Time: 1.14.13
This is the Cryptic Jumbo from Easter Monday, which I found a little harder than normal when first starting it, but after I came back to it the answers seemed to flow reasonably quickly.
There are the usual smattering of rarely or never heard of words, but generally they were well clued, and otherwise there were plenty of smooth surfaces and concise cluing.
We were also treated to one of my favourite clues of the year, a trattoria staple, the consumption of which was most definitely delicious.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Real’s reserve in seat, tense and very fidgety (11) |
| SUBSTANTIVE – SUB (reserve) and then an anagram (fidgety) of *(IN SEAT T (tense) and V (very)).
I wasted some time knowing that substantial wasn’t right but being able to get my brain to think of the correct answer. |
|
| 7 | Redevelopment of ski resort initially excellent investment (4,7) |
| RISK CAPITAL – An anagram (redevelopment) of *(SKI and R (initial letter of resort)) together with CAPITAL (excellent). | |
| 13 | Freedom of movement chimed with European (5) |
| RANGE – RANG (chimed) + E (European). | |
| 14 | Dressing area of skin on nail getting black over time (7) |
| CUBICLE – A substitution clue. CUTICLE (skin on nail) has the T exchanged for B. | |
| 15 | Meeting for former students perhaps in complex (9) |
| OBSESSION – OB are old boys/former students so an OB SESSION might be a meeting for them. Complex as a noun. | |
| 16 | Drink unusual creation, suitable for all (9) |
| COINTREAU – Anagram (unusual) of *(CREATION) plus the cinematic certificate U. Nice clue. | |
| 17 | Flat song must cramp tango in star-studded venues (10) |
| PLANETARIA – I twigged the correct meaning of “star” pretty quickly but PLANE for “flat” took some time. ARIA (song) comes after and sandwiches T (tango). | |
| 20 | Natural in cargo pants (7) |
| ORGANIC – Anagram (pants) of *(IN CARGO). | |
| 22 | One developing eggs retracted collecting tube (7) |
| EDUCTOR – A reversal of ROE (eggs) outside (collecting) DUCT (tube). One of my LOIs as DUCT was slow in coming and the answer isn’t very common. | |
| 24 | Runaway con largely protected by sword (7) |
| ESCAPEE – Con is a SCAM which we take all but the last letter of (largely) and insert it (protected by) in EPEE (sword). | |
| 25 | Heard naughty child immobilise reptile (8) |
| TERRAPIN – Homophone (heard) of “terror pin”. | |
| 26 | Cut potentially wounding piece? (4-3,7) |
| SAWN-OFF SHOTGUN – I am not 100% sure what story the surface is trying to tell us, but it is a play on “piece” being “a piece of something” and a firearm. | |
| 28 | Boxer swinging both ways in defence (5) |
| ALIBI – ALI (our favourite boxer) + BI (short for bisexual). | |
| 29 | Arrange care for doctor caught in downpour (6) |
| FOSTER – Double definition, which had me puzzled for a bit until I remembered the nursery rhyme where Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain. | |
| 30 | Wheel attached to single gnarled tree (7,3) |
| ENGLISH ELM – HELM (wheel) goes after an anagram (gnarled) of *(SINGLE). | |
| 33 | Meet to gradually increase backing for broadcast (10) |
| FOREGATHER – GATHER (gradually increase) goes after (backing) a homophone (broadcast) of “for” – FORE. | |
| 35 | Core teacher recalled Pride (6) |
| HUBRIS – HUB (core) + reversal of SIR (teacher). | |
| 37 | Observe selected element of vow at church (5) |
| WATCH – Hidden. | |
| 39 | Fall ill and take off headset, shivering (5,4,5) |
| CATCH ONES DEATH – “Take off” here doesn’t mean to imitate but the initial stages of something successful, which might CATCH ON. Then there is an anagram (shivering) of *(HEADSET).
