16:05 for me, which is a little above my average time. An enjoyable puzzle, definitely at the easier end of Izetti’s range.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Demonstrate outside home about Northern Ireland? (8) |
| PROVINCE – PROVE (demonstrate) around [outside] IN (home) and C (about).
The question mark is because this is a definition by example. |
|
| 5 | Some mouse droppings — not fresh (4) |
| USED – Hidden in [some] |
|
| 8 | Gasp needing oxygen in family show? (5) |
| PANTO – PANT (gasp) + O (oxygen). | |
| 9 | Go into detail about former currency of UK (7) |
| EXPOUND – EX (former) + POUND (currency of UK). | |
| 11 | Salt transported to Caribbean (11) |
| BICARBONATE – (TO CARIBBEAN)*
If I remember my school chemistry, a salt is a non-charged product of an acid and a base reacting. What we know as “salt” (NaCl) is just one example. |
|
| 13 | Claim benefit around middle of March (6) |
| ASSERT – ASSET (benefit) containing [around] the middle letter of I can’t quite equate “benefit” and “asset”, but they are clearly close relatives. |
|
| 14 | Have a meal around six? Wonderful! (6) |
| DIVINE – DINE (have a meal) around VI (six). | |
| 17 | Limited space in awful camp — torment (11) |
| COMPARTMENT – (CAMP TORMENT)* | |
| 20 | Huge chaps crammed into tumbledown semi (7) |
| IMMENSE – MEN (chaps) inside [crammed into] (SEMI)*. | |
| 21 | Perspective of one of Germanic people coming to Britain (5) |
| ANGLE – A double definition.
The Angles, the Jutes and the Saxons moved into Britain after the Romans left, as every schoolchild in England is taught. |
|
| 22 | Experience negative vote being reported (4) |
| KNOW – Sounds like [being reported] “no” (negative vote). | |
| 23 | Caused to be loved over grabbing attention (8) |
| ENDEARED – ENDED (over) containing [grabbing] EAR (attention). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Very good exercises for music-maker (4) |
| PIPE – PI (very good) + PE (Physical Education; exercises).
PI for “very good” only exists in crosswords these days. |
|
| 2 | Writer after short time turning up on American vehicle (7) |
| OMNIBUS – Take MO (short time), reverse it [turning up]. Add NIB (writer) and US (American). | |
| 3 | I can run riot, somehow creating insurmountable barrier (4,7) |
| IRON CURTAIN – (I CAN RUN RIOT)* | |
| 4 | Yell having eaten that woman’s fruit (6) |
| CHERRY – CRY (yell) containing [having eaten] HER (that woman). | |
| 6 | Southern island’s device for diver (5) |
| SCUBA – S for southern, then CUBA. | |
| 7 | Old comedian Ken before start of day was unsteady (8) |
| DODDERED – Ken DODD is the comedian, then ERE (before) and start of D |
|
| 10 | Favouring vivacity and speed, grow rapidly (11) |
| PROLIFERATE – PRO (favouring) plus LIFE (vivacity) and RATE (speed). | |
| 12 | Expert countryman protecting cold bird (8) |
| DABCHICK – DAB (expert) and HICK (countryman) containing C for cold.
This was my LOI: “dab” for expert is only known to me in “a dab hand”, “hick” for “countryman” strikes me as bordering on rudeness, and I’d never heard of the bird. So not an easy clue, even with all of the crossing letters. |
|
| 15 | Perhaps one or two, say, lodging in Bury (7) |
| INTEGER – E.G. (say) inside [lodging in] INTER (bury). | |
| 16 | Broadcast terrible news about leaders of the revolution (6) |
| STREWN – (NEWS)* containing the first letters [leaders] of T |
|
| 18 | Dance in the morning stopping unruly mob (5) |
| MAMBO – AM (in the morning) inside [stopping] (MOB)*. | |
| 19 | Biblical children understand God ultimately (4) |
| SEED – SEE (understand), plus the last letter [ultimately] of |
|
Dabchick was my last in as well, was pretty sure it was correct. 3:44, which is amongst my shortest times for an Izetti puzzle. Since salts can be made from the neutralization of an acid, the salt is often referred to by the anion appropriate to that acid: bicarbonate; phosphate; fluoride etc. Hey, that chemistry degree finally came in useful!
