Quick Cryptic No 1033 by Izetti

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was my fastest time for a while at just over 5 minutes, so definitely on the easier side for an Izetti puzzle.  Entertaining nonetheless!

In my last blog I talked about HOLAs! (Harrumph – Opening Letter Abbreviations) which quickly sank into obscurity, but this puzzle seemed to contain a higher than usual number of double letter abbreviations, or maybe I was just imagining it.

In 1033 there was panic in Europe where they thought the world would end on the 1,000th anniversary of the crucifixion, but it all worked out alright in the end (obviously excepting those persons for whom the world did end during the year!).  Other than that, and being the sum of 8 to the power 1, 8 to the power 0 and two lots of 8 to the power 3, there isn’t much special about the number 1033 that I am aware of.

Here’s how I saw it:

Across
1  Different people – not her sort, not all of them (6)
OTHERS – Anagram (sort) of [HER SO[r}T].  The ‘r’ is dropped according to the instruction ‘not all of them’, i.e. not all the letters included in the anagrist.  On Edit, and as pointed out by Kevin and others below, this is actually a straightforward hidden that I was trying to make too complicated.  Apologies!
4  Calm little place, attended by a group of detectives (6)
PLACID – PL (abbreviation for place, mostly used in street signs, therefore ‘little place’) followed (accompanied) by A (a) CID (group of detectives, Criminal Investigation Department)
8  Proverbial drinker outside pub is European (7)
FINNISH – The FISH is the proverbial drinker, and this surrounds (is outside) INN (pub)
10  Criticise one Conservative creating alarm (5)
PANIC – To criticise is to PAN and this is followed by I (one) and C{onservative}
11  Female bird always returning full of energy (5)
REEVE – Always is EVER which is reversed (returning) and has an E for E{nergy} inserted.  The REEVE is the female of the RUFF family of birds.
12  Northern city quickly attracting any number (7)
PRESTON – PRESTO (quickly) with (attracting) N which can symbolise any number
13  Chum is dancing in front of everyone in entertainment venue (5,4)
MUSIC HALL – Anagram (dancing) of [CHUM IS] ‘in front of’ ALL (everyone).  MUSIC HALL was a kind of British entertainment similar to the American vaudeville, and unsurprisingly, it took its name from the venues where it was performed, or music halls.
17  Small crown, gold one seen in court (7)
CORONET – OR (gold, from heraldry where it is derived from the French aurum meaning gold) and ONE (one) inside CT (abbreviation for court)
19  We hear horses eat in field (5)
GRAZE – Sounds like (we hear) GREYS (or in the USA, GRAYS).  A GREY is a grey or greyish animal, especially a horse.
20  Like female not looking very well (5)
ASHEN – AS (like) and HEN (female)
21  Stopping almost all night after travel (7)
HALTING – Anagram (after travel) of [AL] (almost AL{l}) and [NIGHT]
22  Tries to present pieces for university tutor? (6)
ESSAYS – To ESSAY is to attempt as well as what may be submitted to a university tutor.  The question mark is because other types of submission are possible other than ESSAYS, such as dissertations or projects.
23  Candlestick boy carried around cold Anglican church (6)
SCONCE – the boy is SON who ‘carries’ C{old} and is followed by CE (Church of England, or Anglican church)

Down
1 City offering what’s collected in box for down-and-outs (6)
OXFORD – Hidden in {b}OX FOR D{own-and-outs}
2  Protests on the go when food is not available (6,7)
HUNGER MARCHES – Cryptic clue referring to the demonstrations that took place, particularly during the 1920’s and 1930’s in Britain and elsewhere.  The 1932 HUNGER MARCH started in Scotland and gained 100,000 marchers and ended in a riot in Hyde Park, London.
3  One book is missing from new libraries, they protest (7)
RAILERS – To RAIL is to revile or protest.  Anagram of [LIBRARIES] minus IB (one book)
5 Fall in part of race, starts to seem exhausted (5)
LAPSE – Part of a race could be a LAP, followed by first letters of (starts to) S{eem} E{xhausted}
6  Groups of stars interfered with colonial’s tent (13)
CONSTELLATION – Anagram (interferes with) [COLONIAL’S TENT]
7 Proper journey down mountain maybe without first sign of snow (6)
DECENT – Journey down a mountain would be an example of a descent, remove the S as first letter of S{now}
9  Hard work is followed by whisky and a game (9)
HOPSCOTCH – H{ard} followed by OP (work) and SCOTCH (whisky) to give the popular playground game (is it still popular?)
14 ‘Innocent’ Alice being false – no good inside (7)
ANGELIC – Anagram (being false) of [ALICE], with N{o} G{ood} inside.
15  Grate fragment ending in fire (6)
SCRAPE – SCRAP is a fragment followed by last letter (ending) of {fir}E
16  My, my!  It’s a horse (3-3)
GEE-GEE – My! Is an interjection expressing surprise, as is GEE!.  Repeat it for the childish name for a horse
18  Girl in New York who looks after children? (5)
NANNY – &lit or cryptic definition.  The girl is ANN inside N{ew} Y{ork}.  The question mark is because not all NANNYs look after children, and not all of those that do are girls.

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 1033 by Izetti”

  1. An ingenious parse, Rotter, but where’s the anagrind? Or rather, if ‘sort’ is the anagrind, it can’t be part of the anagrist as well. Also, I don’t think I’ve seen an instruction to drop A letter from a word (rather than to drop the first or last, or every other).
    I saw it as a hidden: nOT HER Sort (not all of them).

