Times Quick Cryptic 999 by Izetti – Goldilocks does the Quickie

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Number 999… Woo. I wonder if we will get anything extraordinary on Monday? Meanwhile, here we have another great crossword from Izetti. Just the right mix of easy and not so easy clues to make it a challenge for both newcomers and old hands, I think – my solving time was pretty much smack on my long-term average. Not too hard and not too soft (for 4d perhaps?). But I guess your mileage may differ. Some entertaining clues – I particularly liked 16a, 11d and 21d, for example. Fun to solve and fun to blog. How did you all find it? Thanks Izetti!

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Army officer no longer having faith fell down (9)
COLLAPSED – COL (Army officer) + LAPSED (no longer having faith). A neat construction job of a clue, but the result didn’t stand up.
6 Mother very angry rolling round (3)
DAM – So angry you are MAD, and you reverse into the cow’s mother. Ouch.
8 Walker who keeps talking incoherently? (7)
RAMBLER – Double definitIon. I could go on and on writing about this clue… but I won’t (thank goodness, you say).
9 Son getting somewhat hot in crowd (5)
SWARM – S + WARM (somewhat hot). Nice surface. My son doesn’t like crowds either.
10 Nation a bit angrier possibly? Time to probe that (5,7)
GREAT BRITAIN – (a bit angrier)* [possibly] with T (time) inside (to probe that). Where this crossword is published. But it’s nice to see we have solvers all over the world.
12 Canine mammal you spotted without tail entering animal shelter (6)
COYOTE – This is a bit wily (or should that be Wile E?). it’s YO{u} [without tail] inside COTE (animal shelter). Cote wasn’t a word that sprang immediately to mind – it’s most usually used to refer to a shelter for birds, especially pigeons.
13 Seaman meets girl, a god (6)
OSIRIS – OS (ordinary seaman) + IRIS (girl – my Aunt, for one) to give us the Egyptian god of fertility, killed by his brother Seth and restored to a new life as ruler of the afterlife (or so my online dictionary informs me). Aka husband of Isis and father of Horus.
16 Well, senators could be such obstructive people! (12)
STONEWALLERS – What a nice surface! (Well, senators)* [could be] disinclined to answer any questions directly. And if they were (8a)s too, they could be filibusters.
19 Home established finally by American river (5)
INDUS – IN (Home) + {establishe}D + US to give us the mighty Asian river. Hands up if you spent time trying to think of an American river! (Yes, I did).
20 Competent old man tethered by rope (7)
CAPABLE – Putting PA (old man) inside [tethered by] CABLE (rope). That’s no way to treat your Dad, competent or not!
22 Knight maybe is returning with king (3)
SIR – IS [returning] + R (king). Nope, I wasn’t knighted in the New Years honours list, so you can continue to call me just John.
23 Publication one found at sports event (9)
SPECTATOR – A straight double definition. I don’t read the magazine and I’m rarely to be found watching a sports event…. the last time I did that, I was taken to a cracking Aussie Rules footie game in Melbourne in August 2016. Come on you Pies!

Down
1 Man in vehicle, one learning to drive (4)
CARL – CAR (vehicle) + L (one learning to drive). Yes. It’s that straightforward. One for those learning to do crosswords, perhaps?
2 Aquatic creature hit hard, animal killed by another (7)
LAMPREY – LAM (hit hard) + PREY (animal killed by another).to give the jawless fish older than the dinosaurs. According to this article about their reapperance in UK rivers, King Henry I of England was known to be especially fond of the fish but died in 1135 after eating “a surfeit of lampreys” while in Normandy.
3 Device making holes everybody heard (3)
AWL – …sounds like ALL (everybody) [heard].
4 Writer in bed in the Home Counties (6)
SCRIBE – CRIB [bed] inside [in] SE (Home Counties). Writing, or doing the crossword on paper, is not something I do in bed, but maybe there are some flaxen-haired lady solvers in Kent who do.
5 Rejection upset boy — is young lady hiding? (9)
DISMISSAL – The boy is a LAD standing on his head [upset] with IS + MISS (young lady) inside [hiding]. Out! Well thats the nearest to a cricketing clue today.
6 Emotional episode when doctor meets an old woman (5)
DRAMA – DR (doctor) + A MA (an old woman). Now which TV hospital series might that be in?
7 Important times exciting most men (7)
MOMENTS – [exciting] (most men)*…. at just the right time.
11 Sees cast in action, having taken on board right performers (9)
ACTRESSES – (Sees cast)* [in action] including [having taken on board] R. Nice to see what the female performers might be part of in the anagrist.
12 Conservative idiot is hanging around university, a plotter (7)
CASSIUS – C (Conservative) + ASS (idiot) + IS [hanging around] U (university). The famous instigator of the plot against Julius Caesar.
14 Unusual coin found in food (7)
RAREBIT – No it’s not a food with a coin in (like a traditional christmas pudding) to get a word meaning unusual, but RARE + BIT to get the more common cheese on toast.
15 Georgia, university revolutionary lacking social graces (6)
GAUCHE – GA (Georgia) + U (university) + CHE (revolutionary). Che Guevara is worth remembering. He is forever appearing in crossword land.
17 Group of monks giving command (5)
ORDER – Double definition. I have twin cousins (once removed) who are Capuchins.
18 Try Bach’s final piece on organ (4)
HEAR – Try, as in what a judge does, made from {Bac}H’s [final piece] + EAR (organ). I wonder which of Bach’s many organ pieces was his last? Edit: To answer my own question, it’s BWV 668 – Organ Choral – “Vor deinen Thron tret ich”.
21 Grass from peak, looking up (3)
POT – TOP (peak) [looking up] to find that sort of grass. Ooh Izetti. I never expected that from you!

