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. I did this in the morning, and as usual things were ticking along until my LOI. Even though I knew an N had to go in somewhere, I couldn’t see where and wasted at least a minute trying to solve it 😅
    11a was particularly appropriate, because we’ve been to a very interesting exhibition at the Nottingham University gallery and MUSEUM called Cosmic Titans – INSTALLATION art that was really good and definitely made you think.
    Overall I enjoyed this a lot but I thought RARELY was really a bit … well, I don’t want to be rude, so will leave it there! GR in honour of LouisaJaney 😉
    About 12 minutes FOI Spaniards LOI Linens COD it has to be INSTALLATION, although I really liked SPANIARD and USERNAME too.
    Thanks Jalna and Curarist

  2. Just over 3 hours.
    Took me half an hour to get the first – URGE. Only because it was a hidden.
    Kept coming back and found it tough quite fair – chipped away but did guess MADEMOISELLE.
    Didn’t parse PERU. Per = a is a new one on me – it might be said by a cockney grocer but is it in a dictionary…

  3. DNF. About 4 clues not done
    I had little difficulty with linens unlike many others here.
    Looking back there was nothing too drastic about the clues, and I was able to parse the ones I could do. The wordplay was straightforward – in retrospect.
    Despite the resounding DNF I enjoyed this a lot.

    Thanks to Jalna and Curarist.

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