Quick Cryptic No 3090 by Bjorn

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I liked this one from Bjorn a lot: it took me 13:23, a little under my average time. There are a couple of unusual words, but I found there to be enough gettable clues that the crossers helped. My COD goes to DIVER, for the surface reading.

I noticed after completing the puzzle that two of the rows and two of the columns form common phrases: PEARL DIVER, ELGIN MARBLES, GREEN PEPPER, and PINK FLAMINGO. But I don’t see more of a theme than that, I think that’s just Bjorn enjoying himself when laying out the grid.

Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.

Across
1 Like surefire investments good pal told Ed about (4-6)
GOLD-PLATED – (G [good] PAL TOLD ED)*.
8 Denver uncovered French name for poison (7)
ENVENOM – dENVEr [uncovered – without its first and last letters] + NOM (French for ‘name’).

I don’t think I’ve seen this word before, but once I realized that I wanted the middle of DENVER and not the edges, it became clear.
9 Court status where both parties seek to gain advantage (5)
DEUCE – Double definition? Definition plus cryptic hint? Doesn’t really matter: both are tennis-related.

The ‘deuce court’ is the right-hand side of a tennis court, so called because that is where the serve comes from when the score is deuce. And the score after deuce is “advantage X”, so both parties are seeking to gain advantage.

It took me a long time to realise that I needed to separate “court” and “status”.
10 Geeky dude involved in dinner date (4)
NERD – Hidden in [involved in] dinNER Date.
11 I hear you are in bistro cooking Mexican food (8)
BURRITOS – U and R [phonetically indicated by ‘I hear you are’] inside (BISTRO)*.
13 Nobleman pursuing pony, initially one in valuable string (5)
PEARL – EARL (nobleman) after [pursuing] Pony [initially].
14 One getting tanked up before going to work? (5)
DIVER – cryptic definition.

Fair enough: ‘suited up’ means putting on a suit, so ‘tanked up’ can mean putting on a tank.  Once I stopped thinking about Chieftain tanks, this became a lot easier.
16 Letter might carry this page once ready in East Germany (8)
POSTMARK – P for page, then OSTMARK, the currency [ready] of East Germany.

I think the ‘once’ is there mostly for the surface reading: it’s a bit redundant to say the ‘previous’ currency of a country that no longer exists.
17 Doll that is leaving Sting? (4)
BARB – BARBie (doll) minus i.e. (that is).

My LOI: I had it all backwards and was trying to think of a word for ‘sting’ from which I could remove ‘ie’. Then the manhole cover dropped with a clang.
20 Scottish nobleman’s broken leg at home (5)
ELGIN – (LEG)* + IN (at home)

I didn’t know that Elgin was a Scottish nobleman, but I’ve been to the town of Elgin and the wordplay was clear.
21 Rolling Stones — blokes embodying R&B? (7)
MARBLES – MALES (blokes) containing [embodying] R and B.

My marbles were mostly made of glass, if I recall correctly. But I suppose they must have been made of marble at some point to get the name.
22 Carl and Del Boy organised game against neighbours (5,5)
LOCAL DERBY – (CARL DEL BOY)*
Down
1 Place for putting  eco politician (5)
GREEN – a double definition. The first as in golf.
2 Veg, as a rule, is ground up in meat product (5,7)
LIVER SAUSAGE – (VEG AS A RULE IS)*

One of the few solving ‘rules’ that rarely lets me down: if a word is truncated like ‘veg’ is here, it is often a sign that the clue is an anagram.
3 Somewhat socialist  US singer (4)
PINK – Another double definition.

The first is, I think, a reference to “pinkos”, which I associate with Private Eye. The second is, as the clue says, an American singer.
4 Mail exposes “Barmy court” (6)
ARMOUR – Remove the first and last letters from [expose] bARMy cOURt.
5 The Spanish explorer first to discover old legendary city (2,6)
EL DORADO – EL (‘the’ in Spanish), DORA (explorer), first letter of Discover, O for old.

Dora the Explorer is a children’s television series. I’ll confess that she wasn’t the first explorer to come to my mind.
6 Elgar must have briefly upset composer (6,6)
GUSTAV MAHLER – (ELGAR MUST HAVe [briefly])*.

