Times Quick Cryptic No 968 by Izetti

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I am standing in for Rolytoly this week, who is taking a slightly extended holiday, and this was a nice puzzle to blog.  There was some chewy General Knowledge (1a, 5a, 22a and possibly 18d for the non-scientific), and a nice range of clue types, but all the less common words were generously clued.

I took just inside my target of 15 minutes, and particularly enjoyed seeing MESON in the grid, which suits my taste.  However, I recognise that this may not suit some less experienced solvers.  Izetti, in my experience, pushes the boundaries of my limited General Knowledge, and I always appreciate that challenge.

Across
1  Sacred texts incorporated in some brave statements (6)
AVESTA – Hidden in (incorporated in some) {br}AVE STA{tements}.  I must admit that this was new to me, although the word play and answer was clear, particularly with the first crosser there to help locate the hidden.  Looking it up after completion, I see that it refers to the holy Scriptures of the Zoroastrians, whoever they are!
5  W. Churchill’s successor curtailed part of farmer’s livelihood (6)
CATTLE – Mr Churchill’s successor as Prime Minister in 1945 was, of course, Clement Richard Attlee, or C. ATTLE{e) if following the same naming convention used in the clue.  The last letter is dropped (curtailed).  C. Attlee, strangely, was also W. Churchill’s predecessor when Churchill’s party won back the Government after Attlee called a snap election in 1951 to increase his majority, which attempt spectacularly misfired.  Does that ring any bells with anyone?
8  One may have lots of books on the go (6,7)
MOBILE LIBRARY – Cryptic definition
9  Silly daughter getting behind (4)
DAFT – D{aughter} and AFT (behind)
10  The French king by spooky expanse of water (4,4)
LAKE ERIE – The French is LA, K is King and EERIE is spooky
11  Black suit essential when gardening (6)
SPADES – Double definition, the second cryptic referring to the garden implement
13  Nevertheless, idea is incomplete (6)
THOUGH – The idea is a THOUGH{t}, with the last letter dropped (incomplete)
15 One hesitating to upset the rider (8)
DITHERER – Anagram (upset) of [THE RIDER]
17  Host and little woman outside front of restaurant (4)
ARMY – The little woman is AMY (the youngest of the four March sisters in Louisa May Alcott’s novels in the Little Women stories).  R is the front (first letter) of R{estaurant}. And ARMY as HOST is a common device in Crosswordland.
19  When bad, go to this male, a blood expert (13)
HAEMATOLOGIST – Anagram (when bad) of [GO TO THIS MALE, A]
21  Time to go to Irish county town for a game (6)
TENNIS – T{ime} and ENNIS (county town of Clare, Ireland)
22  From German city, European ascetic type (6)
ESSENE – ESSEN (Germany’s ninth largest city) and E{uropean}.  The ESSENEs, I have learned, refers to a sect of Judaism dedicated to Ascetism.

Down
2 Woman, one of a number in the orchestra? (5)
VIOLA – Double definition, the first referring to a female given name, the second to one of a number of stringed instruments in an orchestra
3  Leader of society, inclined to be stiff (7)
STILTED – Leader (first letter of) S{ociety} and TILTED (inclined).  Stilted is defined as stiff and pompous in my Chambers
4  Star showing effrontery, female being put off (3)
ACE – Effrontery gives {f}ACE, which drops F{emale}.  ACE means a person of distinguished achievement, an expert (orig an airman), and therefore a star performer
5  Sportsman? Chirpy type meeting Her Majesty (9)
CRICKETER – CRICKET (chirpy insect) and ER (Her Majesty, E{lizabeth} R{egina}.  I assume that the question mark is because other varieties of sportsmen are available, rather than questioning Cricket as a sport, although Chambers does define cricket as a game, rather than a sport!
6  Short piece of poetry given new introduction (5)
TERSE – The piece of poetry is a {v}ERSE with the V swapped for a T (given new introduction)
7  Bird in middle of night having fun (7)
LARKING – LARK is the bird, IN is in, and middle of {ni}G{ht} gives the G
10  Girl keeping dull church observances towards the end (4,5)
LAST RITES – The girl is LASS which keeps (contains) TRITE (dull).  Trite is defined as worn-out, hackneyed (dull by any other name).  LAST RITES are religious rites performed for a person close to death (towards the end).
12 Archbishop is formal at start of evensong (7)
PRIMATE  – PRIM is formal, AT is at and start of E{vensong} is the first letter (E).  As well as being a member of the highest order of mammals, the term PRIMATE is applied to an archbishop or bishop in some Christian religions (and possibly others).
14  Strange reason for eating good fruit (7)
ORANGES – Anagram (strange) of [REASON] with (eating) G{ood}.
16  Person creating a stink with article (5)
HUMAN – The stink is a HUM and AN is the article (in this case indefinite)
18  This person, family member, produces a tiny bit of physics (5)
MESON – ME is ‘this person’ and SON the family member.  A MESON is a short-lived subatomic particle of smaller mass than a proton in physics
20  Story to be stretched out (3)
LIE – Double-definition

19 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 968 by Izetti”

  1. I think the one place I had to slow down was 8ac, where I had LIBRARY immediately, but couldn’t for the life of me come up with the first word; I think it was my last. I don’t know how many US solvers there are out there, but they might not know HUM or PONG, two words for ‘stink’ that I only know thanks to the 15x15s. 4:56.
  3. 9 minutes with several answers edging towards the outer limits of my GK – AVESTA, ESSENE, MESON for three.Time lost working out what was going on at 5dn although th eanswer was so obvious, and checking the anagrist at 19ac where I was tempted to put O instead of A as the 5th letter.

