Times Quick Cryptic No 3019 by Izetti

Author   TemplarPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

08:15 for me so I cautiously suggest that this one is right on the QC money and will be a QUITCH of about 100. There are seven anagrams, four double definitions  and – provided your geography is better than mine – no real obscurities. I enjoyed it very much and hope you did too.

Definitions underlined in bold.

Across
1 Servant followed by worker in ceremony (7)
PAGEANT – PAGE [servant] + ANT [worker]. I needed the P before I got this because “page” wouldn’t come to mind – I cycled through “man”, “maid”, “cook”, “hand” and so on before moving on.
5 Conclusion of prayer beginning to affect soldiers (4)
AMEN – A [beginning to affect] + MEN [soldiers, yes there are female soldiers too, there we are].
7 Time to join sailor Bill in USA (3)
TAB – T [time] + AB [sailor, i.e. Able Seaman]. I’d have said that “tab” for “bill” (as in “Let me pick up the tab for this”) was well-established on this side of the Pond too, but Collins, Chambers and COD all include some variant on “mainly American” so what do I know.
8 Crazy singer who lacks love for George or Ira? (8)
GERSHWIN – anagram [crazy] of “singer who” without the O [lacks love]. The question mark indicates that we are looking for a definition by example. George and Ira Gershwin were brothers who (separately and together) wrote a string of hit songs and other wonderful music in the first half of the twentieth century. Until writing this blog I had not known that George died at only 38.
10 Guide  farm animal (5)
STEER – double definition. I needed all the checkers for this, because when I had just the initial S I thought of “sheep” and then couldn’t unthink it.
11 Discharge with dishonour  a bank worker (7)
CASHIER – double definition.  “Discharge with dishonour” derives from Old Frankish but ultimately from the Latin quassare (to void); the “bank worker” derives from the French caissier (treasurer). I expected one meaning to be older than the other but no: the dictionaries give them both as C16. Funny that the same word entered our language twice in the same century but from two different routes and with two different meanings!
13 More than one lesser actor  runs on field (6)
EXTRAS – third DD in a row. The field here is the cricket field, of course. We had “extra” defining “no ball” only yesterday so hopefully this sprang to mind, even for the non-cricketers.
15 Some robot to make base component (6)
BOTTOM – hidden [some] inside “robot to make”. Very neat.
17 One’s behind the times — a very tricky situation (7)
IMPASSE – I’M [one’s] PASSÉ [behind the times]. I couldn’t see past IS = “one’s” for a while.
18 Time for piece of music (5)
TEMPO – the TEMPO is the speed at which music is played and thus the “time” for it, the cryptic element being the play on having “time for”. I don’t think there’s any more to it than that.
20 Canadian city hotel backed by a poet (8)
HAMILTON – H [hotel] followed by [backed by] A [a] + MILTON [poet]. LOI by miles, geography being my crosswording Kryptonite: I’ve heard of HAMILTON in Bermuda but not the one which I now know exists in south-eastern Ontario. Someone said the other day that poets are always Dante, which came in handy at 24a but not here. Once the checkers had excluded him and also “bard” I started racking my brains; Big John eventually surfaced but the whole process added 2-3 minutes for me.
22 Greek character starts to cherish his independence (3)
CHI – the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet, clued as the first letters [starts to] of “cherish his independence”.
23 Short communication about independent school (4)
ETON – “note” [short communication] backwards [about]. Oh my aching sides. The setters are definitely now trolling Merlin.
24 A new poet quite slow in movement (7)
ANDANTE – A [a] + N [new] + DANTE [poet].
Down
1 Bakery — its pies are cooked (10)
PATISSERIE -anagram [cooked] of “its pies are”. Such a good surface.
2 Actor Clark, good and competent (5)
GABLE – this being the QC, Izetti kindly tells us we are looking for an actor called “Clark” not just an “actor”. G [good] + ABLE [competent].
3 Rain and gales upset Africans (9)
ALGERIANS – anagram [upset] of “rain” and “gales”.
4 The car travelling around old country (6)
THRACE – anagram [travelling] of “the car”. Thrace was an ancient Balkan kingdom, conquered first by the Greeks and then the Romans.
5 Residue of something burnt in wood (3)
ASH – double definition.
6 Priest with First in Theology, one holy person favouring best people? (7)
ELITIST – ELI [Crosswordland’s go-to priest] + T [First in Theology] + I [one] + ST [abbreviation for “saint”, holy person].
9 Gym apparatus — leap on it Mr Mobile! (10)
TRAMPOLINE – anagram [mobile] of “leap on it Mr”. This took a while to come to mind since I think of trampolines as outdoor play for children rather than “gym apparatus”, but it’s a perfectly fair definition. Isn’t it a splendid word? Collins says “C18: via Spanish from Italian trampolino, from trampoli stilts, of Germanic origin”. What a mongrel.
12 The nerd so wickedly diminished (9)
SHORTENED – anagram [wickedly] of “the nerd so”.
14 Pole on ship in the afternoon tucked into hot food (7)
TOPMAST – I’m still scarred by Izetti including “orlop” in QC2415 (June 2023) but fortunately you don’t have to have read the Patrick O’Brian novels to know this particular bit of a ship. PM [in the afternoon] goes inside [tucked into] TOAST [hot food].
16 Name of woman with bad breath (6)
BERTHA – anagram [bad] of “breath”. Brilliant surface.
19 Wine provided when chap keeps company (5)
MACON – MAN [chap] contains [keeps] CO [company]. Macon is a town in the south of Burgundy; the surrounding area is heavily planted with Chardonnay and makes wonderful white wine, especially Pouilly-Fuissé.
21 Trendy name for pub (3)
INN – IN [trendy] + N [name].