Clever clue. |
|
| 41 | Vehicle reversing, with endless prejudice gripping old city’s outskirts (8) |
| SUBURBIA – A reversal of BUS together with all but the last letter of BIAS (prejudice) all around UR (old city). | |
| 44 | Conjure up pancake, flipped for first lady to consume (7) |
| EVOCATE – Blin/blini pestered me to be included but what I needed was a TACO, reversed (flipped) and put inside (consumed) EVE (first lady). Didn’t know the word but it seemed more than plausible. | |
| 45 | Firm upswing controls whip (7) |
| SCOURGE – Some Yoda speak here – SURGE (upswing) goes around (controls) CO (firm). | |
| 46 | At pool, a bikini is regularly left on the counter, which interests psychologist (7) |
| INKBLOT – Reversed (on the counter) alternate letters (regularly left) clue. | |
| 47 | Poor conductor covering for choir elicited blunders (10) |
| DIELECTRIC – Anagram (blunders) of *(CR (covering for choir) + ELICITED). Didn’t know the word but the checkers meant it was very likely to end -ELECTRIC, which didn’t leave much doubt. | |
| 49 | Noisily waged battle with cavalier for some days (9) |
| FORTNIGHT – Homophone (noisily) of “fought knight”. | |
| 53 | Irish community upset, scratching heads full of bugs? (9) |
| UNSTERILE – I thought this might start ULSTER when I got the initial U but that doesn’t allow for the deletion of its initial letter so MUNSTER and RILE (upset as a verb) are needed for decapitation. | |
| 54 | This plant fills up other bed (7) |
| POTHERB – Hidden (fills). | |
| 55 | Greek character’s articles about the origin of Troy (5) |
| THETA – THE + A (articles) around T (the first letter of Troy). | |
| 56 | Leaving metal waste receptacle around back of works, Henry steers badly (5,6) |
| LEADS ASTRAY – Quite complicated wordplay here. LEAD ASHTRAY (metal waste receptacle) goes around S (last letter of works), which H (Henry) then leaves. | |
| 57 | Explosively, leapt the twice Olympian? (11) |
| HEPTATHLETE – Anagram (explosively) of *(LEAPT and then a double dose of THE). | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dismissed from field, went off in new direction (6,3) |
| STRUCK OUT – Double definition. Our transatlantic colleagues have to get used to cricketing terms so it seems only fair that we have to know a few baseball terms and this is one here, where one is dismissed by three strikes. | |
| 2 | Truss wearing dress with sex appeal, helping dispute settlement process (7,11) |
| BINDING ARBITRATION – Marvellously bonkers surface. A pleasing charade of BIND (truss) + IN GARB (wearing dress) + IT (sex appeal) + RATION (helping). Bravo setter. | |
| 3 | Florist’s last cut flower (5) |
| TRENT -T (last letter of florist). + RENT (cut). For newbies, flowers can be things that flow (ie rivers). | |
| 4 | Ornamental accessory of one making out with boss? (11) |
| NECKERCHIEF -NECKER (one making out) + CHIEF (boss).
I think “neck” is well known as an informal word to kiss? NECKER may not technically exist, hence the question mark. |
|
| 5 | Film of popular British runner, say, best in the middle (2,6) |
| IN BRUGES – Never heard of the film, but the parsing only needed an appropriate synonym for “runner” and “ski” wasn’t doing it. A 2008 black comedy-drama based in, guess where, Bruges, which was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar, apparently. Suspect they didn’t win anything for originality in film titles.
The parsing is IN (popular) + B (British) + RUG (runner, as in a carpet) + ES (middle two letters of BEST). |
|
| 6 | Digested crowns troubled EU dental nurses (12) |
| ENCAPSULATED – The wordplay is clear here – CAPS (crowns) is “nursed” by an anagram (troubled) of *(EU DENTAL).
