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Hello again. This Jumbo I found to be a steady solve, not too hard although when I had finished, there were four or five clues I could not properly parse. Hopefully doing the blog will sort that. There were some excellent, misleading surface readings.. I think 2dn was my favourite, always nice to see a scientific reference. What did you think?
Because the Jumbo is a I use the standard TfTT conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(aargnam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” |
| 1 | Kid arrested by inspector put away for attack (8) |
| DIATRIBE – DI (detective inspector) + RIB (kid) in ATE (put away | |
| 5 | Flower pot almost useless (6) |
| CROCUS – CROC(k) (pot, almost) + US (useless). When you look at flower (or banker, or runner, see 22ac or 31dn) and immediately think “River,” you may have been doing crosswords for too long .. I remember the late, lamented setter Araucaria saying that almost everything he saw or read reminded him of something to do with crosswords | |
| 9 | Leads astray spies holding foreign nobleman (7) |
| SEDUCES – DUC (foreign nobleman, sp. a French one) in SEES (spies. Not meaning the CIA, for once) | |
| 14 | Internal strain some might say brings carelessness (11) |
| INATTENTION – sounds like “Inner Tension.” Does to me, anyway. Though I like the dodgy ones even more. | |
| 15 | In which all the sides get to score? (11) |
| ICOSAHEDRON – CD. Made me think for a bit.. an icosahedron is a solid figure with twenty sides, hence the “score.” As CDs go, quite a good one ne c’est pas? | |
| 16 | Live as daughter — prosperously (5) |
| DWELL – D(aughter) + WELL (prosperously, as in “She did well for herself.”) | |
| 17 | Approachable female appears in a moral tale (7) |
| AFFABLE – F(emale) in A FABLE. One of Aesop’s, perhaps. | |
| 18 | Dignitary having to praise horse in speech (4,5) |
| LORD MAYOR – sounds like “Laud Mare.” A bit. | |
| 19 | Last words of mine in each quiet hour (7) |
| EPITAPH – PIT (mine) in EA(ch), + P (quiet) + H(our) | |
| 20 | One among nine soldiers rating rebel in gambling haunt (9,6) |
| AMUSEMENT ARCADE – A MUSE (one among nine) + MEN (soldiers) + TAR (rating) + CADE (rebel). I’ve seen almost all of the nine muses in crosswords, over the years .. don’t remember Polyhymnia, or Melpomene, but Erato and Clio turn up regular as clockwork. Cade’s Rebellion took place in 1450 and not much is known about him, though speculation aplenty. Not far from my house in Kent, above the North Downs is a dell called Cade’s Hole, where he is reputed to have hidden afterwards. Children snigger. | |
| 22 | Main source of energy and power: runner holding record (5,5) |
| PRIME MOVER – P(ower) + MEMO (record) in RIVER (runner) | |
| 23 | Chuffed having ended argument amicably (4,2) |
| MADE UP – hmm, well this might be a DD I think, since if one is chuffed, one could be said to be made UP .. at a stretch. Perhaps. I suppose if you can be made happy, you can be made chuffed. | |
| 25 | Brute, tiresome person in conversation (4) |
| BOOR – I wrote BOAR to start with, because I don’t pronounce BOOR and BORE (tiresome person in conversation) in the same way. But 11dn put paid to that, so BOOR it must be. | |
| 28 | Having been around to hotel — nothing in order (4,2,3,5) |
| LONG IN THE TOOTH – *(TO HOTEL NOTHING) | |
| 30 | Radiant discharge associated with constellation losing alpha star (8) |
| ARCTURUS – ARC (radiant discharge) + T(a)URUS (constellation losing alpha). Arcturus is an interesting star, a red giant and the very brightest star in the sky, in the Northern hemisphere (bar Sol, of course). It marks the Northern end of the Milky Way. | |
| 32 | What students may wear as provided in university rules (8) |
| UNIFORMS – UNI(versity) FORMS (rules). I had some trouble equating rules with forms. Best I can do is Lexico: “The customary or correct method or procedure.” as in “good form.” I couldn’t get it through the substitution test though. [on edit: and no wonder, as it is not forms but norms, as Jackkt points out below: IF (provided) inside U (university) + NORMS (rules)] | |