I was grateful that I had the V from DIVER by the time I came to this: there aren’t that many six-letter words that end with a V.
7 Spring, when Sergey goes cycling (6)
GEYSER – The last three letters of SERGEY ‘cycle’ to the front.
12 Brightly coloured tail of indigo bird (8)
FLAMINGO – FLAMING (brightly coloured) + last letter [tail] of indigO.
13 Season  to pelt with shot? (6)
PEPPER – another double definition
15 Frost seen in California peninsula (6)
CRIMEA – RIME (frost) inside CA (California).
18 Coach regularly buys headgear for men (5)
BUSBY – BUS (coach) + alternate letters of BuYs.

I wondered for a bit whether we were going to have intersecting DERBYs in the bottom-right hand corner, but I couldn’t make ‘coach’ give DER no matter what I tried, and eventually the crossers ruled it out.

A busby is a type of military head-dress. But it isn’t the tall one worn by the guards at Buckingham Palace: that’s a bearskin. I have learned something today.
19 I’m responsible for this flipping endless dirge (4)
GRID – take the end off DIRGe and flip it. This is Bjorn being self-referential.

78 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 3090 by Bjorn”

  1. I took DEUCE to just be a cryptic definition. It took me a moment to see why GRID was the right answer once I’d taken the end off DIRGE and reversed it. I totally missed DORA the explorer, just filled the anser in from the checkers and the enumeration. Nice puzzle.

  2. 8.33, with ARMOUR and ENVENOM bringing up the rear. I actually toyed with the latter on the first pass but didn’t think it was a word. That sausage sounds disgusting. Many thanks to Bjorn and the Doof.

    1. Liver sausage is a kind of cheap pate that comes in a sausage shaped ‘tube’ rather than a traditional sausage, so is not quite as disgusting as it may sound to the uninitiated.

  3. 12 minutes. If anything can be said to have delayed me it was the two NHOs DORA the Explorer and the PINK singer. Both answers went in easily enough but I like to parse as I go and include that in my QC solving times.

    I agree with Paul that DEUCE is just a cryptic definition with ‘court status’ referring to the score / state of play and the rest of the clue specifying the particular score we are looking for.

      1. Bit rude, but on the contrary, if they’d been famous 100 years ago there’s every chance I may have heard of them, at least by reputation! I have little interest in pop singers since about 1969 or American cartoons.

        1. Well I’ve seen P!NK play once, but I’d never have got the answer from the clue – I only got it from the crossers and the combo with FLAMINGO.

          What I’ve never understood about DORA the Explorer is that it’s an American franchise, but whilst the name rhymes nicely in English English, it presumably doesn’t do so quite as well in rhotic accents like US English.

  4. 5:16. Yes, this was a nice puzzle, somewhat chewy, and BUSBY was certainly a NHO for me. I had to look carefully at the wordplay as I was put off by boss = coach. I like the kind of clue that juxtaposes two very kinds of location – Crimea doesn’t exactly put one in mind of California.

  5. A fun and clever crossword at the harder end. I, too, was bemused by the word combinations like PINK FLAMINGO and GREEN PEPPER.
    My fifth novel in the Mike Kingdom series, The Green Feathers, is out in two weeks so maybe subconsciously this helped me.

  6. Another day, another typo – AeMOUR this time. Annoying because I had to work hard today and was feeling pleased with myself. The V of DIVER made GUSTAV MAHLER a whole lot easier than he was going to be otherwise, then I struggled with PINK at the end. Perhaps I just don’t like music. Not all green in 15.49.

  7. We found this harder and slower than yesterday. Having read the blog, not sure why.
    PINK – Missed any link with ‘pinkos’ – simply took pink to be somewhat red.
    Good clues, good blog. Thank you Bjorn and Doofenschmirtz.

  8. This was one of those solves that felt tricky in places whilst doing it but didn’t actually take that long to complete, maybe helped by the fact that I never ground to a complete halt.

    I somehow managed to dodge a DPS on my read through when I thought that MaRler didn’t look quite right so went back and checked the anagram fodder.

    Started with GOLD PLATED and finished with DEUCE in 7.47 with COD to MARBLES.

