Times Quick Cryptic 2956 by Izetti

74 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2956 by Izetti”

1. Straightforward enough, though I never parsed LOI ELAND, and I was held up for a moment to ponder the definition of PUREE. Isn’t BOROUGH just ‘borough’, a part of London? 8:35.

   1. I’m told “borough” is the generic for London suburbs: the borough of X.

      1. Borough is a borough of London with a now very trendy and popular market. Both specific and generic answers work ☺️

         1. Yes, that’s the place I referred to in my blog. It’s not strictly a borough in the more general sense though because it’s part of the London Borough of Southwark. As you say, the clue works either way.

         2. Good for a pulled pork bap from one of the numerous outlets.

            1. 😋

2. I was held up here and there but mostly this was reasonably straightforward, 9.35 with LOsI ORIENTAL and BOROUGH. I don’t see that it matters whether we’re talking about the general term or the specific location, the cryptic’s the same. I paused for a while over MAILLOT because I only knew le maillot jaune from the TDF, not the swimsuit def. Thanks to Jack and Izetti.

3. Well, I evidently don’t know the difference between a matelot and a maillot, but fortunately I solve from the cryptic. If you are an experienced solver, the puzzle is not that difficult. I didn’t see anything wrong with the literal for puree, either – that’s homemade baby food.

   Time: 7:35

4. A most encouraging 10 (ten) from the first pass of acrosses and plenty of downs then followed but I was slow in the SW where the muse turned out to be the only one I know before struggling to get PEDIGREE, the NHO MAILLOT and finally COTTAGER. It was all there just well hidden! All green in 13.20.

5. Not sure if Izetti has dialled down the difficulty recently, or it’s just that I’m getting better

   Probably more the former than the latter!

   1. We’re having the same thought 😂

6. 17:10. Held up by LOI NHO MAILLOT. This was because I had DAME for
   Barrier wife set against everyone (4)
   On the basis of DAM (barrier) + E. Doesn’t work, but looked close enough when I put it in.

   Only ever hear ERATO in crosswords.

   “City once destroyed”: COLOGNE, that was poignant, I know that’s not how the clue works, but can be read that way. COD (abbreviation works as well)

7. This felt like a well pitched QC.
   I did spend time trying to fit LP/EP into COLOGNE and was rather intimidated by the definition ‘architectural feature’ so waited until all the checkers were in place.
   Started with ABED and finished with COLONNADE in 7.47 with COD to PUREE.
   Thanks to Jackkt and Izetti.

8. I have an error rate of over 20% on the stats this month, most of it down to typos. So I shouldn’t be surprised that after a decent 3:36 I fell over on my LOI by typing “coytagers”.

   The figures mean increasingly less to me nowadays however – I know I solved it correctly in my head, and that’s what really matters.

   1. When I switched from solving on paper on doing so on my phone I decided that fat finger typos on a tiny screen wouldn’t count. I’m only recording stats for myself so as you say, “I know I solved it correctly in my head”.

9. Pretty straightforward. COLONNADE took me a little while as I wasn’t sure of the spelling, so waited for some checkers to go in. Liked ELAND with the unusual far part of ‘the’. I also know of the MAILLOT from the great bicycle race. PEDIGREE was my last one in thinking it was an anagram of père and gibe before I saw ‘dig’. COD to COLOGNE.
   Thanks Jack and setter.

10. 15:43 I got stuck on the pedigree maillot cottager axes and was bedfellowing vinyl for a while in trying to come to terms with an ill fitting matelot.
    I’m beginning to appreciate the difference in difficulty levels of answers based on simplicity and complexity of clueing and/or clarity and obscurity of the vocabulary, rather than finding the majority of the answers beyond me. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the three (imho) most difficult answers intersected. Is that where a setter like Izetti starts.. with a wry smile and a let’s see how difficult I can make the south west corner this week… oh and I’ll stick in wall to soften the blow and one of the nine muses to give the regulars a leg up…

    I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated it and was very happy with my time.

