A slightly trickier than usual Jumbo for the Easter Monday holiday with some great clues. It took me about 54 1/2 minutes with plenty to admire along the way. Thank-you setter.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Venus, say, and Serena finally serving — net shaking (7,4) |
| EVENING STAR – ({Seren}a serving net)* [shaking]. Great surface. Very clever. | |
| 7 | Where to park behind vile car? Wish to get repositioned (6,5) |
| SWIVEL CHAIR – (vile car wish)* [to get repositioned]. Fortunately I’d seen that sneaky “where to park behind” definition before. | |
| 13 | Show dubious dealing with key transport system (3-7,7) |
| AIR-TRAFFIC CONTROL – AIR (show) TRAFFIC (dubious dealing) CONTROL (Ctrl key). | |
| 14 | A few dropping ecstasy round party in wicked place (5) |
| SODOM – SOM{e} without the E [dropping ecstasy] around DO (party). Another great surface. | |
| 15 | Bound to welcome officer? Not true (6) |
| TILTED – LT (lieutenant) in TIED (bound). I was puzzled until I realised the meaning of “true” that is required here. | |
| 16 | Lead covers aren’t old, by container of many colours (8) |
| PAINTBOX – AIN’T (aren’t) in PB (chemical symbol of lead), O (old) X (by; times). I liked the wordplay for this one… the surface less so. | |
| 17 | Reason for appeal in case of governmental affair (7) |
| GLAMOUR – Outside letters, [case], of G{overnmenta}L, AMOUR (affair). A bit of a sneaky definition, but fair enough as it leads to a good surface. | |
| 19 | Dash through Croatia’s capital with a hire car (9) |
| CABRIOLET – BRIO (dash) in C{roatia} [‘s capital] A LET (hire). You need to “lift and separate” hire car to get the definition. Nice one. | |
| 21 | Using several rings, pugilist’s back in A&E after scrap (8) |
| ANNULATE – ANNUL (scrap) and last letter of pugilisT in A an E. | |
| 23 | Wager Italian linesman’s ruled out header from defender (4) |
| ANTE – {d}ANTE. Our linesman is the Italian poet. Remove the first letter of Defender. A great deceptive surface. | |
| 25 | Husband ousts papa from tent for a laugh (2-3) |
| TE-HEE – Replace the P (papa in the phonetic alphabet) in TEPEE (tent) with H (husband) -> TE-HEE. | |
| 27 | A professor’s opening essay showing most brainpower (6) |
| APTEST – A, first letter of Professor, TEST (essay). | |
| 28 | Dessert wine from France followed by complaint causing irritation (10) |
| BLANCMANGE – Another “lift and separate” to get the definition (no the answer isn’t my first biffing thought SAUTERNE, which doesn’t even have the right number of letters). BLANC (white wine in French) MANGE (complaint causing irritation). | |
| 30 | Pavlova maybe appeals after turnover eaten by European (8) |
| DANSEUSE – SUES (appeals) [after turnover] -> SEUS, in DANE (European). A reference to the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova. No, not the pudding. | |
| 31 | Fans of regulated work in area Stalinism blighted pocketing grand (14) |
| MANAGERIALISTS – G (grand) in (area Stalinism)* [blighted]. A new word for me. | |
| 34 | Character direct about performer’s source of energy (7,7) |
| NUCLEAR REACTOR – NU (Greek letter; character) CLEAR (direct) RE (about) ACTOR (performer). | |
| 35 | Particular genre of fiction entertaining games clubs (8) |
| SPECIFIC –PE (games) in SCI-FI (genre of fiction), C (clubs). | |
| 38 | Dressed down, grew fond of jackets of taffeta and silk (4,2,4) |
| TOOK TO TASK – TOOK TO (grew fond of) and outside letters [jackets] of T{affet}A and S{il}K. Neat. | |
| 40 | Picked up inferior decanter? (6) |
| POURER – Sounds like [picked up] POORER (inferior). The homophone doesn’t work for me as I’m not posh/southern enough – I pronounce POORER with the same vowel sound as POOL, TOOL, FOOL etc. rather than PORE. | |
| 41 | One’s abandoning this curious, repetitive noise (5) |
| THRUM – TH{is} without the I’S (one’s), RUM (odd). | |
| 43 | Steers van in Oldham, not quite succeeding reversing (4) |