Just stayed out of the SCC at 19.44. Knew the bird, so with a couple of crossers was an easy BTP. Liked the ex pound and enjoyed the excellent anagram of the salt, thanks Izetti.
As is often the case, helped with bury = inter by having met our blogger John at the annual gathering a couple of years ago 😉
Thanks Doofers
DNF! A rarity for an Izetti. Perhaps it is too early in the morning for me as I belatedly noticed the answer for 3d IRON CURTAIN was two words. I was trying to rearrange the letters to make one word. I also took a long time to rearrange the letters for COMPARTMENT. The DNF was the NHO DABCHICK (a small grebe – which is a word I do know from the QC). My favourites today were BICARBONATE and DODDERED. Thanks Doofers
Struggled to a 15:36 finish, one of my slowest completions on an Izetti for a long time, only to find our blogger call it “definitely at the easier end of Izetti’s range”. Given the SNITCH is at 122 as I write, it’s clear that I underperformed, but equally chapeau to Doofers if you found this easy!
As for the puzzle itself, I found IRON CURTAIN and PROLIFERATE fairly quickly, and SCUBA and ANGLE were gimmes, but not a lot else went in without effort and puzzled thought. DABCHICK was a VHO -I couldn’t begin to tell you what it looks like – and I ended with the pairing PROVINCE (thoroughly misled on how the wordplay worked here) and my LOI PIPE, which went in only once I had both P checkers (has anyone said PI in real life in the last 50 years?). But overall it was more a question of sticky going throughout than some standout holdups.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog.
I didn’t find it easy! Izetti’s puzzles range from the merely difficult to the very very hard, and I thought this was closer to the “difficult” end of that spectrum.
May I suggest Izetti is a more friendly setter than that? I’ve managed to complete two thirds of his, which is better than average. So I see his name at the top, and am then optimistic rather than the reverse. This one: just scraped through the finishing line!
Also struggled to get there in 15:13 minutes. Just could not see BICARBONATE and the grebeling was my last in, too. Definitely not a quick quicky for me!
A slow day for me all green on 15:34. Not seen the PI device before. Thought it was PIPE but till PROVINCE dropped in I hesitated. LOI was the bird where I successfully gambled between PATCHICK and the actual solution. Thanks Doofers I don’t keep track of performance v individual setters but this felt tough to me.
Excellent puzzle but a DNF as I ran out of steam in the SW. It took me ages to get past ‘nay’ for a negative vote and I then ran out of patience with the unknown bird so looked it up. With hindsight the wordplay was clear but…
Thanks to Doofers and Izetti.
18:51 … if I’d only seed that dabchick a bit quicker…
Ta DAI
17 minutes, missing my extended target. I first met DABCHICK as the pseudonym of a contributor to the very first online forum I participated in daily (long since defunct) but I don’t think I was aware it had an actual meaning until it turned up in a crossword here many years later. Most recently it was in a QC set by Alfie in 2022.
Dabchick as a pseudonym reminded me of possibly the same forum.
Sadly missed, if so – it was such a civilised place.
A fine QC – tough but fair. Once again, I did better as I relaxed and let it flow. Some fine clues and PDMs. DABCHICK was my LOI, too, entered with a sigh of relief when I was still outside the SCC by half a minute (all parsed). Looking back, I have recently hovered around the 20 mark for most Izetti QCs (but with a couple of surprisingly ‘on-wavelength’ finishes in around half that).
Slowed myself down by correctly seeing and entering DIVINE but, inexplicably, typing it in the wrong part of the grid. I thought 1ac was a neat clue. It held me back for a while and only when I saw the correct parsing did I stop trying to crowbar in NI. Having entered it I had the O of OMNIBUS for 2d (and was able to clear my mind of the hurriedly bifd MINIBUS).
Thanks to Izetti and Doofers.
