Rather a tricky but very entertaining Jumbo which took me 1 hour 5 minutes, about 50% more than my average time. I got stuck in the NE and needed aids a couple of times to get the grid completed. Some cracking clues include a topical &lit, some witty wordplay and several clever IKEAN constructions. Thank-you setter!
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Policeman with pills losing pound (5) |
| BOBBY – BOBB{l}Y (with pills; little balls on the surface of a fabric) without the L (pound). | |
| 4 | People obstinately continuing to ostracise a part of the family (7) |
| SISTERS – {per}SISTERS (people obstinately continuing) without the PER (a; as in e.g. per capita). | |
| 8 | Roll around a hollowed-out carpetbag for film’s driver (9) |
| MACGUFFIN – Outside letters, [hollowed out] of C{arpetba}G in MUFFIN (roll). NHO of this, but got there searching for a word with CG in it. | |
| 13 | Rake black fertiliser ingredient back into place (9) |
| LIBERTINE – B (black), NITRE (fertiliser ingredient) reversed -> ERTIN, in LIE (place, the verb). | |
| 14 | Was Badenoch struggling with it? (6,7) |
| SHADOW CABINET – Lovely &lit. (Was Badenoch it)* [struggling]. | |
| 15 | Partner once sat out (7) |
| EXPOSED – EX (partner, once) POSED (sat for a painter). | |
| 16 | Fiesta, possibly jolly place to get meat (7) |
| CARVERY – CAR (Fiesta, possibly) VERY (jolly; as in jolly well). | |
| 17 | I wish LA translated language (7) |
| SWAHILI -(I wish LA)* [translated]. | |
| 18 | We would ring verse in musical with king and queen in state celebration of union (7,11) |
| WEDDING ANNIVERSARY – WE’D (we would) DING (ring), V (verse) in ANNIE (musical), R (rex, king) and R (regina,queen) in SAY (state). Great 7 part charade! | |
| 21 | Stop swallow returning (4) |
| PLUG – GULP (swallow) [returning]. | |
| 23 | Catholic values in tangle about head of Rome (9) |
| UNIVERSAL – First letter of R{ome] in (values in)* [tangle]. | |
| 25 | Tolkien character getting blame for Sting (6) |
| ENTRAP – ENT (Tolkien character) RAP (blame). | |
| 26 | According to reports, hitcher will see red (6) |
| BRIDLE – Sounds like BRIDE’LL (one getting hitched will). | |
| 28 | Underworld court entertaining short sentence that is thrown out (12) |
| DISQUALIFIED -This one took m a while to see… DIS (underworld) and LIF{e} (prison sentence) [short] in QUAD (court). | |
| 30 | Newspaper features ER in TV paper, breaking current updates (10) |
| INTERVIEWS -Another tricky bit of construction… ER [in] TV, I (newspaper) all in I (current) NEWS (updates). | |
| 33 | House plant — Iris — adapts with treatment (10) |
| ASPIDISTRA – (Iris adapts)* [with treatment]. | |
| 34 | One of twelve sons isn’t dull with fashion (5,7) |
| SAINT MATTHEW –S (sons) AIN’T (isn’t) MATT (dull) HEW (fashion). | |
| 37 | Ancient guide eager to drop temperature (1,5) |
| I CHING – I{t}CHING (eager) without the T (temperature). | |
| 39 | Reindeer — let me think (6) |
| DASHER – DASH (-) ER (let me think). Clever. | |
| 40 | “.” and “,” read out for online retailer (9) |
| DOTCOMMER – DOT (.) and COMMER sounds like COMMA (,). | |
| 42 | Pet peeve finally removed from poem, with famous one recalled (4) |
| FIDO – OD{e} (poem) losing the last letter of peevE, IF (famous poem), all reversed. | |
| 43 | Prepare to win singles and zeroes while at odds (3,4,5,2,1,3) |
| GET ONES DUCKS IN A ROW – GET (win) ONES (singles) DUCKS (zeros, scores of O in cricket) IN A ROW (at odds). Another great piece of construction. | |
