I solved all but one answer in 8 minutes but then suffered a complete brain freeze. After another 5 minutes or so I put the puzzle aside and returned to it later. I wish I could report that the answer jumped out at me on my return but it didn’t, it eventually emerged during a lengthy alphabet trawl.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Range for cooking crumpets (8) |
| SPECTRUM | |
| Anagram [cooking] of CRUMPETS | |
| 6 | Fastener for hair (4) |
| LOCK | |
| Two meanings | |
| 8 | Parrot given material to consume (6) |
| REPEAT | |
| REP (material), EAT (consume). Rep is a textile fabric of wool, silk, or cotton, with a corded surface. | |
| 9 | Comment concerning Matthew’s successor (6) |
| REMARK | |
| RE (concerning), MARK (Matthew’s successor). Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the four evangelists in the New Testament. | |
| 10 | Ruler protected by assistants arriving (4) |
| TSAR | |
| Hidden in [protected by] {assistan}TS AR{riving} | |
| 11 | Evil can upset a city (8) |
| VALENCIA | |
| Anagram [upset] of EVIL CAN, then A | |
| 12 | Shock a quiet chum (5) |
| APPAL | |
| A, P (quiet – music), PAL (chum) | |
| 13 | Fibre shown by little girl confronting gangster? (5) |
| SISAL | |
| SIS (little girl), AL (gangster – Capone) | |
| 15 | Request made by intimate learner (8) |
| BEGINNER | |
| BEG (request), INNER (intimate) | |
| 17 | A record with minimum of snow in the mountains (4) |
| ALPS | |
| A, LP (Long Playing record), S{now} [minimum of…] | |
| 19 | Thus African country must be African! (6) |
| SOMALI | |
| SO (thus), MALI (African country) | |
| 20 | Civilised European drinking Vermouth (6) |
| POLITE | |
| POLE (European) containing [drinking] IT (Italian Vermouth) | |
| 21 | Order editor around, making protest (4) |
| DEMO | |
| OM (Order of Merit) + ED (editor) reversed [around] | |
| 22 | Providing funds for the last bit unpaid (8) |
| ENDOWING | |
| END (last bit), OWING (unpaid) | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Tries to see noble fellows (5) |
| PEERS | |
| Two meanings | |
| 3 | Explain trophy inscribed with name of tragic king (5,2) |
| CLEAR UP | |
| CUP (trophy) containing [inscribed with] LEAR (name of tragic king) | |
| 4 | Sailor turning up is unpleasant person (3) |
| RAT | |
| TAR (sailor) reversed [turning up] | |
| 5 | Sort of preacher to want more liars converted (9) |
| MORALISER | |
| Anagram [converted] of MORE LIARS | |
| 6 | Melon’s different fruit (5) |
| LEMON | |
| Anagram [different] of MELON | |
| 7 | My face is diffusing warmth (7) |
| CORDIAL | |
| COR (my!), DIAL (face of clock) | |
| 11 | Saint opposing a time of fasting in East (9) |
| VALENTINE | |
| V (opposing – versus), A, LENT (time of fasting), IN, E (East) | |
| 12 | Very impressive ace, first person to get total read out (7) |
| AWESOME | |
| A (ace – cards), WE (first person plural), then SOME sounds like [read out] “sum” (total). This was the one that gave me grief. I’ve no idea why it proved so troublesome. | |
| 14 | Bird to get down (7) |
| SWALLOW | |
| Two meanings, the second as in ‘drink’ | |
| 16 | I had a small house somewhere in America (5) |
| IDAHO | |
| I’D (I had), A, HO (small house) | |
| 18 | Don‘s stage (3,2) |
| PUT ON | |
| Two meanings | |
| 20 | Provincial party set up — food provided (3) |
| PUD | |
| DUP (provincial party – Democratic Unionist Party) reversed [set up]. The party operates mainly in Northern Ireland which is sometimes described as a province of the United Kingdom. | |
… I completed this one in under 25 minutes… I feel like throwing a party. I’m just stunned.
