Quick Cryptic no 2835 by Izetti

Good morning.  We have another fine puzzle from Izetti today, and it displays all his usual tight wordplay and fair challenges.  There is one clue, 15D, where I had to toss up between two possible answers; perhaps unusual in a puzzle set by Izetti, but fortunately the one I deemed more likely was correct so I escaped without the Dreaded Pink Squares.

There is also one word of German and one of French in the answers but they are both generously clued and I think both should be common enough for most people to be familiar with them.

One thing I do notice is that the use of “See” to indicate somewhere with a cathedral continues to go international; until recently one could safely assume that a diocesan see was ELY, but a little while ago we had some debate about whether LA could be clued as a “see”, based on the fact that Los Angeles has a cathedral, and in this puzzle we unequivocally have ROME clued as a see.  This really does open up a new field for setters and I do hope they don’t take too much advantage of it;  my knowledge of where British cathedrals are located is limited, and as for the rest of the world …

In all this took me a very enjoyable 8:57, for a combined 59 minutes for the week.  In passing I cannot remember breaking the hour since we started having Saturday QCs and so 6 puzzles, and where that leaves the “The QCs are getting harder” debate I am not sure!  But how did everyone else find it?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, and strike-through-text shows deletions.

Across
1 A boy gets into something very funny, dressing (5,5)
SALAD CREAMA LAD (a boy) inserted into (ie “gets into”) SCREAM (something very funny).

Salad cream, which is emphatically not the same as mayonnaise, used to be very popular, almost ubiquitous in my youth.  These days mayonnaise has made giant strides into its market, but it does still exist and its rather more tangy taste has its devotees.

8 Foreign inn — a bug ’ere is awful (7)
AUBERGE – (a bug ere)*, with the anagram indicator being “awful”.  Auberge is a French word meaning inn or tavern, and Izetti has generously indicated it by including the word “foreign” in the definition.  But the word is probably well enough known to be fair game in a QC even without this helpful pointer.
9 Leave home finally? Rather! (5)
QUITEQUIT (leave) + E (home “finally”, ie last letter of homE).
10 Birds are musical? Not all (4)
EMUS – A hidden, in arE MUSical, with the indicator being “not all”.
11 Role in act that is gone (8)
DEPARTEDPART (role) inserted into DEED (act).
13 See love in lover (5)
ROMEOROME (see, either as a straightforward diocese or more specifically as the Holy See) + O (love).

Particularly with the other name for the Diocese of Rome being the Holy See, this is fair enough for a QC and indeed we have seen it before.  But as I mentioned in the preamble, if setters get this particular bit between the teeth and start referencing other foreign dioceses (see = Lima, for example?), I am going to come unstuck rather more often!

14 Nobody with energy after twelve (2,3)
NO ONENOON (after twelve) + E (energy, coming “after”).
16 Own a new salon (8)
PERSONALPER (ie a) + (salon)*, the anagram indicator being “new”.  I always need a double take to remember that a can represent per, as in “£5 a bunch / £5 per bunch”.

Although in the wordplay “own” is the verb form, as in “to possess”, what we need for the answer is the adjective form, as in “my own thing / my personal thing”.

17 Girl leading a festive event (4)
GALAGAL (girl) + A (from the clue).
20 Good person given a German mug (5)
STEINST (good person, ie saint) + EIN (“a German”, ie German for a).  And a Stein is indeed a German mug, specifically a mug for beer, but we need the word German to be part of the wordplay to make the clue work, so it cannot do double duty as part of the definition as well.
21 Name embedded in flashy decoration (7)
GARNISHN (name) inserted into (ie “embedded in”) GARISH (flashy).  A nice “lift and separate”; we need to divide flashy from decoration.

And just this Monday Alex gave us a reverse variant of the clue: “Showy decoration lacking hint of nuance (6)”, in which this time GARNISH had to lose an N to make GARISH.

