Quick Cryptic 2912 by Jalna

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Ouch. Quite a chewy Valentine’s offering from Jalna, which held me up quite a bit. A few went in without parsing, which is rare for me in the QC. A well over-par 9 minutes for me.

Across
1 European bridge — one leading to a road (8)
SPANIARD – SPAN (bridge) + I + A + RD
5 A university somewhere in South America (4)
PERU – A = PER,  as in ten pounds a month. Add U for university.
9 A dessert turned cold (5)
ALOOF – A + FOOL reversed
10 After extremely routine, heavy defeat, we ultimately change direction (7)
REROUTE – R[outin]E + ROUT + [W]E
11 Art exhibit everybody enters in Euston? (12)
INSTALLATION – ALL inside IN STATION
13 Mythical creature that is alongside headland (6)
NESSIE – NESS (headland) + I.E.
15 Take advantage of being housed in silent public institution (6)
MUSEUM – USE inside MUM (silent, as in ‘keep mum’)
17 Lady in Burgundy produced white wine containing iodine (12)
MADEMOISELLE – MADE (produced) + MOSELLE (white wine) with I for iodine inserted
20 Student welcoming drops in support on course (7)
TRAINEE – Drops is RAIN inside TEE
21 Club failing to open, say (5)
UTTER – [P]UTTER
22 Unsigned band’s music made money, to some extent (4)
DEMO – hidden word
23 Sort of sweater I knotted (2,2,4)
AS IT WERE – anagram (‘knotted’) of SWEATER I
Down
1 Inspectors finally have the power to examine closely (4)
SCAN – S (last letter of ‘inspectors’) + CAN
2 Fruit and a grain (5)
ACORN – A + CORN
3 Misguided main intent of light-hearted news shows, for example (12)
INFOTAINMENT – anagram (‘misguided’) of MAIN INTENT OF
4 Runner finally running relay remarkably well (6)
RARELY – Last letter of runner + anagram (‘running’) of RELAY.
6 Educated leader from Estonia impolite about Italy (7)
ERUDITE – E for Estonia + RUDE outside IT
7 Measure developed to protect new log-in information (8)
USERNAME – anagram (‘developed’) of MEASURE with N inserted
8 True haters awfully bored by a French game (8,4)
TREASURE HUNT – anagram (‘awfully’) of TRUE HATERS with UN inserted. I spent ages looking for a French game, and came to the conclusion that there aren’t any, except boules.
12 Vivacious friend taken in by an idea only half-formed (8)
ANIMATED – MATE inside AN + ID[EA]
14 Weapon raised incorrectly over marine’s head (7)
SIDEARM – anagram (‘incorrectly’) of RAISED on top of M for marine.
16 Name given to threads in fabrics (6)
LINENS – LINES with N inserted. This was my LOI and a biff. I would argue that ‘given to’ means tacked on the beginning or end, and not inserted.
18 Second unfinished drink (5)
LATTE – LATTE[R]
19 Drive somewhat begrudgingly northbound (4)
URGE – reversed hidden word

90 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2912 by Jalna”

  1. Another DNF to go with my 15×15 effort this morning. I gave up after 30 minutes with LINENS missing. The definition of DEMO is a bit tenuous. I still don’t understand RARELY and nor does our blogger apparently.

    1. I read it as runne[R] (runner finally) + (relay)* (‘running’ being the anagram indicator).
      I can’t remember what slowed me down; maybe everything. 9:13.

    2. Apparently, it’s archaic. Found this online:

      remarkably well.
      “you can write rarely now, after all your schooling”.

      1. Thanks. I got the wordplay but not the definition. I now see the explanation posted by Q, which if true supports the clue, but as an archaism probably doesn’t belong in a QC.

        1. I thought it was OK. Collins sense 3:

          3. dialect
          uncommonly well; excellently
          he did rarely at market yesterday

  2. I found this enjoyable but tough, finally staggering across the line in 14.01. Several of these clues were escapees from the biggie, I thought, and some of them – MADEMOISELLE, TREASURE HUNT, PERU – were absolutely terrific. Thanks C and J.
    On edit: RARELY eluded me too…

  3. What Lindsay said but 29.41, saved by Mrs RH biffing Latte which we parsed afterwards.

    We were mostly stuck in the SE with utter, urge and latte taking a lot of staring.

