Times Quick Cryptic No 1779 by Izetti

A Happy New Year to all! To usher in the new year of Quick Cryptic crosswords we have our old friend Izetti.  An entertaining puzzle with smooth surfaces as we have come to expect. One or two trickier definitions and no less than two clues where, unusually, the definition isn’t exactly at the beginning or end add a little trickery. COD to the clever surface of 22A. 20A was my last one in taking me to just over 5 1/2 minutes. Thank-you Izetti! How did everyone else get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s  turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword here. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 ID card’s not in order? That’s harsh (10)
DISCORDANT – (ID card’s not)* [in order].
8 Academic needs east-facing study, it’s assumed (6)
DONNEDDON (academic) DEN (study)  reversed [east-facing] -> NED. Assuming an academic gown, perhaps. [Edit: East-facing seems to be attracting some puzzlement. They way I see it, it means the word has it’s first letter at the East end (i.e. the word is facing to the right) – If I say my house is east-facing it means the front of the house is lit by the rising sun].
9 Flowing water about to invade street in the morning (6)
STREAMRE (about) inside [to invade] ST (street) AM (in the morning). I hope you’ve avoided the winter floods. Fortunately I live on higher ground, but I don’t think I’ll be walking along the river Great Ouse or Gipping Valley for a while.
10 Pernickety person — kind inside (4)
TYPE – An unusual clue where the definition is not at the front or end. Hidden [inside] in PernickeTY PErson.
11 Fairy, cast off, died (8)
PERISHEDPERI (fairy) SHED (cast off).
12 Poor area to reach, going outside hotel (6)
GHETTOGET TO (reach) [outside] H (Hotel in the NATO phonetic alphabet).
14 A Catholic, the female who may have a quiver? (6)
ARCHERA RC (Roman Catholic) HER (female).
16 My virtue (8)
GOODNESS – Double definition, the first an exclamation of surprise.
18 Beast that is cross — bull initially confined (4)
IBEXIE (id est; that is) X (a cross) outside [confined] Bull [initially].
20 Fret about wading bird seen by river (6)
REGRET –  EGRET (wading bird) after [seen by] R (river).
21 To deal with soldier takes time (6)
MANAGEMAN (soldier) AGE (time).
22 People in limousines? You may see them at weddings (10)
CARNATIONS – Countries where people drive in limousines might be CAR (people) NATIONS (people). Neat surface. You might use a limousine to get to your wedding. Definition is a bit of a cryptic hint. [Edit: I see from coments there is a better parsing. It is more accurately NATION (people) [in] CARS (limousines). Thanks to those who pointed it out].
Down
2 Nothing right in girl? That’s hard! (5)
IVORYO (Round letter looking like a 0; nothing) R (right) [in] IVY (girl). A bit of a vague definition and a random girl’s name make this a bit trickier, but the checkers help.
3 Prisoner given shelter is satisfied (7)
CONTENTCON (prisoner) TENT (shelter).
4 Marxist maybe looking hot and bothered? (3)
RED – Double definition, the first a definition by example, hence the maybe.
5 For Europeans it’s a terrible strain to accommodate us (9)
AUSTRIANS – A second clue where the definition isn’t at the beginning or end. A (strain)* [terrible] outside [to accommodate] US.
6 Stipulations for academic periods (5)
TERMS – Double definition.
7 Some enter a cemetery: a bit of a bloomer (6)
RACEME – Today’s less common word for our education. Hidden in [some] enteR A CEMEtary. “A flower cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks at equal distances along a central stem. The flowers at the base of the central stem develop first.“. But we knew that, didn’t we? Well if you’re a botanist or keen gardener you might.
11 Harry eats rubbish? I object! (9)
PROTESTERPESTER (harry – ignore the capital) outside [eats] ROT (rubbish).
13 Former President in small house, gone (6)
HOOVERHO, abbreviation for [small] (house) OVER (gone).
15 Wine? Sing, drinking one — then get another one! (7)
CHIANTICHANT (sing) outside [drinking] I (one) then I (another one).
17 Greek party with wealth not half evident (5)
DORICDO (party) and the first half of [not half evident] RIChes (wealth).
19 The Spanish drink in Scottish city (5)
ELGINEL (the in Spanish) GIN (drink).
21 Bird once in trench, having lost tail (3)
MOAMOAt (trench) without the last letter [having lost tail]. Extinct, hence the once.

