Jumbo 1285

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
This was on the easier side for a Jumbo, I think, with some interesting vocab but no major conundrums. I didn’t know the colour at 6D but the checking letters steered the anagram in the right direction.

Definitions are underlined, * = anagram, {} = omission, dd = double definition

Across
1 Hurt fly (5)
SMART – dd, the second a slang meaning
4 Gripping device getting kid across slope (7)
CRAMPON – CON (kid) around RAMP (slope)
8 Run well within a corporation, there’s high growth (9)
ARBORETUM – R (Run) + BORE (well), in A + TUM (corporation – slang term for the stomach), with a slightly oblique definition in that the growths in an arboretum are trees, which are (relatively) high
13 Initial wage extremely terrible, prepare to attack (3,2,4)
LIE IN WAIT – (INITIAL W{ag}E)*
14 Ultimately unedifying, entire novel written about most indecent author (8,5)
GERTRUDE STEIN – {unedifyin}G + ENTIRE* around RUDEST (most indecent). Unlike her name, I can’t say that any of Stein’s works (e.g. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas) or quotations (e.g. “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”) are particularly familiar to me.
15 Recorder returning passport, noble for the most part (7)
DIARIST – reversal of ID (passport), + ARIST{o} (noble for the most part)
16 Request for model (7)
PROPOSE – PRO (for) + POSE (model)
17 Moment one monster and knight devoured by witch (3,4)
BIG BANG – BIG (monster – as an adjective), + N (knight) in BAG (witch), with a hard-to-spot definition. Spent a while on this one assuming that the witch was going to be hag.
18 Order designed, he’ll go with posh, long coat on him? (3,7,8)
OLD ENGLISH SHEEPDOG – (DESIGNED HE’LL GO + POSH)*
21 Head scratched in principled test (4)
ORAL – {m}ORAL (Head scratched in principled)
23 Soldier scoffing a coarse biscuit (9)
GARIBALDI – GI (Soldier), around A + RIBALD (coarse)
25 A mark on liner’s bow for a sailor (6)
LASCAR – L{iner} (liner’s bow) + A + SCAR (mark)
26 A pretentious type recalled current Japanese art (6)
BONSAI – reversal of A + SNOB (pretentious type), + I (current)
28 Legitimate place for further distribution (12)
REALLOCATION – REAL (Legitimate) + LOCATION (place)
30 Save dollar touring Central American nation (2,8)
EL SALVADOR – (SAVE DOLLAR)*
33 Darling, it figures, these are fancy (5,5)
PETIT FOURS – PET (Darling) + IT + FOURS (figures), to give the alternative plural of (Chambers): “A small very fancy biscuit”
34 Innocent chap thrown in the van (12)
PANTECHNICON – (INNOCENT CHAP)*, to give (Chambers): “A furniture van (in full pantechnicon-van)”
37 A report catching Labour’s leader out (6)
ABLOOM – A + BOOM (report) around L{abour} (Labour’s leader)
39 Retiring, an artist in Japanese city (6)
NAGOYA – reversal of AN, + GOYA (artist)
40 Flanked by a couple of maidens, king is after queen — a habit (9)
MANNERISM – ANNE (queen) + R (king) + IS, inside MM (a couple of maidens)
42 Fine dish not required with vegetable soup ingredient (4)
OKRA – OK (Fine) + RA{dish} (dish not required with vegetable), and a slightly odd definition (though Collins does have: “the pod of this plant, eaten in soups, stews, etc”)
43 Check certain to control strained setter (10,8)
REINFORCED CONCRETE – REIN (Check) + CONCRETE (Certain), around FORCED (strained)
46 Weak devil consumed by desire (7)
WIMPISH – IMP (devil) in WISH (desire)
47 State squeezing Louisiana, America, on part of a document? (7)
CLAUSAL – CAL (State, i.e. California), around LA (Louisiana) + US (America)
48 Willing to investigate cause of mischief? (7)
TESTATE – TEST (to investigate) + ATE (cause of mischief? – (Chambers): “The Greek goddess of mischief and of all rash actions and their results”)
50 Remarkably funny horse is a joy to be with (3,2,8)
RAY OF SUNSHINE – (FUNNY HORSE IS A)*. I always like these ridiculous surfaces.
51 Favourable feature of phone: roaming (9)
APPROVING – APP (feature of phone) + ROVING (roaming)
52 Farm building enclosing field and lake in a peculiar way (9)
STRANGELY – STY (Farm building), around RANGE (field) + L (lake)
53 More than one adder proceeds uncertainly (7)
TOTTERS – dd, the first requiring you to realise that someone who adds is someone who tots
54 Finally, code opening case (5)
EVENT – {cod}E (Finally, code) + VENT (opening)
