An interesting Jumbo with some inventive wordplay in places. Quite a lot of archaic language, I thought.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Tussore worked with gold for the bottom drawer (9) |
| TROUSSEAU | |
| Anagram [worked] of TUSSORE OR (gold). I’m glad it wasn’t necessary to know that ‘tussore’ is a type of silk. | |
| 6 | Unlit playing area has defender crossing line (5-5) |
| PITCH-BLACK | |
| PITCH (playing area), BACK (defender) containing [crossing] L (line) | |
| 12 | Hear wrongly about account — key problem for the listener? (7) |
| EARACHE | |
| Anagram [wrongly] of HEAR containing [about] AC (account), then E (key) | |
| 13 | Officer, one sometimes preceding general (9) |
| INSPECTOR | |
| I think the second part of the clue is a hint referring to the position or title of ‘Inspector General’ which exists in various organisations. | |
| 14 | Glasses with bits of dust detected (5) |
| SPECS | |
| Aura wordplay [detected]: “specks” [bits of dust]. Unusually for this type of clue the indicator doesn’t relate specifically to sound. | |
| 16 | Dresses too little for what they cover (12) |
| UNDERCLOTHES | |
| The definition refers back to ‘dresses’. It’s preceded by a gently cryptic hint. | |
| 17 | Thought: the settling of disputes is about time (10) |
| MEDITATION | |
| MEDIATION (the settling of disputes) containing [about] T (time) | |
| 19 | A university citation then redrafted a task for a notary (14) |
| AUTHENTICATION | |
| A, U (university), anagram [redrafted] of CITATION THEN | |
| 22 | Attila perhaps reportedly fears veteran divisions (8) |
| HUNDREDS | |
| HUN (Attila perhaps), then aural wordplay [reportedly]: DREDS / “dreads” (fears). A Hundred was a division of an English county and is now archaic (hence ‘veteran’ in today’s clue) but you see it on historical maps and it’s still used in the parliamentary expression ‘The Chiltern Hundreds’, an office MPs can apply for if they wish to resign their seat. This all came up in discussion of a QC by Joker on 24 July this year. | |
| 24 | Appalling court order (6) |
| DIRECT | |
| DIRE (appalling), CT (court) | |
| 25 | Getting into stocks for one in official garment (10) |
| INVESTMENT | |
| IN, VESTMENT (official garment – worn by the clergy for example). ‘For one’ indicates the DBE as there are many forms of investment other than stocks. | |
| 26 | Nothing once purchased loses billions (5) |
| OUGHT | |
| (b)OUGHT (purchased) [loses billions]. ‘Once’ indicates another archaism but ‘ought’ is still in common usage in certain dialects e.g. up north. | |
| 29 | Love? Halo? These in essence may appear so (4) |
| OVAL | |
| {l}OV{e} + {h}AL{o} [in essence] | |
| 30 | What may track down renegade changing sides in fight? (8) |
| DETECTOR | |
| DEfECTOR (renegade) becomes DETECTOR when f (one side in fight) changes to T (the other side in fight) | |
| 32 | To us, nurse is working hard (9) |
| STRENUOUS | |
| Anagram [working] of TO US NURSE | |
| 34 | No longer watch out after second run for free program (9) |
| SHAREWARE | |
| S (second), HARE (run), WARE (watch out , no longer – archaic) | |
| 35 | Gold found in dry French river, a slow runner (8) |
| TORTOISE | |
| OR (gold) contained by [found in] TT (dry – teetotal), OISE (French river). An amusing if coincidental juxtaposition here with reference to an Aesop fable, having had ‘hare’ in the previous answer. | |
| 36 | Laze about? This can get one fired (4) |
| ZEAL | |
| Anagram [about] of LAZE. More likely ‘fired up’ I think only that wouldn’t work in the surface reading . | |
| 39 | Turner starts on representation of rocky hill (5) |
| ROTOR | |
| R{epresentation} + O{f} [starts on …], TOR (rocky hill] | |
| 40 | Commit to fire one new film judge (10) |
| INCINERATE | |
| I (one), N (new), CINE (film), RATE (judge) | |
| 42 | Collection including extinct group (6) |
