Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1387 – 15th June

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

Today’s Jumbo is a bit harder than usual, I think, with a number of quite chewy bits that got me grinding my teeth. Some devious definitions and tricky wordplay in places held me up at times, but added to the enjoyment when the pennies finally dropped. About 70 minutes in total.Thanks setter. How did you all get on?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions like this and and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Fail to reawaken love (4,2,7)
COME TO NOTHING – COME TO (awaken) NOTHING (love). Kissing Sleeping Beauty if you are not a prince comes to mind.
8 Paper first soaked in petrol for American mechanics (9)
GARAGISTS – RAG (paper, as in a less salubrious newsheet than our esteemed quality daily) IST (first) inside [soaked in] GAS (petrol for American).
13 Hard to charge VAT and give credit (5)
THANK – H (hard) inside [to charge, as in to charge your glasses to toast your blogger] TANK (vat, deviously capitalised). Neatly deceptive surface.
14 Obscure article by foolish judge (9)
ADUMBRATE – A (article) DUMB (foolish) RATE (judge). I think I’ve seen this before. Yes. It was here.
15 Cooler, almost frozen, in accordance with regulation (7)
CANONIC – CAN (cooler; both terms being slang for prison) [almost] ON ICe. Some more witty wordplay here.
16 Specially conceived arrival times on international train and airline (4-4,4)
TEST-TUBE BABY – BY (times, as in multiply by) after [on] TEST (cricket or rugby international) TUBE (underground train) and BA (British Airways airline). A write-in for me as my wife and I had two of them.
17 An acknowledgement old car is showing age (4,6)
ANNO DOMINI – AN NOD (acknowledgement) O (old) MINI (car). I guess The Italian Job and its minis is showing its age but its still a good romp.
18 Port placed by bread for knocking back (6)
NANTES – SET (placed) NAN (bread) all reversed [knocking back].
19 Harmless and in NI wise to vote Conservative (8)
NONTOXIC – ONTO (wise, as in I’m onto your tricks) X (to vote; put an X in the box) [in] NI and add C (Conservative) A bit of an ikean construction. methinks,
21 Reckons detective sergeant in court is after promotion (4,2)
ADDS UP – DS (detective sergeant) UP (in court, as in up before the magistrate) [after] AD (promotion).
24 Crosses from island — vintage craft initially makes fast crossing (10)
CRUCIFIXES – My LOI. It is a bit convoluted! CRU (vintage) Craft [initially] FIXES (makes fast), all outside [crossing] I (island). I think that’s how it works!
26 Cheat: They don’t, or I’d explode! (2,3,5,2)
DO THE DIRTY ON – (They don’t or I’d)* [explode].
29 Film balloonist: we understand what makes that difficult? (4)
FOGG – sounds like [we understand] FOG (what makes being a balloonist difficult). Phileas Fogg, as I’m sure you know,  is the hero of Around the world in eighty days.
30 Leave person with king, one nipping outside (8)
BREXITER – BITER (one nipping) [outside] REX (king). Ho ho. Dare I say more? No.
31 What’s needed for radio broadcasts to flourish: musicians (8)
WAVEBAND – A sneaky definition takes up most of the clue!  WAVE (flourish;as in flourish a banner) BAND (musicians).
34 Note carefully studied after taking in an Indian menu item (3,5)
NAN BREAD – N.B. (Nota Bene; note carefully) with READ (studied) [after] [taking in] AN. MER at nan appearing both here and 18A.
35 Rather stiff after exercising, sip these (8)
STEEPISH – (sip these)* [after exercising]. Lovely misdirecting surface again. Nothing to do with how I felt on solving day after a 15 mile walk.
36 Fine as wine from cask tastes, with flipping body! (4)
OKAY – Wine from an (oak) cask tastes OAKY, reverse the 2 innner letters [flipping body].
39 Occasionally hiding ring in each cushion (5,2,5)
EVERY SO OFTEN – insert [hiding] O (ring) in EVERY (each) SOFTEN (cushion).
40 Scrap request from airy London criminal (3,3,4)
ANY OLD IRON – Anagram of (airy London)* [criminal]. Here is the hilarious Peter Sellers version. “i’ve been sponned”.
43 Not flat when bound (6)
ASLOPE – Sneaky one. AS (when) LOPE (bound, as dogs might do). Nothing to do with being tied up.
44 Flies heavenward, as owls do with puss moving about (8)
UPSHOOTS – Owls HOOT. Surround [about] with an anagram of (puss)* [moving]
45 Far from fresh aniseed drink: time for a second? (4,2)
PAST IT – The aniseed drink is PASTIs. Replace the s (second) with T (time). Past time I had some. Ricard rather than Pernod for me.
49 Garden pest munched all around reserve valve in channel (10)
SLUICEGATE – Another bit of swedish construction… Your garden pest is a SLUG. Add ATE (munched) and put it [all around] ICE (reserve)… a terrifying thought – slugs on ice for a snack, anybody?
51 The press the object of such false adulation? (8,4)
CUPBOARD LOVE – I wasn’t sure quite what to make of this. In the end I decided it was best described as a cryptic definition where CUPBOARD = The press and hence the object of the adulation.
53 Local taxi company in time (7)
AUBERGE – UBER (taxi company) [in] AGE (time). Auberge is the french word for an Inn.
54 Six pitied for forging uncorroborated statement (4,5)
IPSE DIXIT – (Six pitied)* [forging]. Latin for “He said it himself”. It’s not often my schoolboy Latin comes in useful!
55 Palm lacerated after spinning bottles (5)
ARECA – Hidden [bottles] in the reversed [after spinning] lacerated, detARECAl. aka the Golden cane palm.
56 Fur-coated drag specialist, say, about to pass quickly through Oscar party (6,3)
ESKIMO DOG – A bit of a cheeky cryptic definition. E.G. (say) [about] SKIM (to pass quickly through) O (Oscar in the NATO phonetic alphabet) DO (party).
57 Newspaper returned private style guide for players (4,9)
