YAI! Yet Another Izetti, my third in a row. One or two tricky bits, as always with Izetti, but lots of classy clues. Being married to a maths teacher, I particularly enjoyed 16A. I also liked the crossword woman. It took me 6:12. Thank-you Izetti! How did you all get on?
P.S. Hola from Marbella where I am participating in this, so may be delayed in responding to comments while I’m on today’s walk.
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Sawbill’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find his crossword here. Enjoy! If anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to all 61 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Claim is so false in one sort of political philosophy (9) |
| SOCIALISM – (claim is so)* [false]. | |
| 6 | Daddy’s dance (3) |
| PAS – PA’S (daddy’s). Strictly speaking a step in a dance, particularly in ballet. | |
| 8 | One church composer, a big cold lump! (7) |
| ICEBERG – I (one) CE (Church of England; church) BERG (composer). Alban Berg was an Austrian composer with a style that combines lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. I love his violin concerto. | |
| 9 | Artist featured in ridiculously mad play (5) |
| DRAMA – RA (artist) [featured in] [ridiculously] (mad)*. | |
| 10 | Reformist Ann could turn out to be a pioneer (12) |
| FRONTIERSMAN – (reformist Ann)* [turn out]. | |
| 12 | Girl clutches leg, lying on back (6) |
| SUPINE – SUE (girl) [clutches] PIN (leg). Sounds like an exercise I used to do when I had sciatica. | |
| 13 | Celebrity journalist gawped (6) |
| STARED – STAR (celebrity) ED (editor; journalist). | |
| 16 | Senior teacher desires maths to be done differently (12) |
| HEADMISTRESS – (desires maths)* [done differently]. | |
| 19 | Land not clayey? (5) |
| LIGHT – I needed the checkers to see this. It’s “land” as in touching down, like a plane, perhaps. If a soil is not claylike it is said to be light. | |
| 20 | Notice one model, concerned with fat (7) |
| ADIPOSE – AD (notice) I (one) POSE (model). | |
| 22 | Regret game ending in battle (3) |
| RUE – R.U. (Rugby Union; game) [ending in] {battl}E. | |
| 23 | Perils bringing death to French city (9) |
| ENDANGERS – END (death) ANGERS (French city). I hadn’t come across “peril” as a verb before, but the dictionary says the usage is archaic so I don’t feel overly ignorant. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Rubbish collector to jump (4) |
| SKIP – Double definition. | |
| 2 | Explain vessel carried around by Shakespearean character (5,2) |
| CLEAR UP – CUP (vessel) around LEAR (Shakespearean character). | |
| 3 | Top position? Not quite for this animal (3) |
| APE – APE{x} (top position) without the final letter [not quite]. | |
| 4 | Woman within crossword diagram? (6) |
| INGRID –IN (within) GRID (crossword diagram). | |
| 5 | Way bad person gets nothing right — officer to step in? (9) |
| MODERATOR – MODE (way) RAT (bad person) O (0; nothing) R (right). An arbitrator or mediator, particularly a presiding officer, especially a chairman of a debate. | |
| 6 | Malfunctioning lamps, a feature of church service? (5) |
| PSALM -[Malfunctioning] (lamps)*. | |
| 7 | Son getting drunk must be examined (7) |
| SCANNED – S (son) CANNED (one of the many words for drunk). | |
| 11 | Men are not properly organised in a small unit (9) |
| NANOMETRE – (men are not)* [properly organised]. | |
| 12 | Expert in one form of renewable energy collecting honour (7) |
| SCHOLAR – SOLAR (one form of renewable energy) [collecting] CH (Companion of Honour; honour). | |
| 14 | Repair shop led by engineers (7) |
| RESTORE –STORE (shop) [led by] RE (Royal Engineers). | |
| 15 | Party introducing rules completely upset monarch once (6) |
| OSWALD – DO outside, [introducing], LAWS (rules) all reversed [completely upset] -> OSWALD. King Oswald of Northumbria is venerated as a saint. Coincidentally, I recently had a tour of Peterborough Cathedral, which was a destination for pilgrims seeking Oswald’s Arm. | |
| 17 | Opinion that may be obtuse (5) |
| ANGLE – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 18 | Insects — two of them in rubbish (4) |
| BEES – Did you parse this tricky one? ruBBish has 2 Bs in it. Nice one. | |
| 21 | At home, we hear, where travellers rest? (3) |
| INN – Sounds like, [we hear], IN (at home). | |
18.55. Very tricky, I couldn’t see FRONTIERSMAN for the longest time as I was stuck on looking for word ending – er or -ist. NANOMETRE held me up as I was looking for a military unit. The part of speech didn’t seem to correspond for perils and ENDANGERS but reading blog cleared that up. Somehow I hastily parsed BEES as having 2 “e”‘s inside BS (rubbish). Laughed at INGRID and enjoyed OSWALD the most.
