Times Quick Cryptic No 1839 by Izetti

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A typically smooth but testing Quick Cryptic from Don today. He certainly kept me on my toes with one or two tricky clues that needed all my experience to navigate. Never one to just follow the well-worn paths, be it with an unusual word or different wordplay, he has given us a new (for me) anagram indicator and a teasing definition or two. Good stuff. Thank-you Izetti. In all it took me just over an average time. How did everyone else get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword here and the answers here. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.

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

Across
1 Agreement in a case, we hear? (4)
PACT – Sounds like [we hear] PACKED (in a case). Nice, but a little tricky, I think.
3 Prisoner getting inner boost somewhere in Bristol (7)
CLIFTON – CON (prisoner) outside [getting inner] LIFT (boost). Famous for its suspension bridge.
8 Here are roads — ah, so go further, travelling round! (13)
THOROUGHFARES – (ah go so further)* [travelling around]. A bit of  curious definition, I thought.
9 Something bad in grass, not good (3)
SIN – SINg (grass; tell on) without the G [not good].
10 Brief experience of rogue state (5)
TASTE – [rogue] (state)*.
12 Insect going wrong way was first to get snarled (7)
TANGLED – GNAT (insect) reversed -> TANG, LED (was first)..
14 Last word from revolutionary with anger about nothing (7)
CHEERIO – CHE (Guevara; crosswordland’s favourite revolutionary), IRE (anger) [about] -> ERI, O (0; nothing). Nice. But maybe a bit tricky for a QC? Who thought “about” was a containment indicator?
16 Makes only some learn something (5)
EARNS – Hidden in [only some] lEARN Something. Tricky, but neat, definition.
17 Feeble, unable to finish hit (3)
LAM – LAMe (feeble) without the last letter [unable to finish].
20 Mar a party line being awkward in governing body (13)
PARLIAMENTARY – (mar a party line)* [being awkward].
21 Japanese governor carrying orient’s latest weapon (7)
SHOTGUN – SHOGUN (Japanese governor) outside [carrying] last letter of  [‘s latest] orienT.
22 Country had to be led by Conservative (4)
CHAD – HAD, with, on the fornt [to be led by] C (conservative).
Down
1 Touching a pet, itch terribly (8)
PATHETIC – (a pet itch)* [terribly].
2 Invalid said to be a fearsome swimmer (4)
CROC – Sounds like [said to be] CROCK (invalid).
3 Telling man to support firm (6)
COGENT – GENT (man) underneath [to support] CO (company).
4 Firing ten men, sacked for violation of rule (12)
INFRINGEMENT – (firing ten men)* [sacked]. The variety of anagram indicators, aka “anagrinds” (see our glossary) , that are commonly accepted is amazing (oh and that’s one too). See the list here. I see “sacked” isn’t on the list (yet)! I think it should be.
5 Stream running into the river in exciting story (8)
THRILLER – RILL (stream) inside [running into] THE R (river). Neat.
6 Comfy home in one’s town (4)
NEST – Hidden [in] oNE’S Town.
7 Hard bargaining in sales involving Arabs? (5-7)
HORSE-TRADING – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. Arabs are horses so sales involving them might be HORSE-TRADING.
11 Devious cronies concealing a plot (8)
SCENARIO – [devious] (cronies)* outside [concealing] A.
13 Criticise girl said to be dejected (8)
DISMAYED – DIS (criticise) MAYED, sounds like MAID (girl) [said].
15 Father left with daughter in Middle Eastern territory (3,3)
OLD MAN – L (left) D (daughter) [in} OMAN (Middle Eastern territory). But was he a dustman? I think we should know.
18 Animals exercise, when going outside (4)
APES – PE (exercise), AS (when) [going outside].
19 Composer in group losing heart (4)
BACH – BAtCH. Group without the middle letter [losing heart]. Easier to biff with the checkers than to parse.

55 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1839 by Izetti”

  1. DNK CLIFTON, but it seemed likely enough. Also DNK CROC, and still don’t; invalid as null, or invalid as sick person? LOI in any case. ‘sacked’ seemed stretching things a bit. 5:33.
    1. ‘Crock’ is slang for a weak or debilitated person.

