Times Quick Cryptic No 1668 by Izetti

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A tough one today from Izetti, broadly on a par with Monday’s and Tuesday’s 15×15 puzzles, and I bunged in 1d with no great certainty just to creep in under the 16 minute mark. We had four long anagrams which normally makes things a bit easier, but I doff my cap if you rattled out 1ac with no checkers: I had to write out the letters for 1ac and 3d to unravel them, and I needed the very helpful first letter of 3d (and all the other checkers bar 1d) to get the former. That all took a bit of time, as did other bits of the grid, although it all looks much easier in retrospect – the mark of a very good puzzle, I’d say, so many thanks to Izetti!

Across
1 Please get her to translate this minimalist language (12)
TELEGRAPHESE – anagram (to translate) of PLEASE GET HER. Good word. In 1885 the Glasgow Herald was concerned that “Cheap telegrams will no doubt spread alarmingly the use of ‘telegraphese’.” I wonder what they would have made of text-speak? And I see it’s a contronym, like cleave, a word with two opposite meanings: with a capital letter, “Telegraphese” becomes the “elaborate or inflated language or writing style regarded … as characteristic of leading articles in the Daily Telegraph” (OED). (Usage now historical, but still.) 
8 King meets honoured people in ceremonial garb (5)
ROBES – R (Rex/king) meets OBES (honoured people)
9 Form of hostility that never heats up? (4,3)
COLD WAR – cryptic-ish definition
10 You will get a positive response (3)
YEA – YE (you) gets A
11 Little devil wandering around, making progress (9)
IMPROVING – IMP (little devil) ROVING (wandering around)
13 Final word in notice that is at front of university (5)
ADIEU – AD (bill/notice) I.E. (that is) at front of U(niversity)
14 Old lover with trick said to do well (5)
EXCEL – EX (old lover) with CEL (a sell = a trick/hoax, “said”).
16 Fruit in vessel, a lot getting mixed up (9)
CANTALOUP – CAN (vessel), an anagram (getting mixed) of A LOT, and UP hidden nicely in plain sight.
17 Name of man in telephone directory (3)
NED – “In” the letters of telephoNE Directory
19 Old trade union to celebrate caring profession (7)
NURSING – NUR (old trade union) to SING (celebrate)
21 Head off as an animal doctor, crossing river (5)
AVERT – A VET (an animal doctor) crossing R(iver)
22 Student, I ne’er worked, being not bothered (12)
UNINTERESTED – anagram (worked) of STUDENT I NEER

Down
1 Fellow providing towelling material (5)
TERRY – double definition. I suppose I might have heard of terry cloth, but I’m a bit 22ac in such things (as washing, you might ask?): anyway, a pile cloth with the loops left uncut for absorbency.
2 Sign to precede terrible rain? I may help you find the literature (9)
LIBRARIAN – LIBRA (sign) to precede an anagram (terrible) of RAIN
3 Acting out lies deviously with hand signals? (13)
GESTICULATION – anagram (deviously) of ACTING OUT LIES
4 Put up with deed that keeps church quiet (6)
ACCEPT – ACT (deed) that keeps CE, P (CoE/church, quiet)
5 One pal cheesed off said nothing (4,4,5)
HELD ONES PEACE – anagram (off) of ONE PAL CHEESED
6 Witnessed something in the woodshed? (3)
SAW – double definition
7 Apples, pears, etc. cut by half with girl anxious to avoid waste? (6)
FRUGAL – FRUits (apples, pears, etc. “cut by half”) with GAL (girl)
12 Performing on stage with a common plan? (2,7)
IN CONCERT – double definition
13 Secret arena newly built to accommodate a hundred (6)
ARCANE –  anagram (newly built) of ARENA to accommodate C (a hundred)
15 One part of body or another in which gun is deviously hidden (6)
TONGUE – TOE (another [part of body]) in which is hidden an anagram (deviously) of GUN
18 Labelled with year? That’s old-fashioned (5)
DATED – double definition
20 Managed to curtail row (3)
RAN – RANT = row, curtail = dock the tail. Edit: templarredux and the Rotter were the first to spot that it’s RANK = ROW; philjordan also provides a good explanation below.