I jumped in and made a lot of progress on the across clues on my first go-round, allowing me to get a fair number of down answers. Frontiersman and headmistress became obvious, and it was just a matter of mopping up. It was actually moderator I couldn’t see, and even then I typed in miderator, which was corrected in my proofreading.
Time: 8:08.
DNF, but did not really work hard on the final clues. NHO ANGERS, and was sure that the definition would be a plural noun (=perils). I thought the verb from “peril” was “imperil”.
At 15d (OSWALD) I though “introducing” would mean “preceding” in the clue, but it was an insertion indicator, so I discarded the usually reliable party=do.
Did not like LIGHT, was looking for something cleverer from Izetti with the odd word “clayey” seeming to point to some word play.
Liked BEES, though, very neat although I did not parse it. How do setters with hundreds of puzzles already under their belt still come up with gems like this? Impressive.
15 minutes. SKIP was my LOI, but generally I was slow all round today.
30 minutes although a big chunk was spent on my LOI: OSWALD. I worked out the WP but just couldn’t bring the king to mind. I should have just written it in and stopped the clock earlier.
FOI: SKIP.
Left APE to the end. I avoided the temptation to stick in ‘ace’ on first reading but it took a long time to come to ‘apex’ to confirm my second hunch. ENDANGERS took a long time at the end and FRONTIERSMAN took some unpicking. Stuffed it up with a P for an O in RESTORES and so wrecked ADIPOSE too. 14m and one pink square giving two errors. Drat.
Super crossword from Izetti.
I’d like to thank him for 8d as my second novel The Tip of the Iceberg (by David Jarvis) is just out on Kindle unlimited and all good bookstores.
I hope that you enjoy my Weekend QC (please follow John’s link above) … and the book.
Reading the Collation Unit now – following an earlier plug. Better add this one to the pile!
Thank you. Please let me know when you have finished it.
12 minutes, and pleased with myself when I come here and find it was an Izetti – his puzzles usually take me longer. I wonder why the Times app won’t show the setter’s name.
Very much helped by getting the long anagrams quickly, including 1A Socialism as my FOI. “Claim is so false” – surely not a political comment from our setter? Hats off to Bees, a fun clue, but COD for me was Oswald, who is a bit of a family hero – two of my three children went to Durham University and one has even named his car Oswald (the last 3 letters on the numberplate are OSW). Nice to see “monarch” stretching back over 1,000 years into our early history, and his story is worth reading (thank you John for the link).
Many thanks John for the blog, and I look forward to trying the Saturday Special
Cedric
7:58
Fun puzzle.
Thanks, John.
A steady solve starting with SKIP and ending with FRONTIER MAN. I had to study the anagram fodder to work out what the missing letter was. I realised quite quickly that I misread the clue at 23a …my first reading was ‘Penis bringing death to French city’. BEES took a while to parse but I enjoyed the PDM. I crossed the finish line in 11:19, outside target but hey-ho it is Friday.
Thanks for the laugh out loud moment – and your honesty too 🤣🤣 Ditto to Rotter (below)!
Completed this one with help on two clues (Oswald and Endangers).
BEES. I answered it but could not work out EE. I thought rubbish was BS 🤣
Good week for me on the QC front, which made up for my abysmal performance last week.
re Bees…me too with them being two Hes with dropped aitches! Clever clue thanks Izetti. 16:30 so par for this setter. thanks John enjoy your walking. weather’s better here in Cartagena today so you should stay dry!
