QC Blogging day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1189 by Izetti

I approach my introduction to this blog with some trepidation given that I underestimated how difficult others would find the lovely QC from Izetti last time out and how much longer it took me today. I note also that plenty of people have found several recent puzzles harder than usual and are looking for something less stretching. Well, there I was, thinking this is very straightforward for an Izetti puzzle with just the SE corner to complete. Then I was interrupted by the wife looking for her laptop charger. When I restarted, the last 4 clues took me as long again as the rest, leaving me with my slowest time since the beginning of August at just over 10 minutes. But there are plenty of more straightforward clues than usual from Don, I think, so maybe it was just the effect of the interruption on my concentration. Or maybe those clues were a bit tricky. So if, like me, you struggled with the SE corner, commiserations, but we are here to learn, aren't we? A very nice puzzle with lots of anagrams and several reversal clues.. and it's a pangram!  That's hard enough to achieve in a 15x15 grid and even more impressive in a 13x13. Some lovely surfaces too - I liked REINFORCE and thought QUARTERFINAL was brilliant. Thank-you Izetti for another fine, educational, pangramatic and entertaining puzzle. How did you all get on?

[Addendum: Unrelated to this QC, on a walk in Newmarket yesterday, I was challenged to come up with a crossword clue related to a sign we passed along the way... so here it is " Hankers after coat, seen on boat at a distance, worth 1000 guineas, perhaps? (5, 8)". Any better suggestions?]

( Read all about it... )