One clue apart, an enjoyable puzzle overall, with the usual couple of things which had to be guessed / deduced from wordplay; this seems to happen to me more with Jumbos than the daily puzzle, though of course that may just because there are more clues in every puzzle, rather than more obscurity. My main query is that there’s something which seems to me to be an actual error, though I wait to be corrected on that one…
With Jumbos, which attract a far smaller audience than daily puzzles, I generally confine myself to discussion of answers which I think might be a) less straightforward for inexperienced or non-UK based solvers, or b) especially elegant / questionable. However, as always, if a particular clue is not discussed, please feel free to raise it in comments for explanation or discussion.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | SOLID-STATE – SO(very much),LID(top),STATE(say). The height of technology in its day. |
6 | OPEN SANDWICH – The (British) Open in golf is held at a roster of seaside venues, one of which is Sandwich in Kent, and Scandinavian cuisine famously includes the open-faced sandwich as part of a smorgasbord. |
17 | PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE – (LIP)rev. + GRIM AGE OF GRACE. I remembered this from school, a Northern rebellion against Henry VIII and his religious reforms. |
18 | OZONE – I suppose meaning that it weighs 1 oz. I can’t put my finger on why I found this a bit weak. |
21 | TIFFIN – (NIFF IT)rev. Anglo-Indian term for any sort of light meal during the day, except in Carry On up the Khyber, when it has a saucier connotation. |
22 | ACCENTOR – (ACONCERT)*; though I didn’t know it, it was the only sensible way to reassemble the anagram. I assumed it must be a human singer, along the lines of a cantor, but it turns out to be a family of songbirds. |
24 |
INTEGER – (GREETIN |
30 | COFFEE TABLE – i.e. TOFFEE CABLE Spoonerised; these sorts of clue don’t always work, but I quite liked this one. |
33 |
SWINGLETREE – W |
35 |
PHILANDERER – PH1(i.e. very acid), LAND(ground) ERE(before)R |
37 | LIES IN – (1’S)rev. inside LIEN(=right) |
38 | ZEPPELIN – as in Led Zeppelin, the popular beat combo, m’lud. |
39 | DADAISM – DAIS in DAM. |
42 | RUSH HOUR – cryptic def. |
43 |
INDIRA – R |
46 | CLOSE IN – double def., one of them being the cricketing one (I think we can safely say this setter is a cricket fan). A “silly” fielder is one placed close to the wicket, thus “silly point”, “silly mid on” etc. |
48 |
YOBBO – O |
49 | REDUNDANCY PAYMENT – cryptic def. I spent a long time thinking it must be some sort of electronic or automated payment. |
52 | JUICE – double def., with expressed as in “squeezed out”. |
53 | HYBRID TEA – HYBRID(cross) + (EAT)*. Even I, amidst my botanic ignorance, have heard of tea roses. |
54 | MEDICINE BALL – both words can be used to describe a pill, and put together they make the heavy exercise item. |
55 | BLUE ON BLUE – grim modern euphemism for casualties inflicted on troops by their own side. Here, and in the Crossword Club forum, there’s nearly always someone who hasn’t heard the meaning of “blue=waste” before, but it’s very much a staple of crossword land. |
Down | |
2 |
LOCAL – as in the modern abbreviation “LO |
5 | TONIGHT – (GOTTHIN)*; one of the things which reliably divides British people is what they call their mid-day/evening meals, but I think there would be consensus that supper only happens late in the day. |
9 | AMBIENCE – simply remove VAL from AMBI[VAL]ENCE. |
10 | DROP ONES GUARD – cryptic def.; of course, these days we don’t have guards, we have “on-board customer managers”, and…no, I’ll stop there. |
11 | INTROIT – 1 in IN(wearing) TROT(red, i.e. Trotskyist). |
12 | HORSE TRADER – because “greys” can be horses. I was looking for something to do with baby boomers or silver surfers to begin with. |
13 | CAMOUFLAGE – CAM(the river of Cambridge being an “academic stream” is an oldie but a goodie), O.U. FLAG(=[Oxford] university standard), E(=poor grade). A quick tour of Oxbridge there. |
20 | MET OFFICE – i.e. having MET OFF (the) ICE. The Meteorological Office is responsible for the British weather (forecasting it, that is; it would be unreasonable to expect them to create it). |
29 | COWARD – WAR(battle) in COD(fake) &lit. |
31 | ENGLISH GOTHIC – (CHOSELIGHTING)*. As exemplified by [insert mediaeval cathedral of your choice]; I think Salisbury is probably my favourite]. |
33 | SOLAR SYSTEM – LARS in SOY, STEM. I’m afraid the cleverness of the wordplay rather passed me by as it went in from a couple of checkers and definition. |
35 |
PALPITATES – so the wordplay is presumably [A L |
40 | DIONYSIAN – (NOISYANDI)*. |
41 | GUM RESIN – (RESUMING)*; I was familiar with the colour (solely from crossword usage) but this refers to the natural substance from which the colour is obtained. Once more, however, it had to be an anagram, and this was the only natural version of it. |
47 |
ODD JOB – (DO)rev., DJ, O |
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