    Thanks to Doofers and Bjorn

  9. 6:05

    Much enjoyed, spotting the two-word phrases along the way, and mostly-parsed – I, too, missed DORA. Plucked GUSTAV MAHLER from thin air and a couple of checkers, so was pleased with that – definitely helped with my LOI DIVER. Slight MER in that the US singer stylises her name as P!NK, but ! translates to I in Crosswordland.

    Thanks Doofers and Bjorn

  10. 27:20 (average: 37, target: 36)

    I found this a much smoother solve than yesterday. Most clues required construction for me, but nothing was that resistant to a bit of thinking. LOI was PINK, but only really because solving it didn’t provide any checkers so I came back to it at the end.

    I agree with jackkt and Paul in that I’d taken 9A to be a cryptic definition of court status. I was very interested to learn DEUCE COURT on reading the blog which I hadn’t heard of before.

    My COD was CRIMEA. I’d gone through a few different peninsulas including IBERIA before I concentrated on the wordplay to provide the actual answer and POSTMARK which read very nicely was a close second.

    Thanks for the blog Doofenschmirtz and Bjorn for what I thought was a really good standard for the QC.

  11. Clearly got out of bed the right side today, as despite this taking me longer than Izetti’s puzzle yesterday and containing its fair share of “biffed, failed to parse” clues, I enjoyed it greatly. NHO the US singer PINK or Dora the Explorer, nor (like our blogger) ELGIN the nobleman, and I didn’t see the self reference in GRID, but they were all guessable. Held up briefly at the end by BARB; it needed a letter search but luckily as it began with B it did not delay me long. A fun puzzle and home in 11:56, bang on my par time.

    Many thanks Doofers for the blog.

  12. Nice puzzle with a couple of odd ones. I took PINK as being not quite red but with a bit of a mer. 15.34 felt slow but all green. Thanks Doofers

  13. Enjoyable but, sadly, failed on PINK, as NHO Singer. Put Punk.
    Liked MARBLES, BUSBY, CRIMEA, PEPPER, DEUCE, POSTMARK (though DM was in W Germany too). GRID COD.
    NHO LOCAL DERBY, but biffed. Yes, the score DEUCE means both tennis players hope they will win next point, ‘advantage’.
    Thanks vm, Doofers.

    1. On the currency, you’re right that the currency of West Germany was the Deutschmark, abbreviation DM. It was introduced by the Allies in the 3 western zones of Germany on 20 June 1948 as part of their Currency Reform (up until then Germans had had to continue to use the totally discredited and worthless Reichsmark, or (anecdotally) cigarettes etc). Interestingly both the DM and the new central bank that managed it, the Bank deutscher Länder or “Bank of the German States”, predated the creation of the Federal Republic; the BdL lasted until 1958 when it was transformed into the new Bundesbank, and I can remember seeing the occasional BdL coin from pre-1958 in my change in Germany as late as the 1980s.

      The German Currency Reform did not cover the Soviet sector of Germany as the USSR opposed it, and they intended the RM to remain valid in the Soviet zone. But this was clearly unsustainable, especially in Berlin where travel between the sectors was still possible, and on 23 June 1948 they introduced the East German Mark. The separate currency introductions marked a critical step in the formal division of Germany into the Western Federal Republic and the Eastern German Democratic Republic (DDR), which occurred the following year.

      Once the DDR was established the East German currency was formally renamed the “Mark der DDR”; informally in East Germany people simply called it the Mark, but in West Germany it was always called the Ostmark to distinguish it from the DM. And it is the Ostmark that Bjorn is referencing in his wordplay.

      1. Thanks. I see my own parsing was off the mark.
        But when living in W Germany in about 1960, we just called the money Marks.

  14. Cracking puzzle and very satisfying to solve. And the linked words in the completed grid were a nice bonus. 10:26.

  15. A very entertaining puzzle: Bjorn is a great addition to the Setters Common Room.

    This went smoothly for me (and the Club worked fine on my phone today, hurray) until the SE, which I found much tougher. Eventually BUSBY unlocked it and then the last five or so fell in a rush, with MARBLES LOI. COD to GRID, very clever!

    All done in 07:32, though it felt slower. Many thanks Doofers and Bjorn.

