Quick Cryptic 2933 by Izetti

Author   BletchleyRejectPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

Izetti in a fairly gentle mood today.

I found this to be a medium level difficulty QC without any of the obscure words which Izetti sometimes likes to foist upon us unsuspecting solvers.  Five clues involving letter deletions but none too difficult. I’m not 100% confident of the parsing of 11a and as usual there are a few clues which are difficult to categorise, notably 6d.

I’ll go for the ‘French city’ as my favourite – well and truly sucked in to going down the anagram route.

All finished in 11:48.

Thanks to Izetti

Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.

Across
1 Expert off home after end of job (6)
BOFFIN – OFF (‘off’) IN (‘home’) following (‘after’) joB (‘end of job’)
5 French city in danger somehow (6)
ANGERS – Hidden (‘in’) dANGER Somehow
8 Stirs up a US soldier with a test that’s new (8)
AGITATES – A (‘a’) GI (‘US soldier’) then anagram (‘that’s new’) of A TEST
9 Setter duplicated content that goes viral (4)
MEME – ME + ME (‘Setter duplicated’)

One of those many words which I wouldn’t be confident enough to use in general conversation. Collins gives two senses for MEME, the second one of which, first appearing in 1998, applies here: “an image or video that is spread widely on the internet, often altered by internet users for humorous effect”. I’ve just learnt from the OED that the first sense, for a cultural element or aspect of behaviour which is imitated and passed on by non-genetic means, was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in The Selfish Gene. But I’m sure you all knew that (seriously).
10 Bar weapons being returned (4)
SNUG – Reversal (‘being returned’) of GUNS (‘weapons’)

A small, private area, often behind the main bar, in a pub. I was going to say it’s a term that’s never used in this part of the world, but Google proved me wrong straight away. I liked this site which describes the role of the SNUG in Irish pubs and provides some interesting tidbits into various Irish social customs of the 19th century.
11 Most likely fit for investigation, seemingly (8)
PROBABLE – PROBE ABLE (‘fit for investigation, seemingly’)

PROBEABLE, but not PROBABLE, is in the dictionaries as an adjectival form of PROBE, so I suppose the ‘seemingly’ could be indicating a theoretically possible alternative spelling.
12 Presents in boxes unopened (6)
OFFERS – COFFERS (‘boxes unopened’)
14 Some Parisian with wrath and lust? (6)
DESIRE – DES (‘Some Parisian’) IRE (‘wrath’)
16 One coming down with another kitchen item (8)
COLANDER – Definition with cryptic hint – a CO(-)LANDER (‘one coming down with another’)

A fellow passenger in an aeroplane could whimsically be called a CO-LANDER.
18 One musical instrument or another not initially loud (4)
LUTE – FLUTE (‘another not initially loud’)
20 Stadium overlooking new field (4)
AREA – ARENA (‘Stadium overlooking new’)
21 One’s single lab chore must be organised (8)
BACHELOR – Anagram (‘must be organised’) of LAB CHORE
23 Like advert about storing email at regular intervals (6)
ADMIRE – AD (‘advert’) and RE (‘about’) containing (‘storing’) eMaIl (’email at regular intervals’)
24 Cask kept in bar for stout (6)
ROTUND – TUN (‘cask’) contained in (‘kept in’) ROD (‘bar’)

The second boozy reference in the puzzle, but this time a misleading one. Good surface.
Down
2 An ear maybe for something musical (5)
ORGAN – Double definition

With just the initial checked O in place, I’ll own up to initially putting in OPERA
3 Overweight, one visitor needing to shed stone, showing tiredness (7)
FATIGUE – FAT (‘Overweight’) I (‘one’) GUEST (‘visitor needing to shed stone’)
4 Trap number turning up (3)
NET – Reversal (‘turning up’) of TEN (‘number’)
5 Awfully bad crones who will do a bunk? (9)
ABSCONDER – Anagram (‘Awfully’) of BAD CRONES
6 Third character seen in newspaper in Athens (5)
GAMMA – Cryptic definition cum double definition
7 Walker to go at easy pace between two rivers (7)
RAMBLER – AMBLE (‘to go at easy pace’) contained in (‘between’) R and R (‘two rivers’)
11 Dad’s blood circulating with energy in dance (4,5)
PASO DOBLE – PAS (‘Dad’s) then anagram (‘circulating’) of BLOOD then E (‘energy’)