      Sack = destroy, despoil etc, which seems fine to me. It’s in the Chambers list of anagrinds.

  2. After Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s shenanigans this was a case of déjà vu all over again. All but two clues this time were solved within my target 10 minutes but I needed another 3 to crack those and complete the grid. The two that delayed me were PACT and CROC.

    Does the definition at 20ac include ‘in’? I wasn’t sure.

  3. CLIFTON didn’t spring to mind as quickly as it should bearing in mind I work in Bristol. Always amazed our US friends know these places (I’d be struggling in reverse) but I guess the Suspension Bridge is well known

    As others have commented the usual high quality puzzle from Izetti which I enjoyed. Long anagrams were gettable (not always my strong suit) which helped

    Thanks all

  4. This started slowly with only one (PARLIAMENTARY) going in on the first pass. I had briefly considered Redlands (knew St Pauls and Fishpionds wouldn’t fit) as parts of Bristol and knew I couldn’t recall the bit with the zoo but didn’t really think those could be the answer so was surprised when it did turn out to the CLIFTON. Pethaps dvynys is right and the bridge does give it wider recognition. From that tricky start this turned out to be my favourite puzzle in quite a while. Special mention to TASTE for surface and for misdirecting me so well and giving the biggest groan of the week. Held up by Arabs which I’d forgotten about yet again and by CROC where I got sort of close early one with frog and toad in amphibians without making the jump to reptiles! Pleased to finish in 18 but got my traditional pink square for managing to get M into SCENARIO.

    Edited at 2021-03-26 07:05 am (UTC)

  5. Enjoyed this one for a finish in just under 15 but on a big and a prayer at 17ac — NHO LAM for hit and had vacillated between LIMP for feeble and LAMP for hit both with a missing P giving the other definition. Took the right punt fortunately, but now I see I was even luckier than I thought!

    Thanks to John for setting me straight

    Pb

  6. Very good crossword. Thought GUEST as a hidden for TASTE at first and COLSTON was my first thought for CLIFTON but knew that was no longer allowed.
  7. Tough but fair. After starting briskly with both the 1s I soon realised that this wasn’t going to be a quick romp so settled in to enjoy Izetti’s usual high quality puzzle.
    I took too long to spot CLIFTON, despite assuming CON would make up part of the answer and worried that I might lack the GK for the Japanese governor, until remembering the James Clavell(?) book.
    I particularly enjoyed the simplicity of CHAD and the surface reading of OLD MAN. Finished in 13.17 with LOI CROC.
    Thanks to John

  8. FOI 1A: PACT
    LOI 2D: CROC

    Typo: PARLIAMENNARY. Very enjoyable.

    Thank you, johninterred and Izetti

  9. Am I the only person not to have heard of 17a LAM? I found this crossword very difficult and it rounds off a pretty dismal week for me. Favourite clue was 14a CHEERIO, but my it was harder work than usual for me today!
    Have a good weekend all.

    Edited at 2021-03-26 08:30 am (UTC)

  10. Finally on Friday I get my first solve of the week below my target time (20:21). Would have been much better if not for at at least 5 mins on LOI CROC. “said to be” could be linked either with its antecedent or the phrase following. And crock=invalid doesn’t seem quite right. The clue was a bit of a crock, not exactly a crock-of-gold moment when it finally went in.

    NHO of LAM or LIM. I went for LAM on a majority vote because with LAMP, LAME and LIMP all potential words for truncation, LAM got it on a 2-1 scoreline.

    PARLIAMENTARY is a tough old word to spell, without knowing it was 13 letters I would have skipped at least one of the As if not both.

    COD CHEERIO : This is my default sign-off for all my emails, so much better than “sent from my iPhone”

  11. Slow and steady in 40. I took my time as I had a feeling it was all solvable with effort, and it was. Very enjoyable. Almost fell at the last fence (OPEN instead of APES) using ON for “going”) and mulled over LAM or LIM before thinking of two uses of lam (whack and on the lam). COD Horse trading.
    Thank you John and Izetti. Have a good weekend everyone.
    I definitely need a break after a heavy week but doubt I’ll get one as there are so many things left undone from months of neglect (will I ever get round to unpacking boxes and boxes from house move I wonder. Doubtful.)
          1. So do I. When my parents died we religiously moved boxes from their attic to ours, and it was only when I looked a bit more closely at them that it became obvious that they were full of stuff from their parents! It gives a whole new meaning to the words “family heirlooms”.