  16. 10:57 (death of Macbeth)

    I was held up by my LOI GEYSER. I was overthinking things, and read ‘when Sergey” as meaning I had to cycle the letters of “as Brin”. Eventually the penny dropped that Sergey just meant Sergey.

    Thanks Doofers and Bjorn

  17. 13:22 for the solve. The slightly faster than average time swayed me into liking this puzzle. On a slower day, I would likely have complained about less familiar GK like ELGIN, BUSBY, the OST-MARK, words like RIME and ENVENOM and some long anagrams. But it was all pretty smooth and I particularly enjoyed the surfaces for NERD and MARBLES.

    Thanks to Bjorn and The Doof

  18. 32 mins with a typo.
    A fun QC despite nho PINK or Dora Explorer.
    After hoping doll was a nho term for wasp, the penny dropped. Busby was biffed as I only know it from old BT adverts.
    Much to like in this QC. Thanks Doofers and Bjorn

  19. To the point about “previous” being redundant in 16ac, I’m not sure I agree since “East Germany” could easily be interpreted as “The eastern part of [modern] Germany”, in which context it is definitely an obsolete currency. Given that the country reunified in 1990 / 91(?) there must be some solvers that would only be vaguely aware, or unaware, that Easy Germany was ever a country.

    I had no problem with PINK, the singer being one of the artists on the Singstar Karaoke game that I bought about 20 years ago and which my children still occasionally play, and remembering “Pinko Liberal” as an insult thrown about in some literature that I remember reading as child or young adult, from which I inferred that “pink” was a pejorative meaning “somewhat communist”.

  21. really nice puzzle. I managed to be the slowest without errors. I spent the time kicking myself for not getting the answers earlier. All very doable (except for Dora the Explorer) but brain not very quick today

  22. I am obviously a bit thick today. After his first QC, Bjorn has always taken me into the SCC and today was no exception (22.50). I was slow to start and only built up a modest speed on the RHS at first. Like Doofers, I was grateful for the V of DIVER which led immediately to GUSTAV MAHLER. I biffed EL DORADO (NHO Dora the Explorer). The rest was a series of jumps, building on available crossers, finishing with POSTMARK, ARMOUR, and ENVENOM (NHO but fairly clued).
    Lots of clever clues. CRIMEA was my COD. Bjorn has clearly put a lot of thought into the puzzle but it didn’t light my fire, I’m afraid.
    Thanks, anyway, to Bjorn and Doofers.

  23. 10:15
    LOI FLAMINGO

    Liked GRID, but it took me some time to figure out. Missed Dora the Explorer, but EL DORADO had to be from the 2,6 enumeration.

    Saw a few of the double words like ELGIN MARBLES. I’m sure GEYSER BUSBY is a retired military man in a detective novel, or a village in Somerset. I got GUSTAV MAHLER via Gustav Holst.

    NHO either of those definitions of PINK.

    The intersection of GREEN with GOLD reminded be of Percy’s alchemy experiment in BLACKADDER III.

    COD POSTMARK

  24. I knew it had to be grid – but couldn’t figure out the definition until I came here. Very clever. Never heard of rime before but I bet it comes up a lot in crosswords. Not a bad time for me despite that.

  25. I found this tougher than average and was held up by LOI, PINK, DIVER and DEUCE. 10:01. Thanks Bjorn and Doofers.

  26. No problem with P!nk and biffed MAHLER when Holst wouldn’t fit. ELGIN was another biff and NHO OST MARK or DORA (except for a great aunt who played the piano and worked with Hofmann in the discovery of LSD). I enjoyed this puzzle but jumped around a lot to finish in 25 mins. No stimulants required.
    Thanks Doofers and Bjorn.

  27. A bit quicker than yesterday’s time, but still over target at 11.43. It actually seemed longer than that in solving, and having started so slowly with only three of the across clues solved, I fully expected it to be a hard grind. I think the majority may find this on the tough side, but I still feel it’s a fair grid to put forward as a QC. PINK took me a while and I eventually recalled that there is or was a singer by that name. I had no idea of the US nationality, and I don’t even know if they are male or female, or even trans who knows! Pop music seemed to me to go backwards after the sixties, and I lost interest.