    Edited at 2018-02-22 03:21 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks Kevin, what a numpty I am! Still, it was after midnight and a bottle of decent red when I did it, so an easy mistake to make. I’ll amend as soon as I finish reading the other comments.
  2. Didn’t know of REEVES and ruffs, but the wordplay was clear. I didn’t think anything at the time, but 2d seems barely cryptic. Also thought ESSAYS was a bit weak. 5:12.
  3. I took 30 minutes on this one which is my target for phone solving, but I was held up by 1A and 1D before realising they were both lurkers (I’m with Kevin on 1A).
    Incidentally, mathematicians used to think that 11630 was the First Uninteresting Number until someone pointed out that that in itself made it interesting.
    Yes, I can’t get to sleep tonight.
    Brian
  4. 12 minutes, thwarted at the end from achieving my target 10 by the wretched candlestick that required an alphabet trawl to find the unches (unchecked letters).

    Kevin is right about the parsing at 1ac but markings on my print-out testify to the fact that I went down the anagram route before spotting the hidden answer. It may be worth pointing out that the setter has broken one of the Times conventions today by having two ‘straight’ hiddens (1ac and 1dn). It’s no big deal, but just goes to show that having found one hidden answer we can’t rely on there not being another. It’s ‘straight’ as opposed to ‘reversed hidden’ btw, as the convention normally allows one of each.

    I was unaware of the gender distinction between REEVE and ‘ruff’.

    Mightily relieved that the setter spared us ‘former’ entertainment venue at 13ac as that sort of qualification has become a bugbear for me in recent weeks.

    I was writing essays (sometimes referred to as ‘compositions’) at school from the age of 7 or 8 onwards, and I don’t recall the word ever being mentioned when I was at university so I was a little puzzled by the reference at 22ac.

    Edited at 2018-02-22 05:54 am (UTC)

  5. 54 with most spent on graze, oxford, angelic and the unknown sconce.

    Grey added to list of horse names:
    H, NAG, FILLY, GG, COB, ROAN, STEED, ARAB, PACER, GREY

    Remembered reeve from a recent 15×15 (28,654).

    Was hard to fathom innocent Alice, and the n’s and g’s.

    Some alternatives:
    Divine glance I fixed.
    Pure gin, lace furiously!
    Virtuous gal, nice for a change.

    COD Finnish.

    Edited at 2018-02-22 09:12 am (UTC)

  6. The right hand side went in extremely quickly but the NW held me up for about 10 extra minutes, thus ending somewhere around 25. I was another who found 1a and 1d to be tricky, particularly when not expecting to find two hiddens.
  8. Most of this went in without too many issues, although I had my fingers crossed for the unknowns at 11a and 23a, but I struggled with the final few – 3d, 7d, 11a, 12a and LOI 1d. With hindsight I can’t see why I found them so difficult as they are all fairly clued. I enjoyed the philosophy for life in 9d.
  9. Managed to avoid any typos in this one, unlike the Concise where I managed to invent carpet sickness. I have to admit to biffing 1a and 1d from checkers and definition and not spotting the hiddens. PLACID went in first and OXFORD last. I was torn between ESSAYS and ASSAYS at 22a but the worplay in 15d was conclusive. Enjoyable puzzle. 8:40. Thanks Izetti and Rotter.
  10. I didn’t know the convention but nonetheless was disappointed to find that both 1a abd 1d were hiddens, simply because it seemed rather unimaginative.

    Biffed in HUNGER STRIKES … felt guilty as I did so, because I try to follow the Gospel According To St Jackkt and never put one in until I have parsed it … but I biffed … be sure your sin will find you out!

    Did not know REEVE and “RAILERS” feels like a bit of a non-word to me, but all straightforward enough. Thanks for the blog.

    Templar

    (PS – Didn’t post yesterday but I thought that was a superb puzzle.)

  11. Slow and steady solve,Dnk reeve, liked 9d.
    Regarding 12a, surely should be English northern city, as depends where in UK you are!! Was trying get Perth to fit as its northern to me!
    Cheers Rotter and Izetti.
  12. On target for a PB today until detained by LOI 1d. It had to be Oxford but I couldn’t see the parsing. It didn’t occur to me to look for a straightforward hidden since there already was one at 1a. Much harrumphing when I finally saw it, completing in 4’35”. So much for conventions, which I suppose are only transitory, like theories, until a better one comes along.

    On edit: Mild annoyance is no excuse for bad manners – many thanks as usual to setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2018-02-22 11:22 am (UTC)

  13. I found this on the easier side. The only REEVE I had ever heard of was in Canterbury Tales, but for the life of me can’t remember what a reeve was. SCONCE took some dragging out from the recesses of whatever is left of my memory. Good fun.
    PlayUpPompey
  14. I thought this required very careful reading of the clues and despite that I initially had Coroner at 17a and Hunger Strikes at 2d. However that did not slow me down too much coming home in 15 minutes. Last two were Halting and Sconce (possibly seen before). Reeve was another doubt but clue was clear.
    Good to see Preston in the puzzle. I’m heading up there on Saturday for the home game against Ipswich (the Suffolk port, I recall).
    Nice puzzle. David
  15. Fell at the last (11ac), with an unparsed Rhene (Greek nymph according to Wiki) was the best I could come up with after a frustrating 5 minutes. This was undoubtedly pay-back for 22ac, where the French for a try essaihad prompted me when I was struggling. Such is life. 35 mostly enjoyable minutes in total. Invariant
    1. PS. Lovely fire/grate misdirection in 15d. I had most of Izetti’s rod in my mouth before I realised what was going on.

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