| OXEN – Ignore the surface! First letter [van] of Oldham, NEX{t} (succeeding) [not quite], [reversing] XEN. Good surface though. | |
| 44 | German agreed — a single friend, giving a twirl, is hot stuff (8) |
| JALAPENO – JA (yes; agreed in German), ONE (a single) PAL (friend) reversed [given a twirl] -> LAPENO. | |
| 45 | Outdated garment came with short pants (9) |
| STOMACHER – (came short)* [pants]. Another new word for me, but the definition does hint to it being archaic. | |
| 48 | Delivery information son dropped from blue garment (7) |
| ADDRESS – {s}AD (blue) without the S (son), DRESS (garment). | |
| 49 | Kind concession put in writing for feeble types (8) |
| MILKSOPS – ILK (kind) SOP (confession), in MS (manuscript; writing). | |
| 50 | Republican moans about the price of freedom? (6) |
| RANSOM – R (republican), (moans)* [about]. | |
| 53 | Press agency’s last words not to be taken at face value (5) |
| IRONY – IRON (press) and last letter of agencY. | |
| 54 | Group needing protection furious with cash received in tips (10,7) |
| ENDANGERED SPECIES – ANGERED (furious) SPECIE (cash) in ENDS (tips). Another entertaining surface. | |
| 55 | Painter, touring southern capital, means to avoid suckers (8,3) |
| MOSQUITO NET – S (southern) QUITO (capital) in MONET (painter). | |
| 56 | Part of meal with ginger and a vegetable (5,6) |
| SWEET PEPPER – SWEET (part of meal) PEPPER (ginger). Pepper = ginger, is perhaps a little tenuous, but close enough, I think. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Joyful drinking wine cold, given some flexibility? (11) |
| ELASTICATED – ASTI (wine) C (cold) in ELATED (joyful). | |
| 2 | Individual going north holds front of road sign up (5) |
| ENROL – First letter of Road, in LONE (individual) [going north] -> ENOL. | |
| 3 | Account about right Biblical figure from Nazareth? (7) |
| ISRAELI – ISA (individual savings account) about R (right), ELI (biblical figure). | |
| 4 | Smoke rising over fine dwelling (4) |
| GAFF – FAG (smoke) [rising] -> GAF, [over] F (fine). | |
| 5 | Cliched lines I break up, like Lord of the Rings, say (10) |
| TRIPARTITE – PART (lines in a play) I, in TRITE (cliched). | |
| 6 | Amid revival, working to support leader of Cub Scouts’ activity (14) |
| RECONNAISSANCE – [Leader of] Cub, ON (working), in RENAISSANCE (revival). Another “lift and separate” is required here. | |
| 7 | Spooner’s group drank in bar (8) |
| SANDBANK – BAND (group) SANK (drank) Spoonerised -> SANDBANK. | |
| 8 | Confession of fighter, crossing river and ground in Scotland (5) |
| IBROX – R (river) in I BOX (confession of fighter). Ho ho. The football ground of Glasgow Rangers. | |
| 9 | Brief line penned in dark time during dusk, poetically (9) |
| ENLIGHTEN – L (line) in NIGHT (dark time), all in E’EN (dusk, poetically). Yet another lift and separate. | |
| 10 | Kind of clothes, roughly typical after uniform’s discarded (6) |
| CASUAL – CA (circa; roughly), {u}SUAL (typical) without the U (Uniform in the phonetic alphabet). | |
| 11 | Stanford had no reforms to adopt without delay etc (3,2,2,3,2,5) |
| AND SO ON AND SO FORTH – SOON (without delay) in (Stanford had no)* [reforms]. | |
| 12 | Cruel and extremely rude description of Lewis? (11) |
| REMORSELESS – Outside letters, [extremely] of R{ud}E, MORSELESS (description of Lewis). A reference to Lewis as the sequel to the series Inspector Morse. | |
| 18 | Charlie, having lost weight, bags second cosmetic (8) |
| CLEANSER – S (second) in C (Charlie in the phonetic alphabet) LEANER (having lost weight). | |
| 20 | In camera shot odd child seen among philistines (6,6,5) |
| BEHIND CLOSED DOORS – [shot] (odd child seen)* in BOORS (philistines). | |
| 22 | Lay around in valley folk uncovered climbing (6) |
| LOLLED – DELL (valley) {f}OL{k} [uncovered], all climbing -> LOLLED. | |
| 24 | Unqualified legislator with ego allowed to go outside (8) |
