Quick Cryptic No 246 by Izetti

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Watch out for a smattering of question marks, some not-so-QC vocabulary and a tree which wouldn’t normally spring to mind. I rather enjoyed this but it didn’t seem like a newbie-friendly puzzle. It felt like hard going in places so I was really surprised to have completed in 12 minutes (which is a medium on my scale).

COD to the tricky puzzle which is 15dn – the answer to which could possibly describe our setter (being defined as a person, thing, or situation that is mysterious, puzzling, or ambiguous)?

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Tiny bit of physics worked out by big son — gosh! (5,5)
&nbsp &nbspHIGGS BOSON – Anagram (worked out) of BIG SON GOSH. The tiny bit of physics is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics which is so small it has taken loads of people ages to find it.
8 Member of kingdom — one beginning a sentence? (7)
&nbsp &nbspSUBJECT – So, a subject is a member of a kingdom is the easy bit. What to make of ‘one beginning a sentence’? I’m really not sure so help appreciated. A word sentence USUALLY consists of a subject (but does not necessarily start with one), a prisoner may begin a sentence but isn’t normally called a subject?
9 Spring’s beginning with tree producing gooey stuff (5)
&nbsp &nbspSLIME – First letter (beginning) of (S)print with tree (LIME). Perfectly OK to reference a lime tree but it’s harder than your average ash or fir.
10 Workers in ‘ampshire briefly (4)
&nbsp &nbspANTS – Shortened version (briefly) of Hampshire (hANTS) without the ‘H’ as it’s ‘ampshire – init.
11 Dislike a particular translation of the Bible? (8)
&nbsp &nbspAVERSION – A (A), particular translation of the Bible (VERSION).
13 Little in the street is nice (5)
&nbsp &nbspSWEET – Little (WEE) inside street (ST). Judging from my sons’ vocabulary ‘sweet’ and ‘sick’ have much the same meaning.
14 Devoured some meat energetically (5)
&nbsp &nbspEATEN – The answer is in the clue (some) mEAT ENergetically.
16 Poet showing the effects of sunbathing? (8)
&nbsp &nbspBROWNING – Double definition.
17 Foreign city revealed by a good artist (4)
&nbsp &nbspAGRA – A (A), good (G), artist (RA). This city comes up a lot and is in N India, in W Uttar Pradesh on the Jumna River: a capital of the Mogul empire until 1658; famous for its Mogul architecture, esp the Taj Mahal.
20 Song outside front of the courts (5)
&nbsp &nbspATRIA – Song (ARIA) outside front of (T)he.
21 Clothing with time becomes something for the bin (7)
&nbsp &nbspGARBAGE – Clothing (GARB), time (AGE).
22 Leave this writer with collection of books in part of university? (10)
&nbsp &nbspDEPARTMENT – leave (DEPART), this writer (ME), collection of books (NT).

Down
1 Prophet with house overlooking the Channel? (5)
&nbsp &nbspHOSEA – House (HO) on top of (overlooking) the Channel (SEA). I balked a bit at sea=the Channel as it’s not a sea by name but if you went for a dip in it you’d probably say you’d been in the sea.
2 Follow the directors’ guidelines and be ignored (2,2,3,5)
&nbsp &nbspGO BY THE BOARD – The board of a company is made up of directors so if you go by their advice you’d go by the board. Teehee.
3 Appear to understand introduction to maths (4)
&nbsp &nbspSEEM – To understand (SEE), introduction to (M)aths.
4 Covet a fantastic set of notes (6)
&nbsp &nbspOCTAVE – Anagram (fantastic) of COVET A.
5 One watches old boy, someone helping priest at Mass (8)
&nbsp &nbspOBSERVER – Old boy (OB – of a school), someone helping priest at Mass (SERVER).
6 Dentist, I rage about decay (12)
&nbsp &nbspDISINTEGRATE – Anagram (about) of DENTIST I RAGE.
7 Flag that has name of famous Quaker on (6)
&nbsp &nbspPENNON – Famous Quaker (PENN), on (ON). Mr. Penn was William. 1644–1718, English Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania. I dragged ‘pennon’ up from the depths – it’s a long flag, often tapering and rounded, divided, or pointed at the end, originally a knight’s personal flag or a small tapering or triangular flag borne on a ship or boat.
12 Wise person concealing character in a bygone era (5,3)
&nbsp &nbspSTONE AGE – Wise person (SAGE) concealing character (TONE). A bygone era indeed, but then when you look at some of these reality TV shows, well…
13 Underground awfully busy — was endlessly stuck in it (6)
&nbsp &nbspSUBWAY – Anagram (awfully) of BUSY with WAs endlessly inside.
15 Imagine working out one tricky puzzle! (6)
&nbsp &nbspENIGMA – Anagram (working) of IMAGINE but first take out one (I). Tricksy.
18 Green follows a ‘stop‘ (5)
&nbsp &nbspAVERT – A (A) followed by green (VERT).
19 Toughness displayed in continuing ritual (4)
&nbsp &nbspGRIT – The answer is in the clue (displayed in) continuinG RITual.