TIME SIGNATURE – TIMES (our favourite newspaper) IG (GI, private [returned]), NATURE (style).
Down
1 Senseless, not moving pet trembling in coat (9)
CATATONIC – Sneaky 3 word definition. CAT (pet) (in coat)* [trembling].
2 Imaginary body of peacekeepers pursuing method (4,3)
MEAN SUN – A new term for me, but the wordplay is clear. UN (peacekeepers) after [pursuing] MEANS (method). “An imaginary sun conceived as moving through the sky throughout the year at a constant speed equal to the mean rate of the real sun, used in calculating solar time.” OK. I think I get it. The earth’s orbit around the sun is not perfectly circular so the sun’s apparent speed of movement through the sky varies according to where we are in our orbit.
3 Maybe go for a constitutional approach with article and broadcast (4,3,3)
TAKE THE AIR – TAKE (approach) [with] THE (article) [and] AIR (broadcast). I was slightly dubious about this but think TAKE for approach as in “We need a new take on this issue”.
4 Close bank up in the city (6)
NEARBY – BRAE (scottish bank) reversed [up] [in] NY (New York, city)
5 As dictionary perhaps facilitating digital access? (5-7)
THUMB-INDEXED – Double definition, second cryptic, a THUMB being a digit.. “A thumb index, also called a cut-in index or an index notch, is a round cut-out in the pages of dictionaries, encyclopedias, Bibles and other large religious books, and various sectioned, often alphabetic, reference works, used to locate entries starting at a particular letter or section.”
6 Drinking in admission of corruption, right away (8)
IMBIBING – I’M BrIBING (admission of corruption) losing the ‘r’ [right away].
7 Ugly dame wanting tips to become alluring (4)
GLAM – Inside letters [wanting tips] of uGLy dAMe.
8 Briefing, ultimately lengthier, could give us something to go on (5,5)
GREEN LIGHT – BriefinG [ultimately] (lengthier)* [could give us]. Fortunately we had GREEN LIGHT similarly clued recently, I think.
9 Minister having somewhere to play rock (6)
RECTOR – REC (Recreation area, somewhere to play) TOR (rock).
10 One for the p(l)ot? (9,3)
GUNPOWDER TEA – Nice cryptic definition. The pot being a tea-pot and the plot being the Gunpowder plot. Gunpowder tea “is a form of Chinese tea in which each leaf has been rolled into a small round pellet. Its English name comes from its resemblance to grains of gunpowder. This rolling method of shaping tea is most often applied either to dried green tea (the most commonly encountered variety outside China) or oolong tea“. It’s years simce I last drank any of that.
11 Mount rising in Aleutian island (5)
SINAI – Revers hidden [rising in] AleutIAN ISland.
12 Time for a speech, pithy, in separate ways, and light (2,8,3)
ST CRISPINS DAY – Another unknown for me, showing up my literary ignorance again, perhaps. CRISP (pithy) and IN inside [separate] STS (streets, ways) [and] DAY (light). The speech, apparently, is in Shakespearse’s Henry V play, Act IV Scene III – see here.
20 Motored east, after calibrating this? (8)
ODOMETER – (Motored E)* (E for east) [after calibrating]. The Odometer measuring how far the motoring went.
22 One taking flight from Scottish island runs across sailor (9)
SKYJACKER – SKYE (Scottish island) R (runs) outside [across] JACK (sailor).
23 Long-distance runner, first in race, over the moon with congratulations (3,5)
RIO BRAVO – Another sneaky cryptic definition. [first in] Race [over] IO (the moon of Jupiter) [with] BRAVO (congratulations), The Rio Bravo aka the Rio Grande is 1896 miles long, so that makes it a long-distance “runner”.
25 Not “nice”, cutting head off strong-smelling fish (9)
UNGENTEEL – [cutting head off] pUNGENT (strong-smelling} EEL (fish).
27 Part of prison project following suggestion one’s abandoned (5,3)
DEATH ROW – THROW (project) [following] iDEA (suggestion) without the “i” [one’s abandoned].
28 Exit this awfully low place? (8)
SIXTIETH – (Exit this)* [awfully].
29 Fan’s weakening, when involved in hard work! (9,4)
FINNEGANS WAKE – Another sneaky cryptic definition. (Fan’s weakening)* [when involved].
32 Diagram by fellow’s firstly plotting treatment that’s shocking and unusual (1-3,8)
X-RAY SPECTRUM – Another tricky one. X (by, multiplication sign) [by] RAY’S (fellows) ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy, treatment that’s shocking) [and] RUM (unusual). The definition is pretty vague!
33 Evidence given here: intelligence heads having fight to stop it (7,5)
WITNESS BOXES – WIT (intelligence) and NESSES (heads) outside BOX (fight) [having… to stop it].
37 Discouraging start, playing golf (3-7)
OFF-PUTTING – OFF (start, as in “the off” in racing) PUTTING (playing golf).
38 Journalist battles female associated with hunt for period items (10)
EDWARDIANA – ED (Journalist) WAR (battled) DIANA (female associated with hunt, goddess of hunting).
41 Scot’s wild, maybe, cornering cardinal in cathedral (5,4)
NOTRE DAME – NO TAME (as a Scot may describe wild – ha ha) outside [cornering] RED (cardinal).
42 Brother, not silent presumably, sounding abrasive (8)
CORUNDUM – COR (as in Oh brother!), UN DUM (sounds like [sounding] UN DUMB, not silent presumably). Very tortuous!
46 French writer, still with regiment, put on a uniform (7)
THOREAU – THO (though, still) [with] RE (regiment) [put on] A U (uniform).
47 Was fitting answer being given to pig? (6)
AGREED – A (answer) GREED (being given to pig, i.e. piggishness). Hmm. That seems a bit loose to me. Shouldn’t that be GREEDY?
48 Scruffy kid chasing game (6)
RAGTAG – RAG (kid, the verb) TAG (chasing game).
50 Asian unknown to live in this country (5)
UZBEK – Z (unknown) BE (to live) [in] UK (this country)
52 Here’s a secret spy’s oddly concealed, by the way (4)
PSST – Alternate letters id sPy’S [oddly concealed] [by] ST (street, the way).

