BH Jumbo 851 – 1st Jan 2010 – Happy New Year!

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Solving time: Just under 2 hours, albeit with several interruptions, and one unsolved without aids.

There’s no danger of this puzzle being labelled as UK-centric. In fact, if anything, it’s US-centric with references to their national symbol, their bill of rights, a North American mountain range and a US state. Plus one or two americanisms thrown in for good measure.

There were a few new words to me, but not many, and most were deducible from the wordplay. I didn’t know APPELLATION, INANITION, CLARABELLA, WHITETHROATS or GRADATING.

I’ve omitted some of the more straightforward clues, but if I’ve omitted one that’s puzzling you, let me know.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 D(IS + GRACE)D – DD = Doctor of Divinity; Grace Darling was famed for her part in a daring maritime rescue in 1838. I’d not come across her before, the answer was clear from checking letters.
6 ARGUMENTATIVE = (EVER MUTATING A)*
13 Y + LIME rev = Emily was, of course, one of the Brontë sisters
14 APPELLATION = “APPALACHIAN” – The Appalachian Mountains stretch up the eastern side of North America from Alabama all the way up to Newfoundland.
15 AVAIL = AVILA with one of the As moved. Saint Teresa of Ávila was a 16th century Carmelite nun and reformer. Again, I hadn’t heard of her, but this was clearly the answer. I had to look her up for blogging purposes.
17 A + MB + ASS + ADOR(e)S – The Ambassadors Theatre is one of the smallest theatres in London’s West End.
18 I’M + PASSÉ
21 ENTIT(y) + LE
23 COME HELL OR HIGH WATER = (REACH GIRL WHO LET HOME)* – Although I don’t really see how this is synonymous with willy-nilly.
28 EERILY = IRE rev in ELY
31 I + NAN + IT + (I) ON – Exhaustion resulting from lack of food.
34 OWNERSHIP = (SWOP IN HER)*
35 SCRAP + (pickl)E
36 AFGHAN = F in (GHANA)*
39 END – dd? Although, again, I don’t see how fine and end are synonymous.
40 WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE – dd. The game of Poohsticks was invented by AA Milne in his Winnie-the-Pooh books. It involves two (or more) people dropping a stick off one side of a bridge over a river, and seeing whose emerges first on the other side. Apparently there have been annual World Poohsticks Championships held in Oxfordshire for the last 27 years. If you ask me, any World title that can be won by a five-year-old from Abingdon is probably not worth winning.
42 (tak)E A SIEST(a)
43 FIFTHLY – The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution (among other things) allows an individual the right to refuse to answer questions if they believe that to do so would incriminate themselves. Hence the phrase ‘pleading the fifth’, often heard in US legal dramas and cop shows.
45 EV(OK)ER + S
47 PLATE ARMOUR = (A TEMPLAR)* + OUR
49 SPREAD EAGLE – dd. The spread eagle is both a figure skating move and part of the Great Seal of the US.
51 SHRE(w)D
52 ARRAIGNMENT = “A REIGN MEANT”
54 SELF-RESTRAINT = (REST FINAL REST)*
55 SUR(REND)ER
 
Down
2 STI(R)R-UP – The stirrup or stapes, located in the inner ear, is the smallest bone in the human body.
4 C(onventiona)L + ARABELLA – I resorted to aids for this one, having heard of neither the Strauss Opera nor the organ stop.
5 DEPLORE – initial letters of Degenerate Expert Predicts Loss Of Roof Extension
6 LOGGER HEADS after A T(ime) – Struggled to parse this for a while, thinking it was LOGGER in THE, but the rest didn’t work.
7 GRA(n) + DATING
8 MAILBAG = GAB + LIAM rev – A postbag to us Brits.
9 NON-ESSENTIAL = (NO LESS INNATE)*
10 A + LAB + ASTER
11 IDAHO = I + HAD rev + O
12 ENLISTED MEN = (EMINEMT LED + S(hock))*
22 TARN + I + SHED
24 MARINADES = SEDAN + I + RAM rev
25 ON(PAP)ER – I’m not really sure why ONER = outstanding person, but I know it is because I’ve seen it several times before.
30 HORSE + CHESTNUT – Hack being a type of horse, as is a chestnut.
33 WHITETHROATS = (THAT WORE THIS)* – A European warbler
34 O + VER(EXPO)SES
37 NIERSTEINER = (INN RETIREES)*
38 BENEFACTOR = CAFE rev between BEN & TOR
40 WEEKENDER = WEE + KEN + RED rev
41 NEFERTITI = (ENTER IT IF)*
43 FLOORER = RE + ROO(L)F rev
44 YORK(ER)S – Cricket deliveries where the ball pitches very close to the batsman’s feet.
46 EN(GAGE)D – A gage is a type of glove thrown down by knights when challenging someone to combat.
50 (pen)ELOPE – Ulysses’ wife Penelope did not run away, in fact she waited twenty years for his return from the Trojan Wars whilst fending off the advances of over 100 suitors.

4 comments on “BH Jumbo 851 – 1st Jan 2010 – Happy New Year!”

  1. I enjoyed this as well, and also had to look up Avila. I agree about the American flavour to the puzzle.

    For 39A Fine is a musical term for the end of a piece. I looked this to check, but was pretty sure given the French fin = end.

    1. Thanks for that. Although, now you say it, I’m pretty sure I have come across it before (and, no doubt, was equally mystified then)
  2. I seem to have lost my copy of this one but, from memory, it was the only one of the 4 tricky Christmas Jumbos that I finished without use of a dictionary as I just happened to have the two obscure bits of GK.

    Clarabella was borderline unfair since both the answer and the wordplay were obscure. I’m a big fan of Strauss operas and I worked down the more obvious candidates before I came to Arabella. I have to admit that it is an opera that I have never heard.

    St Teresa of Avila I knew because of my Catholic upbringing. She’s probably a bit overshadowed these days by her namesake from Lisieux whose bones are currently on a world tour.

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