A puzzle with an interesting mix of vocab and of about average difficulty – apart from 8D, which is a cross-your-fingers-and-hope clue if you’ve never heard of the answer. Thanks to all the Jumbo setters, bloggers (Helen/Ian/John G/Simon/Tim), commenters (in particular Kevin and Chadwick – do take a bow), and lurkers for their contributions in 2016, and hoping for more of the same in 2017. Best wishes to all!
Definitions are underlined, omissions represented by {}, anagrams represented by *, cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition
| Across | |
| 1 | Problem with wickedness that may be brought to the table (3,7) |
| TEA SERVICE – TEASER (Problem) + VICE (wickedness) | |
| 6 | Organised soldiers highly esteemed when guarding treasury (12) |
| ORCHESTRATED – OR (soldiers) + RATED (highly esteemed), around CHEST (treasury) | |
| 14 | Profits in respect of stage acts (7) |
| RETURNS – RE (in respect of) + TURNS (stage acts) | |
| 15 | Tenant is the limit according to hearsay (7) |
| BOARDER – homophone of BORDER (limit) | |
| 16 | Seize the little devil ‘Arry (7) |
| IMPOUND – IMP (the little devil) + ‘OUND (‘Arry) | |
| 17 | Affectionate wife joining member (4) |
| WARM – W (wife) + ARM (member) | |
| 18 | Sailor travels west, smuggling a daughter aboard (3,3) |
| SEA DOG – reversal of GOES (travels), around A + D (daughter) | |
| 20 | Most ambitious actors will want it (4,4) |
| BEST PART – dd, the second literal | |
| 24 | All an old voter’s keen for in reforming President (8,6,9) |
| FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT – (ALL AN OLD VOTER’S KEEN FOR IN)* | |
| 25 | A little journey presumably for one of three children (7) |
| TRIPLET – whimsical interpretation attaching the –LET diminutive to TRIP (journey) | |
| 26 | Poetry by prisoner featured in talk (8) |
| CONVERSE – CON (prisoner) + VERSE (Poetry) | |
| 27 | Sleeping accommodation needed by a woman (6) |
| BERTHA – BERTH (Sleeping accommodation) + A | |
| 29 | A ruralist’s Eden represented in adventure story (8,6) |
| TREASURE ISLAND – (A RURALIST’S EDEN)* | |
| 31 | Religious pamphlet on hell gets one put off (8) |
| DISTRACT – DIS (hell) + TRACT (Religious pamphlet) | |
| 34 | One true to a cause, supporter of monarchy having changed sides initially (8) |
| LOYALIST – rOYALIST (supporter of monarchy) but with the initial r changed to an L (i.e. right changed to left) | |
| 36 | Trouble one’s got about flaming people deciding things in advance (14) |
| PREDESTINATION – PEST (Trouble) + I (one), around RED (flaming), + NATION (people) | |
| 39 | Thus restrict land tenure (6) |
| SOCAGE – SO (Thus) + CAGE (restrict), to give a word meaning (Chambers): “Feudal tenure of lands by service fixed and determinate in quality (other than military service)”. This seemed vaguely familiar, and I now see it appeared in a Mephisto in September. | |
| 41 | I stop going to factory: there’s a bit of pressure (8) |
| MILLIBAR – MILL (factory) + I + BAR (stop) | |
| 43 | One with views on race, quiet and godly person getting into row (7) |
| TIPSTER – P (quiet) + ST (godly person), in TIER (row) | |
| 46 | An experience wished upon bad drug supplier? (1,5,2,4,3,8) |
| A TASTE OF ONES OWN MEDICINE – sort of a cd using a literal interpretation of a figurative expression | |
| 47 | Like these clues making you stupefied — hesitation to get stuck in? (8) |
| NUMBERED – NUMBED (stupefied) around ER (hesitation) | |
| 48 | Cry endlessly in religious festival — one dropped to sleep? (6) |
| EYELID – YEL{l} (Cry endlessly) in EID (religious festival), with the definition implying that you drop your eyelids in order to sleep | |
| 49 | Tail useless ultimately, like a blind mouse? (4) |
| SCUT – {useles}S + CUT (referring to the de-tailed mice in the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice), the whole giving us (Chambers): “A short erect tail, as in a hare, rabbit or deer” | |
| 53 | Money one had in former times with monarch facing left (7) |
| PIASTRE – I (one) in PAST (former times), + reversal of ER (monarch), to give (Chambers): “A monetary unit in current or former use in several N African and Middle-Eastern countries, 1/100 of a (Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, etc) pound” | |
| 54 | Hard film director showing pride (7) |
| HAUTEUR – H (Hard) + AUTEUR (film director) | |
| 56 | Embassy official has no time for formal documentation (7) |
| DIPLOMA – DIPLOMA{t} (Embassy official has no time) | |
| 57 | Soldiers wanting meat, fixed allowance, signing up (12) |
| REGISTRATION – RE (Soldiers) + GIST (meat, as in the main point of something) + RATION (fixed allowance) | |
| 58 | Dressed like a ceremonial priest applying time and effort? (10) |
| INVESTMENT – a ceremonial priest might be IN VESTMENT | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Got angry as a result of an old story being talked about (5,1,3) |
| THREW A FIT – homophone of THROUGH (as a result of), + A FIT. Collins has as its third definition of fit: “archaic a story or song or a section of a story or song”, with Chambers giving fitt, fitte, and fytte as alternative spellings, so the homophone could also be considered as applying to story too. | |
| 2 | Change naturally follows as another option (13) |
