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”

  2. Finished this with ANTI which might be called a QC chestnut but took ages to see it. Didn’t dare to put in SAND EEL which was obvious before I worked out why. And my only schoolboy knowledge of an offshore ridge is ‘Dogger Bank’ so BARGE I had to biff!

  3. 19:05, but couldn’t parse FACE TO FACE or BLEACH. The rest quite straightforward, I thought.

  4. Came here to see if anyone else got “reveres” instead of admires at 8A. In my mind it works because “one crushed” could mean removing the i from reveries – also giving “broken dreams”. Slightly reasonable or not?

  5. Thanks for the parsing of face to face.

    FOI neath
    LOI Part of speech (part went in with hope rather than conviction)
    COD barge

    thanks all

  6. 6:24. v enjoyable puzzle with just enough bite to give a nice pause for thought. Some clever surfaces too

  8. New to cryptic crosswords (2 months now) . This wasn’t too bad. 15 minutes. I believe it’s better to be sacked than fired. In the past if you were no longer wanted you packed up your tools in a sack and left, if you were no good at your job your tools would be burnt ie:fired so that you couldn’t work anywhere else. Useless info but maybe good for cryptics

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