Quick Cryptic 3089 by Izetti

Author   BletchleyRejectPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

On the harder end of the Izetti spectrum after several benign ones from our well-known setter.

As I write this blog (now 0200 UK time), this puzzle still isn’t available on the Club site, so you may have to do it on the (non-Club) puzzles page.

A lesser-spotted ‘painter’ at 12a crossed with a non-ionic ‘One’s charged’ at 6d crossed with a new ‘leading comedian’ at 13a and a new def at 16d so no complaints that this was just more of the same.

My LOI 2d caused me a lot of grief – just too clever for me.

Eventually finished in 14:22.

Thanks to Izetti

Definitions underlined in bold. Deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.

Across
1 Cook with herb — prescribed amount (6)
DOSAGE – DO (‘Cook’) SAGE (‘herb’)
4 Sailor with a rod wandering about on ship (6)
ABOARD – AB (‘Sailor’) then anagram (‘wandering about’) of A ROD
8 Goods vehicle departs (7)
CARGOES – CAR (‘vehicle’) GOES (‘departs’)
10 Was first to get outside work and made great strides? (5)
LOPED – LED (‘was first’) containing (‘to get outside’) OP (‘work’)
11 Clothes carried by laundresses (5)
DRESS – Hidden (‘carried by’) launDRESSes

DRESS here as in the ‘clothes’ one is wearing, rather than a specific garment.
12 Drink, something bitter for painter (7)
CHAGALL – CHA (‘Drink’) GALL (‘something bitter’)

No, not ABSINTHE.
I was surprised to read he died as recently as 1985, aged 98.
13 Ban a panto — naughty leading comedian (3,6)
TOP BANANA – Anagram (‘naughty’) of BAN A PANTO

Hello, this looks familiar; almost but not quite.
Never seen this sense of TOP BANANA before (rather than “the boss”, as yesterday) but yes, it’s in Collins as “slang chiefly US: the leading comedian in vaudeville, burlesque etc”.
17 Supervise, as a bishop (7)
OVERSEE – Definition with cryptic hint

A ‘bishop’ is OVER (=in charge of) a SEE
19 Instrument with which celebrity enthrals India (5)
SITAR – STAR (‘celebrity’) containing (‘which enthrals’) I (‘India’)

The whole clue could also be read as an extended definition.
20 Posed wearing fine material (5)
SATIN – SAT (‘Posed’) IN (‘wearing’)
21 Sleeplike state, having eaten hot portion (7)
TRANCHE – TRANCE (‘Sleeplike state’) containing (‘having eaten’) H (‘hot’)

One of those non-technical words which seems to have become more common over the last few decades. This wasn’t however confirmed by the OED – the surge in its popularity (both slight exaggerations) began in the 1940’s-1950’s, though has continued this century.
22 Wild animals — any he’s found roaming? (6)
HYENAS – Anagram (‘found roaming?’) of ANY HES
23 Really popular exploit (6)
INDEED – IN (‘popular’) DEED (‘exploit’)
Down
1 Maybe the Sixties baddy plunged into river (6)
DECADE – CAD (‘baddy’) contained in (‘plunged into’) DEE (‘river’)

It took a while to expunge ‘swinging’, even though it has too many letters.
2 Plays out (6,7)
STREET THEATRE – Cryptic definition

Mm… Either very frustrating (my experience) or very clever. LOI by some margin. ‘Out’ as in “outside”.
3 Derbyshire town starts to seem sticky with viscous liquid around (7)
GLOSSOP – Seem Sticky (‘starts to Seem Sticky’) contained in (‘with… around’) GLOOP (‘viscous liquid’)

Not sure if I’d heard of this market town in the High Peak borough of northern Derbyshire. Fact for the day, courtesy of Wikipedia: The German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (yes, he’s in the song so counts as a real philosopher) stayed at the Grouse Inn in Glossop in 1908 while at Manchester University.
Best definition of GLOOP is from Chambers: “Thick viscous liquid, esp a glob, spoldge or slow drip or dribble of such”.
My COD for the yucky surface.
5 Like scientific establishment set up in wood (5)
BALSA – Reversal (‘set up’) of both AS (‘Like’) and LAB (‘scientific establishment’)
6 One’s charged leading character, quiet leader? (5,8)
ALPHA PARTICLE – ALPHA (‘leading character’) P (‘quiet’) ARTICLE (‘leader?’)

