Times Quick Cryptic 1717 by Izetti

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Not the easiest Izetti, in that I needed to look twice at several of these before cottoning on, and didn’t feel confident enough at any point to do much biffing (I did biff 12dn, though, and barely even read 6dn). At just over my target time, though, this was certainly no beast. I hope you enjoyed it too.

Kudos for the clever anagram at 19ac, and 20dn which I needed to cross my eyes to solve.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Remodelled sports ground a second time (6)
RECAST – REC (recreation ground, sports ground), a, S (second) and T (time).
4 Had meal at back of pub? That’s natural (6)
INNATE – ATE (had meal) at the back of INN (pub).
8 Ann’s voice, sort proving tricky in discussions? (13)
CONVERSATIONS – anagram of (proving tricky) ANNS VOICE SORT.
10 Bit of food delivered to church (5)
PIECE – PIE (food) and (delivered to) CE (Church of England, church).
11 Little girl, as one doing nothing in a brilliant way (7)
VIVIDLY – short version of (little) VIVian (girl), then IDLY (as one doing nothing).
13 Describes as evil different characters from Des Moines (9)
DEMONISES – anagram of (different characters from) DES MOINES.
17 An Italian poet’s musical movement (7)
ANDANTE – AN and DANTE (Italian poet).
18 Tree that goes high up into the sky (5)
PLANE – double definition.
19 So Nana and Grannie could be very old people (13)
NONAGENARIANS – anagram of (could be) SO NANA and GRANNIE. Great find!
21 Nymphs being dull and awfully sad (6)
DRYADS – DRY (dull) with an anagram of (awfully) SAD.
22 Surely that could be denied (6)
INDEED – anagram of (that could be) DENIED.

Down
1 Formula ready for use city area gets brought in (6)
RECIPE – RIPE (ready for use) with EC (city (of London) area) inside (gets brought in).
2 Argued prisoner should get looked after (9)
CONTENDED – CON (prisoner) gets TENDED (looked after),
3 Female is capsizing in something riddled with holes (5)
SIEVE – EVE (female) and IS all reversed (capsizing).
5 Residents show up, going in opposite directions (7)
NATIVES – EVITA (show) reversed (up) inside (going in) N and S (north and south, opposite directions).
6 A party creating a fuss (3)
ADO – A and DO (party).
7 Attempts to participate in games — say, skittles (6)
ESSAYS – hidden in (to participte in) gamES SAY Skittles.
9 Number in competition observed going round (9)
SEVENTEEN – EVENT (competition) with SEEN (observed) surrounding it (going round).
12 Malign a girl initially praised, turning nasty (9)
DISPARAGE – anagram of (turning nasty) A, the first letter of (initially) Girl, and PRAISED.
14 To catch horse, frenzied dame ran (7)
MANAGED – anagram of (frenzied) DAME surrounds (to catch) NAG (horse).
15 Mother and boy cursed (6)
DAMNED – DAM (mother) and NED (boy).
16 After drinks editor gets made fun of (6)
TEASED – TEAS (drinks) and ED (editor).
18 Former president is human being without the first bit of sense (5)
PERON – PERsON (human being) missing the ‘s’ (first letter of (first bit of) sense).
20 No pay, no work? No! (3)
NAY – No pAY, minus (no) ‘op’ (opus, work).

48 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1717 by Izetti”

  3. A tough workout today with tricky clues and some GK that was outside my comfort area. Only three on the first pass of acrosses and nothing until 13a (DEMONISES) and then the downs weren’t too friendly either, finally crossing the line in 21m and relieved to see all green. I didn’t know Dante was a poet – I only know of him (?) in relation to his Inferno – I shall look that up now, but had always assumed it was prose – and have never heard of ANDANTE but it made enough sense ab
    Nd I was getting desperate at that stage. I’ve also never heard of DRYADS and left with D_ _ADS I risked it and that gave NAY but I didn’t understand it. Also couldn’t parse SEVENTEEN and couldn’t work the clue out, even trying an anagram of ‘observed’ at one point to make sense of the V. Also much delayed by VIVIDLY. Tough day!

