Times Jumbo 744 (March 1st)

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Solving time 16:08

The long hidden word at 20A, a lot of very well-crafted clues, and the
mild difficulty level for me, all make me wonder whether this puzzle is
from Brian Greer. If not, I hope the setter is flattered by this
misattribution.

Across
1 HYMN BOOK – good CD with three things that need reading the right way – ‘bound’, ‘upheld’ and ‘those in service’
5 BAR,SAC=”sack”
18 SET AT EASE – an ingenious ‘repeated anagram’, in which each letter of ‘seat’ appears either two or three times.
20 BREACH OF PROMISE – an excellent long hidden word.
22 F(RATE,R.N.,IT)Y – a complex construction indicated by a nice short clue.
28 DISC,RIM,IN,A,TORY – see 22!
49 INVALID – the point here is that the ‘sick person’ and ‘not valid’ meanings have different stressed syllables. I guess I’d call this a “heterophone”.
56 P,(SALTER)Y – ‘one dealing with 7’ refers to 7D, q.v.
 
Down
4 OP,PO,SITE,NUMBERS – see 22 again!
7 SODIUM CHLORIDE – an indirect hidden word – NaCl is hidden in ‘barnacles’.
9 BUSS = smack = kiss,TOP = head. The ‘certain number’ being on the bus you’re waiting for.
12 BERK,EL(E)Y – I’ll own up to ignorance about what Bishop Berkeley was famous for thinking about. The Chambers appendix on authors cited in the dictionary has: “Berkeley, George –
Irish Anglican bishop and philosopher who was the author of the theory of immaterialism.”
20 BE TONY=fashionable (U.S). An unexpectedly early reappearance for a plant that foxed me for a while in the daily cryptic a week or two ago.
24 SMALL-MINDEDNESS – ref. “I am a bear of little brain, and long words bother me”.
26 STARTING PISTOL – another great CD.
27 FLOPPY = (LP,of,P,Y)*
44 REAPPLY – P=piano in player*
46 TOGGERY – egg (as in “he’s a good egg”) rev. in tory.
48 LASER = “lazer”
50 LOAF = “loaf of bread” = head – Cockney rhyming slang, and a bloomer is a loaf too.

One comment on “Times Jumbo 744 (March 1st)”

  1. I agree this was a well-constructed crossword, there have been some really good jumbos lately (I’m just about to have a stab at today’s). I liked 53ac too, nice surface.

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