Quick Cryptic No 301 by Izetti

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This is another Izetti – which I made much harder for myself than it actually was (see 17dn). Apart from 16dn (which should be get-able when the other letters are in place) I’m not sure now why I made such a meal of it. Links to free online dictionaries can be found on the right hand side of the page.

Definitions underlined, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition, deletions CROSSED OUT

Across
7 Travel document is needed in Virginia (4)
&nbsp &nbspVISA – IS inside Virginia (VA).
8 Great sin ruined African city (8)
&nbsp &nbspTANGIERS – Anagram (ruined) of GREAT SIN.
9 Support for cheeky youngster (4,2)
&nbsp &nbspPROP UP – For (PRO), PUP.
10 Nationalist coming within view in governing body (6)
&nbsp &nbspSENATE – Nationalist (NAT) inside view (SEE).
11 Chaps beginning to doubt put right (4)
&nbsp &nbspMEND – MEN, (D)oubt.
12 Nice and sure? Quite otherwise! (8)
&nbsp &nbspINSECURE – &lit. Anagram (quite otherwise) of NICE SURE.
15 Servant runs briefly to catch bad robber (8)
&nbsp &nbspPILLAGER – PAGE, runs (R) outside bad (ILL).
17 Polish expert (4)
&nbsp &nbspBUFF – dd.
18 Danger from extreme characters in firm (6)
&nbsp &nbspHAZARD – Extreme characters of the alphabet (AZ) inside HARD.
21 Politician harbouring explosive idea (6)
&nbsp &nbspTHEORY – Explosive (HE) inside TORY.
22 Bishop in a home surprisingly unconventional (8)
&nbsp &nbspBOHEMIAN – Bishop (B), anagram (surprisingly) off IN A HOME.
23 Head dismissing one member of kitchen team (4)
&nbsp &nbspCHEF – CHIEF.

Down
1 Sir ideal to become PM (8)
&nbsp &nbspDISRAELI – Anagram (to become) of SIR IDEAL.
2 Character outside gym complained (6)
&nbsp &nbspCARPED – Character (CARD) outside PE.
3 Finishing second? Excellent! (8)
&nbsp &nbspSTOPPING – Second (S), TOPPING.
4 What songs are turned up for the Animals (4)
&nbsp &nbspGNUS – Somgs are SUNG, turned upwards.
5 What should be easy task — is one ‘hampered’? (6)
&nbsp &nbspPICNIC – Reference to picnic hampers.
6 Magritte’s inner strength of character (4)
&nbsp &nbspGRIT – maGRITte.
13 Senior common room, very small, in which university’s held examination (8)
&nbsp &nbspSCRUTINY – University (U) inside senior (S), common room (CR) – thanks to Mohn2 for pointing out that senior common room is SCR, TINY. Not seen SCR before.
14 Revolutionary monarch, old person effecting change (8)
&nbsp &nbspREFORMER – Monarch (ER) backwards (revolutionary), old (FORMER).
16 A large crumbling encampment (6)
&nbsp &nbspLAAGER – Anagram (crumbling) of A LARGE. A laager is (in Africa) a camp, esp one defended by a circular formation of wagons or (military) a place where armoured vehicles are parked.
17 Fade, being left buried in sand? (6)
&nbsp &nbspBLEACH – I wrongly thought this was BLENCH – left (L) in sand (BENCH – which is a ridge/former shoreline). Thanks to deezzaa for pulling me back from such wild imaginings. The answer is left (L) inside sand (BEACH). In the process of changing this I inadvertently deleted the entire blog (and presumably deezzaa’s comment – apologies) – not a good start to the day which would have been much worse if I hadn’t ‘copied all’ beforehand.
19 A married seaman in a holy book (4)
&nbsp &nbspAMOS – A, married (M), ordinary seaman (OS). This chap was a Hebrew prophet of the 8th century bc who wrote a book containing his oracles. For anyone still interested an oracle is a prophecy, often obscure or allegorical, revealed through the medium of a priest or priestess at the shrine of a god.
20 Get rid of awful noise outside front of office (2,2)
&nbsp &nbspDO IN – DIN around (O)ffice.

12 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 301 by Izetti”

  2. I found this one tough, it probably took me half an hour (bit difficult to tell though because the person sitting next to me on the train kept wanting to get up or otherwise disturbing me). But I got there in the end although I couldn’t parse 15A, I just biffed it with the help of the checkers, so thanks for the clear explanation in the blog. Anyway – I thought this was an excellent puzzle. Just the right degree of challenge, for me at any rate.
  3. Didn’t have too many problems with this one, though I think I must have tried to get to the original blog just as you deleted it – I clicked on “Next Entry” from the main cryptic blog and then got an error page.

    Re SCRUTINY, SCR is an abbreviation for senior common (or combination) room at various collegiate universities (also JCR (junior) and MCR (middle)).

  4. After writing in all but four answers I had a mental block mostly in the NE corner and, between them 2, 3,4 and 8 doubled my solving time to 16 minutes.
  5. 10 minutes, going clockwise, LOI LAAGER. DO IN made me think for a mo.
  6. A good puzzle but took a very long time as I got stuck with lag and vile!!
  7. For me this was the toughest for a while and it was a DNF – didn’t get 19d or 22a. Not a bad result as after about 10 minutes I’d only completed about 4 answers. Time to go and lie down and give my brain a rest.
  8. I did the FT 15×15 today on the recommendation of my boss – he said I should give it a go. It was a piece of cake compared to this one, I thought. I don’t know if that means I’m getting better or if I just find Izetti’s puzzles trickier than those of other setters.
    2. I agree – this took ages. Well done on the FT. Other crosswords are easier – but not necessarily better.

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