Times Quick Cryptic 1457 by Izetti

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Well… I made a complete hash of this – very much hope you did better. After my average completion time, I had only 5 answers, and not so much as an inkling about how any of the others worked. Either I’m having a very bad day, or this is a tester. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy crunching out the answers! I’m of the view that not knowing if you’ll breeze through or struggle is part of the fun. There’s always plenty to learn, and this puzzle is full of ‘stuff to (try to) remember’.

Thanks Izetti – I had thought that after 5 years of these I’d got the measure of you, but you put me right today, and long may it continue.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Jacob rashly holding something poisonous (5)
COBRA – hidden in jaCOB RAshly. I have the idea, from sometime back at school/uni, that when it comes to flora and fauna there is a distinction between poisonous (toxic to consume) and venomous (having the power to deliver toxin).
4 Good queen eating fish as well (7)
BESIDES – BESS (good queen) containing (eating) IDE (fish). I did not know this moniker for Elizabeth I, so was looking to include g/pi and er/q. Thankfully, I knew the fish from crosswords!
8 Fellow outside prison about to get mechanical restriction (7)
MANACLE – MALE (fellow) surrounding (outside) a reversal of (about) CAN (prison). Lifting and separating ‘about to get’ was my problem here.
9 Male is having hesitation — he doesn’t like spending money (5)
MISER – M (male), IS, and ER (hesitation).
10 Greatly diminished army officer meets very large girl (10)
COLOSSALLY – COL (abbreviation of (diminished) Colonel (army officer)), with (meets) OS (outsize, very large) and SALLY (girl). Lift and separate ‘greatly diminished’, indicated abbreviation, unusual crosword-ese, random girl’s name – doubly devious!
14 Duplicate material to demolish? (6)
REPEAT – REP (material) and EAT (demolish). We’ve seen rep=material many times before, so I was annoyed with myself for not thinking of it sooner.
15 Agreement boy should go to HE institution (6)
UNISON – SON (boy) next to UNI (HE institution).
17 Men in a group try fine art for a change (10)
FRATERNITY – anagram of (for a change) TRY FINE ART.
20 State of uncertainty with member gaining nothing (5)
LIMBO – LIMB (member) with O (nothing). I couldn’t get past leg/arm.
22 Something sticky? Food course is quite nice! (7)
GOODISH – GOO (something sticky) and DISH (food course).
23 One hanging around is left in peril (7)
DANGLER – L (left) inside DANGER (peril).
24 Game one of four card players has left (5)
SPORT – S (south, one of the four card players in Bridge) and PORT (left). My LOI. I’ve only just parsed this now, and I think it’s a corker. Reads like a cryptic definition or deletion, distracts with I, IV, N, S, E, W, and L, turns out to be much simpler. My COD.

Down
1 Take care of the old woman showing sign of severe illness? (4)
COMA – the answer comes from (take) C/O (care of) and MA (mother, the old woman).
2 Aim to follow bishop and crook (4)
BEND – END (aim) after (to follow) B (bishop).
3 A new unexciting job collecting silver as a source of security (9)
ANCHORAGE – A, N (new), and CHORE (unexiting job) containing (collecting) AG (silver).
4 Language that’s bent or contorted (6)
BRETON – anagram of (contorted) BENT OR. I did see how this worked early on, but was very slow to find the answer.
5 Tot in poor area, beginning to lose out (3)
SUM – S{L}UM (poor area) with the first letter of (beginning to) Lose deleted (out).
6 Reveal record waste? (8)
DISCLOSE – DISC (record) and LOSE (waste). Another that beat me. Of course, I was looking for LP/EP/CD at first, but also didn’t get waste=lose. Are we to think of ‘waste away’ = ‘lose weight’?
7 It’s smart catching fish that’s drifting (8)
STRAYING – the answer is (it’s) STING (smart) containing (catching) RAY (fish).
11 Authorises second performances to get any number in (9)
SANCTIONS – S (second) and ACTIONS (performances) containing (to get… in) N (any number).
12 Portrayed someone academic and terribly idle (8)
PROFILED – PROF (someone academic) and an anagram of (terribly) IDLE.
13 Soldier and mare crashing into bridge (8)
SPEARMAN – anagram of (crashing) MARE inside (into) SPAN (bridge).
16 Wild animal that could be orange (6)
ONAGER – anagram of (that could be) ORANGE.
18 Around home see floor covering (4)
LINO – LO (see, as in ‘lo and behold’) surounding (around) IN (home).
19 Talk with heartless person disobeying rules (4)
CHAT – remove the middle letter from (heartless) CHeAT (person disobeying rules).
21 Fuel in ground, first to come out (3)
OIL – sOIL (ground) with the first letter removed (first to come out).

41 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1457 by Izetti”

  1. As usual with QCs, I’ve forgotten what went on, but it definitely was slow going for me. I do remember raising an eyebrow or two over LOSE=waste, and I dithered for a long time over EAT=demolish, looking for something better before I put it in as LOI; in retrospect I see no problem, but that’s retrospect for you. Cobras are poisonous; end of story. 8:44.
  2. I missed my target time and finished with 13 minutes on the clock.