OK there were things I didn’t parse
I didn’t know vermouth was Italian or that DUP was a political party. I didn’t understand how Cor = My or the Order = OM thing, but the words all fit easily
Between a bird getting down = swallow and I’d a ho, my inappropriate mind was doing all sorts of cartwheels 😅
FOI: spectrum
LOI: beginner
COD: clear up
Thanks everyone!
Just filing in:
Cor, my, aha, dear, coo, gee….all popular expressions of surprise among setters.
DUP = Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, aka NI.
Order = OM, Order of Merit, or OBE, Order of the British Empire – those are the two most popular ones.
Also “IT” for Vermouth, as in “Gin and It” – will come up fairly regularly
Especially keep ‘my’ (=COR) in mind; it’s easy to overlook.
You may even find ‘my’ = LOR!
Well done Tina – 25mins – excellent!
🍾 Congrats – enjoy the party!
Thought I was done in 19 minutes but unfortunately I had POD(P=provincial + OD= party set up) for the food ,reasoning that some pea pods are edible. Favourites were BEGINNER and AWESOME-enjoyed helpful blog- thanks.
I did exactly the same with Pod! It was good to see explanations of the clues I didn’t parse: Sisal, Demo and Cordial.
I found this challenging, finishing in 6:10. On my first pass, I scarcely got any of the acrosses. Fortunately, the downs seemed easier, and I was able to finish in a decent time!
AWESOME gave me trouble, too; it was my LOI. 5:37.
I biffed awesome without a second thought – that must be it! It was rather beginner that gave me a little trouble, as learner = L is always the experienced solver’s first thought.
Time: 8:14.
l was on the 9:45 from Valencia to Somaliland via the Alps.
I arrived in great trepidation as Jack had warned of a stinker.
However, AWESOME is not a particularly common biblical word in the UK, but is massively overused by the younger generation Stateside to describe anything slightly above normal (normalcy as they like to say!)
FOI 12ac APPAL
LOI 2dn PEERS
COD 1ac SPECTRUM
WOD 16dn IDAHO a political hot potato.
Did I noticed a little know Korean terrorist group, the KKA, loitering up in the right-hand part of the grid?
I got held up for about four minutes on the BEGINNER / AWESOME cross.Finished in 11 minutes.
24 minutes.
FOI: RAT
LOI: AWESOME also causing me problems and adding to my time.
COD and the second one in SPECTRUM.
SPECTurM, which in turn turned RAT into uat. So last week’s typofest continues into another week. I either need to pay more attention or find whatever the modern equivalent of Mavis Beacon is. Unlike Jeremy I found the acrosses easier than the down with the hardest bits in the SE. Ending up with ENDOWING and PUD in a careless 12.
4.54
Quick time for me today
AWESOME and BEGINNER were also my last two. On other days I think I might have struggled with them a bit more
Thanks Jackkt and Izetti
🔥
🔥
🔥
No major hold ups but MORALISER and LOI BEGINNER (where I was looking for a synonym for request ending in an ‘L’) put up a bit of resistance. Enjoyed SOMALI, although I think I may have seen it before. Finished in 8.55.
Thanks to Jack
I pretty much solved this top to bottom in my average time. Only BEGINNER took a minute to fathom. Thanks Jack and Izetti
Struggled through to DNF at just over the hour. Couldn’t get DEMO and put REDO as a bad synonym for “order”.
Also had VALENCIA wrong – mainly because my anagram letter count was off and I thought there was only one A and ValenciE must be the Spanish name for the place. That said, I started with Lavencie which I imagine to be a city in France.
Generally very slow going. Couldn’t get the SPECTRUM or MORALISER anagrams. Couldn’t see the finish to ENDOWING (endowmen? endowers?). Got stuck thinking of sparrow instead of SWALLOW. Dredged SISAL from somewhere. Didn’t see TSAR was a hidden word. Not a Shakespeare person for LEAR. NHO REP. The list goes on.