| ALTERNATIVELY – ALTER (Change) + NATIVELY (naturally) | |
| 3 | Light brown, as shown by the crumpet (4) |
| ECRU – hidden in thE CRUmpet | |
| 4 | Everest — it tends to be tricky, a matter of personal concern (6,8) |
| VESTED INTEREST – (EVEREST IT TENDS)* | |
| 5 | Simple dwelling — home lacking vehicle (3) |
| CAB – CAB{in} (Simple dwelling – home lacking) | |
| 7 | Bad-mannered prig head got rid of (4) |
| RUDE – {p}RUDE (prig head got rid of) | |
| 8 | Jade ornament? (5,5) |
| HORSE BRASS – a nasty cd for an expression that is perhaps not that common, at least to those of us with little interest in horses, ornaments, or the intersection thereof. The crypticism lies in knowing that a jade is (Chambers) “a pitiful, worn-out horse”, giving a phrase meaning (Chambers) “A usu brass ornament of a kind hung on the harness of a horse”. Consider yourself unlucky if you plumped for anything like horse cross, horse crest, etc. | |
| 9 | One not drinking in old club: I may collect rejected wine (8) |
| SPITTOON – I (One) + TT (not drinking), in SPOON (old club – (Chambers): “An old-fashioned woodenheaded golf club with the face slightly hollowed, commonly used to refer to a three-wood”) | |
| 10 | Substitute in short second game given stick (11) |
| REPLACEMENT – REPLA{y} (short second game) + CEMENT (stick) | |
| 11 | Most reliable indication of decay, one found in examination (9) |
| TRUSTIEST – RUST (indication of decay) + I (one), in TEST (examination) | |
| 12 | Panel giving nothing to the old man (4) |
| DADO – DAD (old man) + O (nothing) | |
| 13 | Pain? Nothing, nothing to upset animal (8) |
| PANGOLIN – PANG (Pain) + O (Nothing) + reversal of NIL (nothing). Aka the scaly anteater. | |
| 19 | Used to pose insincerely, in charge of teaching (8) |
| DIDACTIC – DID ACT (Used to pose insincerely) + IC (in charge). The version of the puzzle on the Times site (as opposed to the Crossword Club) has “posed” instead of “pose” in the clue – no idea about the paper version. | |
| 21 | Accomplishments to execute when on board ship (6) |
| SKILLS – KILL (execute) in SS (ship) | |
| 22 | Bury man briefly deprived of freedom (8) |
| INTERNED – INTER (Bury) + NED (man briefly) | |
| 23 | Distress a feature when there’s little money about (8) |
| STRAITEN – TRAIT (a feature) in SEN (little money) | |
| 28 | What cassowary shows — something giving children amusement (3-2-3-6) |
| PIG-IN-THE-MIDDLE – I always knew this as piggy-in-the-middle but it wasn’t a stretch from that to the answer. The string of letters SOW (pig) can be seen in the middle of casSOWary. | |
| 29 | One summoned to court put last name incorrectly (8) |
| TALESMAN – (LAST NAME)*, to give (Chambers): “A bystander chosen to make up a deficiency in a jury”. Didn’t know this though the alternative anagrams all looked less likely. | |
| 30 | I’ll order changes, becoming more haughty (8) |
| LORDLIER – (I’LL ORDER)* | |
| 32 | Broadcaster could make mincemeat of one heartless racialist, OK? (8,5) |
| ALISTAIR COOKE – (O{n}E RACIALIST OK)*, to give us the man behind the radio series Letter From America, the (per Wikipedia) “longest-running speech radio programme in history” when it stopped in 2004 after nearly 58 years. Not sure I would have known this if my mother hadn’t had a book of his. | |
| 33 | Is Parisian on mountains to turn away? (8) |
| ESTRANGE – EST (Is Parisian) + RANGE (mountains) | |
| 35 | Allows one to join friends after walk (11) |
| LEGITIMATES – I (one) + MATES (friends) after LEG IT (walk, though the expression I think generally implies an element of briskness if not outright running) | |
| 37 | Family helper has a well-informed quality (2,4) |
| AU PAIR – A + UP (well-informed) + AIR (quality) | |
| 38 | Show respect with a bowler being rewarded? (3,4,3) |
| TIP ONES HAT – whimsical literal interpretation, making use of the fact that a bowler is a type of hat, and tipping is a reward for (good) service | |
| 40 | Workers in union cruelly treated (5,4) |
| CHAIN GANG – cd | |
| 42 | Bankrupt socialist negotiated (8) |
| BROKERED – BROKE (Bankrupt) + RED (socialist) | |
| 44 | Army recruit in a sort of valley (2-7) |
| RE-ENTRANT – an Army recruit could be a RE (Royal Engineers) ENTRANT. The definition is (Chambers): “A valley, depression, etc, running into a main feature”, which was unknown to me. | |
| 45 | One of an earlier generation to steer clear of reportedly (8) |
| FOREBEAR – homophone of FORBEAR (to steer clear of) | |
| 50 | Box left over last to go (4) |
| SPAR – SPAR{e} (left over last to go) | |
| 51 | Only 50% fair — cheat in sport (4) |
| JUDO – JU{st} (Only 50% fair) + DO (cheat) | |
| 52 | Second man or woman joining in quarrel (4) |
| SPAT – S (Second) + PAT (man or woman) | |
| 55 | Possibly an extra trip (3) |
| RUN – an extra in cricket could be a RUN | |
Horse brasses are those things you can’t move for in country pubs, but I wouldn’t have known the “jade” reference.
Snuck in under the hour (just) with this one, but was brought undone by a speculative HORSE CROSS. Would never have got any closer than that to solving it.
Happy solving, blogging and commenting in 2017 to all who frequent this sceptred site.
Thanks for the shout-out, John–and now I know you’re John–and for all the blogs; and best wishes for 2017.