Another Izetti Quick Cryptic for me to blog today. It took me just over 7 minutes, so, as with my last QC blogging duty 2 weeks ago, it is somewhat on the harder side of average if my time is anything to go by. I’m not sure where the time went, but 4D and 7D were a little tricky and there’s a clue that requires you to solve another one first. My last one in, 22A, didn’t come easily but maybe because the definition doesn’t seem quite right. I think it is a mistake. What do you think? [Edit: Izetti has kindly dropped by in the comments to confirm it was a slip]. But another good test from Izetti with lots of instructional clueing, such as a the trick in 1A where the definition is a verb in the clue and a noun in the answer. Nice puzzle. Worth it for 1D, my clue of the day, alone. Thank-you Izetti. How did you all 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 | Sit back in a tree awkwardly and study (8) |
TREATISE – SIT back -> TIS “in” (a tree)* “awkwardly”. Study the noun, of course. | |
5 | Incentive in some useless purchase (4) |
SPUR – Hidden “in some” uselesS PURchase. BOGOF to you too. How much gets wasted as a result, I wonder? | |
9 | Greek character‘s mark of disgrace, with time passing (5) |
SIGMA – S |
|
10 | Rough home with old lover getting to perform (7) |
INEXACT – IN (home) EX (old lover) ACT (perform). | |
11 | Upper-class racist actor, nasty about India (12) |
ARISTOCRATIC – (racist actor)* “nasty”, “about” I (India in the NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
13 | A land in flames (6) |
ALIGHT – A LIGHT (land). | |
15 | One minister and another holding firm (6) |
DEACON – DEAN (another minister) “holding” CO (company; firm). It wouldn’t be a pukka Izetti crossword without an ecclesiastical reference of some sort. By the way – my local dean has just had a beer festival in his cathedral. What fun it was too! | |
17 | Pontificate wildly about king being turned to stone (12) |
PETRIFACTION – (Pontificate)* “wildly” “about” R (rex; king). I had a teeny eyebrow raise at the definition, but it’s there in Chambers. | |
20 | Work cut short, time to be frugal? Wealthy! (7) |
OPULENT – OPU |
|
21 | Traffic in East Devon river heading west (5) |
TRADE – E (east) DART (Devon river) “hading west”, i.e. reversed -> TRADE. I’m off to East Devon for a few days with a few friends at the beginning of October. Yippee! | |
22 | Kick and pulled along, we hear (4) |
TOED – Sounds like, “we hear”, TOWED (pulled along). My last one in. Hmm. Shouldn’t it be “Kicked” rather than “Kick”? Surely a mistake. Or can anyone explain why it isn’t? [Edit: Izetti has dropped by in the comments to explain it was slip]. | |
23 | Cor — heartless newspaper boss — you must give that person their due! (8) |
CREDITOR – C |
Down | |
1 | Pitch — what happens on one before match? (4) |
TOSS – Double definition, the second cryptic, where you have to replace the reference “one” with “pitch”. My favourite of the day. | |
2 | Composer who could be regal (5) |
ELGAR – “Could be” (regal)*. Perhaps with an allusion to “Pomp and Circumstance”… It’s the last night of the proms tomorrow, you know. All together now : “Land of….”. | |
3 | Atheist hated being abused? You’ve got it! (5,3,4) |
THATS THE IDEA – (atheist hated)* “abused”. | |
4 | City boy holding a US soldier up (6) |
SAIGON – SON (boy) “holding” A GI (US soldier) “up”, i.e. reversed in a down clue, -> IG. Not the first city that came to my mind! | |
6 | Synthetic cobbler’s model featured in illustration (7) |
PLASTIC – LAST (cobbler’s model) “in” PIC (illustration). | |
7 | Modest about a bit of money (note being pocketed) (8) |
RETICENT – RE (about) CENT (a bit of money), outside, “being pocketed”, TI (7th note of the scale). A bit tricky that one, but the wordplay is clear. | |
8 | A retired Eton criminal set out in a new direction (12) |
REORIENTATED – (A retired Eton)* “criminal”. | |
12 | Support for 13 malfunctioning palmtops (8) |
LAMPPOST – A rare (for the Times QC) cross-reference clue. i.e. “Support for a light”… (palmtops)* “malfunctioning”. | |
14 | To trespass with intent — not half impolite! (7) |
INTRUDE – INT |
|
16 | Mad character to talk having lost head (6) |
HATTER – |
|
18 | Love some style of abstractionism (2,3) |
OP ART – O (round letter; zero; love) PART (some). | |
19 | Obvious, not the first tragic old king (4) |
LEAR – Another first letter deletion to finish with… |
There were a fair number of easy starter clues, so nobody should be completely stymied.
