Times Quick Cryptic No 2098 by Juno

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I originally thought this was simply a quirky and original affair from Juno, so it was only with a bit of post-solution scrutiny that I found a glorious Nina hiding artfully in plain sight (hint and link at bottom of blog). Wow, I must say it lifts today’s Quick Cryptic up to a truly lofty standing! Apart from that, my finish was sub-10 mins, although only just, thanks to a slight hold up at 16ac, not knowing of said conductor. Brilliant stuff, for which many thanks, and hats off to Juno!

Across
1 Miss is fanatical, grabbing ring (5)
AVOID – AVID (fanatical) grabbling O (ring)
4 Condition of rugby forward attracting gossip (7)
LOCKJAW – LOCK (rugby forward) attracting JAW (gossip). Lockjaw = tetanus or trismus; condition as in sickness.
8 Who in class knows what’s said by gunman? (5,2)
HANDS UP – double definition
9 Gorky’s words of wisdom? (5)
MAXIM – double definition, and the first of today’s two Russian exiles.
10 Colossal, as is star’s study? (12)
ASTRONOMICAL – double definition
12 Lampoons SNP logo: a fish, oddly (6)
SPOOFS – S n P l O g O a F i S h “oddly”
13 Pal mob’s jostling showing sangfroid (6)
APLOMB – anagram (is jostling) of PAL MOB
16 Russian conductor of choir provost put right (12)
ROSTROPOVICH – anagram (put right) of CHOIR PROVOST. Just about the most plausible combination of letters, and a glaring gap in my knowledge: our second Russian exile, and a thoroughly good egg (as well as also being considered possibly the greatest cellist of the 20th century), who would doubtless be an inspiration to us all were he alive in these benighted times.
18 What was for writing in quiz, mostly fifty-fifty (5)
QUILL – QUIz “mostly” L (50 in Roman numerals) doubled.
20 Diarmuid, Irishman holding back what’s in platinum alloy? (7)
IRIDIUM – diarMUID IRIshman “holding back”
21 PM’s corrupt payouts (7)
AUTOPSY – anagram (is corrupt) of PAYOUTS. PM being post-mortem.
22 Tug, small, for US nationals (5)
YANKS – YANK (tug) S(mall)

Down
1 US dustbins found in carwash can stink! (7)
ASHCANS – “found in” carwASH CAN Stink
2 Bird fan with tatty “I” logo on T-shirt (13)
ORNITHOLOGIST – anagram (tatty) I LOGO ON TSHIRT
3 Confound nightclub with start of manic attack (9)
DISCOMFIT – DISCO *nightclub) with M (“start” of Manic) and FIT (attack)
4 Doting fan has circuit to follow (6)
LAPDOG – LAP (circuit) DOG (follow)
5 Lift raincoat to find part of shaft (3)
CAM – MAC (raincoat) lifted
6 Taxis to join up, moving about in proximity (13)
JUXTAPOSITION – anagram (moving about) of TAXIS TO JOIN UP
7 What’s vital for childbirth without doctor (4)
WOMB – W/O (without) MB (doctor)
11 I’m with sympathy taking in boy’s corruption (9)
IMPROBITY – IM with PITY (sympathy) taking in ROB (boy)
14 WI location: BA has to carry mum (7)
BAHAMAS – BA HAS to carry MA (mum)
15 Sluggishly, and awfully idly, going round Australia (6)
DOZILY – anagram (awfully) of IDLY going round OZ (Australia)
17 Colour of a courtyard, mainly (4)
AQUA – a QUAd (courtyard “mainly”)
19 Backchat? It’s marginal (3)
LIP – double definition.

See here for a short article about a book that employs the same theme, replicated today in both the answers and the clues!

43 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2098 by Juno”

  1. 13 minutes, so on the slow side for me. My fourth QC target time missed this week,

    I was ready for something special from Juno and spotted what was going on in the answers but not that it also applied to the clues. Congrats to Roly for constructing an intro that replicates the same theme!

    If Juno drops by today to see what we made of it, I hope she will let us know if we missed something in her puzzle #2094 that appeared last Friday.

