An Izetti is always interesting, and this grid has two Battleships in the corners, for those who remember the game. I struggled and needed help with 11d. 15:21 with one reveal.
Across
| 1 | Violent disgraced cyclist, cycling around (6-3) |
| STRONG ARM – ARMSTRONG (Lance Armstrong, disgraced cyclist), and the letters are “cycled”, starting from the fourth letter.
Tough clue for 1 across. Even the definition is obscure. “Violent” is an adjective and STRONG ARM is usually a verb. But there is “Strong-arm tactics” — meaning violent or coercive methods |
|
| 6 | Fellow hugging maiden is winner (5) |
| CHAMP – CHA^P (fellow) contains M{aiden} | |
| 8 | Material broadcast by island fellow who mends appliances? (9) |
| REPAIRMAN – REP (Material) + AIR (broadcast) + MAN (Isle of)
REP is a type of fabric used in upholstery, this is the usual crossword usage, I’ve never heard of it. So I think of a comedian saying “I’ve been doing that bit so long it’s part of my REP (material) now” |
|
| 9 | Money is temptation ensnaring Conservative (5) |
| LUCRE -LU^RE (temptation) contains C{onservative}
Lucre just means wealth, but it appears in the Bible as “filthy lucre” (1 Timothy 3:3) and now “filthy” is implicit in the word LUCRE. I mean, you never hear of anyone earning honest LUCRE. I learnt today that these are called “frozen collocations”, other examples being “Dire straits” and “Foregone conclusion”. |
|
| 10 | Mother going after rodent losing head in the capital (9) |
| AMSTERDAM – {h}AMSTER (rodent) + DAM (mother, in animal breeding) | |
| 12 | Most unusual artist about street (6) |
| RAREST – RA (artist) + RE (about) + ST{reet} | |
| 13 | Prison officers and sailors aboard ship (6) |
| SCREWS – CREW (sailors) inside SS (ship)
Common slang for Prison Officer. In old criminal slang “Screw” meant “key” (turning mechanism, I guess) and derived from that, the key-holder. |
|
| 16 | Cuddly friend betrayed badly, daughter’s admitted (5,4) |
| TEDDY BEAR – (BETRAYED +D{aughter})* | |
| 18 | Honour an upright character, an Arab (5) |
| OMANI – OM (Order of Merit, an honour) + AN + I (upright character)
The south side of the Straits of Hormuz is the OMANI side. |
|
| 19 | Organiser’s first physical exercise helping running (9) |
| OPERATION – O{peration} + PE (Physical exercise) + RATION (helping)
“The OPERATION/running of the railway” |
|
| 21 | How adjacent items may be placed, carried by seven donkeys (3,2) |
| END ON – hidden in seven donkeys
The bricks in a standard wall are place END ON, the smallest faces are touching |
|
| 22 | One watching actor’s pet going berserk (9) |
| SPECTATOR – (ACTORS PET)* [going berserk]
Hope no-one ended up with SPECTATER, for a pink square right in the corner. |
Down
| 1 | Son quietly studies two-page units in book (7) |
| SPREADS – S{on} + P (quietly) + READS (studies, as at Oxbridge)
I had to think about this term, it’s what publishers call two pages next to each other, like a page 2 and page 3. In newspaper design you’ll hear of the Centre Spread. Normal Universities just say “does” for “studies”: My nephew does Physics at Exeter. |
|
| 2 | The old man’s in repose — after this at midday? (6) |
| REPAST – RE^ST (repose) contains PA (the old man)
Odd definition, a repast is any meal, so the question mark indicates a Definition-by-example, lunch is an example of a REPAST. This clue doesn’t quite work for me. |
|
| 3 | Simple article I have provided with introductory note (5) |
| NAIVE – A(article) + IVE (I have) with N{ote} at the start [introductory]
This parsing works if N=note is an acceptable abbreviation. I found a reference that in academic writing (like footnotes or bibliographies), a lowercase n. is an abbreviation for “note.” Bibliographies are a thicket of odd abbreviations : ibid, passim, ff, pp, cf This word is one of the last holdouts of the diaresis, so should be written as Naïve. (along with Chloë & Zoë). Goodness knows what Mr Brontë was thinking of, surely if he wanted to impress, and hide his Irish roots he should have gone with Bronté? |
|
| 4 | Objective of Ms Farrow standing on head? (3) |
| AIM – MIA (Mia Farrow) reversed [standing on head]
Mia Farrow was a well-known actress in the 70s, starring in a dozen Woody Allen films, and her previous husbands were Frank Sinatra and André (not Andrë) Previn.. |
|
| 5 | Insomnia — I’m struggling with it, keeping down as much as possible (12) |
| MINIMISATION – (INSOMNIA + IM + IT) [struggling] | |
| 6 | Beacons relit excitedly for happy events (12) |
| CELEBRATIONS – (BEACONS RELIT)*
This is the key to this puzzle, get this in early (and it’s a easy anagram) and you’re in business. |
|
| 7 | ’ad a longing, we hear, to be securely fixed (8) |
| ANCHORED – {h}ANKERED (had a longing)
The dropped “H” in the clue means that something else will have a dropped H, and it’s a homonym as well (“we hear”) |
|
| 11 | Secretly planned to put material at bottom of river (4-4) |
| DEEP LAID – DEE (river) + PLAID (material)
I struggled with this, as it looked like it might be an anagram of “planned” And I never heard the expression at all. I found this quote from R. H. Crozier, Deep Waters (19th C) which even hyphenates it: “Alas! how short-sighted is man? How quickly are his DEEP-LAID schemes, his skilfully-concocted plans, suddenly overthrown by some unforeseen circumstance which had never entered as a factor into his calculations?” |
|
| 14 | Predicament involving old investigator (7) |
| CORONER – COR^NER (predicament) contains O{ld}
…as in “I’m a tight corner” |
|
| 15 | Element of callous existence biased against women maybe (6) |
| SEXIST – hidden in “callous existence”
I think the “maybe” is needed as a sexist could be alternatively biased against men. |
|
| 17 | Fungus you once found on a stone (5) |
| YEAST – YE (“you” once) + A + St{one}
Very smooth surface, and this gets my COD. |
|
| 20 | First lady’s day ahead of festival (3) |
| EVE – Double def. Adam’s wife, and the day before a festival as in New Years Eve.
There are two alternative Cockney Rhyming Slangs for “believe”, which use both. “Would you Adam and Eve it?” “Would you Christmas Eve it?” |
Failed yet again.
19 minute DNF. NHO DEEP LAID and put DEEP SAND. How anyone solved that clue is beyond me.
Another week blown to smithereens. Why do I get worse, not better? Who else could take up the 15 x 15 and actually see their performances on the QC deteriorate?
Failed by 7 on 15 x 15. No doubt it was easy for solvers with a reasonable level of skill.
Too fed up and disillusioned to read any other comments, but no doubt most of you did well and enjoyed it. That really wasn’t my experience today, but I’m not sure why I expect to do better when my performances are so poor.
8.39, but listening to football at the same time.
In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, one of Don Giovanni’s associates is named Dirty Ezio, obviously a spaghetti-westerned version of Dirty Harry, complete with unlit cigar.
His other associate apparently needed to be similarly Italian, but even dirtier, and despite having seen the movie probably a hundred times, I thought the joke ended well enough right there. Only a couple of years ago, though, I realized that Filthy Luca was a play on the phrase ‘filthy lucre’, and it made me appreciate Mel Brooks even more.
The usual garbage churned out for dim-witted people who have nothing better to do in life!