Down
1 South African dog struggling during run, one’s not eating healthily? (5,6)
SALAD DODGER – SA (South African), + LADDER (run) around DOG*, to give a facetious expression that, of the usual sources, only Chambers and Roger’s Profanisaurus see fit to include
2 Space around Saturn’s farthest ring (5)
ARENA – AREA (Space) around {Satur}N (Saturn’s furthest)
3 Ringing of bells in Brussels, unbearably loudly, always starts in Hergé’s Belgium? (16)
TINTINNABULATION – initial letters of Brussels Unbearably Loudly Always, in TINTIN NATION (Hergé’s Belgium – a reference to the Belgian creator of Tintin). Love the thought process behind this, but it seems unlikely anyone would solve the clue entirely from the wordplay.
4 A way to break up black fuel that’s along the shore (7)
COASTAL – A + ST (way), in COAL (black fuel)
5 Starters having an edge over drink (9)
ANTIPASTI – AN + TIP (edge) + ASTI (drink)
6 Spoilt on poodles, big ruby (7-5)
PIGEONS-BLOOD – (ON POODLES BIG)*, to give (Chambers): “A dark red colour, ruby”, though figuring out the meaning of the surface will probably prove harder than the anagram
7 Never receiving pass, records dropping off unexpectedly? (10)
NARCOLEPSY – NARY (Never), around COL (pass) + EPS (records), and a slightly oblique definition
8 A politician contracted to share the same view (5)
AGREE – A + GREE{n} (politician contracted)
9 Serious setback, as line by party taken the wrong way when in front (4,4)
BODY BLOW – reversal of L (line) + BY + DO (party), in BOW (front)
10 Quit securing entrance to garden with gum (6)
RESIGN – RESIN (gum) around G{arden} (entrance to garden)
11 Reference the end for so many old beasts? (9)
THESAURUS – THE + SAURUS (end for so many old beasts? – a reference to dinosaurs often having names ending in -SAURUS, e.g. Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, etc)
12 Balloonist’s long time for flying about (11)
MONTGOLFIER – (LONG TIME FOR)*, and a reference to the brothers who created the first manned hot-air balloon
19 Comatose affair, head of maths gatecrashing rave (7)
DORMANT – DO (affair), + M{aths} (head of maths) in RANT (rave)
20 Freedom of movement allowed a little drama (7)
PLAYLET – PLAY (Freedom of movement) + LET (allowed)
22 Ladies and gentlemen rent shop (11,5)
CONVENIENCE STORE – CONVENIENCES (Ladies and gentlemen, i.e. toilets) + TORE (rent)
24 Voter wiping brow, one reads (6)
LECTOR – {e}LECTOR (Voter wiping brow)
27 Kicking entertainment in prison toilet (6)
CANCAN – CAN (prison) + CAN (toilet)
29 Ground where queen buried in school (7)
TERRAIN – ER (queen) in TRAIN (school, as a verb)
31 Drop career after a month (7)
DECLINE – DEC (a month, i.e. December) + LINE (career)
32 Chance taken to confiscate a weapon, she makes statement (7,5)
BALANCE SHEET – BET (Chance), around A + LANCE (weapon) + SHE
33 Amateur cutting wild snowdrop for a joke (4,2,5)
PLAY ON WORDS – LAY(Amateur) in SNOWDROP*
35 Black dresses a shade suggestive ultimately, and forward (6,5)
NUMBER EIGHT – NIGHT (Black), around UMBER (a shade) + {suggestiv}E (suggestive ultimately), to give either player at either end of a rugby scrum (all members of the scrum being called forwards)
36 Reliable partner among eccentric wet blankets (10)
MONOGAMIST – MOIST (wet) around (blankets) AMONG*
38 Civic dignitary or duke, male punching sovereign after uprising (4,5)
LORD MAYOR – OR + D (duke) + M (male), all inside (punching) reversal of ROYAL (sovereign)
40 Forty or fifty died on the field — something irritating thing about it? (6,3)
MIDDLE AGE – D (died) + LEA (field), inside MIDGE (something irritating), and an opportunity to dig out Chambers’ definition of middle-aged: “Between youth and old age, variously reckoned to suit the reckoner”, i.e. it starts no earlier than 47
41 A hundred having alighted from coach on river, refreshments served here (8)
TEAHOUSE – TEA{c}H (A hundred having alighted from coach) + OUSE (river)
44 Far-reaching organisation can tempt others at first into work (7)
OCTOPUS – initial letters of Can Tempt Others, in OPUS (work)
45 Disagreement during meal (6)
TIFFIN – TIFF (Disagreement) + IN (during)
47 Comfortable, copper retiring (5)
CUSHY – CU (copper) + SHY (retiring)
49 Animated answer, as it happens (5)
ALIVE – A (answer) + LIVE (as it happens), giving us a hat-trick of simple charades on which to finish

