Times Quick Cryptic 1706 by Izetti

39 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1706 by Izetti”

1. This took me more time than it should have, for some reason. Well, one reason is that I say ‘around’ not ’round’, and it often takes me a moment to bring ’round’ to mind (ditto for -our spellings), which slowed me down at 8d. I didn’t care for 1ac; any country in the world could have been substituted for the UK. 7:01.
   1. Surely only countries which are monarchies?
      1. Fair point.
      2. Surly this viewpoint is subjective
         1. Fair point – but with America suddenly reverting to be a monarchy it is hard to be subjective.
2. ….and was concerned that high-sounding might turn out to be wrong due to having overlooked something obvious. However, I couldn’t think of anything else it might be. Tanka did not come to mind very easily, having to be dredged up from previous puzzles.

   Here in the US, Earth Science is exactly that – the study of rocks and soils. I don’t think it is very much taught any more, but when I was in school it was offered as an alternative to Biology.

   Oops – my time was 9:42, just squeaking in.

   Edited at 2020-09-22 02:43 am (UTC)

3. A game of two halves. Only four on the first pass of acrosses – I rejected HIGH SOUNDING as not sounding quite enough like pretentious – but that was followed by all but two of the downs, with LASSIE and RECOVER not going in on first reading. All those checkers allowed the acrosses fall in a flurry apart from a hold up in the SW where I although I was sure of REC and ASS I took a while to turn those to RECOVER and LASSIE before HEADBAND was last one in where I failed to separate principle from not allowed so was looking for two homophones not one. All green in 9m which is not a pb but certainly much faster than usual.

   Edited at 2020-09-22 07:12 am (UTC)

4. All but two answers completed within my 10 minute target but I needed an extra 2 to come up with CHESTNUT and TURN. The unknown or forgotten TANKA delayed me a bit along the way.

   Edited at 2020-09-22 06:05 am (UTC)

5. Half went in very quickly and my hopes were raised only to be dashed by clues that were reasonable with hindsight but just didn’t gel for me. So, from under 1.5K yesterday to 3K today. Quite enjoyed it, though. Thanks to both. John M.
6. 14:27 : The Hundred Years War grinds on

   Top half went in fast, but bottom half took much longer. LOI was HIGH SOUNDING, not a phrase I’ve really heard.

   I was obsessed with 13A being HOMER, which is a clue I think we’ve had before (“HOME+R”). Also, NOVICES looked very familiar, maybe appeared here two weeks ago?

   SE corner was challenged by two words I DNK: Erne, and Tanka.

   We’ve had a discussion about clues that are a bid of a chestnut, so thanks Izetti for supplying 12d.

   COD RECOVER. I like clues that force you to look at words in a completely different way.

7. I felt totally at sea in the lower half, but it eventually came together. HIGH SOUNDING didn’t seem right so I hesitated until I had all the crossers before reluctantly entering it. ROUND THE BEND took too long to come to mind. TANKA from wordplay. FOI SUBJECTS, LOI, TURN. 11:28. Thanks Izetti and Chris.
8. This was great fun. What’s more, it only took me 14 minutes which is one of my fastest times ever. There were some lovely moments along the way – I especially liked SUBJECTS, CROÛTON and ROUND THE BEND. It was also pleasing to see a reference to the tanka form of poetry. As an English teacher, I have had many happy hours teaching students how to write these. There is some great detail about tankas, if you’re interested, on the following link:

   Examples of Tanka Poetry
   https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-tanka-poetry.html

   NOVICES came up very recently but I think I prefer this clue. I have only ever met the bird in ERNIE in the QC and I was glad to have remembered it.

   It seems to me that when I first started attempting the QC, two or three years ago, I read posts here in which bloggers regularly referred to Izetti as being one of the most challenging setters. But I don’t think he is. He’s always fair and produces an engaging set of clues – but I think Tracy (and, often, Joker) are more difficult. Anyway, I thank them all for providing such a rich source of entertainment to start my day.

