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) |
DONNED – DON (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) |
STREAM – RE (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) |
PERISHED – PERI (fairy) SHED (cast off). | |
12 | Poor area to reach, going outside hotel (6) |
GHETTO – GET TO (reach) [outside] H (Hotel in the NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
14 | A Catholic, the female who may have a quiver? (6) |
ARCHER – A 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) |
IBEX – IE (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) |
MANAGE – MAN (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) |
IVORY – O (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) |
CONTENT – CON (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) |
PROTESTER – PESTER (harry – ignore the capital) outside [eats] ROT (rubbish). | |
13 | Former President in small house, gone (6) |
HOOVER – HO, abbreviation for [small] (house) OVER (gone). | |
15 | Wine? Sing, drinking one — then get another one! (7) |
CHIANTI – CHANT (sing) outside [drinking] I (one) then I (another one). | |
17 | Greek party with wealth not half evident (5) |
DORIC – DO (party) and the first half of [not half evident] RIChes (wealth). | |
19 | The Spanish drink in Scottish city (5) |
ELGIN – EL (the in Spanish) GIN (drink). | |
21 | Bird once in trench, having lost tail (3) |
MOA – MOA |
FOI RED
LOI DISCORDANT
COD CARNATIONS
TIME 4:51
I believe the correct parsing of 22 is NATION within CARS, but once you have the general idea you’ll write in it, probably thinking of the old joke about a pink car nation.
On edit: I left out my time, it was 10:20.
Edited at 2021-01-01 04:44 pm (UTC)
Happy new year everyone!
Happy new solving year, all.
Edited at 2021-01-01 07:52 am (UTC)
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. 🙂
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)
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)
FOI: discordant
LOI: carnations
COD: carnations
Thanks for the blog John. Looking forward to Phil’s weekend QC.
Happy New Year!
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
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
… 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
** 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)
For example, Guildford has a cathedral but is not, as far as I know, a city.
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
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
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)
Anyone else BIFD irony? (with a weak justification of hard as iron) Thanks for blog and best wishes for the year ahead.
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
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.
PlayUpPompey
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.
Edited at 2021-01-01 01:55 pm (UTC)
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.
Last two protester and perished.
COD Ghetto
FOI – 12ac GHETTO
LOI – 7dn RACEME
COD – 22ac CARNATIONS
Happy New Year to all.
I hate not finishing but learn from the blog
Happy New Year to all cruciverbalists
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
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!