22 One who could put out poster with revised art possibly (10)
ADVERTISER – (revised art)*, with the anagram indicator being “possibly”.
Down
1 Phoney character leading enterprise in disgrace (5)
SHAMESHAM (phoney) + E (“character leading”, ie first letter of, Enterprise).
2 What could make alarm break out — ignoring a factor of job economics (6,6)
LABOUR MARKET – (alarm break out)*, with the removal of one of the A’s indicated by “ignoring a” and the anagram indicator being “what could make”.

A very slightly convoluted piece of word order in the wordplay I think, as the natural reading would suggest that what one is trying to make is the phrase “alarm break out”, and one has in effect to add an A not ignore it to get there from the letters of Labour Market.  But the meaning of the clue is clear enough.

3 What may be thrown in Devon river (4)
DART – A DD.

The River Dart is a river in Devon that rises high on Dartmoor and flows for about 50 miles to the sea at Dartmouth.  Along the way the river’s two main tributary branches, viz the East Dart and the West Dart, meet at, er, Dartmeet.  Devonians clearly like simple logical descriptive names for geographical features.

4 Illegal drug in jacket (6)
REEFER – A second DD, hard on the heels of the last.

Reefer as a word for a cannabis cigarette is a term that first became common in the 1930s.  Some sources suggest it may have come from the Mexican Spanish grifo, for someone who smokes cannabis, though the etymology is not particularly clear.  The derivation of reefer as a jacket is much more soundly based though; the reefer coat or reefer jacket was a warm coat originally used by “reefers”, or the sailors responsible for climbing the rigging and reefing the sails on the sailing ships of the British Navy. They had to go aloft in all weathers and this thick coat was part of their uniform.

5 Get to come to know account that’s zany (8)
ACQUAINTAC (account) + QUAINT (zany).  This was very much a “biff then parse”, as quaint for zany took some time to come to mind.  I think of quaint more as “charming, old fashioned, picturesque” and zany would be quite some way down my synonym list for the word.
6 Books having indicators, ie, properly organised (12)
DICTIONARIES – (indicators ie)*, with the anagram indicator being “properly organised”.
7 Sell spare part for piano, as one might say? (6)
PEDDLE – Sounds like PEDAL, a part of a piano, with the homophone indicated by “as one might say”.  But I am not sure why Izetti has clued pedal as a spare part; to me it is fairly integral to a piano.
12 Clown, one wanting daughter highly protected (8)
COCOONEDCOCO (clown) + ONE (from the clue) + D (Daughter).

Coco the Clown was the stage name (or perhaps “ring name”?) of the renowned circus performer Nikolai Poliakoff, a refugee who came to the UK from Latvia.  Poliakoff was active from the mid 20th century and helped define the modern image of the clown, with their elaborate make-up and exaggerated cartoon-like facial features.  He almost certainly got his inspiration for both the name and the style of his character Coco from Koko the Clown, an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer about 30 years earlier.

13 Soldiers tense making meal (6)
REPASTRE (soldiers, specifically the Royal Engineers) + PAST (a tense, alongside present and future).
15 Manipulate with devious motive (6)
WANGLE – An “all-in-one” cryptic definition clue, and my LOI.  I left it to the end because firstly I needed all the checkers, and secondly I then had to do an alphabet-trawl to find the answer.  And there are a surprisingly large number of words that fit -A-G-E.  I dismissed most of them pretty quickly and was left with a coin toss between WANGLE and HAGGLE.  I thought WANGLE was marginally the more likely, and fortunately Izetti agreed.  But it is not an entirely satisfactory clue in my view.
18 Hate bit of drab horticulture (5)
ABHOR – a hidden, in drAB HORticulture, with the hidden indicator being “a bit of”.
19 Dry beast with tail hidden (4)
BRUTBRUTe, ie brute (for beast) with the last letter or tail deleted.  Dry as in wine, and sparkling wine / champagne in particular.

64 comments on “Quick Cryptic no 2835 by Izetti”

  1. Found this relatively straightforward (especially by Izetti standards) except for the clues I couldn’t do lol. NHO WANGLE (the clue seems to be a straight definition of the word). I’d also never consider quant to be synonymous with zany and never saw the answer.