| 46 | South American state reflected by element of Blade Runner, say (3-4) |
| NEO NOIR – NEON (element), RIO (South American state) [reflected] -> OIR. | |
| 47 | Unfriendly to ignore first twin’s depression (7) |
| CYCLONE – {i}CY (unfriendly) without the first letter, CLONE (twin). | |
| 48 | Continental crime-fighters regret backing swimming pool (7) |
| EUROPOL – RUE (regret) reversed -> EUR, (pool)* [swimming]. | |
| 50 | Activity where teams are barred from base after food delivery (5,8) |
| TABLE FOOTBALL – TABLE (food) FOOT (base) BALL (delivery in cricket). | |
| 51 | Belgian town, largely deprived area, with one kind of pasta (9) |
| SPAGHETTI – SPA (Belgian town), GHETT{o} (deprived area) [largely] I (one). | |
| 52 | June bug, perhaps, regularly left flies (3,6) |
| MAY BEETLE – MAYBE (perhaps) and alternate letters of lEfT fLiEs. | |
| 53 | Leftovers concerning you, tucking into chips? (7) |
| RESIDUE – RE (concerning), U (you) in SIDE (side dish; chips). | |
| 54 | Mend tap: cold before hot (5) |
| PATCH – PAT (tap) C (cold) H (hot). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Rubbish birdie putt finally twisted round hole (6,5) |
| BULLET WOUND – BULL (rubbish), last letters of birdiE putT, WOUND (twisted). | |
| 2 | Live dance music (5) |
| BEBOP – BE (live) BOP (dance). Very neat. | |
| 3 | Hungry kids confused with period food from the north (9,7) |
| YORKSHIRE PUDDING – (Hungry kids period)* [confused]. | |
| 4 | Do something inane, trapping tongue (7) |
| SHINDIG – HINDI (tongue) in S{omethin}G without its middle letters [inane; empty]. I’ve not seen “inane” used as a deletion indicator before. | |
| 5 | Preserve hidden in upturned loaf after US rejected trade route (4,5) |
| SUEZ CANAL – US [rejected] -> SU, CAN (preserve) in [upturned] LAZE (loaf). | |
| 6 | Those who fought crime, ultimately superheroes restraining serial evil (2-10) |
| EX SERVICEMEN – Last letter of crimE and SER (serial) VICE (evil) in X-MEN (superheroes). | |
| 7 | New Testament’s accounts (10) |
| STATEMENTS – (testaments)* [new]. | |
| 8 | Unknown fate turned down (5) |
| MOODY – Y (unknown; symbol in equation) DOOM (fate) all reversed. I don’t remember seeing my surname as an answer in a crossword before. Thanks for the mention (serendipitous that it’s on my watch as blogger, no doubt). | |
| 9 | Arrogant chaps on Yorkshire river (8) |
| COCKSURE – COCKS (chaps) on URE (Yorkshire river). | |
| 10 | Cheerful part of bar (6) |
| UPBEAT – Double definition. | |
| 11 | Went overboard in support, faring badly with light (9) |
| FANGIRLED – (faring)* [badly] LED (light). A new word on me. | |
| 12 | Lack of substance in event hosted by service station originally (11) |
| NOTHINGNESS – THING (event) in NONES (service) and first letter of Station. | |
| 19 | Performs after-dinner role or stops talking (5,2) |
| DRIES UP – Double definition. I liked the first one. | |
| 20 | Quiet soon surrounds northern river (7) |
| SHANNON – SH (quiet) and N (northern) in ANON (soon). | |
| 22 | Soldier to admit QE2 liner, say, being out of public domain (7,9) |
| PRIVATE OWNERSHIP – PRIVATE (soldier) OWN (admit) ER (QE2) SHIP (liner). | |
| 24 | Trumpet and piano involved in score (6) |
| SPLASH – P (piano) in SLASH (score; cut). | |
| 27 | He theorised iron over lead in roller coaster (6) |
| FERMAT – FE (chemical symbol for iron), first letter in Roller, MAT (coaster for a glass). | |
| 29 | Port impounds mock potpourri (7) |
