Times Quick Cryptic No 1299 by Izetti

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Oh my goodness, March already! Well I just had to say that after my introduction to my blog before last when one of my friends reminded me that February, this year at least, has only 28 days. This is my first Izetti to blog for a while and I was glad to get to blog another one as we always get a good challenge from the Don. A couple of less common words in the answers, but the wordplay and checkers should help. One clue appears to have a misprint, but should still be solvable. I liked 8A, 16A and 20A but COD to 3D. All done and dusted for me in a sub-average time of about 5 1/2 minutes, but I foresee a couple of obstacles for the less experienced Thanks Izetti for the fun. How did you all get on?

Definitions underlined in italics, Abc indicating anagram of Abc, deletions like this and instructional indicators “like this”.

Across
1 Holiday site that’s quiet by river (4)
CAMP – The river CAM,  (which runs through the Fenland Polytechnic, where I work 2 days a week).  P (piano – quiet) “by” it.
3 See pram being resigned in lab units (7)
AMPERES – Anagram (“resigned”) of See pram. That’s a very odd anagrind (anagram indicator) and a strange surface reading too. Should the clue have said “redesigned”, or just “designed” perhaps? The units are of electric current, of course.
8 Bit of praise with hit you don’t see coming? (1,3,2,3,4)
A PAT ON THE BACK – If someone sneaks up behind you and gives you one of these you wouldn’t see it coming. Nice bit of whimsy in the cryptical definiion.
9 Silent parent (3)
MUM – Double definition, first as in “keeping mum”.
10 Dessert, but no starter? One might be fired! (5)
RIFLE – The dessert without the starter (i.e. first letter) is a tRIFLE, leaving the long-barrelled shooter. My Dad always insisted that trifle had to be made with green jelly. Hmm. I’m sure I must have inherited a predeliction or two of that ilk, but I’d rather not admit to it/them.
12 As neighbour next door, one listening into home? (7)
NEAREST – Take your listening organ, EAR and put it “into” NEST (home). Neighbours don’t get any nearer than next door… unless you live in a house converted into flats, when they might upstairs or downstairs or across the landing.
14 Priests scattered fairies (7)
SPRITES – Make an anagram (“scattered”) of priests and get these etheral creatures.
16 Cake that’s part of breakfast or tea (5)
TORTE – Hidden in breakfasT OR TEa. A torte is “a rich, usually multilayered, cake that is filled with whipped cream, buttercreams, mousses, jams, or fruits“. This is a yummy looking Dobos torte.
17 English bishop finds sin (3)
ERR – Not the usual B for bishop… E (English) R.R. (Right Reverend) – an abbreviation to remember, it crops up regularly in crossword-land.
20 Cash machine one of many appearing in Berlin in 1989? (4,2,3,4)
HOLE IN THE WALL – We all know what happened in Berlin in November nearly 30 years ago, don’t we?
21 Many set free, given pardon (7)
AMNESTY – Anagram of Many set (“free”).
22 In the morning getting bigger-than-average holy book (4)
AMOS – Join AM (In the morning) and OS (out-sized – bigger than average), to get the third book of the minor prophets in the Old Testament.

Down
1 Cathedral maps, about to be introduced (8)
CHARTRES – The maps are CHARTS. Introduce RE (about). A lovely cathedral in Chartes in Northern France, it is on the World Heritage List. “Partly built starting in 1145, and then reconstructed over a 26-year period after the fire of 1194, Chartres Cathedral marks the high point of French Gothic art.“