12 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1387 – 15th June”

  1. I put in GUNPOWDER KEG, having forgotten the tea and not understanding the clue. DNK MEAN SUN, but as John says. I have ‘COD’ in the margin by 17ac, 19ac, 21ac, and 43ac.
  2. I agree this was harder than average but I persevered and enjoyed it. We had GREENS clued as ‘signs people should go’ in the 15×15 last Saturday and I struggled to see it despite having solved GREEN LIGHT in this one the previous week.

    Edited at 2019-06-29 06:30 am (UTC)

  3. I found this very hard, but persevered and finished in 2:1:51. A titanic struggle. All correct in the end though. I put GUNPOWDER KEG at first, then realised what was going on and changed it to TEA. Never heard of MEAN SUN, but the wordplay was clear. Was THOREAU French or American? Thanks setter and John.
    1. Totally forgot to bring that up; I couldn’t believe the clue at the time. He was born in Concord, lived and died in Concord. As he put it when asked about his travels, ‘I have travelled much in Concord.’
      1. Crikey. I completely forgot to look him up. Too many clues in the Jumbo to dive down every rabbit hole, I submit in mitigation. Good spot, both of you.
  4. Thoreau could hardly be less French, could he? I read Walden and liked it, and I think I would have liked him, too. I have seldom read a Wikipedia biography where I thought “Good for you” so many times. Only 44 when he died, he never put a foot wrong, so far as I can see
  5. 40:03. Quite tricky this one.
    I wondered about THOREAU but wasn’t entirely sure it was wrong.
    Don’t understand 47dn.
    It’s a bit mean to clue IPSE DIXIT with an anagram but I was reasonably confident about where to put the letters. I was much less sure about CORUNDUM: it was the best answer I could come up with but I wouldn’t have bee surprised to find it was wrong.
    1. Glad I’m not the only one who couldn’t fathom 37dn. I was hoping to be enlightened by the likes of your good self, but I see I’m in good company in not being able to work it out. As for CORUNDUM, as I said, a bit tortuous! Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
      1. Indeed. ‘Brother’ for COR is reasonably clear, but I couldn’t quite shake the suspicion that there might be some monk-related word I was missing. And UNDUMB for ‘not silent’ is a bit oblique.
        1. “Not silent PRESUMABLY”
          If you can’t exploit things like UNDUMB in a cryptic puzzle then when can you 🙂

          FGBP

  6. I was soundly beaten by this one – not only did I fall into the GUNPOWDER KEG trap, for which I was kicking myself immediately after pressing the submit button, I managed to enter a mystifying SKYLARKER instead of SKYJACKER… presuming, I guess, that the Navy Lark was some kind of seaman. It probably wasn’t, was it?
    1. I think you’re right that this had a couple of sneaky traps for us solvers. By the way, The Navy Lark was a long-running radio comedy series that started when I was still in nappies but ran until 1977. I never listened to it, though. As for skylarks, I’ve been enjoying hearing them above the fields when I walk since February. They can be hard to spot, though. There is a big campaign around here to Save Our Skylark fields from being turned into soulless modern housing developments.

      Edited at 2019-07-01 07:44 pm (UTC)

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