I needed 12 minutes for this one as I was delayed by 2, 14 & 18.
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 | How Red revolt goes wrong everywhere on earth (3,5,4) |
| THE WORLD OVER | |
| Anagram [goes wrong] of HOW RED REVOLT | |
| 8 | Little bird making fresh journey back across river (4) |
| WREN | |
| NEW (fresh) reversed [journey back] containing [across] R (river). I think the wren is reputed to be the smallest or possibly just the shortest species of bird native to the UK. | |
| 9 | What can suggest certain psychological states? Disturbed rest can (7) |
| TRANCES | |
| Anagram [disturbed] of REST CAN | |
| 11 | Vegetables obtained by worker, a lowly labourer (7) |
| PEASANT | |
| PEAS (vegetables), ANT (worker) | |
| 12 | Wild female, real crazy (5) |
| FERAL | |
| F (female), anagram [crazy] of REAL | |
| 14 | Any number were ill and had a seizure? (6) |
| NAILED | |
| N (any number), AILED (were ill). Nail in the sense of catch or take possession of. | |
| 15 | Lover I betrayed — conclusion of romance (6) |
| ISOLDE | |
| I, SOLD (betrayed),{romanc}E [conclusion]. I don’t know the legend other than she was the lover of Tristan, and Richard Wagner wrote an opera naming them both in its title. | |
| 18 | Famous writer‘s sporting run (5) |
| HOMER | |
| Two meanings, the Greek poet and an American baseball term. | |
| 20 | Doctor, when facing twitching, is severe (7) |
| DRASTIC | |
| DR (doctor), AS (when), TIC (twitching). ‘Facing’ just indicates ‘next to’. | |
| 21 | Everyone wanting ogre destroyed quickly (7) |
| ALLEGRO | |
| ALL (everyone), anagram [destroyed] of OGRE. A basic musical instruction. | |
| 23 | Old English character, almost a god (4) |
| THOR | |
| THOR{n} (Old English character), [almost]. The letter þ, Þ. It’s used in Old English along with various other early languages. | |
| 24 | Cruelty of situation after baseball Babe had retired? (12) |
| RUTHLESSNESS | |
| A straight definition and a cryptic hint referring to Babe Ruth a baseball player so famous in his time that even I have heard of him. Following on from Homer, if there’s any more of a baseball theme going on today I am not the person to spot it. | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | The female element evident in plant collection (9) |
| HERBARIUM | |
| HER (the female), BARIUM (element). I got HER immediately but took a while to think of the element. | |
| 3 | Desire to grow old in Oxon town (7) |
| WANTAGE | |
| WANT (desire), AGE (grow old). Oxon = Oxfordshire, the county where this town is administered although it’s actually located within the historic boundaries of Berkshire. | |
| 4 | Spin rubbish at end of conference (6) |
| ROTATE | |
| ROT (rubbish), AT, {conferenc}E [end] | |
| 5 | Very small daughter fighting loudly (5) |
| DWARF | |
| D (daughter), WAR (fighting), F (loudly – forte – another musical instruction) | |
| 6 | Cleaner’s short holiday (3) |
| VAC | |
| VAC{ation} (holiday) [short]. Whichever way you take it VAC is short for something – vacuum cleaner or vacation. Both are valid as abbreviations in their own right, the latter in perhaps rather dated public schoolboy slang, ‘the long vac’ being the summer hols. | |
| 7 | Army corps with lack of communication, one bound to be showing adaptability (10) |
| RESILIENCE | |
| RE (army corps), SILENCE (lack of communication) with I (one) contained within [bound] | |
| 10 | Flying yet to be decided upon? (2,2,3,3) |
| UP IN THE AIR | |
| Two meanings | |
| 13 | It’s a loner disturbing members of the family (9) |
| RELATIONS | |
| Anagram [disturbing] IT’S A LONER | |
| 16 | Austere Pole with evidence of sunbathing (7) |
| SPARTAN | |
| SPAR (pole – e.g. nautical), TAN (evidence of sunbathing) | |
| 17 | Notice academic fellow’s extra items (3-3) |
| ADD-ONS | |
| AD (notice), DON’S (academic fellow’s). And a signature reference by our setter. | |
| 19 | Exceptionally large and majestic (5) |
| REGAL | |
| Anagram [exceptionally] of LARGE | |
| 22 | Fate of item put up for sale (3) |
| LOT | |
| Two meanings | |
No problems. 3:57.