26 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 999 by Izetti – Goldilocks does the Quickie”

  1. Wasted some time trying to think of a god whose name begins TAR; I think DISMISSAL put paid to that. 16ac is really lovely. ‘Home Counties’ is a very common way to get SE (‘Tyneside’ and some others I forget for NE). 6:19.
  2. Strictly speaking although ‘Quick Cryptic 1000’ will not be be appearing until Monday, today’s puzzle ‘999’ is actually the 1000th QC to be published since they began on 10th March 2014. This was due to an additional puzzle appearing on-line only on Christmas Day 2014 which put the numbers out of sequence.

    Anyway, a puzzle set by Izetti is special enough in itself to mark the occasion and this is another fine example. Some of the wordplay needed thinking through and this slowed me down a little as I always include parsing in my QC solving times unless otherwise stated and I needed 11 minutes in all to finish the job to my satisfaction.

  3. An entertaining puzzle I thought and at 21 minutes just over my average. Nothing particularly held me up although Swarm and Dismissal took a while to spot.

  4. Dial 999 : another DNF. Just could not see STONEWALLERS in spite of all checkers an anagram. Knew it would be a double word, but was looking at SLOW for the start. Something like SLOWLEARNERS.

    Agree that COTE was a hard def, but a Y in the middle made COYOTE very biffable.

    COD 2d LAMPREY

  5. Sorry Merlin, in my weakened state I clicked reply instead of “Leave a comment”
  6. I didn’t submit this to the leaderboard as I started it in the wee hours while allowing Microsoft to update my desktop to the latest Windows 10 version after a year of avoiding it after the previous attempts crashed every time. I’d also partaken freely of a nice Bushmills single malt. I awoke with 2 clues filled in and 1:54:45 on the clock. I had another attempt at the puzzle this morning(the update actually worked on the other system!) but found I had typos all over the place, eventually realising that “skip filled squares” had mysteriously e re-enabled). I finally submitted at 2:22:43 to find I still had RAREBBT and HEER. Grrh. Thanks Izetti and John.
  7. A typical Izetti for me. Takes a while but I get there in the end. As usual lots of lovely clues, but STONEWALLER had me reduced to playing around with letters on a piece of paper even with all the checkers in (another cricketing reference blogger, although not one that is used much these days).
    PlayUpPompey
    1. Sorry I didn’t pick this up earlier… I did see that too and I was tempted to add a question about whether the Senate had a cricket team. Great minds think alike!

      Edited at 2018-01-06 09:51 pm (UTC)

  8. A cote, or cot, is also an archaic name for a sheep pen, hence the Cotswolds referred to above.

    All pretty straightforward today with only ‘osiris’ giving much pause for thought.

