Times Quick Cryptic No 949 by Izetti

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This seemed to me to be at the harder end of the quickie spectrum, but all the more satisfying to complete successfully. I think there is a misprint in 14d and there were a few words which were barely known by me, which meant I took over 9 1/2 minutes – my slowest for a while. But there’s a good spread of clue difficulty, so everyone should at least get going. Answers below for anyone who got stuck. I liked the Rwandan performer at 4a, but my Clue Of the Day award goes to 11a, being a key ingredient of gunpowder. Thanks to Izetti for the pious and thought-provoking puzzle. I hope you all enjoyed it too.

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Aussie friend has clothes, etc, left out (6)
COBBER – It took me a while to remember this Oz word for ‘mate’, being  C{L}OBBER (clothes, etc.) losing the L
4 Performer in Rwandan ceremony (6)
DANCER – Hidden word, [in], {Rwan}DAN CER{emony}. The elite ones are known as Intore.
8 Quietly brought up and given approval (7)
PRAISED – P (quietly) + RAISED (brought up). That reminds me of a post-prandial grace taught to us by my mother’s cousin (who was a Capuchin monk). “God be praised, my tummy is raised, six inches above the table”.
10 Regions in South Africa with time turned around (5)
AREAS – SA (South Africa) + ERA (time) all reversed [turned around].
11 Chemical surprisingly inert (5)
NITRE – (intert)* [surprisingly]. The mineral form of Potassium Nitrate, also known as saltpetre. A neat clue as, when you combine it with sulphur and charcoal, it is anything but inert. Boom!
12 Declare 1950s-style youth should be turned away (7)
AVERTED – AVER (Declare) + TED (1950s-style youth).
13 Trick by erstwhile yesman? (9)
CONFORMER – CON (Trick) + FORMER (erstwhile). One of these generally agrees with anything that is said and follows the rules.
17 Money for penning article showing remorse (7)
PENANCE –  PENCE (Money) with AN (article) inside [penning] giving a punshment inflicted on oneself as an outward expression of repentance for wrongdoing.
19 Whiskey producer’s equipment is quiet (5)
STILL – Double definition. Personally, I prefer the wonderful variety of Scotch Whisky to the Irish and American Whiskeys.
20 Native American daughter making statement of faith (5)
CREED – …and talking of American : CREE (Native American) + D (daughter) gives us a statement of the shared beliefs of a religious community.
21 Tolerate a bird (7)
SWALLOW – Another double definition. To believe unquestioningly or the migratory swift-flying songbird.
22 To obtain by coercion is no longer illegal act (6)
EXTORT – EX (no longer) + TORT (illegal act). If you are not a lawyer you might not know the second part, but it’s worth remembering as it appears a lot in crosswordland.
23 Fancy screen that swings round in some churches (6)
CENSER – (screen)* [Fancy] giving the container in which incense is burnt during a religious ceremony and is generally swung around.
Down
1 Do better than one notorious gangster (6)
CAPONE – CAP (Do better) + ONE. “A smile can get you far, but a smile with a gun can get you further.“
2 Competition in which there should be a fair winner (6,7)
BEAUTY CONTEST – Cryptic definition. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
3 Group’s manager’s records, note, at home (7)
EPSTEIN – EPS (records) + TE (note) + IN (home). Brian Epstein was manager of The Beatles.
5 Stare in wonder after a religious feast (5)
AGAPE – GAPE (Stare in wonder) [after] A. We live and learn doing crosswords – I think I had heard of it, but I had to check this post-solve. “The term Agape was used for certain religious meals among early Christians.” Read all about it.
6 Northern city puts up, for election, furniture to sit in (13)
CHESTERFIELDS – CHESTER (Northern city) + FIELDS (puts up for election). It is believed that Lord Phillip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773), commissioned the first leather chesterfield settee with its distinctive deep buttoned, quilted leather upholstery and low seat base.
7 Live as president putting some characters off (6)
RESIDE – Hidden word. {p}RESIDE{nt} [putting some characters off].
9 Ecclesiastical female’s cases done differently (9)
DEACONESS – (cases done)* [differently]. A fifth clue with religious connotations of the day!
14 Communication taking a log time after muddle (7)
MESSAGE – Oops. I hope the misprint didn’t put you off. AGE (long time) [after] MESS (muddle), is what I think was intended.
15 Brief description that is needed to identify coins (6)
SPECIE – SPEC (Brief description) + IE (that is), giving a word for money in the form of coins rather than notes. Not a word I tend to use in everyday conversation. But then I’m not a banker.
16 Rose, maybe — female less exalted (6)
FLOWER – F (female) + LOWER (less exalted). Don’t forget to stop and smell them.
18 The bottom drain is broken (5)
NADIR – (drain)* [is broken]. And so we, fittingly, finish at the lowest point… of this blog, anyway.