            Cedric

            1. Yes, we’ve got those too. I just wonder what the next generation will do when the time comes.
  12. What a great way to the end the week. This puzzle had a bit of everything and was a joy to solve. We finished in a very pleasing 14 minutes.

    FOI: pact
    LOI: croc
    COD: cheerio

    Thanks to Izetti and John.

  13. I had almost the full set of issues described above. Saw GUEST straight away as a hidden clue for 10A, and “brief experience” seemed to fit. That had me convinced that 1D was ALLERGIC somehow, until eventually I got rid of GUEST and all became clear.

    I associate CLIFTON with Nottingham (was the biggest council estate in the world at one time), so that took longer than it should, though I should have thought of IKB’s suspension bridge sooner.

    Only heard of “LAM” in the sense of being “on the lam” or on the run, so that had to wait until LOI.

    Despite all that, I finished along with the last mouthful of coffee, and this was easily the most enjoyable QC of the week. Enjoyed the misdirection of INFRINGEMENT (fired and sacked) and the wit of DISMAYED. Thanks Izetti and John for a nice end to the week.

    Edited at 2021-03-26 09:29 am (UTC)

  14. What a superb puzzle. Like plett11, I soon realised that I wasn’t going to speed through this one so I relaxed and enjoyed it. There were too many excellent clues to list and I am not ashamed to admit to going a couple of minutes into the SCC. LOI was HORSE TRADING which only emerged when the ‘Arab’ thing dawned (caught again with that one).
    I wanted BACH from the beginning (having taken time to eliminate ARNE, PART, IVES, BERG, BYRD CAGE, and others) but, like John, I only got it when I had the crossers — I needed the blog for the parsing. Many thanks to Izetti for a clever, witty, and rewarding puzzle that was well on the way to a 15sq in a few parts for me. Thanks to John for a vg blog. John M.

    Edited at 2021-03-26 09:49 am (UTC)

  15. Satisfyingly quick for me today, well below average. Must have been on Izetti’s wavelength. A much needed tonic after the disaster a couple of days ago.

    Having said that, I was helped by having learned a few crosswords ago to read ‘grass’ as a snitch rather than the green plant. Surely there must be some other definition for ‘nest’ than ‘comfy home’ which comes up frequently, and some better way to clue ‘che’ than ‘revolutionary’? ‘Say goodbye from home in church, I get nothing after hesitation’ would have been better to clue Cheerio.

    Anyway, all round enjoyment which is the point so thanks to Izetti and to John for the blog.

  16. Outside target by a handful of seconds at 15:05, but I’m going to consider it achieved. PACT and CROC were my last two in — I hate it when I can’t get the first across clue until the end, it bothers and nags at me throughout the solve. Otherwise, an excellent QC from my fave setter. Thanks both.
  17. But otherwise finished.
    FOsI CHAD, BACH.
    Liked CHEERIO, COGENT, OLD MAN.
    LOsI APES, CLIFTON
    Bit of a struggle. Thanks vm, John, for explanations of eg SIN.
  18. I started with PATHETIC, but PACT and CROC didn’t arrive until much later, in fact CROC was my LOI. I had to concentrate on this puzzle throughout and exceeded my target time. 10:57. Thanks Izetti and John.
  19. I don’t know what it was about this puzzle, but I got nowhere with it.

    On my first read through the clues struck me as the type that I should be able to answer with some thought, but it was not so.

    I found the clues, even the long anagrams, to be very difficult.

    Perhaps I am just tired and so can’t focus, or maybe I’m just not destined to ever get anywhere near completing an Izetti crossword. Maybe Izetti crosswords are ones I should just not attempt in the future.

    Let’s see if I can do any better with the Daily Telegraph cryptic today.