    Edited at 2022-03-24 05:23 am (UTC)

  2. Only two on the first pass of acrosses and many, many gaps at 10m. Wavelength sort of arrived once the NW fell and I made good progress until left with the conductor. He was probably an OVICH but I had no idea what to do with the remaining letters — I had P as the most likely starting letter, so roly’s ‘most plausible’ is another man’s bemusement! Ended up all green in 20m — with a trip to a Russian conductors webpage — but a bit too far above my paygrade to be a proper pleasure.
  3. Very clever crossword .. when it is deliberately one letter short of a pangram, it is called a lipogram (see the glossary) – and extending it across all of the clues as well as the answers is impressive.
    1. I think the best lipogram before this was in July 2105 (QC 357) set by Noel in which there was no letter L (geddit?) and every other letter of the alphabet appeared at least twice.
  4. Didn’t spot the Nina, of course; still haven’t. Biffed the two long anagrams, never checked the anagrist. I slowed down by ROSTROPOVICH, since I only knew him as a composer; thought of SHOSTAKOVICH, although I only know HIM as a composer, but fortunately DOZING made me abandon that idea. Took a while to see PM=post-mortem. 8:39.
    1. Didn’t realise Rostropovich was also a composer. I knew of him as a cellist. I see he has a few compositions available on record.
      1. Oops! Sorry, I meant to say I only knew him as a cellist. So far as I knew, he was neither a composer nor a conductor.

        Edited at 2022-03-24 12:57 pm (UTC)

        1. Was pondering afterwards why he was included as a conductor before realising he could neither be a composEr or cEllist for this crossword
  5. Brilliant stuff. Not normally interested in Ninas but this was impressive.

    Not so much my effort especially as I knew the composer (and that he was mainly well known for playing — got a vinyl of his I was looking at just the other day)

    Couldn’t see AVOID or DISCOMFIT for ages (my last ones in) and even IMPROBITY with all the checkers delayed me

    Probably needed a coffee before starting

    Thanks Rolytoly and Juno in particular

  6. FOI: would have been ASHCANS but I left it until I had checking letters. I always thought US dustbins were trashcans.
    LOI: DOZILY.
    NHO of the conductor so the anagram took some sorting out. Checking after.
    COD AUTOPSY after the penny drop moment.
    Didn’t spot a NINA. Thought we were on for a pangram but no E.
    Finished in approximately 30 minutes.

    On edit:
    Just read the article so now understand the no E.

    Edited at 2022-03-24 08:01 am (UTC)

  7. The Nina was lacking in my understanding of this Quick Cryptic today. I’ll add that writing in such a fashion is a substantial strain on my brain, just as Juno and roly no doubt found. Two short in NW: AVOID and DISCOMFIT (didn’t think that was an actual word, tbh)

    COD MAXIM

  8. Twenty minutes, DNF, did not get quill or therefore lip. FOI hands up. Didn’t do a first pass as such, but eighteen of the clues were solved without too much trouble. Did not see the hidden in spoofs. Had to look two up in the OED – discomfit and improbity. COD juxtaposition. Five stars for getting that one into a crossword. Juno beats me today. Thanks, Roly, and well played, Juno. P>S> I have just followed Roly’s link on the Nina which I would not have seen if it had not been pointed out to me. Interesting in the extreme. Thank you for pointing it out, for the link to the article, and well done, Juno, for working such a concept into a crossword. Unique.

    Edited at 2022-03-24 09:26 am (UTC)

  9. Struggled in the SW and the less said about anagrams of foreign names the better. Other than that a pleasant solve and a very clever theme, which obviously went well over my head, although I think I’m more impressed by Roly’s efforts in his introduction.
    Eventually crossed the line well over target in 14.13 with LOI and COD AUTOPSY.
    Thanks to Roly
    1. Good spot about Roly’s introduction. I notice the last two lines of the linked article do the same.

      (I thought about doing it in this reply but gave up as soon as I tried to reconfigure my second sentence!!)

      1. Thanks but credit goes to Jack as I only saw it after reading his comment above
  10. A few unusual words. Not sure I’ve ever used DISCOMFIT or IMPROBITY. Didn’t think of looking for a pangram, even after the Q came along. So definitely didn’t spot the lipogram — not that I’d have known that was the Sunday name for it. Clever stuff and didn’t make the crossword too convoluted, either.

    Not too hard, as I finished in around 20mins without resorting to aids.