| IMPLICIT – MP (legislator) in I (ego) LICIT (allowed). Hmm. I remain unconvinced by the surface. | |
| 26 | Birthday happening to be held in the Spanish hotel (8) |
| ELEVENTH – EVENT (happening) in EL (the in Spanish) H (hotel in the phonetic alphabet). | |
| 29 | Mess around foolishly with loos in noxious state (14) |
| MALODOROUSNESS – (mess around loos)* [foolishly]. | |
| 32 | Without delegation from east, leaving pensioner out (2,6) |
| IN PERSON – (p{e}nsioner)* [out] without the E [east, leaving] | |
| 33 | Entertaining companion, say, upset to some extent over answer (6) |
| GEISHA – EG (for example; say) [upset] -> GE, ISH (to some extent) A (answer). | |
| 34 | Support for country wild animals must keep moving into (11) |
| NATIONALISM – (into)* [moving] in [wild] (animals)*. | |
| 36 | I’m surprised, banking millions with guarantee one achieves moderate results (11) |
| COMPROMISER – M (millions) PROMISE (guarantee), in COR (I’m surprised). | |
| 37 | Beam from queen, for example, after ball (10) |
| CROSSPIECE – CROSS (ball from the wing into the penalty box in football) PIECE (queen, for example). | |
| 39 | Passing time by Italian city briefly, entering rave (9) |
| TRANSIENT – T (time), SIEN{a} (Italian city) [briefly] in RANT (rave). Yet another lift and separate. | |
| 42 | Considerably silly investing a thousand in firm (4-4) |
| WELL-KNIT – K (a thousand) in WELL (considerably) NIT (silly, the noun). | |
| 46 | Plug terrific clothes yours truly dons here? (7) |
| ACADEME – AD (plug) in ACE (terrific), ME (yours truly). | |
| 47 | The characters in empty chateau said goodbye (3,3) |
| SEE YOU – The letters of C{hatea}U [empty] sound like SEE YOU. Another clever one. | |
| 49 | Flipping stupid boy losing head in sometimes silly position (3-2) |
| MID-ON – DIM (stupid) [flipping] -> MID, {s}ON (boy) without the first letter. A possible cricket fielding position – silly mid-on. | |
| 51 | Glance over page in work inadequately (5) |
| SKIMP – SKIM (glance over) P (page). | |
| 52 | That thing seen around Saturn’s outline doesn’t exist (4) |
| ISN’T – IT (that thing) outside outside letters of S{atur}N. | |
DNK MANAGERIALIST, Lewis, IBROX, CROSS. Is an ANTE a bet?
ANTE as a bet comes up a lot, and I think I learnt it from doing crosswords many decades ago.
Of the two Bank Holiday weekend Jumbos, this was much easier than Saturday’s, but I still don’t know what brainpower has to do with the definition at 27ac.
I took ‘apt’ as in an apt student; ODE has ‘quick to learn’.
An ANTE is a stake put up in poker, which to me is not quite the same thing as a bet. But close enough I guess.
My question was rhetorical; I wouldn’t have said an ante was a bet, it’s what you pay to get in the game you then bet in.
Exactly. When it appears here it’s usually defined as ‘stake’ or similar, I think.
The sites on poker rules I have just looked at describe ‘ante’ as ‘a forced or required bet’.
In any case, the definition in the clue is ‘wager’ rather than ‘bet’, not that I think it makes a ha’p’orth of a difference as it’s all perfectly valid in my book.
Thanks. Not an expression or meaning I was aware of, only ‘apt’ as ‘fitting, suitable, appropriate ‘ etc.
I found this pretty straightforward but I enjoyed it a lot.
I have been caught out a few times misspelling DANSEUSE with a C so I took care to be sure this time.
I learned the other day that the SWIVEL CHAIR was invented by Benjamin Franklin, but the internet thinks it was Thomas Jefferson. Franklin is credited with inventing the rocking chair. I’m sure all of this is apocryphal anyway.
I’m the opposite of Keriothe! Didn’t enjoy this, just a slog through some wobbly clues to get too many archaic words.
Just one smile for the empty ChateaU.
Took some unraveling but all correct in the end WELL-KNIT my LOI. Much thanks to the setter for a fair test and the blogger for his efforts.