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?” |
Not so hard for me – if Dee is a river, it must be deep something. An disgraced cyclist made me think immediately of the right person, handing me the answer. It was celebrations and my LOI, minimisation, that gave the most trouble.
Time: 9:33
I made the mistake of tackling this when very tired so my solving time was going to be well over my target anyway, but fortunately I was unable to finish it so I don’t have a time to report.
The one that did for me was 11dn, which I have never heard of, although I got as close as DEEP-?A?D.
I put STRONG-ARM at 1ac but had no idea about a disgraced cyclist or what was cycling in the clue.
Ten on the first pass and lots of downs, same as yesteday. Only DEEP LAID wasn’t there yesterday and it doubled my time. Got a bit obsessed with ‘deep sand’ being at the bottom of a river but clearly didn’t parse, then R for bottom of river, then finally saw Dee and Plaid. Zero recognition of the phrase this time but I’ll be ready for it next time! All green in 11.45 – double unches always unwelcome!
While this may not shed any light on the matter, my Glaswegian father would regularly say “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft erglay”, Robert Burns (… often go wrong).
John Steinbeck referenced this with the book title “Of mice and men”.
R.
I found this chewy in places but got there in the end. I spent some time trying to think of capitals that ended in ‘mum’ before the penny dropped.
Started with CELEBRATIONS and finished with DEEP LAID in 8.50. COD to STRONG ARM.
Thanks to Merlin and Izetti
10:25. The usual enjoyable puzzle from Izetti containing the not unexpected head scratcher. DEEP-LAID was the one I had most trouble with, never having come across the term and not helped by PLAID not being the first ‘material’ to come to mind. STRONG-ARM was excellent and was one of the few examples in which ‘cycling’ added to the appeal of the surface and the clue as a whole.
Not being familiar with the game, I look forward to having Merlin’s “Battleships” reference explained.
Thanks to Izetti and Merlin
In the game Battleships, in which you place ships on a grid and challenge your opponent to find/sink them, four black squares in a line signifies a battleship.
Thanks Cedric. News to me. No wonder the answers near the corners didn’t sound like the names of battleships or naval battles.
HMS STRONG ARM would actually be a pretty decent name for a warship. Certainly better than HMS SPECTATOR.
In the days when the Royal Navy had 100s of ships on their lists, they were scraping the barrel a bit: hence HMS Pansy, HMS Cockchafer or HMS Spanker
HMS Spectator seems to me an appropriate name for a British Navy warship this week.
And to me, Bletchers. Much head-scratching, to no avail.
18:23 Anchored by deep-laid Amsterdam Strong-arm.
TaMAI
7:04 – of which about 2 mins on NHO DEEP LAID.
Another enjoyable puzzle.
AIM was FOI, which immediately brought ARM and thus STRONG to mind for 1a. A biffed MINIMALISING was swiftly corrected by SCREWS. DEEP LAID was dredged up, probably from other sorts of plans that gang aft agley! LOI was EVE. 6:02. Thanks Izetti and Merlin.
10:21 for an enjoyable outing, and yes, made much easier by getting CELEBRATIONS early on. Needed the blog to explain Rep = Material in REPAIRMAN – I know I’ve seen it before but I never remember it – and like others did not find DEEP-LAID came easily. I thought “upright character” for the I in OMANI typically devious – unless they are in italics, aren’t all characters/letters upright?
Many thanks Merlin for the blog.
In Yes Minister, Sir Humphrey refers to himself as “one who is in the habit of identifying by means of the perpendicular pronoun.”
This felt slightly harder than recent offerings from Izetti but that wasn’t reflected in my time of 13:30, around par for me.
Started with STRONG-ARM, hasn’t Mr Armstrong put in an appearance recently? I don’t keep records but I’m sure that’s so. Maybe I’m imagining it. Maybe a different puzzle.
Finished with the NHO DEEP-LAID which held me up for a minute or two.
Favourites were TEDDY BEAR and AMSTERDAM.
Many thanks both, a treat to have both an Izetti puzzle and a Merlin blog.
Quite right – Dangle gave us this on 4 February: “ Powerful cycling cheat spurned by member (6)”
Thank you.
My times for Izetti puzzles have varied widely in recent months -from very low teens to twenties. Today’s chewy offering was a struggle and tipped me into the SCC by a few seconds. LOI was DEEP-LAID.
Like Katla, my favourites were TEDDY BEAR and AMSTERDAM but REPAST was neat, too.
