Times Quick Cryptic No 1583 by Izetti

44 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1583 by Izetti”

1. Lackaday means ‘alas’, so alas is the definition here, ‘Not be able …’ the wordplay.
2. I had a slight eyebrow raise at RAMPANT, too, but quite slight. Straightforward; even spotted the hidden GAFFE right off. 5:44.
3. No such MER here at 8ac as a friend was killed by a ram a few years back.

   I thought this was heavy duty for a QC and I took K+10.

   FOI 6dn CUBIST

   LOI 13dn LACKADAY

   COD 24ac TERRACE

   WOD 17dn PRIMLY via Morningside.

   Now what was 3dn all about at the 15×15?

   1. Ha ha, how droll! Of course, there is no “violent farm animal” to be seen when the clue is decrypted.

      Collins online has as the first definition (in British, but very similar one can be found, though not as the first, under American) of “rampant”: 1. unrestrained or violent in behaviour, desire, opinions, etc

4. Like horryd I found that quite heavy lifting and also clocked K+10, which today is 2.7K; I think I can only give that a rating of an OK Day. Spent far too long trying to make an anagram of “date alas”; carelessly stuck in GIGI instead of GIRL which didn’t help; and kept trying to work in “scale” at 5dn (thinking that it was a “thing weighing” rather than simply a “thing”).

   So thoroughly led up lots of garden paths today, very enjoyably so. Thank you Izetti and thank you Rotter.

   FOI TRIMARAN, LOI FARE, COD LACKADAY

   Templar

5. Another tricky offering from Izetti. I reached NAP before making an entry, then worked on the SW before getting a foothold in the SE with TOM and MASTERED. I eventually gave up trying to make something out of (date alas)* and saw LACKADAY. OBJECTOR was my LOI. 12:47. Thanks Izetti and Rotter.
6. I enjoyed this so thanks all. I am going to quibble about Rampant not because it is wrong but because it is unnecessary. The cluing clearly takes us to rampant which is familiarly used to mean widespread or spreading uncontrollably. For a quickie there is no need to dig deep to find an obscure usage.
   1. Without “Violent,” this clue would have no definition. Gotta have a definition. And this isn’t an obscure usage.

      Edited at 2020-04-03 05:50 am (UTC)

      1. Widespread unchecked flourishing are all common usages – what makes it obscure for me is that when one hears the word violence doesn’t really spring to mind. Glad it works for you but I stand by my opinion
         1. It’s part of the first (British) definition in Collins, so I wouldn’t call it obscure. It must spring immediately to some people’s minds, even if not yours or mine.
            1. I said in the first place that it wasn’t technically wrong ( i found it in the OED too) Sure it’s in the dictionary so sure it has validity but dictionaries retain all kinds of obscure and archaic references. For quickies I think setters should stick to common usage.
7. Back to reality after decent times over the last two days. This was seriously tricky and I was careless in biffing ARTIST for 6d on the basis of ‘ist’ (with Art as a young Arthur? No me neither). I liked TERRACE and LACKADAY (which took some time as I biffed BRITTEN without thinking). I finished in the NW with FARE, EMAILS, and LOI RAMPANT, none of which were that difficult, on reflection. Over half an hour for me, sadly. I’ll stop trying to rush tomorrow and think about things a bit more. Thanks to Izetti for a salutory lesson and to rotter for a helpful blog. John M.
   1. Yep – I had Artist has well…thought it was a bit much having to insert an actual abbreviated name.
8. 11 minutes, delayed by hesitation as to which was the soundalike at 21 so I bunged in the first four letters and the last and waited to see what developed at 13dn which itself was not exactly straightforward for a QC.

   I also did double-takes at the alternative spellings PREMISS and CAFTAN, not sure whether I have met either before.

   Izetti appearing on consecutive Thursdays was odd too.

