Quick Cryptic 3101 by Izetti

Author   BletchleyRejectPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

A bit trickier than Izetti’s puzzle a couple of weeks ago, especially some of the longer answers.

Finished in 11:18, so overall of about average difficulty for me. Thank goodness, no alphabet trawls today. I liked the cryptic def at 12d.

Thanks to Izetti

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

Across
1 Grumbler — mean or crazy? (6)
MOANER – Anagram (‘crazy?’) of MEAN OR
4 Improvement in Hampshire for many (6)
REFORM – Hidden (‘in’) HampshiRE FOR Many
8 Terribly tired in the mind, to ill effect (13)
DETRIMENTALLY – Anagram (‘terribly’) of TIRED then MENTALLY (‘in the mind’)

Fortunately there are 14 letters in ‘tired in the mind’, but even so this was one of the longer ones I didn’t find easy.
10 One getting left out to suffer superficial damage? (5)
SINGE – SINGLE (‘one getting left out’)
11 Run into difficulty and feel a stinging sensation (7)
PRICKLE – R (‘Run’) contained by (‘into’) PICKLE (‘difficulty’)

I thought this was going to be a double def, but you need to separate the ‘Run’ and ‘into’.
13 Shamelessness of my demo: it’s out of order (9)
IMMODESTY – Anagram (‘out of order’) of MY DEMO ITS
17 Messenger last to see person receiving gift (7)
LEGATEE – LEGATE (‘Messenger’) seE (‘last to see’)
18 Hit it off and made progress (3,2)
GOT ON – Double definition

No need to lift and separate this time.
19 Immediate sensation aunt produced somehow (13)
INSTANTANEOUS – Anagram (‘produced somehow’) of SENSATION AUNT
21 Young woman belonging to Amsterdam’s elite (6)
DAMSEL – Hidden (‘belonging to’) AmsterDAMS ELite
22 Bird, one flying by animal on farm (6)
PIGEON – Anagram (‘flying’) of ONE following (‘by’) PIG (‘animal on the farm’)

Thinking of “Pigs might fly” helped here, as it was probably intended to.
Down
1 Fashionable instant meal (6)
MODISH – MO (‘instant’) DISH (‘meal’)
2 Paying heed at tense conclusion (9)
ATTENDING – AT (‘at’) T (‘tense’) ENDING (‘conclusion’)
3 English literature, fifth of subjects chosen (5)
ELITE – E (‘English’) LIT (‘literature’) subjEcts (‘fifth (letter) of subjects’)
5 Guards heading off for gates? (7)
ENTRIES – SENTRIES (‘Guards heading off’)
6 Member of Parliament depressed, first to last (3)
OWL – LOW (‘depressed’) with the first letter L moved to become the last letter (‘first to last’)

Good to see no pedal power mentioned here.

This sense of ‘parliament’ isn’t even in the Collins app and is noted by Chambers as a “little-used term” and by Oxford Dictionaries (online) as “rare”. A perusal of a few crosswords may put them right.
7 Month on edge — an unsettling experience (6)
MAYHEM – MAY (‘Month’) HEM (‘edge’)

I would have thought of “chaos” or “havoc” rather than ‘an unsettling experience’ but I suppose “chaos” would be very unsettling to go through. I didn’t know that originally mayhem was the act of deliberately injuring someone, particularly the injury or removal of a limb or “maiming”.
9 Excluding physical exercise, surprisingly I tend to be fit (9)
EXPEDIENT – EX PE (‘Excluding physical exercise’) then anagram (‘surprisingly’) of I TEND

New to me but ‘Excluding’ as in “without” as in financial terms such as “ex dividend”.

With senses of either suitable/appropriate (as here) or convenient or advantageous rather than fair, I wondered if EXPEDIENT qualifies as a contronym, but my browser AI says “No” and that the second sense is “a nuance of meaning, not a complete opposite”. It hardly settles the question once and for all, but I think that’s probably correct.
12 Depression in front of a computer screen? (9)
KEYSTROKE – Cryptic definition

Pressing down a key on a computer keyboard (KEYSTROKE) is making a ‘Depression in front of a computer screen’.

