This took me exactly 10 minutes to solve, but one clue (8d) was still unparsed at that stage, and not completely understood until I came to write the blog. Despite this, I found this to be at the easy end of the spectrum for an Izetti, despite there being a couple of tougher clues in the grid.
I hope that you found the puzzle as approachable as I did, and met your own individual target, whatever that is.
Across
- Travellers needing permits to go on motorway (8)
MIGRANTS – MI (M1 motorway) and GRANTS (permits – you may choose either the noun or the verb – it still works).
5 Ruler appearing in The Mirror (4)
EMIR – Hidden in {th}E MIR{ror}.
9 Fixture I have to join front and back of raiment (5)
RIVET – I’VE (I have) inside R{aimen}T (front and back letters). A RIVET is a fixture, as is a nail or a screw.
10 Fancy drape or pendant (7)
EARDROP – Anagram (fancy) of [DRAPE OR]. In jewellery an EARDROP or a pendant is a type of earring.
11 Henry appearing in Greenwich a lot (3)
HAL – Hidden in (appearing in) {greenwic}H A L{ot}. HAL is a venerable abbreviation for Henry, Harry and Harold, probably most famously used by Shakespeare in King Henry IV as the name of the king’s son, the future Henry V.
12 I dominate after ruining diplomacy (9)
MEDIATION – Anagram (after ruining) of [I DOMINATE].
13 Engineers go and come back again (6)
RETURN – RE (Royal Engineers) and TURN (go, as in you have a turn / go).
15 What’s discriminating against oldies? Some umbrage is taken (6)
AGEIST – Hidden inside (some) {umbr}AGE IS T{aken}.
17 Firm’s office cleaner crosses road excitedly (9)
BOARDROOM – BROOM (cleaner) containing (crosses) an anagram (excitedly) of [ROAD].
19 Tot not everyone heard (3)
SUM – Homophone clue (heard), sounds like SOME (not everyone). To TOT as in to add up.
20 Merciful opponent of Winston? (7)
CLEMENT – Winston (Churchill’s) opponent in the 1945 General Election was the victorious Clement Attlee, leader of the Labour Party at the time. He had been Deputy Prime Minister to Churchill during the war years. Coincidentally, Churchill’s wife was called Clementine and they shared a close and affectionate marriage for 56 years, until Churchill’s death. My first thought was her, until the penny dropped with Attlee.
21 Chemist and bishop participating in winter festival (5)
NOBEL – NOEL (winter festival) containing B{ishop} (participating in). Referring to Alfred NOBEL, founder of the Nobel Prize.
22 Son frequently delicate (4)
SOFT – S{on} and OFT (frequently).
23 The female’s laid into unruly child being most impudent (8)
BRASHEST – SHE’S (the female’s) inside (laid into) BRAT (unruly child).
Down
1 One taking steps to demonstrate? (7)
MARCHER – Cryptic definition.
2 Handed over pounds for something in the auction room (5)
GAVEL – GAVE (handed over) and L (Libra, pounds sterling).
3 Time remained for work in the morning (4,8)
ANTE MERIDIEM– Anagram (for work) of [TIME REMAINED].
4 Quaint daughter finds Scottish material (5)
TWEED – TWEE (quaint) and D{aughter}.
6 Saint helping beggar with one drink (7)
MARTINI – The Saint referred to is St Martin of Tours who gives his name to Martinmas, and was famed for cutting his cloak in two with his sword and giving half to a beggar dressed only in rags. The wordplay is MARTIN (saint helping a beggar) with I (one). Whilst Izetti often includes church references in his puzzles, I for one, find this a bit too specific and esoteric for a QC.
7 Tear on in small city (5)
RIPON – RIP (tear) and ON (on). Ripon is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire.
8 Configurations requiring skills – line up follows to enter(12)
ARRANGEMENTS – The answer came a long time before the parsing, but I think this is ARTS (skills) into which comes (to enter) RANGE (line-up) and MEN (fellows).
14 Cockney criminal that has gone to pot (3,4)
TEA LEAF – Cryptic clue, referring to the CRS origin of TEA LEAF / THIEF.
16 Model building for worship with roof of timber (7)
TEMPLET – TEMPLE (building for worship) and T{imber} (roof of = first letter). TEMPLET is an alternative spelling for template.
17 County next to Oxon making money (5)
BUCKS – Oxon is an abbreviation for Oxfordshire. Next door county Buckinghamshire is abbreviated to BUCKS.