  2. I only knew of SALAD CREAM from a Fawlty Towers episode; so far as I know it’s not found in the US. I took WANGLE to be W (with) + ANGLE (devious motive), ‘manipulate’ being the definition. GARNISH and LOI WANGLE took some time. 7:30.

    1. Yes, I had the same parsing of WANGLE which is clearly correct and leaves no room for doubt as to the answer.

      Until I researched it today after reading your comment I’ve always thought that SALAD CREAM was an American thing, possibly because the leading brand here has always been Heinz, an American company. Research confirms however that the mix of ingredients goes back at least to the mid 18th century in the UK, and although Heinz produced the first commercial version in 1914 they did so at a British factory for the British market. Personally I find it delicious when used in moderation and the Heinz recipe is way superior to that of imitation products.

      1. Thank you Kevin and Jack – that makes sense and must be the intended construction for WANGLE. So a “definition plus wordplay” clue as well as an all-in-one cryptic clue. What an excellent clue that one can get it despite only understanding half its subtleties.

        1. This makes it a an &lit, I believe, although I’m not very good at spotting clue species. I’m about as good at identifying birds, many are LBBs to me.

          1. Its not &lit as “manipulate” is not part of the word play.

            If the answer was an anagram of “with devious motive” or “w devious motive” it would be.

            &lit:
            whole of the clue is the definition
            whole of the clue is the wordplay.

            &lit example:
            Cop in male form (9) POLICEMAN

            Waits for clue police comments 😁

            1. Yes. It is just a straight charade as Kevin has described. The definition is just “manipulate”. Although the surface is excellent it is not a definition of the answer – the definition of wangle is “To obtain or accomplish by craft” which does not imply any “devious motive” only, perhaps, “devious means”.

      2. I’m also a fan of salad cream which as you say is NOT a replacement for mayo but something altogether different. IMHO particurlay good on beetroot 😀

  3. As for the rest of the puzzle, this was another DNF for me.

    After 13 minutes I had all but the COCOONED and PERSONAL crossers. I then became distracted by the thought of ‘highly protected / CORDONED’ and was unable to see past it for ages until I spotted Coco the Clown.

    Then my mind went blank over 16ac where I was fixated on the definition being ‘salon’ and somehow managed to overlook the possibility of an anagram. With ‘new’ in the clue I can only put this down to lack of concentration by that stage and as 20 minutes approached on the clock I threw in the towel and resorted to aids.

  4. 14:36 for me and nearly 4 minutes for Verlaine, so I’d contend this was pretty tough. Depends on your knowledge and your ‘flow’, I guess.

    I thought WANGLE was merely a cryptic definition, so hats off to the Don and Kevin here for unravelling it. It’s a great word, so a worthy COD.

  5. Everything was going brilliantly until I encountered PERSONAL, WANGLE and the clown, at which point I hit the fence. Coco finally yielded but the other two were impenetrable, so a DNF as I threw in the towel at 8 something. Thanks Cedric and Izetti.

  6. A lovely crossword, but unfortunately came a cropper on PERSONAL. How is it possible, he asks! PER plus an anagram of salon, simples. For me I’d already put PERN for a + new and thought I was looking for a word meaning salon with four letters. Better luck with WANGLE as I had W for with and played with wiggle and waggle before seeing angle for motive. I think it is literal followed by wordplay but the whole clue does seem to work as one. Remembered GARNISH from earlier in the week so no hold-ups there with GARISH. And REPAST just Thursday I think which generated lots of comments on PA’s or PA in RET or REST. How does BOZOONED mean protected I wondered before remembering COCO. Liked ROMEO and SALAD CREAM and after checking, yes, it’s available in the states. I remember it on salads in the sixties in the garden on a summer day. I may buy some, haven’t tasted it for 50 years.

    On the subject of REEFERS, probably not an illegal drug in many countries now, here in some OZ states it’s legal to have small amounts for personal use. But after researching, I see it’s DEFINITELY not legal in the UK, so I guess ILLEGAL in the clue is fine. Re cannabis cigarette, probably better known these days as a Joint, Spliff, Number, or if you’re a fan of Withnail and I, a Camberwell Carrot.