  28. An enjoyable QC from Bjorn today. I was quite close to finishing as the SCC hove into view, but the SE corner slowed me down and I ended up crossing the line in 27 minutes or thereabouts.

    GOLD PLATED, GREEN, ARMOUR and EL DORADO were my FOsI and I progressed well after that, albeit rather haphazardly. GRID, CRIMEA and PINK were my last three.

    My first completed GRID this week. Phew!

    Many thanks to Doofers and Bjorn.

  29. Very satisfying solve. PDM parsing GRID. Having got ELGIN, think my subconscious produced MARBLES. Thanks Bjorn and Doofers.

  30. A bit of a struggle but finally made it in 25:11. PINK, GRID, ARMOUR last in with a shrug. Thanks for the explanations!

  31. Haven’t managed a Bjorn yet and this was no better. Battled for ages but totally foxed by seven. Look forward to sitting at the feet of your wisdom, Doof. (Yes, thank you: NHO DORA the explorer.)
    Instead – went away and battled some more. Saw, then understood GRID, then it had to be NHO LOCAL DERBY, then I suppose it must be CRIMEA tho’ NHO RIME; then it looks like POSTMARK, golly, yes, how complicated but certainly clever. Not quick, though! Then guessed NHO PINK, upon which it must be LOI GOLD-PLATED, yes I see but again how complicated. Phew – so now have actually – two hours later – completed a Bjorn. Was it worth it?

    1. Similar experience, but gave up after one hour with several unsolved. Thought of envenom, but not in my dictionary so thought it must be wrong.

      1. Glad I’m not alone – thank you! Agree NHO ENVENOM, but it had to be, so I just bunged it in without checking in the big book. It was one of my first and there was a long way to go ….

  32. Excellent puzzle. Some very witty definitions. POST MARK And DIVER were the pick for me

    Thanks to the setter and to Doofenschmirtz (particularly for the truncate word/anagram tip)

  33. 18:56

    Nearly completed in 12 but got stuck for ages in the crossing POSTMARK and CRIMEA. as DNK rime was frost. I then hit submit only to find I’d overlooked 3dn which required an alphabet trawl and a further 3 mins for LOU PINK.

  34. 26 mins…

    Enjoyable, but took a bit of thinking. 14ac “Diver”, 17ac “Barb”, 4dn “Armour” and 21ac “Marbles” all had definitions cleverly disguised, albeit I’ve seen the last one before and should have been quicker. Both 3dn “Pink” and “Dora the Explorer” element in 5dn brought a chuckle.

    FOI – 10ac “Nerd”
    LOI – 16ac “Postmark” – not Potsdam which kept creeping into my head
    COD – 5dn “El Dorado”

    Thanks as usual!

  35. Finished in 25 minutes, with BARB as my last. Only one I couldn’t parse was POSTMARK, but interesting to learn the OSTMARK was the currency, as I was only seeing MARK as the currency. Really enjoyable puzzle. Thanks for the blog 😁

  36. 15:59 From Pink to Mahler and Barbie to Elgin… wondered if Ed Sheeran was going to make an appearance with a gold plated disc at the off. Tina (who was a regular contributor in the past) would have thoroughly approved of the pop culture inclusions.
    Agree with Templar COD to the self deprecating surface of grid.
    From now on I’m going to play a silly little game to see what three letter words appear using the blogger’s and setter’s initial with an A for &. Today we have DAB
    Ta DAB

  38. A most enjoyable offering from Jjorn today, with a great variety of clues. Particularly liked MARBLES. LOI GOLD PLATED (missed the anagram), Time: 17:52. Thanks Bjorn and Doofers.

  39. 11.08 That felt quite tough. CRIMEA, MARBLES and DEUCE were all tricky and ENVENOM was NHO, though the wordplay was straightforward. Thanks Doofers and Bjorn.

  40. Some difficult clues, especially down the RHS, but I kept going until Gustav Mahler came to the rescue, with just the ‘u’ to work with. I will admit to a fleeting dabble with the better known Holst, but Mahler had the crucial benefit of an extra letter. All finished and parsed (Dora excepted) around the 25min mark, with CoD to the clever Armour, a nose ahead of Grid and Postmark. Invariant

  41. On the tougher side but very enjoyable. My cup of tea was still warmish when I finished. LOCAL DERBY last one in. Just couldn’t see the anagram until the crossers were in.