94 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3019 by Izetti”

  1. Another ‘sheep’ here who also didn’t know HAMILTON. Also had trouble seeing TOPMAST and IMPASSE. NHO or forgotten THRACE but it does ring a distant bell, couldn’t get ‘Carthage’ out of my head. ALGERIANS finally came after correcting 10a to STEER.
    Thanks T and setter.

  2. I biffed NIGERIANS at 3d; PAGEANT made me look at the anagrist more carefully. Cassio is CASHIERed in Othello, which is where I think I learned the word. 6:37.

  3. 6.48. As I was solving I thought it might be quicker, but there we are. Last two in were THRACE and HAMILTON. There’s one in Victoria and one in NZ, but I didn’t know about the one in Canada. I think the GABLE clue might have been a little TOO generous, in that I can’t think of another actor named Clark off the top of my head. An enjoyable quickie, thanks Izetti and Templar.

  4. 8 minutes. I didn’t know the Canadian city but the answer came easily from wordplay.

  5. Didn’t know MACON or ANDANTE or that HAMILTON was a Canadian city or how to spell GERSHWIN (had the H and the W backwards at first) but still made good progress. Nine on the first pass of acrosses should have led to a really fast time but all the above slowed me down before I had to do battle with EXTRAS, IMPASSE and TOPMAST. Great stuff. All green in 9.13,

  6. 22.46 which is quick for me so was clearly on Izetti’s wavelength. Needed Templar’s help with the first definition of cashier and biffed TRAMPOLINE from the crosses without seeing it was an anagram. Very enjoyable puzzle.

  7. The comedian Milton Jones wanted to write a musical about himself called Ha-Milton, but was surprised to find the name had already been used.

  8. Fairly gentle by Izetti’s standards but it seems I’m in good company in not having heard of the Canadian city (I was aware of the one in NZ).
    Started with PATISSERIE and finished with the HAMILTON in 6.56 with COD to the unfortunate BERTHA.
    Thanks to Merlin and Izetti

  9. Good heavens, sub 15 minutes. Izetti was in a generous mood. I once went to Hamilton to see the Niagara Falls.
    COD for the very nice surface on 8a GERSHWIN
    Thanks Templar for the added information in your blog. Isn’t that strange about Cashier; perhaps they were pronounced differently at first.

