Introduction
7:27. Rather held up in the end by the bottom-right-most clues. I have some parsing to do while I write the blog!
Solutions
Across
1 Not long ago, left-winger moved to the middle again (9)
RECENTRED = RECENT + RED
6 Modern music king appearing in South Africa (3)
SKA = K in S.A.
8 Like a new business celebrity meeting organised workers quietly (5-2)
START-UP = STAR + TU + P
9 Imperfections — bedding material must be sent back (5)
WARTS = STRAW reversed
10 Think about getting proficient, becoming hugely important (12)
CONSIDERABLE = CONSIDER + ABLE
12 Wine provided in summer — lots (6)
MERLOT = hidden in SUMMER LOTS
13 Take no notice of Italian man heading off (6)
IGNORE = {s}IGNORE without the first letter
16 Make idle one react differently, slowing down (12)
DECELERATION = anagram of IDLE ONE REACT
19 Smart / trick (5)
STING = double definition
20 Correspondence on the up? (7)
AIRMAIL = cryptic definition
22 Wild beast‘s jaw (3)
YAK = double definition
23 You hope they won’t be the thorns in your side! (4,5)
TEAM MATES = cryptic definition
The only way I can understand this is that TEAM MATES are ‘in your side’, but you hope they won’t be ‘thorns in your side’.
Down
1 Flush and terribly sorry, having lost heart (4)
ROSY = anagram of SO{r}RY
2 Beat in court, briefly causing outcry (7)
CLAMOUR = LAM in COUR{t}
3 Fool knocking container over (3)
NIT = TIN reversed
4 Odd drips around a fast-flowing stream (6)
RAPIDS = anagram of DRIPS around A
5 Utterly depressed, correct? (9)
DOWNRIGHT = DOWN + RIGHT
6 Clean / area with dense vegetation (5)
SCRUB = double definition
7 Ascetic American hiding in a tree, dishevelled (7)
AUSTERE = US in anagram of A TREE
11 See land as focus of attention (9)
SPOTLIGHT = SPOT + LIGHT
12 Decorum in dirty hovel, way above (7)
MODESTY = STY after MODE
14 Fragrant old Dorothy has managed to get hugged (7)
ODORANT = O + DOT around RAN
15 Prepare for war — notice a fleet prepared to attack our shores (6)
ARMADA = ARM + AD + A
17 Ringing sound in prison (5)
CLINK = double definition
18 More than one drink is bad, we hear (4)
ALES = homophone of AILS
Otherwise an enjoyable 5.6 minutes after having trouble getting started in the NW
Edited at 2021-11-16 01:22 am (UTC)
FOI 6ac SKA- Jamaica late fifties!
(LOI) 21dn RUM!?? seem?
COD None
WOD None. I’m also not a Merlot fan! Terrible puzzle from Donizetti. Meldrew
Jeremy’s interpretation of TEAM MATES was my best guess too, but I wasn’t fully convinced.
I think saying the puzzle is terrible is overstating it but maybe it wasn’t one of Don’s best considering how high he has set the bar.
Edited at 2021-11-16 05:33 am (UTC)
Could not get IMPONDERABLE out of my mind.
AIRMAIL is a weak cryptic
At 3d I had TUN/NUT so would have been a pink square had I got as far as submitting.
I knew ODOROUS was wrong, but never heard of ODORANT.
SPOTLIGHT is an example of a clue with two common words, where the compound isn’t very different from the two words, then the setter just provides homonyms. They end up being surprisingly hard. Compare with DOWNRIGHT, where the compound is not related to the shorter words.
COD/WOD SKA
Like others I had a raised eyebrow for modern/SKA and an unparsed TEAM-MATES at the end which went in after an alphabet trawl with a bemused shrug. I also had a slight pause over CLAMOUR as it had appeared so recently but the parsing was clear.
Finished in 14.00
Thanks to Jeremy
Edited at 2021-11-16 08:55 am (UTC)
Made CONSIDERABLE progress after that but generally was puzzled and assumed ‘seem’/’seen’ was a typo just to add to my confusion. Thanks all.
(A Mother’s Lament)Traditional Song/Cream
A mother was washin’ her baby one night
The youngest of ten and a delicate mite
The mother was poor and the baby was thin
T’was nought but a skelington covered in skin.
The mother turned round for the soap on the rack
She was only a moment but when she turned back;
Her baby had gawn and in anguish she cried,
“Oh where has my baby gawn?” The angels replied…
“Your baby has gawn down the plughole
Your baby has gawn down the plug;
The poor little thing was so skinny and thin,
He should have been washed in a jug – in a jug!
Your baby is perfectly happy
He won’t need a barf any more;
He’s a muckin’ about wiv’ the angels above,
Not lost but gawn before…”
Edited at 2021-11-16 01:49 pm (UTC)
Just could not make head or tail of this one.
Having read the answers I am still no clearer on some clues for example:
23 Across. You hope they won’t be the thorns in your side! (4,5)
TEAM MATES = cryptic definition
‘Thorns in your side’ ??
1 Across RECENTRED ? Sounds like a made up word to me though I am sure that someone will say it is in every dictionary.
ODORANT. This obscure word is,I believe, a noun – therefore the clue should have been a noun such as fragrance.
Just so I know, why are images recentred ?
