Times Quick Cryptic 1697 by Izetti

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
It’s been a while since I blogged an Izetti*, and I solved this one without knowing the setter’s identity (on my phone). I should have guessed, but missed the trademark religious reference (4dn today, I think), and knew the nicely clued but less familiar words from dimly-remembered previous puzzles, a style which might otherwise have given the game away.

The acrosses were easier than the downs, although I did type and then delete 12ac when I couldn’t immediately parse it, and spent some time trying in vain to include ‘ant’ for the worker at 18ac. I found 13dn the hardest of a tricky bunch, mistaking the clue for a cryptic-y double definition, and thinking that the answer’s meaning was closer to ‘zany’ or ‘mistaken’ than ‘risky’.

Definitions underlined.

*On edit: it was two blogs ago, how time flies.

Across
8 I’m Santa, moving around, showing ability to keep going (7)
STAMINA – anagram of (moving around) I’M SANTA.
9 Free toilets by end of lane (5)
LOOSE – LOOS (toilets) and the last letter (end) of lanE.
10 Stay in Lincoln with concealed identity (5)
ABIDE – ABE (Lincoln) containing (with concealed) ID (identity).
11 A number drink, we hear, and become strained (5,2)
TENSE UP – TEN (a number) and a homophone of (we hear) “sup” (drink).
12 Verbal expression in woman’s series of lectures? (9)
DISCOURSE – DI’s (woman’s) COURSE (series of lectures?).
14 Old, Her Majesty shows some resistance! (3)
OHM – O (old) and HM (Her Majesty).
16 Criticism — what’s expected to come back (3)
RAP – PAR (what’s expected) reversed (to come back).
18 Number one confronts worker directly (9)
FIRSTHAND – FIRST (number one) next to (confronts) HAND (worker).
21 Scientist of dodgy ethics taking millions in (7)
CHEMIST – anagram of (dodgy) ETHICS containing (taking in) M (millions).
22 Servant left abandoned by someone playing game (5)
GOFER – GOLFER (someone playing game) with the ‘L’ (left) removed (abandoned).
23 Poet worked hard, endlessly spinning around (5)
ELIOT – TOILEd (worked hard) without its final letter (endlessly) and reversed (spinning around).
24 Are spectators not entirely showing esteem? (7)
RESPECT – hidden in (not entirely) aRE SPECTators.

Down
1 Erin lad’s possibly is one? (8)
ISLANDER – anagram of (possibly) ERIN’S LAD. ‘One?’ here refers to ‘one from Ireland (a.k.a. Erin)’.
2 Women’s stories about a daughter (6)
LADIES – LIES (stories) containing (about) A and D (daughter).
3 Trip in car, overlooking right seedy club! (4)
DIVE – DrIVE (trip in car) missing (overlooking) the ‘r’ (right).
4 Worker maybe interrupting my choral director (6)
CANTOR – ANT (worker maybe) inside (interrupting) COR (my).
5 Supporting scheme, man becomes loud and mournful (8)
PLANGENT – GENT (man) underneath (supporting) PLAN (scheme). Only known to me from crosswords.
6 Attend and wake up? (4,2)
COME TO – double definition.
7 Glance up to see part of castle (4)
KEEP – PEEK (glance) reversed (up).
13 On a slippery slope, taking unnecessary risks? (3-5)
OFF-PISTE – cryptic definition.
15 Restrained friend crossing European river (8)
MODERATE – MATE (friend) containing (crossing) ODER (European river).
17 Summary that’s accurate except for the last bit (6)
PRECIS – PRECISe (accurate) missing the final letter (except for the last bit). The synonimity is supported in Chambers, but the scientist in me bristles.
19 Give back profit (6)
RETURN – double definition.
20 Cockney’s semi-embarrassed — he burnt some cakes allegedly (6)
ALFRED – “half red” (semi-embarrassed) as a Londoner might say it (Cockney’s). Reference to the legendary story involving King Alfred.
21 Helpful words coming out of rescue ships (4)
CUES – hidden in (coming out of) resCUE Ships.
22 Become quiet? Goodness! (4)
GOSH – GO (become) and SH (quiet).

