Quick Cryptic 3125 by Jalna

Author   BletchleyRejectPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Time: 08:33. Some nice surfaces and quirky definitions here making for an enjoyable puzzle from Jalna.

A few clues are hard to sort out, though the answers were clear enough, even without any crossing letters, eg 1a. I enjoyed the shady sounding ‘Former hotel employee’ at 16a and the diner with such good table manners at 4d.

Thanks to Jalna.

Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer shown by strikethrough.

Across
1 Look of distinguished person in confrontation (4,2,4)
FACE TO FACE – FACE (‘Look’) TO (‘of’) FACE (‘distinguished person’?)

The first answer and I’m already asking for help. Went straight in from the definition and enumeration but I’m not sure the parsing is correct. TO for ‘of’ as in “Horses are an interest of/to the royal family” (maybe) and the US way of saying the time as “a quarter of nine”, though there are probably better examples. I wondered about FACE for ‘distinguished person’ as in a famous person being the FACE for a particular cause or activity, eg “David Attenborough is a world-wide face of environmentalism” (again maybe).

On edit: See Kevin’s comment below for a better explanation – FACET OF ACE. Thanks.
8 Respects one crushed by broken dreams (7)
ADMIRES – I (‘one’) contained in (‘crushed by’) an anagram (‘broken’) of DREAMS
9 Tidy hospital somewhere in Wales (5)
NEATH – NEAT (‘tidy’) H (‘hospital’)

I’d heard the name of the town but could not have told you much about it. A town with a population of about 50,000 in S. Wales close to Swansea. Random fact: Neath was the home town of the actor Ray Milland.
10 What bank may offer only over the phone (4)
LOAN – Aural wordplay (‘over the phone’) of LONE (‘only’)
11 Ten memos distributed as reminders (8)
MEMENTOS – Anagram (‘distributed’) of TEN MEMOS
13 Boat, say, overturned on offshore ridge (5)
BARGE – GE, a reversal (‘overturned’) of EG (‘say’) following in an across clue (‘on’) BAR (‘offshore ridge’)
14 Howler made by boss endlessly (5)
GAFFE – GAFFER (‘boss endlessly’)

‘Howler’ in the colloquial sense of a bad mistake. GAFFER isn’t used much in this part of the world for ‘boss’. Collins has it as informal chiefly Brit. and Merriam-Webster as British.
16 Former hotel employee — one with dealings abroad (8)
EXPORTER – EX (‘Former’) PORTER (‘hotel employee’)
17 Copies of recordings without the intro (4)
APES – TAPES (‘recordings without the intro’)
20 Somewhat animalistic, he’s self-motivated for the mating game? (5)
CHESS – Hidden (‘Somewhat’) in animalistiC HES Self-motivated

I feel as though ‘the mating game?’ should be a chestnut, but I don’t recall having come across it before, so this was my definition (and clue) of the day.
21 Fish also found in extremely sizeable eastern lake (4,3)
SAND EEL – AND (‘also’) contained in (‘found in’) SizeablE (‘extremely sizeable’) E (‘eastern’) L (‘lake’)
22 And so, is the travelling staggered? (10)
ASTONISHED – Anagram (‘travelling’) of AND SO IS THE
Down
1 Physically weak female bird (5)
FRAIL – F (‘female’) RAIL (‘bird’)

According to Wikipedia, RAIL(s) are a family of birds comprising 43 genera and 143 species.
2 Fail to reach a hairdresser? (4,1,7)
COME A CROPPER – COME (‘reach’) A CROPPER (‘a hairdresser?’)

I don’t think I’ve seen CROPPER for ‘hairdresser?’, though as for ‘the mating game?’ it seems as though it should be an obvious one for our setters to use.

Apparently “come a cropper” was originally a phrase describing a heavy fall from a horse when hunting and was first used in 1858. Another new one to me.

