A tough one from Izetti, I had to press reveal on a couple.
On the NHO ATE, a couple of points. This goddess needs better marketing. 40 years ago Nike was just as obscure, and she is now one of the largest global brands. Second, we have no doubt all heard “Let slip the Dogs of War”, but scroll back three lines in the Julius Caesar text and there she is:
And Caesar’s spirit, raging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
Across | |
1 | Found out daughter has valid insurance policy? (10) |
DISCOVERED – D{aughter} + IS COVERED (has valid insurance policy)
Very elegant clue to start off. |
|
8 | Guy last to enlist in service (3,3) |
TEA SET – TEASE (Guy) + {enlis}T
Guy=tease was originally Theatre slang, and is now very dated, and survives only in crosswordland now. |
|
9 | Some pondering over nation’s rule (6) |
GOVERN – Hidden in “pondering over nation” | |
10 | Like one with a vast tract of land (4) |
ASIA – AS (like) + I (one) + A | |
11 | Removed a piece of furniture guards delivered (8) |
ABSENTED – A + BED (piece) of furniture contains [guards] SENT (delivered)
Very smooth surface. |
|
12 | You and I occupying home most recently built? (6) |
NEWEST – NEST (home) contains WE (You and I) | |
14 | Distant electronic device (6) |
REMOTE – Double def
What do people call the Remote Control in their house? We call it the “Channel changer”. |
|
16 | Small amount for each fighter (8) |
SCRAPPER – SCRAP (small amount) + PER (for each) | |
18 | Bird to get down suddenly (4) |
DUCK – Double def
The verb form is very old (C13), we’ve all heard of the Ducking Stool. And has a completely different root from the bird. |
|
20 | Force small lock (6) |
STRESS – S{mall} + TRESS (lock, as in hair)
“Lock” in crosswords often refers to hair, as “flight” often refers to stairs. Worth remembering. |
|
21 | Facing of plaster on great housing unit (6) |
PREFAB – P{laster} + RE (on) + FAB (great) | |
22 | Concert going over politician’s head (10) |
PROMONTORY – PROM (concert) + ON (going) + TORY (politician)
Not sure where the “over” fits, it’s an across clue, so it doesn’t work as a positional indicator. We don’t need another O, and “on” doesn’t really mean “going over”, and it’s not a reversal indicator. Is it an acceptable placement indicator for an across clue? |
Down | |
2 | Thoughts tossed aside (5) |
IDEAS – (ASIDE)* [tossed]
ANother very elegant surface. |
|
3 | Investigation in which baddie falls? (7) |
CASCADE – CASE (investigation) contains CAD (baddie)
Really hard one, with the definition “falls” not what I was expecting at all. Even with all the checkers it was tough. Also confused by the crossword-friendly baddie Jack Cade, but he wasn’t needed this time. |
|
4 | Animal doctor providing check (3) |
VET – Double def
Probably the easiest double def you’ll see. |
|
5 | Official back to cover essential point, right (9) |
REGISTRAR – REAR (back) contains [to cover] GIST (essential point) + R{ight}
Another tough one. I tried to make REGULATOR work, then tried to start it off with REF. |
|
6 | Terrible Russian supporting head of dynastic seat (5) |
DIVAN – D{ynastic} + IVAN (Terrible Russian)
One of the best nicknames, along with Vlad the Impaler. |
|
7 | Minister annoying individual about religious instruction (6) |
PRIEST – PEST (annoying individual) contains RI (religious instruction) | |
11 | Stain a pot cooking Italian food (9) |
ANTIPASTO – (STAIN A POT)* [cooking]
Careful, you need the singular here -O not the more common -I, which is the plural. |
|
13 | Old lover to mention thrill (6) |
EXCITE – EX (old lover) + CITE (mention) | |
15 | We’d perished in fog in part of USA (7) |
MIDWEST – MIST (fog) contains DWE=(WE’D)* [perished]
You know you’ve been doing crosswords for too long when you see a four letter word for fog and think “haar”. |
|
17 | Troublemaking female at uni totally demolished (3,2) |
ATE UP – ATÉ (Greek goddess of ruin and mischief) + UP (at UNI, if your University is Oxbridge). The definition is a bit odd here: “ate up” has quite a few figurative uses none of which quite work for me, but “demolished” has a figurative use of eating up as in “he totally demolished that pizza”. | |
19 | Presiding officer in church broadcast (5) |
CHAIR – CH (church) + AIR (broadcast) | |
21 | Person involved in public relations is no amateur (3) |
PRO – Doble Def?