45 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1697 by Izetti”

  1. Frustrating experience, taking ages to come up with GOFER (not a word I’d normally associate with ‘servant’), ALFRED (I knew the reference, couldn’t remember the referee; Robert the Bruce came to mind first), and LOI DIVE (‘trip in car’? RIDE came to mind, but then there was all the wordplay to deal with). 7:45.
  2. Not too hard, but I typed OFF-PISTE with two Os and one F, so technical DNF. But does “off-piste” really mean taking unnecessary risks? If you are good, it might be less dangerous than being destroyed on-piste by out-of-control skiers. At least that was my experience when I used to ski and snowboard.

    And my physics teacher would agree with you about the difference betweeen precise and accurate.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 12:36 am (UTC)

    1. I’m reminded of J.L. Austin’s famous distinction between ‘precise’ and ‘exact’: “If I measure a banana with a ruler, I may find it to be precisely 5 5/8 inches long. If I measure my ruler with bananas, I may find it to be exactly six bananas long, though I couldn’t claim any great precision for my method of measurement.”

      Edited at 2020-09-09 05:31 am (UTC)

    2. doesn’t mean taking unnecessary risks. These days it just means taking an unusual route. Of course, on the slopes it means not taking the marked trails which can be risky if you don’t know where you are going and can’t ski well. Either way my piste days are off now.
  3. Not my finest hour. A lot of the tough stuff came quickly, but I was seriously bogged down at the end by FIRSTHAND, MODERATE, and OFF-PISTE.

    I thought of FIRST…, but kept erasing it. And didn’t know the ODER river — well, I thought I did but wasn’t sure, and it seemed like other words could fit in M _ _ _ _ ATE.

    After getting these, I glared at OFF- _ I _ T _ for awhile and thought, “Isn’t ‘kitty slopes’ a thing?”. Well, it isn’t, and neither is OFF-KITTY. Funnily enough, as soon as the pink squares came up, I instantaneously thought: “Isn’t OFF-PISTE a thing?”. Well, it is. Yet I’ve never been skiing in my life and don’t even know how I know the term.

    This is the way my addled brain works.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 12:33 am (UTC)

  4. I enjoyed this and was pleased to finish at the quicker end of my usual 30 – 40 minute effort. Held up on plangent, firsthand and moderate – or more precisely (should that be accurately?) gent, hand and oder. It must either be age or the early morning to have three half-words in front of me, but not see any of them for some time. Also briefly tried to get alias into 10A, but couldn’t make it work. Thanks to Izetti and to William. Sam
  5. Slowish today, which was disappointing after knocking off the anagrams in the NW early, unlike yesterday when my anagramming was poor.

    Held up by PLANGENT, and Red Letters where I had GASP for GOSH. Figured P=Quiet and GAS might be some unknown slang. I did better in thinking of Oder, which formed a line of control between the west and the Russians at the end of WW2. I also learnt Erin for Ireland in the QC blog just a couple of weeks ago.

    COD TENSE UP. I’m not normally a fan of homophonic clues, but this was neat.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 06:15 am (UTC)

    2. Don’t agree at all homophones are words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings – what exactly is a SEUP?
  6. At 7 minutes I found this fairly straightforward, but I appreciate some clues may present difficulties for a less experienced solver.

    My LOI was 18ac, put in a little reluctantly as I could not see why ‘number’ would = ‘first’. It’s a useful tactic to ‘lift and separate’ words in a clue but in this case separating ‘number’ from ‘one’ was not a good idea.

  7. Over 20m again in what seems like a tricky run of puzzles to me. Only 4 on the first pass of acrosses but then raced through to a half filled grid and slowed again. Had my usual culturebtain freeze at the mention of poets, did manage to bring him to mind eventually but would have been quicker if Izetti has reversed ‘toile’ now I’ve learned what it means. Never heard of PLANGENT and had to try few accents to make the homophone work and convince myself TENSE UP could be strained. Longest delay and biggest groan for discourse.

    Mostly finished 15×15 yesterday but was most amused by comments on that blog that some clues belonged inthe quickie – good to see it works both ways!

  8. 15 mins, found half really easy, and half hard.

    Last two: off piste and discourse.

    Liked gofer and loose, COD Stamina.

  9. Izetti once again trips me up. I found this quiet difficult with 5D unknown and 20D unfathomable. I got PEEK for 7D – a trap for novices no doubt. Thanks Izetti and blogger.
  10. We became stuck on 5D. Another new word for us so it took us a while to work it out – once we realised that “man” = “gent”, “plan” fell into place. Thanks to Izetti for a fine and enjoyable puzzle which we completed in 19 minutes.

