Quick Cryptic No 389 by Izetti

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
No waffle today, busy schedule; I’ll leave the waxing lyrical to my French poetic friend. A nice balanced puzzle with nothing to frighten the horses.

D = definition; DD = double definition; CP = cryptic pun.

Across
1 BUSTER – DD, one referring to Buster Keaton perhaps.
4 DEACON – Hidden word in PARA(DE A CON)SCIENTIOUS; D minister.
8 WOOL-GATHERING – DD.
10 ESTER – (TREES)*; D a chemical, formed from an alcohol and a carboxylic acid.
11 THERAPY – THE RAP = the criticism, Y = unknown; D treatment.
12 CIRCULATION – (CRUCIAL NO IT)*; D could be indication of paper’s success.
16 RAIDERS – RIDERS = cowboys; insert A (Apache’s beginning); D attackers.
17 FLORA – DD.
18 UNINTERESTING – (GETTIN SUNNIER)*; D dull.
19 DONORS – Insert N (name) into DOORS (entrances); D benefactors.
20 NEWTON – NEWT = amphibian, ON = leg (side in cricket); D scientist.

Down
1 BOWLER – DD, today’s second cricketing clue.
2 SHORT DIVISION – A sort of DD. I must say, I well remember long division, I can still do it today, but short division was a new one on me.
3 EDGAR – Hidden word in WE(ED GAR)DEN; King Edgar may refer to: Edgar the Peaceable (942–975), king of England or Edgar of Scotland (1074–1107), king of Scotland.
5 ELEMENT – DD; iron, or component in heater.
6 CLIMATOLOGIST – (MIST LOGICAL TO)*; D weather expert.
7 NAGOYA – (AGONY)* around A; Japanese city.
9 TOTALISER – (TO REALIST)*; D betting system.
13 CHESTER – CHEST = box, ER = the Queen; D see, as in cathedral see.
14 GROUND – G(ood) ROUND = ring; D where spectators may gather to watch.
15 BANG ON – DD.
17 FOSSE – FOE (enemy) pins S S (saints); D ditch.

11 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 389 by Izetti”

  1. A little easier than some of Izetti’s recent offerings but very enjoyable. WOOL-GATHERING and ESTER may not be familiar to some, and I can’t say that a King EDGAR would have leapt to my mind if the clue hadn’t been so helpful.
  2. I enjoyed this one, although first time through I was baffled by every across clue. After my usual hour I failed on Fosse, which I didn’t know, and Newton, which I should have got but forgot to think about about cricket for ‘leg'(not surprising after yesterday 🙂 ). Nice puzzle, where each answer I got led to the next one.
    Brian
  3. A good dose of maths and science in today’s answers, which made it an easy one for me, and quickest for a while. Not heard of King EDGAR, though and only vaguely remembered the Japanese city. Managed to resist putting HELMET in for 1d as that would be a times2 answer. Clue of the day 15d.
  4. Spent ages on 5d, my LOI, trying to put an F before one of the E crossers, before yesterday’s penny finally dropped. Another well balanced QC from Izetti. Invariant
  5. Have to confess after 2 Maths O levels, 3 A levels and a double Maths degree, short division was a new one on me.
    1. Amazing! As a child in the 1950s I could do short division easy peasy, but long division foxed me at the time. I latched on to it later.

      Edited at 2015-09-04 01:06 pm (UTC)

  6. Took me a while and three sittings to get on the right wavelength and finish this one. NW corner proving particularly obdurate but once I’d managed to get helmet out of my head it got a bit easier. Not heard of 8a before but it seemed the only possible answer once all the checkers were in place.
    Seemed to be a lot of anagrams today which helped me to avoid a 4th sitting.
  7. Born in Chester and could obviously see it as an answer but probably the least significant thing about my city is it as a seat of a bishop. Rather odd choice as a way of referring to the old place but there you go.
  8. Btw to anyone interested the ipad version of these blogs continues to be a nightmare. It took me over a dozen attempts actually to see this page today. All the previous times it simply shipped itself off to the App Store. It’s a mess quite frankly compared with the previous incarnation.

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