QC 1805 by Izetti

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Very enjoyable puzzle with quite a few anagrams or anagram elements that were well signposted. One MER at 15D but no doubt someone will point out why I am wrong. FOI was 1A and LOI (I think) was 20A. I could see the anagram but the answer didn’t strike me as a particularly standard phrase so I hesitated to insert it even though it couldn’t really be anything else. COD was 7D both for the clever definition and for reminding me of Ronnie Barker’s FORK ‘ANDLES. Many thanks to Izetti for an entertaining Monday offering.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can manage.

Across
1 Fuel company with a shortfall finally (4)
COAL – CO (company) + A + L (shortfalL ‘finally’).
3 Song in church provided by a new boy (7)
CHANSON – CH (church) + A + N (new) + SON (boy).
8 Ready-made red carpet I supply, brilliant for inside (13)
PREFABRICATED – anagram of RED CARPET I (‘ready-made’) with FAB (brilliant) ‘inside’.
9 Couple turning noisy, left out (3)
DUO – lOUD (noisy) ‘turning’, i.e. reversed, with L (left) removed.
10 Time to meet French friend, someone learning language (5)
TAMIL – T (time) + AMI (French for ‘friend’) + L (someone learning, as in an L-driver) gives this Sri Lankan and southern Indian language.
12 Junior tearaway, ultimately having no urge to reform (7)
YOUNGER – tearawaY ‘ultimately’ + anagram (‘to reform’) of NO URGE.
14 Month to go to a golf course in America (7)
AUGUSTA – AUGUST (month) + A gives the Augusta National Golf Course, the home of the US Masters Golf Tournament, known simply as Augusta whenever golf is the topic of conversation.
16 Admirer’s initial longing to construct a letter (5)
AITCH – A (Admirer’s initial) + ITCH (longing).
17 Fate of some plotters (3)
LOT – hidden word: ‘some’ pLOTters.
20 Cruel guys Tom’s mistaken for bad people (4,9)
UGLY CUSTOMERS – straight anagram (‘mistaken’) of CRUEL GUYS TOM’S.
21 A name is confused, memory being lost (7)
AMNESIA – straight anagram (‘confused’) of A NAME IS.
22 Bishop, experienced and fearless (4)
BOLD – B (bishop) + OLD (experienced).
Down
1 Rambling up to cafe to get a hot drink (3,2,3)
CUP OF TEA – straight anagram (‘rambling’) of UP TO CAFE.
2 Top chap expecting traps (4)
APEX – hidden word: chAP EXpecting ‘traps’.
3 Lad underneath vehicle shows bottle (6)
CARBOY – BOY (lad) ‘underneath’ (in this down clue) CAR (vehicle).
4 Gathering in university entertained by comical aunt dancing (12)
ACCUMULATION – anagram (‘dancing’) of COMICAL AUNT ‘entertaining’ U (university).
5 One sober person in view to avoid action (3,5)
SIT TIGHT – I (one) + TT (teetotaler, sober person) ‘in’ SIGHT (view).
6 Signal before entrance to every junction (4)
NODE – NOD (signal, as in ‘give the nod to’) + E (entrance to Every).
7 Supporters of wicked things (12)
CANDLESTICKS – cryptic definition. You have to flip your mind from ‘wicked’ meaning ‘bad’ to ‘wicked’ cryptically potentially meaning ‘having a wick’. Well, candles have wicks and they can be supported by the answer so there you go.
11 A good measure introduced by fellow who went on long expedition? (8)
MAGELLAN – A + G (good) + ELL (an old measure equal to 45 inches) ‘introduced by’ MAN (fellow) gives the famous Portuguese explorer who ‘went on a long expedition’ to try to discover the Spice Islands (although he was killed in battle before getting there).
13 Herd suffering with encroaching river given new shelter (8)
REHOUSED – anagram of HERD (‘suffering’) with OUSE (river) ‘encroaching’.
15 NW state unfortunately ends with black lava (6)
ALASKA – ALAS (unfortunately) + K + A (‘ends of‘ blacK lavA). My eyebrow is creeping upwards as I don’t believe this is correctly clued by ‘ends with black lava’, but this is surely what is intended.
18 Beast turning up — turning up in the morning (4)
PUMA – PU (‘turning’ UP) + MA (AM, ante meridiem, reversed, i.e. ‘turning up’ in this down clue). A clever use of two different cryptic meanings of ‘turning up’.
19 Model again getting embarrassed over nothing (4)
REDO – RED (embarrassed) ‘over’, again, in this down clue, O (nothing).

63 comments on “QC 1805 by Izetti”

  1. … was breathed by this random chap when I finally checked my solutions against those of astartedon. I crossed the line in 36 minutes, which is a good time for me, but not at all certain on several clues.