Since c. 1990 Adobe Photoshop (&tc) does most of that automatically, but if say a headline is slightly altered and is then overlooked, it might well carry the instruction ‘RECENTRE’, or more likely ‘RECENTER’, from an online editor.
I feel that I have opened a door into another world.
Regards
Mao
I was not able to complete this one, with four clues unanswered (20a, 23a, 18, and 21d). In addition I answered 3d incorrectly with NUT. Must admit that NUT did not sit comfortably with me.
I did answer 14d with ODORANT but I was initially hesitant, as it seemed like an American spelling; I was looking for a U to go in there.
So, even though it was a DNF for me, and taking into account that it was an Izetti QC, I liked this one.
Whilst I am here, can somebody help me with a clue I was able to answer yesterday in a cryptic crossword book, but did not fully understand:
It tells you how to operate keyboard (6)
I entered MANUAL, and this was my reasoning:
Defintion: It tells you how
To operate = man
I know MANUAL is correct as I checked the answers on completion. However, I just cannot understand the “keyboard” part of the clue. I wondered if UAL was related to keyboard, but I just cannot see it.
Is somebody able to help me understand?
Thank you.
Edited at 2021-11-16 09:52 am (UTC)
Just found the whole thing a slog — wasn’t sure if I was just tired or it was too difficult for a quick time. In the end, I can see 23ac “Team Mates”, but it still feels a bit of a shrug.
FOI — 6ac “Ska”
LOI — dnf
COD — 5dn “Downright” — although I struggled to find one that stood out.
Thanks as usual.
Shoved in TEAM MATES from the checkers and very little else (I’m always hesitant to criticise, but this was a clunker), then AIRMAIL eventually floated into my mind followed straight after by ALES.
7:46.
Edited at 2021-11-16 10:16 am (UTC)
However, I was trying to make a point. The QC is aimed at less experienced solvers and those who want a quick fix (not often a feature of the 15×15).
I am sure I was not alone in finding the cumulative effect of these clues deeply disappointing (especially from a setter like Izetti). I trust that newer and less experienced QC solvers will have their say. John.
Edited at 2021-11-16 10:43 am (UTC)
I started slowly but accelerated when I had a few crossers; most of the answers then went in with some MERs. However, the SE corner was a biff-fest (as others have said above). TEAM MATES? Purleez! ALES? RUM (not to be seeM)? Should it have been flushED to mean ROSY? Too many others were fingers-crossed biffs — CLAMOUR, MODESTY, odorANT, land/light (alight?)..…
Really disappointed (and not because it took me into the SCC). Thanks to Jeremy for making the best of this car crash. John M.
Edited at 2021-11-16 11:24 am (UTC)
I see this puzzle has created considerable clamour; Izetti should ignore any sting and have a merlot and some ales.
David
Edited at 2021-11-16 10:23 am (UTC)
But thanks, Jeremy.
SE Corner not our problem, more SW.
Edited at 2021-11-16 11:42 am (UTC)
Gave up after 18 mins, but few problems before that – avoided the NUT/NIT trap, just about parsed RUM.
Still not sure of the clueing of AIRMAIL. Doesn’t quite work for me.
On edit: In view of Vinyl’s comment below, add ‘in a QC’ to the end of my last sentence.
Edited at 2021-11-16 08:32 pm (UTC)
Yes, Don Manley is a Mephisto setter. If he put this clever &lit in a Mephisto, no one would call it unfair. However, I would not recommend using it in the Quickie!
… at all the clues others have highlighted. Whole of SE corner very MER-worthy. One to move on swiftly from in my view.
Many thanks to Jeremy for the blog
Cedric
Mrs Random is out at the moment, so I must now go and clear the greenhouse of old tomato plants (etc.) to enable her to over-winter various pots/plants from around the garden. That’s top of the long list she left me.
Many thanks to Izetti and Jeremy.
Regards
Mao.
Well I was quite relieved to come on here and find I wasn’t the only one to run aground in the SE corner. I started this on the tube and finished in my lunch hour but took 33 minutes.
I like the Eurythmics song Thorn In My Side better than I liked this crossword!
FOI: Ska
LOI : Ales
COD: Modesty
FOI Ska
LOI Team mates
COD Deceleration – I liked the slightly different structure of the anagrind
Thanks Izetti and Jeremy
FOI SKA (I used to “dance” to ‘Al Capone’ by Prince Buster’s All Stars at Rowntree’s nightclubs in Manchester in 1965, so definitely not modern !)
LOI CONSIDERABLE (after a lot of faffing around)
COD AIRMAIL (I think there’s a dodgy homophone clue just begging for construction)
TIME 5:11
Edited at 2021-11-16 02:01 pm (UTC)
Tim
FOI – 8ac START UP
LOI – DNF
COD – 5dn DOWNRIGHT
Tim
Some nice cluing IMHO
But I am happy to be corrected by Gaetano himself.
I didn’t get Airmail, Ales, Odorant, or Team Mates.
But I was annoyed that I didn’t see Airmail since I had the A/R beginning and I did think of Odour and Team but failed to convert. I didn’t like the Ales clue though. Maybe ‘More than one beer, perhaps, is bad, we hear.’
Interesting to read all the comments.
Thanks all
John George
Got stuck in the SE as many but eventually went for TEAM MATES after getting TEAM from side — had to be MATES but a little indirect.
COD ALES
LOI AIRMAIL