      1. Absolutely! However, do not fear; I went to the store today and have enough candy to see me through the weekend.
  20. Took a while to unravel the long anagrams and NHO LAM, but guessed correctly.
    Others clues needed quite a bit of thinking about.
  21. Unlike many of the seasoned solvers I got PACT straight away. The three long anagrams took a little while to come to mind perhaps due to a lack of practise. BACH was biffed and parsed post solve. My LOI was CROC in a just outside target time of 9:09.
  22. … which all went in surprisingly easily and led to an 11 minute finish. A most enjoyable puzzle, and my longest hold-up were on the two shortest words, 9A Sin (took an age to see sing as the word I was losing a G from) and 17A Lam where I got completely the wrong end of the stick and was looking for a 3-letter word meaning feeble as a truncation of a 4-letter word meaning hit. Untangling Sin led to my LOI 7D Horse trading, a very fine clue indeed and my COD.

    Much fun, and more to come tomorrow with the Saturday special! Many thanks to John for the blog and a good weekend to all
    Cedric

  23. It’s been a week of more than the usual number of tricky puzzles, I found, and today’s adding to that.

    Once I had 1A and 1D in quickly was feeling smug, then ran into a wall. Am not a fan of long anagrams, and their solutions didn’t help. Perhaps needed that cup of coffee first.

    Not heard of CROC and missed the connection of ‘Arab’ to horses, so stared at the long vertical blanks for too long.

    Thanks for the explanations !

    1. I thought Arab was to do with the large number of Arabs in the thoroughbred breeding and training business. In fact one appears in the obituaries today. Having just read it, maybe it was on my mind.

  24. An enjoyable but challenging end to the week completed fully in 30 mins. Had a feeling we were in for something different when I untangled 9ac “Sin” and 18dn “Apes” — small clues but still tricky.

    Main hold ups were 5dn “Thriller” (which is now so blindly obvious I’m still tutting at myself 10 minutes later), creating the new country of “PAL MED” for 15dn and deciphering 16ac “Earns”. I also DNK 17ac “Lam”.

    FOI — 3ac “Clifton”
    LOI — 16ac “Earns”
    COD — 19dn “Bach” — simple, but lovely surface

    Thanks as usual

  25. I found this testing. It was over 2 minutes before I got FOI APES. After that I had to track round the grid. I recognised several anagrams but needed to write them all out. Once I had some checkers I speeded up to finish with PACT and CROC (like others).
    In the end 14:14.
    An excellent puzzle from Izetti. Favourite was CHAD.
    David
  26. 30 minutes for the first 22 clues (very good for me) followed by a further 20 minutes for my final two clues (1a: PACT, 2d: CROC). Alphabet trawling was interminable, because without 1a there were too many possible words for 2d, and without 2d there were too many words for 1a. In the end, however, I did crack those two clues and I can see they were fair, so I have no complaints. I finally finished in 50 minutes, so I consider today’s outcome a score-draw.

    Mrs R hasn’t experienced a DNF for ages now, but she is going through a strange patch – either blitzing the puzzle in <20 minutes or having to tough it out over 60+ minutes. Nothing in-between, weird!

    Thanks to Izetti for the challenge and to johninterred for the blog.

  27. It’s been a run of testers.

    As for lots of others – CROC was my LOI. I had was looking for words meaning “not valid”, and resorted to an alphabet trawl, and when I got to “R”, the penny dropped that it was that meaning of invalid.

    Also was slow on the long anagrams, would probably be quicker if I wrote them out.

    10:06.

  28. Thanks to some unusually quick solving of long anagrams, I was at one point in danger of a sub-20 solve. However I managed to stay on this week’s script and dragged out my last few, especially Sin and Horse Trading, to give me a 26min finish, albeit with Bach unparsed. Izetti clues always require careful reading, but are there to be enjoyed. CoD to 7d, Horse Trading, for the (eventual) pdm. Invariant
  29. I worked my way steadily through this in 12 minutes (below target for an Izetti) while eating beans on toast (yum!) but was not concentrating enough on the structure of the clues to get the full benefit. It was only on rereading everything carefully that I could appreciate the fantastic, witty cluing today. Every one a gem, with a special mention to 10a, where I didn’t think about it being a hidden so didn’t get put off. In fact, it’s only because Sawbill mentioned it that I even realised it was a possibility! I really liked CHEERIO and INFRINGEMENT too.

    Clifton wasn’t a problem – I know both. Bizarrely there is a Michelin starred restaurant under one of the flyovers on the Clifton Boulevard in Nottingham! Not an exotic part of the country, it must be said.

