The first five across flew in but then things got stickier all round caused by various dnks and unusual definitions. Major problems were 7dn which threw me with the spelling and, finally, 15dn was a dnk but a fair bet. I ended up over 13 minutes.
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Seated, being agitated or calm? (6) |
| SEDATE -anagram (being agitated) of SEATED. | |
| 4 | Charm of arts graduate, someone from St Andrews? (6) |
| MASCOT – arts graduate (MA), someone from St Andrews (SCOT). | |
| 8 | Some tribal lad sang songs (7) |
| BALLADS – some of tri(BAL LAD S)ongs. | |
| 10 | Boredom of nine wandering round university (5) |
| ENNUI – anagram (wandering) of NINE around university (U). | |
| 11 | Puzzle about bishop leading you and me (5) |
| REBUS – about (RE), bishop (B), you and me (US). | |
| 12 | A cross for ten in ancient Rome, say? (7) |
| NUMERAL – X is the Roman numeral for ten. Double definition and/or a crytic definition. Either way – COD. | |
| 13 | Went back to be given another session at hospital? (9) |
| RETREATED – to be given another session at hospital (RE-TREATED). | |
| 17 | River vessel with little old Scot at the stern (7) |
| POTOMAC – vessel (POT), little old (O), Scot (MAC). | |
| 19 | Port — a small volume given to artist (5) |
| ACCRA – a (A), small volume (CC – cubic centimetre), artist (RA). | |
| 20 | Singers in church round one side of altar (5) |
| CHOIR – church (CH), round (O), one (I), alta(R). | |
| 21 | Something wicked by ruler in decline (7) |
| SINKING – something wicked (SIN), ruler (KING). | |
| 22 | Sister messed up second exams (6) |
| RESITS – anagram (messed up) of SISTER. | |
| 23 | More enthusiastic mourner (6) |
| KEENER – double definition. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | British vehicle heading up round old city area towards the country? (6) |
| SUBURB – British (B) and vehicle (BUS) upwards around old city (UR). | |
| 2 | Thoughts of French composer about food being limited? (13) |
| DELIBERATIONS – French composer has to be DELIBES (dnk Leo 1836-1891) around food being limited (RATION). | |
| 3 | Carriage in front of train — managed to have a seat (7) |
| TRANSIT – (T)rain, managed (RAN), have a seat (SIT). | |
| 5 | Across the ship there’s a smile (5) |
| ABEAM – a (A), smile (BEAM). | |
| 6 | Opposition against customary practices involving Conservative (13) |
| CONTRADICTION – against (CON), customary practices (TRADITION) holding Conservative (C). | |
| 7 | Small beer in this desert? (6) |
| TRIFLE – if it was ‘dessert’, I’d say double definition. As it is I’m not sure how much a setter can get away with with a ‘?’. | |
| 9 | Sequences of words used in court judgements (9) |
| SENTENCES – double definition. | |
| 14 | Learner given excellent name being entertained by elder? (7) |
| TRAINEE – excellent (A1) and name (N) inside elder (TREE – elder is defined as a bush or small tree). | |
| 15 | Stable’s number one horse one out of this world (6) |
| SPACER – (S)table (number one = first letter of), horse (PACER). Dnk spacer but I found it in the freedictionary.com as 3. (Astronautics) a person who travels in outer space. I also found references elsewhere to spacer= ‘stoner’ as in spaced-out (so ‘out of this world’). | |
| 16 | Nag is a sort of animal (6) |
| BADGER – double definition. | |
| 18 | French revolutionary male, a scoundrel (5) |
| MARAT – male (M), a (A), scoundrel (RAT). Conjured Marat from somewhere in the memory. | |
Quite a few guesses for me today including SPACER and MARAT. I tried bascot for MASCOT but quickly corrected it and saigan for the animal until the last letter of KEENER put me on the right track. BADGER was my penultimate solve with SINKING at the rear. 8:28
Well, at least I finished today’s after yesterday’s DNF (iller??). Spacer went in with a shrug and Trifle suddenly came to me after spending far too long thinking of 5 letter beers to put an S in front of. Well and truly bamboozled there.