🔥
21 minutes. Spent the longest on HERBARIUM with NAILED in the seize sense also taking a good while. At first I thought whole would be in the answer in place of WORLD but other answers showed the correct anagram. Toyed with ascetic for both severe(DRASTIC) and austere(SPARTAN) but was fairly certain the same word in two different answers would be unlikely!
I didn’t finish this one but I did have a satisfying crack at it so don’t feel too badly. RESILIENCE just had too many words in the clue
I didn’t know the spar = pole thing, didn’t know what to do with lover I betrayed (though I do know who Isolde is, I tried to name my son Tristan but got vetoed), nailed = seized did not occur to me, and I somehow thought an old English character was THOU and just willed the thou/Thor wordplay to work. I also didn’t know the town but the wordplay was clear.
I knew the baseball stuff and the music stuff and the river was just an r this time thank goodness!
I hope this week will be much better than last week!
I wasn’t allowed Clive. Then we had another girl anyway.
😂😂😂😂
My suggestion of Huckleberry Gnasher was vetoed by Mrs R. I’m not sure why.
I slowed myself down by biffing puritan and putting in Lackage, which didn’t seem right – there is actually a Wantage in New Jersey, which would have sounded familiar. On the other hand, I saw herbarium at once, and used the cryptic to put in resilience instead of resiliency. The puzzle was on the harder side, but fair.
Time: 10:26
DNF IN 9’25” as pink squares in rushing and throwing in HERBALISM without fully reading the clue did for me. A simple Jim Diamond: “I should have known better”
I know what Tina means by a clue having too many word it – I am often put of by such things although often it leads to a relatively straightforward IKEA construction. Maybe not in this case. I also suspected the Oxon town may trip up some overseas solvers – a tough one.
Thanks Izetti and Jackkt
Slow to start with only four on the first pass of across but then things picked up. Could never have named ISOLDE before the puzzle but knew the answer when the checkers were in, fell for the trap of trying to put an R in a word for a pen or a writer on the way to HOMER and HERBARIUM even though I knew the first five letter – I thought ‘evidenced’ was going to be doing something. All green in 14. Now to do my final packing before heading to the Isle of Wight for the week.
Izetti is always fair, I find. I liked the deceptively simple REGAL among others.
10:21 which might be my PB. A bit strange that it happened on the Izetti one, so probably one of the easier ones. THOR was my LOI (didn’t know the character so had to guess).
Congrats – and hello 😊
6.52
A couple didn’t immediately come to mind such as the second bit of HERB but generally a fairly smooth run through.
High proportion of smooth surfaces and nice clues
Thanks Jackkt and Izetti
Started with UP IN THE AIR, having failed to untangle 1a, and made my way anti-clockwise around the grid to finish with NAILED (wordplay clear but definition less so) and HOMER,
I would have placed WANTAGE in Wiltshire but the cluing was generous so it didn’t hold me up. Probably come across THORn before in crosswords but it had to be dredged from the depths and HERBARIUM required some thought.
An enjoyable start to the crosswording week which I completed in 7.51
Thanks to Jack
Was surprised to see a Pink Square for what I thought a solid answer:THOU=English character, and is almost Thor. On reflection, “almost” by convention doesn’t actually mean almost, but is an instruction to lose the last letter. I knew Thorn and kudos to jack in finding it on the keyboard.
Tempted by Puritan, for “austere”.
Supply Chain Resilience is a hot topic in my work at the moment, and I’m fighting a battle against “resiliency”, which seems an arbitrary and unneeded variation. Like “normalcy”
I was another who put thou and was surprised to see it incorrect
Off to a good start with 1a but then a slow solve not helped by putting the answer to 9a in 11a. There is a typo in my paper version with an interesting “UNBATHING” in 16d.
14a went in on word play only and last in was ISOLDE. I knew the names Tristan and Isolde but not the story.
No stand out clues with DRASTIC the one I enjoyed most.