Is a PRO a Public Relations Officer? A Press Officer? Can’t find a good reference for it. Does “involved in public relations” mean just take the odd letters of “person” or is that a fluke? |
14:30 PROMONTORY and CASCADE were favourites. I think my kids and grandkids mostly call the Remote Control the clicker.
In our younger days of shared accommodation it was known as the life support system.
Surprised they even call it that – a lot of younger kids now don’t even watch normal TV.
Frank (Zapper).
I am a hardened veteran of Don Manley, having struggled with his Mephisto puzzles. If you keep in mind that his clues are very fair and concise, you will do well – if you have the knowledge.
Discovered and promontory were welcome gifts that got me going on quickly. For cascade, you only have to ask if it’s a cad or a rat or a cur. I did biff registrar, and might have got in trouble, but it worked out.
Time: 6:45
15 minutes with the RH more demanding than the LH which seemed very easy.
‘Sent’ and ‘delivered’ are not synonymous in my view, and certainly not if Royal Mail are involved!
PRO is Public Relations Officer in Collins, all the Oxfords and Chambers.
I don’t think there’s any element of placement in PROMONTORY and ‘going over / ON’ seems fine to me.
For anyone struggling to see Going over / on like I was… Try
The soon to be built bridge will be going over / ON the river Thames?
9.03
Tough, made harder by staring blankly at C_S_A_E wondering what word could fit that meant “fails”. D’oh. Too early; too small a screen.
Liked TEA SET but not the easiest. Ditto ATE UP where thought was needed even with A_E UP.
Thanks Merlin/Izetti
Fell down on a few of these, forgetting the guy/tease thing, reading ‘falls’ as ‘fails’ and not knowing that PREFAB can mean housing unit. Never mind, thanks Merlin and Izetti. Another favourite nickname is a villain from Get Smart known as Simon the Likeable.
Other than being a kind of sprout, what else is a PREFAB other than a housing unit, I wonder?
Thanks Merlin. 24:20, so something I quite liked. DUCK fell out when I saw ‘down’, thinking that’s a bird from which we, er, ‘get down’, then realising it was a double definition.
Made a very fast start to this one but taken out to my usual range by the last few. I was OK on ATE UP for ‘totally demolished’ but was nowhere on the ‘ate’ part of the clue. – thanks Merlin Took a long time over PROMONTORY and PREFAB but it was ABSENTED that really stumped me – and still not sure that ‘sent’ means ‘delivered’. I send a letter but the postie delivers it – plus I was trying to force ‘sentry’ or similar in there before realising ‘guards’ was an instruction.
The remote is the buttons.
All green in a hard fought 16.47.
A very quick start led me to double check that Izetti really was the setter. Then the real Izetti took over and I spent ages on my last few. Embarrassingly, I only saw REGISTRAR when ABSENTED finally dawned on me (and I strongly agree with those for whom ‘sent’ and ‘delivered’ are not synonymous). I biffed TEA SET and ATE UP (and only when I entered the P did PROMONTORY click for me).
Truly suckered by the Don today. I ended up taking 24 mins and feeling I should have done much better.
Thanks to Merlin for a good, honest blog and to Izetti for playing the wolf in sheep’s clothing to near-perfection.
I think we can forgive the occasional loose synonym in crossword land. As a structural geologist the thought of conflating force (a vector quantity) with stress (a second order tensor) fills me with horror. But I let it go on this occasion.
A good start with discovered and ideas, then a steadying middle until totally breeze blocked by the tea set cascade crossing. Eventually we revealed tea set, which then gave us cascade, once we started looking for falls rather than fails too!! In the end, over 40 minutes 🙄
Thanks Merlin, both for the parsing of ate up, but also for making us feel better that you revealed a couple too.
Remote control = worry bead in our house.
Something you fiddle with, with no real purpose other than to keep it away from others.
Tough one, only four parsed. I had trouble parsing quite a few even having revealed the solution. Thanks to Merlin for the explanations.
In our house the usual question relating to this piece of electronics is ‘where is the remote?’ It’s usually either down the side of a chair or the cat is sitting in it.
