Quick Cryptic 321 by Izetti

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I’m standing in for Chris today, who’s escaping the weather.

Elegant misdirection and wit abound in this challenging little puzzle; great surface meanings forced some careful lifting and separating. A couple of unknowns for me, including the shrub (guessed from checkers), the desert traveller (second attempt at a real-sounding word) and the carriage (obvious from wordplay). I’m going to vote for 5dn for Clue of the Day, though many will qualify. It’s a brief blog – ask if anything is unclear.

Definitions underlined.

Across
7 Sort of dance — guess everyone can join in (6)
BALLET – BET (guess) with ALL (everyone) joining in.
8 Some booing and hissing great leader (6)
GANDHI – hidden in booinG AND HIssing.
9 Woman appears in very short time (4)
VERA – V (very, short) with ERA (time, long).
10 Initially Paul can’t eat cooked chopped pork (8)
PANCETTA – first letter of (initially) Paul, then an anagram of (cooked) CAN’T EAT.
11 Articles rubbished performances (8)
RECITALS – anagram of (rubbished) ARTICLES.
13 English mother offers something for the cheese board (4)
EDAM – E (English) and DAM (mother)
15 Boast, giving support before start of game (4)
BRAG – BRA (support) before first letter of Game.
16 Bird and dog drink (8)
COCKTAIL – COCK (bird) and TAIL (verb, to dog or follow).
18 Let a rose become untidy shrub (8)
OLEASTER – anagram of (become untidy) LET ROSE A.
20 Revolutionary name for famous brothers (4)
MARX – double definition with references to Karl (revolutionary socialist) and the comedy act.
21 Second-rate garden tools in carriages (6)
BRAKES – B (second rate) and RAKES (garden tools).
22 Array has fanciful art in blend (6)
MATRIX – anagram of (fanciful) ART inside MIX (blend).
Down
1 Desert traveller arrived needing shelter, right? (8)
CAMELEER – CAME (arrived) with LEE (shelter) and R (right).
2 Riverside worker’s job? They will get money transferred (8,5)
CLEARING BANKS – cryptic and straight definitions.
3 University head, one leading a perfect place (6)
UTOPIA – U (university), with TOP (head) and I (one) in front of A.
4 People transacting business in a toilet (6)
AGENTS – A plus GENTS (toilet).
5 Surprisingly, erudite man set</u> value too low</u> (13)
UNDERESTIMATE – anagram of (surprisingly) ERUDITE MAN SET.
6 Rule-breaker’s heartless talk (4)
CHAT – CHeAT (rule breaker) without the middle letter (heartless).
12 The French love a group of stars (3)
LEO – LE (the in french) with O (love, zero in tennis).
14 Bill has one channel for outflow — polluted showers? (4,4)
ACID RAIN – AC (account, bill) with I (one) and DRAIN (channel for outflow).
16 Copper on trial is most astute (6)
CUTEST – CU (elemental symbol for copper) on TEST (trial).
17 Shiny surface in little church, see (6)
CHROME – CH (abbreviated (little) church) and ROME (episcopal See).
19 Bird left Noah’s vessel (4)
LARK – L (left) and ARK (Noah’s vessel).

15 comments on “Quick Cryptic 321 by Izetti”

  1. This was a challenging one, all right, including two anagrams for words I didn’t know (well, I ‘knew’ PANCETTA, didn’t know it was chopped pork), and another word (CAMELEER) I didn’t know. I had rather hoped, though, that BRA=’support’ had died out. I must confess that 11ac misled me into thinking that the word would be composed in part of articles; totally missed ‘rubbished’ as anagrind for the longest time. Good fun though. 7:50.
  2. 9 minutes. On reflection I’m not sure I have met OLEASTER before and it’s the ‘oleander’ shrub that I’m familiar with, but this didn’t occur to me when solving. Happy birthday to our setter.

    Edited at 2015-06-02 06:04 am (UTC)

        1. Enjoyable solve and was able to work out the obscure (to me)OLEASTER and CAMELEER. Favourite VERA.

          Last in MATRIX which is appropriate at it gives the last entry in the nina which I would never have seen without the clue. Happy birthday.

          Edited at 2015-06-02 07:06 am (UTC)

    2. I only knew oleander too. “Memphis in June with sweet oleander..” Biffed Oleaster. I see it is a wild olive. 5:58 for me. Last X LOI for me. Happy Birthday setter and thanks for a nice set of clues.

      Edited at 2015-06-02 08:48 am (UTC)

  4. Many thanks William. I cna always open the 15/15 throught the website but the quickie never works think I need a browser upgrade
    1. Quite a little Tuesday teaser from Izetti, but it brightened up an otherwise wet and cold day. Took ages to spot the hidden answer in 8ac, which made th NE corner quite tricky. 2d brought a smile, and only knew 21ac via the old term for an estate car – shooting brakes. Happy 70th Izetti, and I wish you many more. Invariant
  5. Completely bamboozled by this one. Failed to get 18a, 21a, which wasn’t helped by having ‘house’ as the second part of 2d, which was stupid of me and then had a total blank on 17d. Thought I was getting the hang of Izetti’s puzzles, but clearly left my brain somewhere today. Very frustrating
  6. Not wishing to 15a but having managed to complete today’s challenge before midnight, albeit with S’s help, am now completely bamboozled as to how we know it’s our setter’s birthday. Someone please enlighten me.
    1. In the most right hand column of the thirteen, reading down, you will see the letters I AM LXX (70, Roman numerals)!

      Because these letters are not crossed by two clues (unlike the I in MATRIX, for example) they are said to be unchecked, or called unches for short.

      A hidden message in a crossword, often but not always found in the unches, is called a Nina. [An artist called Al Hirschfeld used to hide the name of his daughter, Nina, somewhere in his cartoons.]

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