    Brilliant blog Cedric, often amazed how you manage to do it, the timestamp on your heading says 1:42am so that’s an hour and 42 minutes to do the puzzle and write the blog, or do you have special access before midnight?

    1. A for PER is extremely cunning, especially in such a concise clue, which reads so naturally. You just get lulled in by the experienced setter, who lowers your defences.

  7. 20.24 for me which belies the fact that most of this was completed very quickly. Was a bit slow to find DICTIONARIES – again a pen and paper would have helped but came a cropper with last two in which were PERSONAL and finally REEFER trying to use E as the drug rather than the illegal drug as the definition- I imagine it’s. It illegal in some of the localities where the correspondents on here reside.

    Thanks to Cedric and Izzetti for enjoyable start to the day.

    In other news I tried to mentally limber up by reading up on the SNITCH/ QUITCH. I notice that I am somehow in as a reference solver under my Crossword Club sobriquet Horners1974. I have a ‘WITCH’ of 1.15 which if I have understood correctly means I am normally a reasonable benchmark of difficulty but with ‘NITCHes’ that have room for improvement.
    I do have a tendency on phone to end up with one pink square from being fat fingered on phone which tends to be skewed towards puzzles I have otherwise completed quickly and have then submitted with a view to securing a fast time for the day. I think these efforts are then excluded from the statistical analysis so will now endeavour to be a bit more diligent on that front.

    Was also grateful for the NEUTRINOS explanation as I always wondered how the quickest times in CC were achieved. This must massively skew the average time data in the Times club.

    Anyway, and with apologies if there is a separate forum (?) for discussing stuff other than todays puzzle, I have been posting on here for a few months now and I’m loving everyone’s work.

    So thank you.

    Horners1974

    1. If you read more about the Snitch you can see that there is a brilliant mathematical way of eliminating neutrinos from averages. Basically, if someone’s time average doesn’t move with everyone else’s, so they enter both “easy” and “hard” puzzles in the same time they are a suspect. Enough of these, and they are classified as “neutrino” and eliminated from averages (“they believe they have entered a typing competition”)

      Starstruck pays for his cloud usage and storage which is used to generate the Snitch, you can donate the price of a coffee to him to keep the lights on. Link at bottom of “about me” Snitch page.

      1. Thanks Merlin I can see the Neutrinos get eliminated from SNITCH but when viewing my stats on Crossword Club I’m guessing the ‘typists’ aren’t eliminated so all along I’ve been comparing my average scores/ times with global averages that contain tainted comparables.

        1. The people at The Times do not have the statistical acumen of starstruck. And, the “Tainted Comparables” is an excellent name for a band.

          1. The other thing to bear in mind with Crossword Club averages is that you get some times where people have (presumably) taken a break from the crossword but not closed it down and therefore register very long times. You only tend to see these if you look at the stats early as they quickly drop out of the top 100 times.

  8. As others completely breeze blocked by personal that took about 8 of our 25.15!
    MUST remember a can be per, d’oh.
    It was all going so well up until then. Lots of great clues and enjoyment. We also passed wangle as Kevin and others.

    Thanks Izetti and Cedric for the comprehensive blog

  9. Steady going but held up at the end as I always forget that ‘per’ is a synonym of ‘a’ and LOI COCOONED where Coco the clown was buried in the depths.
    I also hesitated over REEFER because I’ve always thought of the reefer being the cigarette that contains marijuana rather than the drug itself.
    Finished in 9.41.
    Thanks to Cedric

  10. I took 15 minutes. PERSONAL was also my LOI and it‘s kind of interesting that others found it hard too, as once I realised how the clue worked I felt really stupid for not getting it immediately. I think the a=per possibility is mentally easy to overlook.

  11. 16:10
    but shouldda been under 10.
    Breezeblocked by PERSONAL. Was sure that it ended AN for “a new” and meant a salon. Quite a few words fitted, such as PORTOLAN. Did alphabet checks on all blanks before dropping the N at the end.

    WOD WANGLE, and a good clue when explained above.