On edit: Sorry, just to clarify. I’m familiar with the term COME A CROPPER but didn’t know its origin.
3 Designate period of time in office (4)
TERM – Double definition
4 One who doesn’t eat in a more hurried manner (6)
FASTER – Double definition
5 Come together, heading for collision on side of road (8)
CONVERGE – C (‘heading for collision’) ON (‘on’) VERGE (‘side of road’)
6 Interjection, say, in wedding day toast? (4,2,6)
PART OF SPEECH – Cryptic hint. A ‘wedding day toast’ would be PART OF (eg the father of the bride’s and best man’s) SPEECH
7 Pure Charlie and speed (6)
CHASTE – C (‘Charlie’) HASTE (‘speed’)
12 New and strangely serious obsession (8)
NEUROSIS – N (‘New’) then anagram (‘strangely’) of SERIOUS

Nice surface. Are a neurosis and an obsession the same thing? Not in my book but maybe the thinking and terminology have changed. Oxford Dictionaries has for NEUROSIS: “Excessive and irrational anxiety or obsession” and Collins mentions “obsessive behaviour” amongst other psychological symptoms.
13 Disinfect top of bacteria-ridden drain (6)
BLEACH – Bacteria (‘top of bacteria-ridden’) LEACH (‘drain’)

Another good (= yukky) surface
15 Fires? It’s time for us to leave! (4,2)
LETS GO – LET’S GO (‘It’s time for us to leave!’)

Definition with cryptic hint; we don’t have to worry about that annoying apostrophe in crossword land. For the def, ‘Fires’ as in sacks or dismisses, though the surface leads us up another path.
18 Piece of baked Alaska served up as part of meal? (5)
SALAD – Reverse hidden (‘Piece of… served up’) in bakeD ALASka

Maybe the question mark indicating either that a salad can be a meal in itself or is one example of a ‘part of meal’.
19 Soldier possibly beginning to injure opponent (4)
ANTI – ANT (‘Soldier possibly’) Injure (‘beginning to injure’)

ANTI here as a noun.

82 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3125 by Jalna”

    3. Would never have seen that… thank you. How clever (of both you and Jalna) 🤩

    4. In the 1960s a Face was someone of noteriety in the Mod community. Probably also applied in the criminal community.

        1. Which links nicely to “I’m The Face” being the first “B” side by the Who (or, as they were then, The High Numbers).

          1. Which links to The Ealing Club which is reportedly where Pete Townsend met Roger Daltry, Pete Townsend being from West Ealing / Hanwell. My brother-in-law went to school with Pete Townsend’s younger brother. He reminds us of that at every opportunity.

  2. 6:36
    I thought of FACE TO FACE right away, but couldn’t see how it worked, so passed on, and only put it in when I had a couple of checkers. A MER at ‘obsession’ defining NEUROSIS. I see that ODE has ‘fall heavily’ as its first definition of COME A CROPPER, followed by ‘suffer defeat or disaster’.

  3. 7.05, held up at the end by TERM and PART OF SPEECH which was possibly not the greatest QC clue I’ve ever encountered but never mind. I’m glad FACE TO FACE finally makes sense, thanks Jalna and BR.

  4. 9 minutes. No problems apart from missing the parsing of FACE TO FACE and forgetting to go back for another look.

  5. Back to normal after a disturbing Monday when I found the 15×15 easier than the quickie and my comment regarding that fact disappeared into the ether.
    15 minutes with almost a third of that spent trying to convince myself about PART of speech. I remain unconvinced.

    1. Thanks for the tip about yesterday’s 15×15 Cryptic. I went back and had a go at it and found it quite testing but doable.
      I finished in around 10 mins less than yesterday’s Oink QC and in approximately twice the time today’s Jalna QC took me. Something of a confidence boost after a pretty dreadful Monday (and a disappointing end to last week).

  6. Typed in NueROSIS and didn’t spot the error in a down clue and so spent an age trying to make ‘bar-u’ into some sort of boat. Checking the anagrist made me finally spot my error. Also slow on PART OF SPEECH and GAFFE. Wouldn’t have been able to name the SAND EEL if I’d been to list all the eels I knew before the crossword – conger, electric and that’s it – but there it was when I needed it. All green in 16.03.

  7. Slow, slow, quick quick slow. Took about 3 minutes for the first few answers, then a rush in the middle until utterly breeze blocked by term and which took about 4 of our 20.54. And it was so obvious!