‘Leader?’ for ARTICLE as in “editorial”.
7 Led astray, eating strange piece of cake! (6)
DODDLE – Anagram (‘astray’) of LED containing (‘eating’) ODD (‘strange’)
9 Cameras shot holy books in religious ceremony (9)
SACRAMENT – Anagram (‘shot’) of CAMERAS then NT (‘holy books’)

I didn’t know, but Protestant churches on the one hand and Roman Catholic and Eastern churches on the other, have different SACRAMENT(s).
14 Avoid drink? Don’t commit to a view (7)
ABSTAIN – Double definition

The question mark in the first definition since you can ABSTAIN from other things apart from ‘drink’. The second definition as in ABSTAIN from voting. Both seem pretty much the same thing to me.
15 For the most part, put up with school soup (6)
BORSCH – BORe with last letter deleted (‘For the most part, put up with’) SCH (‘school’)
16 Finish after day five as main man? (6)
FRIEND – END (‘Finish’) following (‘after’) FRI (‘day five’)

Well, ‘day five’ of the working week anyway. I thought ‘main man?’ may be referring back to give a meaning of a “man Friday”. However looking it up, I see that ‘main man’ is in the usual references as a N. American informal term for a trusted or best male friend.
18 Plant with two names found in salt water (5)
SENNA – NN (‘two names’) contained in (‘found in’) SEA (‘salt water’)

75 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3089 by Izetti”

  1. 12 minutes. I agree there are a few clues that needed thinking through. I queried the definition of TOP BANANA as I was solving, but on reflection I think I already knew that it originated in burlesque with reference to the headline act which may well have been a comedian, although not necessarily. FRIEND seemed a bit loose.

  2. In this pan-puzzle mini-deluge of TOP BANANAS I now remember the expression ‘second banana’ referring to a comic’s sidekick, which obviously implies the existence of a superior banana. I never really thought it through. Enjoyable puzzle today, 7.38, thanks BR and Izetti.

  3. The Crossword Club site didn’t seem to be able to find the QC so I had to solve on the other page – a distractingly different experience but liberating in that I knew there was no risk of a pink square so whacked in ALPHA PARTICLE to finish without a care in the world. Took a long time to get BORSCH – which seemed much more correct than the copsch I’d previously wondered about – and CHAGALL. STREET THEATRE took its time too. All right first time in 16.37.

  4. Enjoyed this through the haze of jet lag after returning from an extended holiday in the US where we didn’t see any Top Bananas. All done in a decent 16.57 with a couple of those moments where the answer just pops into your head as a surprise, eg gall for bitter! Glossop was a write in but we remarked that might be tough for non UK folk. Hesitated on Borsch for a while as Mrs RH convinced it should have a t in there somewhere. Liked LOI street theatre after the PDM. Considered street early on with the checkers but like BR needed all the rest.

    I have a pet dislike for cook=do as you can pretty much replace any verb with do! You pluck the chicken and I’ll do the turkey?

    Thanks Izetti and BR for the blog and correct parsing of satin.

  5. I found this pretty tough, but finished. I really didn’t like STREET THEATRE – it doesn’t really feel like a clue you could solve without all/most of the checkers and a bit of guesswork. I know there are always cryptic clues without definitions, but there’s normally something interesting to chew on. Only gristle with this clue. Did I already say I didn’t like it?