    Edited at 2022-03-24 09:29 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, you nailed the problem I had with DISCOMFIT and IMPROBITY – just never use them in conversation.
  11. Getting ORNITHOLOGIST (had to count the Os and Is to get spelling correct) helped get going. Helped by SPOOFS being one of those alternating hidden words. Felt lucky to figure out CAM which led me to put in LOCK (JAW came much, much later) and then LAPDOG somehow got in there.

    Midway through realised ROSTROPOVICH was an anagram and figured, as I’d never heard of him(?), I was going to be lucky to complete this one successfully with that mix of letters.

    Some defs in there I wasn’t happy with but managed to build the answers (DISCOMFIT, IMPROBITY).

    SW corner went in last. Needed LIP to give me fewer options on 21A before QUILL then AQUA presented themselves and from that corrected AUTOPSY.

    FOI ORNITHOLOGIST
    LOI AUTOPSY
    COD HANDS-UP

    Thanks to rolytoly for the writeup and to Juno for giving me my first (relatively) quick completion since last Monday. A nice mix of anagrams, hidden words and all the other ways of creating a clue/answer.

  12. No time today, because I forgot to look, but I suspect over target by a little. However, it doesn’t matter because I had to resort to aids for the conductor. It also doesn’t matter because, despite spotting the lipogram in the grid, I never looked at the clues to see the extent of Juno’s brilliance. Outstanding, and well spotted Roly. I wonder if LIP was a pointer to the cleverness, or AVOID? Thanks both, for once I enjoyed being beaten!
    1. I’m intrigued that you resorted to aids for the conductor. Is that not cheating slightly? Would it not be better to risk a DNF? I ask because it has never occurred to me to use aids but then I regularly fail to complete the grid.
      1. In my set of rules for the QC completion, any use of aids is equivalent to a DNF or failure by any other name, which is why I said it didn’t matter that I forgot to look at the time. However, my rules apply only to me — I don’t hold anyone else accountable to them, and I don’t condemn anyone else for resorting to aids. I often resort to aids when attempting the 15 x 15 for example, which is one reason I don’t comment often on that puzzle’s blog. I find it necessary to use aids because my GK falls a little short of what is required for that puzzle, particularly in the fields of arts and classics. When I do comment on that blog, I either haven’t used aids, or I try to be honest about resorting to them.
  13. clever. I had spotted the lack of an E in the grid, but not the clues too. Great effort to make the clues understandable. Bravo to Juno. On edit, bravo also to Roly!

    The puzzle was reasonably difficult for me, mainly because I’d NHO ROSTROPOVICH, and so juggling the anagrist into a likely looking fellow took a while.

    7:48

    Edited at 2022-03-24 10:43 am (UTC)

  14. 25 mins for everything, but my combination of “P’s” and “R’s” for 16ac was incorrect. Hate those types of clues — if you don’t know it’s a coin toss.

    Frustrating really, as apart from that there were some pretty good clues that felt fairly taxing.

    FOI — 5dn “Cam”
    LOI — 11dn “Improbity”
    COD — 17ac “Aqua”

    Thanks as usual!

  15. I started with ASHCANS and AVOID. The NE was a closed book to me until I wrote out the anagrist for 6d and finally got JUXTAPOSITION. MAXIM, WOMB and LOCKJAW then tumbled straight into place. I also had to write out our composer’s anagrist, but fortunately I knew him as a cellist so was able to infer that he was also a composer. I was taken over my target with LOI, IMPROBITY taking a while. Didn’t spot the nina, so nothing new there:-) 11:52. Thanks Juno and Roly.
  16. Amazing. 32 minutes. Thanks to Roly for the denouement and to Juno for sheeer setting craft.
  17. 15 minutes of hard work on this. SHOSTAKOVICH somehow muscled his way into a biffed answer. He took some unravelling but did fit with LAZILY which had been lazily entered at 15d. Lesson to self: take time to follow the parsing..
    LOI was ASTRONOMICAL. COD to AUTOPSY – brilliant I thought.
    And I now realise how brilliant the whole thing is, having missed the missing Es.
    Well done Juno.
    David

    Edited at 2022-03-24 10:40 am (UTC)

  18. ….no E by gum ! I obviously didn’t spot the theme, and only came upon it afterwards thanks to Roly’s link. Much as I generally view such antics with disdain, on this occasion I doff my cap to Juno — a work of near genius, and some cracking surfaces despite the self-imposed restraint.