    Enjoyed the rest and particular liked come a cropper, not that I’ve been anywhere near a hairdresser in 15 years 👨‍🦲

    Thanks Jalna and BR

  8. A smooth solve, apart from misparsing FACE TO FACE, starting with FRAIL and finishing with ASTONISHED in 6.12.
    Thanks to BR and Jalna

  9. Just under 14 minutes today. As an experiment I spent around 6 minutes reading all the clues without entering answers and understanding about a third of them. I then reset the puzzle and finished it in 7:50 with a slight part of speech impediment.
    I take my hat off to all the T4T2 contributers who regularly finish in less than 10 minutes.
    Ta BRAJ

  10. 17.10 for me. Mostly smooth, but I took ages over the PART bit in PART OF SPEECH. Like Katla, I still don’t really get it.

    Pi ❤️

  11. 23:00. Welcome SCC members.

    PART OF SPEECH/ASTONISHED held me up. Couldn’t parse BARGE either, and misspelled MOMENTOS as well.

    Saw the FACE TO FACE parsing eventually, another slow one.

  12. That felt chewy most of the way through, maybe because of the sense of unease generated by not being able to parse FACE TO FACE. Only the SW went in easily, and I couldn’t really make LOI PART OF SPEECH work either. So all in all I was pretty surprised to see the clock had stopped at 06:48 for a Good Day.

    I did like COD BARGE and the mating game. A good work out.

    Many thanks Jalna and Bletchers.

  13. 7:39 for a speedy run through this puzzle; only LOI BARGE not parsed. Puzzled initially over ANTI as a noun, but then I remembered I had seen this in a previous QC (some time ago), which shows that occasionally things do stick in my mind.

    Many thanks BR for the blog.

  14. 19.38- fast start, happily plodded then many minutes spent on last two : SAND EEL and ANTI – did not see the latter as a noun.
    Have always regarded ‘respects’ and ‘admires’ as separate contemplations – not as synonyms.
    CHESS lovely.
    COD FACE TO FACE – Hats off to Kevin Gregg for parsing.
    Good time had.
    Thanks Jalna and Bletchley Reject.

  15. Elegant as ever puzzle from Jalna, and at the easier end of his offerings. Loved FACE TO FACE and nice to see the humble Rail get its moment. LOI was the fairly straightforward LET’S GO, which needed all the checkers.

  16. 4:03. I’m another who failed to go back and parse FACE TO FACE. I liked the “mating game” clue. Thanks Jalna and BR.

  17. Thanks for all the greetings yesterday everyone I did feel especially loved!

    DNF today – I didn’t get COME A CROPPER or PART OF SPEECH though I probably would have gotten the latter if I tried a little.
    I’ve never heard of NEATH and just hoped for the best. Didn’t parse FACE TO FACE or BARGE.

    I thought ASTONISHED was a great anagram and I liked the hiddens today.

    Re: yesterday I do indeed know who Paris Hilton is – celebrity gossip is one of my hobbies. Did you know she likes to restore vintage radios? She can be found at vintage radio conventions and has a whole room full of them. She is also brown eyed and is just very committed to coloured contacts.

    1. Was I the only one yesterday who had a juvenile smirk at the curvaceous Ms Hilton with answers RUMP(US) and BREAST above and below her? OK – I’ll go and stand on the naughty step.
      Hello Tina – great to hear from you.
      All completed but wasn’t clear about how FACE TO FACE worked until I came here: much too subtle for me. PART OF SPEECH: MER.
      CHESS, COD

  18. 6.16 WOE

    I’ll maybe call it a typo rather than an error as I immediately saw it should be COME not CAME but the finger’s downward descent could nary be halted.

    Liked the two long down clues though they were both late entries. Liked LETS GO too.

    On the subject of chess, the paper today has a report on Bodhana an incredible English prodigy. If she continues at her rate of progress she will undoubtedly be a Women’s World Champion and might also challenge the top of the men’s game. One to watch.

    Thanks Jalna/Bletchers

    1. Chess isn’t a physical game so why are there separate men’s and women’s world championships?

      1. To try and encourage more women and girls to play. Joining male dominated spaces can be… Not very fun sometimes.

        It’s also a women’s competition and an open competition, not actually a men’s one. Women can compete in the comp the men are in if they like.

          1. Sure. You are welcome to google your question and see the myriad of answers that boil down to the same thing. It does show that many ppl do have the same question as you.

            It’s not just chess, it’s also motorsport etc.