    FOI Clifton
    LOI Croc
    COD Put a tick next to Horse-trading on the first run-through so will stick with that, but, oh my goodness, it’s hard to choose!

    Many thanks Izetti and John for a great end to the week.

    Edited at 2021-03-26 01:26 pm (UTC)

  30. Excellent puzzle. Thought I was to be stymied by the pact / croc crossed but once they were out of the way all was smooth helped by the king clues jumping out.

    6:35 thanks John and izetti

  31. 14 minutes, so longer than the past two days, for a crossword that went in quite straightforwardly. LOI was HORSE TRADING, goodness knows why. Still a good time for me; I think my average is gradually decreasing which is as it should be.
  32. Lots of enjoyment here, more than 20 minutes of it in my case. Unlike others, 1ac PACT went in early after getting 1dn when I didn’t see 1ac first off. But it didn’t give me 2dn CROC which was LOI when it finally clicked. Liked SCENARIO, DISMAYED, CHEERIO
  33. Great puzzle and my first sub-10 of the week. Better late than never.

    FOI PATHETIC, LOI CROC, COD DISMAYED, time 9:25 which is about 1.8K but a sub Hopkin so it’s a Very Good Day!

    Many thanks Don and John.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-03-26 04:30 pm (UTC)

  34. Rarely complete said setter, but persevered, especially in the SW for a satisfying completion. Great mix of clues and for me the right level of difficulty, with some helpful anagrams to get me going.
    Graham
  35. Enjoyed the puzzle, we were slow to solve 7d, forgetting arab and horse connection, looking for a fish for 2d before the penny dropped. Knew lam, Birmingham or Black Country term perhaps? Otherwise we made good progress, thanks Izetti and for the blog.
  36. ….as my back is probably about 90% right. Target therefore back to 5 minutes, and I made it by the skin of my teeth. I don’t know Bristol that well, but the bridge is world famous (I know the Clifton in Nottingham as one of the four termini of their X-shaped tramway system, and there’s also one in Salford).

    Stiff but fair challenge from Izetti. We expect no less.

    FOI SIN (original sin ?)
    LOI CROC (finally jumped out and bit me)
    COD PACT
    TIME 4:58

    Edited at 2021-03-26 05:22 pm (UTC)

    1. Glad to hear your back is much improved.
      Unlikely you will need to spend too long sitting with sub 5 minute solves.
      Keep exercising to build up abdominal and paraspinal muscles to avoid a recurrence!
  37. Somewhat chewy I thought, and I wasn’t helped by nearly dozing off in the middle after a long day. Lots of interesting clues, but with a bit of thought most of them went in without too much head scratching. After 28 minutes I was left with 1a and 2d to get. I did wonder about CROC, but it didn’t seem to fit the “invalid” part of the clue very well, so I left it. Then I thought 1a could be PEAL, but after trying a few combinations starting with A for 2d, I looked at 1a again and came up with PACT. I then realised 2d probably was CROC, but I was still very glad to get confirmation. FOI was either THOROUGHFARES or CHEERIO, LOI CROC, COD 15d, Time: 35:31. Thanks Izetti and John.
  38. 7 hours 10 minutes for me, according to the timer on my online Times, albeit not all of that was spent on the clues! The long answers fell pretty quickly and a few others, so I went to grab a tea, got distracted by something and just remembered I hadn’t done the other half. A fine puzzle and I liked THRILLER particularly: thanks to Izetti and John.
  39. No time — needed to sleep after starting!! Possibly 45 minutes. But like so many others I found this a joy to slowly go through and savour and I got there in the end.
    Clifton is topical in my family with two offspring within a couple of miles of it.
    The long anagrams were all doable and just when I kept thinking I couldn’t go on I could see another answer.
    LOI Thriller
    FOI Pact
    Paused a lot — Croc — written in softly at first
    COD Dismayed — only because I was happy to get that and open up the last few

    It looks like this was a winner — mark up for inclusion in the next 100 QC edition!!

    Thanks all
    John George

    Edited at 2021-03-26 07:27 pm (UTC)

  40. I truly hated this one. I’ve given up just now after three days of trying. This was far too difficult for a QC.

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