Times Quick Cryptic No 1768 by Izetti

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Bit of a chewy one today from Izetti: I did yesterday’s just beforehand in 7 minutes and this in 13. I was held up slightly at the end at 6d/16ac, but the grid was half empty after a first pass of all the clues with tricky bits dotted around the place. Izetti is a master of concision, but will then sometimes pad out part of a clue with extra words that can really throw you off the scent. So not a puzzle to be dispirited by if you found this a struggle, especially given some obscurity thrown in for good measure. Savour and enjoy, or lick your wounds and learn, a top notch puzzle either way – many thanks to Izetti, and best wishes for a merry Christmas!

Across
1 Bodily parts in bears (8)
STOMACHS – double definition
6 Eastern fellow set about getting title (4)
NAME – E(astern) MAN (fellow) “set about” = reversed
8 Piece of gym equipment making one smile (4)
BEAM – double definition
9 Word of prayer when beset by minor physical disability (8)
LAMENESS – AMEN (word of prayer) beset by LESS (minor). I’m open to an example where less = minor: “of less importance” does not equal “of minor importance” (which this comment is).
10 Centaurs conjured up in an ancient civilisation (8)
ETRUSCAN – anagram (conjured up) of CENTAURS. Etruscan art is well worth checking out, and centaurs do feature in it given the influence from Greece, which adds to an already nice clue.
12 Listeners hear sounds? Only some (4)
EARS – “only some” of hEAR Sounds
13 Merchant taking around wine with skill (6)
TRADER – “taking around” = reverse RED (wine) with ART (skill)
16 Something full of holes presenting a problem? (6)
RIDDLE – double definition, the first being a coarse sieve: I have an old one, and used it for a garden path during the summer. And now I know what it’s called.
17 Wartime food plans suffering a setback (4)
SPAM – MAPS (plans) “suffering a setback” = reverse. Dates to 1937, and it remains a luxury foodstuff in South Korea.
18 Vessel coming to area to dock (8)
SUBTRACT – SUB[marine] (vessel) coming to TRACT (area)
21 Cast provided with a humble dwelling (8)
BUNGALOW -BUNG (cast) provided with A LOW (a humble)
22 Bird descended in America (4)
DOVE – double definition. It looks like an archaism, forgotten on one side of the pond, a bit like “gotten”, but the OED says the “modern dialect past tense dove is apparently a new formation after drive, drove, or weave, wove.” I’ll keep saying dived for a bit I suppose, but I do prefer dove.
23 The fellow given notice — and the boss giving it? (4)
HEAD – HE (the fellow) given AD[vert] (notice/bill) – also BOSS gives the answer. Useful to remember that definitions only usually come at the very start or end: here the “and the … giving it” are best seen as linkwords to the definition, similar to 8ac, for example.
24 Excellent leader trained dog (8)
AIREDALE – AI (A1 = excellent) and an anagram (trained) of LEADER. A1 for excellent originally applied to wooden ships, being “first-class in respect of both hull and fittings”: the OED cites the Reg. of Shipping for 1800, “The Vessels marked A are of the First Class…The Materials of the Vessel with the Figure. 1 are of the First Quality.” So there we are.

Down
2 Middle of battle interrupted by little message (5)
TWEET – TT (“middle” of baTTle) interrupted by WEE (little)
3 Silent relation (3)
MUM – double definition
4 Pain somewhere in the mountains with one getting cold (5)
COLIC – COL (somewhere in the mountains) with I (one) getting C(old)
5 Class of Marines sorted out (7)
SEMINAR – anagram (sorted out) of MARINES
6 One won’t be able to understand characters in a book (9)
NONREADER – cryptic definition: the surface misdirects you to think of unrelatable characterisation; the cryptic refers simply to the letters that comprise the book. Made trickier as I’ve only seen non-reader with a hyphen and meaning someone who chooses not to read, rather than being nonliterate, but Collins has both senses and is unhyphenated.
7 Slight fog starts to roll away over lake — there’s a wind (7)
MISTRAL – MIST (slight fog) and “starts to” Roll Away going over L(ake). A crossword staple improved by a very nice surface.
11 Crazy Greek character climbing — old and free from injury (9)
UNDAMAGED – MAD (crazy) NU (Greek character) climbing = reverse, AGED (old)
14 Pure art somehow bringing great joy (7)
RAPTURE – anagram (somehow) of PURE ART
15 Bird ascended, everyone having turned up (7)
ROSELLA – ROSE (ascended) LLA (ALL = everyone, “turned up”). I see this has cropped up a few times, and somewhere quite recently I think, but I’d still completely forgotten this very attractive Australian parrot.
19 Someone bending over in part of garden? (5)
BOWER – double definition, the second being a shady recess in a garden. The bowerbird, which constructs a very impressive bower for courtship, seems to be (for me) much more memorable than the rosella.
20 Polite, like some servants? (5)
CIVIL – double definition-ish: the second as in civil-servants.
22 Edward oddly missing out as member of family (3)
DAD – odd letters missing out of e D w A r D.