  20. Pretty much every clue solved as I read it and it still took me 7 minutes. LOI was LETS GO which required some thought.
    A very enjoyable puzzle, even at speed. That’s the main thing.
    Hard to pick a COD; I’ll go with CHESS.
    David

  21. Very happy to cross the line in 24 minutes today, especially given the setter.

    Somewhere around the quarter-hour mark, and with 8-9 clues to solve, I ground to a halt. However, NEUROSIS came to my rescue and I was able to make steady progress from there to the finish.

    I liked COME A CROPPER, although I spent a long time thinking the first word must be COMb. NEATH was my FOI, and GAFFE and PART OF SPEECH were my last.

    Many thanks to BR and Jalna.

  22. I improved on my time with Oink yesterday and was content to finish on 14.50. I parsed them all except FACE TO FACE (so thanks to Kevin); PART OF SPEECH was not difficult to biff but I was not impressed, especially considering the rest of the good puzzle.
    I liked NEUROSIS, LETS GO (when I thought about it), and BARGE (once I removed ‘reef’ from my mind).
    Thanks to both.

  23. I seem to be on form in this early part of the week, needing only 5.53 to finish this. I even managed to correctly parse FACE TO FACE on the way, something that seems to have eluded some. I did hesitate about whether it should be COME A CROPPER or CAME A CROPPER, but the correct parsing of the clue came to the rescue.

  24. Back to normal after yesterday’s struggles. I finished this in 16 minutes with everything parsed except FACE TO FACE (thanks BR and Kevin). I found the bottom half much easier than the top so basically solved in an upward direction.

    FOI – 9ac NEATH
    LOI – 3dn TERM
    COD – 20ac CHESS. Also liked EXPORTER.

    Thanks to Jalna and BR.

  25. Would have just missed the SCC, but I had put CAME A CROPPER instead of COME. Unusually, I was on my phone, and it said my time was 20:20 when I’d found the error, though of course it doesn’t really count. Thought CHESS was a good hidden. As to FACE TO FACE, I think BR’s original parsing is better than the ‘Facet of ace’ one as I don’t really equate facet with the look of someone. I bow to other’s greater experience however. Thanks BR and Jalna.

  26. 9:13. I liked LETS GO. Thanks to: Kevin for FACE TO FACE, Jalna for the puzzle, and BR for the blog

  27. Gaffer as “boss” may not be in common usage everywhere, but definitely still in the world of football. The manager is always referred to as “The Gaffer”.

  28. 26 minutes today with some clues talking quite a bit of thought such as LOAN – ah, ‘over the phone’ is a homophone indicator. Good fun.
    COD to CHESS and also liked CONVERGE
    Thanks Jalna and BR for the blog.

  29. DNF after 25mins with Frail and Loan extant. Obviously one would have prompted the other, but just couldn’t see either and, since I was also unsure about a couple of my other answers, opted to pull stumps. I guess I was the only/sole/lone one to dabble with Asaph for 9ac – if you ever see the white cathedral spire you will never forget it – on the basis of (Look) Tidy/ASAP, until Converge came along. Part of Speech still looks dubious to me as well. Invariant

    1. St.Asaph Cathedral doesn’t have a spire. I suspect you’re thinking of the nearby church at Bodelwyddan, which is beautiful, and can be seen clearly from the A55.

      2. When I was at school, we went to the marble church at Bodelwyddan every Sunday. Probably didn’t appreciate it enough. (No A55 in those days.) Was confirmed at St Asaph too.

  30. Didn’t manage to parse FACE TO FACE, so thanks to Kevin for that. Otherwise from TERM to ASTONISHED in 6:22. Thanks Jalna and BR.

  31. Nothing really jumped out at me today but it was a pleasant solve, and a quick one too.
    I haven’t read the blog or comments yet, but will later. MrB will be saying LET’S GO shortly as we’re off to see Luke Jerram’s Helios this afternoon 😊
    6:49 FOI Frail LOI Part of speech
    Thanks Jalna and BR

  32. I biffed FACE TO FACE, but parsed it afterwards as “facet of ace”. Otherwise my progress was serenely untroubled until I lost a few seconds parsing my LOI.