| 34 | Getting on train for Winchester perhaps? (8,6) |
| BOARDING SCHOOL – Boarding (getting on) + SCHOOL (train). | |
| 37 | What precedes foxtrot in the choreography (4) |
| ECHO – Well echo does precede foxtrot in the NATO Alphabet. And only now, do I see that it is also hidden in thE CHOreography, and so nothing to do with Sir Frederick Ashton after all. | |
| 38 | What in time controlled capital (6) |
| TEHRAN – EH (what?) in T(ime) + RAN (controlled). A capital, but no place for tourists just now | |
| 39 | Be creative using black cats and dogs? (10) |
| BRAINSTORM – B + RAIN STORM (as in raining cats and dogs). I have attended many, usually to no great result. Fun, though. | |
| 43 | Book‘s first note: wretched mortal flees war (1,8,2,4) |
| A FAREWELL TO ARMS – A (first note) + *(MORTAL FLEES WAR). A novel by Ernest Hemingway. | |
| 45 | Those taking marks off in schools for example? (7) |
| ERASERS – Erasers take marks off but why the reference to schools I don’t know.. is it a reference to board rubbers? At my school they were mainly used for throwing at pupils they thought weren’t paying attention (often me) | |
| 47 | Overly emotional behaviour where mad racist thrown out (9) |
| DRAMATICS – *(MAD RACIST) | |
| 49 | Excellent guy from east must take minute in shops (7) |
| EMPORIA – M(inute) in AI (excellent) + ROPE (guy), both rev. | |
| 51 | Trouble associated with graduate’s blind faith? (5) |
| DOGMA – DOG (trouble) + MA (graduate). I am no particular fan of dogs but it seems a bit harsh to equate them with trouble. And if you can be “Dogged by troubles” it implies that dog and trouble must be different and separate. | |
| 52 | Doctor Tom Potter is an eye specialist (11) |
| OPTOMETRIST – *(TOM POTTER IS). Neat clue | |
| 53 | Italian leader having run-in with Croat moved political border (4,7) |
| IRON CURTAIN – I(talian) + *(RUN IN + CROAT) | |
| 54 | Disorder casts monarch into endless peril (7) |
| DERANGE – ER (our own dear queen) in DANGE(r) (endless peril) | |
| 55 | What’s yet to come from Stevenson? (4,2) |
| EVEN SO – hidden in stEVENSOn. A cunning definition, which surprised me a bit but seems to work well. “I understand what you say, but even so ..” | |
| 56 | Gatecrasher one less polite entertaining conservationists (8) |
| INTRUDER – NT (conservationists) in I + RUDER | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Snake left in den after cutting tail off (7) |
| DWINDLE – WIND (snake) + L(eft) inside DE(n). Another really well-crafted clue | |
| 2 | Scholar develops a manic idea with maximum speed (11) |
| ACADEMICIAN – *(A MANIC IDEA + C) with C being the speed of light, which our puny science still considers to be the maximum possible. Unlike myriad science fiction writers .. I’m an Ian M Banks fan, myself, try one of his if you want to see what technology can really do. Hydrogen Sonata, or the Player of Games .. | |
| 3 | Retired boxer who refused to fight at Penge finally hit back (9) |
| RETALIATE – RET(ired) + ALI + AT + (Peng)E. The bit about refusing to fight feels a bit gratuitous to me now, and adds little to the clue. I’ve always felt that whether right or wrong, being a conscientious objector took more courage than going along with the majority. | |
| 4 | Where you may find content in dictionary despicable (7,8) |
| BENEATH CONTEMPT – A CD, if you look in a dictionary you will find it is indeed so | |
| 6 | Urban wheels revealed? (8) |
| RUNABOUT – *(URBAN) + OUT (revealed). A semi &lit, I suppose. Don’t country folk have runabouts too? Discuss.. | |
| 7 | Product perhaps unique to Asian light industry? (7,7) |
| CHINESE LANTERN – I think just a CD, and potentially inaccurate; except that absolutely any cheap consumer item I buy these days seems to come from Asia, specifically China, so perhaps not .. | |
| 8 | Taken on in the case that communist imports ecstasy (10) |
| SHOULDERED – E(cstasy) in SHOULD (in the case that) + RED (communist) | |
