Quick Cryptic 1254 by Izetti

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
It’s all going wrong today. First there is the error at 23 ac which threw me. Then distracted by that, I failed to spot a typo elsewhere and was plugging in ever more ridiculous answers for 23, getting the dreaded ‘Unlucky!’ each time. Then LiveJournal threw away three quarters of my blog as I posted it, which is why some of you early birds may have spotted the frantically rewritten blog appearing piecemeal.

So despite that, an enjoyable solve with lots of construction work that newbies might find a bit challenging. Also a couple of stiff bits of general knowledge. My time was all over the place, the thick end of 20 minutes.

Across

1 Prevent everyone going to the end of wood (9)
FORESTALL – FOREST (wood) + ALL
6 Vehicle almost completely destroyed (3)
BUS – Short for BUST
8 Ogre featured in sermons — terrible! (7)
MONSTER – hidden word – serMONS TERrible
9 Sir Toby’s expulsion after meal? (5)
BELCH – Sir Toby Belch is a character in Twelfth Night
10 Dishonesty getting last chairman sacked (12)
CHARLATANISM – anagram (‘sacked’) of LAST CHAIRMAN
12 Mouth silent monk only half needed (4)
TRAP – half of TRAPPIST
13 Warriors making personal claim to holiness? (4)
IMPI – A personal claim to holiness would be to say “I’m pi” (pi = pious) Impi are Zulu warriors
17 Break during academic period — is boy outside front of institute? (12)
INTERMISSION – IN TERM + IS SON with I inside
20 Another girl upsetting Alice (5)
CELIA – anagram (‘upsetting’) of ALICE
21 Detestable bit of play written by old boy (7)
OBSCENE – bit of play is SCENE, old boy is OB by convention
23 Boy in study retreating (3)
DEN – Right, unless Izetti has broken just about the only cast iron rule of cryptic crosswords, i.e. that the definintion should be either at the beginning or the end, this is an error. NED would work with the clue as written, ‘retreating boy in study’ would work as the clue.
24 Author from abroad hiding in trees crazily (1,1,7)
E M FORSTER – anagram (‘abroad’) of FROM inside anagram (‘crazily’) of TREES. Room with a View and all that.
Down
1 Celebrity, female wanting the last word getting cut short (4)
FAME – F + AMEN cut short
2 Farmer managed to get companion, top lady (7)
RANCHER – RAN + CH (Companion of Honour) + ER (The Queen, top lady)
3 In street sits little old drunkard (3)
SOT -ST for street with O inside
4 Woman dubbed “la Douce” hugged by an aviator (6)
AIRMAN – The woman is IRMA, from Irma La Douce, a French musical and later a film with Jack Lemmon. How you’re supposed to know that in the QC I can’t say. IRMA is ‘hugged by’ AN
5 Places you can read stories about Irish gathering support (9)
LIBRARIES – another construction job: stories are LIES, Irish is IR, support is BRA
6 Curry dish — the thing experimental unit served up (5)
BALTI – ‘the thing’ is IT, experimental unit is LAB, all ‘up’, i.e. backwards.
7 Conservative overwhelmed by shame messed up plan (6)
SCHEMA – Conservative is C, inside anagram (‘messed up’) of SHAME
11 Presentation concerning period for imbibing drink (9)
REPORTAGE – RE AGE with PORT inside
14 Demonstration in favour of having international match (7)
PROTEST – PRO (in favour of) + TEST (international match)
15 Showed discomfort in church when beset by gastric problem (6)
WINCED – Church is CE, inside WIND
16 Hint given by superior gent, carrying minimal cash (3-3)
TIP-OFF – superior gent is TOFF, minimal cash is 1p or IP
18 One that grabs cards laid out on table (5)
TALON – double definition. I didn’t know the second one
19 Try in this place to be listened to (4)
HEAR – sounds like ‘here’
22 Knight in prison with time to waste (3)
SIR – Prison is STIR, minus T for time

38 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1254 by Izetti”