51 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1768 by Izetti”

  1. Nothing held me up, but it was chewy indeed, and took me 8 minutes. However, I’d been too hasty with MISTRAL, and didn’t check the wordplay and out MISTREL instead. Ah well.

    For what it’s worth, the 15×15 only took me two minutes longer than the Quickie, so maybe this is a good day for novices to venture out.

    1. Thanks for the tip, Jeremy. The 15×15 only took me 14 mins longer than the QC today – a personal best. 😁
      The two puzzles came as close to convergence as they ever have done for me. John M.

      Edited at 2020-12-17 08:51 pm (UTC)

  2. 9 minutes but I slowed down considerably in the lower half with the less than familiar ROSELLA and DOVE giving pause for thought.

    We have MUM and DAD in corresponding slots in the grid top and bottom so I looked for a theme or something hidden but didn’t spot anything. I don’t think that would be Izetti’s style – not in the QC’s anyway.

  3. I was outclassed today. Only three on the first pass of acrosses and while the downs started better by ten minutes I only had twelve answers in and was stuck. Even getting the aids out didn’t help much and the SE remained particularly empty. Some hard definitions with tricky cryptics put me in difficulties at both ends of too many clues. So quite a big DNF for me today.
  4. But that was because I had gone with QUIP for 8ac and SHIPYARD for 18ac on the first pass which ruined a lot of following clues; I was lulled into a false sense of security by 15d fitting. A struggle all round!
  5. At least 8 clues short after throwing in the towel at 30 mins.

    I pencilled in LAMENESS but scrubbed it as I couldn’t parse (was thinking Minor=”m”)

    I had —-LLA for a bird but DNK ROSELLA

    19d I was convinced that it was over=O in a four letter word.

    But I did get 22d which I will make COD: DOVE.

  6. This felt like an old school Izetti puzzle from the earlier days of the QC, when I would see his name at the top of the puzzle and know it was going to be a struggle. As always everything was fairly clued and I got a lot of satisfaction out of piecing together the answers. A very minor quibble with BUNGALOW being described as humble – some of the ones around here are huge!!
    I found the NW the hardest part so finished with STOMACHS, TWEET and BEAM, crossing the line in an over target 16.05. Hard to pick a COD due to the number of good ones but I’ll go for ETRUSCAN.
    1. A slight misunderstanding here plett11. As Roly has indicated,’humble’ is cluing LOW and is not part of the definition.

      Edited at 2020-12-17 09:55 am (UTC)

    2. ‘humble’ is a part of the wordplay and gives us LOW – it isn’t an adjective of the definition – which is just ‘dwelling’. My quibble with the clue was in equating BUNG with CAST, which I didn’t initially connect, and still consider as poor synonyms.
      1. I see what you mean, Rotter, as ‘bung’ is very casual and slang whereas ‘cast’ is formal, almost poetic on some occasions, but the first definition of both (as verbs) in various usual sources is ‘throw’ so I’d say the setter is off the proverbial hook
  7. Like plett11, I knew this would be a chewy puzzle as soon as I saw Izetti’s name. And so it transpired. Extremely enjoyable, though. I got nowhere in the top half and started at the bottom, realising, answer by answer, that this one was going to be slow but accessible. In the end it took me into the SCC at 23 mins but a very good (q)C. My LOI was one of the simplest: BEAM. Too many good clues to list – just savour Roly’s blog. Thanks to both. John M.
  8. Thu, 17 Dec 20
    FOI: 22d DAD
    LOI: 5d SEMINAR

    30 Minute Mark: 5
    60 Minute Mark: 14
    Time before use of aids: 30

    Total Answered: 14/26

    Another toughie for me, resulting in a slightly worse result than yesterday’s crossword.

