Quick Cryptic 2094 by Juno

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Another four-and-a-half-minuter for me, compact and pleasing with some nice surfaces esp 12ac and 24 ac. I didn’t know 11 across, but the wordplay was straightforward.

Across

1 Stella met hysteria, displaying jewel (8)
AMETHYST – hidden word: stellA MET HYSTeria
8 Fairy king from Borneo originally (6)
OBERON – anagram (‘originally’) of BORNEO
9 Attitude I put on for sea god (8)
POSEIDON – POSE + I + DON
10 Little devil messed up Dee’s hamper (6)
IMPEDE – IMP + anagram (‘messed up’) of DEE
11 Nothing standard in old POW camp (5)
OFLAG – O + FLAG. German POW camp for officers
12 Charlie drawing vehicle that needs to be drawn? (4)
CART – C + ART
13 Mounts first of rings in flexible pipes (6)
HORSES – R for rings in HOSES
15 Dull one might say “welcome” (3)
MAT – double definition
16 Snowmobile soon contracted to carry child (6)
SKIDOO – SOO[n] with KID inside
18 Twelve? Almost nobody (4)
NOON – nearly NO-ONE
19 Be sufficient for arguing, tho, every so often (3,2)
RUN TO – alternate letters of aRgUiNg ThO
21 Number of the Spanish flat (6)
ELEVEN – EL + EVEN
23 Mansion I refurbished a problem after retiring? (8)
INSOMNIA – anagram (‘refurbished’) of MANSION I
24 For something very heavy, it’s tiny (6)
PROTON – PRO (for) + TON (something heavy)
25 Cry when leaping damaged minor ego (8)
GERONIMO – anagram (‘damaged’) of MINOR EGO. Cry first adopted by US paratroopers during training. Various different theories as to why.

Down
2 Dance Armstrong was first to do? (8)
MOONWALK – Neil A obviously
3 Everything that helotism contains (3,3)
THE LOT – hidden word: thaT HELOTism
4 Doyle disposed to sing high (5)
YODEL – anagram (‘disposed’) of DOYLE
5 Performing in short stockings later this evening (7)
TONIGHT – ON inside TIGHT[s]
6 Moderate rage (6)
TEMPER – double definition
7 Syrupy stuff daughter finds agreeable (4)
GOOD – GOO + D
14 Mexico’s right, somehow, dispatching spirits (8)
EXORCISM – anagram (‘somehow’) of MEXICO R
15 Black attire, we hear, for early part of day (7)
MORNING – sounds like MOURNING
17 Dedicate energy to volume, edited after reflecting (6)
DEVOTE – E + TO + V + ED all backwards. Not sure I’ve seen ‘ed’ meaning ‘edited’ before.
18 A native of Rouen, maybe, and not an island (6)
NORMAN – NOR + (isle of) MAN. Rouen is in Normandy, which was originally a settlement of Norse Vikings, in case anyone thinks that in 1066 we were conquered by the French.
20 Busybody concerned with offspring turning up (5)
NOSER – RE SON backwards
22 High-flying singer’s frolic (4)
LARK – double definition.

27 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2094 by Juno”

  1. I couldn’t have told you what a SKIDOO is, but with a couple of checkers it came quickly to mind. 3:52. [On edit]: I was going to say that I thought OFLAG might be hard for some (I think I learned it from a 15×15), and indeed it seems to have been.

    Edited at 2022-03-18 09:48 am (UTC)

  2. 22 minutes so back to my normal solving time after yesterday’s toughie.

    FOI: MOONWALK solved whilst printing off.
    LOI: HORSES once the penny dropped also my COD after already marking both CART and PROTON as contenders.

    BIFD DEVOTE parsing post solve.

  3. Went through at a rapid pace with no holdups, so surprised to arrive in 21:20 to find the SCC doors wide open. NHO OFLAG but assumed it related to Arbeitslager. COD DEVOTE. Thanks Curarist and Juno for an easier than expected Friday puzzle.
  4. Nice. Got lots of that done quickly.

    Failed with IMPEDE / GOOD (impish / nods); LARK / PROTON (leap / wanton (oneton?). Don’t have time to spend all morning alphabet trawling to get better parsing.

    NHO OFLAG and had a wibble as to whether YODEL was spelled yodle (and el was for the delivery company) but once I thought standard was a flag went with them. Also NOSER (maybe nosey but not that variation but parsed and fitted with GERONIMO.

    NORMAN – I got because “Native Of Rouen Maybe And Not” is an acronym. Obviously nothing in the parsing to suggest this was the way to go but that gave me NOON which had been holding me up as my LOI slotted in, so went with it.

    COD – EXORCISM – amazing anagram and to invoke spirits / tequila – just brilliant.

    Thanks to Juno for a good end to the week and to Curarist for the blog.

  5. Quick for me, but still took me 20 minutes!

    Surely, tights are long stockings?

      1. Stockings are not the same as tights! You have ankle socks, pop socks, knee socks, stockings which need to be held up by some method, and then tights which go up to the waist.

