Hi everyone. How did you find this on the Izetti Scoville scale? For me it was mild, but then I’ve been doing these a while and may be held up by different things to you. Like anagrams – of which I spy only three here.
When solving, the only clue I had to the setter was the additional (but perfectly allowable) indicator for the abbreviation in 10a. This is something we often see in Izetti puzzles. My COD is 4d, with a mention too for 7d. Those are also the two clues featuring exclamation marks. Fancy that! Thanks Izetti!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 8a | Managed to continue in Asian capital once (7) |
| RANGOON — RAN (managed) + GO ON (to continue) | |
| 9a | Jock’s exclamation about a particular colour (5) |
| OCHRE — OCH (Jock’s exclamation) + RE (about). Alternatively I think you could choose the simple definition “colour” and interpret RE as “about a particular”; I’ve gone with the interpretation that works best for me | |
| 10a | Appeal of domestic cleaner, little maiden (5) |
| CHARM — CHAR (domestic cleaner) + M (little maiden, abbreviation of maiden) | |
| 11a | Be a girl, disguised in nativity play role? (7) |
| GABRIEL — BE A GIRL anagrammed (disguised) | |
| 12a | Register thanks, having got home nurse (9) |
| ENTERTAIN — ENTER (register) + TA (thanks) + IN (home) | |
| 14a | Resort in Iberian country not favoured (3) |
| SPA — SPA[in] (Iberian country) without (not) IN (favoured, popular) | |
| 16a | Juice to some extent poisonous apparently (3) |
| SAP — Hidden in (to some extent) poisonouS APparently | |
| 18a | With cry, Teresa upset office worker (9) |
| SECRETARY — An anagram of (… upset) CRY with TERESA | |
| 21a | Take out old pamphlet (7) |
| EXTRACT — EX– (old) + TRACT (pamphlet) | |
| 22a | Tree in land close to sea, we hear (5) |
| BEECH — Sounds like (… we hear) BEACH (land close to sea) | |
| 23a | Nothing in trick to excite (5) |
| ROUSE — O (nothing) in RUSE (trick) | |
| 24a | Joy with members of family ousting extremists (7) |
| ELATION — rELATIONs (members of family) removing the letters at each end (ousting extremists) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Nuts as items on Christmas table (8) |
| CRACKERS — Two definitions | |
| 2d | Sport enthusiast impedes international — someone very young (6) |
| INFANT — FAN (sport enthusiast) goes inside (impedes) INT (international) | |
| 3d | Uplifting demeanour in dire situation (4) |
| DOOM — Reversing (uplifting, in a down entry) MOOD (demeanour) | |
| 4d | Imagine avoiding one tricky puzzle! (6) |
| ENIGMA — An anagram of (… tricky) [i]MAGINE without (avoiding) I (one) | |
| 5d | Unhappy about German city’s educational establishment (8) |
| SORBONNE — SORE (unhappy) around (about) BONN (German city) | |
| 6d | Caught fibres in items of furniture (6) |
| CHAIRS — C (caught) + HAIRS (fibres) | |
| 7d | Source of water? Fancy that! (4) |
| WELL — Double definition | |
| 13d | Said again, looking embarrassed about country (8) |
| RESTATED — RED (looking embarrassed) around (about) STATE (country) | |
| 15d | Ought US city to be gripped by an obsession? (8) |
| ANYTHING — NY (US city) going inside (to be gripped by) A THING (an obsession) | |
| 17d | Erects billets (4,2) |
| PUTS UP — Two definitions | |
| 19d | A hundred and one restrictions in places like Leeds (6) |
| CITIES — CI (a hundred and one) + TIES (restrictions) | |
| 20d | Cain’s brother, one with a shrub (6) |
| ABELIA — ABEL (Cain’s brother) + I (one) + A | |
| 21d | Peer coming ahead of time stopped prematurely (4) |
| EARL — EARLy (coming ahead of time) without the last letter (stopped prematurely) | |
| 22d | Boy eating a vegetable (4) |
| BEAN — BEN (boy) taking in (eating) A | |
All going well at 13 mins until I was stumped by SORBONNE and gave in at 20 mins. Just couldn’t see it even though I have heard of said establishment. Hey ho.
COD to the clever INIGMA and a big thanks to all commenters on the enjoyable discussion of ‘ought’
Thanks of course also to Kitty.
22:54 relied on checkers for Sorbonne, Anything, Entertain.
Great result as after 5 mins I had only 2. Plucky and Best Before-date, before realising I had clicked onto the big boys cryptic by mistake 🤦♂️
like others we found this to be a gentle start to the week. Did not know abelia but the word play was sufficient. Abt 25m which is good for us.
As a dawdler who enjoys the journey rather than dashing to the finishing line I was pleased to see an Izetti puzzle as I was having to wait for my car to be valeted, but alarmed to find I was (unusually) rattling through with only a few remaining after the first pass. Happily, with a few emails and a longish questionnaire to complete, I was able to spin out the last handful to finish just about right to pick up the car. I’d guess a PB for an Izetti. Trademark precise cluing help me be happy with the NHO Abelia and reconcile myself to 15d Anything.
FOI Rangoon
LOI 19d Cities
COD 4d Enigma.
Positively gentle and soothing for an Izetti! A very enjoyable 20:28. Thank you to Kitty and Izetti!
14:32 here, with half the time spent on the SE corner, until ELATION arrived. For some reason, I didn’t include BEAN in my mental enumeration of “4-letter vegetables beginning with B”. Sigh.
Thanks to Izetti and Kitty.
15:06
Some tricky ones here. Took a while to figure out Sorbonne and never did parse ANYTHING or LOI EARL.
Easier than usual for an Izetti
All done but SWMBO not happy about Gabriel being at Bethlehem though
26 minutes – utterly abysmal!! My usual day in hell.
Had all but SPA and ANYTHING in 12 mins and then total failure for 14 min. SPA was so easy and yet I still couldn’t get it until well into SCC. Saw ANYTHING would fit but couldn’t parse so didn’t insert until I got SPA. Depressing is not the word, and there is not a single crumb of comfort in getting most of the answers quickly. I should have finished this in half of the time (at most) that I actually took. When I get stuck on a clue, the shutters well and truly come down.
As I look enviously at some of the times others have achieved (and I don’t mean the expert solvers), it makes me want to give up. Every day the QC finds a new way to make me wonder why I bother.
Thanks for the blog Kitty and congratulations to those with good times. You must let me know how it feels to achieve a time you’re happy with, as I can’t remember the last time I was in that position.
It’s a pity Abelia isn’t well known. FYI, it’s a shrub with lots of small, scented flowers which seem to go on for ever. And it’s tough and drought resistant. I only know this because there was one in the garden of a house I moved to and I was happy that it required minimal attention.
Great puzzle finished in 17.05 which is a PB and rare outing from the SCC club for me. Couldn’t parse ANYTHING but OK with ABELIA. Thank you Izetti