    I did think of RIDDLE for 16a but decided against it as I could not equate the “full of holes” clue to it.

    10a Had me stumped too, even though I knew it was an anagram. On seeing the answer here, I was immediately caused to think of Tony Hancock. In one episode of Hancock’s Half Hour (The Bedsitter) he was due to go out on a date, but the lady cancelled at the last minute. Tony tried to convince her he wasn’t bothered as he could now watch a TV programme on ESTRUCAN vases.

    15d ROSELLA was an example of me not knowing what ROSELLA meant, but by coming to the answer via the clue. I had the first letter R in place, and assumed it ended in LLA (everyone – ALL – turned up), with ROSE for ascended at the start. A check of the dictionary showed me that Rosella was indeed a word.

    22a DOVE still has me confused. I can’t see the American reference.

    The completion of the QC still eludes me.

    1. Even some of the regulars found this on the tough side so don’t beat yourself up about not completing it. You’re getting there but there are sure to be glitches along the way.

      I had exactly the same thought as you about ETRUSCAN this morning. It’s the little recollections of joyous moments such as that that add to the fun of cryptic crosswords. It’s not all about filling the grid.

      Edited at 2020-12-17 01:38 pm (UTC)

    2. “Dove” I think the suggestion is that it’s more a US usage than British English. Often hard to tell these days as there’s so much cross-fertilisation with so much US stuff on UK TV. At least we haven’t adopted “yard” for “garden”. That one always grates on me.

      I got nowhere near finishing this one without aids, not helped by the fact that my anagram tool didn’t seem to know Etruscan. I thought it should be an anagram but that made me doubt myself.

      The difficulty of this QC seemed to cause me not to see even clues that I’d normally expect to get, such as tweet. Ho hum…

  9. Dear Mr. Wyvern, Our American friends say We DOVE when we Brits say We DIVED -it’s their normalcy.

    FOI 2dn MUM

    LOI 22dn DAD

    COD 10ac ETRUSCAN – as per the lad himself! Please note the TV show was actually called ‘HANCOCK’. It was the radio offering that was called ‘HANCOCK’S HALF HOUR’ and did not include ‘The Bedsitter’

    WOD 17ac SPAM

    I was on the 12.45 slow stopper

    Edited at 2020-12-17 10:15 am (UTC)

    1. It’s true that ‘The Bedsitter’ with its reference to Etruscan vases was an episode from HANCOCK, but you’re wrong about HANCOCK’S HALF HOUR not being on TV. It ran on radio alone 1954 – February 1956 then transferred to TV in the summer of that year but continued on both until 1960. HANCOCK came after that in 1961 and there were only 6 episodes made, one of which ‘The Succession’ is almost forgotten although it survives.

      Edited at 2020-12-17 12:31 pm (UTC)

  10. 17 minutes for me, so a tougher QC from Izetti, as so often with the Don. All very enjoyable though, with LOI UNDAMAGED, FOI NAME, and COD STOMACHS. In my opinion, 23 across would be a better clue with a full stop after ‘boss’, and deleting the last two words. Like Jackkt, I saw MUM and DAD and went on a wild NINA hunt, but found nothing of significance. WOD has to be DOVE in the US sense. Thanks Izetti and Roly.

    Edited at 2020-12-17 10:14 am (UTC)

  11. Many thanks for the blog and various comments explaining the answers, without them the whole grid would have been unfathomable. I can cope with a few chewy clues but not the whole grid. And so i can’t add my thanks to the setter, i just feel cheated and missing my quick cryptic crossword. Surely this level of clueing should be reserved for the more serious 15×15 cryptic? DavidS
  12. Like everybody else I found this a little chewy. Hopped around the grid rather too much. Thought of nonreader almost immediately and then thought, no, can’t be, so some useful checkers were lost for a while. Had to biff ROSELLA, but the word play was clear enough. Nothing else particularly held me up, but not many went in instantly. Came home in a tardy 9:25.

    I wonder … do the setters do each other’s puzzles? And if so, how quick are they?

    H

    1. Robert Price, who sets ST puzzles under that name and TLS puzzles as Myrtilus, definitely does the 15x15s and comments on them on TftT.
  13. 20 minutes, so a good challenge. I was also unsure about MINOR and LESS – not synonyms as one is comparative and the other a straight adjective. But I expect there is an example of their interchangeability somewhere!

