Times Quick Cryptic 1846 by Izetti

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

An old school Izetti full of cunning, deviousness, unusual terms, double definitions, cleverness, marvellous surfaces and long answers – in short, I’d rate this as hard (I took just over 15 minutes). Old hands will, I think, enjoy this but for anyone newer on the scene who struggles – could I urge you to have a go, not worry about completing and take a look at the way the setter has laid out each clue. The ‘surface’ is the surface reading – and the more like an English sentence it is, the harder, sometimes it is to break down. The more relevant the surface/parsing is to the answer the cleverer the clue.

The top half didn’t yield very much at all so I settled down to enjoy the challenge and found there is so much to enjoy in this – I absolutely loved 2dn – and admired so many more. Thanks Izetti.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Courteousness from old man initially in Leeds, say (6)
COMITY – (O)ld (M)an inside Leeds, say (CITY). And we’re off! Comity only painfully dragged from the memory banks and ‘Leeds, say’ wasn’t doing any favours.
4 Sink getting old food (4)
SAGO – sink (SAG), old (O).
9 Certain mammals — planet contains five pairs perhaps (7)
MARTENS – planet (MARS) contains five pairs (TEN). Strike two! Martens are any of several agile arboreal musteline mammals of the genus Martes with bushy tails and golden brown to blackish fur. E.g. pine marten (which I have heard of).
10 Nick has no time to go to church (5)
NOTCH – no (NO), time (T), church (CH).
11 Be levered somehow into building high up? (9)
BELVEDERE – anagram (somehow) of BE LEVERED. Strike three! A Belvedere is a building such as a summer house or roofed gallery sited to command a good view (hence ‘high up?’).
12 Feel bad about street in Paris (3)
RUE – double definition.
13 European to rush around part of UK (6)
DANISH – rush (DASH) around part of U.K. (NI).
14 Groups of schoolteachers maybe in English county (6)
STAFFS – double definition.
16 Mucky stuff pleasant? Not entirely (3)
GOO – not entirely pleasant (GOO)d.
17 Fresh source of milk in part of America (3,6)
NEW JERSEY – fresh (NEW), source of milk (JERSEY).
19 Join in swimming finally in lake (5)
MERGE – swimmin(G) inside lake (MERE).
20 Very stupid and insane possibly — one must be kept in (7)
ASININE – anagram (possibly) of INSANE including one (1).
21 Cuts lines on graph? (4)
AXES – double definition.
22 Gems of quality brought aboard ship (6)
STONES – quality (TONE) inside ship (SS).
Down
1 Be in cold and horribly damp temporary overnight facility (4,3)
CAMP BED – be (BE) inside cold (C) and an anagram (horribly) of DAMP.
2 I’m Norma: rely on being transformed into famous actress (7,6)
MARILYN MONROE – goodbye I’M NORMA (Jean) RELY ON – being anagrammed (transformed) magnificently into a famous actress. I just sat back and relished this wonderful clue. COD.
3 Somehow he’s best, keen, full of energy — wonderful person (3,4,5)
THE BEES KNEES – anagram (somehow) of HES BEST KEEN containing energy (E).
5 A paper given time has info processed somehow (5,1,7)
AFTER A FASHION – a (A), paper (FT), time (ERA), anagram (processed) of HAS INFO.
6 Chore mixing paint? (5)
OCHRE – anagram (mixing) of CHORE. Ochre is used in making paint.
7 Some smashes for a Wimbledon champion (4)
ASHE – some of sm(ASHE)s. A fine player.
8 Number working in a theatre (12)
ANAESTHETIST – crytic definition. Numb being used in the make senseless sense (if that makes sense).
15 Hesitation to put launch onto loch (7)
SHYNESS – the instruction is clear – put launch (SHY – as in throw) onto (on top of) loch (NESS).
16 Greek character in school with arts degree (5)
GAMMA – school (GAM) with arts degree (MA). Strike four! I’m sure some of you will know gam as a school of whales – my guess is the majority (like me) wouldn’t have (but now do – so we’re that much ahead of the GAMe).
18 Sport is conflict with referee finally intervening (4)
WEAR – conflict (WAR) with refere(E) inside.

65 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1846 by Izetti”

  1. It took us a full 26 minutes to solve this excellent puzzle. Funnily enough we didn’t struggle with BELVEDERE – we had recently (well, a couple of years ago) appreciated a “belvedere” in Italy. Took us longer to recognise e.g. ANAESTHETIST and SAGO than it should have. NHO COMITY but worked it out – eventually.

    FOI: BELVEDERE
    LOI: COMITY
    COD: AFTER A FASHION

    Thanks to Izetti and Chris.