DNF, with about 4 blanks when I reached my self-imposed 20 minute cut-off. Looking at Merlin’s blog I would never have got ATE UP as I NHO the goddess, had forgotten guy = tease, and would not have got PREFAB, which I thought was a construction method not the name of a housing unit. Some of the rest were indeed as Merlin says pretty demanding as well, and I’m quite surprised to see the SNITCH as low as 108, much the same as yesterday’s puzzle which, while also a good work-out, was IMO at a rather different and more approachable level. Maybe reference solvers are all familiar with Izetti and his style, but for me this puzzle had just a few too many obscurities and oddities to be fully enjoyable.
Many thanks Merlin for the blog – much needed today
Cedric
15 mins. I left the app running while I got off the train, but seems like a fair guess. NHO ATÉ, I will assuredly forget her the next time. Biffed REGISTRAR, but couldn’t make anything else work. Couldn’t make PRO work either but nothing else sprang to mind. quite a challenging puzzle I thought despite the easy start at 1a. thank you both!
The whole of the NW went straight in and was briefly lulled into thinking that this was going to be a breeze but some tricky clues put a stop to that.
NHO (or forgotten from the distant days of studying classics at uni) the Greek goddess and eventually gave up trying to parse ATE UP. My other serious hold ups were PROMONTORY (due to a careless antipastA) REGISTRAR and ABSENTED.
Finished in 9.49 with COD to CASCADE
Thanks to Merlin
Ha. Hello brother.
Big fat DNF, couldn’t get CASCADE. Was disheartened by then, having got but been unable to parse ATE UP or PRO, and having delayed myself on PROMONTORY by carelessly sticking in ANTIPASTa.
The remote is the Frank in our household (as in Zappa).
Many thanks Izetti and Merlin.
Honestly I almost got my Taser out…
Some lovely easy ones to start the day with optimism, then a brick wall. Only managed half.
Thank you for your searching and erudite blog, Merlin. Glad to see you too were mystified by the parsing of PRO; I couldn’t see where the O fitted in. And since you’re canvassing, we call it the doofer.
Another vote for doofer
I was held up for a good minute by my LOI. I was another who suffered a twitching eyebrow over “delivered=sent”, but otherwise the usual enjoyable fare from Izetti.
FOI DISCOVERED
LOI CASCADE
COD PROMONTORY
TIME 4:52
14 minutes. I wasn’t doing too badly until I had only 3d as my LOI but – no excuses – I sloppily read ‘falls’ as ‘fails’ so was stymied for several minutes until I eventually took the trouble to read the clue properly. Everything else OK except for PRO which I’d never heard of as “Public Relations Officer” but the answer looked pretty clear.
Thanks to Merlin and Izetti
13m
Not too bad for an Izetti.
Straightforward except for Registrar, scrapper, ate up, prefab, and LOI cascade.
COD tea set or cascade.
Struggled to parse PRO and TEA SET, but did look up Ate as had a vague recollection of a goddess of that name (maybe a faint memory of the dogs of war). PDM when I realised what type of falls was indicated in 3D. On the whole, it seemed a hard QC, but once I’d finished, it all seemed fair. Thanks Merlin for great blog. NB small typo for 20D
18.05 mainly thanks to the last two, ATE UP (degree failed to come in useful on classical references) and PREFAB which both required resorting to check function. CASCADE and TEA SET also took a while
18.05 mainly thanks to the last two, ATE UP (degree failed to come in useful on classical references) and PREFAB which both required resorting to check function. CASCADE and TEA SET also took a while
6:21
Fairly straightforward – did bung in ANTIPASTI but was corrected by PROMONTORY. Didn’t parse REGISTRAR while in flight, but the checkers suggested it. LOIs TEA SET followed by CASCADE which required a little longer to think about, even with all checkers in place.
Thanks Merlin and Izetti
17:15 for the solve! Thought that was tough in places which was backed up by not being able to fully parse ATE-UP or PRO and somehow digging out the TEASE(t). CASCADE was LOI. Somehow it came in four seconds quicker than yesterday’s puzzle.
It’s rare for me to enjoy an Izetti clue but DIVAN was simply marvellous 👏
Slowed down by tea set, promontory and ate up. Never heard of guy = tease or the Greek goddess. I eventually finished in an acceptable 20 minutes with all parsed except tea set and ate up. Surprisingly given some of the comments so far I found this easier than yesterday’s.
Our remote control is the zapper or sometimes when age-related brain fog occurs the thingy.
