JUMBO 1266 – Times for The Times

Hello, me again.

I’d categorise this puzzle as being on the easier side of average, taking 35 minutes including all parsings and some on-the-spot research. My first and last in were the diagonally opposite HEIR and EURO. Pipe up if you need the explanation for one of the few clues I’ve opted to omit.

Across
1	MATELOT – LOT after MATE
5	ARCHDUCAL – ARCH (knowing) + DU (of the French) + CAL(ifornia) with “Like an Austrian nobleman, maybe” being the def
10	HEIR – sounds like “air” (bearing)
14	THE NANNY STATE – NANNY’S (billy goat’s partner’s) in THE TATE
15	NORWEGIAN – (wearingno)* with buckles as the nicely integrated anagrind. Harald 1 (Harald Fairhair), the son of Halfdan the Black and Ragnhild, is regarded as the first king of Norway, ruling from 872-932.
16	CATTLE GRID – CD
17	SHOWERPROOF – if you SHOW E.R. PROOF you provide her Maj with evidence
18	CHINA – DD, China plate being cockney rhyming slang for mate
19	TELLERSHIP – TELLERS + HIP for a slightly arcane term for a bank clerk’s role
21	ANDEAN – A in A N(ew) DEN
24	YUCCA – YUC{k} then, according to preference, CA = circa = about with “a Mexican plant” the def, or C = about then A with just “Mexican plant” as the def.
26	OBSERVE – OB’S {n}ERVE
28	SERBO-CROATIAN – (abitcoarseron)*. I’m more used to seeing this language called just Serbo-Croat.
31	ENCRIMSON – (rinsecon)* around M. Not a word I’d encountered before but it didn’t take a huge leap of faith the assume it existed.
33	STRONGISH – ST + {w}RONGISH
35	SMOOTHING IRON – SMOOTH RON around (stopped by) IN G.I.
37	CANASTA – A ST in CANA
38	LODGE – DD. Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940) was a British physicist and writer who patented radio frequency tuning.
40	EIDER DUCK – sounds like “I’d a duck”
42	RESUME – RE (Royal Engineers) then SUM (come to as in total) then (plac)E. There were comments on the Club forum about the equivalence of SUM and COME TO but I reckon it’s just about close enough as they can both mean to total, add up to etc.
44	HEART-THROB – (hatbrother)* with “sporting” as the somewhat unusual anagrind.
46	CODED – ODE in CD, Corps Diplomatique being the internationally used French term for a body of diplomats rather than them being French necessarily
48	UNCONVENTIONAL – U.N. GENIAL around CON
50	BREADBOARD – BREAD for money + BOARD for managers, a bloomer being, in the UK, a crusty loaf of bread with rounded ends and slashes across the top
52	CAREERIST – CAREERS around I(sland) then T(ime)
54	EURO – {n}EURO{n}
55	ORCHESTRA – CHEST in O(ld) R(ight) R(everend) A(pplauded)

Down
1	MOTH – H(ard) under (overwhelmed by) M.O.T., the roadworthiness test for cars over 3 years old in the UK. Moth was one of the fairies in some play or other.
2	THERAPIST – RAP in THEIST
3	LEAST SAID SOONEST MENDEST – DD for rather quaint British saying. I enjoyed the image of the chat with the repairman.
4	TINIEST – I N.I. in TEST
5	AUSTRALASIA – A LAS{s} in AUSTRIA
6	CHANDLERY – CRY around HANDLE
8	CONSOLIDATE – CONS then (detail)*
9	LARDER – LADDER with R replacing the first D
11	EPISODE – E PIE around SOD
12	RING-FENCE – DD
13	KEEP ONES FINGERS CROSSED – A sort of hybrid CD/DD
18	CHASSIS – CHAS + SIS
20	SECONDO – SECOND + O(pening). The second or lower part in a duet or, presumably, the person playing or singing it.
22	GODCHILD – GO CHILD around D(enmark). Is it me or are there rather a lot of insertions in this puzzle?
27	RISER – E SIR reversed then R(ook)
29	RERUN – RE (about) then a reveral of N.U.R., what used to be the national union of wheeltappers, shunters and curly-cornered sandwich-makers.
32	NON-SKID – I wanted this to be non-slip at first but couldn’t get it to work, it’s NO KID around (iro)N (stud)S
34	HELLENISTIC – (she’llincite)*. Riots is a pleasing anagrind.
36	THE CRUEL SEA – an anagram of the answer to 49, LUCRE, stuffed inside an anagram of A SET HE
37	CARBUNCLE – CARB(olic) on UNCLE
39	ECTOBLAST – E C(riminal) TO BLAST. Ectoblast being the cells that make up the outer layer of the blastoderm, whatever that is.
41	UNDERLINE – UNDERLIN{g} + {fe}E{ls}
45	BODEFUL – what a lovely, woody word. BOD (bloke) the FUEL with the E raised.
49	LUCRE – And we finish with another insertion, C off of the NATO alphabet in LURE

2 comments on “JUMBO 1266”

john_dun says:

3 June 2017 at 12:44 PM

Took me 68:40 to get through this, but I messed up the language at 28a by biffing CROATION instead of checking the anagram fodder properly. I’ve been caught out that way before with Dalmatian and Alsatian, so I should have noticed. Doh! Mind you, like our blogger, I’ve always heard it referred to as Serbo Croat previously. Thanks setter and Penfold.
kevingregg says:

4 June 2017 at 2:58 AM

This doesn’t seem to have left much of an impression on me, as all I’ve got in the margins is ‘DNK’ by 53ac (COARSE FISHING), which apparently is well-enough known to others, and ‘COD’ at 50ac, which isn’t that stunning a clue, so I can see why I wasn’t impressed.

Comments are closed.