| 9 | Haar coming from south-east a worry (3,4) |
| SEA FRET – SE + A FRET (worry). Haar and fret, both nautical words meaning fog or mist, beloved of crossword folk. | |
| 10 | Fantasise about barricade put round (5) |
| DREAM – RE (about) in DAM (barricade) | |
| 11 | Suck up taste of vindaloo left abandoned (5,6) |
| CURRY FAVOUR – CURRY F(l)AVOUR .. not that actual flavour has much to do with a vindaloo, it is more about heat, and I don’t mean temperature. (Cue painful reminiscences of the vindaloo races I occasionally took part in, as a student) | |
| 12 | Penny added to endless small items — like raisins? (3-5) |
| SUN-DRIED – SUNDRIE(s) + D (an old penny). Librae, solidi, denarii = LSD. | |
| 13 | Inflexible leader lost argument (4) |
| TIFF – (s)TIFF) | |
| 20 | Everything peripheral to First Lady needed for test (1,5) |
| A LEVEL – EVE (first lady, according to myth) in ALL | |
| 21 | Old boy in tight trio constant, like mechanical man? (7) |
| ROBOTIC – OB in *(TRIO + C). The anagrind being tight, as in inebriated. Although I usually just fall asleep | |
| 22 | Stop going in either direction (4,2) |
| PULL UP – a palindrome | |
| 24 | Replacing of erne that’s taken out faster bird of prey (9,6) |
| PEREGRINE FALCON – *(REPLACING OF ERNE). This is one that has taken me a while to parse .. a peregrine is indeed a very fast bird, when it wants to be. But only when it is plummeting. Pfft, we can all plummet, once anyway. The fastest flier in level flight turns out to be a bat. Who knew? | |
| 26 | Cripes! Trouble with root vegetable amongst cabbage? Possible culprit (8,6) |
| COLORADO BEETLE – Another tricky one. LOR (cripes!) + ADO (trouble) + BEET (root vegetable), all inside COLE (cabbage). The only coles I knew were Nat King and Old King, but our setter has the dictionaries well on side. And potatoes, a root crop, is what the beetle dotes on. | |
| 27 | Shelter Yankee in a squalid neighbourhood (6) |
| ASYLUM – Y (NATO alphabet) in A SLUM | |
| 29 | I really put the sauce away in elementary form (7) |
| ISOTOPE – I SO TOPE | |
| 31 | Asian runner, fierce cruel person, is losing energy (6) |
| TIGRIS – TIG(e)R IS. Runner, as opposed to banker, or flower .. | |
| 33 | Somehow certain to engage cleaner as appropriate (2,9) |
| IN CHARACTER – CHAR (cleaner) in *(CERTAIN) | |
| 35 | Wary about dangerous switching (2,4,5) |
| ON ONES GUARD – ON (about) + *(DANGEROUS) | |
| 36 | Greek character first in queue sees barbarian (10) |
| PHILISTINE – PHI (Greek character) + IST (first) in queue (LINE). Philistine is a word employed as an insult, often by folk who know nothing whatsoever about the tribe concerned.. ironically. | |
| 40 | Whose words may lead to action? (9) |
| SLANDERER – CD. | |
| 41 | Letter also featured in comical write-up (8) |
| LANDLORD – AND (also) in DROLL (comical) rev. | |
| 42 | Attempts made to contain old boozer in cups (8) |
| TROPHIES – O PH (public house) in TRIES (attempts) | |
| 44 | Message left in European skiing area (7) |
| EPISTLE – L(eft) in E + PISTE | |
| 46 | Tool causing catastrophe in works? (7) |
| SPANNER – a CD. Presumably at some point, somebody did actually drop one into the works? | |
| 48 | Management notice time is short (5) |
| ADMIN – AD (notice) + MIN(ute) | |
| 50 | Iodine in decay gives dazzling display (4) |
| RIOT – I(odine) in ROT. “It was a riot of colour.” | |
Edited at 2021-05-01 05:12 am (UTC)
Had heard of coleslaw, though not cole slaw
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a. in the final check I didn’t like my own word ICONAHEDRON. So I looked it up and was able to change the C to S before submitting
b. a fluke, where BOAR was put right without me paying attention, and
c. Kurma, I guess, a silly typo in 4dn
So I finished with one pink square. Discussion in a recent blog about the number of muses helped with 20ac. COD DWINDLE
MADE UP is just an expression meaning happy. See OED: ‘Irish English and British regional (esp. Liverpool). Surprised and delighted; very pleased, thrilled’.