CELEBRATIONS was a helpful gift. Quite a few answers were written in and parsed later. Armstrong as a disgraced cyclist passed me by and REPAIRMAN went in without me dragging REP for material (whoever uses this now?) out of the depths of the crossword vaults.
Thanks to Izetti for putting me in my place with some fine but tricksy clues and to Merlin for a bit of help with tightening up my parsing (e.g. OMANI where the final I was clear from the start but the OM was not).
My last two in were STRONG ARM and MINIMISATION, both of which would have been handy earlier! But the rest fell in neatly, starting with CELEBRATIONS and spreading across from there.
I did like the unexpected ‘amster, so that’s COD from me.
All done in 06:03 for an Excellent Day. Many thanks Izetti and Merlin.
7:40
Cycling cheat Lance Armstrong was referenced in QC3216 on 4th February. I didn’t know REP for material, and am not expecting to know it next time it turns up. I didn’t think of the homophone for ANCHORED either, just bunged in from checkers. DEEP LAID was tricky and took a while to think of PLAID.
Thanks Merlin and Izetti
Stared at this without anything coming to mind except the obvious AIM, until CELEBRATIONS satisfyingly unlocked all the LH half. Just about managed to complete it, but several parsing queries, looking forward to Merlin’s revelations. L2I ANCHORED (PDM) and hoping DEEP-LAID (with a shrug) might be right? Hooray it is; and you say, Merlin: “even hyphenated”, but that’s what Izetti tells us by 4-4.
Oh. Just about HO Lance Armstrong, but DNK he was disgraced. Could google him I suppose, but might we be told or is that deemed TMI?
NHO material = REP; never seen that in a QC. OK: will learn!
Always thought the capital was Den Haag but it seems I’m wrong – good to know.
Actually, you are the first to point this out. Surprisingly, according to the constitution it is the capital. But the only time this seems to come into play is for Royal Events like Kings Day, State Visits etc.
Thanks, Merlin – but I changed my comment (from “but Amsterdam isn’t the capital!”) when I discovered that I was wrong after all and Izetti is right. Or rather, we’re both right: it seems both are capitals, one “official”, the other administrative. We all learn!
South Africa has three capitals! Cape Town, Joburg and Bloemfontein.
what happened to Pretoria?
You’re right. Pretoria is the administrative capital. Cape Town and Bloemfontein are the others.
I think we’ve had this one before. I was always brought up thinking the capital was The Hague – but then found out there is both an administrative capital and one for show.
Thanks Merlin for the blog
SS can be for Steam Ship or Screw Steamer, so a further definition perhaps? Screw as in the iron screw propellor
bolivia has 2 capitals, la paz and zucre.
11:28 Delayed by DEEP LAID, my LOI. and COD.
Thanks Izetti and Merlin
8:23 for the solve. Classic Izetti really. I was on a bit of a struggle but bailed out by the anagrams filling out a few more checkers. I got DEEP-LAID quickly but it was the stuff above that which gave me more problems. And LUCRE/ANCHORED pairing went in last.
I suspect there is a little competition going on in the Setter’s Common room with ANCHOR making its 4th appearance in the last two weeks.
Thanks to Merlin and Izetti.
19:07 – surprisingly reasonably quick considering I only got 4 across clues at first. Did much better with the downs, and seeing CELEBRATIONS was a great help. LOI was DEEP LAID (NHO), but with DEEP LA-D in, what else could it be.
DEEP-LAID my LOI in spite of getting the DEEP early on. Couldn’t parse REPAIRMAN – although have heard of rep, it’s not the first material which comes to mind. Thanks Merlin for informative and interesting blog.
The Irish language does have an é, so I think Mr Bontè would have been a better disguise 🙂
. . .especially if he was into cross dressing 😉
I didn’t see STRONG-ARM on my first pass (as I cyclist I should have) and I started with CELEBRATIONS with all those lovely first letter checkers. The solve was steady although DEEP LAID was put together just from the wordplay. My LOI which I couldn’t parse and had to come to Merlin’s informative blog was ANCHORING. Thanks Merlin. 8:08
I thought I was going to repeat yesterday’s sub-15 (predictive text still prefers sub-20, so you can see it’s a rare event for me) but that was ‘scuppered’ by loi Anchored. Trying to start it with Adc- didn’t help. . .
Like others, I had my doubts about Deep Laid, but the parsing seemed sound enough, and it helped with Omani, so in it went.