    Really liked museum but made Moselle was a corker😄

    Thanks Jalna and Curarist

  4. Really got stuck and this was so far removed from a QC as to be laughable. Don’t mind some hard ones but if I wanted to do the 15*15 I would. Moan over 😃

  5. Tough going and RARELY only went in from the wordplay because I couldn’t make head or tail of the definition. Also struggled in the SE with UTTER, LATTE and LOI LINENS.
    Some top quality clues which provided some lovely PDMs, my favourites being ALOOF and MADEMOISELLE.
    Finished in 11.11.
    Thanks to Curarist

  6. 7.22 WOE

    Hard but I enjoyed it. Like our blogger I was left with _I_E_S at the end and bunged in an unparsed and Americanised FIBERS. Actually I think I could have stared at that for a long time and not got it, mainly for the w/p point mentioned. So a bit of a demerit imho but some great clues elsewhere

    Thanks Curarist and Jalna

  7. 6:03 with a minute at the end to find LINENS, trying in vain to make SINEWS work for a while . Definitely on the chewy side for a QC. One for the more experienced solvers to enjoy (which I did) and neophytes to find a struggle. Thank-you Jalna and Curarist.

  8. Slow. Very slow. But all completed. These days, I take SCAN to mean a superficial examination, not a close one. I’m sure there are dictionary entries somewhere that support both, however.

    Pi ❤️ ♥️ (2 hearts today as it’s Valentine’s)

    1. I agree, I would think of SCAN as being a cursory glance across things. I suppose if you scan a document into your computer, it must be doing a detailed examination to make an accurate copy.

    3. Scanning the horizon could take some time!
      ❤️ for Jalna and Curarist. 💕 back at Pi.

  9. Thanks Curarist and Jalna, but not for holding me up in the SE when I was bowling along.

    ‘Ring a ring a rosie as the light declines,
    I remember Dublin City in the rare old times.’

  10. 20:36
    Most of that time taken in the SE corner. TREASURE HUNT and AS IT WERE both needed pen and paper. I wasted a lot of time trying to fit A BOULES into an anagram of HATER.
    LOI was LINENS.
    An enjoyable struggle.

    Thanks Curarist and Jalna

  11. DNF – thanks Curarist but this was a shocker from Jaina – definitely on his or her won planet! I agree with all the aforementioned quibbles, but would add that latter does not necessarily mean second – it means the last listed.

    1. Doesn’t LATTER mean the last of just two?
      The last of three or more would be the ‘latest’, I think.

        1. And thank you too, Mr C52. It’s four and a half years since I found this site and started commenting here, and I know for certain that it’s the first time I have ever correctly made a grammar intervention. My world is complete!

  12. 11:23 when it was all said and done. A three minute delay at the end on LINENS where I was beginning to utter impolitenessies about being expected to know what obscure fabrics and threads are, until I wasn’t.

    Worse than that I had to correct two. MADaMOISELLE which I biffed once I had some checkers and 40yrs after giving up French don’t know how to spell. And TREASUnE-HUNT because I’d miscounted nine letters in the anagrind and had placeholdered UNE as the required version of “a French”. Oh well.

    Overall it has been a good week with the five weekday puzzles done in a smidge under 58mins – first time breaking the hour. But a poor week on completion percentage as three corrected DNFs mostly due to rushing and not bothering to fully parse.

    For those who won’t be back for the Saturday puzzle, have a good weekend 👍

    1. “Placeholdered” : please don’t give our setters ideas of possible 13 letter words for a future puzzle.

  13. I started slowly but picked up speed for an 11:30 finish; seeing other comments I’m happy with that. Like most others I didn’t understand RARELY, and having seen the explanation I rather agree with Jack that it’s a stretch for a QC. I also DK that meaning of DEMO, and forgot, again, that a = per, but PERU was the only possible answer once the checkers were in.

    SCAN for inspect closely is an odd one; it’s a word that can mean that (“scanning the horizon”?), but it can mean exactly the opposite, ie inspect casually.

    Many thanks Curarist for the blog.

    2. If you spelt it “Madamoiselle” like I initially did, then you can be forgiven – I thought the “Lady in Burgundy” was “Madam”, and that it was some semi-lit style clue, until I relooked at it.

      1. Yep. Madamoiselle. Regardless of the spelling, a word I would be very wary of using in France.

        2. Is this now culturally frowned upon? As someone who doesn’t live in France, I wouldn’t have even known this (or why).

          1. I wouldn’t say it’s frowned on, but I think it’s falling into disuse, for fear of possibly irritating/annoying someone. Much as some people avoid using Miss/Mrs in the UK.

  15. From SCAN to INFOTAINMENT (needing all the checkers) in 10:11. I was another who constructed RARELY from the wordplay but didn’t understand the definition. Normally when I solve I follow the wordplay to get to the answer but today I was predominantly coming up with possible definitions and seeing whether the wordplay fitted. Thanks all.

  16. A bit of a curate’s egg for me today. Some great clues, my COD MADEMOISELLE. However thought SCAN and RARELY were very loose definitions, and agree with gc52 about the meaning of latter. NHO DEMO meaning unsigned band’s music – seems a bit tenuous. Definitely the trickiest QC this week. Thanks Curarist.

    1. I thought of it as a demo tape or disc – distributed by unknown bands to promoters/producers in order to be signed to a record label (perhaps an old-fashioned idea these days!).