   1. I’d always thought that premiss/premise was yet another UK/US distinction. Whereas I don’t think I’ve ever come across KAFTAN with a K, although it clearly makes sense.
      1. I join the others on this side of the pond who have always used the spellings Kaftan and premise. John
   2. I knew there was something I wanted to mention: Gershwin’s song, “But Not For Me”:

      I was a fool to fall
      And get that way
      Hi-ho, alas! and al-
      So, lack-a-day

      1. Always great to be reminded of a classic Gershwin Bros song, this one sung in the original stage production by Ginger Rogers. I’m not unfamiliar with the word ‘lackaday’ but it’s something of a rarity these days and as such I thought the cluing was very tricky, especially in a QC.
9. I had a serious attack of glue brain this morning which wasn’t good timing as this was decidedly tricky in places. I was another looking for an anagram at 13d and hesitated over RAMPANT, despite the wordplay. Even some some of the easier clues such as OBJECTOR and CONTRACTS had me baffled for a while. To cap it off putting an extra ‘r’ in TERRACE made LOI CAFTAN a real headscratcher until I saw my mistake. Finally finished in 23.09.
   Well played Izetti and thanks to Rotter

   Edited at 2020-04-02 10:11 am (UTC)

10. 5:27. I’d have spelled PREMISE with an E and KAFTAN with a K so I thought Don was being a bit cheeky in a QUICK going with less common spellings.

    At least I avoided pink squares for only the second time this week, as my checking for typos has been a bit slack.

11. ….everything could be parsed and justified perfectly well. I’m another who usually spells CAFTAN with a K, but I’d seen PREMISS before, and had no quibble with RAMPANT. We should perhaps remember that Don is a prolific compiler at all sorts of levels, including Mephisto, and that means his vocabulary is exceptional.

    I do agree that this was one of his tougher QC’s and it took me 0.8K. My only real problem was with my LOI, where I took K to be “back of neck” when the P was in place, and tried to justify “kip”. Fortunately, I couldn’t justify “ip = not completely visible” and moved on until solving TRIMARAN !

    FOI BOUND
    LOI NAP
    COD TERRACE

12. Too difficult for me, mostly. Had to resort to paper dictionary for help. Agree strange spelling for Premiss. Did not see any double definition for Terrace. Oh, alas and lackaday.
13. Challenging, but managed it apart from LACKADAY – just did not get that ne.
14. A DNF. I have NHO LACKADAY and the word play was not helpful. I was already well over my target having been delayed by bunging in decreases (playing with the idea of decrees) at 18a which then hampered the solving of NONETS and TERRACE (mer). I normally really enjoy Izetti QCs but I was definitely not on wavelength today. Thanks Rotter for the blog.
15. Not A Great Day at all. I managed to combine the various issues and misdirections that others have mentioned individually but put them into one big mess! Artist (which messed up bound), kip (didn’t help with trimaran), Britain or Britten, kaftan, premise, etc etc. And – of course – the non-existent anagram at 13d finally did for me.

    However, despite this disaster, I enjoyed the journey as always with Izetti. Now I’m getting more experienced, I’ve been revisiting all the quickies since day 1 online to see how I get on in comparison to those early days, and was thrilled to complete an Izetti from some time in 2015 in about 7 minutes. At that stage, I would probably not have finished it at all – and today goes to show that nothing changes!

    FOI Rampant
    COD Resilient – not that I’d have a hope in hell of getting anywhere with a
    Listener crossword
    DNF

    1. Mysterious out-logging – that was me!
16. I never finish an izetti puzzle and frankly never enjoy them. Of all the setters he is the one that leaves me cold. There are others I do not finish but I find izetti clueing just odd. Probably just me so I think I will give his a miss in future too depressing to go through 20 clues without seeing an answer.

    Of course it could be I am just thick!!!

    1. Not thick of course but perhaps his name strikes fear and makes you wary. If possible, try solving first without looking at the name of the setter perhaps? Only problem with that is that you may then be wary of every puzzle! Not helpful, I know. Sorry, but I started my comments with the best of intentions, honestly.

       Edited at 2020-04-02 01:21 pm (UTC)