  10. Thanks for excellent blog, Templar – and thank you for going into contortions to justify time = TEMPO when as you say, it’s speed. All good; CNP ETON or HAMILTON (NHO it either, but it seemed to fit, so guessed) but of course. LOI EXTRAS.

  11. There was a young lady of THRACE
    Whose corsets grew too tight to lace.
    Her mother said “Nelly,
    There’s more in your belly
    Than ever went in through your face”.

    After that cultural interlude, I’m left to say that I found this slightly at the tougher end of Izetti’s range, and struggled with TOPMAST before nailing my LOI, which I’d heard of but could tell you nothing about.

    FOI PAGEANT
    LOI HAMILTON
    COD PATISSERIE
    TIME 5:02

  12. 31 mins.
    Didn’t know HAMILTON or MACON.
    Eventually got to STEER, via SHEEP, and GEESE.
    An enjoyable QC – thanks Izetti – and a wonderful blog from Templar.

  13. From GABLE to HAMILTON in 7:05. Didn’t know the Canadian town and raised an eyebrow at TEMPO. THRACE and BERTHA took a couple of moments to sort out. Thanks Izetti and Templar.

  14. 16:46. Hamilton 5 of those.

    Generosity abounds today with Clark and George/Ira references. Excellent fare as ever from Izetti.

    Macon came to mind as a good mate puts it in his water bottle during golf to save himself from the chipping tips!

    Thanks Templar and Izetti

  15. 17m. NHO that meaning of CASHIER so needed the checkers. My mum grew up in Hamilton (Scotland), so it was a bit of a write-in once I had the letters, though I couldn’t parse it as I was convinced the hotel was HILTON and couldn’t see how the rest of it worked. 🤔

    Pi ❤️

    1. The NATO phonetic alphabet (along with the Greek one) are definitely worth learning. As soon as you see words like Charlie, Hotel, India, Uniform, Whiskey it’s a headstart.

      1. Hah! I know the phonetic alphabet very well (I was a pilot) – it just didn’t enter my head on this clue, which makes my failure to see the parsing even more abject, right? 😳

        Also, believe it or not, I studied a bit of Greek at school (not Eton, or anything like it, @Merlin, before you get upset).

        Pi ❤️

  16. 10:28 for the solve. HAMILTON was LOI but have vaguely heard of their CFL team Hamilton Tiger-cats. THRACE also in my vho geography.

    Clue of the year for BERTHA – hilarious surface. AMEN was slow to go in as was CASHIER but that’s because nho the discharge def and banks barely exist with cashiers.

    I doubted someone yesterday who suggested the setters are trolling Merlin but I’m buying into the conspiracy theory after today’s puzzle 🤣

    Thanks to Templar for a comprehensive blog and to Izetti for the puzzle – wishing him a happy 80th for a couple of weeks back.

    1. The conspiracy is real.

      A wizard who came highly-rated
      Wrote blogs that were sadly ill-fated
      He was trolled by the setters
      Using four pesky letters
      That spelled out a school that he hated

      4. At least it has not (to my knowledge) been the actual answer to a clue, only so far a component of wordplays. But perhaps I shouldn’t give the setters ideas.

          1. Oops so it was. Major brain fade – either that or it shows how effectively I had eradicated it from all memory cells. I withdraw comment!

      8. There once was a puzzler named Merlin,
        Who cursed at a clue reading “Eton”
        “This posh school reference
        Shows such deference
        To privilege!” he said, bristling and snarling.

        The crossword’s elitist assumption
        That we’d all know this school without question
        Made Merlin quite mad
        At the bias they had
        For upper-class cultural presumption!

    2. Crossed the line 6 seconds behind you today! Nice shoutout to the Canadian Football League- the Ticats are arch-rivals of the mighty Toronto Argonauts.

      1. It’s been a tussle between us in June. You’ve had a strong week so far.

        Any ideas why Toronto are the Argonauts? That’s the people who crewed for Jason

        1. Yes, the bookies would have trouble setting the odds between us nowadays- pretty close run battle! The Toronto Argonauts started off life as a rowing club in the 1870’s and apparently the lads wanted to keep in shape when summer ended and started fooling around with a football. Besides the nickname Argos sportswriters also refer to them as the “Boatmen” and the “Scullers”.

