Solving time: 10 minutes
Judging by my solving times we’ve had a run of mostly tricky QC’s over the past two weeks, but this one seemed at the easier end of the scale, especially for a QC by Izetti. How did you do?
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Bishop getting on with one in residence, showing great friendliness (8) |
| BONHOMIE | |
| B (bishop), ON, then I (one) contained by [in] HOME (residence) | |
| 6 | Job in street by river (4) |
| POST | |
| PO (river), ST (river) | |
| 8 | Is prosecuted and discharged (6) |
| ISSUED | |
| IS, SUED (prosecuted) | |
| 9 | Statements of belief in long piece of writing, beginning to end (6) |
| CREEDS | |
| SCREED (long piece of writing) becomes CREEDS when its first letter (beginning) moves to the end | |
| 10 | An item coming under the hammer frequently (1,3) |
| A LOT | |
| A (an), LOT (item coming under the hammer in an auction). There was some discussion here last week about the validity of A cluing AN and vice versa. It’s perfectly okay if one remembers to lift and separate. | |
| 11 | Impressive manner mostly here shown by church (8) |
| PRESENCE | |
| PRESEN{t} (here) [mostly], CE (church) | |
| 12 | Such a noise swamps this capital city (5) |
| HANOI | |
| {suc}H A NOI{se} hides [swamps] the answer to this one | |
| 13 | Say — say indistinctly, hiding head (5) |
| UTTER | |
| {m}UTTER (say indistinctly) [hiding head] | |
| 15 | Irritating person beginning to become more frivolous (8) |
| BLIGHTER | |
| B{ecome} [beginning], LIGHTER (more frivolous) | |
| 17 | Infant Ruth? (4) |
| BABE | |
| Two meanings. George “Babe” Ruth was a famous American baseball player. | |
| 19 | Slayer of dragon and wolf with inner energy (6) |
| GEORGE | |
| GORGE (wolf – devour ravenously) containing [with inner] E (energy) | |
| 20 | A god has a halo perhaps, surrounding head (6) |
| APOLLO | |
| A + O (halo perhaps) containing [surrounding] POLL (head) | |
| 21 | Eat away, having some ketchup (4) |
| ETCH | |
| Hidden in [some] {k}ETCH{up} | |
| 22 | Dot, shown to be silly, is dismissed conclusively (4,4) |
| SHOT DOWN | |
| Anagram [silly] of DOT SHOWN | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Bird in river joining lake (5) |
| OUSEL | |
| OUSE (river – any of 3 in the UK, possibly more), L (lake) | |
| 3 | City dwelling without foundation not rebuilt (7) |
| HOUSTON | |
| HOUS{e} (dwelling) [without foundation], anagram [rebuilt] of NOT | |
| 4 | Nuts mother served up (3) |
| MAD | |
| DAM (mother) reversed [served up] | |
| 5 | Former auditor reported government funds? (9) |
| EXCHEQUER | |
| EX (former), then aural wordplay [reported] CHEQUER / “checker” (auditor) | |
| 6 | A bit quiet in the auditorium (5) |
| PIECE | |
| More aural wordplay [in the auditorium] PIECE / “peace” (quiet) | |
| 7 | Prophet entertaining foreign duke, a cad? (7) |
| SEDUCER | |
| SEER (prophet) containing [entertaining] DUC (foreign – French duke) | |
| 11 | Being blunt is futile (9) |
| POINTLESS | |
| Two meanings, the first vaguely cryptic | |
| 12 | Religious festival established as most religious of all (7) |
| HOLIEST | |
| HOLI (religious – Hindu – festival), EST (established). I didn’t know the festival but took it on trust. | |
| 14 | Word of thanks jeered at? Not allowed (7) |
| TABOOED | |
| TA (word of thanks), BOOED (jeered at) | |
| 16 | Measurement right? Wrong! (5) |
| GIRTH | |
| Anagram [wrong] of RIGHT | |
| 18 | The Spanish in part of London in the underground? (5) |
| BELOW | |
| EL (‘the’ in Spanish), contained by [in] BOW (part of London as referenced in many a clue requiring aitches to be dropped) | |
| 20 | Notice nothing creating fuss (3) |
| ADO | |
| AD (notice), 0 (nothing) | |
A terrible start in the top half, but picked up in the lower and finished in 16:01. So I didn’t find it easy, but it was certainly less brutal than most of last week.
Thank you for the blog!
Back to winning ways …. just, after a truly awful run. I finished all correct in 36 minutes, which is above par (excl. the last 2-3 months), but within my upper target.
It was great to get 1a (BONHOMIE) straight off, but it only led to MAD in the early stages. I was pleased to be reminded of BLIGHTER (formerly of this parish). I wonder if he is a lurker these days.
APOLLO added 6+ minutes to my time at the end, because I had (and still have) no idea why head leads to POLL. I got there via a long alphabet trawl and with POLO for halo (makes sense, I think).
Many thanks to Izetti and Jack.
A slow finish but a real, no aids finish. No time as wife interrupted play.
LOI Girth took me ages to see and a minor whinge, I’ve only seen the bird spelt Ouzel
Thanks Jack and Izetti
A Good Day today, after the trauma of last week. Both crosswords done and dusted in 25 minutes, which is rare and left me with an unusual amount of time to fill. Of course I didn’t do anything urgent or domestic like the ironing, but have spent a couple of hours designing a quiz for our Christmas u3a architecture appreciation meeting – much more fun!
I thought this was fun too – I had the GK and knew Holi is the festival of colours which features chucking an awful lot of coloured powder about.
There are so many good clues it’s hard to choose a COD, but I particularly liked POINTLESS and GIRTH – A LOT! The only one I didn’t really like was TABOOED – as LO, BR and ND say, it’s a bit horrendous, even if it’s allowed 😅
9:55 FOI Creeds LOI and COD Piece
Thanks Izetti and Jack
27 mins with one silly error.
I enjoyed this. It felt like a proper QC.
Thanks to Izetti and jacket.
20 minutes.
As usual with an Izetti, several NHOs and therefore unenjoyable. I don’t like guessing.
If this was the easiest Izetti ever, I may as well get my coat.
POLL? ETCH? SCREED? HOLI?
PS Just to ruin my day, missed the big crossword by one clue. I saw the correct answer, couldn’t parse it, put in something else and got it wrong. Apparently the big crossword was easy today. I’m wasting my time here – took me an hour and I still failed! I really am useless!
We found this very enjoyable, and completed it close to our target time – which we have only occasionally achieved recently. We were unsure about poll for head, but the helpful explanations above now make it obvious; but we had NHO Holi for festival but it had to be. For us it was definitely at the easier end of the Izetti scale.
Thanks Jack & Izetti. More like this please.
6:11 but…
…no idea what was going on with Ruth, so bunged in BABY – can’t even claim to have heard of the US candy bar nor Grover Cleveland’s daughter. Two fails in a row, onto the next one.
Thanks Jack and Izetti
The bird is spelt OUZEL. S for Z is a misspelling. This meant I was left with _Z_U_D for 8a. Hurrumph. Admittedly there’s no R Ouze but there is a R Ouzel. Double hurrumph.
The bird can be spelt OUSE or OUZE, so there’s no misspelling, and you’ve pointed out the problem with the non-existent River OUZE. I understand your frustration, but there’s nothing wrong with the clue. The impossible checkers you were left with for 8ac should have signalled the need for a rethink.