    Thank you John and Izetti
    4’45”

    1. Yes, of course…. With my WHSmith vouchers from being one of the winners of the Saturday Cryptic a little while ago (supplemented more than a bit with cash), I have just bought the current Chambers dictionary (upgrading from my 1979 edition Collins!) and, unlike the online source I quoted in the blog, it does indeed say “a place of shelter for animals (as in dovecote or dovecot, sheep-cote)”. Mea Culpa… or “My bad” in the current idiom.
  9. Started really fast (for me with Izetti) and had about half the answers in just 5 mins (including today’s dog. . .). Thereafter it was a different story, with a few alphabet trawls and desperate searches for hidden words along the way. Eventually I was left with just 14d and 23ac, but it took a coffee break before I realised I had been looking at the wrong end of 14d. Even then I needed another couple of minutes before the inevitable doh moment came with 23ac. Quite a work out, but very enjoyable. Invariant
  10. Some great clues today; I particularly liked 8a (simple but effective) and 5d.
    The puzzle was challenging for a QC. I attempt quite a lot of 15x15s these days and many clues could have come from these.
    After 17 minutes I had 5 left -12a 11d 23a 21d and 20a. I thought 12a might be Cayman ( but wondered is it a mammal). Anyway I got 11d and then all the others followed almost immediately. LOI was 20a. 20 minutes in total. David
  11. … or should I state 21d was wrong only. PAT instead of POT. I’m not sure why but I thought P from peak and “looking up” equalled AT. on reflection, I’m not sure I derived that and then managed to successfully finish the remainder.
    still learning …
    thanks John and Izetti (agreed, another fine QC!).
  12. Before getting “rambler” spent ages trying to put “L” in vehicle, rather than after it for 1D (in vehicle one learning)
    1. Ah. Yes. This maybe wasn’t as easy as I suggested. Luckily I avoided this sneaky misdirection.
  13. A good mix of write-ins and those I had to think about, but as always with Izetti careful reading of the clues eventually revealed the answers. Particularly enjoyed 14d and 16a. Completed in 22 minutes with LOI 21d, where I spent a lot of time cursing my lack of knowledge of flora.
    Great blog – especially the bit about Henry I
  14. Lots of nice clues today but I still messed up with the simple enough 6a thinking ‘rolling’ might indicate a palindrome so plumped for ‘mum’. That of course stymied 6d so I can’t count this as a 100% success. However, I really enjoyed 12 a even though I was looking at first for a work inside LAIR until the Y came along, forcing coyote. I like clues such as 15d, 19a and 20a where you get very precise answers once you work out how the clue is working. Thanks to our blogger for explaining my errors and to Izetti for an elegant puzzle. FOI 8a, LOI a failed 6d, COD 1a (which took a short break to see clearly. Still got yesterday’s to finish over the weekend – it’s really tempting to look at the blog to see if it’s rated as a stinker or whether I was simply off the boil…
    1. Great to hear the story of your solving experience. 1a is, of course, a trademark Izetti clue with its ecclesiastical reference (17d being the other). As for yesterday’s, I was stymied by the unknown chinese dog… enjoy finishing it!

      Edited at 2018-01-05 10:31 pm (UTC)

  15. Outrageously diificult for the QC. Izetti is brilliant but sometimes he should be called to account for especially difficult clues such as this which might even belong in the mephisto
    1. I’m still a real novice but over the Christmas period got to a point where I’d developed a rhythm and was getting 90% of the answers to the quick cryptic crossword most days; this blog has proved invaluable tuition, so many thanks John and to all bloggers.

      I found this particular crossword, the first I’ve done from Izetti, really, really hard and it’s hit my confidence a bit, so helpful to hear others found it tough. Several definitions that were rather obscure to me, not just ‘cote’, but also ‘dam’, ‘osiris’ and even Indus. For a novice the relatively wordy clues of this crossword also presented more of a challenge than usual.

      Hoping #1000 is a nice easy Monday starter for me and others like me who are just getting into this very rewarding pastime!

      1. Oh dear. I’m sorry if I implied it was of average difficulty, when it is clear that many of you found it wasn’t. Maybe I’m just getting used to Izetti’s style and can see my way to the answers more quickly. Don’t be discouraged, it just takes practice to learn the devices and conventions. And it’s great to know that our bloggers are helping. I certainly benefited from it myself and I’m pleased to be able to pass on what I’ve learned to those who need it. Thanks for your comments!
      2. Hello, lovely to read this old comment. Exactly where I’m at now in my understanding and I’m accessing blogs for QCs published in the latest Times QC book. It’s challenging just finding them here and so your comment was a joy.
  17. As a learner who has only once completed the 15×15 (yes! on a Monday) I do hesitate to criticize the great Sir Don, who is the best teacher of crossword stuff in the world, but Homer nods and 12 across sucked!

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