CoD to the Den Haag substitute, Amsterdam, for the use of a better class of rodent. Invariant
I would have been on for a sub nine minute solve but had great trouble solving my LOI 11dn. I eventually saw DEEP LAID, but by then the clock had reached 10.50. Being a fan of cycling on tv, Lance Armstrong was well known to me, so he came to mind immediately.
Well into the SCC at 26 minutes. Needless to say I found this tricky. Several not or not fully parsed. I was convinced that the rodent at 10ac was going to be rat as I had the starting a. Surprised and delighted when the PDM revealed the hamster.
FOI – 6ac CHAMP
LOI – 11dn DEEP-LAID
COD – 1ac STRONG ARM. Despite the disgraced cyclist having appeared recently it took me a long time to see this. Also liked SCREWS – very clever.
Thanks to Izetti and Merlin
Nothing to add to comments above. just wanted to thank Merlin for one of the best blogs I’ve read. it’s great to have bloggers who put in so much effort and love.
15 without help from reveals.
I got the Armstrong reference but misdirected myself to the Lance aspect…
I recognized the anagrist in 5d but couldn’t work it out. Not a formation of letters that I have come across. I’d want to stick an AL in there minimalisation as that is how I would pronounce it.
Challenging and enjoyable. Thanks M and I.
DNF ANCHORED, OPERATION. I put OPERATing which made CORONER impossible. I forgot the basic rule : ‘if ING doesn’t work, think about ION’. In mitigation, I was solving the garage waiting for the car to be fixed again.
Actually I liked ANCHORED, AIM, SCREWS, CHAMP, RAREST, AMSTERDAM (cnp!) and COD/early solve STRONG ARM.
Yes, a bit slow on DEEP LAID.
Thanks for great blog, Merlin.
7.30
An excellent if toughish offering from the Don. DEEP LAID wasn’t easy at all. Thanks Merlin for the blog – as always, illuminating.
16:49
DNK ‘REP’ and biffed ANCHORED – thanks for the education Merlin.
All solved bar my LOI at 12 minutes. Walked away twice then took a punt that the river was DEE and an alphabet trawl came up with PLAID – I would never have got there without the checkers.
FOI: REPAIRMAN
LOI: DEEP-LAID
COD: SCREWS
Thanks to Izetti and Merlin
A very nice QC which took me 12 minutes. LOI DEEP LAID; once I had Dee I was very close.
It occurred to me that if you picked the right clues to start with you would finish this quickly; there were a few easier ones.
Overall lots to like. COD to AMSTERDAM, or maybe ANCHORED or CORONER.
David
Nightmare. Couldn’t get ANCHORED or DEEP-LAID, couldn’t parse STRONG-ARM or REPAIRMAN. I will cower forlornly beneath a hedge, eating worms and gazing longingly through the windows at the forbidden comforts of the SCC.
Thank you for the blog!
Enjoy your worms! I’m sure someone will bring you a coffee.
Thank you, they were perfectly horrible.
For an Izetti puzzle I found this one to be quite easy going, though there were a few tricky clues.
I really did not get the cycling reference in 1a, but the letters in place made me realise STRONG ARM had to be the answer.
MINIMISATION took a while and so did ANCHORED.
Unfortunately though I had to DNF on 11d.
First Lap: 12
Answered (no help): 20
Answered (with help): 3
DNF: 1 (11d)
Time: 31:04
Got all but Deep-Laid quickly, and reverted to listing all the words that fitted, had Deep in the first list and Laid in the second, but didnt get as far as fitting them together doh! I also thought that deep-laid meant carefully thought out or long-standing, however the usual sources all also have secret.
Also was fairly sure Amsterdam isn’t the capital, so nice to see that cleared up. Thanks to Izetti and Merlin.
9:19
When you mention end on for bricks – One thing I remember from university days is the great variety of ways bricks can be laid in walls. See, for example, https://www.imperialbricks.co.uk/guidance/types-of-brick-bonds-and-patterns/
Or, for a more in depth discussion, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickwork
👍
Don’t know whether it’s covered in your link but I once saw a programme about dry stone walling and how the cowboy builders would build cheap walls by laying bricks end to end whereas the sturdier longlasting walls would have the length of the stones going across the width of the wall this creating more stability but also requiring many more stones
Broadly speaking, the LHS went in quickly and without undue difficulty, whereas the RHS posed far more problems and took up the majority of my time. I had intended to highlight here those clues that gave me the most trouble, but suffice to say that everything including and to the East of SPREADS in the top half (except AIM) and CORONER in the bottom half would feature in my list.
My LOI was the NHO phrase DEEP LAID and my time was 39 minutes.
