Times Quick Cryptic No 1349 by Izetti

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

It’s Friday and today we have a puzzle from Izetti. “Goody”, I thought when I saw the name at the top, anticipating we would get a nice end-of-the-week test, and I wasn’t disappointed. Unusually, I was onto the wavelength straight away and got all but 10A of the across clues on first reading, and, although there are one or two down clues that held me up a bit more, I still managed a rare sub-5 minutes for an Izetti QC. I hesitate to say it is an easier than usual puzzle, though, as I think there are one or two clues that the less-experienced might find tricky. We are treated to typical Izetti smooth surfaces and neat wordplay and, what is more, we have a Pangram! “Lovely job”, as they say in these parts. Thanks, Izetti. How did you all like it?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, Abc indicating anagram of Abc, deletions like this and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Rich man takes a plunge (5)
DIVES – We start with a double definition. Did your remember the biblical parable of DIVES and Lazarus?
4 Influential man lies disgracefully (7)
SEMINAL – Anagram of man lies [disgracefully].
8 One looking for something for a long time by river (7)
FORAGER – FOR (for) AGE (a long time) [by] R (river). In case you are wondering what you might forage for beside a river, see here.
9 Craft of cricketer, one opener for Kent (5)
BATIK – A nicely deceptive wordplay; the answer has nothing to do with cricket. BAT (cricketer) I (one) and the first letter of [opener for] Kent. The craft is of “wax-resist dying” and originates from Indonesia.
10 Amazing sunspot due to explode (10)
STUPENDOUS – Anagram of sunspot due [to explode].
14 Lives with sailor, facing day of doom? (6)
ABIDES – AB (abbreviation for Able seaman, sailor) IDES (day of doom). As in the day of doom of Julius Caesar.
15 One last character brought into hospital room as miracle-worker? (6)
WIZARD – I (One) Z (last character of the alphabet) [brought into] WARD (hospital room) to get the worker of miracles. The mildly cryptic nature of the definition is indicated by the “?”.
17 Daughter is instructed about Rex, being very worried (10)
DISTRAUGHT – D (daughter) IS (is) TAUGHT (instructed) [about] R (Rex). I wonder if she was being instructed about African literature?
20 Spy, not a fellow lacking manners? (5)
AGENT – If you are male and not lacking in manners you might be described as A GENT.
22 One savage hiding love, set apart (7)
ISOLATE – Here we a see a setter’s trick to remember in action – getting you through the surface reading to think of a noun when you need to find the verb. I (One) SLATE (savage, as in criticise severely) [hiding] O (love). Nice one.
23 Draw out from old region (7)
EXTRACT – EX (from) TRACT (old region, a large one).
24 Bishop in spin as one who defies convention? (5)
REBEL – B (Bishop) [in] REEL (a spin).

Down
1 Expert gets fed up over time (4)
DEFT – We are into down territory now and see a couple of Down positional indicators. Take FED and place it [up] and then put it [over] T (time). Another bit of sneakery; we want ‘expert’ the adjective not the noun.
2 Sort of word used by clever bloke (4)
VERB – Hidden word in cleVER Bloke.
3 Tourist maybe to express sadness over trees destroyed (9)
SIGHTSEER – SIGH (express sadness) [over] anagram of trees [destroyed], [maybe] indicating a definition by example –  a day-tripper would be another sort of sightseer.
4 Fasteners from ship securing net (6)
STRAPS – The ship is S.S. Put it outside [securing] TRAP (net).
5 Crowd of a thousand meeting old boy (3)
MOB – M (a thousand in roman numerals) O.B. (old boy, as in an alumnus). Are there any old boys from my school who would draw a crowd of 1000, I wonder?
6 The country’s reasonable, wanting a new leader (8)
NATIONAL – Take RATIONAL (reasonable) and replace the first letter [leader] with N (new).
7 Liquid is leaked — there’s water close to here (8)
LAKESIDE – Anagram of [liquid] is leaked.
11 Being troubled about front of house, our resident down the street? (9)
NEIGHBOUR – Anagram of being [troubled] outside [about] the first letter of [front of] House, OUR (our). Resident down the street, or around the corner, or even next door, hence the punctilious “?” indicating a definition by example.
12 Hospital has a specially designed drawer for equipment (8)
HARDWARE – H (hospital) A (a) and an anagram of [specially designed] drawer.
13 Most drunk a little extra before short nap (8)
TIPSIEST – TIP (a little extra) SIESTa (short, i.e. missing the last letter, nap).
16 Olde-worlde, but not quite antique strangely (6)
QUAINT – Anagram (strangely) of all but the last letter of (not quite) antique.
18 Post to get stuck in the auditorium (4)
JAMB – Sounds like [in the auditorium] JAM (get stuck). I you got this far and got stuck and realised we were close to a pangram you might wonder about where the J might be, and here it is. I, of course, was initially looking for a homophone of a word like “mail” or “job” before I spotted it was that sort of post. Did anyone else get fooled like me?
19 Being old-fashioned, you will cry (4)
YELL – If you were old fashioned you might say YE’LL instead of you will. And here’s our missing Y.
21 Side stopping shortly for a drink (3)
TEA – The side is a TEAm, losing its last latter (stopping shortly). All done. Time for a cup of the same, I think.

