Times Quick Cryptic 2105 by Izetti – T’ya love DDs?

Author   KittyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hi everyone.  I spent well over two minutes on my last two in, 8a/2d, but managed to finish in 8:11, still comfortably in my expected time zone.

I didn’t notice until writing up the blog that there are quite a few double definitions.  I have no strong opinion on these: they don’t in general spark joy, nor do they hold me up like anagrams do.  And one of them made my pick of today’s clues.

10as do generally spark joy in these parts, so that answer made me smile, and was a welcome chance to link to – no, not that song, a-gnother one!  My favourite clues were 20a and 1d.  Thanks Izetti!

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

Across
1a Monument featured in newspaper article? (6)
COLUMN — We start with a double definition
4a Showing sign of injury, having lost heart, being frightened (6)
SCARED — SCA[r]RED (showing sign of injury) without the central letter (having lost heart)
8a County briefly in the money (5)
BUCKS — Two definitions, the first the abbreviation for Buckinghamshire.  I spent far too long here trying to think of a 5 or 6 letter country beginning with B … [books eye test]
9a Mum’s after awfully nice places of entertainment (7)
CINEMAS — MA’S (mum’s) after an anagram of (awfully) NICE
10a Wild animal captured by Magnus (3)
GNU — Our wild animal is inside (captured by) maGNUs.  The customary thing to do here would be to reference or link to a certain Flanders and Swann song … I am going to recommend this from John Finnemore (who is also a Listener setter)
11a Eastern movement has a learner aroused? (9)
EMOTIONAL — E (eastern) + MOTION (movement) + A + L (learner)
12a The Queen entertaining a composer, a moneymaker (6)
EARNER — ER (The Queen) around (entertaining) ARNE (a composer)
13a Some Parisian with big belly, a tyrant (6)
DESPOT — DES (some, Parisian) + POT (big belly)
16a A right fellow to have in a country (9)
ARGENTINA — A + R (right) + GENT (fellow) + IN A.  I suppose I can count myself lucky that I wasn’t looking for counties here!
18a Refusal by daughter to give sign of agreement? (3)
NOD — NO (refusal) + D (daughter)
19a One part of the Bible with biblical hero, verily (2,5)
IN TRUTH — I (one) + NT (part of the Bible) + RUTH (biblical hero)
20a Bury‘s football team a long way from Bury! (5)
INTER — Two definitions: to bury, or Inter [Milan], which is indeed some distance from Bury – 800 odd miles
22a Break in which old man gets meal (6)
REPAST — REST (break), in which … gets PA (old man)
23a A knight portrayed as a saint (6)
ANDREW — A + N (knight) + DREW (portrayed)
Down
1d Horse has groom removing marks (3)
COB — CO[m]B (groom) without M (removing marks)
2d Fine material right for Queen to wear — it’s glossy (7)
LACQUER — LACE (fine material) and R (right) around (for … to wear) QU (queen)
3d Wicked deeds of some nursemaid being naughty (13)
MISDEMEANOURS — SOME NURSEMAID anagrammed (being naughty)
5d Thought to show respect for others? (13)
CONSIDERATION — Double definition number four
6d Type associated with Catholic Church? (5)
ROMAN — A final pair of definitions: a type of type (upright, as opposed to italic), or relating to the Roman Catholic religion
7d Ado with eldest abused, made very unhappy (9)
DESOLATED — An anagram of (… abused) ADO with ELDEST
9d Bird that’s top, not bottom (4)
CROW — CROWn (top) without (not) the last letter (bottom)
10d Soldier in terrible danger, one with little sign of hesitation (9)
GRENADIER — An anagram of (terrible) DANGER + I (one) + ER (little sign of hesitation)
14d Joker gets better around end of performances (7)
PUNSTER — PUNTER (better) around the last letter (end) of performanceS
15d Sort of school greeting being heard (4)
HIGH — A homophone of (… being heard) HI (greeting)
17d Obtain at university a set of clothing (3-2)
GET-UP — GET (obtain) + UP (at university)
21d Painful conflict to the north (3)
RAW — WAR (conflict) reversed (to the north, in a down entry)

39 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2105 by Izetti – T’ya love DDs?”

  1. Pretty much straightforward, although BUCKS took some time; but LOI CROW took me 30+ seconds: I was pretty sure it was CROW, but there was COOT also, and I just couldn’t come up with ‘crown’. Irritating. 6:42.
    1. I also thought ‘coot’, but luckily my biffing hat is in the wash, and I lost but a few seconds.
  2. 23 minutes from FOI: COLUMN to LOI: PUNSTER also my COD.
    I didn’t realise until reading the blog I hadn’t parsed COB, I just wrote it in, moved on forgetting to go back to it.
  3. 7 minutes. A nice easy one for me to make up for my disaster last Friday. Love the alternative Gnu song! I hadn’t heard that before.

    Edited at 2022-04-04 08:47 am (UTC)

  4. SCC today 21 min
    Thanks Kitty.
    Is it me or is the wrong bit underlined in the explanation of 4a?

    TC

  5. A gentle offering to start the week, helped by living in the county at 8a. Only real issues were parsing LACQUER and CROW, my last two in. Finished in 6.14.
    Thanks to Kitty
  6. Living as I do in Bury I found 20a in particularly bad taste seeing as we lost our football team in 2019.
      1. Two kings (K and R) will be needed to reconstruct THE SHAKERS form ‘the ashes’.
    2. When I first discovered English football I thought the Bury team referred to Bury St Edmunds. A friend put me right saying no you idiot it’s Bury in Lancashire. I see the Suffolk town has a team Bury Town playing in the Isthmian league and sits a mere 606 miles from Milan.
  7. Quite a gentle start to the week. No time as I was interrupted twice but certainly did not break any personal records. Failed to parse CROW. Thanks Izetti and Kitty.
  8. Nineteen minutes. FOI scared, ten on first pass. LOI lacquer, unparsed. Did not parse cob, either. COD column. Thanks, Kitty, and Izetti.
  9. Maybe it’s Monday morning, but I made heavy weather of this with 23ac “Andrew” and 14dn “Punster” holding up everything at the end (NHO of “punter” meaning getting better) and 16ac “Argentina” taking far longer than it should have.

