Jumbo 1195

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
A rare (for me) sub-10m solve for this one, suggesting it was at the easy end of the difficulty spectrum, though no less enjoyable for that. My unknowns (e.g. the Dickensian heroine in 26A) all came in clues that were either biffable or had generous wordplay.

* = anagram, dd = double definition, {} = omission

Across
1 KIDNAPPED – KID (Young ‘un) + NAPPED (dropped off), for the Robert Louis Stevenson work that was apparently aimed at a younger audience, hence the definition: “novel for a boy”
6 ARSENAL – S (Point, i.e. south) in ARENA (field), + L (large)
10 CADET – {mus}CADET, where mu is our Greek character and Muscadet is the French wine
13 SERVICE CHARGE – SERVICE (overhaul) + CHARGE (accusation), definition: “Restaurant may have one”
14 INANIMATE – INN (tavern) + I (one) around (visited by) A, + MATE (friend)
15 MACHETE – ACHE (long) + {shaf}T (shaft ultimately) in ME
16 DELILAH – DELI (food store) + reversal of HAL (Henry)
17 SALTIRE – SALT (sailor) + IRE (Wrath)
18 ROOM AT THE TOP – (METAPHOR OTTO)*, for the John Braine work
20 IRONMONGER – IRON (golf club), + reversal of RE (touching) + GNOM{e} (short garden ornament). A surface not entirely bereft of clunk.
23 BEANO – to vote against is to BE A NO. The party definition is short for beanfeast.
24 MISTLETOE – (STOLE ITEM)*
25 ART FORM – hidden in MozART FOR Maria
26 TRENT BRIDGE – TRENT (Dickens’ heroine, i.e. Nell Trent from The Old Curiosity Shop) + BRIDGE (to cross), to give the home of Nottinghamshire CCC
28 PRETTY WOMAN – PRETTY (kind of) + W (Western) + MAN (chap) around O{scars} (first of Oscars), for the Richard Gere/Julia Roberts film
30 HOUSEKEEPER – U (posh) in HOSE (stockings), + KEEPER (one between posts, i.e. goalkeeper)
32 SNOWBOARDER – SOW (broadcast) about N (new), + BOARDER (one getting on)
34 RADICAL – RADIAL (spoke) about C{hange} (onset of change)
36 OVERRATES – a cricket statistician may record OVER RATES. A similar clue cropped up in the Quick Cryptic last Monday.
38 PRUNE – P (soft) + RUNE (Old character)
39 DEAD WEIGHT – DEAD (no more) + W (with) + EIGHT (crew)
41 LAVENDER-BLUE – END (object) inside LAVER (seaweed), + BLUE (down). I’ve only come across the seaweed in laver bread.
45 MINORCA – MI (note) + NOR (and not) + CA (California). There was some harrumphing on the forum that this could equally well be Menorca, as both the island and the note can be spelled with an e, though as Menorca is the Spanish name I would have expected some indication of this if the English name was not what was required.
46 NOISOME – NOISE (sound) around reversal of MO (second), definition: “Humming”
47 RECYCLE – RE{d} (mostly red) + CYCLE (bike)
49 SUSPICION – dd, the latter starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine
50 IN THE SAME BOAT – the wordplay is a reference to Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat, who “went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat”
52 NUDGE – G{lass} (Glass initially) in NUDE (bare)
53 EAST END – {f}EAST (Fine leaving festival) + END (aim)
54 ARTEMISIA – ARTEMIS (Goddess) + I (one) + A, for the genus including wormwood
Down
1 KASHMIR – homophone of CASH, + reversal of RIM (border)
2 DIRECTORATE – DIRECT (point) + ORATE (hold forth)
3 ARISE – A + RISE (slope)
4 PRESENT – dd
5 DOH – DO (Deal with) + H (hospital)
6 APRIL FOOL – (POOL, FRAIL)*
7 STELLA – TELL (to instruct) in SA (Salvation Army)
8 NEITHER HERE NOR THERE – dd, the first literal the second figurative. This cropped up in exactly the same place in the same day’s Jumbo Concise – I think there are different editors for the concise and cryptic puzzles, in which case this is simply a coincidence.
9 LIAISON – reversal of AIL (Trouble), + I (one) + SON (disciple)
10 CHILLS OUT – CH (church) + OUT (abroad) around ILLS (troubles)
11 DRAWING ROOM – DRAW (Sketch) + IN (popular) + GROOM (stable lad)
12 THEME – THE (article) + ME (Middle East)
16 DRESSED UP TO THE NINES – reverse anagram (is that the name for it?) where if TO THE NINES was “dressed up” then you would get NOT IN THESE
19 APOSTLE – {m}ALE (male heading off) around POST (letters). None of the usual sources give the exact messenger=apostle equivalence, but it doesn’t require an enormous leap of the imagination.
21 ROMANY RYE – reversal of OR, + MANY (a lot) + RYE (whiskey), definition: “One having the gypsy spirit”. Chambers has: “A man who associates with gypsies, though not one himself”
22 STAPES – S{urgeons} (Foremost of surgeons) + TAPES (measures), for the stirrup-shaped bone in the ear
23 BUTCHERED – (DUTCH BEER)* Lovely surface!
24 MARVELL – MARVEL (Wonder) about L (Lake), for Andrew Marvell of Time’s winged chariot fame
25 ANTIBES – I + BE (live) in {H}ANTS (Hampshire, not hot), for the town between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera
27 EARNED – ED (editor) around ARNE (composer), definition: “Took home”
29 WRAPPER – W (western) + RAPPER (hip-hop artist)
31 UNDIAGNOSED – (SAID DUNGEON)*
33 DOUBLE-CROSS – DOUBLE (twin) + CROSS (trial, in the sense of suffering)
35 COWARDICE – COWARD (playwright) + ICE (reserve)
37 READOPTED – READ (scan) + OPTED (elected)
40 IMAGINE – G{oods} (goods originally) in I (capital of Iowa) + MAINE (US state)
42 DORMANT – R (rook) + MAN (chess piece), all inside DOT (spot)
43 ELECTRA – ELECT (Choose) + RA (artist), for the character from Greek mythology who had a complex named after her
44 SIMILE – I inside SMILE (show amusement)
45 MASON – MAS (parent’s) + ON (leg)
48 CREAM – CRAM (Stuff) about E (English)
51 ERA – hidden in GERAldine