    Thanks Bjorn and Doofers

  42. A lovely puzzle pitched just right. Only one I couldn’t parse was diver, and I don’t understand the explanation (?) given here, anyone?

    Sidenote 1: This website has been incredibly buggy the past week.

    Sidenote 2: Seeing multiple people in these comments not knowing who Pink is is absolutely hilarious. A real insight into the type of people who do these puzzles. She’s been extremely famous for 25 years, at least 95% of the general public would know who she is. Not knowing Dora the Explorer is also pretty absurd, although the answer to that clue was obvious anyway from legendary city being El and then a six letter word.

    2. I doubt if 95% of this village would know who Pink is🙂, but I will ask my offspring. Was an expert on pop in the 60s, but, apart from Abba and Queen, oh and T Swift, modern music has passed me by. We all have different concerns, worries and interests. (Later – offspring knows about P!nk)

    3. As Google tells me that in 2024 19.5% of the UK population was over 65, I estimate that your estimate of 95% of the population knowing of P!nk is extremely optimistic… And ‘extremely famous’? Really??
      And again with Dora the Explorer – a children’s animated TV series premiered in 2000….
      Hey ho – just mark me down as absurd!

      1. Me too! After 80 years on the planet I’ve built up pretty good GK, and to me it matters not one jot that pop music and children’s TV characters do not figure. The clues were easily biffable anyway. I wonder if Rob has heard of Muffin the Mule…….?

    4. I’m glad you didn’t specify what ‘type of people’ do these puzzles. You might have come across as a bit judgemental 😁

  43. DNF Like Countrywoman I had PUNK instead of PINK. I thought Coach led to Sir Matt Busby but now I think of it he would have been a manager not a coach. Rime put me in mind of Samuel Coleridge as his most famous poem was The Rime of The Ancient Mariner and my favourite was Frost at Midnight.

  44. Enjoyable QC. Had to think about some of the clues but ultimately all doable. COD GREEN for the lovely misdirection (oh, that sort of putting). LOI BURRITOS. Many thanks both.

  45. My thanks to Bjorn and Doofenschmirtz.
    Nice puzzle.
    22a Local Derby looked like green paint but it is in Wiktionary, and in my Cheating Machine so must have come up before, and not green paint.
    3d NHO Pink the singer, but not hard to guess. Actually I now remember the ! in P!nk so I must have heard of.
    5d El Dorado, NHO Dora the Explora, so in her absence the only option was to biff. To be fair only DORA was unexplained and only EXPLORER wasn’t used for anything else so she COULD have been inferred.
    500 errors.

  46. 7.39

    Superb puzzle imho. Several very enjoyable/impressive clues (BURRITOS MARBLES LOCAL DERBY and GUSTAV MAHLER).

    Thanks Doofers and Bjorn

  47. DNF.
    These so-called Quick Cryptics are getting ridiculously hard again.
    I have had enough.
    In future I will leave these puzzles to the experts.
    I will be cancelling my subscription to The Times.

    1. I completely agree. They are just a bit of fun for expert solvers to post their fast times …. Not happy

  48. 26:04
    It felt like I had to really work hard with the majority of clues here, but nevertheless a very enjoyable workout.
    NHO ENVENOM or Dora the Explorer but couldn’t see it being anything else.
    The last 6 clues took ~10 mins to solve all with a slap of the head with each PDM – BUSBY, DEUCE, DIVER, BARB, GRID and then PINK.
    Has Bjorn got a slightly different cryptic style to the norm or is it just me?
    FOI: NERD
    LOI: PINK
    COD: DEUCE
    A big thanks to Bjorn and Doofers

  49. I liked the ELGIN MARBLES pairing. As I have mentioned before, the British Museum does not call them that- look for the Parthenon sculptures when you go. There seems to be almost daily mention in the papers about whether we should keep them. Perhaps we could swap for the heads in Copenhagen and Athens?
    Anyway, I enjoyed this quite difficult QC. I knew PINK but not DORA. MAHLER no problem.
    LOI was CRIMEA.
    COD to MARBLES.
    Time 15 -20 minutes. I nodded off solving after golf.
    David

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