Quick Cryptic No 442 by Izetti

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An elegant QC from Izetti that brings into play a number of old favourites from Crosswordland (see, guy, bent etc.) and provides a broad range of clue types, making this an ideal puzzle for those new to the game – whilst also providing more experienced solvers with an enjoyable solve.

Fairly straightforward, I thought, but these things are highly subjective. Either way, very nicely constructed, so thanks to our setter.

If anyone is struggling with the link, the puzzle can be found here: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20151118/10796/

Definitions underlined; DD = double definition; anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 Give about one million, returning to get control (8)
DOMINATE – DONATE (give) goes around (about) MI (one million returning – i.e. reversed)
5 A girl falling short unfortunately (4)
ALAS – A LASS (A girl) minus last letter (falling short)
9 Conservative soon to become ordained minister (5)
CANON – C (abbrev. Conservative) + ANON (soon), giving us the cleric who is in constant danger of being fired by comedians
10 Mangle with bell? (7)
WRINGER – W (abbrev. with) + RINGER (bell – the question mark indicating – I believe – that bell as a clue for ringer is somewhat cryptic). I recall my old grandmother in Devon had a mangle in her scullery when I was a small kid, which seemed to offer a far more interesting approach to washday than my mother’s spin dryer.
11 Safeguarding quiet place for Native Americans (12)
PRESERVATION – P (quiet) + RESERVATION (place for Native Americans)
13 Bit of plant the lady’s found by insect (6)
ANTHER – HER (the lady) is ‘found by’ ANT (insect). Botany is not my strong suit, and I was not familiar with this term: however, the wordplay is very generous making it eminently gettable.
15 Add on a couple of pages, then finish (6)
APPEND – A PP (a couple of pages) + END (then finish). Very elegant.
17 See one bit of farm somewhere in Derbyshire (12)
CHESTERFIELD – CHESTER (see – as in bishopric: not Ely, for a change…) + FIELD (bit of farm), giving us the town in Derbyshire renowned for its church with a crooked spire and football team with a remarkable record as giant killers in the Cup
20 Painter struggling to be relevant (7)
PERTAIN – *(PAINTER) with “struggling” as the anagrind
21 Time to have relaxation, guy! (5)
TEASE – T (abbrev. time) + EASE (relaxation). To “guy” meaning to tease is a crossword favourite – worth remembering for newcomers to this dark art
22 Maybe one has no hesitation becoming unfeeling (4)
NUMB – NUMBER (maybe one – i.e. 1 as an example of what we are looking for) without the ER (has, er, no hesitation…). Very nice.
23 Most deprived teen, after reverse, conks out inside (8)
NEEDIEST – NEET (teen ‘after reverse’) with DIES (conks out) ‘inside’
Down
1 Cut weed (4)
DOCK – DD: what is done to lambs’ tails, and the handy plant that soothes nettle stings.
2 Fellow joining soldiers in mansion (5)
MANOR – MAN (fellow) + OR (standard military abbrev. for ‘other ranks’ – soldiers)
3 A sonnet’s line badly written? It doesn’t matter (12)
NONESSENTIAL – *(A SONNETS LINE) with “badly written” as the anagrind
4 Building constructions of sort we fancy (6)
TOWERS – *(SORT WE) with “fancy” as the anagrind
6 Coal left to catch fire (7)
LIGNITE – L (abbrev. left) + IGNITE (catch fire) giving us the substance commonly referred to as brown coal
7 A daughter interrupts calm piece of music (8)
SERENADE – A D (A daughter) ‘interrupts’ SERENE (calm)
8 I stopped and I collapsed, downcast (12)
DISAPPOINTED – *(I STOPPED AND I) with “collapsed” as the anagrind
12 Cause pain somehow when dropping one kitchen item (8)
SAUCEPAN – *(CAUSE PAIN) with “somehow” as the anagrind. Note the “I” is removed from the anagram material – “dropping one”
14 Article with more unusual proposition (7)
THEOREM – THE (article) + *(MORE) with “unusual” as the anagrind
16 Seeing, finally, row of mountains and farmstead (6)
GRANGE – G (last letter – ‘finally’- of seeinG) + RANGE (row of mountains)
18 Depart with characters from Middle Avenue (5)
LEAVE – Hidden (indicated by ‘with characters from’) in middLE AVEnue
19 Type of grass that is not straight (4)
BENT – Gentle cryptic clue to round off a very nice puzzle. (Bent is a type of grass that crops up on a regular basis in Crosswordland).