I found this one tough, as I do with all Izetti puzzles. ENNUI is a word I only know because of these crosswords. I needed a fair bit of help with this one.
29 mins…
…but 15dn “Spacer” was a bit of a punt.
Quite tough from Izetti, but I felt they were generous enough to give enough indicators to complete any unknown definitions.
FOI – 10ac “Ennui”
LOI – 15dn “Spacer”
COD – 16dn “Badger” – for initially misleading me down the anagram route.
Thanks as usual!
Late solve and very brief post, due to visit to elderley parents. I will return to read everyone’s comments when they doze off (as they surely will) during the evening.
Veey tough for me. DNK REBUS, SPACER, MARAT or KEENER. Also had to correct several errors. However, still managed to finish correctly in 52 minutes.
A tough puzzle from Izetti, though having said that, all but five words went in without too much trouble. Those last ones took me from about 15 minutes to 29:47 though, with LOI being CONTRADICTION. COD to TRAINEE. Thanks Chris and Izetti.
Same situation as yesterday – done this morning, out all day, so late to report! 11 minutes, so quite pleased considering others’ comments, but I didn’t really understand NUMERAL. Although this is clearly a fair (if tricky) Izetti puzzle, I found it a bit less sparkly than some of his previous offerings, but nothing compared to today’s biggie, which was a stinker!
No problem with Delibes, and I expect a lot of people will know his Flower Duet from Lakme , even if they don’t know what it’s called – think back to the BA ads. Now I’ve got a nice earworm 😊
FOI Sedate LOI Numeral COD Transit
Thanks Izetti and Chris
Found this quite hard and guessed SPACER and ABEAM, having spent time getting BADGER, TRANSIT and TRIFLE. A good challenge!
Another very slow solve for me today. Limped over the line in just under 30 mins. Are the QCs getting trickier, or is it me? Really hoping it’s the former! LOI by a very long way was TRIFLE (iPad version gave ‘dessert’ so unfortunately no excuses there…), also took an age to see SINKING and TRAINEE. Had fingers crossed for SPACER. Enjoyed DELIBERATIONS. Many thanks Izetti and Chris.
I found this harder than average for a QC, but about average for an Izetti. I liked the way that the words I’d never heard of (Marat and Potomac) could be worked out from the definitions. I don’t time myself as I like to enjoy the crossword a few words at a time while taking short breaks from work, but it certainly took longer than usual. Finished about a quarter of an hour ago.
A very tough solve but happy to get there in the end. As always with this setter, I began doubting myself. Probably just under an hour, so rather embarrassing in terms of time!
Thanks for the blog – boy did I need it!
Nothing to be embarrassed about. Good job on solving it. Deffo a tough one I thought.
Hear hear!
I usually look forward to Izetti’s puzzles. His clues are usually precise and helpful – although they always need to be worked at! I found this one particularly hard work and it needed several sittings over the afternoon and evening to get done. I thought 15d was rather tenuous. FOI 4a Mascot. LOI 5d Abeam. COD 14d Trainee – which I failed to parse properly, but it had to be. I also failed on the parsing elsewhere so appreciate the clear guidance from Chris. I only managed 21a sinking when writing in sunking and realised that I was on the wrong tack as soon as I got to the second letter – how does that happen! So, hard work today took the edge off my enjoyment but there’s nothing to actually complain about – it was all there as usual.
7.45
Around my average sort of time I think so no particular dramas as SPACER seemed inevitable from the w/p
Must confess to not quite knowing what the surface of 12a means but maybe I need to squint a little harder!
Liked DELIBERATIONS
Thanks Izetti and Chris
I hadn’t thought about the 12A surface but I assume it is some kind of allusion to having a cross that is capable of crucifying 10 people – being the execution method of choice for the Romans.