        Edited at 2022-03-18 02:35 pm (UTC)

        1. I know, but I was referring to the elements of the clue, rather than defining hosiery 🙂
  6. Needed a brief alphabet trawl for LOI the NHO OFLAG, but other than that a fairly gentle offering. Also not come across NOSER before but the answer was obvious.
    Finished in 6.36 with thanks to Curarist
  7. 7 minutes. This is Juno’s 14th puzzle and ‘her’ last 5 for sure have contained a Nina or theme or some other trick, but apart from CART HORSES in the 6th row I couldn’t see anything of that sort here. Maybe someone else will spot something.

    I put ‘her’ because I have suspicions that Juno may be one of the so-far unidentified pseudonyms of our Crossword Editor.

    Edited at 2022-03-18 08:50 am (UTC)

  8. After a week of struggling a bit.

    The NHO OFLAG and then LOI PROTON stopped me from ducking under 4 minutes.

    PROTON COD.

    4:10.

  9. Thirteen minutes. FOI Oberon, LOI Oflag, NHO but fairly clued. Did not parse skidoo. Some of the anagrams took a bit of teasing out, but were helped by the checkers. I found this very enjoyable. COD Poseidon. Thanks, Curarist, and Juno.
  10. Enjoyed this as a steady solve in a little under 10. NHO Oflag but it worked. Not sure anyone would say noser – possibly one of those that’s survived in the dictionary but not in everyday use. Thanks setter and blogger.
  11. THE LOT was FOI followed by AMETHYST. A sprint to the end followed with EXORCISM LOI. 5:57. Thanks Juno and Curarist.
  12. … with only three of the 15 across clues going in on first pass, but the down clues were more friendly to me. OFLAG and NOSER were unknown to me, but went in from the wordplay.
    NORMAN went in with a question mark attached, as I know where Rouen is, but I couldn’t fully parse the clue. I also found RUN TO strangely difficult, as I struggled to make it mean ‘Be sufficient for’. In the end, LARK was my LOI and I crossed the line in 27 minutes. A big relief after yesterday’s thumping DNF.

    As is her wont, Mrs Random decided to start a few minutes after me and finish a few minutes before me. She clocked 18 minutes today and fully parsed every clue along the way. It would be a joy to achieve such a feat.

    Many thanks to Juno and curarist.

    P.S. My ‘Random’ stat of the week: This was the first QC in my experience (480 consecutive puzzles) to be comprised of 27 clues. A nerdy observation if there was ever one!

    1. 27 clues may be because it was an unusual grid – most rows had only a single word going across, most days each has two answers.

      As for “run to” … I was thinking “can you run to lending me a tenner” or some such phrasing for being sufficient.

  13. Really enjoyed this — some good clues and quite a lot to chuckle about. DNK 11ac “Oflag”, but it couldn’t be anything else.

    16ac made me laugh — mainly for its alternative meaning — and whilst most people probably thought Neil Armstrong for 2dn, as a cyclist I couldn’t get Lance Armstrong out of my head.

    Have to agree with Countrywoman above — tights are not stockings (sure this has come up before) — as a bloke even I know that, yet it always seems to appear.

    Only quibble was 20dn “Noser” — someone can be “nosey” obviously, but not heard “noser” being used before.

    FOI — 4dn “Yodel”
    LOI — 18dn “Norman”
    COD — 24ac “Proton”

    Thanks as usual!

    1. My favourite Neil / Lance Armstrong crossover occurred in late August 2012 when Neil had just died. The headline in the paper a day or so later was “Armstrong admits to taking drugs” …

      As for MOONWALK itself, I’m not sure I’d call it a dance, more of a move; but the clue was clear enough that no quibbling required.

      1. Agreed – it was a kind of “body popping” move if I rightly remember. (I feel incredibly old and ridiculous just even saying that)
    2. As in the somewhat distasteful “he’s a bit of a brown noser”?
      Apologies for that.
      1. Fair point — but that’s normally a sycophant or someone who’s toady — not necessarily a busy body.
  14. Had impair for 10a until we sorted out good at 7d. Needed a check on 11a oflag, otherwise no real problems and finished within target. On holday yesterday but we were very pleased to finish the Izetti in good time with no aids. Very cold so resorted to the crossword.
  15. ….and I solved this in record time, and straight through from top to bottom. It didn’t seem that easy, but it was right up my street.

    FOI AMETHYST
    LOI LARK
    COD INSOMNIA
    TIME 2:17

  17. Back to a late afternoon/evening solve split by supper… 11a and 8d on first pass was an encouraging start but filled in pretty well all the NE and SE with sparse showing in the W. So a lot to do and needing determination to get a proper foothold and some momentum. FOI 8a Oberon; LOI 22d Lark after a PDM for 24a and 17d; COD 9a Poseidon. NHO 11a Oflag but what else could it be! A very enjoyable puzzle from Juno – I liked the style of this one.

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