       1. No problem your comments have been well taken. He is the only setter that throws me I genuinely cannot get his clueing.
    2. Totally disagree with the comments about Izetti. Some of his QC’s have been amongst the easiest and all have had beautiful surfaces and great wit. IMHO none is better than Izetti.
17. Having got down to 14ac before I managed to answer a clue, I was under no illusion as to how this was going to turn out. Made things even harder for myself by having Artist at 6d and Kip at 16ac for quite a long time. Needed a second sitting to sort those and a few other issues out, but by the time I had L*c*a/t*a* for loi 13d, I had lost the will to carry on the fight and used aids for Lackaday. I’m not sure I would have got that, even on a good day. A cut above the usual QC. Invariant
18. I also found this very tough, particularly at the start.
    Completing using the app, this was one of those days I felt the need to re-select the puzzle to check I hadn’t clicked on the 15×15 by mistake!
19. Decided to solve this after the dog walk and on paper,so no exact time-but it was not quick.
    Slow to get going- my FOI was 22d GIGI (GI on both sides) -like Templar. We’ll come back to that.
    Realised there were a few difficult clues but kept going. A big WHAT? at the spelling of Premise but it couldn’t be otherwise. And fortunately I remembered a recent kaftan debate in TFFT, so I wasn’t fazed by the unusual C.
    COD to LACKADAY which I thought very difficult for a QC.
    At 21a thought Britten was the answer at first pass.
    Tried NOD at 16a and so PRIMLY (another hard one) was late to appear. NONETS arcane for the QC but gettable.
    I’m sure I’ve seen TERRACE clued like this before and it was my first thought; but Gigi prevented it.
    And finally I had another look at Gigi and corrected it to LOI GIRL.
    A high quality challenge from Izetti who, I’m sure, set a few traps. Enjoyed it very much. And congrats to Rotter for sorting it out.
    David
20. Pleased to struggle through, despite tripping in most of the places indicated by others along the way. Only gained traction in the NE and worked outwards from there. Learned quite a lot for future reference in the process.
    Plymouthian
21. … after yesterday’s faster time, with a finish in just under 20 minutes. Should never have mentioned yesterday’s success!

    I found this difficult, and I seemed to have found places to trip up that no-one else has. Even 10A Maine caused me to pause for rather a long time: the answer was clear but the parsing defeated me, as I read it as “Chief, given a” and could not see how Mine meant Chief. And LOI 13D lackaday only emerged after trial and error with all the checkers in.

    Still, at least I do have 20 minutes to spare, so thank you to Izetti for a pleasant passing of the time, even if it was more of it than I expected. And thank you to Rotter for the blog.

    Cedric

22. Slow, the main culprit was terrace, which needed an alpha trawl.
    COD terrace.

23. Stumbled over the line in about 1hr – no quibbles, just very clever and demanding clues.
24. Managed to finish apart from a mental blank around FARE and only got LACKADAY with an alphabet trawl. I would have put in ARTIST at 6d but got BOUND quite quickly which helped redirect me. I also always spell KAFTAN with a K, in fact I have one on order over the internet an it’s definatly spelt with a K! Enjoyed this a lot but as usual took my time – after all I have masses to fill while locked down! Thanks all.
25. Our slowest effort in an age – culminating in a DNF due to lackaday. Really not on Izetti’s wavelength today.

    FOI: fare
    LOI: lacka-a-
    COD: resilient

    Thanks for the blog

26. Just too difficult for me today. Even tried the technique of putting it down and looking at it later, but still a number of clues just wouldn’t come.

    Put in a few wrong ones which didn’t help – “Artist” for 6dn, “Gigi” for 22dn. Whilst I can now see Rampant for Violent, I thought it was a little obscure as a definition and just didn’t see “Lackaday” for 13dn.

    The rest are just me not being with it I think. Spent an age looking at the obvious Benjamin “Britten” but all I could think of was the film Benjamin Button which didn’t help.

    FOI – 14ac “Tom”
    LOI – no idea….
    COD – Didn’t have one – due to my disappointment.

    Thanks as usual.

27. O lackaday! Total disaster. I did NE and some S but had to give up. It didn’t help that I put Gigi and Britten though I did get premiss and caftan. Ah well. Tomis another day.
    Blue Stocking
28. Managed everything apart from EMAIL and OBJECTOR
    Should have got them but well over an hour.
    Usually write e-mail; and got TOR – but no object.
    Fairly tough
    Nick
29. I found this impossible to complete or even get half way. Just too difficult for me and the hardest I’ve encountered doing the QC. Come on guys we’re stuck indoors and want pastimes that don’t make us angry. I usually really enjoy the QC as it’s challenging for me but doable. I can’t remember when I last has a dnf.. I think I’ll steer clear of Izetti in future and go and do something challenging but fun, like giving the cat a bath.
30. I find Izetti difficult too, but mainly due to his use of archaic terms. His clueing is fine if a little convoluted. Good workout for someone like me who is trying to improve

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