My LOI and only with all the crossing letters. Opinions may differ, but I thought this was a good cryptic definition.
14 Gas satisfied hotel — a new source of energy (7)
METHANE – MET (‘satisfied’) H (‘hotel’) A (‘a’) N (‘new’) Energy (‘source of energy’)
15 A Liberal was deceitful in league with others (6)
ALLIED – A (‘A’) L (‘Liberal’) LIED (‘was deceitful’)
16 Group of workers sealing terms ultimately for agreement (6)
UNISON – UNION (‘Group of workers’) containing (‘sealing’) termS (‘terms ultimately’)
18 Spirits dope one repeatedly (5)
GENII – GEN (‘dope’) I and I (‘one repeatedly’)

GEN and ‘dope’ as informal terms for “information” or “news” both frequently seen in this sense in crossword land.
20 The total amount? Just a bit of it, by the sound of it (3)
SUM – Aural wordplay (‘by the sound of it’) of SOME (‘Just a bit of it’)

68 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3101 by Izetti”

  1. 9.20, with the SE corner taking a chunk of that at the end. I tried to make an anagram of ‘tired in the mind’ at 8ac, never really figured out EXPEDIENT and thought GENII was the plural of, er, geniuses, so there you go. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Izetti and BR.

    1. Himself tells me that GENII is the plural of both …though you would probably have to be one of either to know that.

  4. 16 minutes. There was quite a lot to chew over here along the way and the long answers and KEYSTROKE took ages to winkle out.

    1. Jack, I know how full your inbox gets so I’m leaving this comment to say there’s an email from me!

  5. 25:27
    Man, that was hard. Only had one clue in at the 5 min mark (ELITE), but persevered. Then discovered I had one error with GET ON rather than GOT ON. Since “hit” doesn’t have a past tense, that’s pretty tough for an unchecked vowel, having to spot “made” rather than “make”

    Liked OWL, but those made up collective nouns are a bit silly. No naturalist, countryman, scientist or ornithologist uses them.

    3. When I was cycling and using Zwift for indoor training I was doing TTTs with one of the Cryogen teams known as Owls. We definitely had pedal power

      That’s along winded intro to me saying that I only managed three after the first pass and only four in total, and I didn’t get Owl.

      And replying to you is a sneaky way of getting towards the top of the comments.

  6. For some reason everything clicked here and I fairly sprinted home in 7:30, all parsed and no significant hold-ups. I think one of my fastest completions of an Izetti puzzle and a very rare sub 1K.

    Many thanks to Izetti for the puzzle and BR for the blog.

  7. I got off to a quick start before grinding to a halt with about half of the grid still blank. Spotting DETRIMENTALLY seemed to spark the grey matter back into gear and I finished at a canter.

    Started with MOANER and finished with SINGE in 8.35.
    Thanks to BR and Izetti

  8. 10:16 with one pink square. Another GET ON.
    I agree with Merlin’s comment above.

    Thanks BR and Izetti

  9. 7.21

    Bunged in GENIE which caused problems with PIGEON. Nice puzzle – liked MODISH and KEYSTROKE the former of which didn’t immediately spring to mind even with the M and D.

    Thanks Izetti/BR

  10. 26:49 SCC found by modish legatee of genii…strange cos I used that very sentence yesterday🤔
    Ta BRAI

  11. Pickle/PRICKLE, KEYSTROKE, EXPEDIENT and PIGEON (random bird and random animal) too difficult. Had ATTENTIVE, so no chance with equally difficult LEGAT-e/EE. Misery.
    Liked OWL, though.

  12. I enjoyed this one a lot. Enough to make it chewy but not impossible. Unfortunately a mistake (get on instead of got on) due to poor vision misreading make instead of made made it a technical DNF but I’m letting myself off! Parsed keystroke without fully understanding why until the blog

  15. Nearly fell into the “get on” bear trap but managed to read the clue properly. Otherwise I found this pretty straightforward, pausing only over UNISON and LOI KEYSTROKE (ah, that sort of depression).

    COD to PIGEON, which I really liked! But lots of good clues to admire.

    All done in 06:33 for a Red Letter Day. Many thanks Izetti and Bletchers.