18 Way, beginning to end, to find part of target (5)
OUTER – ROUTE (way) becomes OUTER if the first letter is moved to the back (first to last). The OUTER is part of the bull’s eye in an archery or darts board.
19 Fur that is black appearing in trade event (5)
SABLE – SALE (trade event) containing B{lack}. Sable is the fur of the arctic and sub-arctic marten, which is dark-brown. In heraldry, SABLE also means black, so black here could be doing double-duty.
Rotter you made the same mistake in the blog as me, it’s ANTE MERIDIEM with an M on the end. After being seriously inconvenienced by the NHO TEMPLET and RIPON, this single N for M error took ages to locate and took my time out to 12.12. I haven’t heard the full AM expression since I was at school and always thought it ended in N, so we learn something. Nice crossword from Izetti, I liked BOARDROOM, ARRANGEMENTS and CLEMENT because I knew it.
Many thanks for pointing out my schoolboy error – now fixed in the blog. I got it right when solving, thanks to the anagrist.
13:11. OUTER, NOBEL and ARRANGEMENTS were favourites. I didn’t know TEMPLET, TEA LEAF(as thief), or EARDROP but they were all simple to crack. It should be an M at the end of MERIDIEM. You might have been thinking of meridian?
Another N for M; typed N without the slightest doubt. Serves me right for not checking the anagrist. NHO TEMPLET; an uncommon variant of a common word seems inappropriate for a QC. Didn’t know the story of St. Martin. Which half did he give? What did he do with the other half? The beggar now is dressed in rags and half a cloak; for this Martin was canonized? 8:17 but.
It’s the thought that counts.
I never knew the phrase ‘cloak and dagger’ had such positive religious overtones…
Collins gives it as American version of TEMPLATE.
I agree this was easy for an Izetti, but there still were a few tricks – templet, indeed! The tea leaf clue was also unexpected, since normally CRS is used in the wordplay, rather than being the answer. I was a bit surprised to see Ripon – US solvers will know that Ripon, Wisconsin was where the Republican Party was founded in 1854. I supposed it must be named after some city in the UK.
Time: 9:29
DNF with CLEMENT/OUTER/BRASHEST left unfilled.
I think OUTER was tough. The names of parts of an archery target seem on the outer edge of trivia. And these movement type clues are hard to spot, and finally “route” sent me off on red herrings of st, Rd etc.
Also I thought TEMPLET was a bit obscure. I talk about templates every day and have never come across this. The OED just says “variant of template” with no citations , and Google only leads to dictionary pages with no actual usage.
Surely depends which trivia you are familiar with? Outer as part of a target is well known to me from watching shooting and archery on TV during the Olympics amongst other sources. We all have a different range of trivia knowledge but I find the QC is a good source of expanding that.
13 minutes. I guessed MARTINI and was pleased when the checkers it provided fitted with other answers as they arrived, but I never heard of the St Martin story. TEMPLET was another unknown. I wondered if we may have comments about the UK-centric corner in the SW, what with CLEMENT (Attlee), TEA-LEAF and BUCKS where one needs to know two abbreviated counties. In case anyone’s interested, Oxon is also bordered by Glos, Northants, Warks and Wilts.
And Berks! But Bucks is its best neighbour.
Oh, yes! I wonder how I missed that one.
Berk is the shortened version of Berkley Hunt, which is cockney rhyming slang. So instead of thinking you’re saying a mild expletive it’s actually much worse.
I used to inwardly giggle when my Father used to use this.
I’ve deleted a comment here which I’m sure (well I hope!) was posted in good faith but nevertheless was open to unpleasant interpretation, especially in the light of the above comment posted by Goose.
Haha I think that was me and it was only in jest.
No worries. I assumed so.
Took me well into SCC time today. I worked briefly at St Martin’s Hosp in Bath which helped but never knew the reason for his canonisation. Mistook OUTER as anagram of Route. It was a poor but sufficient explanation that I knew was probably incorrect.
FOI MIGRANTS, LOI BRASHEST, didn’t like the spelling of TEMPLET but accepted a vague recollection of that spelling. Just have time for a coffee and croissant in my usual chair.
Thanks Don and Rotter
Couldn’t parse ANTE MERIDIEM because it turns out I didn’t know how to spell it and have been saying it wrong on the very infrequent occassions I might have needed to. I did realise that they way I spelled it was not an angram of ‘time remaining’ but all the checkers fitted and I didn’t know what else to do. So a good tussle, particularly in the NW and SE ended with two pink squares – still top half of the leaderboard though (19/43) despite that and taking 20m. Enjoyed BOARDROOM suddenly arriving in my head and realising what the cleaner was. An excellent puzzle I was a bit too dim for!