    Edited at 2020-10-07 10:00 am (UTC)

  4. … but enjoyed.

    Couldn’t get DAMNED or ANDANTE.

    I biffed 18d PERON, also 14d MANAGED, and 5d NATIVES then of course it was obvious from the blog that I should have been able to work them out. That’s why the blog is so helpful.

    I’m not a 19a yet, but sometimes feel as if I was!

    Diana

  5. A puzzle of two halves for me, with most of the top going in relatively easily but the bottom, particularly the SE, proving much tougher. I was not confident with the spelling of 19a in relation to the order of the first A and the E, but eventually chose correctly. However my real hold up was with the unknown (or forgotten) tree and the president where I focused purely on those from the USA. Got there in the end, crossing the line in 14.43 with my favourite being NAY.
    Thanks to william
  7. Another puzzle that was absorbing but took me longer than I thought – almost 22 mins. INNATE, VIVIDLY, DISPARAGE took longer than they should have and I needed crossers for PERON. NATIVES and NAY went in but were parsed later. Looking back post solve, there were some very nice clues. Thanks to Izetti and Jeremy. John M.

    Edited at 2020-10-07 08:58 am (UTC)

  8. A slow start with FOI not until 6D but an enjoyable puzzle, especially liked 16D, had to look up the spelling of 19A- thanks all
  9. I felt a bit slow doing this but I see others have also struggled a bit. FOI ADO then I went to NAY (great clue) and on from there. No major hold-ups but I kept coming back to 10a where I had PINCH in mind and thought the answer was a bit of food. PIECE was my LOI after CONTENDED. 12:16 on the clock. Perhaps COD to INDEED or TEASED or VIVIDLY; lots of good ones.
    David
  10. This took me just over half an hour and it felt like pulling teeth. I really had to think hard and think differently to get there – but then, I guess that’s why I like to attempt these puzzles. This one was a stretch though! It seems daft but the idea of “could be ” used twice here as an anagram directive threw me, especially in my LOI, INDEED, where I just couldn’t see the parsing. I needed lots of parsing help today actually, so thanks to William for that. These included VIVIDLY, SIEVE, NATIVES and NAY. I was stuck for a while with INNATE, too because I thought I needed a word beginning with B (“back of pub” ). Need a strong cup of coffee now. Thanks to izetti and thanks once again to our blogger
  11. Thought this was going to be a romp at first, with answers flying in, but like others I found myself entangled by the setter’s art and had to work hard for the last few answers.

    One hold up was convincing myself that the anagram indicator in 8ac was just “proving” and thus that the definition was “tricky in conversations”, not “conversations”. I blame Bake Off, it was bread week last night and we were obsessed with proving. But the real struggle was with the crossing PLANE/PERON, where like plett11 I was fixated on the US.

    Great puzzle as usual, though I did think that 1dn was a remarkably clunky surface for any setter, never mind the Don.

    FOI RECAST, LOI PERON, COD NATIVES (tough!), time 13:01 estimated as 3 Phils in the absence of Kevin and a Not Very Distinguished Day.

    Thanks Izetti and William.

    Templar

  12. A very mixed day today – this took me only a couple of minutes less than the biggie!! So following on from our conversation the other day, I would say to those of you who want to try the 15×15, have a go today.

    I did find this hard, but all fair and above board, of course. TBH nothing really stood out for me today, although the three anagrams across the middle were fun.

    FOI Recast
    LOI Disparage
    COD Nonagenarian
    Time 18 mins

    Thanks Izetti and William

    1. Seriously impressed you did the biggie in 20 mins … I limped over the line in 30. It’s a different game!
      1. Thank you so much – tbh I had to check my sums a couple of times as I didn’t quite believe it! And 30 mins is great so congrats to you too 😊
  13. I also found this on the tricky side and came in over my target at 11:19. SIEVE was my FOI and DAMNED my last. Thanks Izetti and William.
  14. Had to use the paper Crossword Dictionary today. MANAGED the anagrams but e.g. had to look up Presidents to get Peron which then seemed obvious.
    FOsI Plane. Andante
    LOsI Innate , Vividly, Piece, Teased (latter shd have been easy)

    Quite pleased to have thought of EC for city area.
    COD Innate, Essays
    Thanks all, esp blogger, but pretty difficult for a QC. I only solved about three or four clues at first glance.