62 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1779 by Izetti”

  1. ….but finished just inside my target. The usual quality puzzle from Izetti. Whilst I doubt I can ever reach the high standard he so consistently achieves, I do hope my more modest weekend offering will give enjoyment to all who tackle it !

    FOI RED
    LOI DISCORDANT
    COD CARNATIONS
    TIME 4:51

    1. We’ve just finished your weekend QC. Great puzzle – really enjoyed it. Thank you
      1. Thanks, and best wishes to you both. I hope you spotted the “mini nina”……
        1. We didn’t and can’t go back to find it because we didn’t save the completed grid. The truth is that we’re still just so happy to complete a puzzle that it never dawns on us to look for a nina. Sorry about that, what was it?
          1. 2021 (ie 20D and 21A) read HAPPY NEW YEAR. It took me ages to find a grid where those two clue numbers were a fit, and I put them in first and then built round them. Unfortunately nobody spotted it without being nudged !
            1. Sorry, all your hard work was wasted on us. However, we’ll be on the lookout next time!
  2. 12 minutes because I had a blank spot re 20ac having looked at it several times along the way and then spending a good 2 minutes on it as my last one in. NHO RACEME but it didn’t delay me unduly.
  3. Limousines (sic) are cars and people form a nation. This parsing provides a candidate for a COD.
  4. A game of two halves with the bottom proving to be very much the more difficult. Six on the first pass of acrosses which is reasonable and then good progress. It was pleasing to be put things learned from crosswords into action – PERI in perished and EGRET although in the case of the bird I didn’t know it was a wading bird so the extra information slowed me down. Took an age to get CARNATIONS – I was even off on cattle despite the spelling as time passed – getting distracted by ‘Christians’ fitting and not associating CARNATIONS with weddings. Needed all the checkers for HOOVER – must get better at presidents and states – and RACEME to have the confidence in it being a hidden. Also wondered if a ‘dod’ might be a trench before MAN=soldier finally came to me to give MOA – the letter comes off the trench not the bird! All green in a little under 20 to put my 2021 average a little higher than I hoped.

    Happy new solving year, all.

    Edited at 2021-01-01 07:52 am (UTC)

    1. Gave up early on this piece of rubbish. Many unfair clues which you describe as unusual. Where the definition is not at the end or the beginning of the clue. If the setter is not going to stick by the rules of setting then what is the point ?
      1. I must say that I do feel for this anonymous poster. I too found it a very hard puzzle indeed. In fact I have not done so worse since I first attempted a cryptic crossword. I did wonder whether I had stumbled onto the 15×15 in error.

        I also was dismayed to find out that some of the clues had the definition in the middle of the clue, which threw me way off.

        However, I would urge you not allow your struggles to stop doing these puzzles. I am new to them and have felt like giving up many times. But something keeps me going. 🙂

        1. Have you tried jigsaw puzzles? Some bits have edges and others not. The more pieces they have the harder they are. Smaller ones, say with less than ten pieces, are far easier and are usually for kids.

          Should crosswords carry an IQ rating and a snitch rating, or are they perhaps equivalent? Today the Club Monthly Special is published and I would imagine one has to have an IQ rating around 150 to be in with a chance. Perhaps that is why only two people, the usual suspects, succeeded last month. Lord Verlaine stated that it was hard! I would rate it as far harder than that.

          Edited at 2021-01-01 02:11 pm (UTC)

          1. I don’t know why you think only two people succeeded. Not all solvers comment on TfTT, but I consider it polite to comment on Verlaine’s MCS blog when I have done the crossword in question. It is not a matter of IQ but perseverance. Perhaps perversely, it was your inexplicable (to me) oppobrium of the MCS that drove me to start doing it. And now I find it is rather fun discovering esoteric words through applying perfectly normal cryptic wordplay. Furthermore, I was lucky enough to be drawn out of the hat to win the prize for November’s MCS… so I maybe owe you some thanks for that!
  5. from REDDITCH to DONCASTER.

    FOI 4dn RED

    LOI 8ac DONNED

    COD 15ac GOODNESS!

    WOD 7dn RACEME remembered from third year biology – and our teacher for that was Mr. Seedhouse. But I can’t remember what I had for supper last night!

    I thought 22ac was terribly chestnutty.

    Edited at 2021-01-01 07:58 am (UTC)

  6. Not fast, but all was fair and fell into place gradually. Bit of a brain vacuum about HOOVER for a while, and CARNATIONS. Liked the succinct GOODNESS.
  7. Well, the top half went in very quickly unlike the rest of it which we made a meal of. Although the answer to 8A was immediately obvious I’m not sure I really get it (John’s explanation may be correct but it’s a strange clue). Thanks for the challenging start to the year Izetti which took us 26 minutes to complete.