I thought this was tough going in places and I’m relieved that I fully checked the anagrist for ANTE MERIDIEM as I initially spelt it with a final ‘n’.
TEMPLET is fairly obscure but was kindly whereas MARTINI was the opposite and went in unparsed and last – not really a suitable clue for the QC IMHO.
Finished in 12.14 with COD to BUCKS as it’s nice to see my home county mentioned.
Thanks to Rotter
I had my very best glass-half-full hat on as I approached this latest offering from Izetti. I smiled at the “random small city which many will not have heard of” clue, I chuckled at the “abbreviation of a lesser known county” clue, I thought hard about the “Latin phrase behind a common abbreviation which very few know in full” clue (and at length got it right having checked the anagram letters very carefully). But Templet! I suppose it would not be an Izetti without at least one “I know a word no-one else does” answer, but this is not a word for a QC. However generously clued.
14 minutes, with Arrangements not parsed and Templet LOI and bunged in with fingers crossed. Many thanks to Rotter for the blog.
Cedric
🤣
I’m not sure it is fair to say that Buckinghamshire is a lesser known county? Surely depends where you live and on your experience. It’s very well known to those of us living in counties that border it!
I always tell myself to skip Izettis. But if I skip the QC, then there’s a gap in my morning ritual and I feel unfulfilled.
So I had a go, but wished I hadn’t – DNF after 40m or so.
So I’m now more frustrated than if I hadn’t bothered.
Thanks Rotter, for clearing the very obscure mist on some of today’s torture.
I was through inside my target time, but, having cleared all but two clues on the first pass, I was denied a really stellar result by being held up for the best part of a minute on my LOI.
I’m 4th on the leaderboard at this early stage, but the number of solvers with errors is as high as I can remember. Luckily my “O” Level Latin ensured no problems with “Ack Emma”.
FOI EMIR
LOI BRASHEST
COD BOARDROOM
TIME 4:17
The difficulty many people have with getting “ack Emma” right (presumably that’s what underlies the number of errors?) is amusingly illustrated by the fact that it’s even misspelt in the blog supposedly giving the answers! [on edit – blog now corrected but the point stands]
I’m with Snail. I should have followed my instincts and done a different puzzle to start the day. The top half went in quickly (with the error regarding the spelling of ‘am’ shared with rotter and others) but I wasted time on so many tricky details such as TEMPLET (plus a careless typo) in the lower half. There were plenty of good and clever clues (my CsOD were ROUTE and NOBEL) but there is always something about an Izetti puzzle that unbalances me and often tips me into the SCC.
Speaking of other puzzles I went sub-10 for the first time on the Telegraph yesterday. You’re not allowed to talk times on Big Dave so I’m announcing it here instead!
Well done! I have never managed such a feat. Sub-10 min times are becoming a distant memory for me, even for the QC. I always used to find the DT puzzle a bridge between the Times QC and 15sq. Perhaps I should re-visit it. John.
DT puzzles subscription is pretty cheap at the moment and the crossword is definitely less scary than the 15×15 here! Standard of blog is well down though.
DNF. Gave up on TEMPLET, which I didn’t think was generously clued [on edit – everyone disagrees with me, which simply means they’re all wrong humph] and which is pretty obscure (Collins lists it only as American English). After trawling for a while I got in a huff and abandoned ship for a Grumpy Day. Just under 10 mins for the rest.
I didn’t think it was a very good puzzle, actually – three hiddens?? TEA LEAF was excellent though.
Templar
Izetti’s mission to deter the inexperienced continues.
Had meridien for LOI. Over 18m so not a good day.
COD boardroom
Well the QSnitch is currently 125, thus confirming your (and many others’) assessment of the puzzle. And the high number of errors on the leaderboard that Busman mentions tells its own story too.
You can’t blame Izetti for people not being able to spell “meridiem”!
No of course not. Or for not knowing Templet. But I can wonder whether they have a place in a QC.
I think there’s a big difference between those two – a.m is a standard abbreviation and I think it’s reasonable to expect people to know what it stands for (especially since (a) most people know the phrase “per diem” and (b) it was an anagram!!). TEMPLET, on the other hand …
As an experienced solver, I should have got am, but I biffed without checking the letters properly, templet was easier as roof of timber is T, and the rest wasn’t church, cathedral, or mosque!