    I had never heard of CARBOY (3d) – although my grandfather was employed as a carman at one stage, ELL (part of 11d), or the phrase UGLY CUSTOMERS (20a). Also held up by 7d: CANDLESTICKS (I didn’t see the alternative meaning of wicked) and, surprisingly, by my LOI 18d: PUMA.

    So, all in all, a good start to the week and a 0-5 whitewash has been avoided again.

    Many thanks to astartedon and to Izetti.

  2. Ironically we seemed to sail through the 15×15 but needed a full 25 minutes to complete the QC. A super offering from Izetti which really challenged us – thank you.

    FOI: duo
    LOI: apex
    COD: candlesticks (loved it – very clever)

    Thanks to Astartedon for the blog.

  3. Serious mastication needed today. Knew the wicked thing; CARBOY and MAGELLAN but got completely the wrong end of the parsing for ACCUMULATION which clue took me well over the 10 minutes.

    No complaints though especially as ALASKA went in without overly attending to the last two letters

    Thanks all

  4. Biffed 7dn and then got the ‘wicked’ meaning. Definitely COD. About 15 minutes today. NHO carboy but otherwise an enjoyable QC. Thanks to blogger & setter.
  5. … Izetti hard and this was no exception.

    But I eventually finished it – well all but CANDLESTICKS as I’d managed to put TWO instead of DUO and didn’t think to check that one as I thought I’d got it right.

    So quite an achievement, thank you all.

    Diana

  6. Enjoyed this but failed to get candlesticks! Clever and I hope I remember it for the future. I think ugly customers is a standard English phrase for not nice people. Chanson is an English word although it does mean a French song! Feel I am improving 😌
  7. 50 minutes (the times of 2 sittings added together) for me which is a bit slow for a Monday. I didn’t post last Friday but was very pleased with myself for having completed all of that weeks QCs, so now on a 6 QC winning streak.

    Unlike some others I am familiar with ugly customers, although not in the plural. “He’s a real ugly customer” is a phrase from my (northern) childhood.

    2d (apex) and 6d (node) made me chuckle but COD is 7d candlestick). FOI 1d (cup of tea). LOI = COD.

    Many thanks to both Dons.

    Stephen

  8. I think the k in 15d refers to the CMYK colour system — k stands for ‘key’ which for some reason is black…
  10. An excellent puzzle; I finished in about twenty-five minutes but not all parsed. FOI coal, LOI, candlesticks which caused a head-scratch with the a checker from prefabricated spoiling fiddlesticks. Me too. Needed the blog to parse that one. COD accumulation. Thanks, blogger and setter. GW

  11. I’m certain the QC has had Candlesticks before, and clued in a very similar manner. Ugly Customer I would have thought very well known, but apparently not so. Biffed Prefabricated and discovered FAB by deconstructing the answer – very nicely done I thought by Izetti. FOI 1a Coal and then 1d gave me a good start but I soon ran dry! Liked 11d Magellan and familiar with ‘ell’ so no hesitation there. LOI 22a Bold as the checkers gave no other option. COD 13d Rehoused. Pretty chewy clues but very fair, as usual from Izetti. Very helpful blog too, thx.
  12. One and a half courses
    Really liked candlesticks as a clue.
    Veggie stew as the weather indicates

  13. Just about made it at the end ofa long and chilly day. This felt quite hard while I was doing it after the nice easy 1ac but actually I think it was a steady slog as was all done in just under 20 minutes except for 7dn. Like others I tried fiddlesticks and then realised candlesticks fitted but couldn’t for the life of me work out why. Thanks to Don for the explanation and Izetti for the blog.

    Edited at 2021-02-08 09:15 pm (UTC)

    1. Stowic, you may like to know that since you have a registered Live Journal user-id you can go in and edit your contributions after posting. Hover your mouse pointer to the right of your user name at the top and click on the Pencil (edit) icon. That way you could have posted just one message here instead of three times. The edit option won’t available if somebody has replied to your message using the Reply feature as I have done here – so you wouldn’t now be able to edit your message about carboy/carbuoy.

      Edited at 2021-02-08 09:15 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks Jack, I’ve now edited the one above so just two comments from me rather than 3! Apologies

        1. Thanks but there’s no need for apologies, I just thought you might like to know. It’s very useful especially for someone like me who only spots errors after I’ve posted no matter how many times I’ve read through.
  15. So a quick comment — 19 minutes and very enjoyable if steady solve.
    Thanks all
    John George
  16. Had to rely on the old electronic dictionary bash technique in the end but got there.

    7D was biffed and LOI and my COD once I’d read the exegesis, thank you asterdon! Went a bit off piste with 9A which I thought was TWO (stoopidly) which threw 7D.

    Great puzzle, (Don)Izetti, usual excellent cluing ,thank you.

    Woodsy.

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