Times Quick Cryptic 1336 by Izetti

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Another fine offering from Izetti. Not, for me at least, an easy write in (I took over 12 minutes) but all the clues seem clever and well defined. LOI was 6dn as I groped for this quite common crossword-land term – then I also gave it COD for the switch.

ACROSS

8. TRAILER – wheeled vehicle. Follow (TRAIL), Her Majesty (ER).
9. FLARE – a sudden burst (solar flare). Homophone (reportedly) of special aptitude – flair.
10. INNER – inside. Transgressor, not the first s(INNER).
11. GROUCHO – one of three funny brothers. I should, perhaps, defer here to jackkt who seems to be a follower – but for now – the Marx Brothers comedy team was comprised of three brothers stage-named Groucho, Harpo, and Chico (though two other brothers, Gummo and Zeppo, were included in the act for brief periods) whose madcap antics and semi-slapstick routines earned them a reputation as some of the zaniest performers of their time. Grumble (GROUCH), nothing (O).
12. PERIMETER – boundary. Anagram (get new) of PERMIT hERE – without hard (H).
14. RAP – double definition. Criticism and ‘talk during music’ – which is fair enough, I suppose.
16. RIG – doctor (e.g. elections). In B(RIG)hton.
18. CASSEROLE – hot food. Idiot (ASS) inside church (CE), job (ROLE).
21. PASTEUR – scientist. Of yesteryear (PAST), regret backwards (rue – EUR).
22. DEFOE – author. Journalist backwards (ed – DE), enemy (FOE).
23. THEME – subject. Article (THE), yours truly (ME).
24. POLICED – subjected to strict scrutiny. Insects (LICE) inside small container (POD).

DOWN

1. STRIPPER – sexy entertainer. Tourists (TRIPPER)s. Take the last letter (S) and put at the front.
2. BANNER – flag. To prohibit = ban, so someone who does so is a banner.
3. BLUR – smear. A piece written about a book is the (BLUR)b – short = remove the last letter.
4. FRIGHT – emotion when there’s danger. Female (F), correct (RIGHT).
5. OF COURSE (naturally). Associated with (OF), e.g. Ascot – a horse racing (COURSE).
6. LASCAR – sailor (from the East Indies). Mischievous person r(ASCA)l – switch sides = swap the right (R) and left (L).
7. REDO – perform again. In sac(RED O)ratorio.
13. MACHETES – knives. Chums (MATES) protect (hold) revolutionary (CHE – Guevara).
15. PRETENDS – postures – assumes a false or affected attitude/pose. Anagram (silly) of REP (PRE), is inclined to (TENDS).
17. GASHED – cut. Source of energy (GAS), the fellow had (HE’D).
19. SERAPH – angel. About 14 (ac – RAP), anagram (somehow) of SHE.
20. OFFICE – workplace. No longer kept very cold (OFF ICE).
21. PATE – nob. Nob is slang for the head. Pate means the head, esp with reference to baldness. Cutting father short (PATE)r.
22. DELL – wooded hollow. Up/backwards of learner (L) and guided (LED).

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1336 by Izetti”

  1. On the vanilla side, perhaps. ‘piece’ struck me as a bit infelicitous for a blurb. 3:56.
  2. At a few seconds under 15 minutes I made very heavy weather of this as I had difficulty getting any sort of rhythm going and kept hopping around the grid looking for easier pickings. I’ve no complaints though.

    Referring to Chris’s comment re 11ac, I’m not actually a fan of the Marx Brothers as a group but I’ve probably made favourable comments here in the past about Groucho who I admired in his later solo career and quite liked as a personality.

    Edited at 2019-04-23 04:56 am (UTC)

  3. A DNF for me. I gave up having solved most of the puzzle in 13 minutes but then got stuck on 6d and 3d. I had TRACKER at 8a which proved a big problem. I did consider an error but could not get BLUR at all.
    The sailor was unknown to me and I was unable to see exactly how the wordplay worked.
    And I had GUSHER for 17d. So a comprehensive defeat for me but, as ever with Izetti, I learnt something.
    David
  4. 12.54 for me but a DNF as I couldn’t see past READY for inclined in 15dn and made up a word. Maybe it was the glass of Bunnahabhain after a good dinner that did for me.
  5. Similar to yesterday, everything except the last few done quickly, then got stuck on gashed, flare and the unknown lascar.

    Short of time so stuck in rascar without thinking it through, so DNF.

    Cod office.

    1. If my experience is anything to go by, you’ll see LASCAR again. It’s certainly come up enough times for me that it’s made it into my Increasingly Big List of Words for Sailors That I Didn’t Know Before Crosswords (see also: “matelot”.)
      1. Thanks Matt, it wasn’t on my list so once I saw rascal with the l changed to r I thought that was that.
  6. DNF – Never heard of LASCAR or SERAPH, or DELL (unless it’s in reference to Southampton FCs old stomping ground). Have heard of, but couldn’t work out PATE or OFFICE. All in all, a terrible day’s puzzling, to go with sadness about being back at work. Sad faces all round 🙁
    1. ….appears in “The Pickwick Papers”, and “Dingly Dell” was Lindisfarne’s third album.
  7. I was worried there for a moment after reading Kevin’s comment. Clearly he was on wavelength and I wasn’t. In fact I think I may have had only two entries in the grid by the time he finished. Like others I made heavy weather of this and finished with 22d DELL after 17 minutes. DNK 6d LASCAR but the wordplay was straight forward. I personally don’t find STRIPPERs sexy. 14a RAP was solved belatedly and only after 19d SERAPH.