    Didn’t help that using my checkers I also biffed “Recess” into 22ac without properly parsing it.

    FOI — 1ac “Column”
    LOI — 14dn “Punster”
    COD — 20ac “Bury” — if not entirely accurate.

    Thanks as usual!

        1. Don’t worry! PUNSTER was also my LOI, and for the same reason. And I only just scraped in under the hour.
  10. Bit on the sluggish side for me despite getting the two long downs quickly. Just couldn’t see the chestnutty EMOTIONAL and ROMAN which were my last two in

    Exactly the same as Kevin for CROW

    Thanks Kitty and Izetti

  11. Struggled a bit with this: CROW, DESPOT, PUNSTER and ANDREW all taking time to see (or guess!)
  12. Quite a tricky Izetti I found, requiring all of my 15 minute target, but all done and parsed in that time. I was helped by seeing the long downs quickly, and my main problems were seeing and parsing 1a and 2d, last ones in. Slight MER at ANDREW being described as a saint — but that was because I was initially thinking of the topical one rather than the apostolic one. Nice puzzle, nice blog — thanks both.
  13. IN TRUTH made me smile, well, the word “verily” did.

    I was glad the 2 long down clues fell into place immediately.

    The collective noun for the GNU is an unusual one — an “implausibility” of gnus!

    EMOTIONAL was LOI.

    4:34

  14. Fully engaged for this and surprised to finish at quickly as I did — all green in 10. Couldn’t parse COB so bunged it in from my LOI and then saw what was going on thanks to Kitty. BUCKS no problem, I can see it out the window! Good groan for PUNSTER.
  15. No time today as I was interrupted by a phone call. Mostly straightforward but some trickier elements, principally in the NW. Never parsed INTER having not understood at all how the clue worked and for some reason needed all the crossers for MISDEMEANOURS despite realising straight away that it was an anagram. Also, like others, spent some time parsing CROW, having also thought of coot and chat.

    FOI – 9ac CINEMAS
    LOI – 2dn LACQUER
    COD – 6dn ROMAN

    Thanks to Izetti and Kitty

  16. CINEMAS and GNU got me started, but it was soon clear that I was in for a struggle today. Virtually nothing came easily (well, perhaps NOD, REPAST and WAR), but I kept plugging away.

    I had NHO the composer (ARNE), struggled to see beyond IN TOUCH (for IN TRUTH), and worked my way up the country from Cornwall to Northumberland three times before remembering BUCKS. However, my last two in gave me the most trouble, by far. CROW was the obvious bird, but I couldn’t see ‘crown’ and was therefore reluctant to write it in. PUNSTER (my LOI) was an unknown word to me and I just couldn’t see ‘better’ as someone who bets.

    Mrs Random started about 10 minutes after me, fielded a phone call from one of her sisters part way through, and still finished ages ahead of me. 18 minutes in all.

    Many thanks to Izetti and Kitty.

  17. Didn’t know Arne and couldn’t see qu for queen in LACQUER or comb meaning groom. Otherwise solved and enjoyed most of rest of clues. Thanks,Kitty, for explanations!
  18. ….which was soon put to bed. I shall never hear “New York, New York” again without singing about the two-toed ungulate at the relevant point — thanks for the link Kitty.

    FOI COLUMN
    LOI CROW
    COD MISDEMEANOURS
    TIME 3:28

  19. With COLUMN, COB, DESPOT left. Plus PUNSTER (funster) and CONSIDERATION (configuration/ contemplation/concentration) wrong. Therefore ballsing up DESPOT.

    Couldn’t parse CROW, ANDREW

    Struggled with BUCKS for 1hr45+ after trying most of England. Despite having been born there.

    NHO REPAST, ARNE, why PA=old man; N=knight.

    FOI/O fonts followed by NOD.
    COD ARGENTINA

  20. Enjoyed this, finished within our target, unusual for an Izetti. Did not get the word play for 12a earner, but the crossers were very helpful. Loi 14d.
  21. I needed a little help with this one, but overall I didn’t find this one too difficult. I didn’t realise it was an Izetti puzzle, as I used the Times Puzzle app on my iPhone. I usually finds his puzzles way too difficult for me.
  22. No time for this as I was on the train and distracted at many intervals.
    I was held up by CROW and my LOI was EMOTIONAL which took me a long time to see.
    All clear and parsed in the end.
    COD to COLUMN.
    David
  24. I’m not holding my breath. Bury F.C. has had more false dawns than the Liberals. Anyway I follow Norwich, I’ve only been to Gigg Lane once The Canaries lost 1-0, dodgy penalty againt Fleck, mind you he had been clattering a few. Awful game.
  25. A gentle one from Izetti today. I arrived at the puzzle late today after driving back from the Scottish Borders. COB was FOI, ANDREW was LOI, I paused to consider and reject COOT, and was all done in 5:27. Thanks Izetti and Kitty.
  26. I found this easier than usual Izettis. Have just done it — we keep the newspaper and do the crosswords whenever we have time.
    St. Andrew is the patron Saint of Scotland so I won’t hear a word against him!
    Loved the gnu song thanks Kitty. John Finnemore is always good fun.

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