Unbathing also in my edition. Threw me off completely. Hard enough to solve without typos!!!
My printed copy has 16d as “Austere Pole with evidence of unbathing”. Spent ages working out impact of not bathing.
😂
Me too!,
Yes, unbathing confused me too until SPARTAN sprang to mind. Otherwise raced through, finally biffing RESILIENCE and NAILED but stuck on DWARF.
Liked RUTHLESSNESS, ADD ONS, HERBARIUM, HOMER. Vaguely remembered Thorn from previous crosswords luckily.
Thanks vm, Jack.
I normally find Izetti’s ouzzles on the harder side, but I whizzed through this in my 5th fastest time, hesitating over only NAILED and WREN. For a tiny bird, the wren has a powerful voice and has a pretty trill at the end of its song. Thanks Jackkt and Izetti. 3:04.
A really brillant puzzle. Not easy. I just tipped into the SCC in my relaxed Bank Holiday weekend state but I parsed them all as I went through it (except for not knowing ‘thorn’ as an old English character). Imaginative and fair, though. Definitely worth a post-solve study of jackkt’s blog just for the pleasure of revisiting many of the clues.
Thanks, both John M.
8 minutes for me with a few somewhat unparsed e.g. HERBARIUM and NAILED.
My FOI was WANTAGE: hard for non UK solvers.
LOI THOR being the last clue I looked at. I think I remember this from a previous puzzle.
Some great surfaces; maybe WREN was my favourite.
David
A DNF for me as I simply could not answer 15a. Never heard of Isolde.
1ac jumped out, but the two long offspring needed further crossers. However that still gave me a good foothold and allowed a steady solve, albeit with Thor/Thorn dredged from somewhere I know not. A brief chance of a sub-20 finish was dashed by loi 14ac, Nailed, which I thought was another ‘periscope’ clue (bag of seizures, anyone?) but Jackkt’s explanation works. CoD to 21ac, Allegro, for the surface. Invariant
A slight hold up with NAILED, and wondered briefly why I’d never heard of WISHAGE, but normal service was quickly resumed. FOI VAC, LOI DWARF. 6:25. Thanks Izetti and Jack.
20 seconds over target at 15.20 – too many seconds for me to round down and call it on target. I enjoyed this enormously, remembered þ, Þ from somewhere, knew of WANTAGE, and HOMER and ISOLDE LTI. Thanks Jack and Izetti.
Held up by newdpaper typo of UNBATHING for SUNBATHING at 16d – finally guessed SPARTAN rom the AUSTERE but of clue, but obviously unparsable! T he T of SPARTAN helped to get THOR – guessed from the GOD bit of clue as DNK THORN. Phew!
Quick time for me at 7.07, so no real holdups. My LOI was NAILED, having thought of the word on the first pass but not being sure of the ‘seizure’ connection, but on returning to it I saw the light. If I hadn’t heard of ISOLDE I Would probably have struggled with 15ac, and suspect a few may miss out here.
3:43 this morning, a good but, for me, rather bizarre start to the week. Only a few brief hesitations en route to completion, apart from my paper copy version of 16 d “spartan”. My immediate thought was that “unbathing” wasn’t really Izetti’s style but with all the crossers in place my justification amid a fair degree of headscratching was as follows- “S” for South Pole, then “partan” = “part tan” with the tan missing its first letter as was the case for “sunbathing”. Mmmmmm….
COD 15 ac “Isolde”.
Thanks to Don and Jack
Izetti is one of my favourite setters and I completed it within 15 minutes, but didn’t have explanations for several, so thanks for a very clear and helpful blog Jackkt.
LOI 16 dn. because I could not work out what “unbathing” meant till I suddenly twigged it was a misprint in the paper. Ruined my time because I parse as I go!
Quite a strange solve today as, after a very iffy start, I jumped all over the place, but things started to fall into place and I ended up completing it in just over 10 minutes.
This definition of thorn is one of those words I learnt from crosswords, but once known, never forgotten! I didn’t understand NAILED so am grateful for the explanation.
