Unfortunately Dave Perry has had to cut back on his blogging activities so I will be doing the 0/5 Jumbos going forward. I wish Dave all the best with his return to fitness.
I thought this was on the easy side – 15m55s. I prize entertainment over level of difficulty and there were several surfaces that tickled me so I was pleased on that score.
Please ask in the comments if you need further explanation.
|
Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 WHISTLE-STOP – WHIST (game) + LEST (in case) + OP (work). Chambers: “A small town or railway station, where trains stop only by signal” | |
| 7 ST JOHNS WORT – ST JOHNS (there’s a St John’s college at both Oxford and Cambridge) + WORT{h} (no end of value). The Hypericum genus. | |
| 13 HATE CRIME – (TEACHER I’M)* | |
| 14 COP SHOP – P{robe} + S{uspect} + H{eld}, all inside COOP (cage). Semi-&lit. | |
| 15 LOINS – IN (At home) in LOS{s} (defeat cut off) | |
| 16 BREWER – dd, the first referring to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | |
| 17 MORIBUND – RIB (Bone) in MOUND (tumulus) | |
| 18 ENCHAIN – I (one) in ENCHAN{t} (entrance briefly) | |
| 20 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI – (GASTRO-ENTERITIS BLED A)*. Amusing surface. | |
| 23 GO TO POT – dd, the second jocular | |
| 24 TANK TOP – dd, the second slightly cryptic | |
| 26 YOU WAIT – dd | |
| 28 OMEN – OM (order) + {t}EN (a number to be executed) | |
| 29 OMISSION – O (No) + MISSION (purpose). The sin of not doing something one ought to do, versus a sin of commission where one does something one shouldn’t do. | |
| 32 SIMULACRA – MUSICAL* + RA | |
| 35 SCORE DRAW – SCORED (scraped) + RAW (bleeding), definition “Maybe one all”, i.e. 1-1 | |
| 36 HOARDING – O (love) in HARDING (Warren Harding, 29th POTUS, perhaps voted into power on the strength of his looks rather than his abilities) | |
| 37 SNAG – S (small) + NAG (horse) | |
| 39 NOTEPAD – NOTE (Observe) + PAD (home). The block refers to a block of paper. | |
| 41 UPGRADE – UP (in the air) + GRADE (level out gently) | |
| 44 REALIST – SALTIRE* | |
| 45 TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA – Mercutio and Tybalt both appear in Romeo and Juliet, which is set in Verona, hence they may be considered two gentlemen of Verona, but they aren’t in the play called Two Gentlemen of Verona. | |
| 49 OATMEAL – {c}OAT (jacket, not cape) + MEAL (dinner) | |
| 50 CONTRACT – CONTRA (guerrilla, in particular in Nicaragua in the ’80s) + CT (court) | |
| 51 PRESTO – R (Run) in PESTO (sauce) | |
| 53 FINAL – FIN (part of fish) + A + L{ot} | |
| 54 BRACING – B (British) + RACING (sport) | |
| 55 SPECULATE – ECU (Coin) + L (left), all inside SPATE (rush) | |
| 56 BRANDS HATCH – BRANDS (Marks) + HATCH (entrance) | |
| 57 ST DAVIDS DAY – cryptic definition, where “March one” should be interpreted as March 1st. | |
|
Down |
|
| 1 WAHABI – W (with) + A + HABI{t} (short robe). An adherent of a conservative strain of Islam. | |
| 2 IN THE LAST RESORT – dd, the second cryptic and referring to the situation of having multiple attempts at an anagram until the “last re-sort” brings success | |
| 3 TICKER TAPE – TICKER (Watch) + TAPE (end of race, i.e. the tape at the finish line) | |
| 4 EPIC – double definition, the first cryptic (referring to the prefix e- being applied to computer-related stuff, hence a film on a computer might be an e-pic) and the second an example of an epic film. | |
| 5 THE HOBBIT – THE HOB BIT (My ferret sunk its teeth in me), where a hob is a male ferret. Another fun surface. | |
| 6 PUCCINI – IN + ‘ICCUP (spasm commonly) reversed | |
| 7 SEPTUPLET – SEPT (Ninth month, i.e. September) + UP (complete) + LET (allow) | |
| 8 JIHAD – J (Judge) + HAD (was obliged), all round I (one) | |
| 9 HAPLESSLY – HAPLY (Maybe once, though Chambers gives no indication that this is archaic) around LESS (smaller quantities) | |
| 10 SOLICITOUSLY – SOLICITO{r} (Lawyer endlessly) + SLY (crafty), all around {co}U{rt} ( | |
| 11 ORIGAMI – cd, where “tears” needs to be read as “rips” rather than “lachrymal secretions”. Paper creations involving cuts are generally called kirigami. | |
| 12 TISANE – TIS (It’s) + AN + E (energy) | |
| 19 EGG TIMER – EG (Say) + (ME GRIT)* | |
| 21 OPPOSED – POSED (Asked) beneath OP (work) | |
| 22 STRAIGHT – ART (cunning) reversed in SIGHT (view) | |
| 23 GROUSING – GRO{w} (Shortly mature) + USING (by means of) | |
| 25 NEIGH – NEIGH{bours}, a reference to the Australian soap opera that’s been running for nearly 30 years. Another good surface. | |
| 27 ASCENSION ISLAND – semi &lit, the “rising” in the clue giving us ASCENSION and the island is small so might be seen as a speck. | |
| 30 SAWDUST – cd, where “horse” needs to be read as the carpentry apparatus | |
| 31 NYALA – hidden in aNY ALAcrity. A type of antelope, though not as fast as its open-plain brethren. | |
| 33 MANGROVE – ANGR{y} (No end annoyed) in MOVE (transplant) | |
| 34 JET-PROPELLED – an amusing cd | |
| 38 FAIRGROUND – F{rom} + AIR (sky) + GROUND (earth) | |
| 40 DJELLABAH – D (daughter) + JELL (set) + A + BAH (disgruntled expression). An Arabic cloak with a hood, wide sleeves, and several different spellings. | |
| 42 GREENWICH – GREEN (Jealous) + WI{t}CH (hag, heartless), and a reference to GMT | |
| 43 EXORCISED – EXCISE (tax) around OR (men), + {delighte}D | |
| 45 TITANIA – AIN’T IT around {se}A, reversed. The largest of the moons of Uranus. | |
| 46 ENRAGES – (GREEN AS)* | |
| 47 CONFAB – the Conservative party presumably regards themselves as fabulous, hence a putative slogan for them might be “Con fab” | |
| 48 COMELY – COY (shy) around ME + L (length) | |
| 50 COAST – A (article) in COST (price) | |
| 52 DERV – hidden in unDERValued | |
Failed to parse 40dn or 45dn properly, though solved OK. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or used the word “jell,” as opposed to gel