          1. A-ha – what an excellent bit of history, makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining 👍

  18. I managed 13 before stalling. My general knowledge is sadly lacking in the areas of history and geography.

    Customary thanks.

  19. What a pleasure -16.33 after pausing rather a long time on EXTRAS and TOPMAST. NHO THRACE and unsure whether THRECA – couldn’t see the clue to help there? HAMILTON also devoured a minute or so. And such a gentle and informative blog. All in all a delightful start to the day. Thank you Izetti and Templar.

  20. 7:37, with an almost identical experience to Templar, including my LOI being HAMILTON. I did not enter ETON on first pass, hoping it might be some other school for a change, but with the checkers in place I spotted the parsing, and look forward to Merlin’s comments.

    Thanks Templar and Izetti

  21. 5.00

    Red Letter Day here, quicker than Busman by a stunning amount of 2 secs. Obviously just chatting to Phil on Saturday sprinkled some of his stardust my way 🙂

    It’s those little things in life isn’t it? As soon as I saw the dreaded ETON answer I struggled to restrain a guffaw to the surprise of those around me (the cat). As I solve on phone I never know the setter till coming here but AMEN and THRACE were distinctive pointers. Actually a couple of clues I really liked today – GERSHWIN and TRAMPOLINE.

    Thanks Izetti and Templar

  22. Much the same experience as some others: Found this to be Izetti in a friendly mood, tick (it took me 9:32); thought of Sheep for 10A at first, tick; groaned at That School Again, tick; smiled at TRAMPOLINE as a serious piece of gym apparatus, tick (it isn’t the first piece of gym kit that came to mind!); thought the clue for GABLE very generous, tick (perhaps Izetti responding to requests that GK be more accessible?); held up at the end by LOI HAMILTON, which needed all the checkers, tick tick.

    As for Hamilton, I was aware of places of that name in Scotland, Bermuda, Australia and New Zealand, and several in the US, but Hamilton Ontario has signally failed to register in my mind for some reason. Strange, as it is I believe the largest Hamilton of them all (population c600,000), and I have actually driven through it, on the way to Niagara. Perhaps it’s because it is in effect part of the Greater Toronto conurbation not a separate standalone place.

    Many thanks Templar for the blog.

    1. We locals call the greater Toronto conurbation “The Golden Horseshoe”since it curves around the western end of Lake Ontario. Hamilton is also known as Steeltown due to its Stelco steel plant. Oh, and proud Hamiltonians would certainly dispute their hometown being considered not a standalone place.

  23. This was a gentler Izetti QC. Thrace and the bottom left ones Impasse, Hamilton and Topmast caused a delay but doable.

  24. 5:40

    Quitch 87 as I write – a good, steady QC with a few stretches. As for others, HAMILTON wasn’t a write-in – worked out with all checkers. LOI was TRAMPOLINE where I needed to write out the letters to see the light.

    Thanks Templar and Izetti

  25. Finished correctly in 55 minutes. First success this week.
    I thought this was very hard.

    5. As was so sagely noted last week (?) – it is the doing it that that is the thing – the journey is the destination — THAT SAID It is such a buzz to get a finish or to turn the flow after a few ‘bad’ days.
      Congratulations.

  26. TOPMAST and IMPASSE my hold ups today, otherwise a steady solve in 24:24. I give up trying to get ETON banned from crosswords.

  28. Had trouble with a couple of these – TRAMPOLINE I couldn’t parse, as I saw it from some of the checkers while I was looking for an anagram of “it Mr Mobile”, which I’d convinced myself was the reasoning 😖. Despite yesterday, also didn’t get the DD for EXTRAS, or know it for CASHIER either, but otherwise had fun with it. COD very much for BERTHA, smiled a lot.