No trouble with WANTAGE – as Jack says, it was part of Berkshire for centuries. King Alfred is reputed to have been based in the area – there are several links to him in and around the town. I used to go to a cafe called King Alfred’s Tearooms when I was a child, but there’s no proof he burnt the cakes there 😂
FOI and COD WANTAGE (I can think of far worse places to grow old than the Berkshire Downs!) LOI Isolde
Thanks Izetti and Jack
Not sure associating your cakes with King Alfred is a great marketing move!
😅 I do remember that the flapjack was very good!
21 and 22 took a while, as I had biffed ROYAL at 19. Thanks for the blog- I didn’t understand the NAILED clue, and had failed to understand SPAR= ‘Pole’
No time, as done in segments between household jobs.
Always happy to finish one of the Don’s.
15 ac. Convinced that it was an anagram of Lover I especially having L and E as checkers. Spartan was the last one in as I thought the Pole referred to the N at the end and completely stymied by unbathing. J
Finished in around 22 mins but didn’t parse REGAL, THOR or SPARTAN – many thanks for explanations. Will remember ‘thorn’ in particular. Liked DRASTIC and REGAL (now I understand the parsing!). Enjoyable puzzle. Many thanks to Izetti.
We were also puzzled by unbathing in 16d. Slow in getting 24a and 7d, which fell only when we had the crossers. Enjoyable puzzle as always from Izetti.
Started well but slowed appreciably later on, finally arriving in 19 minutes. Couldn’t parse SPARTAN as I had decided the initial s referred to the pole (and that was after deciding that ‘unbathing’ must be a misprint rather than some sneaky Izetti device). Also decided to look up thorn as I wasn’t 100% sure that I’d remembered it correctly. Thanks to Izetti for the usual polished puzzle and to Jack for the explanations.
FOI – 1ac THE WORLD OVER
LOI – 16dn SPARTAN
COD – 24ac RUTHLESSNESS
I enjoyed this more than the London Klimt immersive experience I visited today. (I was underwhelmed and it was overpriced). FOI, THE WORLD OVER and LOI DWARF. 7:38
Frustrating dnf as I rattled through the majority of clues in 15 mins and then got stumped with 15ac “Isolde” (which I should have known, but thought was an anagram) and 16dn “Spartan” (where I was confused by the newspaper print error)
I knew 23ac “Thor” from previous puzzles, and because the “thorn” symbol is still prevalent in the Icelandic language.
FOI – 2dn “Herbarium”
LOI – dnf
COD – 24ac “Ruthlessness”
Thanks as usual!
DNF, mind elsewhere. Couldn’t get started until SWIMBO glanced across and gave me THE WORLD OVER. Liked RESILIENCE, RUTHLESSNESS and HOMER (DNK US meaning); biffed NAILED, cryptic part of clue slightly suspect IMHO. Ran aground on ISOLDE (which I should have known) but when that went in SPARTAN and THOR obvious. As with others, held up by ‘unbathing’ in my paper. Ho, hum.
Thanks, Izetti and jackkt
NHO thorn and so put thou for 23ac, having got the T and O. LOI was 14ac, which turned out to be simple. Otherwise about 35 mins which I will take for an Izetti. Dredged up 15ac and 2dn.
For 11ac, I got the answer but found the wordplay misleading. Surely the use of obtained suggests that the vegetable goes inside the worker? This is the kind of thing that confuses me!
Like others, very confused by unbathing 😣. Good puzzle and very satisfying. Made the brain work hard on a Bank Holiday Monday
Helped while away some time in the inordinately long Glasgow airport security queue 😫!
As for others I was held up by the HERBARIUM, HOMER (COD) and NAILED (LOI) trio. I found the definition of NAILED particularly iffy and spent some time trying and failing to understand it before submitting on a wing and a prayer.
All green in 07:43 for near as spit 2K (😮) but still a Very Good Day.
Many thanks Don and Jack.
Templar
26:45
Slow work today and really held up at the end by ISOLDE and LOI NAILED.
Returning late from the land of no internet over the weekend to both this puzzle, completed in 11 minutes with only Nailed unparsed (“had a seizure” – hmm, not I think Izetti’s crispest) and Sawbill’s excellent weekend special, which was a cracker but defeated me as I could not see Caused.
Both puzzles much enjoyed, especially the Saturday Special. Many thanks to Sawbill for that and Jack for today’s blog.
Cedric