FOI LEMON
LOI AWESOME
COD REMARK
Think my brain warms up later in the day. But glad to be finishing or close these days.
Thanks to Izetti and Jackkt
You have my sympathisers. I struggled with this one as well.
Nothing to add to the above; BEGINNER/AWESOME were my sticking point too (though it took me an annoyingly long time to unscramble the crumpets).
FOI LOCK, LOI BEGINNER, COD SOMALI, time 09:37 for 1.7K and a Fair Day.
Many thanks Izetti and Jack.
Templar
Started well but then got caught up in the weeds. Spent ages trying to work out the WE in AWESOME before knowing I would get the answer here. Thanks Jack. Also had a mo or two parsing DEMO. In the end I slumped into my usual chair in the club on the 32 minute mark with a much needed coffee and a piece of sourdough toast to chew and reflect on.
Thanks Izetti
I had no problems with this and was amused to see a number of crossword memes REP = material, COR = my, OM = order, DUP = party… as others have noted. Educational for the less experienced, as these crosswords should be. As for “Melon’s different fruit” my answer would be “CHESTNUT” 🙂 . COD to MORALISER. Thanks Izetti and Jackkt. 4:11
Good puzzle – thanks to Lzetti (Times typo on the old ‘classic’ iPad app which I still use). Like others, I spent time on Pod (‘do’ up) before getting PUD and found BEGINNER quite difficult. I didn’t parse AWESOME so thanks to jackkt. I returned to the blog to enjoy some excellent clues at leisure.
Ended up half a minute over my 15 min target so not too bad for a Monday morning.
Ground to a halt in the bottom right hand corner. Most of it was fair enough. Personally I don’t like cor for my in cryptics – mainly because it’s pretty well the only place you find it these days in my opinion. Thanks setter and blogger.
15 mins for a nice start to the week.
Never did parse 7dn “Cordial”, but now that I see the solution it’s brilliant.
FOI – 6ac “Lock”
LOI – 15ac “Beginner”
COD – “Parrot”
Thanks as usual!
A steady plod from PEERS to ENDOWING in 7:04. Thanks Izetti and Jack.
I stopped myself from getting bogged down at 1a. I couldn’t fathom the anagram and forced myself to move on. I got AWESOME straight away and parsed it while typing but BEGINNER needed at least a minute of my 8:08 time. Thanks Jack
Bit slow on Monday morning. I blame the football.
COD spectrum.
15×15 very approachable today.
“VALENCIA – stick your head between your knees and whistle up your Barcelona….”
Unfortunately, my biffed LOI was “pod” which undid 3:55 of steady effort.
Just inside my target 15 minutes, with the crossing VALENTINE and VALENCIA being my last two in, and holding me up. I also experienced the Lzetti typo on my iPad classic app. Thanks both.
I found this very approachable – not the most challenging puzzle Izetti has ever set and finished in just under 10 minutes. Main hold-ups were Repeat (I have never met Rep outside crosswordland and always struggle to remember it), and LOI Demo, with I never parsed at all. All very enjoyable for a Good Start to the Week.
Many thanks to Jack for the blog
Cedric
Not much inside my target at 9.37. Like most people was delayed by AWESOME which also took a while to parse, once I considered it as a possibility.
Quite a struggle today, starting with 1ac Spectrum, which was obviously an anagram but still needed most of the crossers to ‘light up’ the answer. Cordial also took ages, but the real time killer was loi Awesome. I was determined to squeeze an ‘I’ in there somewhere, until the penny dropped. Not a very good start to the week. Invariant
A DNF as, like some others, I had POD not PUD. Found it quite chewy and took a while to figure it all out, but an enjoyable struggle.
Finished in 10 minutes with LOI AWESOME unparsed. I had thought of the word when I first read the clue but didn’t put it in then.