Edited at 2021-09-10 05:10 am (UTC)
Very enjoyable and testing, which is how I usually find Izetti puzzles. Thanks John
A reference to another clue which intersects is a bit unfair. I can’t get 13 without the initial letter, and to get that I need to solve a clue that refers to it. In Microsoft Excel, at this point you get the Circular Reference warning.
Hatters went mad from the Mercury vapours inhaled during the felt-stiffening process.
COD OP ART although I don’t really know what that means. One to look up.
Finished in 11.06.
Thanks to John
From there it was a largely anticlockwise solve with plenty to think about but no real hold ups apart from deciding to leave TOED to last to see if any better ideas occurred. They didn’t.
FOI ALIGHT, LOI TOED (or TOSS, since I’d already thought of TOED and it has to be a typo), COD – lots of competition but I’m going for SAIGON because of the wonderfully apt surface, time 11:16 for 1.9K and a Decent Day.
Many thanks Don and John.
Templar
After this week, I think I must revise my target upwards. Sad — am I losing it or are there other ‘steady’ solvers who feel the same after the last week or more? I used to dip below 10 mins quite often during the first few years of the QC but I can remember only one sub-10 min time in the last year or so.
Still, the puzzle is the thing and perhaps I should strike away from most bloggers and stop obsessing about speed? Looking back over John’s blog, there were many really superb clues to enjoy, once the clock had stopped ticking.
Thanks to Don and John. John M.
Edited at 2021-09-10 08:45 am (UTC)
I know I’ve posted this before but I’m going to again, because it says it all rather well. This is an extract from a much longer post about solving times by Nick the Novice back in November 2017. I hope that it puts your mind at rest, especially the last sentence!
“Individual completion times seem to me a complete irrelevance in terms of indicating the degree of difficulty of a puzzle. Some might regard a 30 minute solve as indicating an “easy” solve: for others “easy” might equate to 5 minutes. It all depends on your level of experience and overall capability.
“I personally think an indicator of “degree of difficulty” is useful – hence my use of “quite tricky”, “fairly straightforward” etc. etc. This seems to me far more useful than a solving time, given the point made in 2. above.
“Finally I’ve personally never understood the interest in completion times for crosswords anyway. I suppose if you are someone who enters the competitions then these things matter. However, I’ve always regarded crosswords as a fun recreation rather than a competitive thing (I get plenty of competitive adrenalin flowing in my ‘real’ life). Rather, one might (in a loose kind of way) equate doing a crossword with recreational sex: it’s fun, and the longer it goes on the better – do you set a stop watch?”
Or as Izetti put it more pithily – “Relax, gentle solver, and enjoy!”
Hope that helps
I always try to read blog posts before posting to avoid repeating other people’s thoughts without fair acknowledgement. Perhaps that is my mistake because the early comments always set the tone with times quoted. To be fair, many of the quick solvers just post their time; thankfully, there seem to be fewer others these days (no names, no packdrill) who still add self-deprecating comments about how their (fast) time is ‘terribly/woefully…. slow’. We do still have comments from solvers who are concerned that their typing is not fast enough, though. I rest my case (but with little conviction).
I’ll stop mentioning my own time in future and just work to my own target. I do try to comment on the quality of a puzzle and that is surely worth more of my time.
The only problem is: when I am on wavelength and have a single-figure time again (ha!) I won’t be able to brag about it! John.
Edited at 2021-09-10 11:51 am (UTC)
I must admit to doing the DTelegraph online most days after the QC and I like the way you can stop the clock if you need a break. I take the odd break and always forget to hit ‘pause’ (or forget to re-start it) so my times are meaningless and I am left simply knowing if I was unusually quick or slow. I prefer that approach and I don’t read or contribute to the DT cryptic blog. John
On second thoughts, a post- breakfast malt might have a less helpful effect! John.
Edited at 2021-09-10 05:46 pm (UTC)
My feeling is that if I try to get speedier, I will finish something I enjoy doing, even sooner.