Yes a.m. was at least an anagram, and I did check and did (eventually) get it right. And Yes templet was clearly clued, and I did get that too despite NHO the word. (And roof of timber is surely T not R …)
That isn’t really my point. I half-agree with Templar that Ante meriediem is justifiable, but I thought it tough for a QC. I wholly agree with Templar that Templet is not justifiable in a QC.
I was replying to Templar, that I thought templet was fairly clued.
Yes well grumble mutter *goes off to kick the cat*
I hope you didn’t kick PW’s cat. That wouldn’t be fair – on PW or his cat.
agreed about Izetti’s mission. I was fortunate to know (St) Martin having been to Tours. But TEMPLET was definitely NHO.
Isnt Birmingham a bit nearer?!
Fairly raced through the top half, and at that point thought the long sought after sub-10 was at least a (faint) possibility. Sadly the bottom half of the grid (below Ageist/Return) was the exact opposite, nearly every clue taking ages. Worse still, I ended up with a DNF because loi Arrangements just wouldn’t come to mind no matter how often I kept returning to it. CoD to 18d, Outer, for the parsing, though Nobel ran it very close. Invariant
14:57 (King Christian of Denmark and Norway becomes King of Sweden as well)
NHO of TEMPLET, but the wordplay left no alternative, so it went in with a shrug. I have also been confusing MERIDIEM with MERIDIAN all my life, notwithstanding passing O Level Latin half a century ago.
LOI was ARRANGEMENT
Thanks Izetti and Rotter
I have many times been deterred by Izetti’s QCs, but found this an excellent example, which I completed in well below average and probably deserted the SCC again. NHO EARDROP or TEMPLET, but on this occasion they were kindly clued. FOI MARCHER, LOI BRASHEST and COD BOARDROOM. Thanks Izetti and Rotter.
I found this tricky but enjoyable. I expect that some of our US friends might have been stumped by English geography but Bucks is mainly US slang isn’t ? 🙂 only reservation is TEMPLET – if so many people are saying NHO it isn’t really apt for quickie in my view. Thanks setter and blogger.
Same experience as Invariant – raced through the top half and got quite excited about a fast time before being brought to earth with a bump by the bottom half. Spent far too long trying to parse ‘brass’ for 17dn until the penny dropped. Also wasted time on 23ac where I had misread the last word of the clue as ‘imprudent’. I thought I had checked the anagrist for ANTE MERIDIEM but still managed to put an ‘a’ as the penultimate letter, making CLEMENT difficult until another pdm. NHO TEMPLET as a variant of template but entered it anyway with a certain amount of finger crossing. All in all could have done better but still managed 23 minutes, all parsed.
FOI – 5ac EMIR
LOI – 8dn ARRANGEMENTS
COD – 20ac CLEMENT
Thanks to Izetti and Rotter
It was almost as if there were two different setters, such was the apparent change in difficulty.
An early solve for me and another tough one, IMHO. I was very nearly defeated by a combination of my narrow vocabulary (e.g. TEMPLET), an inability to parse (e.g. OUTER), an inability to find synonyms (e.g. BRAT in BRASHEST) and poor GK (e.g. MARTINI). There were others of course – ARRANGEMENTS, ANTE MERIDIEM and TEA LEAF spring to mind – but I did get there in the end. Total time = 46 minutes. Phew!
Many thanks to Izetti and Rotter (“at the easy end of the spectrum”, my foot!).
7.27 but me too
TEMPLET was NHO but the w/p was so clear with the checkers I don’t feel it was too unfair.
NHO TEMPLET, but the wordplay was clear. This time I managed to get MERIDIEM right, but failed with a careless ANTI. Should’ve checked the anagrist! 8:09 WOE. Thanks Izetti and Rotter.
Well over 30 mins but eventually cracked it. MERIDIEM not a problem but TEMPLET took an age to work out. I didn’t particularly recognise BRASH as a synonym for impudent, but that’s clearly my failing. ARRANGEMENTS was another that I stared at for ages even with the crossers. Looking at it all again I don’t know quite why it seemed so impenetrable – just not “on the wavelength”, I guess. Thanks Rotter and Izetti.
22 minutes and lots of question marks at the end of this.
MY LOI was CLEMENT which made me realise I had spelt ANTE MERIDIEM wrong; and after correction I still had it wrong, with an N at the end. See me after school.
I also had FRESHEST at 23a ; I did wonder if FRET was a little known word for an unruly child. As it’s Izetti, I thought it might be.