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 442 by Izetti”

  1. A couple of brief memory lapses–couldn’t come up with DOCK or PERTAIN at first–but otherwise smooth sailing. But I misparsed, or failed to parse, WRINGER, wondering if there shouldn’t be a homophone indicator. 4:20.
    1. I also wondered about a homophone indicator, but then concluded (rightly or wrongly!) there was no homophone involved, on the basis that the definition is a straight literal one, and the wordplay is a construction from W (with) + Ringer for bell (in a similar way that flower is used for river, singer for bird etc.).

      Edited at 2015-11-18 07:43 am (UTC)

  2. Another fun puzzle. Wasn’t sure why Chester was ‘see’ or ‘guy’ was tease, an ‘bent’ was kind of a guess, but all quite gettable anyway. 0:36
    1. “See” is used in the sense of Bishopric. Common ones in crosswordland are Ely and V (for the Vatican – the see of Rome), though others crop up from time to time.
      “To guy” someone is a rather old-fashioned term for teasing a person.
      Doing crosswords certainly expands your vocabulary!
      BTW did you really do it in 36 seconds? A mistype methinks?
      My effort was a par for the course 6:30.
  3. 8 minutes for the third consecutive day, so maybe I should start keeping note of the seconds involved too. Speaking of which, assuming Kevin didn’t take more than 4 hours and AE took longer than 36 seconds we seem to have two different indicators of timing in the contributions above! A very nice puzzle as we have come to expect from this setter.
  4. Nice puzzle. I wrote half of INESSENTIAL in for 3d before realising it didn’t have enough letters and I was missing the O. It was nice to find a bishoprick other than ‘Ely’ at 17a, and 4d bamboozled me briefly with ‘sort’ not being the anagrind. 22a my favourite. 5’47” (for the avoidance of doubt as to time units)and my median time for the month, so that must make it about average difficulty.
  5. when you think “I’m never going to finish this” but keep plugging away and steadily filling them in.
  6. Can’t compete with the spectacular times on here as anything under 30 minutes is good for me – I just about made it today. Having attempted these crosswords for a few weeks now I can see that there is a somewhat different language in crosswordland! I had never heard of ‘anther’ and ‘lignite’ but working them out is all part of the fun. Many thanks for the blog. I look at it every day and you can’t understate how useful it is for novices such as me to get the hang of the techniques.
  7. I finished with the exception of 23A in 40 minutes, which is the best I’ve ever done with an Izetti, so no complaints. I failed with the parsing on a few due to ‘Chester’ and ‘Number’, but I remembered ‘Guy’from a previous puzzle.

    Brian

  9. 6d and 13a were new words to me but gettable from the clues – although they were my LOIs and two words which were only known since starting the QCs (21a and 19d). Completely missed the parsing of 17a so thanks for the clarification Nick.
    Since I started doing the QC I’ve gone from dreading Izetti’s puzzles as being too difficult to him becoming one of my favourite setters – interesting how we change over time.
  10. A full house today, albeit with a reasoned guess for 21ac – I have never come across guy meaning tease before. 10 and 22ac were my favourites in a very enjoyable QC from Izetti. Invariant
  11. I knew bent for grass being a golfer but anther new to me. Agree with Nick’s comments. Enjoyable puzzle. David
  13. We (2 over 70’s) started these quick cryptic crosswords about a year ago and feel pleased we can almost always finish them now over lunch and supper – say 40 mins to 1 hr. We always follow up with this blog as we learn a lot. We did know bent, anther and lignite (accumulated general knowledge at our ages) but the explanation of guy, see and 22ac was really helpful. Thanks!
    1. You are most welcome – so glad that you are enjoying it and finding the blogs helpful!
  14. Informative commentary . I learned a lot from the information – Does anyone know if my business would be able to locate a blank a form form to type on ?
  15. Helpful article . I learned a lot from the specifics – Does someone know where my assistant could possibly access a sample NJ Residential Lease Agreement example to complete ?

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