The rearrangement of the letters in BLOOD isn’t consistent with ‘circulating’ being used as a synonym for “cycling”.
13 Silly fool looking embarrassed, dumbfounded (7)
FLOORED – Anagram (‘silly’) of FOOL then RED (‘looking embarrassed’)

Very appropriate on all levels, both definition and wordplay. My LOI; I don’t know why, rabbit frozen in the headlights I suppose, but I just couldn’t get the FOOL anagram.
15 Prominent stranger in street (7)
SALIENT – ALIEN (‘stranger’) contained in (‘in’) ST (‘street’)
17 Fine instrument used by dramatist (5)
AMATI – Hidden (‘used by’) drAMATIst

A violin made by the Italian family of violin makers. For a couple of reasons, I don’t think you could use the term “a poor man’s Stradivarius” to describe one.
19 Old character that could get under your skin and be a pain (5)
THORN – Definition with cryptic hint (‘that could get under your skin and be a pain’)

The ‘Old character’ (letter) Þ used for ‘th’. With the advent of printing, there was no Þ in some of the early printing character sets (or whatever the correct term is) and y/Y was used instead, giving rise to “ye/Ye” for “the” as in “Ye olde”.

On edit: See vinyl1’s post below.
22 Worry when the bottom drops off vehicle (3)
CAR – CARE (‘worry when the bottom drops off’)

101 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2933 by Izetti”

  1. Got sucked in too at 5a. Clever. I was quite surprised by how gettable everything was today considering it’s an Izetti. Only AMATI caused a delay before seeing it was a hidden anyway, not very up on fine violins with the exception of the strad. Liked PASO DOBLE. COD to LUTE.
    Thanks BR and setter.

  2. I had to just guess between PROBABLE and PROBABLY, and I still don’t really understand this clue. I guess both PROBE and ABLE finish with E so I should have picked PROBABLE…
    If the wordplay is “you could think of a word for X and then misspell it” then I really don’t like that, it seems way too open.

  3. In an amazing coincidence, my time today of 9.48 was EXACTLY THE SAME as my time for yesterday. I mean, what are the odds? I was slow to see AMATI, misread what to do with the N in AREA (no N) and had no idea about the COLANDER wordplay. Thanks BR and Izetti.

    1. I thought the clue for colander had holes in it!

      Off topic: Did you watch ‘Monochrome: Black, White and Blue’ on the weekend? Great doco on the Blues beginnings in the south. Lots of mentions and images of Dockery Farms.

      1. OK, seeing I’m in Oz I might have missed that but will look it up. Went on a road trip in the delta in late 2019 (just scraped in before covid) and was just blown away, loved it. Found a shopfront on a street in Friars Point where Robert Johnson used to play. And yeah, went to Dockery’s, as you maybe guessed from my avatar. Will definitely look that show up, thank you

        1. Yes. Your avatar and the fact that I’m also in Victoria is what prompted me to post. It’s on SBS on demand.

    2. Assuming that you have half your times distributed between 6 and 16 minutes, and they are then equally distributed. I’d say 1 in 1200, so every few years.

  4. Glad I wasn’t alone in being well and truly suckered by ANGERS. Thought I was going to stuggle with the final two until I saw SALIENT would fit and then realised it parsed! That gave me the L of LUTE which suddenly turned it from impenetrable to obvious. Hadn’t heard of AMATI but it fitted so I did as I was told. BOFFIN was first one in and my favourite clue, nice to start on such a high. All green in 11.02, thanks Izetti and Bletchers.

  5. My 8 minutes suggests this is Izetti at his most benevolent.

    I can find no support for PROBABLE as an alternative spelling of PROBEABLE so I assume that ‘seemingly’ implies a tongue firmly in cheek.

    I think ‘cryptic definition’ rather than ‘cryptic cum double’ is right for GAMMA – the whole thing.

  6. A steady solve with much to enjoy along the way. All done in 24.32 which is good far an Izetti here.

    Liked paso doble which became obvious once we had the crosser that stopped us looking for an anagram of dad’s blood!

    Thanks Izetti and BR for the blog. NHO thorn as a character.

  7. I put PROBABLY at 11ac, and actually had put PROBABLE first and then changed my mind in favour of PROBABLY.
    Except for that, I finished in 8:47

  8. I was going swimmingly, but was stuck for ages on COLANDER & LOI AMATI. Finally saw the hidden, and a little more finally realized that I shouldn’t have been looking for a dramatist. 8:32.