66 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1668 by Izetti”

  1. I thought this was quite tricky and was pleased to finish in 6:54. Several long anagrams made my brain ache, but spending the extra seconds on them made the rest more doable. The fact that Verlaine could get home in just about 2 minutes is all the more remarkable.
  2. I rattled this off in under 10 minutes. Loved the long ones. Thanks Izetti.
  3. I biffed the 4 long anagrams, pretty sure in each case that the anagrist was there. DNK NUR. I’ve never seen CANTALOUPE spelled without its E; ODE doesn’t offer that as an alternative, although my Kenkyusha J-E dictionary does. I assume it’s in Chambers; anyway, it slowed me down. 5:43.
    1. Chambers has both, with CANTALOUP first.
      Collins has both, with CANTALOUPE first.

      Fortunately I wasn’t aware of the spelling one way or the other so I just went with what fitted the grid an dthe wordplay

      1. I just noticed that the UK pronunciation is -loop (in the US it’s -lope). It would seem in any case that the E is extraneous, as the word was borrowed from French ‘cantaloup’.
  4. Best make this quick, I’m not proud of myself. Thought it was HOLD ONES PIECE which made AVERT so tricky that I had to go back to the anagrist, realised it must be PEACE but then despite noticing I used more Os that were available forgot to change HOLD to HELD giving me a pink square – the tense of the clue would have helped too. I very often get pen and paper out when stuck but couldn’t be bothered to write out 13 letters today (late night) and paid the price. Lesson learned. Liked TONGUE a lot. Not all green in 17 which doesn’t put me that low on the leaderboard – lots and lots of incorrects from our fellow solvers today.

    EDIT: AYE for YEA until LIBRARIAN saved the day.

    Edited at 2020-07-30 07:37 am (UTC)

  5. I had barely started to worry that this was a bit tricky in the time those above had finished, but pleased to get there in about 40 mins. At my usual pace, precise timing is irrelevant. If I had seen 1d sooner, and in hindsight it was obvious, 1a would not have taken as long as it did and all would have been easier. Cantaloup had to be but, like my spellchecker just tried to insist, I only knew it with a final e.
    Overall plenty to engage and entertain this snail.
    Plymouthian
  6. I was on the same wavelength as Roly. I’m not sure how Kevin, Jeremy and Jackkt solved this so easily. Those long anagrams too an age to unravel. I have NHO TELEGRAPHESE but I assume it has cropped up in crossword land before. I also really struggled with the ARCANE anagram and LIBRARIAN. I wondered whether YEA was a word, I only know YEAH. 17 minutes and unusually for an Izetti I didn’t particularly enjoy it…but perhaps that is because I was outwitted.

    Edited at 2020-07-30 07:23 am (UTC)

    1. Never in the main puzzle it seems, but it has cropped up a couple of times in Mephisto and Jumbo.
    2. Yea verily I say unto you…..

      I may be an atheist, but I still remember bits of the Bible !

    3. I started with the ESE, then noticed PH as a possibility, originally starting with PH at the start. But there was nothing like PHONO… PHONETIC… etc. Then at about the same time I realized the PH could be before the ESE, and saw TELE, and that was it. Never heard of the word but it made sense of course.
      1. Well now I am even more impressed. All that mental agility and you still managed a sub 7 minutes solve. Thanks for your methodology.
        1. Sometimes I am really good at anagrams. Sometimes not. When I used to solve on paper (up until a few weeks ago) I would write the letters backwards and sometimes see the answer after just a few letters. Without that process, it’s been much harder. On the whole, I’ve gotten so much faster and consistent using the computer, but anagrams is one area where I’ve gotten slower I think.

          I have an empty text file I keep open on the computer and type the letters backwards but somehow it doesn’t shock my brain into action the same way.

          Maybe I should keep a little pad of paper by the computer.

    4. Well I’m glad to have someone to share this wavelength with – it looks like we’re in something of a minority!
  7. 8 minutes, which is good for me at the moment, and I had it noted as easy for Izetti apart from 1ac which didn’t delay me but I thought it might be hard for others.

    My only double-take was CEL for ‘trick’ at 14ac, but SOED helpfully gives this example: The whole explanation was simply an elaborate sell (B. Stoker).