    I very much welcome the improved print-out for the Quickie which has always felt squashed up since its inception.

    Edited at 2017-11-23 06:18 am (UTC)

  4. 11:00 easily a record for me. Sometimes it all clicks.

    Germany City=Essen came up recently.

    Toyed with Boson before Meson.

    1a completely unknown, but an early guess came off.

    Feeling Thankful on this day of Thanksgiving.

  5. 27 minutes, but must have deleted c from ace in 4d as it showed 1 error.

    Dnk avesta, or essene.

    For eating good in 14d could have been to eat good.
    Or how about:

    Nose rag: exotic colours?!

    Nice puzzle, COD Larking.

    Edited at 2017-11-23 10:37 am (UTC)

  6. Vaguely knew ESSENE, didn’t know AVESTA(good job it was a hidden), knew MESON, so no particular troubles with this puzzle. Started with DAFT and finished with LARKING. Went to see a HAEMATOLOGIST when I was full of clots. MOBILE LIBRARY tripped off the fingers. 8:17. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Izetti and Rotter.
  7. A nice straightforward 13 minutes today. I didn’t know Avesta, but the clue made it obvious, and I couldn’t see where Cattle came from at all – so thank-you, blogger.
  8. I didn’t know avesta (and think it’s a bit obscure for a QC, as is MESON). But Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and gained a place in the wider Western consciousness in the 80s because one of its adherents was Farrokh Bulsara, also known as Freddie Mercury! (Zoroastrianism also runs through The Magic Flute.)

    COD for me was CATTLE, very neat.

    Templar

  9. Judging by the comments/times above I seem to have found this tougher than some. I completed it in 21 minutes with my main holdups related to the clues around 19a. Once I’d finally spotted the anagram there the rest fell into place. An enjoyable puzzle with the unknowns all generously clued. LOI 4d, COD 19a
  10. Well, I hope I wasn’t the only one who bunged in Attlee for 5ac. Admittedly with a little bit of doubt over the parsing, but that was soon forgotten when Terse went in at 6d. 30mins later, the NE corner just wouldn’t drop out, and only then did I realise that the missing letter was at the other end. Good puzzle from Izetti, with some gentle cluing for the unknown 1ac and 22ac. Invariant
    1. No, you weren’t the only one! I only relented when left with just 5d and 7d, the obvious answers to which led me to change to ‘cattle’. Even then I couldn’t really parse it so thanks to the blogger here for putting me right! Pexiter.
  11. 17:33 here, my first QC for a while. Can’t quite believe how long it took me to get LOI 5a CATTLE, where I’d not clocked the massive hint of “W Churchill” to the name format of the answer. FOI 8a MOBILE LIBRARY; glad the ESSENEs were familiar from other puzzles… A nice little workout.
  12. A bit on the slow side at 18:46.

    AVESTA and ESSENE went in from wordplay, so interesting to see the explanations. I found MESON easy enough but like Invariant I had ATTLEE for a while until the penny dropped, so 5a gets clue of the day.

    Thanks Izetti and therotter.

  13. Three cheers for Izetti. He expands our vocabulary but gives excellent wordplay hints and crossers so not knowing the word is no real problem. Very fair. I like his puzzles.
  14. I solved this in the cafe at the British Museum after viewing the Scythian exhibition. I knew nothing about them beforehand. Some amazing artefacts from 800BC to 200BC. Worth seeing if you can.
    The puzzle took me 16 minutes finishing with 8a and finally 4d. I had Moving and Roving Libraries before I settled on Mobile. Avesta was unknown but generously clued. Meson a guess but very helpful to have the first letter as a checker.
    An erudite and enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and blogger. David
  15. Thoroughly enjoyed this – I love the puzzles that test my GK as well as my cluing skills and this did both with great wit and style. Smiled when I spotted the W Churchill trick! I’ve gone from dreading Izetti days to cheering them so I must be improving.
  16. Unlike Lucy, I always rejoice when I see Izetti’s name, because he is always fair, as becomes a Ximenean. On this occasion, though, he was turning up the heat a bit. No less than three words outside my gk: 1a, 22a, and 18d. And I spelt 19a wrongly with o in fifth place, Remember thinking the anagram didn’t quite work but bashed on anyway. Thanks Don, a pleasure as ever. Thanks to blogger, too, of course.

    treesparrow

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