Times Cryptic Jumbo 1436 – I shot a man in Reno

I thought this was a fairly gentle lockdown offering, taking about 40 minutes including parsing everything. First in was BRIDGE at 1d (I sometimes have a cheeky look at 1d if I don’t get 1a straight away) and last was DOOMSDAY.

If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation..

Clues are in blue with the definition undelined. Anagram indicators are in bold italics.

Notation:

DD: Double definition

CD: Cryptic definition

DDCDH: DD/CD hybrid where a straight definition is combined with a cryptic hint.

&Lit: “all in one” where the entire clue is both definition and wordplay.

(fodder)* denotes an anagram of the letters in the brackets.

Rounded brackets are also used to add further clarity

Squiggly brackets {} indicate parts of a word not used

Deletions are ~~struck out~~

Square brackets [] expand an abbreviation or shortening like N[orth]

Across
1	Hit American football player around chest (11)
	BLOCKBUSTER – BLOCKER around BUST
7	Not sorting *out* dressing Penny in long suit (6,5)
	STRONG POINT – (not sorting)* around P[enny]
13	Vow to maintain eastern sense of beliefs (9)
	IDEOLOGIC – I DO, then E[astern] in LOGIC
14	One with a large bill, £1000, for making pants (7)
	PUFFING – PUFFIN, (a) G[rand].
15	The end for Spaniard, delicate and attractive (5)
	ELFIN – EL FIN. Winona Ryder for example.
16	Statuette‘s weight that’s surprising (6)
	GRAMMY – GRAM, MY
17	Write some graffiti about military leadership (8)
	PENTAGON – PEN, TAG, ON. If you’re down wiv da kids you’ll know that a tag is a graffiti “artist’s” signature or identifying symbol, innit.
18	Learner driver’s equipment to hold bucket down (7)
	TRAINEE – TEE around RAIN. Whatever the opposite of lift & separate is, you have to do that with bucket and down.
20	Frances’s well-mannered youth *schooled* till older, fortunately (6,4,10)
	LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY – (till older, fortunately)*
23	Stray female cat initially missing after days (7)
	DIGRESS – tIGRESS after D[ays]
24	Dismissed error when defending support for logs (7)
	FIREDOG – FIRED, O[wn] G[oal]. “Error when defending” is neat. This word appeared in the daily puzzle very recently.
26	Front of bus gets cold: regularly colder transport (7)
	BICYCLE -B{us}, ICY, C{o}L{d}E{r}
28	It may make cameo, just not fifty times (4)
	ONYX – ONLY without L for fifty, X (times as in multiplied by). A cameo is a gem with a figure carved in relief.
29	Superior small hotel hosting aristocrat again (8)
	SNOBBISH – S[mall] H[otel] around NOB, BIS
32	Being old, one’s figure has cellulite at the edges (9)
	EXISTENCE – EX, I, S, TEN, C{ellulit}E
35	Miserable son, *changeable* in nature (9)
	SATURNINE – S[on], (in nature)*. One of those words you know but if challenged to define it precisely you might struggle.
36	After turnover, flans providing unknown layer (8)
	STRATIFY – TARTS reversed, IF, Y
37	Where you might find better or flipping remarkable person (4)
	RENO – ONER reversed. Bear trap alert! Had I not been on blogging duty I might have biffed HERO on the basis of OR flipping and remarkable person as a probable definition and just shrugged at the rest of it.
39	Charity case writing in handbook losing account (7)
	ALMSMAN – M{anu}S{cript} in ALMANac
41	Top Nazi entertaining East German entertainer (7)
	HOSTESS – HESS around OST
44	Gold jumper? Extremely snazzy for the PM (7)
	AUTOPSY – AU, TOP, S{nazz}Y, PM as in Post Mortem
45	Token resistance, slowly changing, is subversive (20)
	COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY – COUNTER, R[esistance], EVOLUTIONARY
49	Colouring perhaps in French colour (1-6)
	E-NUMBER – EN, UMBER. The setter obviously decided that he’d thrown enough bones to our transatlantic cousins with blocker, Grammy, Pentagon and Reno and has delivered a curve ball with the EU system for classifying food additives.
50	Pardoned sinner finally released (8)
	REMITTED – {sinne}R, EMITTED
51	Through which we look more banal, we hear (6)
	CORNEA – sounds like CORNIER (to me at least)
53	Some foul up industrial plant (5)
	LUPIN – hidden. Hand over all the lupins you’ve got.
54	Bit of rock clip released at first (7)
	OUTCROP – CROP after OUT
55	Land‘s politician accepting slip with modern tech (9)
	TERRITORY – TORY around ERR, I.T.
56	When clasped by ex-PM, embrace in eatery (6,5)
	GREASY SPOON – AS in (Charles) GREY, SPOON. I assume this is exclusively British. The sort of café you’d avoid if out shopping with the missus but on a Sunday morning with a hangover you’re banging on the door at opening time to be let in for a full English.
57	*Trouble* is doubled with current examiner (11)
	SCRUTINISER – (is is current)*