I remember singing there under the tower, spotlit from above in a cone of light with a haze of incense. The audience told us they could see bats flitting through the haze as we sang, Sorry. Too much information, perhaps.
2 Supper? Yours truly will have a litre! (4)
MEAL – The questionmark here signals a definition by example. Yours truly is ME. Add A L (litre). Supper? Not in my house – we have tea or dinner.
3 Fall over in America (6)
AUTUMN – Cryptic definition. Read it as “Fall, over in America”. Very sneaky, our setter, isn’t he? Nice one!
4 Pa’s a listener out to make friendly conversation (12)
PLEASANTRIES – Anagram of Pa’s a listener (“out”). I’m a Pa and I listen and, I think, make friendly conversation, Et voila!
5 Come back to gather fruit (8)
REAPPEAR – This one has cropped up (as it were) more than once recently. REAP (gather) PEAR (fruit).
6 Get very wet, we hear, in this historic legal territory (4)
SOKE – Fortunately I remembered this word for a jurisdiction. Sounds like (“we hear”) SOAK (get very wet).
7 Can’t memories get distorted in current accounts? (12)
COMMENTARIES – Anagram of Can’t memories (“get distorted”). Here the questionmark indicates a cryptic definition.
11 Chemical solution, sort put on a wrinkle mostly (8)
FORMALIN – I think this one might give a bit of trouble to some. FORM (sort or kind, as in ‘form of address’) A LINe, (a wrinkle) “mostly” – i.e. without the last letter. The wordplay saved me from mis-spelling it formulin. Formalin is a saturated solution of Formaldehyde, as you know, of course…. or maybe not. Is this pukka general knowledge?
13 Foot-operated devices having lad steer awkwardly (8)
TREADLES – Anagram of lad steer (“awkwardly”). What machines are treadle-powered these days, I wonder?
15 Second gate maybe for one keeps watch (6)
SENTRY – S (second) ENTRY (gate). The “maybe” indicates definition by example.
18 What person has a command to stop? (4)
WHOA – WHO (what person) and A. Don’t stop yet, John. One more clue to go.
19 Maiden inexperienced becomes upset, tender (4)
WARM – M (maiden) RAW (inexperienced) written in upwards (“upset”). And your blogger relaxes in a warm glow of satisfaction at another blog completed. And so to bed, looking forward to some interesting comments in the morning.

44 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1299 by Izetti”

  1. NHO FORMALIN, and the wordplay did not inspire me, so I decided the hell with it. I don’t know where I learned SOKE–well, I didn’t learn it, since I couldn’t have told you what it is–but it came to mind. Is it pukka GK for a Quickie?
  2. Another quite tough one 35 mins.

    Dnk soke or formalin which is not helpfully clued. I think
    …class put on a wrinkle mostly is better.

    Agree resigned is a typo, clue for nearest rather clunky.

    Loi amps, pleasantries and formalin.

    Cod autumn or amnesty.

  3. 9 minutes but with FORMULIN in error – I semi-biffed it probably thinking of ‘formula’ and didn’t understand the wordplay. Never heard of SOKE but went with it as a homophone for “soak” – get very wet. Didn’t we have another obscure legal term in a QC earlier in the week? Enough already! Also, between here and the 15×15, we seem to have had a surfeit of ‘rifle’ recently.

    Edited at 2019-03-01 08:07 am (UTC)

    1. ADEEM, it was. And of course we had RIFLE only yesterday (“Search thoroughly for weapon”; I have to say I prefer today’s clue).
      1. And we had WINCHESTER RIFLE in the 15×15 I blogged on Tuesday which was also derived from ‘trifle’.
  4. Having forgotten to write it in yesterday, nice to get a second chance to enter RIFLE. Still ended up with red squares though – I didn’t avoid writing in FORMULIN, in fact I was undecided between that and FORMULAN so it could have ended up badly. Also managed to transpose the the A and D in TREADLES. Surprised I managed to fit all those mistakes into 17 minutes. Overall this has been a week to forget, with only Wednesday being all green, having not been able to finish the first two of the week. The QC is on a par with the main Telegraph puzzle at the moment and that’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow. See you Monday.
  5. My best of week, slightly surprisingly and until last 3 was looking at a rare sub-10. Then AMOS, WARM and PLEASANTRIES held me up. Also took a while to twig RR for bishop. DNK SOKE, but it had to be. COD 8ac or 3dn. When I get stuck on stubborn anagrams and have no paper or awake Mrs soj, I find bunging in remaining letters of the anagram in whatever order sometimes helps the word materialise (as it did with PLEASANTRIES).
  6. The Don managed to stretch me to well over my target time at 13:05, but at least I had no pink squares. SOKE was unknown and put in as the best homophone for SOAK. Vaguely knew FORMALIN. 8a, 4d and 7d all head me up for a while. AUTUMN was a bit sneaky too! My Mam used to have a Singer sewing machine which was treadle operated. Quite a piece of machinery, it took up as much room as a modern computer desk. It had a wooden cover to make it look like a piece of furniture when not in use. Thanks Izetti and John.
    1. So did mine. A lovely piece of kit, where the machine lifted up from the well in the centre and with two small drawers either side. Unfortunately they were mass produced, so are not worth anything.
  7. 19:30, so I was pleased to be just under my target , and for an Izetti as well!
    I think I would have struggled with this one six months ago, so don’t give up if you fail.
    I didn’t know SOKE or CHARTRES.