    FOI ADMIRES
    LOI BLEACH
    COD CHESS
    TIME 3:22

  33. Thanks to Jalna and BletchleyReject.
    1a F2F, oh! that’s what was meant. Defeated me.
    1d Frail, of course. I tried Ashen (in an attempt to disprove F2F) but it doesn’t mean weak although it might be a symptom of weakness, and no implication of the “As”. Never knew there were so many species of rail; I’ve never seen any AFAIK. Oh yes I have, the moorhen is one.

  34. Got facet of ace immediately and for the right reason, but couldn’t solve the anagrams of neurosis or astonished for the life of me.

  37. I biffed 1A and it took a great deal of perseverance before the rather brilliant ‘facet of ace’ appeared. I also liked CHESS and COME A CROPPER. Thanks for the extra info about this clue BR. Didn’t know Rail. Nice one Jalna.

  38. 7.58 This felt slow but was pretty quick for me. I was puzzled by FACE TO FACE and ANTI took a minute at the end. Thanks BR and Jalna.

  39. It was the definition bit of PART OF SPEECH that I didn’t understand so I spent a while alphabet trawling for something other than PART before accepting that nothing else worked. About 8 mins otherwise.

  40. A welcome bit of speed after yesterday’s DNF. All through in 8:03 but with FACE TO FACE biffed from checkers and unparsed and having missed the bar in BARGE. Thanks for clearing those up, BR, and thank you, Jalna, for a puzzle with a lot to like.

  41. 16 mins…

    Not sure what to make of this puzzle. 1ac “Face to Face” and 6dn “Part of Speech” seemed right, but I couldn’t properly nail the parsing, especially on the former. Even 2dn “Come a Cropper” felt a little clunky. Must remember that “Rail” is a bird.

    FOI – 8ac “Admires”
    LOI – 6dn “Part of Speech”
    COD – 8ac “Admires”

    Thanks as usual!

  42. PART OF SPEECH held me up for a few minutes at the end. Eventually, I felt it couldn’t be anything else so I shrugged and put it in. I’ve never heard it as a thing before so I searched for a definition and found:

    “a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its syntactic functions. In English the main parts of speech are noun, pronoun, adjective, determiner, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.”

    Thus, an interjection is a part of speech. That is my learning today.

    1. This will only be of interest if you’ve done the 15×15 today: knowing that the phrase ‘parts of speech’ comes from the Latin ‘partes orationis’, I typed the latter into the Wiktionary search box – which comes up with results from every language, not just English – to see if the etymology section would hold anything of interest. (It doesn’t.) However, the top phrase that comes up when you start typing ‘partes’ is ‘partes pudendas’, which apparently means ‘private parts’ in Spanish!

  44. Much faster today and all done in 10 minutes: smiled at the former porter and the not so quick eater. LETS GO is such a fake, wimpish way of saying fires or dismisses: “I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go”. Aagh. I think a distinguished person could be an ace or a face (“Face of the year”) so facet of ace solves one definition but not the other: no matter, fun clue. Very enjoyable – thanks to Jalna and to Templar

  45. 10:24 here, with everything parsed except FACE TO FACE. COD award to ASTONISHED, which neatly describes how I felt when I solved it.

    Thanks to Jalna and BR.

  47. Enjoyable puzzle, solved in dribs and drabs as was out and about today.
    LOI TERM. Also slower on CONVERGE.
    Liked GAFFE, COME A CROPPER, EXPORTER and PART OF SPEECH.
    CNP FACE TO FACE or ANTI.
    Thanks vm, BR.

  48. 3:28. Felt super fast as doing it but had had a couple of beers, so lo and behold it was merely quite fast. Interesting what you say about the apostrophes – I sometimes wonder if they or other special characters might actually turn up in the grid. But I don’t think non-A-Z characters can be entered, unlike in the New York Times.

  49. 17:40
    Didn’t parse BARGE (thanks BR) or FACE TO FACE (thanks Kevin) and thought PART OF SPEECH was a bit of a stretch.
    Got to the 10 min mark to be firstly held up in the NW, DNK rail was a bird, and took too long to see TERM.
    Finally held up in the SW by the slippery SAND EEL which then revealed my LOI.
    Maybe not on Jalna’s wavelength?
    FOI: ADMIRES
    LOI: ANTI
    COD: CONVERGE

    Thanks to BR and Jalna

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