Izetti can sometimes be quite gentle but that’s not how I would describe today’s puzzle.
There were a few uncommon words or senses and the parsing of a couple of clues wasn’t crystal clear; I’d welcome comments about 3d amongst others. Still, always good to be challenged and to feel a sense of achievement with all answers in correctly. Finished with a bit slower than usual time of 13:16.
Thanks to Izetti
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Maiden, say, as sailor, big achiever (8) |
| MEGASTAR – M (‘Maiden’) EG (‘say’) AS (‘as’) TAR (‘sailor’) | |
| 5 | Objections about this fag end? (4) |
| STUB – Reversal (‘about’) of BUTS (‘objections’)
‘Fag end’ as in the end of a cigarette, which just to confuse things can also be a “butt”. |
|
| 8 | Maiden maybe in request for a large blanket? (8) |
| COVERALL – OVER (‘Maiden maybe’) contained in (‘in’) CALL (‘request’)
One of the harder ones. COVERALL isn’t a term I’ve come across for a garment or covering but is in Collins as “a thing that covers something entirely” and in Chambers and the ODE for “overalls” or a “boiler suit”. The adjectival sense, which I’m more familiar with, is only in Chambers. CALL for ‘request’ wasn’t immediately obvious either but is OK as in “A call was made upon the members for extra money to complete the building extension”. We’re only three clues in and ‘Maiden’, in its cricketing sense, has appeared twice already. The bowlers lose their line and length for the rest of the puzzle though. |
|
| 9 | Artist using mud mostly and egg! (4) |
| MIRO – MIR Not the first artist to come to mind (though he probably would be if you were in Barcelona) and I needed the crossers for this. Joan Miró, the Spanish (Catalan) painter and sculptor. |
|
| 11 | Fellow competitor running ablest team (10) |
| STABLEMATE – Anagram (‘running’) of ABLEST TEAM | |
| 14 | Silver in residence maybe what the lord’s demanded? (6) |
| HOMAGE – AG (‘Silver’) contained in (‘in’) HOME (‘residence maybe’)
I opted to attach the ‘maybe’ to the ‘residence’ bit of the wordplay rather than the ‘what the…’ def, thinking of say a football ground being the ‘home’ of a club, but not a place where someone lives. |
|
| 15 | See what’s in Hampshire garden (6) |
| REGARD – Hidden (‘what’s in’) HampshiRE GARDen | |
| 17 | Engineers getting something made for play (10) |
| RECREATION – RE (‘Engineers’) CREATION (‘something made’) | |
| 20 | A king getting in close (4) |
| AKIN – A (‘A’) K (‘king’) IN (‘in’)
All in plain sight. An alternative parsing would be hidden in A KINg but I can’t see a convincing hidden indicator. |
|
| 21 | Watch out! Ignoring article, Pinter play cycling without end (4,4) |
| TAKE CARE – I biffed this, but eventually remembered the name of the play. At a stretch another oblique cricketing reference: Pinter was a great cricketing enthusiast. |
|
| 22 | Exercises for body and soul? Unknown in the past, going back (4) |
| YOGA – Y (‘Unknown’) reversal (‘going back’) of AGO (‘in the past’) | |
| 23 | Felt awkward joining financial outfit in area of Paris (4,4) |
| LEFT BANK – Anagram (‘awkward’) of FELT then BANK (‘financial outfit’) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Mum joins church club (4) |
| MACE – MA (‘Mum’) CE (‘church’) | |
| 2 | End of trying — I have to yield (4) |
| GIVE – G (‘End of tryinG’) I’VE (‘I have’) | |
| 3 | Great sites for redevelopment according to schemes (10) |
| STRATEGIES – Anagram (‘for redevelopment’) of GREAT SITES
I don’t think ‘according to’ is part of the def but on the other hand I’m not sure what it is doing in the clue, as it’s not even necessary for the surface if ‘schemes’ by itself is the def. |
|
| 4 | Learner is bad, coming out with impromptu comments (2-4) |
| AD-LIBS – Anagram (‘coming out’) of L (‘Learner’) and IS BAD | |
| 6 | Vessel in good condition managed to support area (8) |
| TRIMARAN – TRIM (‘in good condition’) RAN (‘managed’) below, in a down clue (‘to support’) A (‘area’) | |
| 7 | They may provide support for librarians (8) |
| BOOKENDS – Cryptic definition | |
| 10 | Animal not heartless, having earlier been awfully kind (10) |
| BENEVOLENT – VOLE (‘Animal’) N Is there an animal called a FICE? Probably not. |
|
| 12 | Hesitant to admit boy as domestic servant? (8) |
| CHARLADY – CHARY (‘Hesitant’) containing (‘to admit’) LAD (‘boy’) | |
| 13 | Lively male wearing coarse cloth (8) |
| SMACKING – M (‘male’) contained in (‘wearing’) SACKING (‘coarse cloth’)
I hadn’t come across this sense of SMACKING before. It’s in Collins as an adjective meaning “brisk; lively”, but not in Chambers or the ODE. Another one for which I needed wordplay and crossers. |
|
| 16 | Gas, more than enough? That’s too much! (6) |
| ETHANE – Hidden (‘That’s too much!’) in morE THAN Enough | |
| 18 | Girl leading a fete? (4) |
| GALA – GAL (‘Girl’) before (‘leading’) A (‘a’) | |
| 19 | Gregory’s kiss? (4) |
| PECK – Double definition
Gregory PECK the actor. |
|
DNF despite some inspired biffing eg Take care and Charlady. Agree with comments about vole we cannot alphabet trawl the whole animal kingdom. Thanks all
Hooray, I thought – SCC but all done in 25 minutes! Then I checked and found SMACKING for my SMOCKING – bother, a DNF. I don’t think I would ever have got SMACKING for lively, so tant pis. Liked TAKE CARE (saw Donald Pleasance in the film of The Caretaker in the 1960s and loved it!). I find Izetti clues very logical on the whole and so COVERALL went in even though I don’t really know it: I hoped AKIN was right, and it was. Lots of fun moments and worthwhile puzzling: thanks setter and blogger.
DNF on stilts, with six or so incomplete. I should really have got ETHANE, which was masterfully hidden, but I’ll forgive myself for the others.
Thank you for the very helpful blog!
DNF
Well short today. Had BUTS for 5ac which prevented TRIMARAN and BOOKENDS, DNK CHARY for hesitant, put SHY so couldn’t get that one and missed the hidden ETHANE which is annoying as those are usually the easiest clues. Gave up at 25 mins.
26 minute DNF
Put DIRO for 9ac and took forever to get ETHANE. Truly awful performance.
Fed up and losing the will to continue with this hobby. No fun at all being this bad.
To compound my misery, I got less than half on the ‘proper’ crossword. I am hopelessly lost with this. Having read the blog for this, I’m amazed I got that many. It’s just beyond my level of intelligence.
Dnf…
Late to writing this one up due to travel, but after 25 mins had to throw in the towel on 21ac “Take Care” – not particularly up with Pinter plays which probably didn’t help. In addition, I put “Diro” for 9ac (Dirt rather than Mire) which was obviously wrong.
Definitely felt like there were a few obscure words: “chary” = hesitant, for example. Even though I nearly got there, it was more towards the difficult end of Izetti.
FOI – 1dn “Mace”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 10dn “Benevolent”
Thanks as usual!
DNF, annoyingly since I managed to get Take Care despite not knowing the play. NHO Miro so put Diro – Mud = Dirt. Also never thought of smacking = lively, so fell into the Smocking trap. Still, I got the rest.