8 comments on “Jumbo 1195”

  1. I do feel 45ac was a poor clue, given that both the island and the note can be spelt either way. ODO gives MI only as a variant spelling of ME. And local place name spellings are often preferred these days, unless the setter also prefers Pekin and Ceylon?

    1. I can’t say I’d noticed that there was a trend towards using local spellings – certainly I haven’t seen any more occurrences of Roma, Sevilla, Lisboa, etc floating around than before, but that may just be the particular circles I move in. Ex-colonial name changes have happened for a variety of reasons (new transliteration systems, a desire to throw off the colonial past, etc), but the two examples you give have had other “English” names/spellings for decades now so if either of them were to appear in a crossword I would expect some indication that they had been superseded.

      Having said that, MENORCA did appear a couple of years ago in the ST Cryptic without any indication that it was the local spelling (though in that case the wordplay was unambiguous), so I have sympathy with the E brigade this time around – the editor hasn’t yet chimed in on the forum, so it’s not clear if both versions were accepted as valid answers.

      1. A quick google throws up the use of MENORCA in a recent Telegraph travel guide and on the websites of various travel agents, so it’s definitely in use.

        Edited at 2016-03-19 10:20 am (UTC)

        1. I’d noticed to my surprise when writing the blog that there were 6 times as many Google hits for MENORCA as for MINORCA. This made me wonder if there was some arena (e.g. the travel industry) in which the E spelling was becoming dominant but which didn’t intersect with my life, leaving me blissfully unaware that the I spelling might be on the decline.
          1. This shows that MINORCA is still much more common, and actually on the rise after a very long period of decline (try changing the start date to 1800).
  2. A rare sub-20 for me, which also indicates something at the easier end of the spectrum. When I checked through post-solve I found loads of typos for some reason: at least half a dozen. However I managed to miss two of them: NEITHER HERE NOT THERE and ARTEMESIA. I’ve no idea how I missed the first. I don’t know how to spell ARTEMISIA so the second is less surprising, but I know perfectly well how to spell ‘Artemis’. All in all not my finest hour, solving-wise.
    I had no idea MINORCA could be spelled any other way so the ambiguity passed me by completely, but it is unfortunate.
  3. A rare sub-1 hour for me, so quite easy. Is the BEANO comic still around? Used to read it in the seventies, I gather the DANDY folded up a few years ago. Does slaughtered mean drunk re 23d? (Ong’ara, Nairobi, Kenya )
    1. Yes, the Beano is still going – my youthful reading was The Victor and Smash Hits, both of which are now defunct. And slaughtered does indeed mean drunk.

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