Yes I stayed dry. It was tough in the sun with 1500ft climbing (and descending) over 12 miles, completed in just over 4 hours. Nice views, though, and the beers at the end were very welcome!
Good to read that. I’m impressed. Enjoy your time.
Brilliant! I wish I’d thought of that parsing for BEES. I suspect, sadly, that Izetti’s intention was as in the blog rather than yours.
Haha, I thought exactly the same thing for Bees!
I am booked on a solving seminar later this month. It can’t come soon enough.
Hi Ian – good to see you still giving it some. Your perseverance is admirable.
I know helpful advice is plentiful but may I suggest the approach I’ve taken. I got the compilation book of The Times QC for Christmas last year. I attempted a grid each day or so but only looked at the solution when I’ve filled it out. If I can’t finish it, I move on to the next one but can retry unsolved grids later. I recently finished off one I started in May!!
There’s a bunch of benefits including extra practice, no time constraints or comparisons to others on here. By never looking up the answers until you’ve finished, you give your brain the opportunity to keep working at it. A fresh look often helps as others have said. When you solve a clue you couldn’t do last week, it’s a great feeling and reinforces you confidence. When you get frustrated by them, you can put the book down for a few days.
Plus if you’re one of those “there’s nothing I really want for Christmas” types as I am. It’s a neat solution for everybody!
Hope the seminar goes well.
I have vol. 1 of the QC too, as well as vol.1 of the main Times cryptic. Like you I can do them in slow time as I practice. The main cryptic crossword book is done in glacial time 🤣
Hear hear.
I think I might join you after today!
Ah well. I enjoyed most of this but Izetti was his usual ornery self again. A strange mix of easy throw-away clues and right b*****ds. I’m not going to list all the fine clues but I will say that I enjoyed some excellent anagrams and some clever wordplay. I am impressed by some of the times posted above.
A toss-up for my COD today between BEES and ENDANGERS. Sadly, I was beaten by OSWALD. A great clue (for those with more regal history than me) but surely more appropriate in the 15sqd puzzle?
The better man won today. Thanks to both. John M.
The more skilled solvers are always putting in answers that are words or things they have never heard of, based solely on the cryptic. Sometimes we come a cropper and put in a momble, but Oswald fit the cryptic and is a name, so in it went.
I think Izetti’s style is always to throw in a few challenges… and that’s what I admire most about his crosswords. If you don’t get something you will always learn something new when you finally see the answer. And if you still don’t… that’s what this blog’s for!
12 minutes with a slight hold-up over LOI OSWALD, where the checkers put ASGARD in my head, even though it was wrong in so many ways. I also misread 23a as ‘Penis …’ on first reading – very strange. Good puzzle from the Don, and good blog – thanks.
Well done, Rotter. I must confess that, in desperation, I actually entered ASGARD but my doubts were immediately confirmed by 3 red squares. John.
Re 23a I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one.
Outing all the Freudians!
Took me a while to get started, and after putting ISM at the end of 1a, I still didn’t see INGRID, but eventually SKIP got me going. MODERATOR took a while too. SCHOLAR brought up the rear at 8:56. Thanks Izetti and John.
After a good start, I eventually crossed into SCC territory with ‘just’ Scanned, Oswald and Endangers left. The first two must have taken the best part of 10mins (there are way too many words for drunk in English), by which time I couldn’t face another alphabet trawl for Endangers, so a 30min DNF. I thought Supine, Scholar and Oswald were all worthy CoD candidates, but 18d, Bees, gets the nod for the pdm. Invariant
I’m absolutely sure that a list of alternatives for inebriated would be extremely long 😂🍺
…all to the advantage of the setter and misery of the solver whi doesn’t know the one they use.
One of the hardest for quite a while, at least for me. Really struggled with the top half but eventually crossed the line in 14.59, nearly 5 minutes beyond target. FRONTIERSMAN held me up for quite a while but nevertheless is my COD. LOI was MODERATOR.
Frustrating to have 4 left after 15-mins on an Izetti and then end up with a DNF at 32mins.
Undone by using the American spelling of NANOMETer. By the time I spotted -DANGERS, I’d already considered the -RE spelling then changed it back. A French city I don’t know could be redangers as easily as Angers to me. Those extra 18-mins had worn me down.