    Edited at 2019-04-23 08:40 am (UTC)

  8. 18m for me, with several of those trying to come up with LASCAR, which I eventually got from word play. I had considered several three letter words for mischievous person to follow TAR and thought TARCUR might be an option at one point, but the changing sides wasn’t doing anything, so I persevered until LASCAR came to me, which at least felt vaguely familiar, although wasn’t confidently entered. Thanks all.
  9. ….rears its head at 12A ! Excellent clue from Izetti, and a fine puzzle to boot.

    Struggled to get an early foothold but once I got started it was relatively plain sailing.

    FOI GROUCHO
    LOI PRETEND
    COD PERIMETER
    TIME 3:42

  10. … only to be welcomed by a DNF, putting SLUR for “smear” instead of BLUR. Hey ho. Like David I had TRACKER for a long time at 8 ac until trawling failed to produced any word fitting *K*R. Also had a long chew over LASCAR. And now I have to work … my face is as sad as Ron’s. Thanks for the blog, Chris.

    Templar

  11. Unlike Kevin and the F1 group, I found this tough. Very difficult to get any rhythm – I only began to really make progress in the bottom half and then worked back up. SCC – under 20mins but no precise time because of ‘helpful’ interruptions from a granddaughter. I liked SERAPH, OFFICE, and LASCAR. LOI BLUR. Thanks to Izetti for (too me) a rather off-beat QC and to Chris for a helpful blog. John M.
  12. A rusty return after a few days away. Took me a while to get going and for some reason needed all the checkers for GROUCHO. Liked LASCAR a lot, and PASTEUR.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.
    5’15”

  13. Like others here today, I was derailed by initial – though, alas, incorrect and therefore time wasting – certainties. Thus, I was sure of “tracker” and “permeable”, at least until I saw the error of my ways… but then thought that 3 down was “slur” and not “blur” although I did eventually realise the true answer. None of my eventual realisations prevented a DNF, however, because I did not know “lascar”. I can see that the wordplay is obvious now that I’ve read Chris’s excellent blog – thank you! Not finishing an Izetti is OK by me – he’s so clever and I am not! There were some super clues today, I thought. I particularly liked 21 and 24 across and 2 and 20 down. Great fun! Thanks so much again blogger and setter.
  14. No major problems, but I did have to use more neurons than usual to tackle this puzzle. It took me over my target to 11:01. Saw LASCAR fairly quickly as it’s not uncommon in the 15×15. BLUR took a while, as did OF COURSE, where I originally put a tentative AS for the first word. A good challenge. Thanks Izetti and Chris.
  15. I finished dead on my 20 minute target, good for an Izetti and yet another un-helpful grid. All the checkers seemed to fall into useful places and one answer seemed to flow into the next.

    Brian

  16. DNF as had no idea about Lascar. There are so many sailor clues in cryptics and I got fixated on the fact that there must be a different 3 letter word than Tar involved somehow that I didn’t know. Without already knowing the word Lascar from previous croswords I think it’s quite a tricky one to get from the cluing so I’m not too disappointed and at least I learned something.
  17. In 17d, using gas for source of energy feels wierd .
    Pater for father was also hard in 21d.

    Hard puzzle but good for practice.

    Thanks

    SRT

  18. Two sittings, so definitely not ‘vanilla’ for this solver. Had to hop around the grid trying to pick off a clue here and there, but the SE corner still took ages. In fact, it was only when I had 19d, that I could see 14ac. DNK 6d, so that was another hold up, and very nearly had Slur for 3d, but the parsing revealed Blur. Hard work, but satisfying to finish. 17d Gashed, was my tricky favourite today. Invariant
  19. I struggled with lascar, even though it was vaguely familiar as I was confused by switching sides in a down clue.
  20. Fortunately I managed to avoid some of the traps others have mentioned – more by luck than judgment I’m sure – so I didn’t find this too tricky by Izetti’s standards. I did require an alphabet trawl for LOI 6d but as soon as I got to L the penny dropped as it’s a word I’m familiar with, possibly from Patrick O’Brian novels or someone similar. Anyway it gets my CoD and I completed it in 11.37.
    Thanks for the blog.
  21. 13 minutes – never did parse 3dn, but went for BLUR rather than SLUR on basis that ‘book’ signalled the presence of a B somewhere.

    Edited at 2019-04-23 05:33 pm (UTC)

  22. Like others I had SLUR, not BLUR and have never heard of LASCAR. Did not get FLARE either, which didn’t help.
  23. Got Lascar straight away as it occurs in Sherlock Holmes stories. Nice mixture of gentle clues and harder ones. Good puzzle for a beginner like me.

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