Would you rush eating a cake? Just a thought.
Pam
I suppose the next step is regularly trying the >100 snitch main puzzles and then on to barred puzzles.
There are always more cryptic crosswords…, just like there is always more cake…, but there is only so much time in a day, especially working full time.
I only time the puzzles because I have a competitive streak a mile wide, and like to see how I compare to the quicker solvers who post here on any given day. I actually do them because I love the challenge, and because along with cycling, it’s my hobby.
I suppose my aim would be to get to the stage where I can do 3 Times 15×15’s in less than 60 mins regularly, and then enter the Championships for a giggle (not in any hope of winning obviously).
Edited at 2021-09-10 03:33 pm (UTC)
Very slow today. Not helped by trying, like others, to fit in Petrification.
No problem with OP ART or SAIGON.
Liked TOSS, SIGMA, HATTER, RETICENT.
Thanks all, esp John.
Edited at 2021-09-10 11:09 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-09-10 09:44 am (UTC)
Couldn’t get going, nothing unfair though, except as the setter himself admits, kicked for kick.
Thanks all.
8:09.
As with others, my LOI was 22 ac “toed”, deciding not to agonise over the clue and simply trust the wordplay.
Anagrams today proved a little more troublesome but got there in the end. Another fine QC from Don.
COD 23 ac “creditor”.
18 months ago when lockdown began, I decided I would focus more on the Times Crosswords that I had been doing virtually every day for years and try to maintain my personal standards as I got older.
One measure is the time taken to completion but it’s not the only one. As far as I’m concerned the only person I’m competing against in this regard is myself!
Sharing our qualitative experiences of the daily battle of wits with the compiler is where a lot the fun lies. That’s why I continue to enjoy the TftT site so much.
Thanks to John for the concise blog and to Don.
FOI – 5ac SPUR
LOI – 8dn REORIENTATED. I hadn’t a clue what was going on here and needed an aid to finish.
CsOD – 6dn PLASTIC and 14dn INTRUDE
Thanks to Izetti and John
Maybe because I was up in the night watching the tennis?
Perhaps today’s not a day for having a go at the 15×15……
I therefore blame my dnf as a result of my brewing displeasure and increasingly furious anger.
Other than that — a good puzzle, although I agree with the circular reference of 12dn and 14ac. Main problem was 1ac “Treatise”, 8dn “Reorientated” (no excuse really) and 21ac “Trade” where I was convinced it had to be “exe” in there somewhere.
Not a great week overall I think.
FOI — 1dn “Toss”
LOI — dnf
COD — 23ac “Creditor”
Thanks as usual!
FOI 3dn THAT’S THE IDEA
LOI 1ac TREATISE
COD 4dn SAIGON – lovely Post Office by Gustav Eiffel
WOD 17ac PETRIFACTION
Edited at 2021-09-10 04:24 pm (UTC)
I tackled this QC this morning and was very pleased to finish, all correct, in 34 minutes. My last four in — REORIENTATED, DEACON (a very clever clue, IMHO), TRADE and OP ART — took 10 minutes or so, but it’s rare for nothing to hold me up at the end.
Luckily, I didn’t get thrown off track by TOED, probably because Mrs Random often calls me a TOAD when I am or have been up to no good.
Many thanks to Izetti and johninterred.
My COD to 1dn TOSS
I’m with Pitcaithlie that my only competitor is myself (just as well) but I do find it interesting to see how other posters are doing, especially those who joined this merry crew around the same time as me.
FOI Spur
LOI Reticent
COD Op art
Thanks Izetti and John
… which despite the discussion above I shall briefly note took me 12 minutes. Not because it is fast (there are many here who are much faster) or particularly meritorious, but because I do like to see how it compares with my other goes at a puzzle by Izetti.
I was another who tried to get Petrification into 17A — perhaps a slightly more common word than Petrifaction but it suffered from the fairly fatal flaw of having the wrong number of letters. So one tried again.
I also puzzled over 13A Alight. I can see that the parsing requires A + Land=Light, as John has explained, but that struck me as odd as the more normal is Land = Alight. That would make the clue a straight Double Definition (“Land in flames”, perhaps?).
And now on to the latest Saturday Special. Many thanks to John for the blog and a good weekend to all.
Cedric
Always seem to struggle with Izetti, so just finishing is something.