    Edited at 2020-10-07 10:28 am (UTC)

  15. Clues may be fair but are more cryptic than quick cryptic – thanks to blogger for explaining – David S
  16. 30:02

    In fact today I decided to warm up by tackling a few clues of the 15×15 and was pleased for a rare completion in 75 mins. Therefore was disappointed with a QC team of plus 30.

    Thanks William for unpacking some parsings such as the hidden, backwards Evita for LOI NATIVES.

    14D/15D Are an example where one clue cues up a hint for the next one. Having just read “Horse” and “Dame” it put “Dam” in mind for the next one. Just as well as I usually look for M words (MAM, MUM, MA etc)

    Was I the only person going through 6 letter US presidents lopping off the first letter hoping to strike something meaningful : arter, eagan, ruman…

    COD : NONAGENARIANS, where “Nana” made another appearance

  17. Well, that cleaned out the cobwebs, or not in the case of Dryads. Having drawn a blank with 1ac/1d, I started in the NE with Innate and its offspring, and thought this was going to be a straightforward Izetti, but at the end of the first pass the grid was still fairly empty. I resorted to tackling the two long anagrams with very few crossers in place – not a good technique but it worked this time. After 35mins or so I was down to my last pair in the SW corner, but it took me another five minutes to dredge Dryads from the back of my mind, after which Damned ended a fruitless search for something beginning with Ma. CoD to 14d, Managed, a nose ahead of the well-hidden Essays at 7d. A slow solve, but happy at least that everything was parsed. Invariant
  18. I started well and was really hoping for a PB but became stuck for a while on the PLANE/PERON intersection which took me to 14 minutes. NATIVES and DAMNED went in unparsed (I don’t think I’ve seen DAM for ‘mother’ before).
    Some lovely clues including VIVIDLY, ANDANTE and SIEVE and my COD has to be NONAGENARIANS if only for the joy of being able to spell it correctly!
    Thanks to Izetti for a very enjoyable puzzle and to William for his helpful blog.
  19. … in being pretty stretched by this one, as it took 18 minutes before the All Clear sounded. The SE corner, and particularly the Plane/Peron pair, was the last to fall.

    With both Evita and Peron in the down clues I have Don’t cry for me Argentina as an earworm now! But I cannot find any other Argentine references to suggest a Nina.

    Several very good clues; the long anagram at 19A stands out (and I needed to check the letters carefully to avoid entering Nono…). But COD to 20D Nay, which is very clever indeed.

    Thanks to William for the blog.
    Cedric

    1. Tried the 15×15 today, and it only took me 3 minutes longer than Izetti’s QC! What a day, one of my slowest finishes in recent days on the QC and then a PB on the biggie.

      Cedric

  20. ….but the SNITCH level suggests that I might just finish it more quickly than Templar’s corrected estimate of 1.74 Phils (or precisely 50% over target !) So those of you who found this hard – you’re absolutely on the money.

    I can’t remember when I last had an answer unparsed in the QC, so thanks to William for untangling DISPARAGE, which I biffed after increasing my time by 25%.

    I didn’t help myself at 14D by trying “dame ran” as anagrist (a bear trap I doubt I was alone in falling into, so a nag rather than anag), or at 15D where I confidently banged “M” in above the a of ANDANTE.

    Slight MER at “little girl” in 11A. VIV is quite unisex, and I had the pleasure of former England defender Viv Anderson as a regular taxi customer when he lived on my patch in Bowdon.

    FOI INNATE
    LOI DISPARAGE
    COD PLANE
    TIME 7:30

    1. Only on reading your comment Phil did I see that I had completely mis-parsed DISPARAGE.

      I had it as a girl = DI
      Initially praised = P
      Turning nasty = arage (A bit like aquiver. I’m so arage I could crush a grape).