    FOI: discordant
    LOI: carnations
    COD: carnations

    Thanks for the blog John. Looking forward to Phil’s weekend QC.

    Happy New Year!

      1. You are right. I mulled it over after making the comment and came to the same conclusion.
      2. I still baffled by “east” (as i was before, when it appeared recently). The DEN is surely going west, and is west-facing?
        1. I’ve updated the blog to try and make it clearer. I think it is OK as the face of the word (i.e. first letter) is at the East end – i.e. the word goes from right (east) to left (west).
  8. A chewy start to the new year. Unlike a couple of earlier commenters I found the top half harder than the bottom and was starting to gat a bit concerned when I couldn’t answer a clue until GHETTO. I overcomplicated 11a by thinking that the definition was fairy (not one of my strong suits) and took a while to realise that RACEME was a hidden.
    Plenty of penny drop moments to enjoy in this high quality puzzle with my favourite being CARNATIONS. Finished in 12.56 with LOI REGRET.
    Thanks to John
  9. So that New Year Resolution didn’t last too long.

    Failed at the HOOVER/GOODNESS cross, which is frustrating as I had thought that “my”, would be some old expression of surprise (such as “cor”). For 13d I never escaped from HUT( “small house”)

    COD CARNATIONS

  10. Regrets – I’ve had a few …
    … but not enough it seems as 20A Regret simply didn’t come and I ended up punting for Ferret which I knew was wrong. 13 minutes to that point, which I would usually think of as good for Izetti, but he wins in the end and I start 2021 with a DNF. Ah well, things can only get better (as absolutely everyone said as we moved on from 2020).

    The other clue that held me up was 2D Ivory. I never find clues requiring a random name easy and this was compounded by needing to see that hard = ivory. Not the most obvious connection, IMO, though at least there were 3 checkers for a 5 letter word.

    I thought, on the day we finally complete our departure from the EU, that 5D might have read “For Europeans, it was a terrible strain …”.

    Many thanks to John for the blog, and to Phil in advance for the Saturday Special.

    Cedric

  11. I found it hard to get going at the top (I don’t know why – DISCORDANT and the rest dropped out easily later). Moved from the bottom up with shorter answers first but progress was slow and fitful. Then it suddenly all came together and the last third went in smoothly. RACEME was my LOI; I saw the hidden but didn’t know/remember the botanical connection. I was focussed on the chemical term (racemic) which made no sense.** I finally put it in anyway to be rewarded with a time of 22 mins. Back in the SCC after a good run yesterday – the encouraging comment from Chris was premature, as I feared! Thanks to Izetti for some very good clues and to John for a fine blog (which I will now read carefully). John M.
    ** A raceme (racemic mixture) would be an equal mixture of two enantiomers so making the compound optically inactive.

    Edited at 2021-01-01 10:12 am (UTC)

  12. Happy new year one and all. Thanks Izetti and john. I think this was a shade too hard for a quickie but not outrageously so. A couple of very rare words thrown in. Not to happy with fret for regret, I suppose you might be anxious about something you regret. Also Elgin is a town – it may have been a city once but isn’t anymore. Overall very enjoyable – thans again!
    1. Can a city be downgraded? Elgin has a cathedral which I thought meant city forever. Its football club is City but it is old. DNF today. Very tough bottom half. Johnny
      1. Cities have charters granted by the monarch; they may or may not have a cathedral. Places with a cathedral may be cities, but only if they have a royal charter.

        For example, Guildford has a cathedral but is not, as far as I know, a city.

  13. Like others, the top half went in relatively quickly, but I had a dnf in the end.

    I don’t like random names at all.

    And I really don’t see how FRET means REGRET. Fretting is worrying about something, regret is wishing you’d done it (or not done it) in the first place. (Like those couple of unnecessary roast potatoes…)

    But I managed most of it, and wish a Happier New Year to everyone.

    Diana

  14. A properly difficult QC from Izetti which took me 20:58. LOI was DONNED as I was struggling with the parsing. Lots of confusion about East and West in crosswords recently.
    FOI RED. RACEME is in my list of words learnt here; it comes up every so often. CARNATIONS was clever; my COD to GHETTO.
    Always much to learn from Izetti’s puzzles. Knowing your extinct birds another hint. Much enjoyed.
    David

  15. Missed GHETTO and hence PROTESTOR. Failed to remember other meaning of harry. I didn’t seem to be on the right wavelength this morning as I had to look up Harsh and Virtue as well.