  2. 14 minutes. I loved AFTER A FASHION. Didn’t know GAM but biffed GAMMA. SAGO revived memories of disgusting school dinners. But other than that, an enjoyable challenge — thanks, Izetti.
  3. Had a very easy time with this one, but spent 2 1/2 minutes trying to finish off the crossing of ANAESTHETIST and STONES. Couldn’t see the latter, and had ANAESTHE _ I _ _ but wasn’t sure whether we were going for a person or a drug and dithered the clock away. The TONE of STONES was beyond my sight and I was looking for particular gems.
    1. I assumed that this also references Stones which is the term jewellers use for diamonds.
        1. Far be it for me to provide direction to the cognoscenti. I am but a humble amateur in awe of the crossword elite.
          1. I’m hardly the crossword elite! I think beginners and more advanced solvers struggle in the same way: we just miss the intended meaning of the word.

            Edited at 2021-04-06 03:47 pm (UTC)

  4. Very tough today. Had to resort to aids for ANAESTHETIST, COMITY and MARTENS and couldn’t parse either ANAESTHETIST or GAMMA. Knew all the vocabulary except GAM for a school of whales but was unable to dredge COMITY up from memory without assistance. 38 minutes in total. Thanks to Izetti for a fine puzzle and to Chris for explaining my failings.

    FOI – 12ac RUE
    LOI – 9ac MARTENS
    COD – 17ac NEW JERSEY

  5. ….but entered “Marylin” when submitting online. The new version of the grid has distinct advantages, but the smaller keyboard is a pain in the proverbial.

    FOI COMITY
    LOI SHYNESS
    COD AFTER A FASHION
    TIME 3:50

  6. The Times QC on line on my Android phone does not show the name of the setter.
    Any ideas? Thanks.
      1. Yes. Sorry I should have been clearer. I meant at the time of loading the QC in the online version. Knowing the identity of the setter when solving can give some indication of likely difficulty and favoured ploys.
  7. Slow progress today, did not get the martens. Gam also unkown as school, but was obvious from the checkers. The use of numb we remembered eventually. Also got comity from the checkers. A tough workout but enjoyable.
  8. I finished in 12:37 feeling that I should have been quicker, but I now see from the comments that I seem to have surfed things that held others up. From previous puzzles, I knew number and even gam (which gave rise to enough comment before to make it stick). DNK COMITY, but was happy with it when it emerged from the wordplay. COD AFTER A FASHION which emerged so reluctantly.
    Like Steakcity, I don’t like not knowing who the setter is when I’m on my phone. And like philjordan I’m dismayed at the smaller keyboard we now have

  9. Very enjoyable but on the hard side for me and consequently around 40 mins and DNF – could not think of SAGO even though I’ve seen it before in these puzzles. Hey ho. Could not parse AFTER A FASHION so thanks Chris for showing how it’s done. The blog is always much appreciated so thanks to all of you for taking the time to do them.

  10. Knew everything so no hold ups. Not entirely sure I knew what COMITY means but the w/p was clear. Liked the MM clue as others.

    Numbers and theatres held me up when I started doing these things regularly a few years back but write in territory now.

    I never know the identity of the setter as I solve on my phone. Not sure I find certain setters more difficult but definitely find certain clues harder (double definitions: very long clues; usually long answers and not great at doing anagrams in my head. Apart from that…)

    Thanks Chris and Izetti

  11. Although today’s 15×15 has a couple of tricky answers, it’s easy enough to get started and definitely do able. Invariant
    1. Indeed it is and thank you for the tip off. Delivered a PB for me at 19 minutes. I’ve taken longer on some QCs recently!
      Cedric
  12. My new trick is to cover the paper so that I do not know the setters name when solving. And I managed to finishing this in 17 minutes.
    NHO Comity and forgotten Gam for school but all went in smoothly.
    Remembered number/theatre for once.
    Mixture of chestnuts and wavelength for once.
    FOI Sago
    LOI Belvedere and WOD

    Thanks all
    John George

  13. After an easy day yesterday, this was a tussle. Classic Izetti – all fair and clear ONCE you’ve got proper hold of the clue. 2D Norma fairly leapt off the page at me, but what a clever surface! I’m sure we’ve seen Belvedere, Gam, Asinine, Goo, Comity before. And of course Anaesthetist has had an outing enough times to be a chestnut (‘tho still took me a PDM). FOI 11a Belvedere. LOI 22a Stones once I was convinced by the checkers. COD has to be 5d After A Fashion – for the construction, with 2D M-M for cleverness. Grateful for Chris’ blog which helped me parse better. And congratulations to Izetti for his usual high standard of setting.
  14. Can’t believe I’d forgotten the old “number”, but we got there in the end. Belvedere went in quickly, thanks to recalling it as the title of one of those Escher drawings where the perspective does/doesn’t work. Bit like trying to decipher an Izetti surface!
    Tim (not that Tim)

Comments are closed.