| FARRAGO – RAG (mock, the verb) in FARO (port). | |
| 31 | I’ll dig up former philosopher, right? (7) |
| EXHUMER – EX (former) HUME (David Hume; philosopher) R (right). | |
| 32 | The French nail a lot in crosses (12) |
| LABRADOODLES – LA (the in French), BRAD (nail) OODLES (a lot). | |
| 33 | Find unit floundering with aim forever (2,9) |
| AD INFINITUM – (find unit aim)* [floundering]. | |
| 35 | English bloom raised in hope, becoming deadly each month? (11) |
| WEREWOLFISH – I need a wordfind to get this one. E (english) FLOWER (bloom) [raised -> REWOLF, in WISH (hope). | |
| 36 | Possible aid for disabled toilet, penning rat with mop? (10) |
| WHEELCHAIR – HEEL (rat) in WC (toilet), HAIR (mop). | |
| 38 | Oddball, say, bound to hold up hot water in Canada (6,3) |
| HUDSON BAY – H (hot) (say bound)* [oddball]. | |
| 40 | Like Juliet in the end, taking Romeo lower (9) |
| DECREASED – R (Romeo in the phonetic alphabet) in DECEASED (like Juliet in the end). | |
| 41 | Win breeding competition final? (8) |
| REARMOST – To win a breeding competition you would have to REAR MOST. Ha ha! | |
| 44 | Leak start of book reference? (7) |
| SEEPAGE – A reference in a book might start SEE PAGE. Ha ha again. | |
| 45 | Hold water and helium within essence (6) |
| COHERE – HE (chemical symbol of Helium) in CORE (essence). | |
| 47 | Eyeful of copper wire? (5) |
| CUTIE – CU (chemical symbol of copper) TIE (wire). A bit of an oblique definition. | |
| 49 | Cat — perhaps it’s small (5) |
| PETIT – PET (cat, perhaps) IT. | |
DNF
Never got DNK FANGIRLED, though I probably came up with it during my alphabet trawl, or REARMOST. Got BOBBY but didn’t know why. I liked DASHER. John, you’ve got a typo at 28ac: TIM should be LIF.
Oops. Thanks Kevin. Now fixed.
Didn’t try it but just reading the clues for recreation.
14 Was Badenoch struggling with it?=SHADOW CABINET is the best clue I’ve seen in ages. Brilliant stuff.
I noted this as possibly the hardest JUMBO I can remember solving even after a couple of resorts to aids, as I was also unable to parse several having solved them
I think 1ac parses better as BOBB{l}Y.
Biffed the DUCKS at 43ac and after revisiting later had little idea as to the parsing. Ditto TABLE FOOTBALL. Ditto NOTHINGNESS.
NHO NEO-NOIR
Used aids for WEREWOLFISH, and MAY BEETLE.
Sorry. I meant to write. BOBB{l}Y. Corrected.
This was fun. A few rather sketchy clues (like Splash) but several imaginative and humorous clues.
Top marks for Shadow Cabinet. Also Dasher was neat. Likewise Upbeat. And Seepage raised a smile!
Thank you for explaining Bobby – just couldn’t see that at all.
NHO Macguffin, neo-noir, May beetle, fangirled.
18a and 30a were the sort of bitty tiresome clues where I just bunged in the answers without trying to work them out.
Couldn’t parse 1a, 4d, 6d, 12d.
7d was strange, it was an anagram but only just, I doubted that the answer could be correct until I had most of the crossing letters..
Favourites: I liked the wittiness of 39a, 1d and 44d.
Least favourite: 51a. Using ‘Belgium town’ to mean the tiny town of Spa in 51a was horrible, I bet there’s quite a few people in Belgium who have never heard of it.
Thanks for the explanations.
Thanks, Andy. It’s always good to hear what people like and don’t like. I think a lot of people will know Spa as the location of the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix – it’s how I know of it, anyway. It is also, apparently, a popular tourist destination.