I enjoyed this so thanks Izetti and Doofensmirtz. Only gripe is my pet hate ‘pi’ – as you say only ever used in crosswords so it’s about time setters ditched it too!
I hope Pi Curious skips this kind of remark! 🙂
I hope Pi Curious skips this kind of remark!🙂
I’m deeply wounded! 😳
6:49 – looking at the snitch and the leaderboard, this would put me on a good wavelength.
I thought this was very tough for a QC (quite a bit harder than yesterday’s which was itself not easy), but still a QC. DABCHICK is NHO but I couldn’t see much else which would work.
A very good wavelength indeed, I would say.
I find it amazing how much the ‘wavelength’ thing affects us. You found yesterday’s Dangle QC easier than today’s Izetti; I found it much harder than today’s (by a good 10 minutes).
Agreed! It seems you must have done well today, with the snitch up at 126.
Essentially gave up at 30mins when I bunged in layCHICK fully expecting it to be wrong. Was kind of looking forward to the challenge of an Izetti puzzle as we don’t get them so often these days but it brought back all my old gripes about his puzzles with DABCHICK and SEED both being NHO and tough alphatrawls where I considered ken=understand. Also held up on PROVINCE because I’d put in miNIBUS without fully parsing the clue (MIN for short time followed by I seemed to work) but that’s on me. Everything else was done in 9mins so I guess it was at the easier end if you knew those words.
Thanks to Doofers and to Izetti (gripes aside).
Edit: forgot to say really impressed by the BICARBONATE anagram
I did the same with “minibus” – thinking “mi” was short for “min”. Took me ages to get 1ac as a result. I’m with you on Seed and Dabchick.
15:26
Breezeblocked by PROVINCE, not helped by initially biffing MINIBUS instead of OMNIBUS.
Thanks Doofers and Don
DNF disaster, but thanks Doofers. Oddly enough, I solved DABCHICK fairly early. And yes, Hick is very rude for Countryman or Countrywoman.🙂
Golly! Not content with the (NHO, but have now) grebe last week, we now have a lesser variety of same, the DABCHICK, even less HO but guessed for LOI. POI ENDEARED, took a long time but got there eventually. Wasn’t sure whether DODDERED exists (this computer thinks not, adds wiggly line beneath) but Mrs M arbitrated in its favour. Liked PROVINCE and EXPOUND (after trying florin, groat and others). Thanks, Doof.
I found this harder than recent Izetti puzzles. At my normal cut-off time of 30 minutes I had 22ac, 12dn and 19dn outstanding. At that point I used an aid to get DABCHICK (annoyingly a word I know) which gave me KNOW immediately. I needed an aid again to get SEED which I thought was a weak clue. All done with the assistance of aids in 33 minutes but I needed the blog to parse PROVINCE and ENDEARED.
FOI – 5ac USED
LOI – DNF
COD – 10dn PROLIFERATE
Thanks to Izetti and Doofers
Definitely tricky with some quite intricate wordplay here and there. I got stuck on the bird until CHICK leapt out at me, and had to scratch my head over LTI PROVINCE and OMNIBUS (where I thought the “bus” at the end was going to be the vehicle).
FOI & COD PIPE. All done in 08:43 for a Decent Day. Many thanks Izetti and Doofers.
I really struggled with this one finishing in a tardy 17.47. When I read Doofer’s comment that it was on the easy side, I assumed that I had endured a bad day and was way off the wavelength. I see other solvers struggled also, so it was perhaps a toughie after all. I must have spent a couple of minutes on my final two, where I couldn’t get MINIBUS out of my thoughts, and it was only after getting OMNIBUS that I was able to solve PROVINCE. I had heard of DABCHICK however, and this went straight in. I suspect there may be comments suggesting that it was too tough for a QC, but I think it was a fair test.
DNF
Struggled with most of this but had 3 unsolved before I threw in the towel. Forgot pi = good so didn’t get PIPE. Would have got PANTO if I’d had the initial P but I didn’t and NHO DABCHICK.
Oh no you wouldn’t 🤣
Very good.
Are you being pious?