  9. I parsed ‘probable’ as a nod to ‘probable cause’ which is a legal standard required for the police to arrest someone and then subsequently launch an investigation. But maybe I’m overthinking it.

    Thanks to Izetti and Blogger

  10. Sluggish today, but at least I finished it which is an improvement from yesterday.

    Spent time trying to anagram ‘danger’ for the French city (whose name had slipped into a secure vault at the bottom of my memory banks). Also struggled with SALIENT, FLOORED and OFFERS and never did parse PROBABLE.

    Crossed the line in 11.13.
    Thanks to BR

  11. 9.18

    Slow start but sped up. PROBABLE not easily gettable from the w/p and thought GAMMA a bit weak but lots of good stuff in there as well.

      2. I put a fork against the rim of the saucepan and pour the water out through the tines!

        1. Coincidentally I just used that exact method … albeit I was straining the water out of my Pot Noodle after discovering I hadn’t boiled the kettle and therefore put cold water in 😬

      4. What an interesting discussion we are having. I once used a colander to project the light from an eclipse of the sun. ( 20 March 2015 to be exact.). So you could see lots of little partially eclipsed suns on a pillowcase, the only plain white surface to hand.

        1. I thought you were referring to the lid and the pan being offset, as in an eclipse.

  13. 28 mins. Sped through the north part. I was particularly slowed up in the SW.
    NHO amati but guessed this as a hidden word.

    The clues were well written and I could parse them. Very enjoyable.

    Hope Izetti continues to set QC like this.
    COD: COLANDER

    Thanks to Izetti and BR.

  14. 4:47. Like others were, I was held up most by the SW corner, but OFFERS got me to FLOORED and AMATI to COLANDER. Thanks Izetti and BR.

  15. 14:48 for the solve. Strangely quite relieved to see Izetti’s name come up – a case of “better the devil you know” as while I like some of the new setters, recent puzzles suggest their styles aren’t quite there yet.

    I’m not sure I’d agree with this being gentle – feels like the sort of puzzle which would have resulted in a DNF at an hour when I was a beginner. I wasn’t suckered by ANGERS – just couldn’t remember it from previous times I’ve been seen; SNUG=bar, AMATI (fingers crossed and then vaguely remembered), trying to spell PASO-DOBLE, getting GAMMA but unsure what the newspaper was doing, knowing TUN=cask. None of which is a complaint, just that I remember being a beginner and am pleased to have achieved a decent level of competence.

    Thanks to BR and Izetti.

  16. I’m another PROBABLY; looked at that one up, down and sideways and couldn’t make any sense out of it so flipped a coin. Still don’t think it works properly. Hey ho, bad week continues. 08:17 but WOE.

    Many thanks Bletchers and Izetti. COD to COLANDER, very good!

  17. I may be in a minority here but I did not get on with this puzzle at all, which seemed to me to Izetti trying to make a simpler puzzle but ending up with something which was neither entirely simple nor a true Izetti. Much of it I found straightforward, even write-in, but the art of writing good straightforward clues is I suspect more complicated than it looks and a clue like GAMMA I don’t think quite hit the spot.

    And then the puzzle contains COLANDER (biffed, unparsed, pretty forced IMO), AMATI (got from the hidden and checkers but NHO – surely somewhat specialist GK?) and PROBABLE, where I still don’t understand the parsing despite reading BR’s excellent blog and all the subsequent comments. I simply don’t see how the wordplay accounts for the letters in the answer, and it isn’t an aural wordplay because Probable and Probeable are not pronounced the same.

    Still, all green in 13:15, though only after several guesses, clues unparsed and shrugged shoulders. Many thanks BR for the blog.

    1. ‘Newspaper in Athens’ is just somewhere you might see a Greek letter, i.e. GAMMA.

    2. I just took it to mean a letter (character) that might be seen in a Greek publication, such as a ‘newspaper in Athens’. There may be a reason why Izetti chose ‘newspaper’ rather than some other publication but if so it’s gone over my head.
      PS I’ve just seen Jack’s response; great minds think alike.

      1. Whenever I arrive in Athens I hop off the train at Syntagma and the first thing I buy is the latest issue of Gamma…

  19. Agree with david and SteveB on the at least equally correct PROBABLY; can’t see that “seemingly” points cogently to favouring the adjective. Didn’t like “like” = ADMIRE (weak) but it unlocked my LOI AMATI. Thank you, BR.