Down
1	Partner in match accepting golf game (6)
	BRIDGE – BRIDE around G[olf]
2	Android perhaps doing medical work with void safety check (9,6)
	OPERATING SYSTEM – OPERATING, S{afet}Y, CHECK
3	Silk *worms* covering *awfully* remote distance (10)
	KILOMETRES – (silk)* around (remote). You don’t often come across a double anagram and “solk worms” is rather neat. As all fans of early Human League* know, the word for silk worm breeding is sericulture.
4	When topless, sudden increase in desire (4)
	URGE – sURGE
5	Marked as finished and rated (6,3)
	TICKED OFF – DD
6	Place overgrown by grass is known (7)
	REPUTED – PUT in REED
7	Protection for one *quaking* as fraud is around (9)
	SAFEGUARD – E.G. (for one) surrounded by (as fraud)*
8	What people do when in power shower, audibly (5)
	REIGN – sounds like RAIN
9	Distinguished chap’s outspoken staff in fun venue (5-4)
	NIGHT-CLUB – homophone for KINGHT, CLUB
10	*Design* a carpet fibre to manufacture in advance (12)
	PREFABRICATE – (a carpet fibre)*
11	Early period imagined? (7)
	INFANCY – IN FANCY
12	Someone with a burning desire may use this app (6)
	TINDER – CD
19	Go down in the pit briefly by India’s capital (8)
	HELSINKI – SINK in HEL{l}, I[ndia]
21	Forget information about the Parisian court (7)
	NEGLECT – GEN reversed, LE, C[our]T
22	Say what’s raised cash to oust English power (8)
	HEGEMONY – E.G. EH? reversed, then MONeY. Leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others.
23	Spirits lifted by Democrat in utter catastrophe (8)
	DOOMSDAY – MOOD reversed, D[emocrat] in SAY
25	Borders crossing close to notable French city (5)
	REIMS – RIMS around {notabl}E. Where they make champers.
27	At the same time as computer, no one *works* (15)
	CONTEMPORANEOUS – (as computer no one). Hmmm. Is this quite right? I don’t think it’s the right part of speech. Contemporaneously* means at the same time, contemporaneous means done at the same time or at the same time as, so as would have to be doing double duty. Yea or nay?
30	Rabbit on table — the rabbit cages (7)
	BLETHER – hidden
31	Mob‘s stash picked up (5)
	HORDE – sounds like hoard
33	Beneath one home, like hiding brother (5,3)
	INFRA DIG – IN, DIG around FR[iar]
34	Fee for good French detective, an investment drawn on? (7,5)
	PREMIUM BONDS – PREMIUM, BON, D[etective] S[ergeant]
38	Such a voice is resonant? It’s rolling (10)
	STENTORIAN – (is resonant)*
40	Infamous rejection of Olympic city by American? (9)
	NOTORIOUS – “NO TO RIO”, U.S.
42	Smoother South Side club (5,4)
	STEAM IRON – S[outh], TEAM, IRON
43	Angry about card player with another hat (9)
	SOUWESTER – SOUR around WEST, E[ast] for one of those waterproof yellow jobbies seamen wear.
45	Behind calves, oddly, trousers crease (7)
	CRUMPLE – RUMP in (trousered by) C{a}L{v}E{s}
46	Month to get work for army type, in the main? (7)
	OCTOPUS – OCT[ober], OPUS. Nice definition.
47	Issue when travelling in Spooner’s rented car (3,3)
	JET LAG – Spoonerism of LET JAG
48	A cutting sort, one speaking about wife (6)
	SAWYER – SAYER around W[ife]
50	Share not quite in proportion (5)
	RATIO – RATIO{n}
52	Time to go off for a jog (4)
	TROT – T[ime], ROT

4 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1436 – I shot a man in Reno”

kevingregg says:

9 May 2020 at 1:04 AM

Sure enough, I had no idea what E-NUMBER meant, but it didn’t really matter. Also DNK ‘tag’, OCTOPUS GREASY SPOON is definitely a US term as well. Wasted some time by putting in SCORED OFF at 5d –in my dialect ‘tick off’ is either ‘enumerate’ or ‘irritate’, not ‘berate’–and by unthinkingly using the US spelling of KILOMETRES. ‘Miserable’ didn’t seem like the best definition for SATURNINE, which means ‘gloomy’. Liked PUFFING, ONYX, and EXISTENCE.
1. johninterred says:
  
  9 May 2020 at 6:35 AM
  
  A similar time to our blogger’s at just under 40 minutes. BICYCLE my first one in. About time I got mine out the garage instead of just walking everywhere. LOI DOOMSDAY… well it just had to be last, didn’t it? I had tried to make DISASTER the answer earlier but ONYX put paid to that idea. I liked E-NUMBER and OCTOPUS best.
jackkt says:

9 May 2020 at 6:55 AM

I’ve not been doing the Jumbo regularly for very long, but this was definitely the easiest I have ever tackled. It’s the first I have completed in one sitting and I spent less time on it that many a 15 x 15.

Edited at 2020-05-09 06:55 am (UTC)
keriothe says:

9 May 2020 at 9:39 AM

41:28, which for me counts as quite tricky.
I think 27dn is OK: saying that two events are ‘at the same time’ can mean the same thing as ‘happening at the same time’.

Comments are closed.