  12. DNF COCOONED. Went down all sort of rabbit holes! Parsed WANGLE as ‘with angle’ but wasn’t sure an angle was necessarily a devious motive. Belatedly remembered a=per. Enjoyed this one. Thanks for the blog Cedric; especially interesting to read about Coco.

  13. Did OK but then stuck on 5d, 9a and 19d. Finally solved BRUT, but had to look up synonyms for Leave to get QUIT(E)- doh! That made ACQUAINT gettable.
    So easier in e.g. NW, but not a breeze for me.
    Liked COCOONED, STEIN, SALAD CREAM.
    Cd not parse several e.g. WANGLE, PERSONAL, ROMEO, but biffed them.
    Thanks vm, Cedric.

  14. About 15 mins with sore head.

    Found the SW&NE hard.
    Wasn’t sure about reefer as that is the name of the cig rather than the drug. And mer for quaint for zany.

    LOI dictionaries, pleased it wasn’t a bible reference.
    COD Auberge with nice references to the bed bugs that put me off doing the Camino De Santiago.

    1. Though it may reveal how very misspent my youth was, I can vouch for the usage of REEFER as a mass noun for marijuana in my part of the world long ago.

  15. A nice puzzle to do after the aerobic gym workout. COCOONED was my last in. WANGLE also took a long time to see.
    Thanks to blogger and setter.

  16. Dnf…

    Had everything after 20 mins, but just couldn’t see 16ac “Personal” and 12dn “Cocooned”. I did try to think of the name of a clown, but could only dredge up “Bobo” which I probably made up. After all that, I then forgot to complete 1dn “Shame”.

    FOI – 3dn “Dart”
    LOI – Dnf
    COD – 15dn “Wangle”

    Thanks as usual!

  17. 5:34. My 4th time this week in the range 5:29 to 5:36, which is average for me, with only Asp’s taking longer at 7:39 and Alex’s less time at 4:48. Make of that what you will. Like our blogger I had a MER at PEDAL being a “spare part” of a piano. COD to ADVERTISER for the surface. Thank-you Izetti and Cedric.

  18. 9.09

    I haven’t always been a fan of Izetti’s recent puzzles but this was excellent with PERSONAL very clever but I did see through it after a pause which gave me COCOONED as my LOI.

    Thanks Cedric

  19. 35:51 for the solve!

    Had three to get as I entered the SCC. PERSONAL came at 24mins and finally got the REEFER / SALAD CREAM pairing. I had the SALAD part from the moment I started but could never see how the cream part work because I though very=SO and I’d be looking for a 4-letter word meaning funny. I was reduced to alphabet trawling to get to reefer and at that point CREAM it had to be. Only parsed it post solved.

    I have to say I often find Izetti’s recent puzzles very confidence knocking instead of building me up. With a different setter I would just have put in an unparsed salad-cream but I assumed he was being more devilish with and some kind of salad sauce I don’t know.

  20. 10:38. Stuck at the end on PERSONAL but not for too long before seeing a=per. I feel we have seen it quite a lot recently? I liked WANGLE, after first thinking it must be WIGGLE

  21. A hello to you merry lot – and many thanks for teachings past received etc.
    A long time since the last comment (doubtless someone may know, you seem to have a finger on most such matters). I, together with himself, have been doing the QC most days for many months. For those starting out, we, at the outset, were hugely pleased with 3 or 4 answers in half an hour. Now, mainly thanks to this forum, we generally finish the task within that time. Possibly too often biffing then parsing (though usually with good result). We then read the blog for final clarification and eduction. Today, we waited to have REDACTED explained. Ha! not to be…DEPARTED. …of course…
    And ‘Reefer’? I cautiously query whether it is an illegal drug, or simply the medium by which it is had?
    Finally – on the elusive matter of why some offerings are easy for some and not for others – strange but true, himself and I are nearly always aligned (within 2 minutes) with the Roundabout Here duo.
    So – repeated thanks to all for the daily edifying and amusing input. Now, back to the silent corner.

    1. A long time since the last comment

      Yes. We heard from you several times in February, but nothing since. It’s good to know you are still going strong and making such splendid progress

    2. Dear Too Often Lost,
      Great to hear from you again and please come out of your silent corner a little more often.

