Times Quick Cryptic 1421 by Jalna

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
You wait ages for a new setter to arrive then two come along at once. Welcome Jalna. A quick search reveals that Jalna is a 16 book series of novels by the Canadian writer Mazo de la Roche. Jalna is the name of the fictional manor house in which the Whiteoak family lives. The name comes from Jalna, a city in west-central India. I’m not familiar with these works – if I’m missing something do let me know.
As for the puzzle, I found it harder fare than yesterday’s (12 minutes) with a slightly different feel and a good sprinkling of anagrams. 15dn gets my COD. Several answers were very biffable – here’s how I worked out the word plays – see if you agree.

ACROSS

1. Drunken snob with no taste devours a simple meal (5,2,5)
BEANS ON TOAST – anagram (drunken) of SLOB NO TASTE including a (A).
8. One taking to a certain party, say booze (5)
CIDER – homophone (say) of sider – one who sides with a certain party.
9. Trailer parking right alongside edge of rifle range (7)
PREVIEW – parking (P) right (R) alongside (back) edge of rifl(E), range (VIEW). Tricky wordplay. I think right is R as it’s edge not edges of rifle – also range=view is this connected with range of vision?
10. Start in earnest to embrace foreign food (7)
TARTINE (an open sandwich, esp one with a rich or elaborate topping – the ‘foreign’ bit can be explained by C21: from French, diminutive of tarte) – embraced in the clue – s(TART IN E)arnest.
11. Warning: she may lead you astray (5)
SIREN – double definition.
12. Comeback from a Republican claiming “fake news” (6)
ANSWER – a (A) and Republican (R) claiming (holding) an anagram (fake) of NEWS.
14. Paint Raymond keeps something for pending tasks (2-4)
IN-TRAY – in the clue (keeps) pa(INT RAY)mond.
17. Important final pieces of tape disguised how paintwork may be vandalised (5)
KEYED (keys being scraped along a car’s paintwork) – important (KEY) final pieces of tap(E) disguise(D).
19. Show Mal bizarre scientific theory (4,3)
OHMS LAW – anagram bizarre of SHOW MAL
21. Remarkable reason you can’t book a restaurant? (7)
NOTABLE – no table – no booking.
22. County name from French and German? (5)
DEVON – from in French (DE) and German (VON).
23. MC: I dare say it represented the end of the war (9,3)
ARMISTICE DAY – anagram (represented) of MC I DARE SAY IT.

DOWN

1. Provide funds for hunting in retreat (12)
BACKTRACKING – provide funds for (BACK), hunting (TRACKING).
2. Some scared lads up a tree (5)
ALDER – some sca(RED LA)ds- upwards.
3. After the last of chips are almost finished, eat fish (7)
SARDINE – after chip(S), are almost (AR)e, eat (DINE).
4. Planes flying somewhere in Italy (6)
NAPLES – anagram (flying) of PLANES.
5. Writer entering big public competitions (5)
OPENS (golf – US Open etc) – writer (PEN) entering big (OS – outsize).
6. Troublemaker tries, stupidly, to protect gutless rioter (7)
STIRRER – anagram (stupidly) of TRIES to protect (hold) (R)iote(R).
7. Showing excellent vision, Tokyo won this Olympic bid (6-6)
TWENTY-TWENTY – double definition.
13. Disreputable lawyer, retiring and mostly stern (7)
SHYSTER – retiring (SHY), mostly stern (STER)n.
15. Wandering around, detective wears no protective clothing (7)
NOMADIC – detective (DI) wears no (NO) and protective clothing (MAC).
16. Mammal‘s lair covered with rubbish (6)
RODENT – lair (DEN) covered with rubbish (ROT).
18. American friend turns up with excellent port (5)
DUBAI – American friend – bud – turns up (DUB), excellent (AI).
20. Be, for the most part, extremely ill-disposed and very cross (5)
LIVID – be for the most part (LIV)e, extremely (I)ll-dispose(D).