    Mostly I was okay with this but difficulties arose from putting DISCOVER at 6dn which held me up solving the clues to COLOSSALLY and UNISON. I hadn’t been entirely happy with ‘waste/ OVER’ although something that’s ‘(left) OVER’ can legitimately be termed ‘waste’ so it didn’t seem unreasonable, but like our blogger I’m not 100% convinced by ‘waste/LOSE’ either.

    I don’t have a problem with ‘poisonous’ snakes, and the dictionaries seem happy with it too, SOED giving venomous as a synonym of poisonous.

    1. On reflection I’ve just realised that both ‘lose’ and ‘waste’ are colloquial expressions meaning ‘kill’.
      1. Really? Lose = kill?? Never heard that, and when my sons were in their Call of Duty phase I thought I’d heard every slang term for “kill”.
        1. It’s in the SOED:

          lose
          c Dispose of or discard as unnecessary or superfluous; kill. colloq. M20.

  3. Thank goodness the great and the good struggled with this too, because I was wading through treacle. And thank goodness for the K Scale, too, because 3K sounds so much more respectable than 26 minutes, which is what this one took me! I felt like a tailender facing Shane Warne, constantly deceived and playing down the wrong line. A long list of things NHO – ide, onager, rep = material. Lots of clever clues and an enjoyable if one sided struggle which still has to go down as a Not Very Good Day. Thanks Izetti.

    FOI MISER, LOI REPEAT (thanks for the explanation, William, I didn’t get that at all, really good blog), COD COBRA because it took me three visits to see it hiding in plain sight!

    Templar

  4. A DNF for me, with MANACLE, COLOSSALLY, STRAYING, COMA and SANCTIONS still to go. Perhaps I was distracted by the rugby on tv, but I think it was because it was just too difficult. I blame Invariant after his comments yesterday!

    Brian

  5. The fact that aphis99, Verlaine and George all took around 5 minutes for this puzzle makes me quite pleased with my 12:38. There was lots of misdirection and some 15×15 tricks too. Satisfying to finish, although I also raised an eyebrow at lose/waste. COBRA was FOI. SANCTIONS, ONAGER and GOODISH brought up the rear. Thanks Izetti and William.
  7. Count me as another who struggled with this, although I did get there in the end, after 28 minutes – slowest for a long time! I was also distracted by the rugby in the background, but that’s no excuse. The Don has served up a real cracker. Good blog! Good performance Scotland (and I’m very English).

    Edited at 2019-10-09 08:32 am (UTC)

  8. Too good for me – couldn’t get colossally and several others adjacent to it. Pleased to have worked out sport and a few others that were definitely challenging to my level of skill. Worst result for weeks in terms of outcome, but enjoyed most of the challenge. Lots to learn from. Many thanks for the helpful analysis.
    Plymouthian
  9. Really didn’t enjoy this puzzle at all. It wasn’t just a DNF – it was more like a DNFEH – Did Not Finish Even Half. I have no complaints – there has to be a range of difficulty in these puzzles. But this was way, way out of my league. Not really worth outlining my brick walls – there were too many. But I would ask this : an “onager”…. What on earth is that? And why has no-one commented on it? Anyway, thanks, Izetti, for producing this dastardly teaser and thanks, too, to William, for providing the answers and for recognising how difficult it was to arrive at them.
    2. I commented on the ONAGER! It was in the list of things I Did Not Know. I’ll try to remember it now … like the ide and the rhea and the eland …

      It was a real toughie today but I guess we were due one.

      Edited at 2019-10-09 10:49 am (UTC)

    3. Childhood reading of “The Swiss Family Robinson” gave me a whole list of unusual animal names that remained useless for 60 years until I started the QC. I always liked the word onager, it sounds so much more impressive than donkey.
      Paan
  10. 15 minutes, but had REPLAY at 14a (from demolish = ‘lay waste’) – this puzzle was certainly tougher than usual, taking me nearly twice as long as average.
  11. I’m relieved to find that Templar and Rotter made heavy weather of this, too. I suffered a hurricane with periods of respite for interruptions from carpet fitters. I didn’t enjoy this at all, I’m afraid and that isn’t because I was certainly in the VSCC overall. Too many clues were just a bit too ‘clever’ for a QC IMO. Didn’t like LOSE or EAT and dnk ONAGER but worked it out and looked it up. I, too, thought I had the hang of Izetti (in a modest way) but he can take pleasure in having comprehensively wrong-footed me and a few others. Thanks to William for a good and helpful blog. I think I’ll go and try the 15×15 for some solace. John M.
  12. ….but, whilst I was within my target time, this was certainly one of his chewier offerings.