I can see that a digest is something which encapsulates, but I am not quite sure I can equate “digested” with “encapsulated”. Probably overthinking it. |
|
| 7 | Creating reconstruction of space probes responding to stimulus (10) |
| REENACTING – Clever wordplay here. I puzzled over “space” but what we need is our printers’ EN which is inside (probes) REACTING (responding to stimulus). | |
| 8 | Mustang maybe driving up southern coastline (5) |
| SHORE – This one is a letter moving clue where we need to take HORSE (mustang, maybe) and shift the S to the beginning (driving up southern). | |
| 9 | Coffee shop rejected American slider — mostly old holidaymakers there? (5,3,3) |
| COSTA DEL SOL – Not just old holidaymakers. We need the OL (mostly old) to be tagged onto COSTA (coffee shop) and DELS (a reversal of SLED (the American word for sledge)). | |
| 10 | Confusion over cricket officials before international, the second of four (9) |
| PASTICCIO – Unusual word but it vaguely rang a bell. Pastiche has the same derivation. ICC took longer to come than it should have done for the International Cricket Council as I first thought of “umps” or MCC. PAST is over and at the end we have I (international) and O as the second letter of “four”. | |
| 11 | Work to live, with half going for a raise (4) |
| TOIL – TO (in plain sight) and then half of LIVE reversed (going for a raise in a down clue). | |
| 12 | Contact French city (4) |
| LENS – Double definition, the first being what you put in your eye. | |
| 18 | Beg “tonight please”, so desperate for beefy Italian? (9,9) |
| SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE – Clue of the day. Actually I think this is my clue of the year so far. Loved it. Amusing, great surface and accessible wordplay, being simply an anagram of *(BEG TONIGHT PLEASE SO). | |
| 19 | City joint with pub admits spirited female? (3,5) |
| SEA NYMPH – Tricky wordplay and more Yoda speak. NY (city) is admitted to SEAM (joint) + PH (public house). Another nice clue. | |
| 21 | Imminent trial, head of narcs having hidden heroin? (7) |
| NEARING – Another substitution clue where HEARING (trial) has its H (heroin) changed to N (head of narcs). | |
| 23 | Official line in electronic parts plant (8) |
| REFINERY – Flora is not my strength but not a problem here as the plant we need is of a rather more industrial nature. Another Yoda clue where IN E (in electronic) goes inside (parts) REF (official) and RY (line as in railway line). | |
| 27 | Puts a value on presumably female donkeys? (8) |
| ASSESSES – Not waitresses, not actresses, not goddesses but ASS-ESSES. | |
| 28 | Had an impact on suffering using ecstasy rather than lithium (8) |
| AFFECTED – Another substitution clue where AFFLICTED (suffering) has LI (lithium) changed to E (ecstasy). | |
| 31 | Spotted male animal that’s valued in the States (7) |
| SAWBUCK -SAW (spotted) plus BUCK (male animal).
Apparently slang for a 10 dollar bill. Never heard of it but the wordplay is generous. |
|
| 32 | Sweet drink after opening of bar, say (12) |
| BUTTERSCOTCH – SCOTCH (drink) comes after B (first letter of bar) and UTTER (say). | |
| 34 | Cuts of meat to offer cats when duck has gone up (11) |
| TENDERLOINS – TENDER (to offer) and then LIONS where (in a down clue) the O (duck) has risen up in the word. | |
| 36 | Small car one advanced across horse country (5,6) |
| SAUDI ARABIA – Lots of types of car used in these things – mini merc RR coupe etc but here we need AUDI and as it is a small car we get SAUDI to which we append I (one) and A (advanced, as in A-levels) around (across) ARAB (horse). | |
| 38 | Upset shaved cat enters, hopefully empty, folk’s study (10) |
| DEMOGRAPHY – An empty “hopefully” gives us HY which suggested a -RAPHY ending which we get by reversing (upset) PARED (shaved). We then need to enter a three letter cat. I was tempted by a reversed “tom” to give us a mombled demotraphy but fortunately saw the light and MOG at the same time. | |
| 40 | Being intoxicated, summary of news disheartened son (9) |
| HEADINESS – HEADLINES (summary of news) has to lose its L (disheartened) and then gain a S (son). Smooth and believable surface with what is going on right now. | |
| 42 | Wind energy bound to come up under naysayer (9) |
| ANTITRADE – ANTI (naysayer) precedes a reversal (to come up, in a down clue) of E (energy) and DART (bound, as in move quickly). Not sure I have definitely heard of this wind (which surprise, surprise goes in the opposite direction to the trade winds) but it seemed eminently likely. | |
| 43 | Woman eating brownie left on piano is managing unaided (4-4) |
| SELF-HELP – The literal is in a nounal sense I think. The wordplay is SHE (woman) around (eating) ELF (brownie) and then L (left) and P (piano). | |
| 48 | Explicit about writer of nonsense (5) |
| CLEAR -C (about) + LEAR (writer of nonsense). | |
| 50 | Northern game — going topless, of course (5) |
| NATCH -As a Newcastle United fan this made me chuckle. A horrible word, of course, provided by N (northern) and MATCH (game) without its M (going topless). | |
| 51 | Lock travel rucksack which has twisted clips (4) |
| CURL -“Which has twisted clips” is perhaps not the most obvious reverse hidden indicator, and I must confess to rather struggling with this before going back to first principles ((a) is it an anagram? (b) is it a hidden?) which came in handy here. | |
| 52 | Leaders in orthopaedic surgery simply adore bones (4) |
| OSSA -A simple one to end with. | |