   Thanks to blogger and setter today, once again

   1. Thanks for the link to the lovely poems.
      1. Thanks for the thanks! Sorry I haven’t replied sooner – for some reason, I’m suddenly not getting LJ notifications. They’re going straight to Spam – but they only show up when I look for them on WebMail.
         1. Mine have been going to spam for 2-3 weeks – except today and your reply here referring back awhile. I was in IT for 32 years – don’t understand livejournal – nor some crosswords! Your comments I do understand – and appreciate.
            1. 😊👍
9. After a brief foray into sub-20 territory yesterday, I was firmly in the realm of future dates today with 34:02, although I did take a phone call in the middle (an offer of work for tomorrow and Friday which means I won’t be posting until late on those days – don’t you just hate it when work gets in the way of crosswording?) Only got three on my first run through of the acrosses (IDLER, ERNIE and HEADBAND), although I had thought of CROUTON and saved the thought just in case there was some bizarre way it fitted the clue. Thankfully the downs were more helpful and somehow, when I returned to 10a with a few checkers in place, the wordplay seemed obvious. All done bar the long forgotten (giving myself the benefit of the doubt here) TANKA in 27:40ish, but took another six to get thoughts of “tin” out of my head, come up with “tank” and accept the idea that TANKA might actually be the name of something. All in all, most enjoyable. Liked 5 and 13a, but COD to 10a. As to what’s going to happen in 3402, it’s going to be a momentous year. England are finally going to win the World Cup again, the US will adopt the metric system, and the cryogenically preserved Rolling Stones will undertake their most successful tour ever.
   Thanks Chris and Izetti

   Edited at 2020-09-22 09:19 am (UTC)

10. Thoroughly enjoyable with the usual smooth surfaces. I held myself up by biffing “high-faluting” and then inventing the well-known old poet TORATE (TO-R for run-AT-E for back of house). Fortunately CHESTNUT revealed his non-existence. (Is CHESTNUT a chestnut? I liked it, even if so.)

    FOI SUBJECTS, LOI RECOVER, COD CROUTON (we’ll all have to get used to CR soon enough), time 1.3K for a Very Good Day.

    Thanks Izetti and Chris.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-09-22 09:51 am (UTC)

11. Despite not being a fan of long anagrams – I either see them straight away or really struggle – I thought Izetti was in a generous mood today with Earth Science and Secret Agents almost write-ins from the numeration alone. A slight hold up parsing Lassie, and a long delay over the unknown loi Tanka, where I was sorely tempted with Tinsa, but hesitated over the plural container(s) long enough for Tank to come to mind. Still, happy enough with a 19min Izetti, and CoD to 10ac, Crouton. Invariant
12. Fairly smooth sailing today. Fortunately I had some checkers in place when reaching the slightly clunky sounding HIGH SOUNDING or I would probably have gone down the ‘faluting’ route a la Templar. The other chewy bit for me were my last two in ERNIE, where I thought I needed to anagram eagle with an added I, even though there were too many letters and TANKA, which required an alphabet trawl. Finished in 8.55.
    Thanks to Chris
13. Another enjoyable puzzle. Easier than I usually find Izetti, but perhaps (whisper it) it might just possibly be that I’m getting better at it …
    It didn’t help putting in HIGH FALUTING for 11a, which delayed solving four of the “downs”.
    And I couldn’t work out why only a small number of novices had bad habits when the answer indicated they had none. Put it in anyway and the light came on when looking at the blog.
    Thank you Izetti and Chris
    Diana
    1. Every day, in every way, you get better and better! 👍
14. 14 minutes and no real problems except TANKA, which I had forgotten to remember. I was looking for TINxx for a while, before I was able to reconstruct it. Nice puzzle as usual for Izetti, and thanks to Chris for the blog.
    1. My experience exactly, both on time and on TIN..TANK. being the main holdup, so I won’t comment further except to add my thanks to Chris for the blog.

       Cedric

15. A textbook QC from Izetti, I thought. Clear clueing and something to learn.
    ERNE is a crossword favourite which used to appear in the Evening Standard puzzle almost daily. DNK TANKA and also thought HIGH SOUNDING was unfamiliar but fitted the clue easily. MY LOI was TURN where I was searching for the other definition.
    Nothing really held me up; finished in 08:20. COD to EARTH SCIENCE for the wonderful anagram.
    David
16. Despite getting one wrong, I loved this crossword. So many brilliant surfaces, every one a little story! I’m with Merlin about clues where the words are split up to make you look at them in a different way – they are among my favourites.

    Ticks everywhere – very hard to pick a COD today.

    TANKA was my undoing – I knew I’d got it wrong (and I know we’ve seen it before) but I got stuck on TIN plus -A and shoved a B for buried in. I haven’t even looked to see if such an abbreviation exists as I will be astonished if it does!

    FOI Said
    COD Crouton, closely followed by Earth Sciences
    DNF It would have been quite a good time at 10:35 if it wasn’t for the poem 😉

    Thanks Izetti and Chris

17. Everything went straight in apart from Tanka and Ernie, though had to wait for Horace checkers.
    No Vices again!

    Always enjoyable to finish relatively quickly, so thanks all.