    FOI COBRA
    LOI FRATERNITY
    COD SPEARMAN

  13. As one who only came to crosswords four or five years ago through the QC, I reckon nowadays to enjoy 20 to 30 minutes a day on the puzzle – perhaps down to ten minutes yesterday. My message to those who have struggled is simple: after an hour I had a long way to go, was tempted to give up but ploughed on – and I got there. It was probably the most challenging puzzle I have ever completed, but the reward for doing so is on a par with making a century at cricket, an extremely rare event in my life! DM
  14. DNF. A bit too hard for me today. Never heard of ONAGER or SPEARMAN, 3 others too subtle!
  15. Also made mistake with DISCOVER at 6d made corner difficult. Took an age and a half. On the very tricky end of the scale after a run of breezes.
  16. Not much more to say, except that I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge for an hour or so. I took ‘lose’=’waste’ in the sense of ‘kill’. I obviously watch too many gangster movies.
    PlayUpPompey
  17. Excellent puzzle. Just over 12 minutes so very happy with that (and completing the main puzzle too – worth a try for improvers like me). A game is a sport you can do while smoking, although I’ve seen cricketers on a local field having a quick one! Difficult if you’re swimming though. Thanks all for an excellent, fun puzzle.
  18. Well, after two days missed (I finally got some work this term) I settled down to do this, thinking it might be tough as it was an Izetti puzzle. Then the first one went in straight away and I thought maybe it would be okay. Two hours later I was still nowhere near finished. I temporarily gave up at 2:25, but came back to it repeatedly throughout the day and eventually did make it. Seeing how difficult others found it, I’m pleased to have finished. LOI was 7d, having finally got 10a and seen that the fish in it wasn’t ling. I couldn’t parse chat or repeat and had never heard of an ide (or orfe as Wikipedia informs me it’s also called), despite animals being my subject (onager was no problem, though I appreciated how obscure it was which didn’t bode well for the rest of the puzzle). I don’t know if I’ve got a COD, my brain is too frazzled to appreciate them right now, although I seem to recall, a very long time ago, liking coma.
  19. Will that brought my extended sequence of sub-target times to a shuddering halt. I didn’t help myself by starting to write INFANTRY in for 17A before realising there more letters than that, nor an initial DISCOVER for 6D (which was clearly wrong!), and I should have remembered REP for material sooner than I did. All good stuff though. GOODISH and CHAT my last 2 in. I enjoyed BESIDES and MANACLE. Thanks Izetti and William. 9:33.
  20. Not really enjoyable, walking through goo.

    Beginners don’t be disheartened, izetti struggles quite often to find the appropriate quick cryptic level.

  21. Ha! I knew it was coming, but it was still quite a shock to the system. Almost opted for a second sitting, but the rain kept me inside so I decided to persevere. Finally crossed the line just north of 40 mins with a tentative Colossally, which seemed to parse OK, but didn’t feel right. Quite a work out from start to finish, but if you enjoy parsing the answers, this was a very satisfying solve. Invariant
  22. I’ve not much to add to what’s already been said and I thought this was right at the top end of QC difficulty. It seems that I was in good company with DISCOVER and only knew ONAGER from previous crosswords. Eventually finished in 23.08 with a very tentative parsing of REPEAT.
    Thanks to william

    Edited at 2019-10-09 08:21 pm (UTC)

  23. Well, I’ve been staring at this one for a good while and have 6 answers and no clue as to the others. It’s the worst start I’ve had for at least a year, probably longer. I might have to give in and read the blog or cheat to get a couple of longer answers to see if that will get me started….
  24. Wow! Fell asleep last night in the middle of this one, and when I resumed this morning I still had to struggle across the finish line! So, I guess it took me about 14 hours.
  25. Came to this late after a day out and thought I was just being dim and tired but glad to see I was by no means alone! I usually enjoy an Izetti but this was too much for me. DNF
  26. Too hard for me. Had some successes (was pleased to deduce the existence of a fish called an ide, NHO), but was left with lots of blanks. Resorted to online aids and looking up guesses (yes, onager is an animal, and also a weapon I see), and had everything in the end except 24 across. I couldn’t parse SPORT (beautifully disguised) and opted for an unparsed SMOLT as a game fish including an L. So, utterly defeated today, but I learnt a lot. I’m actually quite pleased I didn’t try longer – it would have been beyond me however long I spent. A salute to Izetti, and a salutary reminder to me that there is still a lot to learn.
  27. Yes, a real stinker… even using some aids took hours to DNF. I had two of my missing three, but unparsed so they don’t count. Looking at my paper I think there are more pencilled in than those I was confident about. Only 8 completed on first pass. A couple of further sessions got me nearly there. Today’s illuminating blog and the interesting discussions of our ‘experts solvers’ all helps! For me, it was probably too hard to say it was enjoyable but there we go…
  28. I was tired and got disheartened too quickly. I respect all those who struggled through but I conceded with only 9 answers after 20 minutes.
    There were too many options for most, put in Discover and lost the plot.
    Thanks all,
    John George
  30. 13D: I managed to get ‘and mare’ anagrammed with ‘b’ for bridge for ‘breadman’, which I’d never heard before, but it seemed like a decent match for soldier!
  31. Not enjoyable at all – much too difficult for a quick cryptic, the usual dnf for izetti

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