Quick Cryptic 2912 by Jalna

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.

      1. Same here but not very convinced by rarely = remarkably well

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

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

   3. Sorry – missed that somehow. Now corrected

      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

   1. I was just about to put Fibers too, but suddenly the linens jumped out.

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.

   2. Medical scans are thorough.

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

      1. 🥰

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.’

   1. A beautiful song, my ear worm for today…

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. I think that’s technically right – thanks!

          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.

       1. Good luck with -L-C-H-L-E-E- 😄

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.

14. Live in france and misspelt MADEMOISELLE! How embarassing.

    1. Don’t worry, MP. I live in England and misspelt TEMPERAMENTAL the other day.

    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.

          1. Like you, I live in France and note that even the youngest women prefer ‘madame’.

          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!).

       1. Hadn’t thought of it in that way, but it does make sense. Thanks

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.

24. 10:52
    Good challenge.
    Thanks, C.

25. Definitely chewy. From SCAN to LINENS in 12:37. Thanks Jalna and Curarist.

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

31. Slow to start and continued to struggle throughout, especially in the NW. Neither of the long anagrams came easily and I spent some time inventing new desserts in order to finish off the NW corner. 29 mins in all.

    FOI – 10ac REROUTE
    LOI – 4dn RARELY
    COD – 17ac MADEMOISELLE. Also liked LINENS

    Thanks to Jalna and Curarist

32. I couldn’t see LINENS, and to be honest I still think it’s out of left field now I read the blog. I simply retired hurt.

33. Crumbs! Just getting started at all was tough. With the exception of NESSIE, I had to wait until the last two Across clues before my pencil saw any action. Fortunately, the Down clues proved a little more forgiving and I gained speed …. until I ground to a (very) premature halt again.

    Eventually, MADEMOISELLE broke the logjam and provided enough checkers for me to make it to the 3-to-go point. Those three, PERU, USERNAME and MUSEUM (my LOI), were unlocked by (very belatedly) seeing why PERU was the solution to 5a.

    A little over 40 minutes in the end, I think. Although having fully parsed every clue along the way and having read the posts above, I now feel pleased with my efforts.

    Many thanks to Curarist and Jalna.

34. Tough slog and a 40 minute solve, with ANIMATED and LINENS taking an age. Didn’t mind RARELY thinking of “rarely heard” or “rarely seen” as meaning remarkable in a way. Six months ago I would never have got 9a ALOOF so I am making progress. And TREASURE HUNT went straight in, as did INSTALLATION. This felt like a real workout: thanks Jalna and Curarist

35. Found this v. Difficult, but a few ‘ Duh’s after reading blog, itwasn’t as tricky as I though

36. Managed to finish this puzzle, fastest I’ve done one in, took just over 2 hours! My final four clues I only got from figuring out the definition part of the clues, so thank you for explaining how those worked.

    1. Congratulations! We are always delighted to finish a puzzle – and still have the glow of recent progress…not so long ago we struggled to get more than half a dozen answers. Little by little, and often inconsistently, we are getting faster as the weeks/months pass. We absolutely share your pleasure : )

    2. Congratulations! If you can do this one, you’ll do most rather quicker.

37. I do feel for the setters sometimes; it can’t be easy to compile a puzzle, and then to have a parade of negative comments.

    I assume the setters and most of the editorial team are rather accomplished solvers. Perhaps they could enlist a couple of people from this forum to test difficulty levels?

38. 25 mins…

    From reading some of the comments above, I’m pleased to have just finished in a half respectable time. Lots of potential to go wrong though: misspelling of “Mademoiselle”, biffing “Learner” rather than “Trainee”, the obscure “Rarely” for remarkably well.

    I think we should just rename the quick cryptic the slightly easier 13×13.

    FOI – 6dn “Erudite”
    LOI – 19dn “Urge”
    COD – 20ac “Trainee”

    Thanks as usual!

    1. I think the ‘Quick’ is intended to mean, ‘Will take less time than the 15 x 15’, rather than ‘Easier than the larger one’.

39. Found this really tough and was particularly bogged down in the SE corner: RARELY, UTTER, LATTE, MUSEUM, LINENS. Nearly gave up but all finally done in about 35 minutes. Another ‘good in parts’ experience!

40. 16:39. quite tricky today with some clues that were definitely of 15×15 calibre. I managed to parse everything, thought RARELY was fair. thank you both

41. Add me to the List of Shame of those who can’t spell MADEMOISELLE. I even thought I’d parsed it, using the last E for the MADE and then having I inside A MOSELLE for the white wine … not spotting that I was using the last E twice … what a gumby.

    I didn’t think that was too bad -stiff, as Jalna often is, but surmountable. COD & FOI to SPANIARD. All done in 10:35 but OWL.

    Many thanks Jalna and Curarist.

42. DNF. I gave up on the threshold of the SCC with LINENS unsolved. The rest had taken 11 minutes, except that I’d also misspelled MADAMOISELLE. Which explains why I couldn’t parse it. And I didn’t understand RARELY. I enjoyed the puzzle though. Thanks Curarist and Jalna.

43. Oh dear, perhaps should spend my time doing something else, though slightly comforted by seeing how many others struggled.

44. Had to stop after 30 minutes – DNF – LINENS and MUSEUM (the latter we were annoyed with ourselves, the former, less so.). Like others, bemused by RARELY. SCAN ok by us as himself in the world of radiology – assures me that while I scan to get the gist, he scans to closely examine.
    In hindsight, and only after assistance from Curarist ( esp for RARELY and PERU – thank you) there was very little that was not happily parsed.
    COD Acorn (possibly a chestnut to many, not yet to us).
    Thanks to J, too.

45. Well our 14:20 was certainly slower than average but it didn’t seem so bad that it shouldn’t qualify as a QC: with two exceptions that others have mentioned. RARELY seemed very unusual though nothing else fitted by the time we got to it. We spent what seemed like an age on LOI SCAN thinking ‘that’s not all the same as inspect closely’. Fingers were tightly crossed and ‘scan the horizon’ doesn’t makes me think differently. Nevertheless, in the end we were error free. Thanks to everyone.

46. Finally finished after an hour and at least half a dozen visits.
    Quite satisfying and all part of the learning process although I thought some of the answers were a stretch such as RARELY and I don’t understand CAN meaning POWER.
    Thanks for puzzle and for the helpful blog.

    1. It doesn’t mean “power”, it means “have the power to”. I can/I have the power to.

       1. Ah thanks. That makes sense now.
          Every word matters.

47. Surprisingly brutal from Jalna, taking me 26:26.

    Thank you for the blog!

48. 15:40. Many difficult ones but made it through eventually.

49. If that’s a QC then I’m giving up

    1. It was at the unfriendly end of the spectrum, especially if you are not yet familiar with the various tricks and abreviations that get used. Like most things, it takes a bit of time to get the basics but it soon gets at least a bit easier.

50. Heavily relied on the blog to parse many clues that I only got because of wordplay and checkers. Will join the chorus about scan and rarely. Otherwise a good work out. Thanks all

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