I enjoyed this. Not too difficult, just right for a QC I thought.
IDAHO made me smile.
David
Was doing so well and was feeling very pleased with myself. Then it turned into a crossword of two halves. Found the bottom part much harder.
What am I going to do with my day – quickie and biggie both done in under half an hour!
Definitely one of my quicker times for an Izetti at 9 minutes, helped undoubtedly by all the old friends, as mentioned above. Reassuring though 😊 I liked SPECTRUM and POLITE made me smile.
FOI Lock LOI Beginner COD Remark
Thanks Izetti and Jack
As Flashman says, today’s biggie is very approachable (well, that was my experience – I’ve been stung in the past by saying it was easy!) 16 minutes, which is as fast as it goes for me.
Carelessly failed on SOMALI and AWESOME. Also looked up Preacher to get MORALISER, so not a good day. But enjoyed most of it, inc PUD, POLITE, SPECTRUM, VALENTINE.
Thanks for much needed blog, Jack.
Was quite quick through most of this until my last 4, which took almost as long as the first 22. Finished in 15 minutes with everything parsed. No troubles with awesome which went straight in but struggled to parse cordial and for some reason took an age to see peers. Thoroughly enjoyable though and much more straightforward imo than some Izettis.
FOI – 6ac LOCK
LOI – 7dn CORDIAL
COD – 22ac ENDOWING
Thanks to Izetti and Jack.
Well on the wavelength today and zipped through this in well under 10 minutes until I had to decide between POD and PUD. Happily I went with PUD.
FOI spectrum
LOI pud
COD cordial
Probably jetlag. I found this trickiest Izetti for a while. I don’t remember the time I took exactly, mid 9’s though.
Tokyo is lovely though. Except for the work. Turning in early now, hopefully for a good night’s sleep.
Just the right level of difficulty for me. I finished all correct in 36 minutes with quite a lot of head-scratching, but no interminable interludes.
SPECTRUM was my FOI and I worked through the clues in order until I had about 8 or 9 done after my first pass. My main area of difficulty was down in the SE corner – POLITE (I never did parse IT), SWALLOW, ENDOWING and PUD all put up some resistance. However, BEGINNER was my LOI, possibly because I thought ‘Request’ must be the definition.
Many thanks to Izetti and jackkt.
Joined others who had pod for 20d. Otherwise no real problems.
Also struggled with 20D and put in POD.
Otherwise thought it about average difficulty for an Izetti. Guessed 8A as didn’t know REP for material.
Thanks Jack and Izetti.
Didn’t like vermouth being IT as my bottle from Australia and France produces as much as Italy nowadays.
Also 12D being “we” for first person- surely should be first people as plural?
After reading your comment and not really having made much sense of We, First pleural in the blog, it occurred to me that perhaps this is the “First Person”, as in the Royal We? Probably not since nobody else has offered this. But it works for me!
It works for me too, but the ‘Royal We’ is based grammatically on the first person plural as mentioned in my blog.
17:00
Nothing too difficult, but was thrown by an update to the app on my iPad which no longer skips the checkers I already have when typing. I see the submit button has gone too, so no opportunity for a last minute check. LOI BEGINNER where I was looking for a request.
Two goes at this, then had to check a couple of things. Couldn’t see how sparrow was to get down, find the vowel in pud or find a word that fit the clue and the consequent p?rite. Aha! It’s not sparrow …
Thanks, Jack, and Izetti.
No fun at all today. Took well over an hour and didn’t feel much joy when I had completed it. I simply cannot get on this setter’s wavelength and, as a result, begin to second guess myself from the beginning. Progress has truly stalled!
Easy top half for me and then the SE corner fell after spotting swallow.
But count me in the pod camp – so dnf
I don’t like it for vermouth – maybe I’m just too young at 66. Or did I miss it?!
I biffed awesome but not quite happy about the we clueing. Never mind.
No real time – heading for 12 minutes and fell apart and dnf.
Thanks all
John