I’m not sure why Izetti felt a need to clue … moderator with “officer”, light with “land” or angers with “French city”. If it’s meant to be a Quick crossword then by definition, the parsing should be fairly obvious not have to descend to the 15th level of explanation.
As I mentioned in a previous comment, I think Izetti sets out to provide some sort of challenge. It’s a bit of a balance, but I think he offsets the tricky bits with plenty of straightforward clues quite well. You can find much more devious clues in the 15×15, so it’s good preparation for stepping up, I think
An unresolvable philosophical matter!
I guess the analogy for me is I’d like to see my team storm through the Championship and then move up to be challenged in the Premier League with the acceptance we’re probably coming straight back down again!
Doing an Izetti is more like your team finishing 3rd and being consigned to the playoffs, from where they may or may not win promotion. What had felt like a good season potentially all ends in huge disappointment!
(Fortunately AFCB scraped in with the runners-up automatic promotion spot last season)
AFCB are my team as well, and I think they’ve had a decent start to the season. Who cares about goal difference?
I also put NANOMETer and reDANGERS. I’d heard of ANGERS, but went with reD for ‘death’.
A sandwich solve for me – fast bursts at the start and end, but a long chew in the middle. RHS seemed harder than LHS to me. I thought LIGHT and MODERATOR were a bit weak, but I greatly enjoyed almost everything else and struggled to choose just one COD (BEES in the end).
All done in 10:26 for an estimated 1.8K and a Reasonable Day.
Many thanks Izetti and John.
Templar
Slow but reasonably steady today, finishing in 16 minutes.
I didn’t like clayey as a word at all – sounds weird when you say it out loud! No problem with Angers – I’ve had a couple of friends from there over the years, and it has an impressive chateau too!
I liked HEADMISTRESS and INGRID a lot, but there was one stand-out clue in the grid for me today.
FOI Pas LOI Supine COD Bees
Thanks Izetti and John
From memory, the chateau at Angers had a well preserved moat with deer in it – obviously drained! But that was 45 years ago!
Scary! I’ve just worked that is nearly 50 years since I was last there. Maybe it’s time for a return visit 😅
6:12 this morning. A really quick time would involve cracking the longer anagrams without delay, which I wasn’t able to do.
An above average QC in terms of difficulty imo but with several excellent clues, ensuring a satisfying solve. COC 18 d “bees”.
Thanks to John for the blog (I notice we had exactly the same time) and to Don.
Yes. That’s about par for me for an Izetti. Always something to make you think.
Rocketed through the top half then came to a shuddering halt. Guessed SCHOLAR and LIGHT, struggled with ADIPOSE and ENDANGERS and failed with OSWALD and BEES, so a DNF. Just could not see these last two ingenious answers.
13.02
No particular hold-ups. I tried putting Angstroms for the unit before spotting the lack of G in the anagrist.
I used to grow vegetables on a clayey soil, and now do so on a light sandy loam. Definitely prefer the latter.
I seemed to be motoring through this one quite quickly (for me) until I ground to a halt with 23A. It took a while to realise that a mis-spelling of 11D meant that I was looking for a word starting with E rather than R.
COD to BEES – brought a smile to my face when I worked out the parsing.
Another toe into the SCC with a 22 min solve.
However, an enjoyable puzzle with some lovely clues. NHO 20ac “Adipose” and wasn’t sure about 19ac “Light”, but the rest all went in steadily. We once stayed in Angers when deciding to return from the south of France via the west (rather than the A7 to Lyon). Very nice if I rightly remember – is it the heart of the old region of Anjou from medieval times? Vaguely recall a plantaganet queen (or wife of a King) coming from there.
FOI – 1ac “Socialism”
LOI – 15dn “Oswald”
COD – 18dn “Bees”
Thanks as usual!
Add me to the list of people held up by misspelling 11dn. This is also the second day in a row when I have had to resort to aids to complete – this time to crack 15dn OSWALD. Seems perfectly obvious with hindsight! I was also going to have to look up 23ac but once I had the end of 15dn ENDANGERS became immediately apparent. So another DNF – and it was all going so well up to that point.
