Bank Holiday Jumbo 692 – Blowing my trumpet

Author   dhoggPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
I recently got out of the habit of doing the Times Jumbo, and have never timed myself, but I’d be really surprised if I’ve ever done one as quickly as this – I don’t generally subscribe to the view that Jumbos are always easier than normal puzzles, but this one was quite straightforward.

Since this post is late, and to reflect the difficulty (or otherwise) of the puzzle, I’ll keep it short…

ACROSS

1 ROBERT(BURN)S – referring to Lord Roberts of Kandahar. As any good Scot would know, Burns’ birthday is celebrated on 25 January by the consumption of vast amounts of haggis, neeps, tatties and a guid malt.

16 ISOCRATES – (ostracise)* – an influential Greek orator

17 PETER-HOUSE – the oldest college at Cambridge University

24 SCO(t)-URGE – not sure how “finally covered” indicates that you have to remove the final letter of Scot?

29 P-HOBOS – the larger of Mars’ two moons

30 GLASSHOUSE – a glasshouse is a military dention centre and people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but the wordplay here doesn’t make sense beyond that

39 CAM-BRIDGES-HIRE – Robert Seymour Bridges (1844-1930)

57 HOLIDAY CAMP – (I may hold cap)*

DOWN

2 BLOW ONE’S OWN TRUMPET

9 SONG OF SONGS – the 22nd book of the Old Testament

18 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA – (sari lass introduced)*

21 GOLIATH – (<=h(tail)og)

52 IVAN(hoe)

3 comments on “Bank Holiday Jumbo 692 – Blowing my trumpet”

  1. Agreed that this was straightforward, I think this was a Jumbo PB for me (14:44). I had a slow finish as well, on the bottom right corner (PRIED, NIPPY and DRESSED UP) and then on 6dn (STRIP CARTOON) and finally 29ac (PHOBOS).

    I thought 3dn (“Horseman said to give name to sporting contest” (5)) was ambiguous – I went for RYDER but isn’t RIDER also justifiable?

    1. I think it’s unambiguously RYDER. The word “said” is the homophone indicator and is clearly attached to “horseman”. If the clue was something like “Horseman broadcast sporting contest” it would be ambiguous (and would probably appear in a ST puzzle!)
      1. (a rather late comment as I’m just checking through old solutions)

        3dn Horseman said to give name to sporting contest (5)

        >I think it’s unambiguously RYDER

        I completely disagree, and am actually quite baffled by your reasoning. I pondered for a while about this one and decided that RIDER was marginally the more likely solution, but I suspect that in a Championship the adjudicator would have to allow either. I’m not sure that even the ST would come up with your clue – too obviously unsound even for them!? (Oh well, perhaps not 😉

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