Jumbo 1011 – I know todays is 1014, but this was only two weeks ago, honest!

Author   fathippy2Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Standard fare, with a few unknown words or ideas thrown in along the way. Fell into the trap at 49D of confidently writing in BRASS with no checkers in place and then puzzled a bit over the acrosses in that corner. There seemed to be a lot less across clues than normal, which suggests more long answers, but I am not sure this means much!

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Across
1 AFRESH – S=succeeded in EH=what, after A FR=father=priest. The whole is “again”
5 CAPABLE – PA=secretary in CABLE=computer connection
9 DUTY PAID – DUTY=work, I=one enters PAD=bedsit, for “with no tax outstanding”, which may not be totally correct if we assume duty to be a subset of “tax”, but that is just being picky!!
13 BE TOLD WHERE ONE GETS OFF – double def/slightly tongue in cheek.
14 HEIRLESS – sounds like “airless” for close.
15 TESSERA – Tess Durbeyfield (for the ill-educated such as myself) is the eponymous heroine of the “of the D’urbevilles”
16 SPOONY – (gu)Y after SPOON for the old golf club.
17 ASPIDISTRA – (par its said)*
20 PESTILENTIAL – (little spanie)* the whole being “bothersome”
23 EMMA – Lady Emma Hamilton was the mistress of Nelson, and Emma is also a book
24 MILKMAID – weak cryptic as long as you have 5D already as COWES !
26 MICRODOT – MI=intelligence, ROD = staff, in COT=bed. Need to lift and separate “Intelligence Staff”
29 PARENTHESISE – (inset phrase)* then E(nglish)
30 TASKMASTER – ASK=seek, inside T(ottenha)M, then ASTER=plant, for the “hard boss”
32 DISBELIEVE – BELIE=disguise, next to S(quadron), inside DIVE=sleazy bar
34 CROSS CURRENT – labradoodle is a CROSS breed, CURRENT is present.
36 FOOTSTEP – FOOT’s then PET reversed, where pet clued by dog is signalled by the ?
38 DALESMAN – SALESMAN is the representative, loses head before reapplying D.
39 PAGE – double def – one a character from Merry wives of Windsor
41 WAREHOUSEMAN – WAR=conflict, HOUSEMAN=doctor, around E for drug.
43 CANZONETTA – ZONE=area, inside CANT(a)TA= choral work, rejecting A, for the Italian “simple song”
44 RUFFLE – double def
46 ORTOLAN – Joe ORTON is the English playwright, around LA the US city. The whole is “bunting” as a bird
48 TINSELLY – SELL=”be snapped up” in TINY=minute (with a different sound to the surface)
50 TRIP THE LIGHT FANTASTIC – TRIP=tour, THE LIGHT=underweight people, FANTASTIC=great. The whole is “dance”. Quite a nice succinct way of cluing so many different parts, although I am not sure I have ever heard of the idea of “the light” for underweight.
51 PRISONER – PRISER=”one who wielded a jemmy”, around ON, the definition is “being, arrested” as in arrested person.
52 EMPIRES – MP=politician, in EIRE=republic, before S(ubvert)
53 LADDER – double def, with the misleading part being the hose for the firefighting item, or the garment.

Down
2 FABLE – FAB=super, LE=french article
3 EXTERMINATE – (v)ERMIN = pests initially disregarded, in EX TATE=old gallery. whole is “destroy”
4 HELVETIA – HE=male, VET=surgeon, AIL=worry, reversed around VET.
5 COWES – Jersey and Guernsey are types of cows, as well as the sorts of locations you may find yachts!. COWES has a well known regatta of its own.
6 PLECTRA – CT=court, with R=right, inside PLEA=itself!! The plucky types being guitarists. I suspect cluing plea without a synonym was okay given the relatively lesser known answer, or perhaps as a double-crossing trick, but it felt a bit wrong to me ??
7 BREASTPLATE – R=resistance, in BEAST=animal, then PLATE=river in South America.
8 ERNIE – ERNE=sea eagle, around I=island. The definition “One regularly drawing” refers to the well known computer that “draws” the winning premium bonds numbers. I believe it stands for Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment !
9 DOGMATISM – A setter would sit on a “DOG MAT”, then IS M(emorable) for the bigotry. It is an oft used trick to interchange the setter as the crossword writer, and as the dog.
10 TITUS – hidden in (though)T IT US(eful). This uses a common trick for hidden words which is to run them over two lines to make it harder to see.
11 PROPORTIONS – PRIONS=infectious agents, around O=old, PORT=seaside town. Did not know the word PRIONS, so this was one of the last few in.
12 INFANTA – IN=elected, FAN=supporter, TA=cheers, for the Spanish Princess.
18 SIMPATICO – IMP=little devil, inside (a cot is)* for congenial.
19 TRIREME – TRI sounds like try=essay, RE, ME are engineers
21 SEDITIOUS – EDITIO(n) = issue briefly, inside S, US = south america
22 ENCOMIUM – EN= in, french, CO=company, MUM=silent, about I, for the panygeric
25 KAISERDOM – (so i marked)*
27 OVERNIGHT – OVERSIGHT=supervision, with N(ursery) replacing S(on) for “Sudden”
28 STILETTO – L IT = large italian, raised inside SET TO = argument
31 SUSTAIN – (its a)* inside SUN=paper. Whole is “Bear”
33 BUTTERFLIES – double definition, a copper being a type of butterfly
34 COLONELSHIP – CO=senior officer, L=left, inside LONE SHIP=unescorted vessel. Definition is just “Rank”
35 REPRESENTED – DEER=browsers, possibly, raised around PRESENT=here, for the whole of “stood for”
37 PISTOLEER – Didnt know this reference, but PISTOL is a Shakesperean character who was an ensign. Add E’ER for perpetually, and you get the armed soldier.
40 CORNWALL – O=old, RN=royal navy=sailors, CALL=invitation around, for the Duchy.
42 ABUTTER – A BUTTER is a goat as in “an animal that butts”. An ABUTTER is something that ABUTS, such as a neighbour.
43 CONIFER – CONFER = exchange views, outside I(ndonesian), for the tree.
45 EATEN – ATE=consumed, in E and N. “and generally” suggests that it (consumed) is the definition also.
47 TRIPE – double def.
48 TUNIS – (n suit)*
49 LUCRE – (pu)R(se) inside LUCE = big fish. I suspect this was clued to lure people into putting in BRASS (which works also, but does not fit with the other clues). I did exactly this early on, which delayed matters for 48A, 50A and 53A !!

2 comments on “Jumbo 1011 – I know todays is 1014, but this was only two weeks ago, honest!”

  1. Straightforward, as you say Marcos. I didn’t fall into the BRASS trap, probably simply through having solved the even easier 53ac first.

    Thank you for your efforts over the last year. The jumbo blogger’s job seems a particularly thankless one since not only is it twice the usual size, but also the long time lag before publication means that they attract fewer comments. Often I can’t remember much about the thing by the time the blog comes out, but I do always look at them and do appreciate them!

  2. A speedy 44′, with 11d my LOI (after the BSE problem, I’d have thought ‘prion’ had entered the common vocabulary). I think we’ve had ERNIE once before; still, I had to look it up to make sure, although the checkers and wordplay made it pretty definite. For some reason I thought that Nelson’s mistress was Anna, and it took me a long time, and solving 18d, to get wise.
    I second Jerry’s comments on the Jumbo bloggers. Especially as I almost always have questions on a couple of the clues, I make a point of making notes and holding on to the puzzle until blogging day, and I’m always enlightened.

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