    FOsI RED, IBEX, AUSTRIANS, RACEME, MOA.

    Not a good morning, but thanks to John. And, again, Happy New Year to all.

    Edited at 2021-01-01 10:33 am (UTC)

  16. Anyone else BIFD irony? (with a weak justification of hard as iron) Thanks for blog and best wishes for the year ahead.

  17. I feared a DNF with this one but eventually I struggled over the line at 35 minutes with REGRET, my LOI . I found it quite hard to dislodge “ferret” from my mind even though it seemed unlikely that anyone might fret so much that they ferreted. Then I wondered if it was some esoteric word from the world of guitars. In a crossword which included MOA, peri and RACEME, that seemed absolutely possible.

    I enjoyed CARNATIONS and GOODNESS – two very nice clues.

    I needed the blog today to parse 11 down. In between my musings over guitar parts, I pondered the existence of that famous figure from history, Harry the Protester. It’s true that “rubbish” didn’t seem to be explained by this but I’d lost the will to live by then.

    Thanks John for the blog and thanks too to izetti

  18. After a long time had to give up with 4 unfinished (both 11s,20 and 21). Surprised to get that far but even so satisfaction level is low because the clueing for me is overly structured and working out how to break clues down is a bit tedious. As always thanks for the explanations. I wish though that this setter set for 15×15 and that i had a quick cryptic to do today. DavidS
  19. 2020 ended with a bang for me where the QC is concerned. The last puzzle of the year I managed to complete: my third QC completion. This year has started with a right old drubbing from Izetti. I have been brought into 2021 with a resounding crash. In fact that does not even come close to describing my appalling effort today.

    I am too embarrassed to state how many I answered. Let’s just say that after 30 minutes I had only answered one. It all went down hill from there.

    One good way to look at it; it can’t get any worse than this. If tomorrow I need both my hands to count the clues I have answered, I would have done far better than today.

    FOI: 12a GHETTO
    LOI: 1a DISCORDANT

    DNF.

    1. Don’t worry, whatever the expert solvers might suggest, this was a very tricky crossword, right at the limit of difficulty for a QC. In my opinion.
      1. Yes. It was quite tricky. 5 years ago this would have been a DNF for me for sure. Do not be intimidated by my solving time – it’s just a matter of practice, really. I used to have “resounding crashes” too!
  20. Very, very slow this morning at 25 minutes to complete – my worst time for many a day. I’m one of those that found the south much harder than the top, with several clues really taking time to yield. I applied Rotter’s Law to 16a (two-word clues are invariably double definitions) but still took ages to see the answer. An excellent clue once the penny dropped, but should have seen it much earlier. IRONY also flitted through my brain, but was quickly dispelled. MANAGE, MOA and CARNATIONS were last in. Thanks both for the work-out and blog. Happy New Year all.
  21. Lovely start to the year. Izetti at his (or her?) usual high standard. DNK RACEME. Enjoyed CARNATIONS.
    PlayUpPompey
  22. Izetti is definitely not a lady ! Don Manley is a long-established and much respected setter. All of his pseudonyms are plays on “Don”, in this case on Donizetti. He’s also compiled in various publications as Pasquale, Pedro, Quixote, and Duck !
  23. I was taken over my target by this tricky puzzle. The LHS gave me most pause for thought, but I eventually went back and wrote out the anagrist for 1a which allowed me to make progress. GOODNESS was the key to the SW. I was slow to put in MOA despite being convinced it was the bird because I’d misread trench as french. Doh! FOI TERMS, LOI MOA. 10:50. Thanks Izetti and John.
  24. That blew a few cobwebs away – eventually. Started slowly and, despite one or two free gifts, never really got up to speed. A few self inflicted problems, including a hunt for another unknown Shakespeare fairy and a tenacious reluctance to enter Donned (assumed?) for 8ac until I gave up trying to think of something else. CoD to 22ac, Carnations, which brought a smile, though at over 40mins certainly not the best start to the year. Nevertheless, HNY to one and all. Invariant
  25. Very pleased to have completed this testing puzzle. I found the top half easier than the bottom and struggled to see IBEX, CHIANTI and MANAGE, but the light eventually dawned! A Happy New Year to all puzzlers.
  26. I’m very pleased with managing to fully solve (and parse) this QC from Izetti today … and I’m absolutely delighted to have done so in just 31 minutes, which is a very fast time for me. I even had the rare experience of beating Mrs Random today – she did 42 minutes – so I think a knee slide across the carpet and a funny little dance by the standard lamp are called for.