    FOI: loose
    LOI: plangent
    COD: Alfred

    Thanks to William for the blog.

  11. 8 something but bunged in LOI RIDE without the necessary thought. Nice puzzle as always with a few I struggled with and needed a think

    Thanks Izetti and William

  12. Surprisingly straightforward for an Izetti, although ELIOT guessed: thanks for explanation! Not sure that a course is a series of lectures.
    2. A series of lectures is always referred to as a course in Universities. I have presented enough lecture courses (and spent enough time as ‘Course Tutor’) to see this as normal usage. John.
  13. A puzzle of two halves, as flashman says. A quick first half for me and then a slower trawl through the chewy ones. Ended up on 16 mins qgain, all parsed, even though one or two answers just emerged, given crossers. I liked TENSE UP, OFF-PISTE, MODERATE, and GOFER and was mortally offended by the CHEMIST with dodgy ethics (having spent my life as a research chemist) 😉. Many thanks to IZETTI and William. John M.
  14. Of average difficulty today I thought. Everything completed and parsed in 16 mins, so at the lower end of my 15-20 min target range. Took a while to get 10ac as I never remember that Lincoln = Abe. In general I thought the bottom half was easier than the top, although I had to come back to 23ac for which I needed the checkers.

    FOI – 8ac STAMINA
    LOI – 23ac ELIOT
    COD – 20dn ALFRED

    Thanks to Izetti and William for an enjoyable puzzle/blog.

  15. Yet another of these strange grids that you don’t see in the 15×15, but at least this one didn’t have any triple unches.
    I took 30 minutes, with five spent on my LOI FIRSTHAND, which is hyphenated in Chambers.
    It was still an enjoyable QC, thanks to William and Izetti .

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-09-09 09:22 am (UTC)

  16. I am one of those less experienced (or just less capable) solvers to whom Jackkt alludes above. Finished, but several clues unparsed. Didn’t have any idea why ELIOT worked, and didn’t know MY = COR so CANTOR went in with a shrug. Liked TENSE UP, not convinced by OFF PISTE but it had to be.
    Glad to get home eventually and a few lessons learned, thanks to a helpful blog.
    Plymouthian
    1. That one is worth remembering as setters like slipping in clues which look just like filler words. as=LIKE is another. There was a comic called COR in the 1970s which is about the last time anyone saw this expression in print. I recall Ivor Lott and Tony Broke as a subversive social commentary on the class system, unlike Lord Snooty who remains untouchable in his castle.
  17. Not too difficult today. Got held up, briefly, by MODERATE and slightly longer by ELIOT (kept thinking of strived for some reason), but otherwise things went straight in.

    COD : GOSH

    H

  18. Of all the setters I think I am mostly tuned to Izetti’s wavelength. My only problem with an Izetti, in general, is any religious reference but today’s CANTOR went in from wordplay alone. I ran through the grid quite quickly but slowed considerably with my last four in which all intersected. They were PLANGENT, FIRSTHAND, OFF PISTE and finally DISCOURSE. I still managed to submit within target at 9:25. Thanks William.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 10:10 am (UTC)

  19. A more comfortable 12 minutes (rounded up) solve today, for the quickest time in a good few outings for me. The 1d and 9a anagrams got me off to a good start. Like others I considered RIDE at 3d initially, but thankfully couldn’t bring my self to put it in. Otherwise, this was up to the Don’s usual standards. Thanks both.
  20. The LHS went in without too much difficulty, but I had to get my mole grips to extact the answers from the RHS. Held up by PLANGENT, MODERATE and FIRSTHAND, I was extended to 12:48. Thanks Izetti and William.
  21. ….with the North Western Gas Board, I realise that I was more or less a GOFER for the best part of 3 years.

    The usual quality offering from The Don.

