Quick Cryptic 2889 by Myles

Author   galsprayPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Parksolve time = 36:50.  Slow run, quickish solve.

Our first (and therefore best) contribution from Myles for 2025.

Nice to see a shoutout at 12ac to the technological marvel that has kept me gainfully distracted for nearly four decades.

There’s a paucity of anagram clues aside from a little burst in the middle downs.  But it seems to be a non-controversial (obscurity-free?) offering overall.  Please share your comments about how you found it.

(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics.  In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc.  Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).

Across
7 Complete quartet back in country house (5)
VILLA – ALL IV (all four = complete quartet) reversed (back)
8 I come ashore again in European country (7)
IRELAND – I + RE-LAND (come ashore again)
10 Disorderly carnival city, from our perspective (7)
RIOTOUS – RIO (carnival city) + TO US (from our perspective)
11 Vagrant parking behind public transport (5)
TRAMP – P (parking) behind TRAM (public transport)
12 Computer displayed academic credential? (9)
MAINFRAME – MA (Master of Arts, academic credential) IN FRAME (displayed)

I stumbled aimlessly into the mainframe world in the 1980’s to the resounding refrain of “it’ll be dead in a few years”.  And yet here we are in 2025, feeling confident of squeezing one more year out of it before hanging up my POPs (if you know, you know).
14 Short piece, that’s standard on course (3)
PAR – Double definition

First def referring to an abbreviation of “paragraph”.  Second def referring to a golf score that is sadly anything but standard for me.

On edit:  Quadrophenia in the comments has it as short piece = PARt, and I find it very difficult to disagree.
15 Starts off holding us gently in embrace (3)
HUG – First letters of (starts off) Holding Us Gently
16 Plan return of huge pastries (9)
STRATAGEM – Reverse (return) of MEGA (huge) + TARTS (pastries)
18 Sacks turned over as something to sit on (5)
STOOL – LOOTS (sacks) reversed (turned over)
20 Early movie star, fellow nothing set back (7)
CHAPLIN – CHAP (fellow) + NIL (nothing) reversed (set back)
22 Deeply felt because true, apart from odd bits (7)
SINCERE – SINCE (because) + tRuE [even letters (apart from odd bits) of true]
23 Religious book whose author conceals its name (5)
HOSEA – Hidden in wHOSE Author

And very skilfully hidden, I might add.  It’s not easy to find non-obvious ways to clue hiddens.
Down
1 Done with English politician, has one’s excessive level of stress (12)
OVEREMPHASIS – OVER (done with) + E (English) + MP (politician) + HAS + IS (one’s)
2 Admitting nothing settled (8)
ALLOWING – ALL OWING [nothing repaid (settled)]
3 Asian dictator hiding yen in part of Ireland (4)
MAYO – MAO (Asian dictator) “hiding” Y (yen)
4 Seat is rearranged for rest of afternoon (6)
SIESTA – (SEAT IS)*

“Rest” of afternoon.  Very good.
5 Security device that could be testable (8)
SEATBELT – (TESTABLE)*
6 At short notice, turned up numerical information (4)
DATA – [AT + AD (short for advertisement (notice))] reversed (turned up)
9 Of a mind to support exit of a branch of government (12)
DEPARTMENTAL – MENTAL (of a mind) after (to support) DEPART (exit)
13 US rifle I adapted for British soldier (8)
FUSILIER – (US RIFLE I)*

A word that has had various meanings around the world over time.  Various spellings too it seems, as the British version began with the Royal Regiment of Fuzileers in 1655.
14 Dog I catalogue as boxer (8)
PUGILIST – PUG (dog) + I + LIST (catalogue)
17 Crime that’s handled skillfully in court (6)
RACKET – Double definition
19 Sound from pen and old writing material (4)
OINK – O (old) + INK (writing material)

A bit chestnutty perhaps, but nice use of two wildly disparate definitions of the word “pen”.
21 Feel bad as expert swallowing bench’s conclusion (4)
ACHE – ACE (expert) “swallowing” H (conclusion of bencH)

57 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2889 by Myles”

  1. Enjoyable quickie. I parsed PAR as short part (piece). Didn’t parse MAINFRAME so thanks for that, very clever. Liked megatarts reversed for STRATAGEM. COD to OINK.
    Thanks G and setter.

  2. It can be hard to set QC friendly clues which are also clever, tricky, and entertaining, but Oink, Mainframe, Siesta, and Stool did it in spades. Plus the rest of the puzzle was fun, too. Thanks Myles, ditto galspray

  3. I liked STRATAGEM, chestnut though it be , if it do be. I biffed MAINFRAME faute de mieux, but saw how it worked once I typed it in. Just over my target time at 6:07.

  4. 11:02 for the solve! Very enjoyable – some good wordplay there eliciting laughs with IRELAND and OINK. First puzzle I haven’t been held up at the end, in fact I still had a very empty righthand side with three minutes to go. Resulting in fastest solve of the year.

    MAINFRAME my LOI – I started on them in the late 80s but eventually went in a different direction. Occasionally bump into old work colleagues who tell me my programs are still being amending (improved not repaired – hopefully).

  5. A top puzzle from Myles which was mainly straightforward but with a couple of tricky ones at the end – the parsing of MAINFRAME and ALLOWING, which both provided very satisfying PDMs.

    Finished in 7.14 with COD to the ‘megatarts’, despite a vague feeling that I’ve seen it before.
    Thanks to Galspray

    1. I think we’ve seen megatarts fairly recently, but I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

  6. 9 minutes, but not including the parsing of VILLA and MAINFRAME which I returned to laster.