  29. I warmed up for this by catching up on Tuesday’s Jalna (35-40 minutes; hard going) and yesterday’s Mara (26 minutes; breezeblocked by last few clues) and my extended warm-up worked a treat, as I romped home in just 19 minutes. However, I’m now crossworded out and I need to go out and do something less brain-aching in the garden.

    My FOI was AMEN, my favourite solutions were PÂTISSERIE and TRAMPOLINE, and my L2I were THRACE (ancient, but new to me) and CASHIER (where I’d NHO the first definition).

    Many thanks to Templar and Izetti.

  30. Rare sub 10 for me at 9:43
    Had heard the word ‘cashiered’ do cashier came to mind. Mooted Threca, Terach, Tarech before plumbing for
    Thrace (Which sounds like a punishment one would have received at Eton rather than ancient Roman Bulgaria)
    Good puzzle perfect for QC. Cheers Izetti and Merlin

  31. Managed to finish in 45 minutes, however my last few entries I put in without knowing how the clue worked. Glad to find out they were double or cryptic definitions. Thank you for the blog explaining the clues 😁

  33. 15:15

    Pretty plain sailing apart from 3 minutes on the last 2. Struggled to see what was going on with TOPMAST but had the A before the rest of LOI HAMILTON, which I thought was in the Caribbean.

  34. Completed in two sittings today. Made life hard for myself by biffing army for AMEN which made ELITIST impossible for a while. Some amazing surfaces, especially BERTHA 😆 Didn’t know HAMILTON but wordplay kind. Very nice. Thanks for explaining ETON Templar, and thanks to Izetti.

  35. I found this relatively straightforward, only really being held up at the end by HAMILTON, which didn’t readily come to mind as a Canadian city. I see I’m not alone in this being my LOI. A fairly swift 7.26 to complete, so a good day.

  36. More Eton, more bloody cricket – and elitist! Definitely doing it on purpose now. Tab I struggled with, otherwise pretty straightforward.

  37. 14:12 here, feeling the effects of an overnight flight with little sleep. To give you an idea of my current mental acuity, I read “in the afternoon” in the clue for 14d and thought, “right, that’ll be AM”. Sigh.

    Thanks to Izetti and Templar.

    1. More mental problems here as I was quite sure 1ac said “worker in cemetary”, so was trying to fit in grave-digger then got the answer, using “ant” rather than ” bee” still not understanding the link, till I re-read the clue, revealing “ceremony”. Perhaps I need to return to Specsavers.

  38. On the wavelength. Very quick and enjoyable today. Biffed GERSHWIN and forgot to parse. On first reading, was a little worried about bad breath until I saw it was an anagram. FOI PATISSERIE, LOI HAMILTON.
    TOPMAST made me smile. Also liked IMPASSE, among others.
    Am familiar with both meanings of CASHIER. Reminds me of the Dreyfus affair. Robert Harris’s book ‘An Officer and a Spy’ is very good on the subject.
    Lucky we had EXTRAS recently.
    Thanks vm, Templar.

    1. I much enjoyed that book, which I picked up after someone here, presumably you, mentioned it. So thank you!

      1. Good to know. Try ‘Act of Oblivion’ also by Robert Harris. I may be repeating myself again, of course.🙂

  39. I’d never have got HAMILTON or IMPASSE in 100 years, indeed these two prohibited me finishing in what would’ve been a good time.

  40. 12:34. that’s rather a satisfying ascending number. I spent an aeon looking at HAMILTON (NHO the city), otherwise I would have been done in 7 or 8 mins. Nice puzzle – v much enjoyed.

  41. 7.53 Mostly very quick. Stuck for a couple of minutes in the SW until IMPASSE lead to TOPMAST, EXTRAS and (the NHO) HAMILTON. Thanks Templar and Izetti.

  42. Great blog and enjoyable crossword.

    9:58 so just under x2 Dvynys (my twin) which sadly seems to be par for the course at the moment. If there is such a thing as bragging wrongs I think I have them …

    Thanks all

  43. 14:04, train solve on the LNER up to Leeds for the first day of the Test tomorrow. Done by Stevenage.