18. I’m afraid the Tanka reference passed me by – but this wasn’t helped by thinking 21ac might be “Eddie”. Apart from the SE corner, everything else went in after 20 mins which makes it even more annoying.

    Enjoyed 10ac “Crouton”, 14dn “Recover” and 23ac “Headband”. I also wasn’t sure about 11ac being “High Sounding”, but couldn’t see what else it could be.

    FOI – 1ac “Subjects”
    LOI – DNF
    COD – 12dn “Chestnut” – it probably is one, but made me smile anyway once I’d dispensed with various equine breeds.

    Thanks as usual.

19. … at 19:18 but I was totally immersed in this one.
    SECRET AGENTS and EARTH SCIENCE were clever anagrams and provided useful checkers.
    I hadn’t heard of HIGH-SOUNDING for ‘pretentious’ and needed the blog for the parsing of CROUTON – thanks, Chris.
    My COD is ROUND THE BEND for raising a smile – thanks to Izetti for an entertaining puzzle.
20. ….was spent on HIGH-SOUNDING, which only fell on my third visit to the clue, and after a short alpha-trawl. Like Templar, I considered “high faluting” on the first visit, but couldn’t justify it – by the time I returned to it, I had the N of ROUND THE BEND in place which scotched the idea.

    FOI SUBJECTS
    LOI HIGH-SOUNDING
    COD HEADBAND
    TIME 4:23

    1. I can’t remember if I considered ‘high faluting’, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with the g.
21. Bit slow today, all because of 11a. HIGH SOUNDING is not that familiar a phrase to me, but I suppose it works, just. But I just couldn’t see it to start with and then wasn’t sure, but nothing else plausible fitted the checkers so I bunged it in.

    COD – EARTH SCIENCE for a clever anagrist.
    FOI – SAID
    LOI – HIGH SOUNDING

    H

22. What an excellent puzzle. We sailed through the top half but some of the clues in the bottom half presented more of a challenge. Sadly we didn’t know tanka and tried a tin** biff. We finished (DNF) in 18 minutes. Thanks to Izetti.

    FOI: said
    LOI: tanka
    COD: Ernie

    Thanks to Chris for the blog.

23. Relatively plain sailing today, all solved and parsed in 13 minutes, which is probably my record for an Izetti. The top half definitely seemed easier than the bottom, especially the SE, which held out the longest. NHO Tanka but got it from the wordplay (having like others considered TIN**). Thanks to Izetti for a very nice puzzle and to Chris for the blog.

    FOI – 9ac IDLER
    LOI – 18dn TANKA
    COD – 3dn EARTH SCIENCE for the smooth compact surface

24. I did not consider as, like Kevin, I thought it was a letter short. (A Lord Peter Whimsey Word)

    FOI 1ac SUBJECTS

    LOI 4dn TUCSON what an odd name for a city!
    Like the name of the town Radlett in Herts – both very nice I’m sure.

    COD 3dn EARTH SCIENCE

    WOD 4dn TUCSON Arizona – Jo-Jo.

    Time slow!

    Edited at 2020-09-22 05:06 pm (UTC)

25. A very enjoyable crossword that I completed at a steady plod, though I did have to search for types of Japanese poems. I didn’t know they had so many forms of verse, I had only heard of haiku. My initial thought for 4dn was the little-known city of BUNION, possibly at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
26. My first post for ages, but at least I managed to get to the crossword this evening and finish too before bed! Recently I’ve been finishing over breakfast the following day and then checking the comments in the blog.
    11a was a write-in for me and I’m confused why anyone would consider anything different. It’s both accurate and a good example of Izetti’s straightforward cluing…
    Off to a slow start with few across clues going in on the first pass but many of the down clues yielded easily, and so plenty of crossers made a second pass very fruitful. The SW proved the stickiest area but with 23a Horace, the repeating 20 novices joining the first pass write-in 17a secret agents all soon became clear. Managed to remember 18 tanka. FOI 11a. LOI 22a (don’t understand why this wasn’t’t a writein). COD 10a crouton for being so far away from the clue itself.
    I never try to rush a QC but look for a gentle wind-down to the day with the total immersion being a good way to ‘let go’. I guess this took an enjoyable 40 minutes after amusing myself mending something that was probably not worth fixing except for the satisfaction of doing it, and giving it another useful span of life (and avoiding the hassle of finding and buying a replacement). Now got to find something else to entertain me for a while!
    I always enjoy an Izetti, and thanks too Chris for a useful blog.
    1. I agree it’s an elegant clue. It’s good to hear you’re happily fixing things and crosswording.
27. Not too hard for an Izetti, but did not know TANKA and guessed ERNIE.

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