  17. I agree with almost all the comments and sentiments above which I will not repeat. Certainly not a QC but actually an intriguing mix of clever clues and weird clueing.
    Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.
    I completed parts very quickly and then settled in for the long haul. I finished in 28mins having been held up by TRAINEE and RARELY (until the crossers were entered and made them easier), AS IT WERE, and my LOI LINENS.
    I thought the Lady in Burgundy was brilliant.
    Thanks to Jalna for a challenge and curarist for a blog that answered everything but the definition of RARELY for me.

  18. Until we got SCAN we thought there was an obscure pudding called EZORF.
    Still don’t like RARELY.

  19. Extremely difficult – what a kick in the teeth for Valentine’s Day! After a determined struggle of over an hour, got all except LINENS, with (like others) MER at RARELY, NHO in that sense, no wonder if it’s archaic, thank you, Q. Must concede some very clever clues, though, enjoyed MUSEUM, PERU and SPANIARD. And MADEMOISELLE for that matter.
    Haven’t managed a Jalna yet – this was the closest.

  20. Another DNF. I only SCANned the anagrist and came up with REALLY, which seems to fit the definition “remarkably well” remarkably well. Better than RARELY, any way. This messed up REROUTE with knock on effects elsewhere.

    But did not get TREASURE HUNT even after writing out letters and focusing on the four letter word, and remembering it wasn’t going to be French. Also missed the UTTER, after trying the limited set of initial letters from the TREASURE HUNT clue. No excuses.

    COD ERUDITE

  21. Did quite well to start with, solving/biffing the long ones like INFOTAINMENT and MADEMOISELLE (COD). Also liked USERNAME, but slower on ACORN, ALOOF. Then stuck at the end and had to look up drinks for LATTE (always forget these new fangled coffees) and fabrics for LINENS (not new-fangled, I admit). So DNF.
    Others I liked were NESSIE, SPANIARD.
    CNP MUSEUM, PERU, UTTER, RARELY, so thanks vm, Curarist.
    Amazing – the sun is shining. Haven’t seen it for days.

  22. I found this one pretty smooth, finishing well under my average time, and enjoyed it. The only issue was the definition of RARELY as others have mentioned, but everything else was quite smooth, so I was surprised to see the reaction here!
    COD MADEMOISELLE

  23. We were reminded of Ness a few weeks ago. Without that I would have been at sea today.

    I need to swat up on parsing technique for the extraction of letters/short words/synonyms from the clues.

  26. Really struggled with this, taking almost an hour to limp home with LINENS the LOI. Biffed and rebiffed a few. INFOTAINMENT came out of nowhere. Phew.

  27. Well, what a challenge, but some wonderful clues! Wondered whether I would ever finish, but I did, eventually. Cold coffee dregs only. PDMs included PERU (doh), USERNAME, MUSEUM and SCAN. Unlike others RARELY went in straight away (with a bit of a shrug only). Thought MADEMOISELLE and PERU were great clues but I also liked DEMO, TREASURE HUNT and ALOOF. COD to PERU for delaying me for so long! This opened up USERNAME and LOI MUSEUM. Many thanks C and Jalna.

  28. 10:11 but…

    …sure I’ve fallen into the MADAMOISELLE trap before (sure also that I’ve managed to avoid it before as well) so this was a bit lazy of me. Needed the F checker to see INFOTAINMENT. Same raised eyebrow as others over RARELY. Same LOI LINENS as our ERUDITE blogger.

    Thanks Curarist and Jalna

  29. Yet another toughie which I’m sure many will argue shouldn’t be classed as a QC. I struggled to gain a foothold from the start, and it was hard graft to eventually finish in 20.23 more than double my target time. My LOI was INFOTAINMENT as even with all the checkers I struggled to sort the anagram out. Not having heard of the term was partly responsible. On checking the answers I find it was a DNF anyway as I managed to misspell MADEMOISELLE. It wasn’t that I didn’t bother to check the parsing, it was simply that I was careless in doing so.
    I reported last Friday that a daily average for last week at 13.41 was my slowest since the QC started. Well I can now record an even slower time with a weekly total of 70.09, giving me a daily average of 14.02.

  30. A real struggle, appropriately ending in a 30min DNF – my alpha-trawl for loi Linens unfortunately stopping a little too early at F for some American Fibers. That left me muttering under my breath about a very poor clue, which I can now grudgingly upgrade to sneaky.
    Per for A is a common enough 15×15 trick, but I don’t recall seeing it in the QC before. Throw in a bizarre definition of Rarely, and I’m left with the feeling that Jalna hasn’t quite got the hang of the QC brief. That’s not to say there wasn’t a lot to enjoy, with 21ac Utter my CoD. Invariant

    1. I considered the FIBERS route thinking threads was something to do with FIBS and that took me onto LIES and the correct answer

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