  7. After 2 days at PB level, we found ourselves very much returned to earth.
    On reflection, not so tricky. We, however, plodded for nearly 30 minutes.
    Didn’t parse ALLOWING, MAINFRAME, STRATAGEM (Thankyou Galspray) – and, as comparatively recent arrivals, our chestnuts are as yet few and our delight in offerings such as OINK (after trawling the alphabet, failing to pause at O and having wondered about ‘PINK’) is almost childlike.
    Some pluses to being newish kids on the block.

    1. That almost childlike delight is what keeps me coming back for more, even after quite a few years 😃

  8. 4:52 and under target despite getting distracted in the middle. Nice gentle QC from Myles with a couple of chestnuts (STRATAGEM and OINK) to enjoy. “Rest of afternoon” my favourite but I had a bit of a MER at the surface for TRAMP… how would a tramp have something to park? A stolen shopping trolley, perhaps? Thanks Myles and Gallers.

  10. 17:41. Made heavy weather of this one. Struggled to see MAINFRAME, SEATBELT, STRATEGEM, FUSILIER, the list goes on. At first, for 18ac, instead of reversing “loots” I reversed “fires”, assuming a printed character might “sit” on its serifs. I liked RIO TO US. Nice crossword, but not my day

  11. Weird one. Took me a while to get into this. After the first pass I had a few of the anagrams and not much else. But I started to get on Myles’ wavelength (felt like a lot of IKEA clues?) and finished all green, which is still enough of a rarity for me to feel pleased about, although I did need to come here to have a couple of them explained to me!

    Thanks to Myles and Galspray

    1. IKEA clues, like it. I call them Build-A-Bear Workshop clues which I guess amounts to the same thing.

  12. Very enjoyable puzzle with plenty of clever wordplay taking 28 minutes.
    Some of the clues were biffed then parsed but made me smile e.g. ALLOWING.
    I liked OINK best.
    Thanks Myles and Galspray.

  13. Enjoyable puzzle, quick today. Almost held up by LOI DATA but then penny dropped. Liked STRATAGEM – mega tarts, OINK, MAINFRAME, PAR, OVEREMPHASIS.
    Thanks vm, Galspray.

  14. 33 minutes. Did need thesaurus for last one. COD to oink although it was LOI.
    A very enjoyable QC.
    Thanks to Myles and galspray

  15. Clever and witty puzzle. I’ve seen the megatarts before but still enjoyed them.

    Only hold-ups were confidently typing MAC at the beginning of 12a and then not being able to continue; plus a complete brain freeze over LOI RACKET (since I always forget that “court” can indicate sports).

    All done in 07:45 for 1.25K and a Decent Day. Many thanks Myles and gallers.

  16. 12 half of which were partial bifs.

    I’ll have to research what a chestnut is in this context.

  17. 6:56
    After some horrendous DNFs this week, this is only the second time I have beaten 7 mins.

  18. 11 mins…

    What felt like a rare, straightforward offering on a Saturday – but I’m not complaining!

    Main hold up was wondering whether 8ac was “Ireland” or “Iceland” and parsing 22ac “Sincere”.

    FOI – 7ac “Villa”
    LOI – 2dn “Allowing”
    COD – 16ac “Stratagem”

    Thanks as usual!

  19. Myles shouting out oink? Spent far too long parsing my BIFDers another 30 seconds and I’d have been making myself comfortable in the SCC. Lots of ‘dad joke’ clues which I’m a big fan of. A puzzle to put a smile in your face. Thanks Mainframer and Myles. Now where did I put that mega tart?

  20. Lovely puzzle with plenty of smiles (STRATAGEM, MAINFRAME, RIOTOUS). Couldn’t parse ALL OWING – very nice, thanks galspray. Took me a while to solve MAYO, but not sure why. COD to MAINFRAME, but of course I also liked megatarts. Still have some coffee left so fairly speedy solve for me I guess. Many thanks Myles and G.

  21. From VILLA to FUSILIER in 8:55. I shall be meeting up in Bradford this afternoon for an evening of carousing with a bunch of retired colleagues with whom I used to interfere with MAINFRAMES (and servers, PCs and Storage systems). Took a moment to see ALLOWING. Thanks Myles and Galspray.

  23. An enjoyable 49min solve. LOI ALLOWING which took 12 mins of that for some reason. Thanks Myles and Galspray

  24. 10:35 for a gentle and almost entirely stress-free solve. Lovely puzzle, the mega tarts a clue I’ve seen before and always enjoy.

    Many thanks Galspray for the blog
    Cedric

  25. As a Villa supporting Irishman I was doubly pleased and amused. OINK made me smile too.

    Finished in what was for me reasonable time. Happy bunny after two recent DNFs.

  26. loved it. Well balanced. a few chewie clues but nothing too obscure and lots of satisfying PDMs… thanks!

  27. Like some other solvers I had initial difficulty parsing ALLOWING and MAINFRAME – both good clues. A very satisfactory QC today. Thanks Myles and Galspray.

  28. New to cryptics (as a seasoned American veteran of the NYT puzzles, which I’ve come to find monotonic and shallow, much as one might feel when leaving behind Jeopardy for University Challenge or Only Connect), this one was 15:49 for me. Hoping to get to an average solve of under 15 minutes this year. I quite enjoyed STRATAGEM.

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