    Edited at 2020-12-17 10:53 am (UTC)

  14. … which took me 19 minutes, my slowest ever Izetti finish, and in the end left me mainly relieved to have got all done and all green. Quite the challenge, and on reflection enjoyable, even if it did not feel like it at the time.

    Two contrasting clues for my last 2 in: DNK 15D Rosella, though it is fairly clued and a good addition to my vocabulary so thumbs up, while on the other hand I thought both the clue and the answer for 6D Nonreader weak and not up to Izetti’s usual very high standard, so a big thumbs down. If there was a WWOD (Worst word of the day) Nonreader would get my vote.

    Our setters seem to have noticed the comments that the vocabulary of this puzzle is rather too often stuck in the past – in recent days we have had attachment, cookie and now tweet, all very IT-literate and 21st century!

    Many thanks to Roly for the blog. Does anyone know if the extra chewiness today has caused Verlaine to slip beyond his recent sub 2-minuters?

    Cedric

      1. Shocking, what is the world coming to. I’m just waiting for his first sub-60 seconds …

        H

  15. An hour and 15 minutes, leading to a DNF. 6D Nonreader was the most problematic. Even with checkers I didn’t understand where the clue was going and on reading the blog am I am not certain that it belongs in the QC. It certainly felt like something out of the 15×15!

    I liked 11D Undamaged and 15D Rosella, the latter gets COD for being a completely new word that makes perfect sense from the cryptic. Easily my favourite type of clue!

    Thanks for the QC and the blog. Onwards to the next attempt as ever.

  16. A relaxed solve on paper today. But I had spent nearly 20 minutes on this before going to the dentist with 9a to do. I thought it was going to be an obscure religious term but I managed to work it out when I got home.
    DNK ROSELLA. you always learn something from an Izetti. Liked AIREDALE one of my first in.
    David
  17. Tried to start in the NW as per usual, but quickly realised this one was more like the Izetti of old, so settled down for a long haul. First pass produced a few toe-holds (Collins has that as toehold…), but not much to build on. Getting Undamaged and Bungalow opened up the bottom half of the grid, where I thought CoD Subtract, and Bower, were a tough combination. After 25mins that just left the NW corner, but I needed a cup of tea and a good think to prompt Mum(!), Beam and loi Stomachs. Quite a work out all told, but still enjoyable. My thanks to Izetti and Roly. Invariant
  18. Way beyond me today. Barely got half right. NHO ROSELLA, never seen NONREADER as one word. Dispiriting.
  19. Izetti would make me quake and clam up and forget how to do crosswords, getting too caught up in the surface.

    I have many more crosswords under my belt now, so a tricky one just takes me longer to complete.

    Looking back though, nothing seems particularly difficult. I liked ETRUSCAN, BUNGALOW and AIREDALE, butNONREADER went in with a bit of a shrug. CIVIL was my last one in, as I couldn’t quite shake off the image of maids/butlers, rather than mandarins.

    9:29. So approx. 50% longer than I would normally expect to take, so definitely tricky.

  20. MUM and TWEET were my first 2 in, but I join the throng in finding this one tough. LAMENESS took some working out, despite my shoving AMEN in the appropriate slot straight away, guided by SEMINAR. My LOI was NONREADER, which I didn’t really like. 11:17. Thanks Izetti and Roly.
  21. Difficult indeed. I knew after the first minute that I was going to miss my target 10 minutes given the lack of answers in the grid. My FOI was EARS. Like Cedric I thought the clue construction at 6d was substandard for Izetti but there were plenty of others to enjoy such as SPAM and SUBTRACT. I lived in Australia for five years so ROSELLA was a write in for me. I surprised myself by submitting in just over 12 mins with LOI LAMENESS. Thanks all.
  22. Too difficult for a QC, I agree.
    For instance, I don’t understand the double definition of NONREADER which I biffed but thought must be wrong. Oh well.
    Discouraging.
    Also biffed ROSELLA but NHO it despite years in Oz.

    Liked BEAM, SPAM, managed DOVE, but it was by far my worst day this year. Maybe my heart wasn’t in it.

    FOsI EARS, MISTRAL, DAD, HEAD, ETRUSCAN

    Thanks, Roly.