25 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1349 by Izetti”

  1. I was slowed down by a couple: HARDWARE for one, JAMB –yes, I was thinking of ‘mail’–REBEL (JAMB settled that one for me), and LOI ISOLATE, where I wasn’t about to biff after yesterday’s bish (I learned that one here, and will never use it again); finally remembered SLATE. Never noticed that it was a pangram; but then, I never do. 6:06.

    Edited at 2019-05-10 12:33 am (UTC)

  2. I’m obviously out of sync with everyone, slow compared to previous posters and very, very low on the leaderboard. Only two on the first pass of the acrosses and only a bit better on the downs. Thought the NW was going to be too tough but in the end it was the SE that held out the longest, the two short clues in the very corner being the last -JAMB was sneaky! VERB was an excellent hidden – took me two revisits to spot it and that unlocked that corner. Never heard of BATIK but once the checkers were in it felt like it had to be, so all parsed and all green, even if it did take a little over 20m.
  3. I didn’t find this difficult yet I had 12 minutes on the clock when I completed the last answer (TIPSIEST), which rather surprised me.
  4. An excellent Izetti puzzle today. I agree with our blogger’s review. There were some obscure words but I kept telling myself to rely on the cryptic and it worked this time.
    LOI the unknown BATIK. Prior to that JAMB ( the word still looks odd to me ) and YELL. DIVES I remembered from previous crosswords but beginners might struggle with that.
    As ever with Izetti, I learnt something and enjoyed the experience. Time 12:16.
    Completely missed the pangram -which would have been helpful for JAMB. David

  5. Very good puzzle but difficult for me. I started quite well but ended up searching for clues I could reasonably attempt and was more dependent than usual on crossers (e.g. For DIVES and BATIK). In the end I came close to 5Kevins ( for those who do like to have an estimate of solvers’ times for comparison). The main thing is that I enjoyed the challenge. LOI was YELL but other late answers included the excellent FORAGER, ISOLATE, BATIK, SIGHTSEER, TIPSIEST, JAMB. The F1 Club will always use their experience and skill to sprint through but I expect some other solvers will have taken longer than usual, like me. A very enjoyable Friday challenge from Izetti and a helpful blog. Thanks, both. John M.
    Note. I’m impressed by those who spotted the pangram. I wouldn’t see one if I tripped over it.

    Edited at 2019-05-10 07:58 am (UTC)

  6. I’m another who did the top half in record time and then got very held up lower down. Jamb was a long time coming and Tipsiest took even longer. I spent a long time thinking that the ‘est’ at the end was going to be a shortened version of rest. 18:53 in the end.
  7. If you are on the wavelength it definitely helps – if you aren’t some of this was tricky. Fortunately for me there were obvious answers for some of the clues which were tricky. Never heard of batik for example. thanks
  8. I was on the wavelength but hit a wall at YELL and particularly JAMB, which together took longer than the rest of the CW, moving from under 2 to about 3 Ks.
  9. I had to follow the wordplay for DIVES and BATIK, otherwise no particular holdups. Forgot to check who set the puzzle before I did it, and didn’t notice the pangram as usual. Nice puzzle. 7:50. Thanks Izetti and John.
  10. About 18 minutes with only 18d remaining, then probably another 18 to get that, helped for the first time by realising it was a pangram so it had to be jamb.