Many thanks to Merlin and Izetti.
19 mins…
5 mins of this was spent trying to get 2dn “Repast”, which I probably should have known but couldn’t recall. A bit of tricky parsing today: 8ac “Repairman”, 11dn “Deep Laid” and 7dn “Anchored” all caused pause for thought. Luckily I knew Lance Armstrong, but if you didn’t know him this could have caused issues.
FOI – 4dn “Aim”
LOI – 2dn “Repast”
COD – 1ac “Strong Arm”
Thanks as usual!
Got 6ac and 6d quickly which enabled me to race through the LHS. RHS then slowed me down. Ended up scratching my head over DEEP LAID. Slightly slower than average, I felt.
Enjoyed the challenge.
Thanks Don and Merlin
Lovely QC. Held up by DEEP-LAID and END ON (didn’t spot hidden for ages), otherwise a fairly typical and leisurely plod around the grid. COD ANCHORED, although I also liked AMSTERDAM. Great blog. Thanks Merlin.
After my first sub 12 min yesterday, I spent 30mins on this and still had nine clues to go. Having read the answers, there’s some specialist hints in the ones I didn’t get that probably needs a longer history of solving!
A slower than average 13:39. No real problems with the long anagrams and we follow cycling so 1a was straightforward but unsurprisingly, in view of other comments, we struggled mightily with 11d. With the checkers it had to start DEEP, surely, but what was the material? PLAID didn’t come to mind. The improbable DEE(B-RAID) as some sort of undercover operation was seriously considered but never entered. It did open the mind though to a similarly structured participle and thence, eventually, to the answer. Not a term that I’ve come across or would use so it felt like an unsatisfying end. Thanks nevertheless to Merlin and Izetti.
Needed the help of MrP to dredge the words needed for my LOI (“well what do you think it means?” type questions usually work). Got there in 24 mins, but needed Merlin’s informative blog for the parsing of repairman.
FOI Eve
LOI Deep laid
COD Amsterdam
Thanks Izetti and Merlin
Re 8 ac I reckon ‘Rep’ is short for ‘repertoire’ – material to perform
It’s also a tough, coarse material. Used from time to time by setters when they get tired of ‘agent’.
Geographical knowledge not being my strong suit, I suppressed my doubts about Amsterdam and the Hague, but good to see both are capitals, effectively. DEEP LAID LOI, but with the crossers I didn’t have too much difficulty dredging up plaid as a material, though I hadn’t been aware of the secret sense of the planning previously. Otherwise a minor holdup over OPERATION while I wondered why ‘rating’ meant helping, before considering ‘ration’. Nice puzzle, somewhat easier than usual, but with little biffing possible.
13:17 here. I started with the long anagram down the left hand side and was going well until the “seven donkeys” clue baffled me for ages. COD from me goes to ANCHORED.
Thanks to Izetti and Merlin.
13:29 with at least 3 minutes spent on DEEP LAID, which, like others here, I think of as meaning thoroughly worked-out but not secret. Also I was quite dull over STRONG-ARM and AMSTERDAM, though they show exemplary Izetti-style logic. I also tried to anagram “material” with “I” for island at 8a. I often find it hard to pick a favorite from an Izetti puzzle, but I much enjoyed working out MINIMISATION.
A rather silly nit pick about the clue for 11d just occurred to me: applying the substitution standard of judging synonyms (which I don’t think really works for cryptics anyway) to the frozen collocation (thanks Merlin!) “DEEP LAID plans” yields “secretly planned plans”, not exactly a convincing phrase. Don’t mind me.
Thanks to Izetti and Merlin.
21.56 I was slow to get CORONER and OMANI and breeze-blocked by DEEP LAID. Which I have heard of, but not recently. Thanks Merlin and Izetti.
Enjoyed by this resident of the SCC. I did need Merlin’s blog for the parsing of REPAIRMAN. Clearly I need to learn more fabrics than tweed! Today we had REP and PLAID. Everyday’s a school day.
For what it’s worth, the fabric rep is sometimes spelt ‘repp’.
This was rough. Rep + air + man was particularly horrible.
Certainly a bit challenging in places, so I was pleased to finish in a fairly normal time. A good two minutes were spent on my LOI! I liked the surface for STRONG-ARM , although the man himself? So many disappointed fans. SPREADS was fine for this ex-journalist, and SPECTATOR made me smile.
11:00-ish FOI Lucre LOI Anchored COD Celebrations (it had to be as it’s my son’s birthday today 😊)
Thanks Izetti and Merlin – a super blog