Today was going to be Writinghawk’s final appearance as he will be leaving the country shortly and going to a location with poor/no internet access. However, it seems that something has prevented him from turning up.
Unfortunately I don’t have time to provided more than a simple analysis of the clues but I did note whilst preparing this post that rather a lot of them (around 40% in fact) involved an anagram.
Across
8 Doctor carrying oxygen about is rather inferior (8)
MEDIOCRE – MEDIC (doctor) around (carrying) O (oxygen) RE (about)
9 Game fellow took part in criminal activity (6)
LOOTED – LOO (game) TED (fellow)
10 Zoologist agrees to provide home for animal (4)
STAG – hidden in (to provide home for) ‘zoologiST AGrees’
11 State in which first man rejected fossil fuel used by vehicle (10)
MADAGASCAR – ADAM (first man) reversed (rejected) GAS (fossil fuel) CAR (vehicle)
12 Language understood by those in the know has primarily Japanese element (6)
JARGON – J[apanese] (primarily Japanese) ARGON (element)
14 It’s correct to sit back in pursuit (8)
CHASTISE – SIT reversed (back) in CHASE (pursuit)
15 Popular female abridged translation for Kindle (7)
INFLAME – IN (popular) anagram (translation) on FEMAL[e]
17 Injures muscles in races (7)
STRAINS – double def.
20 Pretend to be ill to avoid working with horribly mean girl (8)
MALINGER – anagram (horribly) of MEAN GIRL
22 Might primate get something to eat with a drink before dinner? (6)
CANAPE – CAN (might) APE (primate)
23 Unconventional mum moaned dreadfully about teacher’s last written reminder (10)
MEMORANDUM – anagram (unconventional or dreadfully) of MUM MOANED around (about) [teache]R (teacher’s last) – we seem to have a superfluous anagram indicator here
24 Miss second sleep (4)
SKIP – S (second) KIP (sleep)
25 Family’s after wood to make barrel (6)
FIRKIN – FIR (wood) KIN (family)
26 Norway at war, unfortunately, against thriving sea creature (8)
NARWHALE – N (Norway) anagram (unfortunately) of WAR HALE (thriving)
Down
1 Relax before wet weather’s in control (8)
RESTRAIN – REST (relax) RAIN (wet weather)
2 Band initially recorded in neighbour’s garage (4)
RING – first letters of (initially) R[ecorded] I[n] N[eighbour’s] G[agage]
3 Sharpness of mind shown by copper getting in the last word (6)
ACUMEN – CU (copper) in AMEN (last word)
4 Drive suspect to court for jury’s decision (7)
VERDICT – anagram (suspect) of DRIVE CT (court)
5 Outrageous tirade following drop in performance (8)
FLAGRANT – FLAG (drop in performance) RANT (tirade)
6 Take steps to promote domestic order, when routine has broken down (5-5)
HOUSE-TRAIN – anagram (when … broken down) of ROUTINE HAS
7 Let sap develop in parts of plant (6)
PETALS – anagram (develop) of LET SAP
13 Crazy dog kills old Charlie character in nursery story (10)
GOLDILOCKS – anagram (crazy) of DOG KILLS O C
16 Setter taking one small measure from apothecary for nasty headache (8)
MIGRAINE – ME (setter) around (taking) I (one) GRAIN (small measure from apothecary)
18 Lust and pain marred wedding ceremony (8)
NUPTIALS – anagram (marred) of LUST PAIN
19 Neptune’s spear found in decomposed net after turning up soil (7)
TRIDENT – DIRT (soil) reversed (turning up) anagram (decomposed) of NET
21 Recopied email to a girl (6)
AMELIA – anagram (recopied) of EMAIL A
22 Arrived with artist’s photographic equipment (6)
CAMERA – CAME (arrived) RA (artist)
24 Squatters heading for old house in part of central London (4)
SOHO – S[quatters] (squatters heading) O (old) HO (house)
A decent Quiptic which did what it said on the tin, IMHO. NARWHALE was my LOI and I wasn’t aware of that alternative spelling.
So sorry all, for not making it to my own leaving party! Especially for this nice puzzle from Pan. (Andy @1, I wasn’t aware of that spelling of NARWHAL either.) As Gaufrid says, I’m off on an adventure for a few months, so won’t be blogging any more at least for a while – farewell, all!
Thanks, Gaufrid and Pan
Yes – a quiptic that is in fact quick – great for beginners like me.
It’s good to have confirmation from TMOTB above, because I would have thought that this was just about perfect for the brief (haha…accidental pun 🙂 ).
Except, to be picky, for LOOTED – ‘Loo’ seems needlessly obscure, and just being given ‘fellow’ and having to think through every shortenable man’s name is daunting and off putting for beginners – particularly as the definition is any one of dozens of possible crimes. (..Just meant as constructive criticism in the search for the ultimate Quiptic!)
Anyway, congratulations Pan, this is so very nearly ‘it’.
Have a good adventure Writinghawk – have you thought about how you will survive without your daily Xword fix?
That’s comforting, Limeni; Looted was the last one in, and our third collectively solved Quiptic.
We initially solved it as Loote-r/d, because ‘loot’ appeared to solve for criminal activity, using the available letters.
We won’t forget the French game of ‘Loo’, and now understand how to parse the whole clue.
Nic
Thanks Pan and Gaufrid
This was an enjoyable Quiptic, even though I failed to solve LOOTED. I loved all of the anagrams!
I needed help to parse 16d and 15a.