His templet is to challenge us with new words.
Anyway I enjoyed the challenge and am now rushing to get a train.
David
Had a similar internal debate around freshest/fret before deciding to come back to it later, when I returned the penny dropped.
Another who pondered FRESHEST for quite a while.
10:25
Found it less than smooth, failing to pick up much rhythm. Didn’t know the Saint but with three checkers including the final I, the drink was plain enough. I learned how to spell AM correctly only from doing Times crosswords – once bitten, you shouldn’t get it wrong next time. Had a question mark next to TEMPLET but assumed it would be an alternative spelling – as Dvynys says above, the wordplay was clear. LOI was BRASHEST – took a while to come up with an unruly child.
Thanks Rotter and Izetti
I thought this was surprisingly easy for an Izetti puzzle – until I reached the SE corner: NHO TEMPLET (guessed it and looked it up) and struggled to see BRASHEST. COD CLEMENT.
I wasn’t sure about TEMPLET and wondered even if I had been misspelling it all these years, but nevertheless it went in. If it hadn’t been for carefully checking the anagrist, I too would have spelt ANTE MERIDIEM with an N. Other than these two thought provoking clues, I went through the rest at a reasonable pace finishing in 8.23.
Stuggled to 43 mins and then found I also had the wrong spelling for meridiem. I love the learning opportunities and this was one today.
In all honesty I don’t think I could have come up with thr meaning of a.m. in a pub quiz and it was only Izetti’s clue that got me (almost) there. So now I know and today is thus a good day.
This is exactly how I fared too – an identical time of 43:15 and a mis-spelling of meridiem with “n” as the last letter. I too have learned something as I was so sure of meridien being correct, it never occurred to me to check the letters in the anagram.
DNF – another ‘freshest’ instead of BRASHEST, even though I knew it didn’t parse. No problems with the geography, the saint or AM. Easy wordplay for TEMPLET (and my mum used to pronounce ‘template’ as ‘templet’) so no quibbles here. Embarrassingly long time on TWEED though 😂 COD to OUTER, now that I understand it of course. Always enjoy an Izetti. Many thanks Rotter.
Identical experience to Dvynys. 7:27 WOE
Failed to check the anagrist for a.m, which is my fault. Otherwise, this was OK for an Izetti. Faced with T?M?L?T, and having to fill in a place of worship for those first 6 letters, meant that even if NHO the full word, surely you fill in TEMPLE and move on?
DNF
Well yes. Unless you’ve totally mucked it up by thinking that the definition is “model building” (because it obviously ends in “let”, which is usually a diminutive eg booklet, hence “model”) so you’re looking for a six letter word meaning “worship” + the final T for “roof of timber”. But then surely nobody would be stupid enough to do that *cough*.
🤣
TEMPLar – I can’t help but notice the irony of you not spotting that one … 😬
I was faced with T_M_L__ for a while and I seriously considered TUMULUS. Not really a building, but quite possibly (even probably) a place of worship.
Snitch only concedes “Harder” but I couldn’t do this at all – after an hour, only seven clues solved (but no problem with MARTINI). Misery. Oh well the last two days were an easy ride so I suppose the pendulum had to swing back. NHO EARDROP, CRS TEA LEAF, TEMPLET, OUTER. Not on the right planet. Thank you, Rotter.
15.32 WOE. The top half was quick. BRASHEST took a while and I spent ages dithering over NHO TEMPLET but it was MERIDIEN that gave me a pink square. Bah! An entertaining puzzle though. Thanks to Rotter and Izetti.
Further to the difficulty the spelling of ANTE MERIDIEM caused so many, there is also a word antimeridian which means a meridian at 180 degrees from another or the meridian opposite the prime meridian. I assume that’s all something to do with mathematics or geography or maybe even a combination of the two.
Ah! The prime meridian is the line of longitude on which it is midday when the sun is directly overhead. In the UK in winter, anyway. With the shared noon connection I’m not sure I ever noticed they were two different words.
A SOFTer Izetti as far as I was concerned, especially with several hiddens.
Enjoyed learning about St Martin, the correct spelling of a.m. and TEMPLET, a new word for me, but no aha or chuckle moments for me.
Thanks everyone above, Izetti and the Rotter.
16/26. For an Izetti, I am delighted! I got ANTE MERIDIEM and OUTER without difficulty.
23 mins…
An enjoyable puzzle from Izetti, although I also struggled with spelling 3dn “Ante Meridiem” (initially having ‘Amte Meridien’ which didn’t look right). Also, NHO of 16dn “Templet”.