25 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1421 by Jalna”

  1. At 13 minutes I found this one harder then yesterday’s offering also from a new setter. I raced through most of it but 1dn didn’t come to mind at the first attempt and that slowed things down a bit on the LH side – I thought of BACK (provide funds) immediately but needed to return to the clue several times before thinking of TRACKING. LOI was TARTINE which I may have heard of on a menu or TV cookery programme but I’d no idea what it was.

    Welcome to Jalna, and thanks to Chris, our most prolific QC blogger.

  2. That was enjoyable,but quite challenging. Another new setter to welcome and I took a while to get going. FOI was ALDER and then I proceeded steadily until the final few including 1d and its offshoots. Clearly BACKSLIDING did not fit and I needed BACKTRACKING to get Keyed and Answer.
    LOI, inevitably for me, was 10a. I had considered a hidden but couldn’t see it; I thought of TERRINE but it didn’t parse. Eventually I got it. 25:11 for me and worth the effort.
    COD to Beans on Toast. Now for breakfast… David
  3. I am told that some new setters can be old ones using new pseudonyms. Are Jalna and Trelawney really new?
    1. Well anything is possible, but I think we have to assume so until provided with evidence to the contrary.

      The only ‘duplications’ that I am aware of in QC land were Dazzler/Bart/Vista (a setter now sadly deceased), and Alfie/Noel – the latter name probably chosen because he first set for us on a Christmas Day.

      I don’t see the point of having more than one name myself, but then I’d prefer that all puzzles were anonymous.

      The Editor (I assume Richard, rather than David) contributed to the discussion of Trelawney’s puzzle yesterday and didn’t contradict our assumption that it was a new setter.

      Edited at 2019-08-20 01:14 pm (UTC)

  4. I thought this was going to be a real stinker as I only got 3 answers on my first run through. Working out the anagram at 1a helped to open things up and as I tuned into Jalna’s wavelength it all started to fall into place. I nearly biffed TERRINE for LOI 10a but couldn’t parse it so went back for another look, finishing in 14.14.
    Welcome to Jalna and thank you for an entertaining debut and thanks to Chris for the blog
    1. Yes, I meant to say my first thought at 10ac was TERRINE and then found it hard to think past that.

      Edited at 2019-08-20 09:15 am (UTC)

  5. I saw BEANS ON TOAST quickly and built downwards from that, but I took a while to get on wavelength and finished up over my target at 11:06. TARTINE was built from wordplay and BACKTRACKING was my LOI, needing all the checkers. Nice puzzle. Welcome Jalna, and thanks Chris.
  6. 24 minutes plus 6 more to get TARTINE. I looked for a lurker several times but I didn’t know the word. It seems to be a French version of beans on toast.
    Thanks to Jalna for an excellent QC, and to Chris for explaining the bits of wordplay I didn’t see.

    Brian

    Edited at 2019-08-20 10:50 am (UTC)

  8. Read the Jalna saga, and thoroughly enjoyed the books, when I was in the 6th form. Mind you that was over 50 years ago so may not be as good as I remember.
  9. Struggled with this and in fact needed a second sitting to clear my mind of some misconceptions. Started brightly enough with 1ac and then most of the RHS. With 7d and 23ac in the bag I was set for a decent time. Then the trouble started. I thought Bank/Bankroll/Banking would be involved in 1d and just couldn’t get past that fixation. Had to go away and read the rest of the paper before returning to see Backtracking. Even then, Cider (hmm), Tartine (very well hidden), Answer and Keyed put up a good fight. Definitely harder than yesterday’s, but still enjoyable. Invariant
  10. Much tougher than yesterday, but very enjoyable nonetheless. 47:23, although I thought I had finished in 45:09 and just for completeness left my watch running while I parsed ‘Terrine’ for 10a and then finally saw the right answer. Illustrates the importance of parsing I guess. It didn’t occur to me while I was mid flow, but I agree with Mr Up-Pompey’s point about a theory not being a law. Other than that, many excellent clues I thought, but I particularly liked 12a for its neat surface.
  11. At the risk of being pedantic, in science a ‘law’ is very different to a ‘theory’. A theory is an idea that has yet to be proved. It is not a ‘law’ until it is proved. OHMS LAW is not a theory, it is an established fact. Found PREVIEW a bit weak, but biffed it anyway. Range = view, bit of a stretch I thought.
    Overall very enjoyable, and liked 7dn. Nice surface and brought a chuckle.
    PlayUpPompey
  12. I got very hung up both on the unknown TARTINE (LOI) and also on KEYED, where I completely misread the clue. I had it as “Important [= definition] final pieces of [last letters of] tapE disguiseD hoW paintworK maY be vandalised [= anagram indicator].”