    Pi ❤️

  6. It was strange having to use a different ‘format’ to solve this puzzle especially as I couldn’t find a ‘show word breaks’ instruction (I’m sure it’s there somewhere). Other than that my only issue was not knowing that definition of TOP BANANA but the answer was clear with a few checkers in place.

    Started with DOSAGE and finished with STREET THEATRE in 8.34.
    Thanks to BR and Izetti

  7. Good puzzle, thank you, Don. LOI ALPHA PARTICLE took some head-scratching but got there in the end. Many to like: DECADE, OVERSEE, DODDLE. Thanks, BR.

  9. 5.09

    Surprised to see me fourth on the Crossword Club site. Not quite out of four, but almost top half 🙂 Yes, it’s working now.

    Knew GLOSSOP and twigged the imho excellent STREET THEATRE once I had the checkers for the first word. Not always keen on a cryptic but this was a banger. Sorry, talking to my kids too much. This was a good one.

    Thanks Izetti and BR.

  10. Just over 21 minutes. Not helped by putting ABROAD for ABOARD and then scratching head for ages trying to think of a particle beginning with O. Careless but would have been a slow time even without that. STREET THEATRE was one of many excellent clues.

  11. I found this fairly straightforward and finished in an average sort of time of 20:24. Fortunately know GLOSSOP and biffed STREET THEATRE and TOP BANANAS early on which helped.

  12. 35.50
    Difficult but eventually got there.
    A very raised eyebrow at 16D. Personally, I wish setters would indicate US usage. Have never come across this meaning and was left wondering why women aren’t friends….

    The rest made sense, eventually. Took me longer than it should have done to get 2D. STREET took a long time to come despite outdoor not fitting.
    FOI OVERSEE
    LOI DODDLE
    COD GLOSSOP
    Thanks as usual.

  13. 15:06, flipping heck, that felt hard.

    TOP BANANA and TIP AND RUN are both clues that appeared in the QC and its Big Brother on the same or adjacent days.

    Had FRIDAY=“main man” for sometime. I thought that was a decent cryptic definition.

    Didn’t know Glossop as being in Derbyshire. With daughters at both Manchester and Nottingham Universities it was on the route for me when driving between them. With car full of duvet, kettle and unsuitable clothes.

    I’ve alway spelt it Borscht.

    And although the Crossword Club was DOA this morning, it has started working. And the 500 errors on WordPress seem to have been solved. Thanks to the IT crowd behind the scenes.

    LOI ALPHA PARTICLE

  14. 7:58, which puts me in the top ten in the crossword club.

    I once had a car break down on the Snake Pass between GLOSSOP and Sheffield,
    STREET THEATRE was my LOI.
    I needed all the checkers before seeing ALPHA PARTICLE.

    Thanks BR and Izetti

  15. Carelessly put ABROAD which slowed down the NE corner. Only ever seen BORSCHT but it couldn’t be anything else. NHO TOP BANANA in this sense, but in my head from yesterday. L2I ALPHA PARTICLE and STREET THEATRE. Thanks BR for parsing of SATIN and ABSTAIN. Definitely one of the trickier QCs for me compared to recent puzzles.

  16. Around 12 minutes (on train, interrupted by nice man offering coffee from trolley – v welcome after early start). In general much enjoyed. On the wavelength, a steady plod from start to finish, slower in the NE region. Share query re STREET THEATRE – we bunged it in, shrugging as we tried to align ‘street’ with ‘out’. Smiled at CARGOES, though noted we very rarely add (or see) ‘es’.
    Himself was quick to see ALPHA PARTICLE.
    NHO 16d in sense described, though thought it clever construction.
    Thank you Izetti and BR

  17. Pretty tough today, at least for me, and I struggled to finish but eventually crossed the line in 12.55. The two long ones STREET THEATRE and ALPHA PARTICLE were a long time coming to me, and my LOI BORSCH took me longer than it should have. GLOSSOP was known to me as a Derbyshire town, so once the G was in place it went straight in.