    Edited at 2020-12-17 01:49 pm (UTC)

    1. The ‘characters’ in a book could refer to the people in the story, the letters on the page, or even Greek characters inside novel, but you won’t be able to understand any of them if you are a non-reader, in the sense of can’t read. Not so much a double definition, more a misleading surface hiding a straightforward (once seen) definition.
  23. Good heavens, we were absolutely rubbish! What a stunning DNF – we were unable to solve about 8 of the clues. Not that it matters much, but we surrendered after an hour. There were some excellent clues and, after we finally worked out the answers to the toughies we respectfully doffed our hats to Izetti.

    Thanks Rolytoly – great blog.

  24. Very tricky. Couldn’t find a way in across but the downs got me going. Didn’t fully parse UNDAMAGED but it couldn’t be anything else. ROSELLA new to me but cluing was clear. LOI was 6D, eventually deciding that it was just a rare long definition, suitably misleading. Done with pen and newspaper and not timed, but probably a bit over 15 mins. Thanks Izetti and blogger.
  25. I am familiar enough with these puzzles to know when Izetti is the setter I will struggle. I realise I’m gaining in confidence in most types of clues but not the ones like 21 Ac Bungalow or 18Ac Subtract where I have to think of synonyms and work with those new words. Maybe this is the next phase of mastering these cryptics, but frankly, give me a good anagram any day!

    Always a challenge, definitely DNF but thanks for explanations to help me learn!

  26. A total shambles today and didn’t get anywhere near properly finishing, even after two sittings. I agree with the comments above – this is old school Izetti. To use a football analogy, he nutmegged me, flicked it back over my head and then nutmegged me again, before I tripped over my laces and landed in the dirt.

    Wouldn’t have minded, but apart from 10ac “Etruscan” and maybe the other definition of 16ac “Riddle” there wasn’t anything too obscure there.

    No point in putting any stats, as there weren’t any.

    Thanks as usual.

  27. I always stop at half an hour, finished or not, and today at that point, I still had several blank squares. A thoroughly dispiriting experience, as DNFs always are. I missed ROSELLA – NHO but should have got it -RIDDLE (quoi ?? ) and AIREDALE. Ah, well, tomorrow is another day…. Thanks, Roly, and thanks izetti.
  28. Far from being modern dove is a standard part of the special dialect of our language that is spoken in Sheffield. This uses many biblical versions of words such as In Hast tha bin areet meaning Have you been well, and such oddities as using while to mean until. The notice in a shop window at lunchtime will say closed while two. So the many unbelievably faithful followers of Sheffield Wednesday would shout at the ref He Dove when he awards a penalty for the visiting side.
    1. The old joke in Yorkshire was that they made a new minor road that crossed the A1. To make it safer they put in traffic lights, and so there could be no chance of error they added a sign saying “Do not cross while red light is on”. Tragedy ensued 🙂

      H

  29. Yup, a lot of hard yakka today. I think Izetti has been stung by some of the times the old hands have been posting on his puzzles! But a sign of progress that I can now limp my way to the finish on an old-school Izetti.

    FOI RIDDLE (simply because it caught my eye first), LOI STOMACHS (completely bamboozled), COD MUM, time 15:48 which I’m going to rank as a Decent Day in the circumstances.

    Many thanks Izetti and roly.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-12-17 03:59 pm (UTC)

  30. ….but the clueing was generally fair, as it usually is with Izetti. However, I didn’t like 1A. The “in” is misleading, and “Bears bodily parts” might have been preferable.

    FOI NAME
    LOI BUNGALOW
    COD MISTRAL
    TIME 4:28

  31. The usual tough workout from Izetti which we finally finished with some help. All fair but you just seem to have to work harder to unravel the clues. Thanks Izetti and for the blog.
  32. Way over my target today. After 30 minutes I still had 9 clues unsolved, so I went away and came back to it later, finishing in a further 5 minutes to make 35 overall. Most of the clues were fair enough (if difficult) but I was held up for a long time by the 9ac/6dn clues, neither of which was up to the standard of the other IMO.

    FOI – 12ac EARS
    LOI – 22ac DOVE (failed to parse this – thanks for the explanation Rolytoly)
    COD – 10ac ETRUSCAN

  33. Found it very tough. Agree with comment about 9ac. The linguistic error, which confused me into thing the straight clue was a “minor physical disability”, can be avoided by replacing “minor” with “reduced” I think
  34. Unfortunately I had done this crossword recently as I have been practicing by buying the books of previous crosswords. I don’t know when it appeared before but by chance I did it last week. Thus a disappointing day for me as I actually remembered all the answers which I think took me quite a while to work out first time round. Happy Christmas everyone!

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