    3. Glad you’re found today anyway!

      I commented on why I have no problem with REEFER above. In short, it works in my dialect. Or idiolect, possibly.

      You and himself are fortunate in being well matched I think.

  22. “This is the naked truth, this is the light
    There’s only one place left to go……
    AUBERGE!” (Chris Rea)

    A nice puzzle from Izetti, and the usual excellent and informative blog from Cedric.

    FOI SALAD CREAM (boyhood memories)
    LOI BRUT (Splash it all over!)
    COD EMUS (Rod Hull never sang either)
    TIME 4:56

  23. DNF

    Pretty straightforward but came unstuck on REEFER. DNK either definition and had to resort to random letters.

  24. 7:16

    Pretty straightforward though paused for thought with last three WANGLE, COCOONED and PERSONAL. I, too, was surprised that zany and QUAINT might be synonymous, but what else could it be with the checkers in place. LABOUR MARKET felt a little clunky. The one word which was also an answer in today’s Concise, was probably fresh in the minds of those those that had completed that puzzle.

    Thanks for the enjoyable blog Cedric, and for the challenge Izetti

  25. 15.20 With all but three done in five minutes I was thinking how easy this was. Then PERSONAL, WANGLE and REEFER tripled my time. I’ve NHO a reefer jacket and I tend to think of a reefer as a cannabis cigarette rather than its contents so it took ages to come to mind and I wasn’t very confident of it. Thanks Cedric and Izetti.

  26. 18:34. I thought WANGLE was weak until I learned the correct parsing here. Like others above I didn’t think QUAINT could lead to zany. It was interesting researching the role of pedals on pianos. Some sites listed the essential features that make up pianos and pedals weren’t among them. On the other hand reading about the pedals themselves they go back a long way on pianos and perform important functions.

  27. We did relatively well with this at 12:14. It helped that we are now accustomed to ‘a’ = per. LOI WANGLE, not sure I like manipulate as a synonym but I can see how you get there and fortunately we guessed right! Thanks Cedric and Izetti.

  28. Later than usual solve but on wavelength for 06:15. Held up by PERSONAL (like everyone else) and BRUT (like no-one else).

    Great blog, Cedric, thanks and thanks Izetti for the fun.

  29. 25:01 and it’s whiplash here in QC land for me after yesterday’s little stroll. Ah, I wanted another coffee anyway.

    I was doing ok, slowish but not stuck, until REEFER, PERSONAL, COCOONED, and WANGLE. Finally I had to take a break, and no, they didn’t pop out at me but I was able to forcibly dig them out. Yay me! REEFER for jacket rang only a faint bell. PERSONAL was sly, but shame on me for not taking my own advice from yesterday to pay attention to the little words. The same issue got me stuck on WANGLE. Coco the clown was a little bit out on the margins of my GK. “Zany” bothered me.

    Thanks Izetti and Cedric!

  30. A pedal is hardly a spare part from a pianist’s point of view! This held the NE corner up for quite a while, as until I pencilled it in, I couldn’t get 9 or 11a or LOI ACQUAINT. Probably as much time spent on these as the rest of the puzzle. Now for the biggie…

  31. It’s very late to post, but I just wanted to say what a super puzzle and I absolutely loved DICTIONARIES.
    About 11 minutes this morning, so can’t remember many details 😅
    Many thanks Izetti and Cedric for a first class blog

  32. 22:49 with no errors. Another stiff challenge from Izetti. It took me a while to realise that REEFER was a DD, I was looking for a 5 letter word for jacket intending to add an “e” to create a word that meant illegal. NHO AUBERGE but with all four checking letters it seemed the likeliest to be an actual word using the other three letters. I also struggled with LABOUR MARKET. FOI – QUITE, LOI – REEFER, COD – WANGLE (now that I’ve seen the correct parsing) Thanks Izetti and Cedric.

  33. Late to this one, due to spending yesterday in the office for reasons too tedious to recount. Anyway, I found this harder than average but relatively straightforward for an Izetti, in that I managed to finish it (albeit in the SCC, with 22:33).

    Thank you for the blog!

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