  18. 10:28 for the solve. Would have been nine mins but didn’t know how to spell CHAGALL and while I said it out loud at that moment, I pictured it as Chagaal which didn’t fit the wordplay. Had to think of gall which I’m not overly familiar with meaning bitter to confirm the answer. Similarly struggled to think of BOR(e). Review says further unfamiliar geography with GLOSSOP and plants with SENNA and my physics is decent enough to know of ALPHA PARTICLEs. Overall good result given some of the stuff in there.

    Thanks to BR and Izetti.

    (Still getting 500 errors)

  19. 9.48 for me. Decent puzzle and share many of the sentiments already expressed above. Also have memories of GLOSSOP having travelled across Snake Pass the A57 which passes through there , returning to university in Sheffield on many an occasion. Thanks Izetti and Bletchley.

  20. Slowed down by unwisely eating hot buttered toast while solving, and by double checking everything. NHO ALPHA PARTICLE, but firmly recommend the GLOSSOP branch of Wetherspoon’s as a fine conversion of a mill building.

    FOI LOPED
    LOI FRIEND
    COD SITAR
    TIME 5:08

  21. I had no idea that TOP BANANA was specific to a comedian, but it couldn’t be anything else so I wrote it straight in. My LOI was also 2dn. I had originally (with doubts) written in GARDEN THEATRE, as I had not yet got 1ac (not sure why, it’s a bit of a chestnut), assuming it to be some kind of theatre in one’s garden. After I saw DOSAGE it obviously had to change but it took me a good 30 seconds of head scratching to bring STREET forward. I came in at 7:53.

    When I was a child we went camping to Derbyshire every year for a few years. As well as being subjected to the camping itself we were forced to go to the market in Glossop as markets were, for some reason, considered as some kind of treat by my parents’ generation. I never understood why, I must say. So I had no trouble with that one.

  22. I was very slow to start this and nearly set it aside but I ploughed on. It slowly came together and I began to enjoy the challenge.
    As always, there were many fine, fair, but testing clues. I crossed my fingers when taking the final T off BORSCHt. No problem with GLOSSOP as soon as the G was available (well-remembered from many New Year Midnight Hikes many years ago after a few jars in the Snake Inn).
    My final two were ALPHA PARTICLE and the brilliant STREET THEATRE (I needed the crossers for this one) and I finished in 17.40 which is slower than my last handful of Izetti QCs but more than acceptable for a challenging puzzle.
    Thanks to Izetti for an excellent QC and to BR for an interesting blog that I will now return to.

  23. DNF

    Would have been 5:33 but bunged in SCREEN THEATRE (which didn’t sound right) – after the pink squares had appeared, I still had to alphatrawl to work out what the first word was! Thought of BORSCH quite quickly, but wasn’t sure about the BOR part. GLOSSOP on the other hand, was a write-in – at the western end of Snake Pass, I pass through it frequently when visiting my daughter at Sheffield Uni

    Thanks BR and Izetti

  24. 19:56

    Not too bad but flummoxed by LOI CHAGALL. In fact spent 5 minutes on that one without really solving it and just made a guess in the end to escape the SCC.

  25. 14:09 held up by Alpha Chagall. Agree Street Theatre it had to be, but out a bit loose for street as is play for theatre which imho would be absolutely dandy if the overall cryptic was more generous or clever. Something like “Go public and see how this plays out?” perhaps.
    Ta BR&I

    1. We always used to ‘play out’ (in the street, as it happens – very few cars to worry about) in my childhood.
      I often heard a knock on the door to find a friend asking ‘are you playing out?’ or ‘are you coming out to play’.
      I thought it was a brilliant clue that chimed exactly with my own experience growing up in Greater Manchester. Perhaps a bit more like ancient history for some solvers?

      1. very familiar with can x or y come out to play (a la girls and boys /moon doth shine etc) but play out not do. Perhaps it’s a regional thing?

