Quick Cryptic 76 by Izetti

Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
The puzzle can be found here: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140623/183/

This is Izetti’s sixth Quick offering, I think, and has all the smoothness experienced solvers will know from his many guises in other newspapers. 21A may cause some trouble for beginners as the wordplay is perhaps the most complicated in the puzzle and the answer itself is rarely in the news (though it cropped up in a Guardian puzzle just last week). The parsings of 2D and 18D may also not be obvious to all. Good puzzle.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Menial torments organisation (8)
DOGSBODYDOGS (torments) + BODY (organisation)
5 The French doctor who is innocent and gentle? (4)
LAMBLA (The French, i.e. one of the words for “the” in French) + MB (one of the many abbreviations for doctor, in this case short for the Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, i.e. Bachelor of Medicine). The definition could be the animal though it is more likely to be the figurative usage when applied to a person.
8 Get cold arm or leg in mountain activity (5)
CLIMBC (cold, as seen on a tap) + LIMB (arm or leg)
9 Hurtful piece taken from newspaper (7)
CUTTING – double definition
11 Parties done badly, bringing distress (11)
DESPERATION – anagram (badly) of PARTIES DONE
13 Period in which bad guy is seen to make mistakes (6)
ERRATARAT (bad guy) inside ERA (Period), with the definition usually referring to writing/printing errors
14 Motorway madness? It isn’t what it appears to be (6)
MIRAGEMI (M1, i.e. the motorway connecting Leeds with southern parts) + RAGE (madness)
17 Races after ram maybe in a state of nervousness (11)
BUTTERFLIESFLIES (Races) after BUTTER (ram maybe, i.e. a male sheep that may butt)
20 Attire’s specially designed for performer (7)
ARTISTE – anagram (specially designed) of ATTIRE’S
21 Island vessel about to be filled with gold (5)
NAURU – reversal of URN (vessel about) containing (to be filled with) AU (gold). Nauru is an island republic in Micronesia formerly known as Pleasant Island. If “gold” in a clue doesn’t translate to Au (the chemical symbol for gold, from the Latin aurum), then it is highly likely that it will be or (the heraldic term for gold or yellow, from the French for gold).
22 Where primitive couple met PM once (4)
EDEN – double definition, referring to the Garden of Eden (the primitive couple being Adam and Eve) and Anthony Eden (Prime Minister of the UK from 1955 to 1957) respectively
23 Hero-worshipping adroitly managed (8)
IDOLATRY – anagram (managed) of ADROITLY
Down
1 Cut back plant (4)
DOCK – double definition, the second referring to the plant whose leaves are said to alleviate the pain caused by stinging nettles
2 Decorator said to make money in Europe once (7)
GUILDER – homophone of gilder (Decorator, usually working with gold). The guilder was the Dutch currency before the euro
3 Evening visitors getting paid? Their charges are small (11)
BABYSITTERS – cryptic definition, with “charges” referring not to their fees but to the children they look after
4 It’s more risky,’ I cried out (6)
DICIER – anagram (out) of I CRIED
6 A politician of yesteryear, one to offer defence (5)
ALIBIA + LIB (short for Liberal) + I (one) The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties in the UK (with the Conservatives) during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but after the First World War it became increasingly marginalised with the rise of Labour
7 Founder having drink outside good pub (8)
BEGINNERG (good) + INN (pub), all inside BEER (drink)
10 Adroit with Latin, somehow liking a long-established style (11)
TRADITIONAL – anagram (somehow) of ADROIT and LATIN
12 Excessive language in eg bar I’ve corrected (8)
VERBIAGE – anagram (corrected) of EG BAR I’VE
15 Attack a sailor by the sound of it (7)
ASSAULT – homophone (by the sound of it) of “a salt”, where salt is one of many words for a sailor
16 Sin beyond furthest point of the scale? (6)
OFFEND – if a measurement is too high or low for a scale, then it is off the end or OFF END
18 One enters bike races: the French championship (5)
TITLEI inside (enters) TT (bike races, perhaps most famously the ones held on the Isle of Man – short for Tourist Trophy), + LE (another word for “the” in French (see 5A))
19 Woman providing massage before end of day (4)
RUBYRUB (massage) + Y (end of day, i.e. last letter of day)

10 comments on “Quick Cryptic 76 by Izetti”

  1. 12 minutes, delayed at the end by 21 solved eventually from wordplay as I have never heard of it. Having since looked it up I recognise its former name, Pleasant Island, which I know probably from the days I used to collect stamps. Izetti’s last puzzle gave me problems so I was pleased to get through this in reasonable time whilst still missing my 10-minute target.
  2. I had the feeling as I did this that every clue was an anagram; but I think I counted six. I like the Quickie anagrams because I can (usually) sort them out in my head, where I generally have to write the anagrist down with the biggies. Along with ‘the French’ one should watch out for, natch, ‘a French’ =un(e). Something evidently went wrong at Snafu Central today, since I was able to access this puzzle without first coming here for the link; better times a-coming? Nah. 6:20.
    1. Love it!

      Just to allay your hopes, I printed from the website shortly after midnight and the button was linked to #71, Tracy’s puzzle from last Monday. So the bug isn’t sorted, it’s just that the manual fix arrived quicker than usual on this occasion.

  3. 5 mins. This puzzle felt trickier than many of the previous Monday QCs and I had the most trouble in the NW where I went down a couple of blind alleys to start with, specifically thinking that 1ac was going to be an anagram of “torments”, and that the “back” in 1dn was a reversal indicator. DICIER was my LOI, where I had been looking for a homophone until all the checkers made me consider the more obvious (in retrospect) anagram fodder.
  4. Found this one around mid range difficulty – several straightforward ones (e.g. 5, 8, 9) and a few more tricky.

    Lucky to get Guilder quickly as I used to spend a lot of time in Holland pre-Euro, and also Nauru as it features often in Australian news.

    COD to EDEN – very droll.

  5. This was a tricky puzzle for me done in a couple of sittings. NAURU was an early entry after I had eliminated CORFU.

    Last one in DICIER. Liked BABYSITTERS.

  6. As with Nick, I found this one of middling difficulty: 13mins. I did like BABYSITTERS and ALIBI. Like Kevin, I thought there were a lot of anagrams and I also counted 6. I wonder if any bets are being taken anywhere on if and when the Euro will be ditched in favour of the original currencies? The reference to gold in the clue about Nauru is fitting as the island had its own form of gold: guano, which was mined in the form of phosphate and made the islanders very rich. It’s run out now.
  7. This one was too hard for me. I managed to solve 10 clues but I put in another 5 or so answers into the grid that I was convinced were right but were in fact wrong. For example, 5a I got MILD which I was convinced was right — MD for “doc” plus IL French for “the”. I got totally gridlocked and further progress was impossible!

    *sobs quietly into a consolatory chocolate orange*

    1. Agreed with you, DocBee. It happens to me often that I can’t get the answers; but it doesn’t happen so much that I insert the wrong answers. This puzzle seemed ripe for errors somehow, so I got in a big muddle.

      Got quite a few of SE corner straight away (including Nauru – hurrah!). But then downhill from there. Oh well.

      *I’ll take your choc orange and raise you a glass of Pinot*.

    2. Ah well that’s your problem right there. Chocolate oranges and crosswords just don’t mix – try a slab of Dairy Milk instead (360g preferably but 200g will do at a pinch).

      Confectionery issues aside, you got 10 clues so you were ~40% of the way there. And having 5 answers that were wrong is good because it shows you were coming up with ideas (even if they were wrong). Keep trying, keep reading the blogs, and you will move inexorably closer to all-corrects on a regular basis!

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