FOI – 1ac DISCOVERED
LOI – 17dn ATE UP
COD – 3dn CASCADE
Thanks to Izetti and Merlin
From DISCOVERED to PROMONTORY in 7:57. Knew there was a Goddess ATE somehow! Biffed REGISTRAR from crossers. Double checked the anagrist for ANTIPASTO. Thanks Izetti and Merlin.
Like some others I found this pretty tough. I was interrupted mid solve which threw me a bit, but in the end was happy enough to complete in 11.25. I had the vaguest recollection of the Greek god, otherwise ATE UP would have given me pause for thought. I would imagine that those relatively new to crosswordland may find this a challenge.
Easy at first, lulling me into a false sense of security, I suspected. Too right. With some outstanding, had to set the puzzle aside, do some chores, walk to the shop, then finally I managed LOsI – PDM TEA SET (Bed Sit? Pet Sit?), CASCADE, PROMONTORY (COD).
CNP ABSENTED, ATE UP. REGISTRAR also biffed.
Thanks vm, Merlin.
The zapper in our house is “The wrong one!” because the box and the tele have similar ones.
Failed, DNF, SE corner, got off on wrong foot with 18a Dove (not duck) and yes I do know it is dived not dove, but some use it esp US & Canada.
Dove came to my mind first too.
I spend ages trying to think of every four letter bird I knew.
DNF. Just too hard.
For example : 8 Across – “Guy last to enlist in service (3,3)
TEA SET – TEASE (Guy) + {enlis}T
Guy=tease was originally Theatre slang, and is now very dated, and survives only in crosswordland.”
If setters are going to use clues like this one, I might as well just not bother.
Perhaps I’m bucking the trend but I enjoyed this. It always puts me in a good mood when a long 1a goes in straight away. I did cross my fingers with ATE UP and PRO and nearly came unstuck with my LOI CASCADE. The delay was of my own making as I read the clue as ‘baddie fails’. Home in 9:05 with COD to PROMONTORY.
Sorry, I was logged out!
4.05. Obviously in the groove today. All good, but share Jack and Busman’s eyebrow twitching for conflating sent with delivered.
A remote is a dobber in our house!
Izetti missed the point of a Quick Cryptic yet again. Some obscure clues completely ruin any enjoyment of this. almost at the point of giving up.the whole idea of a Quick Cryptic when I see daft too cover by half clues like 8a or 17d. Mightily unimpressed.
Likewise
DNF. Failed on last 4. Biffed ate up. Nho tease=guy. Até is very obscure.
I got further on 15×15.
Thanks for blog Merlin
A slow plod again today but everything fell, eventually. Last two in, no surprises, were TEA SET followed by CASCADE. Didn’t know guy=tease so parsed after the event. Bizarrely also spent quite some time on DUCK 🙄 NHO Ate (thanks for explanation Merlin). I found this puzzle quite a challenge… so enjoyed it enormously of course. COD to DISCOVERED. Interesting to hear what you all call the TV thingy. In our house it’s the rather sinister ‘controller’. Many thanks Merlin and Izetti.
Although we’re primarily a Frank household like Templar, if we need to distinguish one from the other, we use the not-so-sinister Thin Controller or Fat Controller (from Thomas the Tank Engine).
29:15
Well that was tough. Not helped by the app mysteriously deleting letters after I’d entered them for the second day running. In the end I reinstalled the whole paper and picked up where I left off.
Didn’t see where the E came from in PREFAB, NHO ATE but nothing else really fit and struggled with the whole clue construction on LOI CASCADE.
Where’s the WHATSIT?
I was GOING OVER the bridge to the PROMONTORY and feel sure I was ON it then
We nearly have enough Entries for a game of Connections : FRANK, CONTROLLER , DOBBER, CLICKER, BUTTONS, WORRY BEAD, DOOFER , THINGY , CHANNEL CHANGER, SIMON THE LIKEABLE, REMOTE
Not forgetting the doobery (or however you would spell it – but that’s whole different thread!)
Just the remote in our house, I’m afraid.
Didn’t submit on account of ÁTE, because I assumed the reference was to KATE, and couldn’t see how the removal of K was being clued!
As usual, Izetti gave us some terrific clues, but after a quick start the going became progressively harder and I wasn’t surprised to pull up for a DNF two short of a finish: Tea Set and Cascade. Vinyl has produced a useful list of well-known baddies (above), but I always like a challenge, so was trying to fit Cove into 3d. Should still have spotted Tea Set, but it wasn’t to be. Joint CoDs to foi Discovered, and Absented. Invariant
NHO ATE but with checkers and Demolished it had to be the answer. I don’t feel Delivered is a synonym of sent but no doubt someone has a book that says it is. Overall, a decent puzzle. Thanks to Merlin and Izetti.