    Thanks Jack and Izetti

    1. 😀

11. A nice steady solve to 3/4 done in about 13 minutes when a clumsy bit of typing meant I swiped right in the iPad app which has recently developed a really irritating habit of completely resetting the grid and timer when you swipe back!!

    So filled in the same answers in about 2 minutes and carried on. All done with 6 something so on the clock so guessing we may have just escaped the SCC for a morning outside in the sun.

    POI colonnade which unlocked the obvious ricochet.

    Thanks Izetti. We’re having the same feelings as Halfdab so probably riding for a big fall next time.

    Thanks Jack for the parsing of Eland, “far end of the” got us.

12. 4:42 Nothing too troublesome although I also only knew MAILLOT from the bike race.

    Thanks Izetti and Jack.

13. Tough for a newbie

14. Romped through the first few, filling two corners, then … stuck. Struggled with a couple more but then gave up with no fewer than ten to the bad. Thank you, jackkt; no wonder, all difficult. NHO MAILLOT or (except record label) ERATO.

15. 6.45

    No problems here though a few tricky bits for less experienced solvers as is often the case with Izetti.

    Thanks all

16. 22:45 – mostly a steady solve, but held up by COTTAGER and MAILLOT, even though knowing it is French for swimming costume (maillot de bain).

17. Very happy with 29:02 and a pleasure of a puzzle from Izetti.
    Took a while to parse ELAND and thought PEDIGREE was a lovely clue.
    LOI BOROUGH
    Thanks Jack for the blog.

18. Another matelot, corrected when the penny dropped on pedigree to finish in 11:26. I too was familiar with the maillot jaune but not the swimsuit of that name.

19. 18 mins…

    Definitely feels like Izetti is getting gentler, and I probably should have done better if I hadn’t got stuck on 11dn “Reserving”, 16ac “Pedigree” and the muse of 17dn.

    Is Maillot an actual word used in an English sense (albeit being of French origin)? Only reason I was asking is that there is no indicator to suggest it is a foreign word in the clue. Like Jackkt, I know it is also the word for tights and some other garments in another European language.

    FOI – 1ac “Abed”
    LOI – 11dn “Reserving”
    COD – 16ac “Pedigree”

    Thanks as usual!

20. A nice gentle surprise from Izetti just proves he can set a Quick cryptic when he wants to. After the first few accessible clues, I relaxed and simply enjoyed this – no rushed typos and with time to parse (this helped with PEDIGREE which, like Quadrophenia, I initially thought was an anagram of pere and gibe).
    Lots of nice clues; I liked COLOGNE, COTTAGER, and THUMBS especially. Didn’t know MAILLOT but it followed from the fair clueing.
    Thanks to Izetti and Jack.

21. At one point this was going to be a comfortable sub-15 (unbelievable for an Izetti), but the SW corner had other ideas. Thumbs, Maillot and loi Pedigree (via a wild Peribree), nudged me to just short of the SCC. CoD to Cottager, with Thumbs next in line. Invariant

22. Enjoyable. Very quick today until unaccountably held up a little by THUMBS, BOROUGH and FUND. Knew MAILLOT but this is a French word surely. Liked RENEGADE, PEDIGREE, INTERVAL, COLOGNE, among others.
    An excellent, encouraging, genuinely Quick puzzle.
    Thanks, Jack.

23. 13:48 for the solve. Reached my last pair of PEDIGREE/RESERVING at nine mins and was then stumped by not having done French in forty years. Tried “heritage” but couldn’t parse it but eventually I dredged up PERE. Wasn’t sure about “lot”= the plural itemS but had it pencilled in for the NHO MAILLOT (swimming costume rather than a Tour De France jersey) and NHO ABED.

