No real obscurities but several things needed a bit of teasing out so I’d put this pretty close to 100 on the Quitch. [Edit: it’s currently around the mid-80s, so it seems my wavelength has been rather miscalibrated this week.] Much enjoyed – many thanks to Trelawney!
Anagram indicators in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Small dishes of baked pasta (5) |
| TAPAS – baked PASTA | |
| 4 | More masculine merchant (7) |
| BUTCHER -double definition | |
| 8 | Kitchen implement alas put in a stew (7) |
| SPATULA – ALAS PUT in a stew | |
| 9 | Fake swamp near America (5) |
| BOGUS – BOG (swamp) near US (America) | |
| 10 | Dim seabird flying around wedding participant (10) |
| BRIDESMAID – DIM SEABIRD flying around | |
| 14 | Arctic homes initially interest grand ladies and gents (6) |
| IGLOOS – I G (“initially” Interest Grand) LOOS (ladies and gents) | |
| 15 | Crazy to discard small piece of fruit (6) |
| BANANA – BANANAS (crazy) to discard S(mall) | |
| 17 | Flier featuring chess piece and chess player, we hear? (10) |
| KINGFISHER – KING (chess piece) and FISHER we hear the same as [Bobby] Fischer (chess player) | |
| 20 | Complain and drink, reportedly (5) |
| WHINE – or WINE (drink) “reportedly” | |
| 22 | Teach Europeans to hide old gold coin (7) |
| EDUCATE – E and E are our plural Europeans, hiding DUCAT (old gold coin) | |
| 23 | Dairy product initially of great help in tent (7) |
| YOGHURT – O G H (“initially” Of Great Help) in YURT (tent) | |
| 24 | Sat around hugging old partner in US state (5) |
| TEXAS – TAS = Sat “around”/reversed, hugging EX (old partner) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Try out some concrete structures (4) |
| TEST – “some” concreTE STructures | |
| 2 | Last bit is removed from aircraft design (4) |
| PLAN – lass bit removed from PLANe (aircraft) | |
| 3 | Fuddy-duddy leaving to prepare for a fight (6,3) |
| SQUARE OFF – SQUARE (fuddy-duddy) OFF (leaving, as in “I’m off”) | |
| 4 | Cereal with extremely dry liquor (6) |
| BRANDY – BRAN (cereal) with DY (“extremely” DrY) | |
| 5 | Bath however is upside down (3) |
| TUB – BUT (however) “upside down” | |
| 6 | Scottish celebration to monopolise mother? On the contrary! (8) |
| HOGMANAY – HOG (monopolise) MA (Mother) NAY (on the contrary) | |
| 7 | Leftover lira used carelessly (8) |
| RESIDUAL – LIRA USED carelessly | |
| 11 | Astronaut’s gear made from second rate diamonds, say (9) |
| SPACESUIT – S(econd) PACE (rate) SUIT (diamonds, say, in cards) | |
| 12 | Stars kind to plug Sinatra classic? (5,3) |
| MILKY WAY – ILK (kind) to plug MY WAY (Sinatra classic) | |
| 13 | Uproar when wearing gaudy jewellery that’s very bright (8) |
| BLINDING – DIN (uproar)when wearing BLING (gaudy jewellery) | |
| 16 | Clumsily enacts mountaineering objective (6) |
| ASCENT – clumsily ENACTS | |
| 18 | Revolutionary starts to make another red xylophone (4) |
| MARX – “starts” to Make Another Red Xylophone | |
| 19 | Place where officers eat pickle (4) |
| MESS – double definition | |
| 21 | Bird stuck in the mud (3) |
| EMU – “stuck in” thE MUd | |
5.51
Also getting ready for the office do so pleased this was on the gentler side. Spelling Bee was a bit of a struggle though (whoops, wrong paper!)
Thanks all
10:52 here, with the last 2 minutes spent staring at BRIDESMAID until finally the penny dropped that perhaps it was all an anagram. Other than that, no holdups. COD SPACESUIT.
Thanks to Trelawney and rolytoly (or “Raku tilt” as my phone’s stupid auto-correct mysteriously suggests).
Raku tilt – love it 🤣🤣🤣
Enjoyable puzzle, although we had blinking for 13d. About 25 minutes which is good for us.
A flying visit as I’m off out for a Christmas do shortly, but suffice to say that I fairly flew through this one in 5:49 – that must be close to a PB, and all parsed as I went. I doubt I could write much faster but still not quite 1K 😂 The biggie on the other hand – I can’t even get started!
Plenty of food and drink references here – just my cup of tea.
FOI Tapas LOI Emu COD Residual
Thanks Trelawney and Roly
Can we stop moaning about portculis grids? The clues and answers still work just do the first one across and off you go (or the first one down)
Gentle today
The gap between Trelawney and the other setters is getting wider. If I found this straightforward, it must have been very easy for most of you!
Well done to those who achieved PBs and SCC escapes. A good QC for new and inexperienced solvers to enjoy.
17:10
Pretty straightforward but a good 3 mins on LOI SQUARE OFF.