      Sharp-eyed readers will spot that a) the S is unaccounted for and b) there is no such word as arage.

      1. Me too! Largely I think because it was such a festival of random names elsewhere in the QC. I don’t like them at the best of times, but this seemed OTT.
    1. Ha ha, that’s incredible. I was 13 mins on the QC and 30 on the 15×15! 6:22!! Ye Gods.
      1. It may look quick, but checking SNITCH this evening reveals that Verlaine, at 3:40, was the fastest of FOUR solvers who broke the four minute barrier !
        1. There is clearly a parallel universe where 1 minute of their / your time is equivalent to 10 mins for us mere mortals!
  22. 25 minutes for me after spending most of the middle of the night in A&E with Mrs Rotter (she is fine!). Some challenging clues from the Don, with the SE corner proving most intransigent for me. No problem with DRYADS having served aboard sister ship HMS NAIAD many years ago. Naiads are water nymphs and Dryads wood nymphs. Thanks Izetti and William.
      1. For those unaware, Invariant is using a submariner term for the surface ships, HMS DRYAD and HMS NAIAD. Surface ships are referred to by submariners as either skimmers or targets, depending on whose side they are on!
  23. Probably not the best day to listen to the radio whilst trying to complete this. In the end, DNF as there were too many intersection clues I just couldn’t get eg. 15dn and 21ac and, like a few people above, 18dn and 22ac. Struggled to parse 12dn, thinking “Di” was the girl, so thanks for the explanation above.

    In a similar manner, although the clue was probably obvious in the end, wasn’t happy about “Viv” as little girl. Hate it when general names are used.

    From my musical days, “Andante” was often used to play a piece of music at a “walking pace”, so in this context I’m presuming it means tempo rather than a specific section of music?

    Overall, nothing really that hard, but just wasn’t on the right train of thought today.

    FOI – 1dn “Recipe”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 5dn “Natives”

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-10-07 12:33 pm (UTC)

    1. I think in the context of the clue ANDANTE means a movement e.g. of a symphony or a concerto which is marked ANDANTE and therefore referred to as ‘the ANDANTE’ from eg Mozart’s Piano Concerto #21 aka the theme from ‘Elvira Madigan’.
  24. We really wrestled with some of the clues today and I was pleasantly surprised that it only took us 33 minutes to complete it (felt a lot longer). We struggled to see vividly, teased and natives and I’m guessing that they accounted for a third of the time it took to complete the puzzle. A big thanks to Izetti – feeling very happy that we didn’t throw in the towel.

    FOI: ado
    LOI: teased
    COD: nonagenarians

    Thanks to William for the blog and for explaining 5D which we completely biffed 😀

  25. Nearly gave up at 30 mins with 4 or 5 outstanding (especially in the SE corner). Had to biff a few to eventually come in at an undistinguished 38 mins. Thanks to William for disentangling my biffs.

    FOI – 4ac INNATE
    LOI – 15dn DAMNED (spent far too long assuming it began with M)
    COD – 20dn NAY

    Thanks to Izetti for a tricky (but fair) puzzle

  26. Izetti has set a few easier ones recently, at least to my mind, but this was a return to a trickier one. Not horrid, as I came in at 6:57.

    LOI was DAMNED, as I had written in MA, and was trying to get a random boy’s name from ?N?D…

  27. Frankly a ridiculous puzzle for beginners. But that is izetti. The only thing I would say to starters like me don’t be put off just do the other setters and forget about Izetti.

    Not fun but thanks for the blog which certainly helps us starters.

    1. Don’t give up when you see Izetti’s name! They are worth the effort – really 😉 I used to find him the hardest setter but I manage to complete his puzzles now, even if it takes a bit longer. Good luck

    2. I concur with pebee. It’s very difficult to get on his wavelength in the beginning, but you can be confident in total fairness. Keep going, you’ll crack him.

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