    Brian

  8. Strangely I was really on Izetti’s wavelength today and finished with a PB of 9:12 having bunged in SOKE from the wordplay with fingers crossed. Like Jackkt, I also put in FORMULIN initially but thankfully reviewed it before moving on.
  9. Schoolboy error by me – I remembered references to the Soke of Peterborough but managed to put in soak in a moment of carelessness. I thought that the cathedral was Chartreuse so needed to check that it might be Chartres. OED says it’s a place noted for its cathedral rather than the cathedral as such but heh
    1. Yes Peterborough was the one I remembered too. And not far away from that is the soke of Isle of Ely. With lots of good soaking and sealevels rising due to global warming, it may become a real Isle again before the end of the century.
  10. Unlike some, I was just not on Izetti’s wavelength today. Spent some time going round the grid before gaining some momentum but found lots to make me scratch my head (not helped by a couple of typos that I only picked up when entering crossing answers). Had to look up SOKE because it was clear from the clue but unknown to me. Kept coming back to an anagram of fairies (with friars in mind) instead of priests – a neat diversion that should not have been a problem. AMPERES was nicely masked, I thought. My LOI and COD was AUTUMN (doh!). I seem determined to gravitate towards the SCC this week – 24 mins. John M.

    Edited at 2019-03-01 09:57 am (UTC)

  11. DNF for me having made a right horlicks of the SW. I carelessly wrote in AMENSTY instead of AMNESTY, so that for 11dn I was ultimately left looking at F_R__L_E. Of course like a great gumby I then wrote in FORMULAE, because … err … it fitted, even though the only bit that obviously worked was FORM for “sort”. What a twerp.

    Shame because it was an excellent puzzle; I don’t know why Izetti puzzles are so good but they just are. My habit is to ring, as I solve, the numbers of clues that I particularly enjoy so as to identify COD more easily – with an Izetti half the paper is covered in rings and today was no exception. AUTUMN, AMNESTY, AMOS, WHOA, SENTRY … but COD from me to the transformation of priests into SPRITES, such a taut, neat surface. Bravo.

    Thanks Izetti and John.

    Templar

  12. 12 minutes and a pleasant challenge. I didn’t quite understand what ‘lab’ was doing in 3a, and agree that the anagrind looks like a typo. SOKE was only vaguely remembered, but it couldn’t be anything else. COD to 3D. Thanks to the Don and the John for puzzle and blog respectively.
  13. Having started a new job this week, I’ve been doing the QC in the evening. Today, however, is my day off and so I’ve been able to finish the crossword in a far more focused way and maybe that’s why I almost breezed through this one. I’d never heard of “soke” and DNK the Book of Amos but they had to be the right answers so in they went. I really liked 8 and 20 across – I’m always particularly impressed by multi-word answers and find them fun to crack. In 3 across, I just read “resigned” as “re-signed” and went with it. Great entertainment. Thanks, John, for a very interesting blog and thanks, too, to Izetti for a super puzzle.
    1. Yes. That’s how I took it But the surface reading is rather clunky for an Izetti clue. What does it mean to re-sign a pram? And why in a lab? Whereas “See pram designed in lab (units)” is, to my mind, a more believable sentence.
      Good luck with the new job!
      1. but however you word it, it still screams “look at me, I’m an anagram!”
        but that’s all fair for the QC
      2. Thanks, John!

        The thing is that I’m still not experienced enough to really be aware of clunky surface readings…ignorance is bliss!

        1. you really should spend the time to appreciate a good surface
          it should sound reaonable sentence, eg an overheard snippet of conversation or a newspaper headline; not like a random collection of words from a typewriting monkey
          1. 21A is a great example of the cleverness that can go into a surface reading… “Many set free, given pardon”, which is what happens when the answer to the clue, an AMNESTY, is declared. In retrospect, that maybe should have been my COD! One of the things I love about doing the blog is that it makes me stop to smell the roses and appreciate the setter’s art.
  14. A good challenging puzzle from Izetti as always, which I finished in 9:12. Didn’t spot the typo in 3ac when solving, my brain read it as redesigned. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    Adrian

    1. I don’t understand why a few people thought that resigned was a typo ?
      I took it as re-signed in other words an anagram.
      1. Yes that works, and I initially thought it just odd. And most of the time, when we think there’s an error or misprint in the clue it’s because we’ve been bamboozled by the setter. I’m quite prepared to believe that is true here! But one of things I admire about an Izetti puzzle (and those of his fellow QC setters too), is the care that is taken to make the surface reading of the clue make sense.. and I couldn’t make sense of re-signing a pram in a lab… see other comments about this from others elsewhere in today’s blog.