  8. Think this one seemed harder than it actually was – 17:54 from me which is just about alright. Enjoyed seeing the unusual TELEGRAPHESE in the quick cryptic, and also very much enjoyed FRUGAL.
  9. I had to write out the letters for all four of the long anagrams which is unusual for me these days so it slowed me down a bit. As did a carelessly biffed YES at 10a. I made a mental note at the time to check the parsing but then forgot when trying to solve LOI LIBRARIAN. Fortunately once the sign/horoscope link popped into my head the answer became obvious. Finished in 13.18 with a nod to surface reading of 3d.
    Thanks to Roly
  10. in about 30 mins!
    Had to wait for all the checkers for LOI Telegraphese, despite getting Terry quite quickly.
    FOI Frugal and Cold War

    I don’t usual sit down to the crossword until lunchtime but got up early for workmen now not arriving today after all, so allowed myself a treat instead.

    Thanks all round as ever.

    Edited at 2020-07-30 12:32 pm (UTC)

  11. An absorbing and enjoyable puzzle. Time flew by. I thought I had been quicker than usual but ended up slightly over target with 16.50 on the screen. Last in were TONGUE (nice) and TELEGRAPHESE. Thanks to Izetti and Roly. John M.
  12. Increase in difficulty from Izetti. 15 mins.
    Biffed a few as the parsing wasn’t obvious to me: sell for trick, and ran(t) for row. I thought Arcane was similar to archaic. So I learned that today.

    Wasn’t 100% sure about Terry. Dnk telegraphese, but it seemed right.
    COD tongue.

    1. Ditto….I didn’t realise that arcane = secret. I thought it meant dated.
    2. I assumed it was ran(k) for row, as in first row, first tier. Rant isn’t really row, is it – a row needs two to tango and a rant is usually a bit of a soliloquy!

      Cedric

      Edited at 2020-07-30 04:30 pm (UTC)

      1. Ah, I see others further along the conversation got there ahead of me …
  13. I had my anagram head on today and they all resolved themselves very quickly, including 1ac straight off the bat! Hesitated over “sell” for trick but decided it must be right. Unaccountably needed the checkers to get WAR in COLD WAR. All done in 1.4K for a Very Good Day.

    FOI TELEGRAPHESE, LOI & COD TONGUE. Thanks Izetti for a very clever and enjoyable puzzle, and thanks roly for an entertaining and informative blog.

    Templar

    PS on edit – I didn’t think it was “RANT” for “row” at 20dn (I’m not even sure that rant means row, does it?) – I thought it was “RANK” for “row”, as in ranks/rows of things.

    Edited at 2020-07-30 08:50 am (UTC)

    2. Yes agree on the rant/rank front, will amend the blog – thanks, well spotted!
    3. Sorry, I am newish to crosswords. What is a checker. Is it a list of synonyms you consult or some other external resource.
      1. Sorry – late seeing this: a checker is just an intersecting square on the grid, so in this instance the first letter of the 1d, 2d, etc., clues provide checking letters for 1ac. As you progress through a puzzle, the more checkers you have the easier it gets to answer the trickier clues. Or at least that’s the idea – the number of times I stare blankly at the last couple of clues rather suggests otherwise!
  14. Enjoyed this one – biffed many of them and I’m sure it would have been a pb if I hadn’t put HOLD instead of HELD at 5d.

    Thank you for a very enjoyable breakfast.

    Diana

  16. I had to tread carefully today as none of this was particularly easy. I needed to write out all the long anagrams which helped with Gesticulation/ing.
    FOI was SAW; LOI TONGUE which I went back to several times.
    Prior to that I spent a long time parsing Cantaloup. I thought it had a final E. I also wondered about the U at the end. What vessel was meant? A type of Sloop perhaps?
    Anyway the checking paid off. All correct in 17:49.
    A good test from Izetti today. David
  17. 26 minutes, six over my target, but OK for an Izetti although I think two 12-letter and two 13-letter anagrams are a bit unfair to us phone solvers who don’t have access to pen and paper.
    Everything was parsed except my LOI RAN, so thanks to Roly for that and (I suppose) to Izetti for the mental gymnastics required for the anagrams!

    Brian

  18. 14 minutes and comfortably inside my target range, with lots to enjoy. I parsed 20d differently to Roly, thinking it was RAN{k} for row (as in tier) rather than RAN{t} as in argue, but either works I think. LOI DATED, and really liked SAW. Thanks Roly and Izetti.
    1. It’s definitely rank. It takes at least two people to row, but only one to rant, so in my book they’re not synonyms.
    2. Thanks, well spotted and kindly put, but yes rank’s definitely much better – will amend the blog!
  19. An absorbing and enjoyable puzzle. Time flew by. I thought I had been quicker than usual but ended up slightly over target with 16.50 on the screen. Last in were TONGUE (nice) and TELEGRAPHESE. Thanks to Izetti and Roly. John M.
  20. ….a “cantalupe” and correcting it slowed me down considerably.