DNF. NHO ATE but at least got the answer right because it was the only A_E which fitted totally demolished (assumed a reference to eating). Same MERs as others with sent / delivered and PRO. Had run out of patience approaching the 20 minute mark and revealed POI TEA SET – recognising then the VHO tease / guy – and, after a little further thinking with an expectation that a cad might be involved, the penny finally dropped on LOI CASCADE at 20:50. Overall not bad but guy and the goddess were a little too obscure for the QC in my opinion. If my memory holds up I may be more forgiving next time!
My first thought was AXE= demolish?
Ah, it’s an Izetti. That would explain the very many empty spaces when I finally gave up and hit reveal, and the inability to parse some of the clues even when I knew the answers.
I do wish the app would tell you who the setter is, or, even better, put a genuine QC (that doesn’t require knowledge of obscure Greek divinities or long-obsolete theatreland slang, say) in the space allocated.
I agree with you.
DNF
Defeated by CASCADE and PREFAB.
Thanks Merlin and Don
1a entered at speed.
Then all went to pieces.
Stopped at 40 m while still missing ATE UP, PREFAB, ABSENTED.
Completely missed directive offered by ‘guards’. Must remember…guards, protects, encloses etc.
Guy= tease new to us (every day’s a learning day).
So, another DNF however, did enjoy it.
Thanks all. : )
DNF because NHO ATE as a goddess!
Pleased given the comments above with getting CASCADE. Definitely agree that DELIVERED is not the same as SENT. Has Izetti not used the postal service recently??
Hopeful the SCC allows me in today with my DNF.
It started quite well but everything started to slip away after the first two thirds. In the end I turned the timer off as it was so depressing 😅 Actually, it was quite a bizarre Izetti solve, as a few were easier than I would expect, but as fora couple, well, what can I say! ATE? I’ve only just started to remember DIS! But it was TEA SET that did for me – I just couldn’t see it, and yet it is blindingly obvious now. I knew it wasn’t JET SET though.
16a caused me problems – I had S for small, PER for each, and well, you can see what I was left with. Much too rude for Izetti 😂 PREFAB took ages as well.
Having said all that, I’m not actually complaining! I liked GOVERN, IDEAS and DIVAN among others.
FOI and COD Discovered DNF in about 25 minutes
Thanks Izetti and Merlin
BTW I worked with PR departments for many years, and back then, the ‘practitioners’ were known as PROs – public relations officers. Now that everyone is at least a senior director (much like all fashion journalists are editors) the O tends to be dropped, and they refer to themselves as PRs, which simply doesn’t make sense at all. Public Relations what exactly?
Izetti had me on the ropes (23:08 to finish) with this one, taking me by surprise after the write-ins at 1a, 2d, and 6d. Like our blogger, I was baffled by PRO. Really enjoyed TEA SET when it finally appeared. TEASE for “guy” was a faint whisper far away in my memory; once I got it the rest of the northwest became possible with LOI CASCADE. I do feel this otherwise good clue would have been fairer without the question mark, which fooled me into looking for a straight cryptic definition. I got it from the crossers and the definition, then tried to parse it with CASCA, dimly remembered as the first to stab Caesar, as the villain. I also had forgotten about that troublesome ATE. So RIP to Julius Caesar today I guess.
Thanks Izetti and Merlin!
Mostly fairly quick, but held up on CASCADE and PREFAB and called in Mr Ego, biffer extraordinaire, to help. Loved DIVAN, which totally foxed me, though no problem over ATE UP or TEA SET – guy and Ate are occasionals in the 15x15s.
21.15 Mostly slow. Last two ATE UP and TEA SET were a particular struggle. The goddess is ringing a very distant bell but was no help with the solving. Like Mendesest, I change channels with “the buttons”. Thanks Merlin and Izetti.
Mixture of write-ins and really tough clues: managed all but three so dnf. But I think 3d has a different parsing: surely the baddie is Moriarty who plunges over the Reichenbach Falls in Sherlock Holmes? Would that make it a dd? Liked 1a and 22a: Izetti seems a master of the piece by piece solve in long words. Many thanks and for excellent blog
I too thought of Moriarty but couldn’t make it parse that way!
I think it parses! But I am a newbie.