        1. On reflection, I wondered if it was a ‘Northern’ thing. It was certainly standard in Lancashire when I was growing up.
          It never occurred to me that Izetti (just) might be from Northern England!

  26. 16 Currently that’s par.

    The whole west side with Street Theatre helped by the S and T initial letters.

  27. DOSAGE was FOI, then ABROAD. I did think it was a bit loose for on ship, but moved briskly on. Of course it came back to bite me when I couldn’t think of a particle beginning with O. Also not helped by my biffed painter, CHAPILL, giving me O-P-I. The penny did eventually drop and ABOARD and CHAGALL duly arrived. The SW was still bare at this stage, but OVERSEE and SATIN presented THEATRE and STREET followed. BORSCH was LOI. 8:13. Thanks BR and Izetti. My usual nocturnal lifestyle meant that the Club site was up and running by the time I foraged for coffee and fired up the laptop.

  28. Pretty slow, esp in NE corner, despite early solve of ABOARD. Finally a PDM with DODDLE helped with the rest. Had vaguely looked up painters before that, but then CHAGALL fell into place.
    LOI ALPHA – biffed but NHO the PARTICLE.
    Liked TRANCHE, and DODDLE.
    Thanks vm, BR.

  29. Blood pressure raised several notches on the train endlessly refreshing the Club to see if was working, plus trying to come on here to see if there was anything to explain what was going on, only to be met by an endless succession of Error 500s. Not a good morning.

    Returned over a coffee to find everything working. POI was CHAGALL which caused me to hang my head in shame, given that my local church (All Saints, Tudeley) is the only church in the world with all its windows by Chagall. Read all about it here https://www.tudeley.org/Groups/363846/Chagall_Windows.aspx

    All done in 08:51, quite a stiff test I thought and really good fun. Many thanks Don and Bletchers.

    PS on edit – fired up the Club on my phone again to check whether it was working for iPhone: it still isn’t (Error 404, makes a nice change from Error 500 on here). Good to see the smooth roll out of these wonderful improvements.

    1. I’ve visited All Saints Tudeley and it is the most fabulous small church. As well as the Chagall windows – a dozen of them no less – it is also notable for the amount of Hebrew writing on the altar cloth, largely explained I think by the main benefactor of the Church being Jewish. Well worth a visit.

  30. I don’t think this was Izetti’s finest. I have never been to GLOSSOP but I have heard of it and yet I still needed all the checkers to solve the clue. I am another who bunged in ABroaD at 4a and contemplated the existence of an Omega PARTICLE until LOPED arrived. My LOI was STREET THEATRE…and I agree with Pi…. I didn’t like it either. 7:07 Thanks BR

  31. My thanks to Izetti and BletchleyReject.
    Fairly easy I thought, with a couple of sticky ones.
    13a Top Banana, DNK this meaning. I didn’t let that worry me though.
    6d Alpha P biffed, didn’t get the editorial thing. Didn’t think really.
    16d Friend; I put Friday but had to erase that when 21a Tranche came along.

  32. Seemed to be a whole lot of clues here where clues maybe work if you kind of squint at them but didn’t feel natural at all. Glossop was one of the only write-ins to me, never been there but there’s only about five known places in Derbyshire. “Dress” is possibly the worst hidden I’ve ever seen, hesitated to even put it in because it didn’t seem to fit the idea of a hidden clue at all.

    1. I love your dismissal of Derbyshire.
      Derby and Chesterfield must be the two largest places I suppose, but there are plenty of other well-known and oft-visited towns and villages: Matlock, Ashbourne, Castleton, Bakewell, Eyam, Tideswell, Hathersage, Buxton, Tissington, Hartington, Bolsover, Edale, ……. I could go on.

      2. And Whaley Bridge, where I grew up, which was briefly famous in 2019 when the reservoir was at risk of collapse. It’s quite weird to see your backwater of a home town on national telly.

