Clock stopped at just over the half-hour mark, which is about my normal time for a Jumbo, so by that measure this wasn’t too difficult. However, there was plenty of nice stuff, including some which wasn’t entirely straightforward, either in solving, or in parsing, or both.
With Jumbos, which attract a far smaller audience than daily puzzles, I generally confine myself to discussion of answers which I think are a) less straightforward for inexperienced or non-UK based solvers, or b) especially elegant / questionable. In other words, unless it’s an exceptionally interesting puzzle, the coverage is unlikely to be 100%; however, as always, if a particular clue is not discussed, please feel free to raise it in comments for explanation or discussion.
Across | |
---|---|
1 |
COCKFIGHT – (F |
6 |
POMPOUS – POMPO |
14 | TARANTASS – TAR(road surfacing), ANT(worker), ASS(donkey). Again, my knowledge wasn’t up to this one; while I know (mostly from crosswords) the gig, the phaeton, the brougham and the tanga, I didn’t know this Russian carriage. |
15 | INLAYER – I assumed (correctly) that a Dorking is a type of hen, thus “layer”; for the third time very early in the puzzle, I was taking something on trust from the wordplay. |
17 | PAFREY – ALF(the generic chap, not that you get so many Alfs around these days) in PREY. |
18 | ROSTROPOVITCH – (PROVOST)* in (CHOIR)*. At last, one I did know! Seriously, I imagine even non-musicians would have at least heard the name, and the anagram makes it easier to spell correctly. |
20 | LICENTIOUS – IOU in “LI CENTS”. Obviously nobody in real life would describe 51 cents using Roman numerals, but this is a good playful clue. |
23 | ALIAS – A LIAS. Another where my knowledge was up to the task (like a lot of my knowledge, it stems from a pub, in this case The Blue Lias on the Grand Union Canal in Warwickshire). |
24 |
GOLDSMITH – G |
28 | GHOSTWRITER – a clue which is nearly all definition (“the second involved in an autobiography”); I was on the wrong trail thinking it must be Henry James, then realised it’s M.R. (also not to be confused with E.L., a very different genre altogether). |
30 | SECRETARIAL – SECRET, ARIAL. I tend to think of popular fonts as being ancient, but Arial has only been around since 1982, it seems. |
38 | EXCEL =”XL”. More Roman numerals; for those puzzled about the surface, as well as being the Roman general, Pompey is Portsmouth FC (these days doubling their score is not hard as they lurk at the wrong end of the Football League). |
41 | TRAITOR’S GATE i.e. Fawkes would walk with a “traitor’s gait”. This is the river entrance to the Tower of London from the Thames. |
45 |
STAMINA – ANIMATES, reversed without the |
46 |
INVALID – AL (Capone) in IN VID |
49 | BRITANNIA – as seen on various British coins for centuries, and in the patriotic “Rule Britannia”. |
52 |
ROGUE – to PROROGUE is to suspend a (Parliamentary) session, remove the PRO |
53 |
DEAD END – DE |
54 | ELECTORAL – ELECT(“future”, as in President Elect), ORAL(“test”). |
Down | |
3 |
FATTY – |
4 | GUMDROP – MD in (GROUP)*. Not sure if gumdrops are still eaten these days, or have the sweets themselves gone the way of the expression “Goody goody gumdrops” (popular when I was young, though that is sadly now some decades past…)? |
5 |
TAN – |
6 | PROBOSCIS – PRO B.O.S, (SIC)rev. &lit. |
8 | OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND – a cryptic way of saying that you can get “sighs” and “mine” out of “SIGHT” and “MIND” if you get the last letter wrong. |
9 |
SCRUPLE – SCRUB PLEB without B |
10 | SINGLETON – i.e. SING and LET ON are both ways of saying “give the game away”. |
11 | CLAIRVOYANT – (ACTORVAINLY)*. Madame Arcati (with an “i” rather than a “y”) is the clairvoyant in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. The explanation for the mysterious spelling can be found in a comment made under a LJ post by Tony Sever of this parish, in which the editor holds his hands up to this and a number of other charges. Worth a read, if you don’t already look at his blog. |
16 | CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA – (ARNESCUTCAVALLIARIA)*; it’s a well-conceived long anagram, though with the enumeration and all those “A”s, it rather leaps off the page if you know the work. |
19 |
RISIBLE – R |
22 | DIGGER – DIG(“like”), (REG)rev. |
24 | GALLANT – if you’ve read your Hornblower or Patrick O’Brian you’ll be able to tell your topgallant from your spinnaker, which is always useful in Crossword Land. |
31 | CALCULATING – CALLING(“profession”), with the abbreviations CU(copper) and AT(admin trainee) interpolated at different points. A.T. seemed like a frankly made-up abbreviation, but it is, of course, there in Chambers. |
35 | CARTILAGE – a rather roundabout definition (by which I mean there are lots of things which are firm and white which aren’t cartilage), but obviously there’s no law that says definitions have to be direct and obvious. |
40 | LEARNED – LEAR(old king) NED(=Edmund). One of those compact clues with several words which can indicate different things, so still taking a while to unpick the required ones. |
43 |
ETHICAL – take the MCP away from the start of |
44 |
AVENUE – A VENU |
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