29 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 949 by Izetti”

  1. Cobber didn’t hold me up at all; agape and censer held me up some – I only knew censer from this old rpg; the typo held me up a bit more; but chesterfields held me up the most: I had to write the lights down horizontally before i could figure out what was going on
  2. 13 minutes for this so I would agree it’s harder than average and will no doubt be the subject of complaints. If I have a very slight one, it’s the abundance of religious references of which I counted seven, which seems somewhat excessive.

    I was a bit surprised that 1ac should be singled out as too difficult for beginners as I never gave it a second thought, whereas AGAPE (with this meaning), CENSER and SPECIE are well over the borders of the obscure in my view.

    Edited at 2017-10-27 09:22 am (UTC)

    2. I’m not sure how you got to 7, Jack. But never mind. I consider such allusions as just an endearing trademark of our setter and to be expected in one of his puzzles.
  3. I hadn’t noticed the plethora of religious references, but then I don’t notice much when doing these. In any case, I heartily agree with Jack about the inappropriateness of AGAPE, and to a lesser extent CENSER. COBBER may have been my LOI; I’ve virtually never encountered it, and ‘clobber’ is only familiar to me from 15x15s. Here I’d thought CHESTERFIELD was just another name for a sofa; quickies broaden the mind. The Cree show up here a lot, so I’ll repeat what I’ve said before about them: They live in Canada, so ‘Native American’ is inapt twice over; they’re Canadian Indians. 7:19.

    Edited at 2017-10-27 01:43 pm (UTC)