      3. … and Wormhill! So long ago I think I’m fairly safe this will not immediately identify me.

          1. No sorry. Ha Ha kind wishes to Mrs Random, this modern communication through the ether thing also draws a veil over gender! The ‘gardener’ is a little ironic but actually we do have a new garden and it is coming on, and the photo is our new crab apple in blossom.

  33. A second successive DNF (and my third in four days). I was left with only four clues to solve after 22 minutes (quite fast for me), but had added only INDEED and STREET THEATRE by the 33 minutes point and my final two never came.

    I got the PARTICLE bit of 6d but, despite several ALPHAbet trawls, ALPHA did not reveal itself. No matter really, because I’d NHO the painter and I also DNK bitter and GALL were synonyms. So, I still wouldn’t have finished in a month of Sundays.

    It was disappointing to fail after 40-something minutes, but poor GK and/or limited vocabulary often cause my downfall. Wrong type of education/reading/life experience? Maybe, but probably just dimness on my part.

    Many thanks to BR and Izetti.

  35. I am afraid I will buck the trend by saying I did not enjoy this at all and thought it a poor crossword replete with weak definitions and obscurities. Cook = DO was an unhelpful start, GLOSSOP is a tough one for non-UK solvers, CHAGALL is not exactly the best known painter, FRIEND as “main man” is vague at best, TOP BANANA for lead comedian is a stretch, ARTICLE for leader is another unusual one, BORSCH is (I presume) an allowed spelling but it certainly isn’t the usual one and I didn’t understand the clue for STREET THEATRE even after getting it via a letter search (and yes I did see Screen … first, but discarded it luckily).

    I did finish, in 10:18, so my disgruntlement was not that I found it a hard puzzle, but it was certainly in my view an unsatisfactory one. One expects the odd curveball from Izetti, it wouldn’t be a puzzle from the Don without them, but this had too many clues which left me thinking “Really?”

    Many thanks BR for the blog. And apologies all for a less than upbeat post.

    1. Upbeatness isn’t compulsory, Cedric. Mine was also rather downbeat today. I just post as I feel at the end of my effort.

  36. Another day, another top banana.
    14 minutes for me including some hard work on several clues. DNK ALPHA PARTICLE but worked through the parsing.
    I did know GLOSSOP which helped.
    My LOI was BORSCH which I thought had a T somewhere; and I had put up with = BEAR before realising it could be the past tense.
    I did enjoy it, but definitely not easy.
    David

  37. Dnf…

    17 mins for everything, but put “Chapail” in for the NHO of painter in 12ac. Thankfully I did know Borsch and Alpha Particles, although for a while I was bizarrely wanting to put Apple in there.

    FOI – 1dn “Decade”
    LOI – 12ac “Chapail” (incorrect)
    COD – 7dn “Doddle”

    Thanks as usual!

    PS. Anyone else constantly getting Internal Server Errors when try and click on the site?

  38. I grew up about ten miles from Glossop so that was an easy one, even though (unlike most of you lot, apparently) I don’t recall ever actually going there.

    Anyway, 12:13 for me, but I googled the painter so I suppose that’s a DNF. It generally felt kinder than peak Izetti, though, with a fair few write-ins.

    Thank you for the blog!

  40. I spent 14:04 to finish this, and was a little surprised it wasn’t more, with a feeling that I was over-thinking everything. I’m thankful that just staring at S_R_E_T_E_T_E somehow produced STREET THEATRE, otherwise it could have been a long long search. I’m having a lot of difficulties so far this week with BANANAs–comedian? Thanks to Bletch for looking that up.

    It’s reassuring to have the usual ecclesiastical vocabulary from Izetti today, as well as many elegant clues. In spite of being “too easy”, I award COD to SITAR for the aptness and smoothness of the surface. Overall a very enjoyable tussle.

    Thanks to Izetti and Bletch.