I was a bit slow on this today, not helped by having put minibus rather than omnibus. This wasn’t a Biff , as short time( one minute, or 1m) turning up gave me minibus, which seemed fine but made province rather tricky for a minute or two.
Had to give up in the end and do two reveals. All good though (except the horrible pi, the worst crosswordland only word as there are so many other ways of getting P I). I was a chemistry grad as well. Even in my 2 years as an industrial chemist I never had the slightest use for anything I learned at college, does come in handy for crosswords and pub quizzes though. You do get a salt if you mix an acid and a base, but definition (and easiest way of thinking about it) is metal + non-metallic group which you get by dropping the metal into the corrosponding acid eg copper + sulphuric acid = copper sulphate, sodium + hydrochloric acid = sodium chloride.
Thanks Izetti and Doofers.
Acid + Base = Salt + Water were drummed into my memory.
I found this very hard going. I had to come back to it a few times in between morning meetings and eventually finished in over 30 minutes. There isn’t anything in here that should have caused such problems (NHO Dabchick but worked it out), so I’m going to blame my difficulties on the distractions caused by finding a glis glis in my kitchen bin this morning.
I suspect glis glis may have come up in crossword land before, it feels like it should have, but I’m going to say that I’ve NHO them. Initially I thought it was a rat, but realised it was too small, not dark coloured enough, and had a bushy tail. The body looked a bit like a squirrel but it clearly wasn’t a squirrel. After research by my partner, and a subsequent sighting, we realised it was definitely a glis glis.
The glis glis is an invasive species, introduced by the Rothschilds on their estate in Tring (just down the road from here), when a few that they had imported escaped. For some reason they have some kind of protected status, which means we need to engage specialists to remove (not kill) them. There is a very small area in the UK in which they live, which we are right in the middle of, so it hasn’t been difficult to find the specialists and so far the prices we have been quoted indicate it shouldn’t be too costly. What will be harder is getting the school we are adjacent to to agree to pay for cutting back the overhanging trees that are damaging our property and, we think, allowed the glis glis to get into our roof.
Wow. The glis glis / edible dormouse is a new thing to me. What an interesting animal. Sorry for your ordeal and hope you don’t have a serious invasion. (Sorry for the little beast too as it seems destined to be “humanely destroyed”.)
Fascinating. thank you. I wonder when we will see glis glis clued in a puzzle. As contained within ‘English’ it is just asking for trouble.
Well done on your restraint. Had I found a rat-like creature in similar circumstances I suspect I would have had a panic attack.
17:28, an a tough one.
PI=good is high up Merlin’s pet peeve list.
And was not sure what ensure, ensue, insure and insue might mean, and only eventually hit in assert/asset. Neither had I heard of DABCHICK, but got it eventually.
I was way too long in holding on to NI for Northern Ireland. Good misdirection. Northern Ireland was called a PROVINCE because it overlaps heavily with the old geographical province of Ulster. However, this is politically contentious and technically inaccurate since three counties of Ulster are actually in the Republic of Ireland. Official use is “constituent country” (likewise Wales and Principality).
The last verse of the Magnificat refers to “Abraham and his SEED forever”, as any choirboy kno. Also much snickering when it was sung in Latin.
Et tu Brute?
I managed three in the first 20 minutes and finished with 12 after an hour. At the harder end for me obviously, as in it’s hard if I can’t work out the parsing after the reveal. There were four like that today.
DNF after 24 minutes.
Couldn’t get ENDEARED or SEED after looking at them for ages.
Totally fed up at my lack of ability with these wretched puzzles. If this was ‘easier’, I am wasting my time here.
DNF. I thought this was one of the hardest Izetti’s for some time, and nearly gave up several times before finally declaring no side with the nho 12d extant. Might have got that one on a better day, but the Province/Omnibus duo had already used up the last of my resolve.
CoD to the brilliant Angle, with Endeared and Strewn not far behind. Invariant
9.57. I struggled a little.
DNF.
Did not stand a chance with this one. Several obscure clues. Some of which were very bad.
‘ 1 Down – Very good exercises for music-maker (4)
PIPE – PI (very good) + PE (Physical Education; exercises).