    FOI COLD WAR
    LOI TONGUE
    COD IN CONCERT
    TIME 0.77K

  21. I rattled this off in under 10 minutes. Loved the long ones. Thanks Izetti.
  22. After proving he could set a few easier puzzles, I was not surprised to find Izetti had returned to the trickier end of the scale, although as one or two others have said, nothing seems that difficult in retrospect and everything is fair. I was distracted for a while by my son phoning me, but that only explains a couple of minutes of my final 50:34 time, so a fourth day of being well off target. I might have heard of TELEGRAPHESE before, but it certainly didn’t come to mind for a long time. In fact, I thought at first it was a word with the PH near the end as I had “HEW” in 6d (a hidden in tHE Woodshed). Yeah, I know hew has nothing to do with witnessing, but I thought it was something you might do in a woodshed and might be an alternative spelling of hue as in hue and cry. Never heard of the NUR (Railwaymen apparently) and, like others have admitted to, I always thought ARCANE meant something like archaic. Speaking of archaic, I’ve just looked up the meanings of “YE” as I thought it could mean “the” as well as “you”. Apparently the “th” sound in “the” used to be spelt with an old letter called thorn, which they didn’t have on the early printing presses that came from Europe, so they used a y instead because that looked a bit similar when it was handwritten. This is probably old news for most on here, but I thought it was interesting. Anyway, thanks Izetti and Roly.

    Edited at 2020-07-30 10:41 am (UTC)

      1. Here’s ye with the thorn – þe. Obsolete in english but still used in modern Icelandic which for my work I sometimes need to use, and so on my phone …
  23. All those long anagrams certainly kept me busy but, once they were in, their checkers were very helpful.
    I hadn’t heard of NUR and thought that ARCANE meant ‘obscure’ rather than ‘secret’.
    I enjoyed ROBES, IMPROVING and FRUGAL and my COD goes to the very clever TONGUE.
    A satisfactory time of 12:40 so another good day.
    Thanks to Izetti and to Roly for the helpful blog – and also to Crispb for the interesting history of ‘th’. You learn something every day!
  24. typical Izetti I thought. Some smooth surfaces and chewy enough to make me engage brain. Never heard of TELEGRAPHESE or of ARCANE = secret. Unusually for me, all the long answers fell into place quite easily.
    Lovely puzzle.
    PlayUpPompey
  25. 25 mins for me which I was pleased with as I thought this was one of the more difficult Izetti puzzles. However, I spoiled it by putting “Run” in for 20dn so a technical DNF.

    So lovely cryptic clues today and some big anagrams to solve. I particularly liked 1ac “Telegraphese”, “Held Ones Peace” and “Gesticulation”. Even the simple “Saw” and “Cold War” brought a smile.

    Whilst I’d heard of “Terry Towelling” nappies (no idea why 😀) I DNK “NUR” nor “Cel” for trick. In addition, I also wondered about “Arcane” = Secret.

    FOI – 1dn “Terry”
    LOI – 14ac “Excel”
    COD – 7dn “Frugal” – Simple, but lovely surface.

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-07-30 11:30 am (UTC)

  26. A game of two halves. Had everything bar four in the SW (13, 15, 16, 19) in just over 20 mins and then took nearly another ten to sort out those four. It wasn’t just the gun that I found devious in 15d, but with that in place Cantaloup(e) became obvious, Arcane went in with an ignorant shrug and Nursing quickly followed. Quite a work out today, with 15d Tongue getting the nod over 21ac Avert (nice surface) for CoD. Invariant
  27. 17 minutes which is within my average 15-20 mins range, so I was quite pleased with this. Didn’t parse 14ac EXCEL or 16ac CANTALOUP and had to wait for all the checkers to decide how to spell the latter. Had AYE at 10ac until I managed to crack 2dn. Nice puzzle.