    So I was looking for a 5 letter anagram of EDWKY, and every checker then fitted that theory until I was looking at a choice between KEYWD and KWYED. I so nearly wrote in KWYED. Honestly, the messes I get myself into.

    Thanks Jalna and Chris.

    Templar

  13. Ditto to pretty much everything everyone else has said! TERRINE for tartine, even though I couldn’t justify it; found CIDER a bit of a stretch; and exactly the same problem as Templar with KEYED. The RHS went in very quickly but then things slowed right down. I was surprised to find that there were three hiddens here – seems more than usual. Not a complaint, by the way, just an observation.

    This was definitely a curate’s egg for me – some very easy clues and some much more of a struggle. I liked SIREN, especially after reading the story in the paper this morning about the sunbather who floated out to sea from the port of Scilla. Fortunately he was saved.

    It’s nice to meet new setters and find your way through their tricks but I hope next time Jalna sets us a crossword, I’ll be a bit more on his / her wavelength 😉

    FOI Alder
    LOI Terrine (not tartine)
    COD Beans on toast

    No time as I have been stopping and starting all morning, but DNF anyway, due to that pesky French sandwich!

    1. Some fish and most rays bear live young but are neither mammals or rodents. Mammals are generally defined as sucking their young with mammary glands I think.
      1. The defining features of a mammal are the presence of hair and the excretion of milk by females to nourish their young. Rodents are definitely mammals.
  17. Tartine my undoing (just spotted predictive text rendered that as ‘tarting’ — ‘tarting my undoing’, hmm) — but enjoyed the rest despite the struggle. Right-hand side OK, the rest tough sledding. Thanks to blogger and (new) setter.
    Tim (not that Tim).
  18. A pretty challenging offering from another (welcome) new setter. Late start and the SCC for me. John M.

    Edited at 2019-08-20 10:16 pm (UTC)

  19. Sup x-worders,

    This was my first successful cryptic crossword! So am obvs pretty chuffed, but – there’s one thing I don’t get:

    Why, ftlog, on 18d does ‘excellent’ = AI???

    (American friend turns up with excellent port (5) – DUBAI)

    Can someone pls explain? It’s killing me…

    Ta v much,
    Timmy

    1. Hi Timmy,

      Congrats! Here’s to many more of them!

      AI = A1 (the capital I looks a lot like a one – the same can be used for zero=love (like a heart) or round or ball etc. A1 from Collins –
      1. in good health; physically fit
      2. informalfirst-class; excellent
      3. (of a vessel) with hull and equipment in first-class condition

      DUBAI – American friend – bud – turns up (DUB), excellent (AI).

      Turns up (or anything like that in a downwards clue) can mean to reverse the order so that it reads backwards when reading down – hope that makes sense. So in this sense Bud is the American term for friend, it’s reversed so reads DUB.

      Please do ask anything else.

      If you register for free to livejournal, you’ll get an email ping should anyone reply to a post (which is how I saw your question).

      Edited at 2019-08-21 02:28 pm (UTC)

      1. Ahhh thanks Chris!

        I was trying to find out what the abbreviation AI might be so never thought to just look up A1 in a dictionary… Not come across it before. Cheers!

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