    Also dnk batik

    Cod sightseer.

  11. Seemed a fair puzzle today, one I had a chance of getting to grips with – thank you! After my target hour, three clues were left. “Used by” as a contained in for 2D was beyond me but seems fair now I think about it. Dives as answer to 1A came to mind very quickly for a plunge but I discounted it not being familiar wIth the term as a rich man. 18D and jamb also not a term i’ve come across. Just two too obscure clues is bearable and educational – thanks again! DavidS
  12. ….when I’m in the later stages of a puzzle that I’m struggling with (I’ve read Vinyl’s comment on today’s 15×15, where I’m headed next, with some trepidation !), and that wasn’t the case here. Ninas are something I never spot !

    FOI DIVES
    LOI ABIDES
    COD BATIK
    TIME 3:14

  13. I had a similar experience to jackkt. LOI TIPSIEST and completed in 11:29.

    Other than that, I guessed 1a DIVES as I am not conversant with biblical parables and struggled to spell HARDWARE but was saved by the checkers. I do enjoy an Izetti and I spotted the pangram which is a lovely bonus. Thanks John for the blog.

  14. I really enjoy Izettis, whether I can do them or not. There’s just something about the elegance of his surfaces (prime examples today at 10 ac and 16 down, joint COD for me, but great clues everywhere). On wavelength today for 1.25 Kevins, a Very Good Day Indeed. LOI JAMB.

    Thanks for a splendid blog, John.

    Templar

  15. My stable remains unflustered today. Liked 12d a lot.
    My thanks to setter and blogger.
    5’05”
  16. About 8 minutes – first thought at 9ac was KAYAK, as a Mr Kay might have been a player – soon downs excluded that.
    19dn was LOI – only checked for pangram afterwards.
  17. Unlike others I found the bottom half of this relatively straightforward but the top was a real struggle, with the unknown DIVES and BATIK causing a lot of head scratching. However I can only put my slowness to get VERB and NATIONAL (LOI) down to Friday doziness. Finished in 18.33 with my favourite being 2d.
    Thanks for the blog
  18. Started really well, and had the top half finished in 10mins, but then I had to go out for about 5hrs and it was a different story when I returned. Needed another 30mins for the bottom half, including Mrs Invariant chipping in with Jamb – she is an architect, so is quite helpful with anything vaguely to do with buildings (she also has the annoying knack of ‘seeing’ answers without having a clue about the cryptic). CoD for me was one of the final ones to fall, 14ac Abides – the surface fooled me for a long time. Invariant
  19. As I’ve said before, there are certain assumptions inherent within the QC setting community that are out of date with what I usually refer to as the modern world of education. One of these is familiarity with the bible. I’m no spring chicken but neither I nor any of my friends had heard of Dives. I could make similar comments about musical terms and the Greek and Roman classical world. I can’t help thinking clues based on such assumptions are a bit unfair for a QC.
  20. 29 minutes, with 12 of those at the end trawling the alphabet, trying to find a word for B_T_K. Finally trusted the parsing and put in the correct answer.
  21. … and all because I managed to put BLUNT in at 20a. Ended up realising that the NOT in the clue made this wrong but then needed aids to get 12d and 13d. On that basis it was a technical DNF for me which took about 40 minutes over two sittings. Strangely, unlike others, I had no problem with Batik and Jamb. I am impressed by the pangram but didn’t spot it! Thanks to Izetti for a real challenge and to John for explaining everything so clearly – I certainly needed help with some of the parsing today!!! MM
    FOI: 10a
    LOI: 20a
    COD: 12a
  22. An enjoyable Sunday solve. FOI DIVES (am familiar with the parable),and also knew BATIK. Realized that it was likely to be a pangram once I had WIZARD and QUAINT, and this helped me to crack JAMB, which existed as only a faint trace in my memory. My last two that I got really stuck on were ABIDES and TIPSIEST. Spent far too long pondering before cracking them with the help of some external aids. Loved the surfaces, always enjoy Izetti even when I get stuck on the last few clues.
    1. Thank-you for posting. I love it when I still get comments days after the crossword is published. It’s always interesting to hear people’s experiences and compare them with my own. ABIDES came quite quickly to me as the AB to start leapt out, but I left TIPSIEST until I had some checkers. It seems that quite a few of us found that one a bit tricky.

Comments are closed.