  20. New to QC and really enjoying them so far, even if we have season tickets to the SCC. Liked today’s but am struggling to see why “seen in newspaper in Athens” would lead to GAMMA (although biffed from the Greek third character clue).

    Delighted to have stumbled across these blogs – they have made our mornings really enjoyable. Thanks to BR and setter for the effort and the explanations.

    1. Thanks. Please see jackkt and my responses above. Those season tickets to the SCC sound tempting, the only trouble being continued eligibility is not guaranteed!

  21. Fell for the anagram at 5A and dnk Amati but otherwise straightforward. The set of bits of metal with letters on used by printers is a font! Only subsequently used to describe the design of the letters thereon. (Dad was a keen amateur printer)

  22. 13:20 (Declaration of Arbroath)

    Fast except for the SW corner. COLANDER was quickly seen as a possible kitchen implement, but I took a long time to see how the wordplay worked.
    LOI was AMATI; I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the violin maker.

    Thanks BR and Izetti

  24. This went reasonably well, perhaps partly because I did it without seeing who set it. I finished in 16.34 and, unusually for me, skated over some of the parsing. That meant that I had no problem with answers like PROBABLE, COLANDER, THORN, or GAMMA. The downside is that I mis-spelt PASO DOBLE in my haste so, technically, a DNF.
    On reflection, I agree with Cedric: ‘neither entirely simple nor a true Izetti’. I guess he cannot win, even when he tries to make a QC accessible to all. Some nice clues, though. AMATI is my COD.
    Thanks to Izetti and BR.

  25. Biffed COLANDER and not very happy with ‘seemingly’ indicating a possible non-existent spelling for PROBABLE. Remember SNUG from the old days of Coronation Street when Ena Sharples and her two cronies drank their milk stout there. Thanks BR for the blog which I needed to confirm some of my answers.

  26. Years ago asking for directions in France I asked a passerby “Ou est Angers?”
    They scratched their heads until I showed them the map.
    “Ah Enjay” they said.
    So 5 across was my first in !

  27. Enjoyable. For once I actually felt I was swimming along with Izetti. It’s PROBABLE I would have completed this quickly and correctly but for that stray Y at the end of 11a.
    Liked MEME, OFFERS, PASODOBLE, FLOORED, SALIENT. Saw ANGERS straight away luckily.
    THORN is a letter I learnt from these QCs. LOI LUTE. Biffed hidden AMATI. CNP COLANDER (ho ho) but it was an easy biff. In days of yore in old fashioned hotels there was a SNUG bar and it always surprises me when some people use it to mean ‘den’ in their house nowadays. Not that we have either.
    Thanks vm, BR.

    1. I like the way you write PASODOBLE, one word just like it is written here in Spain. I haven’t checked Chambers yet, but they probably have it as 2 words.

  28. 10 plus two biffs, colander and paso double for which I had to look up the spelling. Pretty much a write in for the top third-ish. Definitely on the easier side for me, although I failed on meme for some reason. I always thought the origin was a concatenation of me-me-me as most memes that I have seen seem to be self publicising trash.

    Disappointing as the selfish gene is one of the few books I’ve read in the past 20 years.

  29. DNF as NHO AMATI and didn’t see that “used by”= hidden. 27:10 for the rest.

  31. Like others was held up at the end by the sw corner, but getting FLOORED got me going again and eventually completed with AMATI to finish up in 10.09. I’ve not seen AMATI in a crossword for quite some time, but it was quite a favourite with setters at one time I seem to recall. It was only after I stopped the clock and scanned what I’d done that I realised PROBABLE could have been PROBABLY. Luckily I had chosen the right option.

  32. Finished in 14 minutes after giving up trying to parse COLANDER which I had thought of 10 minutes earlier.
    Like others I had problems in the SW but overall this seemed fair enough.
    I thought PROBABLE worked just about. And I knew AMATI and I think we’ve seen it before in puzzles.
    David

  33. DNF

    Not too bad but carelessly mistook 5ac for an anagram rather than a hidden giving ANGERD for the French city. NHO AMATI.