  41. A quick start but ultimately a DNF after 11:03. Cook = DO proved no problem to Mrs T who saw DOSAGE straight away and GLOSSOP and CHAGALL also went in quickly. Our problems were with the two long down clues. ALPHA PARTICLE was a self inflicted hold up due to a careless fast entry of ABROAD, which fitted the wordplay and wasn’t entirely nonsensical. That was corrected by a revisit after O_P_A proved intractable and then 6d became immediately obvious. S_R_E_ was another matter. Yours truly suspected SERVES but ‘checked’ to enable progress.! Too late then to see STREET THEATRE which I thought was COD. Thanks, BR and Izetti.

  43. Well this resident of the SCC enjoyed this QC. Knowing GLOSSOP (I once lived in Chesterfield), CHAGALL and ALPHA PARTICLE certainly helped. Also I really liked STREET THEATRE, such a brilliantly terse clue!

    Clearly we are all different!

  44. There will be a whole bunch of bananas by the end of the week at this rate!
    I didn’t think this was too tricky, although I did slow myself down by biffing Worksop. GLOSSOP is a very nice town from all accounts, but this was a rather strange surface! Friday for day 5 confused me. I liked CHAGALL and SITAR, and STREET THEATRE was close to being COD.
    9:00 FOI Dress LOI Indeed COD Doddle
    Thanks Izetti and BR

  45. DNF. Bunged in Screen Theatre hoping it was a thing, which is really annoying as it is a nice clue, and both street theatre and playing out (as kids) are familiar. Grrr.

    FOI decade
    LOI Street theatr
    COD Loped

    thanks all

  46. Tackled this morning, but then out all day. I didn’t find this one too difficult, making steady progress until completely foxed by the loi painter. Got the Cha bit, but I thought the painter was Chagill and so couldn’t see where the bitter came in (I know beer is pricey down south, but surely a half is still the smallest measure. . .). In the end, Googled famous painters and (g)all was revealed for a 25min DNF. CoD to Rutherford’s Alpha Particle. Invariant

  47. 28 minutes. Dreadful.

    Most answers were write ins, but I put in TOP BANANA and CHAGALL only to cross them out. Thought the latter had only one L and didn’t think the former could be right as it only came up yesterday. I understand neither the clue nor the answer for STREET THEATRE (I don’t want an explanation) and NHO ALPHA PARTICLE.

    A thoroughly depressing experience (as usual) and further evidence of my utter inability to comprehend cryptic puzzles.

    I got about 2/3 of 15 x 15, but gave up through sheer frustration and anger at my lack of ability. I try so hard and get nowhere with this.

    PS Now seen Snitch score. My misery is complete. How can I spend all that time on the 15 x 15 and still record a time of 28 minutes on the QC? I just don’t get it, but perhaps it’s simply not having the mental acuity that this competition requires.

    1. There must come a point where you decide that this hobby provides you with more sorrow than joy. Why don’t you try something else?

        1. Please don’t despair & think of giving up. Your comments cheer me & give me courage to carry on. Like you I enjoy the struggle even while cursing & I love to finish however long it takes!!

  48. 44:05 (average: 37, target: 30:30)

    Generally I find that Izetti’s puzzles are amongst my favourites and feel on the wavelength. An Izetti puzzle was my first full solve. Today I found this very hard though. I didn’t find it unfair and to be honest I really enjoyed it. I think Izetti always has trickier meanings to the words that I ultimately find very satisfying and can often see quite quickly. I don’t think it helped that I solved this at the end of the day rather than the norm of it being the first thing I do. This is my first one over my average since the infamous Saturday Joker puzzle.

    LOI was CHAGALL who I did have to verify as a painter as I hadn’t heard of him before but managed to get from the wordplay.

    Thanks BletchleyReject and Izetti.

  49. DNF ALPHA PARTICLE! I knew of “second bananas” so assumed from their existence that TOP BANANAS must also be real.

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