        Edited at 2019-03-01 08:52 pm (UTC)

  15. The two long anagrams took a bit of unraveling, not helped by each having a double uncher. These held me back a bit so over target with 6’50”.
    Thanks as always to setter and blogger.
  16. I usually find Izetti tough but reasonably straightforward, but I struggled with this offering. I knew of SOKE and FORMALIN, the latter I suspect is just an age thing. I had no problem with ‘resigned’ which, like Louisa, I simply read as ‘re-signed’ although I agree that it is a most unusual anagrind. I did wonder though why a ‘lab’ unit. Surely an AMPERE is just a unit, hardly specific to a lab?
    FOI MEAL
    LOI AMPERE
    COD A PAT ON THE BACK (although tbh once the ‘K’ appeared it was pretty obvious)
    PlayUpPompey
    1. I thought the ‘lab’ a bit superfluous too. I took it as helping with the surface, describing where you see the pram being re-signed(?) or designed. But when I worked in a lab I did a lot of experiments where I measured Amperes.

      Edited at 2019-03-01 05:42 pm (UTC)

  17. ….was the autobiography of the late jockey Pat Eddery.

    Wrote this practically straight in, with the only diversion being caused by needing to go back for my LOI.

    FOI CAMP
    LOI FORMALIN
    COD AUTUMN
    TIME 3:11

    1. Thanks for that. Great name for the book! Which reminds me… out walking with some friends today, we decided we should have a get together before we go to the Marbella Walking Festival again this year. But what to call the event? Eventually we got it… a Pre-amble.
  18. Just inside my 10 minute target although I was racing through until I hit my last four. They were 19d WARM (no particular reason) 6d SOKE (some hesitation over the most appropriate sounding unchecked letters) 11d FORMALIN (constructed from wordplay) and LOI 7d COMMENTARIES where I was fixated on finding a word for a bank account. Thank you John for the blog and Izetti for the wordplay.

    I did not see the typo at 3a and COD for me was 5d for the surface reading.

    Edited at 2019-03-01 12:48 pm (UTC)

  19. A good mixture of clues I thought from Izetti. As ever I learnt some words but the clueing seemed clear to me so the unknown SOKE went in confidently and LOI FORMALIN.
    Finished in 14:11. David
  20. I managed to see both of the multi-word answers straight away, and that opened up the grid. After that it was just a case of hopping around picking off any answers with helpful crossers. As others have noted, 3ac makes sense if read as re-signed, so it didn’t hold me up, unlike Formalin, where I hadn’t got a clue what was going on until I had the F from Rifle. Nice misdirection in my CoD 7d Commentaries, but having recently read Luther’s Galatians, it came to mind easily enough. My thanks to Izetti for an enjoyable 27 minutes and John for the informative blog. Invariant
  21. Was I the only one to start off confidently with”pier” for 1a? P for quiet, ie for that’s, r for river results in a site I often visited on holiday. I know the order is wrong but experience is that can’t be relied on. Fortunately 2d was so generously clued that my mistake soon became obvious. Once that was resolved the rest was fairly straightforward for an Izetti although 19d took a while to parse.
    Pwliv
    1. yes, I think you probably were
      and, in my experience, the clues are always accurate – IF you read them correctly
      1. No he wasn’t – I was dubious enough not to write it in, but certainly gave it some thought.
  22. I found this very tricky and struggled to get a toehold (let alone a foothold) anywhere. Of the long clues only 20a went in without most of the checkers already in place. No obvious reason why I found it so hard as everything was fairly clued – including the unknowns at 6 and 11d. I was very relieved to finally finish in 25.08 with LOI SOKE. CoD to AUTUMN for the almighty clang when the penny eventually dropped.
    Thanks for the blog
  23. I liked 3D but can’t help thinking it ought to have been clued as Fall over in England. I.e. Fall over in England is Autumn. Autumn over in America is Fall.

    Or it might just be me!

    1. Good point! That works almost equally well, but doesn’t give the clue that there is some US-speak here. You’re version might do for the 15×15, though!
  24. I worked out the fall meaning immediately, but put the comma after over, thus attaining the meaning of finished. Without any checkers, I bunged in ” spring”, as in the end of fall in America!
  25. Lol. By your logic, shouldn’t you have got to WINTER as the wrong answer?

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