  34. While Boffin may well have been hidden in plain sight, it was still disguised well enough to fool me (yes, easily done), so Angers was a welcome write-in. That helped produce a solve that at one point showed a complete RHS and nothing yet on the left.
    Colander went in as a biff once a few checkers were in place (thanks BR for the parsing) and loi Admire left me wondering what the problem had been.
    A very satisfying 23min solve, with jCoDs to the overlapping Lute and Thorn for their surfaces. Invariant

  35. Not very Izetti-like at all and a much gentler QC than of late. LOI OFFERS after spending time faffing around with POI FLOORED. Biffed COLANDER only seeing how this worked much later. Very nice and COD 😆 Thought GAMMA seemed a little too straightforward so was initially suspicious. Didn’t spot incorrect spelling of PROBE-ABLE so no concerns here. A nice QC but prefer Izetti when he/she is more devilish and quirky. Many thanks BR.

  36. As spelling is not my strength I had no problems with PROBABLE. I missed out on the homonym ‘seat’ the other day so was happy not to repeat the mistake. I started with BOFFIN (which I liked) and ended with the unknown hidden AMATI. COLANDER made me smile as this is an accurate description of my son, a commercial pilot, who happens to enjoy cooking. 7:53 Thanks BR

  37. 18 minutes which is quick for me for an Izetti. However I had probably at 11ac (excusable I feel) and pasa double at 11dn (inexcusable). Otherwise my main hold-ups were in the SW quadrant where I was slow to see area, admire and Amati. Could not parse colander.

    FOI -5ac ANGERS
    LOI – 16ac COLANDER
    COD – 24ac ROTUND

    Thanks to Izetti and BR

  38. 6:27 but…

    …a careless PASA DOBLE gave me a pinkie. Otherwise, this was pretty gentle.

    Thanks BR and Izetti

    1. I did the same until I remembered on Strictly that they always refer to it as a “Paso”!

  39. 10:57. For some reason looking at the completed grid ANGERS, MEME, and PROBABLE jumped out at me as French words. DESIRE, ADMIRE, FATIGUE, CAR, and NET could be French too. So what, you might well say!

  41. From BOFFIN to OFFERS in 9:58. I was off the wavelength for this and had to make several passes. I also spent too long trying to make an anagram of danger. Thanks Izetti and BR.

  42. Took forever to find 17d Amati. HHO, it used to be quite frequent. I’m poor at hiddens.
    As for 11a Probable I thought that probeable wasn’t a word (spellchecker here agrees with that) and that it was a joke, and COD. Not sure about the COD now… but probeable added to Cheating Machine.
    Totally foxed by the newspaper at 6d Gamma. Shrugged and bunged it in.
    Big smile at 16a Co-lander.
    Thanks Bletchers & Izetti.

  43. Dnf…

    Nothing too difficult, just wasn’t on it and struggled with a number of clues in the SW corner. Upon reading the blog though, I would have fallen into the “Probably” trap.

    FOI – 4dn “Net”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 3dn “Fatigue”

    Thanks as usual!

  44. 21:52. I found this very tricky – brain definitely not firing on all cylinders today!

  45. 32 minutes today to solve todays, a very enjoyable puzzle. My favourite clue was for ORGAN and thought “An ear” may have meant a homophone, so that had me stumped until I had my light bulb moment. Had to check some of my answers, and still a bit confused as to how THORN works. Thank you for explaining the clues 🙂

  46. I started with PROBABLE and then changed to PROBABLY… on the basis that ‘likely fit for investigation’ was probe ably … and ‘most’ clued the deletion of ‘e’ and then ‘seemingly’ was the definition for probably…

    Couldn’t parse colander and held up slightly in the SW… Amati not at forefront of knowledge…

    Whilst less chewy than some of Izetti’s offerings… I still thought slightly hard…

    Thanks Izetti and BR!

  47. 15.06 with a pink square, dagnammit. My endgame was identical to vinyl1’s except for typing FLOOOED, which also broke AOEA. Thanks BR and Izetti.

  48. I got off to a great start with seven of my first eight clues going in without touching the sides. And despite slowing to a more normal pace after that, I somehow never became properly stuck. Every clue, except my LOI (COLANDER) was fully parsed and I crossed the line in a very pleasing 25 minutes or so. Trouble is that, on reading BR’s blog, I found that my (biffed) PROBABLy at 11a was wrong. So, after all that, an exasperating DNF.

    Many thanks to BR and Izetti.

  49. Got to GAMMA and thought it a bit simplistic so overcomplicated and spent ages deciding that it might indeed be the answer. No NHO Amati

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