PI for “very good” only exists in crosswords these days.’
PI = very good ? Not in my universe it doesn’t.
’12 Down – Expert countryman protecting cold bird (8)
DABCHICK – DAB (expert) and HICK (countryman) containing C for cold.
This was my LOI: “dab” for expert is only known to me in “a dab hand”, “hick” for “countryman” strikes me as bordering on rudeness, and I’d never heard of the bird. So not an easy clue, even with all of the crossing letters.’
A hick is not a countryman.
’15 Down – Perhaps one or two, say, lodging in Bury (7)
INTEGER – E.G. (say) inside [lodging in] INTER (bury).’
An integer is just a whole number. Very misleading clue.
Enjoyed this one, though it took me much longer than it probably should have – I’d fixated on the letter counts for IRON CURTAIN being the wrong way round, making the anagram insoluble until I twigged. NHO “ pi” for very good – even the learned tomes say it only occurs in cryptic crosswords.
I’ve decided to stop thinking of whether a puzzle is or is not a “QC”, as I can think of no sense in which it matters. Spent my working life ruled by various metrics, so I aggressively avoid any hint of them. Time is no longer of the essence !
I regularly tackle the 15*15 ( with varying degrees of success) but I’ve got over the “I must complete it or I’ve failed” mindset and there’s really very substantial overlap with the “QC” in terms of difficulty ( although the difficulty varies wildly with day of the week, setter etc.) – I find both enjoyable and would greatly miss either.
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
“I’ve decided to stop thinking of whether a puzzle is or is not a “QC”, as I can think of no sense in which it matters…” Hear hear! Agree entirely.
Excellent advice. Totally agree.
Lovely puzzle. I was probably around par for an Izetti until held up briefly by three-letter synonyms for EXPERT: after the lesser-spotted prochick came and went a couple of times, there’s not much else. ACE and possibly VET were all I could muster, until I had a vague memory of the actual bird from crosswords past, and I needed it for LOI ASSERT. 7:21 all in – many thanks Izetti and Doofers.
As others have said but adding my grumpy voice … PI = very good?! Whaaat?!
Short for pious I believe.
Why PI? – beginners haven’t a chance with clues like this! After only solving 4 clues after 15 mins, I gave up. Overall very difficult for a QC in my view.
You’ll spot it next time though 😁
It’s part of what I call “the code”. You’ll probably remember it vividly, as I do my first encounter with “ide” for “fish”.
Didn’t that happen to you last week?
Nope. Saw it during my first month of solving probably. It could have been in a puzzle from the back catalog.
I struggled throughout and only finished by revealing a couple of letters which made LOIs ENDEARED/STREWN very obvious. Cracking puzzle as ever from Izetti, and I now know what a DABCHICK is into the bargain. COD PROVINCE for the misdirection and eventual PDM. Thanks D.
I must disagree with Doofers – Izetti is normally meat and drink to me, but, while I’m not unhappy with my time, I really had to think hard about STREWN, and was held up thinking “why is chik a countryman?” before realizing I was using the wrong C. Luckily I knew the bird.
FOI USED
LOI DABCHICK
COD IRON CURTAIN
TIME 3:59
Found this a little harder than recent offerings from Izetti but none the worse for that.
I don’t really understand our obsession with time taken; for me it’s a measure of difficulty/maybe improvement/comparison with others perhaps but I don’t judge myself harshly if I take a bit longer or DNF. I’m never going to be championship standard so surely it’s about enjoyment, if not why would I bother? I try to learn from the trickier puzzles and when I succeed with a more difficult one I feel a real sense of achievement for ‘defeating the beast’. But then we’re all different.
For what it’s worth this one took me 18:30 and CoD goes to DABCHICK because I knew that had to be the answer but it took me ages to see why. Cute little birds.
Thanks to Izetti and D.
I guess the clue is in the title to the blog, which I believe was originally for people to record and compare their times.
Yes, I see that, it’s just that sometimes it feels as if the time taken is the only thing that matters and to me it’s a point of interest but not the sole reason for doing the puzzles. On reflection though, I can appreciate that experienced and skilled solvers (and wannabe members of that esteemed group) may see the challenge differently.