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 246 by Izetti”

  1. 7’20”, finishing with DEPARTMENT, which was a bit weird. Whether you like it or not, Don will typically test your general knowledge, hence HIGGS BOSON (not thoroughly familiar to unscientific me yet), PENNON and HOSEA.

    I think at 8a the question mark is sufficient to indicate the intended linguistic meaning, given English is a SVO language. Knows that everyone. 🙂

    Edited at 2015-02-17 02:16 am (UTC)

  3. No problems today, although I think we recently had GO BY THE BOARD in a regular cryptic (or was it a Guardian?), which otherwise might well have slowed me down. I don’t know from subatomic particles, but the Higgs B was recently enough in the news–they found it–that after a bit of thinking I was able to get it. Chris, at 10ac Hampshire is, ‘briefly’, HANTS; the H disappears because the county is being pronounced Cockney-style, as indicated by ” ‘ampshire’ “. 4:05.
  4. At school we had a delightfully eccentric Latin master whose preferred mode of tuition was group chants, one of which was “subject object adverb verb” (a propos of sentence structure).

    As the chanting became more and more maniacal (shades of Lord of the Rings), he would cavort around the front of the classroom (full academic gown flying) demonstrating the stroke play of his childhood hero Sir Jack Hobbs, yelling “leg glance! four!” “on drive! come two!” etc. etc.

    This probably does not assist, Chris, but felt compelled to share the memory…

    Edited at 2015-02-17 11:29 am (UTC)

  5. Had 3 blanks today; 1a which I missed the anagram for (not sure I would have got it anyway, 2d (thinking film directors) and 20a where I was trying to fit a ‘c’ into aria – I was ignoring ‘the’ and took the c from courts which I now understand was the definition. .
    In 11a is there a significance in it being the Bible or would the clue have worked with any book with different versions?
    1. No it’s missing. I emailed Andy about it earlier this morning and offered to do an emergency blog if required.

      Edited at 2015-02-17 12:17 pm (UTC)

  7. I’m really beginning to enjoy the Don’s puzzles. I think the level is spot on and has both write ins and some real teasers as well as introducing me to the odd new word here and there. Well done Izetti, thanks for the blog
  8. Undone by PENNON, which was an unknown to me, as was the famous quaker. Worked out the answer was likely to be _E_NNON and that it was meant to be a flag. Thought of pennon, but told myself I was confusing it with pennant so discounted it.

    Otherwise, it was a fast solve. I can tell I’m finding it easy when I fill surrounding clues as I go along, rather than working through the puzzle to get a foot hold from which to attempt a finish.

    I’d agree with Bryan that a number of Izetti’s puzzles seem to be a mix of shoe-ins alongside some otherwise very nice clues. But that’s probably not a bad balance for a QC, especially if the aim is to introduce newcomers to cryptics. Did think 1ac was a little clunky and it seemed as though Izetti wanted big in there somewhere, but was then left with a rather tortuous construct for the anagram! Good to see a bit of physics in there though. (Oops, I’m not sounding like someone from another forum am I 😉)

  9. Didn’t get 7d – never heard of Mr Penn, or indeed a flag known as a pennon. Otherwise 20 mins – so improving. Thank you Chris for blog.
  10. Found this one much harder than Izetti’s previous offering from a week or so ago, and this was reflected in a solving time of 2hrs – I’m pleased to say that I now consider that to be poor. Overall, a nice mix of clues with 15d bringing a smile when it was eventually solved. Ditto 20ac. Invariant
  12. NT = New Testament. Be prepared also for OT (Old Testament) clued similarly. Both crop up regularly.

Comments are closed.