    FOI STAMINA
    LOI LADIES
    COD OFF-PISTE
    TIME 3:45

  22. Very slow today, and ended up with a DNF as I forgot I meant to come back to 17d where I’d put in PREMIS but didn’t think it worked really. Not sure I’d have got PRECIS anyway as I don’t think I’ve ever come across the word. I could say the same about PLANGENT and my LOI CANTOR though and I did eventually get both of them. I don’t use the word eventually lightly here either, as it was 66:05 when I stopped my watch having finally remembered that my = cor. I took ages to think of 9a, 11a and 12a too (9a in particular should have been a write-in), but OFF PISTE caused no trouble once I’d got the F from FIRSTHAND and realised it was probably OFF-something. Not many three letter words end in F after all. Other than elf, that is, and that didn’t seem likely. 23a would have given me trouble I’m sure had it not been for last Thursday’s puzzle. That sort of thing seems to happen quite frequently, though I’m sure Jack has mentioned before that the puzzles are set well in advance, so similar clues turning up is just probability at work rather than the setters “borrowing” clues from one another. In fact, I guess they would probably seek to avoid using the same words if they could. They wouldn’t want to make life easy for us after all. Thanks Izetti and William.
  23. DNF. Missed Cantor and Plangent (??)
    Off-piste seems to be used as a metaphor for going off the beaten track these days.
    Got Discourse eventually

    Not so much fun today as haven’t had a dud result for a while but thanks all round.

  24. Took one look at 1d and 8ac and decided crossing anagrams were best avoided, and moved across to the NE and a clockwise solve. As with others, I found this a strange mix of write-ins and head-scratchers. NHO Plangent and it seemed so odd a word that I did a quick Google to check it was real. Other than that, Moderate and CoD Firsthand also caused problems, and I even needed an alphabet trawl to get loi Dive… Not my best effort by a long way, so can’t complain about a 30min solve. Invariant
  25. Took me over an hour to complete this – but as I was listening to something at the same time my mind wasn’t full focused (that’s my excuse anyway).

    DNK “Cantor”, “Plangent” nor the legend of “Alfred” – but for once I thought you could take reasonable guesses from the wordplay.

    Upon reflection, the ones that seemed to take time (the NW corner in particular) shouldn’t have – but that’s down to me and not concentrating properly.

    FOI – 1dn “Islander”
    LOI – 5dn “Plangent”
    COD – 20dn “Alfred”

    Thanks as usual.

  26. I got through most of this without too many problems despite the unknown (or unremembered) CANTOR and PLANGENT. The SE proved tougher to crack, not helped by a mistyped CHEMIMD which is clumsy typing even by my standards. I ended up staring blankly at 18a and 15d for a while but seeing FIRST broke the deadlock. Finished in 9.09.
    Thanks to william
  27. Like some others, I found this to be a mixed bag.
    I entered CANTOR from the wordplay but have always thought this was a church soloist rather than a choral director. PLANGENT was new to me and I was looking for something more complicated than OFF PISTE.
    ABIDE, MODERATE and ALFRED were all good clues and my COD is TENSE UP which was very satisfying when it finally fell into place.
    Thanks to IZETTI for just under 20 minutes of entertainment and to William for the blog.
  28. Just over our target, a number of unusual words, haven’t heard gofer for a long time, frequently used when at work many years ago. Plangent and cantor vaguely known, we find if you study the wordplay by Izetti, which is always fair, the answer can be found.
  29. … and I am not really sure why; once the clock stopped on 17 minutes they all seemed fair enough, but getting there was a struggle.

    Not sure about 4D Cantor – more of a soloist or leader than director I thought. DNK 5D Plangent but followed the wordplay once all the checkers were in. Thought 13D Off-piste a strange clue; no wordplay at all (is that what &lit means?) and off piste skiing need not imply one is taking unnecessary risks.

    At least I find I was not alone in being slow today. Thanks to William for the blog.

    Cedric

  30. A toughie from my perspective. Just over 30 mins with a fair smattering of aids.
    I reckon Off Piste is more of a Double Definition than a single cryptic. “Eric has really gone off-piste in trying to get this project done on time” being an example of the second definition.
  31. Plangent remembered from previous QC.
    No real problems – just took a while to unravel many clues..LOI was Moderate since I tried MAD…TE before Gofer went in and it stared me in the face. Off-Piste a write in and surprised that others struggled with that although I also hesitated at the unnecessary risks but the question mark confirmed it in my mind.
    Clues generally more mechanical than airing towards fun but COD ‘Alfred for the smile.
    Thanks all
    John George
  32. Back from golf. 08:17. LOI FIRSTHAND which caused a slight pause.
    Nice puzzle and I knew all the words which helped. David
  33. Another turgid tramp rather than joyous dance.
    Again no serious gripes but not even an admiring nod never mind a cod
    SEUP is not a word and therefore not a homophone and therefore verboten.
    Also, as mentioned above, gofers are menials at work, not particularly well treated or paid but far from being servant.

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