  16. Tough to start and finish. SINGE, PRICKLE, LEGATEE and KEYSTROKE all took ages. Last one especially was worth the wait. Not that it matters, another with tense trauma with GeT ON.

  17. Cannot believe I had to work so hard on LOI PIGEON when I have a huge flock living in my garden, billing and cooing and building yet more nests.
    Among other late solves were UNISON and KEYSTROKE and PRICKLE.
    Biffed OWL. Pretty slow today, after a falsely encouraging start.
    Liked MAYHEM, SUM, ALLIED, MODISH, among others.
    Thanks vm, BR. And, again, 🥂three cheers for John.

  18. A good test for me, solvable but not straightforward. I use the print version so only know that all is correct when I open this blog- and GET ON still seems okay for me! Longer anagrams pose a challenge but no unknown words. Many thanks for the blog.

  19. Probably my favourite setter, Izetti sent me packing into the SCC but I’ve no idea why. Maybe I was enjoying it too much to get a shift on.

  20. First of all, a big thank you to John for sorting out all the recent problems with the site. It can’t have been an easy task.
    Talking of which, I didn’t think Izetti was in an overly generous mood today, with loi Legatee leaving me scrambling for a window seat. Keystroke and Prickle were an interesting but tough pair to meet without checkers, but became easier as the grid filled. CoD though has to go to Singe for the parsing.
    In other news, I found yesterday’s Oink (3100) particularly friendly, finishing a minute quicker than my previous 10min PB. . . Invariant

      1. Thank you. My first ever sub-10 🙄, after a decade playing this game, and of course the site was down so I couldn’t post 😱

  22. 7:25

    Generally good progress, though less sure with L2I – LEGATEE and KEYSTROKE. OWL stumped me for a while too, though probably should have got there quicker.

    Thanks BR and Izetti

  23. (Perhaps post in the right place this time – apologies Countrywoman1)
    19:56
    As described by others – definitely a very ‘chewy’ solve.
    Lots of head scratching on what felt like the majority of clues but really satisfying when the pennies finally dropped with lots of d’oh moments.
    FOI: MOANER
    LOI: PIGEON
    COD: EXPEDIENT
    Thanks to BR & Izetti

  24. First, thanks for fixing the site, John! Today felt tough at times but we squeaked in at more or less par, perhaps a bit faster, at 12:01. LOI SINGE. Yesterday was a relatively swift 9:27 so hoping for another good week.Thanks BR and Izetti.

  25. Really struggled with this. Was ready to give up with six to go, but finally saw KEYSTROKE, which led to PRICKLE and then EXPEDIENT. Then SINGE and ATTENDING went in, before LOI LIGATEE, which I changed a few seconds later to LEGATEE because it sounded a bit like legacy, but I can’t say I know the term, and I’ve NHO LEGATE being a messenger. My time was 47:30, but after all that I put in GET ON, so a DNF really. Oh well, thanks anyway.

  26. A tougher Izetti today. From ELITE to PRICKLE in 10:14. Thannk to Izetti and BR and a huge shout out to Johninterred for his work transitioning the site to a new Host.

  27. My time is bang on my QSNITCH average, but I have to confess to having biffed EXPEDIENT.

    FOI MOANER
    LOI REFORM
    COD KEYSTROKE
    TIME 4:42

  28. Enjoyed this.
    Doing well and the SCC was a blur in the distance until SINGE, UNISON and PIGEON ( why do I always want that bird to have a D?)….and then, there we were. SCC 22.56.

  29. I found this tricky, despite not falling into the GET/GOT trap. Ended up using check button a few times. COD MODISH which took an age before pdm.

    The 15×15 is very accessible today, and bizarrely it gave me less grief than the QC.

    Thanks Izetti and BR

  30. PS thank you to whoever – presumably JohnInterred, for fixing my log in problem… couldn’t yesterday, can today : )

  31. 18.02 Mostly fine but I was breeze-blocked for half of the time by PRICKLE, KEYSTROKE and ENTRIES. Thanks BR and Izetti.

  32. DNF. I gave up after 40+ minutes with two errors (ATTENtIon and GoT ON) and one clue unsolved (L_n_T_E). My two errors were self-inflicted, but I would never in a month of Sundays have solved 17a (even if I’d got the G), as I DNK LEGATE or LEGATEE.