    FOI: STREAM
    LOI: REGRET
    NHO: RACEME and MOA, but I heeded some advice posted by a more experienced solver a week or two back that sometimes you have to take a risk and trust your parsing. I parsed both of these clues and just held my nerve.

    Many thanks to johninterred and Izetti, and a happy new year to all.

  27. After 10 minutes I had numerous blanks all over the grid including at 1a where I failed in my attempts to shuffle the letters. I struggled with PROTESTER, GHETTO, HOOVER, GOODNESS and my LOI at 18 minutes was IVORY. Happy New Year to all.

    Edited at 2021-01-01 01:55 pm (UTC)

  28. Happy new year to all – but a bad start for me as I dnf with at least 3 clues to go after an hour’s toiling.

    As some have already mentioned the top half went in quite quickly, but I struggled on the 11ac/11dn combination mainly due to not recognising “harry” as “pester” and “fairy” as “peri”. Whilst I can normally see “egret” as an answer, trying to conjure it up as part of a clue was a step too far. 17dn and 7dn were educated guesses.

    Enjoyed 5dn “Austrians”, 16ac “Goodness” and 18ac “Ibex” though,

    FOI – 9ac “Stream”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 22ac “Carnations”

    Thanks as usual.

  29. tricky one which required two sittings, with a walk in the middle around Winchcombe. Maybe it was the result of last night.
    Last two protester and perished.
    COD Ghetto
  30. Well that should ensure that my average solving time in 2021 is going down for a while. A very chewy one as I thought it might be on the first day of the year. FOI was a tentative DONNED, after which it was a steadyish solve until I was left with about four in the SW corner plus 11a and 7d. At that point (some time after 30 minutes I would guess) I ground to a halt for quite a while, but eventually I worked my way back through the presidents until I found HOOVER. Had a bit of a PDM when I got the SHED bit of 11a and slowly I dragged the others out, including 11d which I was convinced must be an anagram of “HARRY EATS”. I wasted a couple of extra minutes at the end trying to work out an alternative to the unknown RACEME, but then decided that if a clue sounded like it was a hidden AND contained letters that fitted the checkers in the right place, it probably was. Stopped my watch on 72:47. Thanks to John, and Izetti for a good workout. Much more enjoyable than the New Year’s Day run I did afterwards.
  31. Finished in 7:09, thinking it had taken much longer. DONNED in first, CARNATIONS in last.
  32. Almost impossible for all but the good solvers I would say. Been doing the QC for 4 years and I couldn’t get half of these clues.
    1. If it’s any consolation I used to feel like that even after several years’ solving attempts. This blog helped me a lot… I hope it does for you too.
  33. The 4th consecutive 16 minute finish for me. I didn’t find it as difficult as some have done and I am at one with Plett11 in finding the top half harder than the bottom. Knew MOA and RACEME rang a faint bell (botany not being my strong suit). All in all a very enjoyable puzzle, so thanks to Izetti and also to John for his comprehensive explanations.

    FOI – 12ac GHETTO
    LOI – 7dn RACEME
    COD – 22ac CARNATIONS

    Happy New Year to all.

  34. If we all finished all the time tjen the qc would not be worth doing.
    I hate not finishing but learn from the blog
    Happy New Year to all cruciverbalists
  35. Despite heroic consumption of madeira last night I flew through this (well, for me …) in exactly 10. Very satisfying considering that when I started the QC I could hardly ever do more than half an Izetti.

    FOI DISCORDANT, LOI MOA, COD CARNATIONS (which I had parsed as per John’s pre-amendment blog but I see the correct parsing now which is much better), a Very Good Day.

    Many thanks Izetti and John, and a Happy New Year to all. Looking forward to the Saturday Special tomorrow!

    Templar

  36. I logged in here to check others’ reaction to REGRET and sure enough it’s a bit a MER, isn’t it? Like others I kept thinking of ferret and other variations, ending up resorting to a dictionary bash to get it – my LOI. Otherwise a lovely puzzle from (Don)Izetti!

    22 my COD, which like many others has a lovely smooth surface and good misdirections – clearly nothing to do with people or limousines!

    Happy New Year All!

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