    Those difficulties aside thanks to Izetti for another approachable puzzle and to Jackkt for the blog

    Edit: 44secs on the Cryptic Quintagram 😲

24. Very friendly start to the week. Liked PEDIGREE, MAILLOT and COTTAGER, which were last three in.

    Thanks Don and jackkt

25. Either I’m getting to grips with Izetti or (much more likely) he’s getting friendlier. All done and parsed in an enjoyable 18 minutes with few hold-ups. Maillot rang a faint bell but not as a bathing suit but the cryptic was clear.

    FOI – 9ac LOAF
    LOI – 16ac PEDIGREE
    COD – 2dn BOROUGH

    Thanks to Izetti and Jack

26. First day of the Easter holidays and I was looking forward to being able to actually timing myself on the Quickie when I was awake enough to have a hope of finishing before falling asleep (I’ve given up attempting them in the evening now). Was prepared for a toughie when I saw Izetti’s name at the top, but instead the clues started falling into place fairly easily. Last two in were COTTAGER and ELAND and I stopped my watch on 11:39. I think that’s my equal 24th fastest ever, but my fastest Izetti by nearly two minutes, so pleased with that. I was also pleased that my Duolingo came in useful as I don’t think I’d have come up with MAILLOT as quickly if I hadn’t known maillot de bain. Better make that my COD. Thanks Jack and Izetti.

27. No horses were scared in the solving of this puzzle, talking of which I’m still ‘hoarse’ after shouting out for my pick Nick Rocket who obliged at odds of 33/1 in Saturdays Grand National. A nice little wager and the smile hasn’t left my face yet!
    Back to today, pretty straightforward taking me 7.57, so nicely inside target.

28. 17m
    Done in 2 sittings. Second one to polish off thumbs, borough, oriental, and LOI maillot.
    COD cologne.

29. 21:23

    Mostly straightforward but stuck big time on the unparsed THUMBS and NHO LOI MAILLOT. Only knew the word from the maillot jaune. No idea it was a swimming costume.

30. From ABED to MAILLOT in 6:17. Only knew MAILLOT fom the Tour de France. Thanks Izetti and Jack.

31. 5:27

    Nothing too heavy here to ease us into the new week. A slight pause for MAILLOT though sure I’d heard it somewhere before. ELAND House in Stag Place, London SW1 was the location of my first full-time job in the early 1980s, so that came readily to mind.

    Thanks Jack and Izetti

32. From ABED to PEDIGREE in 7:18. Like others here I didn’t know that MAILLOT can refer to a woman’s swimsuit but Izetti’s wordplay helped a lot! Thanks Jack.

33. Blimey, 11:09 for an Izetti – must be my personal best in that subcategory, with a puzzle that’s at least adjacent to friendly. I hope he’s feeling OK.

    Thank you for the blog!

34. We found this tricky. 23 minutes with help for ricochet and LOI pedigree and colonnade. Always worth the effort though.

35. 17a Erato. This is the muse I can remember, so good!
    13d Maillot semi-remembered from a previous crossword. Not a word I would normally use. I query the singular lot with the itemS for sale. A lot can have many items within it, but usually doesn’t.
    Thanks jackkt and Izetti.

36. Very enjoyable start to the week from a benign Izetti. 15 minutes for me, which is as good as it gets!

37. 15 minutes for me. A game of two halves; fast start and then a struggle mainly in the NE. LOI RENEGADE. ELAND hard to spot. And for some reason I thought RHETORIC might work at 4a; needed closer analysis.
    A good QC to start the week.
    COD to PEDIGREE.
    David

38. 16 minutes, decent time for me. An enjoyable way of waiting for new tyres to be fitted.

39. As a former resident of COLOGNE, I am delighted to report that the magnificent cathedral remained standing and is the heartbeat of the city. There is talk that both sides in the war agreed not to bomb churches. I am not convinced either was that accurate. I always liked to point out that before the Eiffel Tower was built, Cologne Cathedral was the tallest building in the world.