I did wonder about 17ac “Boardroom” being a firm’s office until I released it related to a specific room rather than the building as a whole.
FOI – 9ac “Rivet”
LOI – 23ac “Brashest”
COD – 14dn “Tea Leaf” – obviously a chestnut, but still made me smile.
Thanks as usual!
DNF, another FRESHEST even tho it doesn’t parse.
For templet Wictionary has
“Noun … templet (plural templets) … Archaic form of template.”
And as it is built onto an old Mirriam Webster one would think that if it was a current US spelling they would say so. FWIW I don’t think the QC should have archaic words, unless the clue hints that it is so.
I dug in determined to see this one out – wolfed down a cup of tea, Pot Noodle, Tunnocks and tin of rice pudding for sustenance before settling down. Had 9-10 in on first attempt which was encouraging but it also took me almost 8mins to go through all the clues. Usually it’s only 4-5mins.
30.33 corrected DNF on ANTE-MERIDIEM. Didn’t know it was spelled like that and would never have thought to check the anagrist. Actually did check the anagrist because I tried to spell ANTI- and then saw not enough I’s / E’s 🤦♂️ Actually thought it was a very good clue and the sort of piece of GK that I might find useful one day. NHO TEMPLET or EARDROP which are less unlikely to be useful. The latter perhaps for when the wax builds up …
Echoing Rotter’s though when I say that if Izetti thinks “saint with a beggar” is any more useful to me than “random man’s name”; we live in different worlds. But I knew that long ago.
We prefer a good gin and tonic.
Maybe that’s where I’ve been going wrong with Izetti … prepare with something much stronger 🍺🍺
Very happy to complete the puzzle admittedly slowly. Especially Izetti.
Well done – any Izetti solve is worth celebrating. Break out the G&Ts!!
We found this difficult. Izetti normally tough but felt more doable than this one. However did manage it using the check function when uncertain.
When I took out my paper on the train I was pleased to see it was an Izetti, as I wanted to be entertained for the whole journey. I finished it at Micheldever, which makes it about average in difficulty for me, and easy for an Izetti. I spelt Meridiem right because I checked the anagram, not because I knew how to spell it. I was disappointed to find two words that I didn’t know: Ripon and Templet. I thought from the clue it ought to be Ripin, but Ripon sounded more likely, and I probably have heard of it but forgot it. I couldn’t parse Arrangements, so thank you Rotter, and also of course thanks to Izetti.
17:43
Medium difficulty, although a technical DNF as I put ANTE MERIDIAN win an N at the end. Took a while to figure out LOI ARRANGEMENTS.
Edit: on checking the comments I’m delighted to see that I’m far from the only one who can’t spell ANTE MERIDIEM.
Awful, awful, awful. 25 min DNF as put FRESHEST for 23ac. Couldn’t parse it, but my frustration level was going off the scale by that point.
Every single time I get a bit of confidence, this setter comes along and blows it to smithereens. Yet another week ruined courtesy of Izetti. All I get from his puzzles are stress and anxiety.
I had been thinking that there was light at the end of the tunnel, and that, at some point, I might be able to attempt the ‘proper’ crossword. If I can’t manage a ‘straightforward’ Izetti, there’s no hope of this ever happening.
Thanks for the blog Rotter. Well done on your time. How anyone can solve this in 10 mins (or better) is beyond me.
Chin up, Mr A! There’s always tomorrow.
Thanks Mr R. You’re right and it won’t be another Izetti!
Seriously, how old are you all that are finishing these Izetti puzzles in quick times and raising eyebrows at any complaints? Personally I’ve relaxed around the idea that his puzzles are unsolvable for me (Churchill’s opponent indeed! Unless you’re on about the insurance dog voiced by Vic Reeves you’re talking 70 years ago FFS). Are there younger solvers on here who get this stuff though, or do I just need to wait until I’m deep into retirement and the young ‘uns are complaining about Taylor Swift clues in the QC (a modern female popular music singer for you Izetti fans, you won’t hear her on Radio 3).
As a rifle shooting cradle Catholic industrial chemist raised in Mr Atlee’s welfare state, who’s done a bit of model making, I felt some advantage. OUTER, CLEMENT, MARTINI, NOBEL, TEMPLET all biffed.
I never did pass Latin so fell down the same rabbit hole as many other with MERID(take your pick). Other than that issue I thought it on about the same pretty easy level as the earlier QCs this week.