| SEXTET | |
| SET (collection) containing [including] EXT (extinct) | |
| 44 | Act decently in drama festival (4,4) |
| PLAY FAIR | |
| PLAY (drama), FAIR (festival) | |
| 46 | Jumbo next to jumbo, very close together (6-2-6) |
| BUMPER-TO-BUMPER | |
| BUMPER (jumbo -anything unusually large), TO (next to), BUMPER (jumbo). This expression is used to describe heavy traffic in long, slow-moving queues. | |
| 48 | What’s useful for getting into cold sheets? (10) |
| ICEBREAKER | |
| Cryptic definition | |
| 49 | Part of pop song put round with ‘The Boxer’, perhaps? (12) |
| MIDDLEWEIGHT | |
| MIDDLE EIGHT (part of pop song) containing [put round] W (with). Collins: middle eight – the third contrasting eight-bar section of a 32-bar pop song. | |
| 53 | Italian tenor, large one closing live performance (5) |
| GIGLI | |
| GIG (live performance), L (lareg), I (one).Read more about him here if you wish. | |
| 54 | Awkward lines with elegy — Dante to remove outer parts (9) |
| INELEGANT | |
| {l}INE{s} + {e}LEG{y} +{d}ANT{e} [remove outer parts] | |
| 55 | Men led by characteristic backstabber (7) |
| TRAITOR | |
| TRAIT (characteristic), OR (men) | |
| 56 | Programme editor dropping duke in favour of knight’s forebear (10) |
| PROGENITOR | |
| PROG (programme), then EdITOR becomes ENITOR (when dropping ‘d’ (duke) in favour of N (knight) | |
| 57 | Trade chip circuits at a very low price (4-5) |
| DIRT-CHEAP | |
| Anagram [circuits] of TRADE CHIP | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Exhausted Member of the Dail broken by Ireland (5) |
| TIRED | |
| TD (Member of the Dail) containing [broken by] IRE (Ireland). Teachta Dála, a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament. | |
| 2 | Company set up a lot of ongoing church event (10) |
| OCCURRENCE | |
| CO (company) reversed [set up], CURREN{t} (ongoing) [a lot of…], CE (church) | |
| 3 | Measure introduced by country, spreading from the centre (8) |
| STELLATE | |
| ELL (measure) contained [introduced] by STATE (country). Another archaism, an ell was a measure of length, often used for cloth. | |
| 4 | Order used in some dictionaries (5) |
| EDICT | |
| Hidden [used] in {som}E DICT{ionaries} | |
| 5 | Uncover second butterfly in centre of sand hills (9) |
| UNSHEATHE | |
| S (second) + HEATH (butterfly) contained by [in] {d}UNE{s} (sand hills) [centre of…]. NHO the butterfly. | |
| 6 | Be very nosy about closure of stone quarry (4) |
| PREY | |
| PRY (be very nosy) containing [about] {ston}E [closure of…] | |
| 7 | Beginning to turn fish catcher’s reel (6) |
| TOTTER | |
| T{urn} [beginning], OTTER (fish catcher) | |
| 8 | One often on the job in bed? (14) |
| HORTICULTURIST | |
| Cryptic definition | |
| 9 | Having abandoned property plot located round Old Street (4-3-5) |
| LOST-AND-FOUND | |
| LAND (plot) + FOUND (located) containing [round] O (old) + ST (street) | |
| 10 | Crack core voice, withdrawing over and over again (7) |
| CREVICE | |
| C{o}RE + V{o}ICE [withdrawing over, and over again] | |
| 11 | Drive rig with energy (3-2-3-2) |
| GET-UP-AND-GO | |
| GET-UP (rig), AND (with), GO (energy) | |
| 15 | Source of radiation is up — it’s a problem for airways (9) |
| SINUSITIS | |
| SUN (source of radiation) + IS reversed [up], then IT IS (it’s) | |
| 18 | User of rack perhaps right to be fitted in large open-top car (8) |
| TORTURER | |
| RT (right) contained by [to be fitted in] TOURER (large open-top car) | |
| 20 | Name a good insect for shrew (9) |
| TERMAGANT | |
| TERM (name), A, G (good), ANT (insect). ‘Shrew’ like the one that was tamed in the Shakespeare play. | |
| 21 | Meeting one against Liszt, perhaps English (10) |
| CONFERENCE | |
| CON (one against), FERENC (Liszt, perhaps), E (English). The parsing gave me trouble until I looked up Ferenc and found it is a Hungarian name. It was Liszt’s first name away from Hungary he’s more commonly known by the Germanised version, Franz. I never knew that! | |