40. nho MAILLOT otherwise not taxing

41. DNF and it looks like I’m the first to have given up, so not a good start to the week.

    Two clues (PEDIGREE and MAILLOT) remained as the half-hour ticked by, but I’m fed up of grinding through interminable searches towards the end of these QCs and have therefore decided to adopt a more brutal approach if I’ve made no further progress after five minutes or so. Therefore, at 35-ish minutes, I threw in the towel.

    On coming here I found that I had at least parsed both clues correctly. Unfortunately, DIG for gibe and MAIL for armour both remained hidden. I knew PEDIGREE of course, but had no idea that MAILLOT had anything to do with swimming costume.

    I fear that my new policy will lead to many more DNFs, but also hopefully (by reducing a proportion of the time spent getting nowhere) more enjoyment overall. We’ll see.

    Many thanks to Jack and Izetti.

    1. Ditto! You are not alone. Had the pere but not the dig, thought of various bits of armour but not mail, and didn’t know that meaning of maillot. But the sun is shining and the garden called. Nice puzzle Izetti, and thanks for the blog to illuminate my dimness.

    2. My experience is that grinding for an answer takes a lot of mental perseverance, which then isn’t available the next day. Knowing when to give up is a healthy option even if it can feel a little dissatisfying.

42. Maillot was difficult because didn’t know it or armour for mail, but a neat QC nonetheless. Thanks

43. 9:22 for a very rapid time for an Izetti, with the only hold-up being the one tripping many others up, MAILLOT. A word the internet marks as “obsolete in common language” (I was unaware it was ever used “in common language” at all, at least not common English language), and a clue that was in stark contrast to the rest of the puzzle, which used common words and was friendly and straightforward enough. But just as Oink has his trademark piggy reference, it seems a puzzle isn’t a true Izetti without at least one word from the deep recesses and backwaters of the dictionary.

    Many thanks Jack for the blog.

44. Two more here unable to recall seeing anyone swimming in a cycling shirt but helped by the checkers and wordplay. LOI PEDIGREE. Around 10:42 for the finish. Still having some technical problems with this and one or two other puzzles on the digital (Android) version. Thanks, all.

45. Mostly straightforward, yes (done in 9:50), but so, so good. Even the humblest chestnut has been given a smooth, precise clue here. LOAF, POST, THUMBS! The only thing to hold me up was MAILLOT, thank goodness I know some French because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it in English. I’m with others in pausing over the poignancy of the COLOGNE clue.

    Thanks to Izetti and jackkt.

46. I found this very hard so must have been off the wavelength.

47. “I solved it correctly in my head” would be an excellent inscription on a tombstone. Looking increasingly likely to be on mine, as yet again my fingers were fat and produced DRAED. Which I spotted just as I hit submit …

    Lovely puzzle, thanks Izetti and Jack.

    1. The other famous one is, of course, ‘I had right of way’

48. 7.27 I only hesitated over LOI MAILLOT, which I thought I’d never heard of. It’s still not ringing any bells but I’m pretty sure I must have heard le maillot jaune at some point. I probably mistook it for the condiment. Thanks Jack and Izetti.

49. 4:30, my first score on the board as ‘plusjeremy’, rather than ‘Jeremy Weissmann’. The reason? My discounted subscription was set to end soon and the Times are offering £1/mo for a year for new subscribers.

    I found this quite easy — though MAILLOT went in from wordplay alone with a shrug, and I dithered about the unparsed ELAND for at least 30 seconds before finally holding my breath and clicking Submit.

50. 10:31. I enjoyed COLONNADE, COLOGNE, and COTTAGER most. I was rather amused by the PUREE definition- I guess if you can neither drink nor chew something you have to attempt to slurp it as politely as possible!

    1. I rather enjoyed the definitions for PUREE and LOAF – probably some others.

       It’s a shame that by putting words like MAILLOT in the puzzle, many of us end up reporting our difficulties rather than celebrating those raising a smile.

       1. Very true, unfortunately!

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