    Thrilled to see my nemesis at 23a. The adjective this time is “independent”, rather than “in Berkshire”. There are 2500 independent schools in the UK. Thanks for the call outs, and the brilliant limerick.

    My response:
    There once was a puzzler named Merlin,
    Who cursed at a clue reading “Eton”
    “This posh school reference
    Shows such deference
    To privilege!” he said, bristling and snarling.
    The crossword’s elitist assumption
    That we’d all know this school without question
    Made Merlin quite mad
    At the bias they had
    For upper-class cultural presumption!

    I only knew of HAMILTON in New Zealand, where my daughter lived for a year, so that was last in.

    COD AMEN

  44. Driven in from the garden by the sun, so I was quite relieved to find that Izetti was in a fairly generous mood today — even Hamilton succumbed with a few crossers. Thrace I knew from this little hobby, but Cashier/dishonour is so unusual a word I committed it to memory years ago when reading war stories as a young boy. Overall, a straightforward 16mins from Pageant to Impasse, with CoD to (Big ?) Bertha for the surface.
    My thanks to Don and Templar (by the way, Fowler is quite relaxed about the positioning of only 😉) Invariant

    1. My first editor boss was a great fan of Fowler. I don’t consult him, Fowler, so often these days. Random thought….When I worked in US English, we used the strict Chicago Manual of Style.

      1. Your first Editor boss is to be commended for his good sense in choosing reference works (and obviously in selecting staff). Hopefully they were Class V when it came to split infinitives as well 😉.

        1. In my 1996 Burchfield edition of Fowler there are only four sub-paragraphs on the split infinitive. I shall try to boldly go through them.

  45. I was tortoise-ish again today, taking 15:22 to complete this amusing puzzle. A lot of very foolish biffing and seizing on the wrong poets slowed me down in the lower half. DNK TAB for bill is an Americanism. OTOH George and Ira made 8a a gimme. HAMILTON was weird for me: it’s not far away and well-known here, but I didn’t expect it in a Times puzzle, and shuffled fruitlessly through all the other Canadian cities I know for a while. I will defend TEMPO by pointing out that after all, we “beat time”.

    Loved IMPASSE, which was a post-biff parse, and TRAMPOLINE.

    Trolling indeed. Five seconds of thought suggests ISM instead of INN, ATOM instead of ETON. But noooooooooooooooooooo.

    Thanks to the ever-entertaining Izetti and the ever-informative Templar.

      1. HaHa, no, but I am Hapless. There’s Halifax but it obv. doesn’t fit.

  46. 16 mins…

    A fairly middle of the road from puzzle from Izetti. Thought there may be a musical link at one point, with Gershwin and Hamilton. In a strange coincidence, I happened to be in Sunderland last night where the latter was playing at the Empire theatre. There were a few sighs regarding 23ac “Eton” and I wasn’t sure about 18ac “Tempo”, which felt just like a standard, non-cryptic clue. 24ac “Andante” brought me back to piano lessons as a child, where I am sure I was told it meant “at a walking pace”.

    FOI – 5ac “Amen”
    LOI – 20ac “Hamilton”
    COD – 16dn “Bertha” – childish, but made me laugh.

    Thanks as usual!

  47. 6:07 today with time spent trying to work out a woman’s name relating to bad breath. Halitosia perhaps? Too many letters meant I had to think again and BERTHA – my COD and LOI – came to mind.
    I knew the Canadian Hamilton as the host of the first Commonwealth Games in 1930 and the poet came to mind as I suffered through Paradise Lost at school. (Seriously, nothing kills any piece of literature quite like having to study it!)
    Many thanks to Izetti and Templar.

  48. A late start for me today. I was surprised to find Izetti in a pretty benevolent mood and I finished (LOI BERTHA) in a little under 15 mins. Amazingly, I have exceeded that time only once this week and that was by less than a couple of mins.
    I predict that tomorrow will be a disaster for me.
    Thanks to Izetti and Templar.

  50. 9:59 today, felt like it should have been a touch faster – no NHOs – but no complaints. Thanks, Templar and Izetti.

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