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

  2. 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 ….

  3. 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)

  4. 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.

  5. 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!

  6. 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 😁

  7. 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

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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 😁

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 7.39

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

    Thanks Doofers and Bjorn

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. 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

  21. I really enjoyed this puzzle despite struggling with it and recording the somewhat slow time of 24 minutes. Everything parsed except EL DORADO as I’d never heard of the explorer in question. NHO the singer either but assumed that PINK (or even P!NK) was correct. Some interesting words and constructions and slightly esoteric GK but good stuff.

    FOI – 8ac ENVENOM
    LOI & COD – 16ac POSTMARK

    Thanks to Bjorn and Doofers.

  22. This was one crossword where the modern references didn’t jar, and I liked it a lot. Some of the clues were quite twisty, and I enjoyed working them out.
    I used to love liver sausage on toast when staying with my great grandmother – a happy childhood memory. I’m not sure how much I’d want to eat it these days though 😅 Definitely one for the list of UPFs, I suspect.
    I know precisely one song by P!NK – Let’s get this party started (also covered by Shirley Bassey 🙀) – but that’s all I needed.
    Dora the Explorer was originally a Spanish language cartoon series, so the surface for 5d was particularly good, I thought. I also really liked DIVER, MARBLES and GEYSER .
    A palindromic 13:31 FOI Gold-plated LOI Diver COD El Dorado
    Thanks Bjorn and Doofers

  23. Good fun for the experts doing their speed tests I suppose, but once again not a suitable QC in my opinion.

  24. A relatively speedy 10:02 today helped by having heard of both Dora the Explorer and Pink – a measure of how ‘down with the kids’ I am. Must go, Mrs T is having a severe coughing fit. Thanks to Doofers and to Bjorn for a cracking puzzle. COD GRID but lots to like.

  25. I’m in the 5% re Pink and whatever % of the population who has NHO Dora the explorer. Must be an age thing or perhaps my children are the wrong age. I saw the Elgin Marbles for the first time a couple of weeks ago, although I have been to the British Museum several times. They are amazing but I can’t help thinking that much of what is in the Museum arrived there by dubious means.

  26. A super entertaining puzzle from Bjorn that, in addition to the Nina phrases, seems to be saying HI !

    Everything went swimmingly until I spent at least 5 minutes on DEUCE, which doesn’t seem to have fazed anyone else. I could see it must be tennis but I’ve remained stubbornly ignorant of the game and at last decided DEUCE was the only vaguely reasonable candidate (douse? druse? daube?), no pink square and I was actually kind of surprised.

    17:04 and I can’t believe I didn’t notice the controversial sculptures at least, having recently encountered them (in a 15×15 here?). LOCAL DERBY was fortunately in my memory banks from previous puzzles though all I could remember was the “derby” part. Loved the self-reference in GRID. Dora and Pink are somewhere on the fringes of my knowledge, yes, young ‘uns, I am a hundred years old, how contemptible. Enjoy it while you got it.

    Thanks Bjorn and Doof.

  27. I did struggle hard to think of a Spanish explorer although I was pretty sure El Dorado was correct but not real. I’ve just looked up Dora the Explorer and she looks great fun but she apparently dates from 2000. Absolutely no generation of our family were watching children’s TV around that date, sorry.

    The Error 500 thing I think I’ve stopped by doing Clear Search History in Safari, early days though I’ll report back.

  28. 17 mins. Took over half my time for last two, MARBLES and CRIMEA. So, so frustrating.

    Clever pairing of PEARL DIVER, ELGIN MARBLES, GREEN PEPPER, PINK FLAMINGO.

    Failed by two on 15 x 15. 1.5 hours. More frustration. Overall, another poor day for me.

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