    I’d almost certainly have crept inside my target if I hadn’t entered ‘Rostrapovich’ and thus held up my LOI. Obviously not for the SCC, but a proper challenge which I enjoyed.

    FOI HANDS UP
    LOI DOZILY
    COD AUTOPSY (I expected a Prime Minister)
    TIME 5:15

  19. A virtuoso performance by Juno – truly amazing. Setting a 13-letter anagram including the letters x and j while not destroying the surface is quite a feat and as for the nina (which of course I didn’t see) – wow! Sadly I was unable to match his level of expertise, although I did finish with everything parsed in 19 minutes. I started slowly with very few of the acrosses but things picked up when I tackled the downs and in the end I was quite pleased with my time for what was a tough test.

    FOI – 16ac ROSTROPOVICH (no problem with this as I knew he was both a cellist and more latterly a conductor)
    LOI – 1ac AVOID (can’t imagine why this held me up, but it did)
    COD – 21ac AUTOPSY (although 20ac IRIDIUM runs it a close second for the sheer brilliance of the reverse hidden)

    Thanks and hats off to Juno and also to Roly for the blog and the revelation about the nina.

  20. Very clever crossword. But I’m not clear about 20 across. What’s the significance of “alloy”?
    1. From Google: platinum–iridium, alloy of platinum containing from 1 to 30 percent iridium, used for jewellery and surgical pins. A readily worked alloy, platinum–iridium is much harder, stiffer, and more resistant to chemicals than pure platinum, which is relatively soft.
  21. Did this in just over five minutes, no problems, but I can’t see where the Nina is which tells me about the missing letter. Please help.
    1. It’s arguably not actually a Nina although the term seems to be used widely now to include themed puzzles. This one doesn’t have a theme either, but the presence of letters such as X Q and Z might might lead the solver to suspect a pangram and on checking for that it’s found there’s no E – a very unusual occurrence which would be unlikely to happen by chance. Further investigation reveals there’s no E in the clues either.

      Edited at 2022-03-24 04:10 pm (UTC)

  22. Found this hard and gave up with AQUA/QUILL defeating me. Played around with QUA(D) but just did not think of QUILL either. Oh dear.
  23. Found this very tricky and needed aids to finish. Failed to think of west Indies for WI, amongst other problems. A challenging puzzle.
  24. I warmed up for Juno’s offering by first storming through yesterday’s Tracy in just 27 minutes (I realise that’s well into SCC territory, but anything under half an hour is ‘storming’ for me). Then, moving seamlessly on, I crossed today’s line in 30 minutes precisely. I noticed the pangram as I went along, but not the missing E. Well done, Juno!

    My first few in were HANDS UP, SPOOFS and APLOMB. The Russian composer delayed me, as I could only think of Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich for a while, but I did bring him to mind before I had any checkers. My LOI was IMPROBITY – a word I don’t think I have ever used. Actually, whilst my passive vocabulary is not too bad, I know my active vocabulary is rather limited.

    Mrs Random has just completed today’s QC in 25 minutes – without any fuss or gnashing of teeth. She somehow knows how to pace her efforts just right to enjoy the process whilst keeping ahead of me.

    Many thanks to Juno and rolytoly.

    Edited at 2022-03-24 04:05 pm (UTC)

  25. .. otherwise I might have failed to get QUILL. But the setter’s brilliance was even smarter as it was achieved with no awkward surfaces or obscure words, to which even setters of mere pangrams often resort! Thanks Juno for a clvr, asyish, ntrtaining puzzl, and Roly for pointing to what I missd. I, too, took too long on AVOID. FOI ASHCAN, LOI AQUA, COD AUTOPSY.
    1. Keep going and soon there will be a week when you solve all five, if it hasn’t happened already and you will enjoy a sense of accomplishment! 🙂
    2. I had 4 failures last week, 3 this week.

      It’s all the small gains that make a difference.

      No longer am I resorting to aids or checking answers. No 2+hr struggles this week. A couple of 30-min DNFs but otherwise completed. BIFFING in answers. Figuring out clues I know would have blocked me a couple of months ago and going on to complete.

  27. Well there was me thinking it was a pangram. Just assumed there was an E without even checking. Another slow solve requiring some luck assembling the Russian letters as NHO him. LOI LAPDOG took a lot of thinking too.

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