    FOI – 9ac COLD WAR
    LOI – 16ac CANTALOUP
    COD – 15dn TONGUE

  28. Once again, this is an exact copy of my earlier post but I had no part in re-posting it.
    Is this a still-unsolved bug? It happened many weeks ago when I got a message from someone asking if I really needed to post my comment on a 15×15 puzzle three times when I had posted just the once. It also happened earlier this week (on July 28th). Is somebody having a laugh?
    John M
    1. Sometimes it happens on my phone – a thing comes up saying something like “do you want to submit this information?” and if you click “submit” then it re-posts your last post. Could it be that? Never had anything similar on a PC
      1. Thanks for you interest, Templar. I’ve not seen or done anything like this to my knowledge – it happened at a time when I wasn’t on LJ. I’ve asked support if they can tell me what is happening.
  29. I found this on the trickier end of the scale and exceeded my target for the second day running. Nothing really difficult, but lots of thought required and I also had to write out two of the long anagrams. FOI, TERRY, LOI, ARCANE, which I also struggle to equate with secret. 11:28. Thanks Izetti and Roly.
  30. nice enough puzzle, was surprised to see it was Izetti, as I managed in 5:51. LOI HELD ONES PEACE, which took a while as the phrase didn’t immediately come to mind, and I was trying to work out which letters were left in the anagrist.

  32. My first post after lurking here for a while – I normally solve in the evening so does not seem worth commenting. I really enjoyed this Izetti and was well chuffed to come in at under 2K. It is just me or did no one else immediately think of Aunt Ada Doom in Cold Comfort Farm who saw something nasty in the woodshed?

    Many thanks to Roly and Izetti!
    Penny

    Edited at 2020-07-30 03:09 pm (UTC)

    1. Welcome! I am another evening solver and sometimes share your thought about posting (sometimes it has to be the next day) but I’m told the bloggers and setters get to see them all.
        1. Hello Penny and welcome! Even an evening comment is worthwhile – there are plenty of late solvers and the more viewpoints the better. Also, if you reply to someone non-anonymous, they will see it (however late!) in their bell icon at the top of the page.

          I think there’s a Japanese word for buying more books than you ever have a hope of reading. All too easily done, but Cold Comfort Farm looks like a most enjoyable gap that should be filled, thanks for the reference – ordered!

  33. Surprised that 1ac was my first one. From the anagram fodder picked up telegraph and then assumed the answer although I did not know the word.

    Thereafter was surprisingly quick until my last two, 15d and 16a. I no longer time myself but the last two made it seem a slower than normal solve, about 20 minutes I would guess.

    Enjoyed the puzzle.

  34. … as it took me a long time and most of the checkers to get 1A (LOI) and 3D, and 5D and 22A were also a struggle.

    That apart, and a biff for 14A Excel (could not see cel = trick), a nice and smooth run for an 11 minute finished. Which for me anf for Izetti is Not Bad.

    Some of the times on the list are amazing. I can barely read the clues, let alone put in the answers, in some of the times posted! Hats off to those who can.

    Many thanks to Roly for the blog
    Cedric

    Edited at 2020-07-30 04:42 pm (UTC)

  35. I think I must have got used to Izetti’s style. Despite the tricky long words I still (relatively) whizzed through this. LOI CANTALOUP. 4:19. But how mohn2 can do it in 2:05 defeats me!
    1. Hi John – hope all’s well. I’ve done hundreds of Mr Manley’s puzzles over the years in various publications, and thus know his style well. However a perhaps underrated factor when solving on the Crossword Club is typing speed/accuracy – I can fill in a 13×13 grid in under 30 seconds if I already know the answers, which means that I have a lot more thinking time available in a ~2m solve than someone who doesn’t navigate around the grid quickly. I would guess that most of the fastest solvers on the leaderboard are good typists.
  36. I was surprised by the number of long anagrams but they made the rest of the puzzle much easier. This is one where I wished had timed myself – but I estimate just over 20 minutes, which would normally be very fast for me but for an Izetti it’s unheard of! – especially when many of our experts reckon it wasn’t a pushover. It just flew in working straight from top to bottom, all fully parsed. FOI 1a Telegraphese, LOI 20d pondering Ran or Run. COD 16a Cantaloup. Now to fill the rest of my evening!
  37. Got there in the end with recourse to aids a couple of times, but a fairly straightforward solve this one.

    OBES for honoured people was a new sub for me, I think. DNK NUR either. Sell = Trick was a bit hard to swallow.

    COD 1a and a word that was on the edge of my consciousness.

    Thanks to Izetti and RolyToly.

  38. This is more like it – not easy but fairly clued. No dodgy definitions or words last used by a Northumbrian sheep farmer in the 12th century. Took me about an hour which is my usual time. Thanks to setter and blogger.

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