| 23 | Exercises with a small warning such as might get child puffing? (10) |
| PEASHOOTER | |
| PE (exercises ), A, S (small), HOOTER (warning) | |
| 27 | Parade of geese irregularly chased by returning doggy? (5-4) |
| GOOSE-STEP | |
| GOOSES (geese irregularly), then PET (doggy) reversed [returning]. ‘Irregularly’ because ‘gooses’ is not the grammatically correct plural of ‘goose’ unless referring to a tailor’s smoothing irons. | |
| 28 | Heron with tail and tibia broken gets healing treatment (14) |
| REHABILITATION | |
| Anagram [broken] of HERON TAIL TIBIA | |
| 31 | Metal satellite — one with edges of Uranium (8) |
| TITANIUM | |
| TITAN (satellite of Saturn), I (one), U{raniu}M [edges] | |
| 33 | Changing environment sounded alarm for old Chinese rulers (12) |
| TERRAFORMING | |
| Aural wordplay [sounded]: TERRA / “terror” (alarm), FOR, MING (old Chinese rulers). Another word I didn’t know. | |
| 34 | Young one succeeded with expedition over heather (9) |
| STRIPLING | |
| S (succeeded), TRIP (expedition), LING (heather) | |
| 37 | Letters illuminated with tare and rue interwoven (10) |
| LITERATURE | |
| LIT (illuminated), anagram [interwoven] of TARE RUE. ‘Letters’ can mean Literature in general. | |
| 38 | Repeat cure afresh and get better (10) |
| RECUPERATE | |
| Anagram [afresh] of REPEAT CURE | |
| 41 | Rate of SA currency holding record edge (9) |
| REPRIMAND | |
| RAND (SA currency) containing [holding] EP (record) + RIM (edge) | |
| 43 | Private medics to get new deal (8) |
| DOMESTIC | |
| Anagram [new deal] of MEDICS TO | |
| 45 | Collector of rubbish street cleaner at first missed. Peel, perhaps (7) |
| AVENGER | |
| {sc}AVENGER (collector of rubbish) [s{treet} c{leaner} at first missed]. Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg, was the second of John Steed’s female companions in The Avengers TV adventure series. | |
| 47 | Rue not seeing later king about name for the future George IV (6) |
| REGENT | |
| REG{r}ET (rue) [not seeing later king – the second r) containing [about] N (name). The future king held this title from 1811 to 1820 due to his father, King George III’s, deteriorating mental health. | |
| 50 | Prevent wild animals eating them, destroying the border (5) |
| DETER | |
| DEER (wild animals) containing [eating] T{hem} [destroying the border – hem] | |
| 51 | Outfit with, initially, geese, emus and sheep (3-2) |
| GET-UP | |
| G{eese} + E{emus} [initially], TUP (male sheep) | |
| 52 | Bring up the tail end (4) |
| REAR | |
| Two meanings | |
DNF
DNK SHAREWARE. NHO TERRAFORMING; I got the FORMING all right, but I would never have thought of ‘terror’ (let alone TERRA) for ‘alarm’. I was surprised to see ‘geese’ in the clue for GOOSE S. (‘geese’, of course, is irregular.) DNK MIDDLE. Leigh Hunt described the Prince Regent as ‘…a corpulent man of fifty …a violator of his word, a libertine over head and ears in disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties, the companion of gamblers and demireps…’ Which got him 2 years in prison.
Just over 36 minutes for me, so about average for a Jumbo. DNK the Member of the Dail (or its abbreviation) nor that Franz Liszt’s first name is properly FERENC. until I looked them up to verify the answers to the clues. I liked the clever wordplay for DETECTOR and CREVICE. TERRAFORMING and DOMESTIC were my last two in. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
No problems with this one, quite gentle, in spite of the funny and archaic words. I also had no idea Liszt was originally Ferenc.
Does horticulturist work equally well for 8 down?
Not only does it work well, it’s the correct answer! Thanks. I’m very surprised that Herbiculture/ist doesn’t even exist. Apparently the correct terms are herbology and herbologist.