  2. We always struggle to get the “den”/“ned” answers the right way round but today we were convinced that the answer was Ned, so glad to see you agree. This puzzle took us slightly longer than normal but we really enjoyed the challenge.
  3. I was held up at the end by RANCHER and LOI CHARLATANISM.
    I also had Ned for 23a and wondered why Winced seemed to be wrong -the parsing clearly showed that had to be right; not a major delay for that. 18:05 in total.
    I thought this was a nice traditional QC with some old friends and easyish clues to get started. But some difficulties too: could not parse Talon and Charlatanism took some getting. David
  4. I spent some time trying to make NED work, which the clue clearly points to, but gave up when WINCED and TALON came along. Not knowing the second definition of TALON didn’t help, and I spent more time trying to make sense of that. BELCH went in on definition as I didn’t know the character, although now he’s mentioned, a vague bell is sounding in the distance. Got there in the end though. 12:36. Thanks Izetti and Curarist.
  5. I was likewise puzzled how 23a, as clued, can be DEN not NED (which is what I had until solving WINCED). NHO IRMA. Is the film worth watching? I liked CHARLATANISM. A rather sluggish 7:58.
  6. Best time of the week with 16.43 but two pink squares: one a fat finger typo, the other from bunging in SCHEME too quickly at 7dn. Needed Mrs soj to unscramble CHARLATANISM without resorting to pen and paper. Liked the clues today. TALON was in there somewhere. BELCH suitably post Christmas.
  7. 30 minutes, held up by Den like everyone else and with a bit more biffing than usual.
    Does anyone know why Celebrity = Fame? I know it’s listed in Chambers but I can’t see why.
    Brian
    2. Celebrity in its sense as an abstract noun i.e. as a synonym for fame rather than c-listers etc.
  8. 12 minutes here, which I blame on the error in the clue at 23ac that prevented 15dn being the write-in it should have been.

    Also I didn’t know the second meaning of TALON despite being an ardent fan of card games. Having now looked it up I see it refers to the cards remaining after the deal which to my mind are not ‘laid out on the table’ but put in a pile.

    Edited at 2018-12-28 10:06 am (UTC)

  9. Firmly in the SCC again today, completing it in 23.41. Part of this was due to having a residual ‘D’ from NED at the end of 23a/18d which made LOI TALON hard to work out. Eventually I saw what was going on but it went in unparsed as I hadn’t heard of the second definition. COD to 10a which took a while to unscramble.
    Thanks for the blog
  10. 23A as submitted : Boy falling over in study. The editor wanting to avoid ambiguity seems to have made the clue watertight by choosing the wrong option. Being an editor myself, I have some sympathy — but all authors should check their editor’s work so an apology from me!
  11. Sort of relieved that it wasn’t me being completely DENse. Some good stuff though despite the persistent use of pi which in the 21c is never used outside of crosswords as far as I know.

    Edited at 2018-12-28 10:36 am (UTC)

  12. I found this surprisingly straightforward for an Izetti puzzle. Fortunately I had already written in winced for 15d and was convinced it was right, thus solving the Den/Ned dilemma at 23a.
  13. Outside my target of 15 minutes by a couple. The author was last one in and took far too long to get.
  14. About 8 minutes for me today. As others were, I was held up by Winced/Den/Talon. Thanks to Izetti and Curarist.

    Adrian

  15. Another DNF. Mind you I absolutely hate Izetti puzzles and generally find him unsolvable. Personally I don’t think he is a good setter for QC puzzles but that may just be me never getting anywhere near his wavelength.

    Here’s hoping for some encouraging QCs next week.

    1. I agree totally. Have tried for a long time but now given up on Izetti. Don’t even try as I ‘m never going to be on his/her wavelength.
  16. A bit of a strange one – a Curate’s egg for me. 20.21 in the end – it just didn’t seem to flow. There were some clever clues but too many trip-wires for comfort. I agree with curarist about NED/DEN and was slowed by almost all the other difficulties mentioned above. John M.
  17. …the implausible Dirty DEN, I totally failed to get into the SCHEMA of things, and my fast time was a DNF.

    This simply wasn’t up to the standard one expects from Izetti I’m afraid.