S L O W for me today, but all parsed and correct unaided. Frustrated for a while by DABCHICK.
Thanks Don and Doofers
Gave up after an hour with about 8 left to do. Checked the blog and if I’d looked at it for the rest of the week I still would never have completed it. Thanks anyway Izettii and Doofers!
Dnf…
Have to disagree with Doofers, I thought this was at the harder end of Izetti. After 25 mins, still couldn’t get 12dn and 22ac – and seeing the answer to the former, I’m not sure I would have got it anyway. I probably wasn’t helped by initially putting “Minibus” for 2dn which had me head scratching for 1ac “Province” for quite a while.
FOI – 5ac “Used”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 23ac “Endeared”
Thanks as usual!
I gave up after half an hour. ASSERT had taken ages and I just couldn’t see DABCHICK, which I have heard of. Thanks Doofers and Izetti.
How are we beginners supposed to learn if words “only ever seen in crosswords” (pi) are employed?
Erm, well, that’s how you learn them…
Unfortunately there are no shortcuts in learning to solve cryptic crosswords. It’s all about practice, lots of it, often over a period of several years; luckily it’s an enjoyable pastime whether you’re a beginner or proficient solver 😃
Well, as one of your bloggers I might have hoped that as well as the need for “practice, lots of it” – which I wholly agree with – there is some benefit to be gained from reading the explanations offered on this website. Most of the other bloggers are very experienced crossword solvers and certainly I found their explanations a real help when I was new to the game.
Indeed
8:11 for me, so quite easy but enjoyable. VHO DABCHICK was the LOI of course.
I thought this was around average for Izetti, but then I had no trouble with the vocabulary. If you only find words you already know in the puzzle you learn nothing new, whether you are likely to use them or not. LOI was PROVINCE, after PIPE went in, and that was a lovely bit of misdirection. Anyone planning to progress to the 15 needs to know PI, so why shouldn’t it be introduced in the Quickie?
This tough but fair puzzle entertained me for 15:08 going from USED to PIPE. Of course I could see PIPE immediately but bizarrely forgot the “pi” thing and fixated on reading it as “p1”. Some weird British thing? Yes, but not the way I thought. DNK Ken Dodd, so took DODDERED on faith. The bird and the salt held me up for a long time and COMPARTMENT wasn’t easy either. COD PROLIFERATE. Izetti puzzles are DIVINE.
I had no beef with “asset” for “benefit” — e.g. “she’s an asset to the firm.”
Thanks Izetti and Doof.
Izetti has always included clues related to religion in his puzzles – hence PI, biblical children and arguably divine today.
Indeed!
A tough one from Izetti today. NHO PI= very good (never seen it in a crossword either!), biffed DABCHICK as I know the bird and struggled with ENDEARED.and PROLIFERATE. Finished in 27:12, my slowest for ages.
I took pi to come from Formula 1 where fastest in practice is P1
Great!
Another fail on 15 x 15.
2 short in about 2 hours!
Never going to get the hang of these puzzles. There is no pleasure to be derived from consistently falling short.
I’d say that most of this was on Izetti’s easier side but DABCHICK more than made up for it, giving me a total of 15:03. Even after guessing the “hick” part (how rude) it still took me a good couple of minutes to find a synonym of “expert”, and even then I’d NHO the bird.
Thank you for the blog!
Around 45 mins. Having devoured vintage school stories as a child, I think pi is a great word – anyone dubbed “frightfully pi” would be earmarked for a comeuppance – lovely short word for that performative “goodness”.
FOI used
LOI Dabchick – another lovely word
COD Province
Thanks Izetti and Doofers
Can anyone explain 19d to me (Seed)? I don’t understand how it relates to biblical children. Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question.
Hi Monk,
I asked myself the same question. After a bit of research, it seems that the word is often used in the Old Testament to mean offspring or descendants. We’ll know it if it comes up again. 😊
Gary
Hi Gary, thank you for the explanation. Much appreciated.
Monk.
You will certainly meet it again in the 15×15 puzzles as it comes up a lot.
👍