FOI – 1ac SOCIALISM
LOI – 23ac ENDANGERS
COD – what else could it be but the wonderful 18dn BEES, although I also liked 4dn INGRID
Thanks to Izetti and to John
Raced through most of this but ended up as a DNF. I did not read the clue 6a properly and confidently entered POP. This made 7d difficult and I put in (no comment on a 70th birthday) a completely unparsed PLANNED.
I thought OSWALD was a difficult clue and also BEES went in unparsed.
Despite living in the US for nearly 30 years, I still think of dumpsters as skips, so that was my FOI. Then a reasonably steady solve, finishing in 16:12. Was held up for a while trying to compile a mental catalogue of reformers called Ann, but then the M from PSALM made me count the letters at the other end of the clue. Didn’t fully parse MODERATOR, but COD goes to BEES.
Thanks to setter & blogger.
Late to this after golf. I thought of BEES early on but it was my LOI after I searched for the parsing for ages. SKIP and ENDANGERS prior to that.
A high quality puzzle which I found quite tough. No time-done in two sessions.
David
Just a great QC!! Thanks setter and blogger.
Horrible! A full hour, sub-divided as follows:
1st 12 mins = 12 clues solved (going well at this stage)
2nd 12 mins = 0 clues solved (a complete mental block with 14 clues still remaining!)
3rd 12 mins = 11 clues solved (but, unknown to me, NANOMETer was wrong)
4th 12 minutes = 0 clues solved
5th 12 minutes = 3 clues solved (ANGLE and LIGHT, but reDANGERS was wrong)
Outcome = DNF (2 errors in 60 minutes) and a dispirited Mr R
I never parsed APE or MODERATOR, and DNK Land = LIGHT. The only rays of light were BEES, which made me smile when I got it, and Mrs R’s error-free completion in 30 minutes.
Many thanks to Izetti and Johninterred.
The only good thing about my 18-mins of crickets was going back and realising why the unparsed AcE wasn’t. At that moment, I was feeling very pleased to avoid a DNF …
BEES went in immediately and brought to mind my dad as he was a lifelong supporter of Brentford. Wondering what our potential U.S. owners made of the match between them and the Cherries last week.
Chin up Mr R. It was a tough one today. I think land/light may have come up before as it dawned on me after some prolonged head scratching. My solving pattern was very similar to yours. Some of our more experienced solvers seemed to find this hard, so best put it down to experience.
P.S. A question for those whose grammar is better than mine: Why does ‘Perils’ = ENDANGERS? Shouldn’t Izetti have used the word ‘Imperils’?
I sort of agree. It is, perhaps, a bit of wilful obfuscation from our setter to use the archaic definition of “peril” as a verb. You wouldn’t be being unreasonable to think it has escaped from a Mephisto crossword, where anything in the dictionary is fair game.
Thought this was much easier than the average Izetti. I only didn’t get PAS, SUPINE and ENDANGERS on the first run through of the acrosses, and though the downs were trickier, having so many crossers was a great help. I added a bit of time at the end going back and correcting the unparsed ARGUE to ANGLE, but was still all done in 18 minutes, which, having see the comments on here, I’m happy with. COD to BEES. Thanks Izetti and John.
Reading some of the above comments makes me feel marginally better about my abject performance today. I completed this QC but took about 75 mins to do so.
I just cannot see anagrams at the moment. As soon as I spot a long one, my brain freezes. Also frustrated to take a long time on some easy clues by missing some obvious abbreviations and word play.
How some of you solve these in the times you achieve is astonishing and I take my hat off to you.
Thanks for the interesting and informative blog John. We share an interest in hiking as well as crosswords! Thanks also to Izetti for such ingenuity.
Have a good weekend everyone.
Puzzled and puzzled over 18D “Insects — two of them in rubbish (4)”…
Very Good !
A really enjoyable puzzle from a master among the setters. Completed this as a wind-down after a long day in London looking at the Apollo Remastered exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall and the Chris Killick retrospective at the Photographers Gallery (both recommended). That took a good 14000 steps and a few buses, as well as the drive! So pleased to dawdle through this in 42 minutes before hitting the sack. FOI 1a Socialism. LOI & COD 18d Bees. Lots of lovely cluing in this fine example of a QC.