  18. 13:31 but with two unforced errors as in 17a iitermission (typo) and 7d scheme (even whilst looking for an anagram of shame). My LOI was 10a CHARLATANISM despite again knowing it to be an anagram and having to work from east to west to solve it. I didn’t dwell on 23a as I already had both checkers for DEN having biffed TALON. Thanks to all.
  19. The Times Puzzle Club has ‘Study boy’s reflection’ as the clue which probably explains why I had no issues with the solve at 23a.
  20. I found this tough, but managed to finish it in about 40 minutes.

    23A must have been changed by the time I’d started, so that wasn’t a problem.

    I biffed several answers, and used some rather more awkward justifications for some clues. For RANCHER I thought: managed – RAN and then thought maybe companion was C and top lady HER, but didn’t get why – I also thought RAN + CHER, but not sure CHER would be a top lady companion!

    For REPORTAGE, I thought about = RE and period for imbibing drink could be PORT-AGE, as in the age of (for drinking) port! I got it right, so that’s all that matter, right. I got HEAR early on, but couldnt’ decide on HERE or HEAR. Hadn’t realised HEAR = TRY.

    This one was a toughy.

    1. I think the ‘for’ is there to help the surface reading of the clue. However it does also work as part of the cryptic – ‘period for imbibing drink’ can whimsically refer to the ‘port-age’.
      Another one temporarily bamboozled by DEN/NED.
      6’45’
  23. Outside my target of 15 minutes by a couple. The author was last one in and took far too long to get.
  24. Which seems about right for a Friday.

    As noted above, 23a has been updated in the Puzzle Club.

    Thanks Izetti and curarist.

  25. I was giving myself the week off, but couldn’t resist an Izetti. . . All went along fairly smoothly (even Charlatanism came to mind without too much delay) until just the SE corner remained. Naturally I chose Elica as the unknown girl’s name, I didn’t know the second meaning of Talon, and finally I was convinced 23ac had to be Ned to fit the parsing. It all took ages to sort out.
    Fortunately 13ac, Impi, will outlast my frustration. Invariant
  26. I raced through, but I was early enough that the clue for DEN/NED hadn’t been fixed, and I’d already put in the wrong answer. I was pretty sure TALON would be right (although I only knew one of the meanings) but then NED was wrong, although the clue clearly says it is that way around. And I was dense on WINCED which I read as IN CE with some gastric thing around it, and wondered what WD was. Doh. So I switched DEN, put in WINCED and TALON, and was almost surprised to get no pink squares.

    BTW in the blog preamble you say 23 down, but you mean across.

    Edited at 2018-12-28 06:35 pm (UTC)

  27. Not as polite as most of you… 23a was a shocker. If the compiler and the editor can’t see how wrong this is, then they are both in the wrong job. Also, the second definition in 18d has no place in a quick cryptic. Having 2 poor clues like this crossing only adds to the confusion. I wanted to put “talon” and “den” but simply couldn’t bring myself to believe that a compiler for the Times could make such a fundamental error.
  28. Hard going today! Took me most of the train ride from Exeter to Birmingham, second class effort in a second class carriage.
    Problems mainly in the SW corner, not helped by but not entirely due to DEN.
    Still, been doing quite well lately so a tricky one was fairly welcome, especially since I forgot my book!
  29. I found this very tough, with 23a not helping the confusion. I fluked 24a trying to make “forest” fit in for trees. But I failed on 13a with not knowing Impi.

    But a good learning experience overall 🙂

  30. I don’t often do the QC but did so today. In my opinion people are giving Izetti a hard time and it’s rather unjustified. All right there was the mistake with 23ac, but Izetti explained (although he took some blame himself) that it was really the editor’s fault. And talon was a bit inappropriate for a QC, as well as evidently being wrong. But in every other way this was a neat job: good neat clueing (although yes perhaps ‘for’ in 11dn and ‘little’ in 3dn were superfluous).
  31. If a crossword editor takes it upon himself to ‘edit’ an Izetti clue, he better know his stuff. This editor clearly doesn’t. It is he (not Izetti) who deserves a hard time from all of us, having caused us many minutes of pointless struggle, particularly those of us who work from the printed paper. Harrumph!

    treesparrow

Comments are closed.