    Also, despite getting both correct, I’d NHO GEN for ‘dope’ or GENII and I only thought of HEM for ‘edge’ just as I was about to scroll down to the answer.

    Overall, a poor attempt.

    Many thanks to BR and Izetti.

  33. Got the two across the top straight away but then annoyingly couldn’t initially get any of the downs from the six starting letters. In the end I solved mainly from the bottom up. It took me 21 minutes all told with everything parsed which was ok after the slow start.

    FOI – 1ac MOANER
    LOI – 12dn KEYSTROKE
    COD – 6dn OWL

    Thanks to Izetti and BR and especially to John for his work on the site.

  34. Tough but enjoyable. Fell squarely in the get on camp. I think I was so pleased to get something to get that corner going that I failed to read the full clue.
    FOI Reform
    LOI Singe
    COD Pigeon – held me up for ages cycling farm animals and birds.

    thanks Izetti and BR

  35. 13:33. I had ELECT first for ELITE- the ect appearing in subject misled me, which was pretty silly.

    2. Me too!

      Funnily enough I found this unusually easy, although for context what I mean is that a QC usually takes me about 45 mins altogether and this one took about 30. Really stuck between KEYSTROKE and OWL for COD. Thanks to Izetti and Johninterred as ever.

  36. An enjoyable 25 minute battle to get home. KEYSTROKE was my LOI, after SINGE & MOANER. Definitely on the harder spectrum.

  37. Enjoyable but tough. I needed the wife’s help for the last few clues.

    Having worked in the NHS for over thirty years I’m not convinced that a REFORM is always an improvement.

    1. I agree. It was lucky that this was a hidden with only one recognisable word that was close enough not to be dismissed or I think that clue would have taken me ages.

  38. DNF. Too hard for me. After last weeks wonderful puzzles I thought this was bland and pretty uninteresting. But that could be just me so roll on tomorrow.

  39. Liked the clue for prickle but not as much the clues for Modish and Singe which I got by trial and error. Agree with our blogger this was a harder QC by Izetti than the last one.

    My thanks to Johninterred and anyone involved in restoring the site. It feels much faster and safer too without the dreaded 500 error.

  41. Dnf…

    A day or so behind due to the site migration. Made steady progress on this, but then came unstuck on the 1ac/10ac axis. It didn’t help that I couldn’t think beyond “Modern” for 1dn, even though I couldn’t parse it. Only other issues were figuring out 18dn “Genii” and 12dn “Keystroke”.

    FOI – 1ac “Moaner”
    LOI – Dnf
    COD – 12dn “Keystroke”

    Thanks as usual!

  42. I’m another who didn’t pay attention to the tense in 18ac and ended up with GET ON. Rats. Other than that, all done in 19:07: a touch slower than my average.

    Thanks to Izetti and BR.

  44. Found this really hard (as ever in SCC) with some words that seem to occur only in crossword land (see above). DNF with LEGATEE unknown and GET ON because it’s fine for “hit it off”.

  45. I always sit down eagerly to an Izetti and this one did not disappoint: great mixture of types of clue that took me 15 minutes (after a good lunch). The parliament of owls and the depression in front of a computer screen both made me smile, and the long anagrams were logical and eminently solvable. LEGATEE took a moment or two (not sure why) but overall this one flowed nicely (as did lunch libations). Thanks Izetti and Bletchley Reject!

  46. Chapeau to webmaster-in-chief for all efforts going live again. Yesterday was good, today less so. Eventual fail on MODISH and SINGE, a doddle seeing these quickly awful when you don’t. Thank you

  48. Found this slightly chewy for a quick going over the 10 minute mark. It was all in vain though as I joined the GET ON club.

    Liked KEYSTROKE

    Thanks blogger and setter

  49. I don’t understand why I have only just managed to access the site using the old address but am relieved that things seem to be back to normal. Thanks to all involved.

    After 3 or 4 slow solves, I was surprised to manage to finish today’s tussle with Izetti in 14.50. It was over a dozen hours ago so I’ll not consider a detailed post – I will just offer my thanks to Izetti and move up the page to read BR’s blog.

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