    1. You make an interesting point about the Cree. I never knew they were (almost entirely) in Canada these days. I’d always considered the term Native American to cover the whole of North America, if not the whole of the Americas, not just the United States. This article seems to support that view, but this one explains that there is some controversy. I’m inclined to give our setter(s) the benefit of the doubt on this. If they used “Native Canadian” instead, wouldn’t that make the clue(s) rather easier?
      1. The Cree, like the Apache, the Sioux, etc., are Indians; none of them would refer to themselves as Native Americans/Canadians, which is why I said ‘Canadian Indians’.
  4. I was briefly held up by AGAPE and CENSER, but was able to dig them both from the depths eventually. COBBER was my FOI, probably down to watching The Paul Hogan Show and Crocodile Dundee. SPECIE brought to mind the adventures of Bertie Wooster, and the vagaries of gambling on nobbled egg and spoon races. The whole thing was over in 10:37, so less difficult than some, but that’s speaking as a 15 x 15 regular. Enjoyable puzzle though. Thanks Izetti and John.
  5. I found this a bit tricky but it did come together and I enjoyed it. I suppose a meal is a feast but I was looking for a festival. Do many people under 50 know that Epstein managed the Beatles?
  6. That’s 3 days in a row we have had puzzles that are certainly not beginners fodder. Come on setters give us newbies a little bit of a chance and some encouragement.
  7. It’s an odd feeling to look forward to a ‘simple’ Izetti puzzle, but after yesterday’s car crash, this was much more enjoyable. I’m not saying it was easy – and 44mins is longer than average for me – but the clues were helpful. I even managed 15d from the cryptic without ever having come across the word. I’m sure Agape has come up recently, but again the cryptic was helpful if you missed it before. As an erstwhile ‘swinger’, my CoD has to be 23ac. Thank you Izetti, another nice puzzle.
  8. An interesting puzzle which seemed easy to begin with (subjective I know).
    I thought 1a very easy, so was 4a; 1d also, so I was off and running.
    My run slowed to a crawl for Specie and Creed which I thought hard for a QC.
    The long 6d was gettable via Chester or Chesterfield.
    In the end I was stuck on 5d -where I could not improve on Agaze; and 23a where I had the unknown Censer from the anagram fodder. I changed Agaze when Gape occurred to me and came here.
    16 minutes in total. COD to 16d and I liked the inclusion of Epstein having recently done The Magical Mystery Tour in Liverpool. David
  9. as a newbie, I really enjoyed this puzzle.
    quite a few different clue types and a range of difficulty that meant solving was staggered rather than “in a run”.
    despite watching Neighbours many a year ago, I didn’t get COBBER and consequently 2d, of which I had CONTEST, but was blind to beauty!
    SPECIE and EXTORT threw me too.
  10. Tough but fair I thought, with the unknowns, or those buried deep in my memory, fairly clued e.g. 20a, 23a and 15d. I would exclude 5d from this and eventually chucked in the answer as a very tentative guess having done a couple of alphabet trawls. COD 15d, completed in 23 minutes.
      1. Fair shout, I seem to have struggled with it that day as well, judging from my comments. Hopefully this time it will stick in the memory!
        1. I’d forgotten we had that word before, but I see I too struggled that day, taking over 10 minutes.
  11. Well, we’ve had an interesting mix of comments. I’m inclined to think that some of our regular contributors have been a little ungracious in their criticism of what I thought was a fine puzzle. It is great to hear that some of our less experienced solvers found it enjoyable too. So thanks, once again, to Izetti.
  12. I must have been lucky here and “on the wavelength” as I solved every clue except one (CONFORMER) on first reading for my quickest QC solve ever. Why? I think because I’d solved a lot of Izetti (in various guises) puzzles over the years (esp in The Independent). His clues I always found very fair and clear. Though, like the blogger, I’d found it prudent to confirm AGAPE post-solve. Thanks to setter and blogger.
  13. This was most definitely not a QUICK cryptic except for experienced 15×15 experts. Come on Times crossword editor let’s have some QUICK cryptics for the new/average solver without obscure words. (Yes I know, one mans obscure word is……….).
  14. Very difficult- DNF with 4 missing
    Never heard of agape or specie and the clues were fairly obscure
    More suited to 15 x 15
    Shame the Times can’t do a quick cryptic on Saturday- make that harder but the weekday ones should’nt be aimed at experts..
  15. DNF. Found this tough for a newbie (c.3 months in, typically complete 1-2 a week). Beauty contest I should have got from the excellent clue, but had advance not penance until gave up and looked at the blog. Specie, agape and Epstein were all unknowns.

    Mighty

  16. 41 minutes. These puzzles are perfect for solvers like me who have been doing the cryptics for over a year, but quite hard for beginners.

    Still, one wrong with agaze!!

  17. Whereas I’d thought Wurm’s recent outing a stinker, I enjoyed Izetti as always. I guess my age helped, because I found Epstein plain sailing but guessed many younger solvers might struggle with it. I did have to check the meaning of specie though (despite my youthful Wodehouse reading).

    The key difference between a moderately difficult Izetti and some others is that you can always depend on Izetti’s rigorousness. You know there won’t be clues that just shouldn’t have got past the crossword editor. Apart from that ‘log time’, of course: I thought it must mean yuletide.

    treesparrow

  18. Not an experienced solver, but I always find Izetti the most satisfying, always fair if tricky, which is much of the point is it not?

Comments are closed.