17 comments on “Jumbo 1285”

  1. I’ve only recently taken up solving the Jumbo regularly so it’s not easy to judge levels of difficulty, but this one struck me at the time as being particularly hard. As usual I can’t remember what in particular gave me trouble but I know I gave up and went back to it several times over several days before completing the grid.
  2. I do these in desultory bits, so never know how long they took me, but my copy is littered with tentative solutions parsed before I entered them, so I imagine it was on the hard side. One clue that certainly was not hard was 30ac: I mean, ‘Central American nation’ (2,8)! DNK 1d or 35d. The Gertrude Stein quote that sticks in my mind (I think you have a superfluous ‘is a rose’, mohn)–like Stein, I’m a native San Franciscan– is, speaking of Oakland, “There’s no there there.” Liked BIG BANG and MONOGAMIST, inter alia.

    Edited at 2017-09-30 07:16 am (UTC)

    1. The sources I looked at online give the quotation as written in the blog though it does appear that Stein used a similar device in multiple works, one of which may have had only three roses. My ODQ actually gives a version with five roses (as well as a comma for a bit of light relief) however it attributes it to the same poem (Sacred Emily) that online sources seem to think only has four.
  3. A Jumbo first-timer here. I didn’t time this one, but this week’s took me three of my lunch hours, if that gives you an idea of my general speed!

    Good fun, from what I remember, and not many question marks in my margins, so I must have parsed most of it. Glad there was a Japanese city called NAGOYA for 39—I could only think of Narita for sure, which held me up. After all, there must be a few artists called Rita! Also didn’t know CLAUSAL, PIGEON’S BLOOD, and missed the wordplay for a few others.

    FOI 8d, my last two in was the combination of 39 and and 36. Apparently I enjoyed 37a most…

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

    1. Welcome to the world of the Jumbo, Matt! Once you get used to the fact that you can have answers that are up to 23 letters long, not to mention the extra time and stamina needed to fill in a grid that has 2.35 times as many cells, then a Jumbo will just seem like a big 15×15.

      NAGOYA is probably the least well-known of the Japanese cities in Crosswordland, though sports fans will know it through the 1998 Winter Olympics as well as the football team called Nagoya Grampus 8 (Gary Lineker played for them and Arsene Wenger managed them, though at different times) – the football team has the added bonus of introducing you to the grampus, which occasionally crops up in the Times. It doesn’t look as though Narita has appeared in any of the daily cryptics – if/when it does, I would hope that it would be clued via a reference to the airport rather than the city, though of course it’s both.

      1. Nagoya is a port city east of Osaka; I doubt it’s snowed there in years. You’re thinking of Nagano, in the mountains north of Nagoya, mohn. Nagoya is Japan’s Oakland, now that I’ve mentioned that metropolis elsewhere: there’s no there there. There’s an old joke about Philadelphia: a contest where first prize is a one-week, all-expenses-paid vacation in Phil; 2d prize is a two-week, etc. That’s about right for Nagoya.
        1. You are, of course, right – thanks for the correction. My apologies to Matt for feeding him false information, as well as Nagano for the unintended slur.
          1. Thanks both! This has much expanded my knowledge of Nagoya, Nagano and Narita. The latter I only knew about because it’s where Apple’s dismal “Maps” app thinks my local Three phone shop is(!)
  4. The new ones,eg that colour gettable from wordplay.Of medium difficulty for me.Thanks Mohn.
    Ong’ara,
    Kenya.
  5. This one kept me busy for 1:35:07, but I did have to refer to a list of Japanese cities to complete the grid. Nevertheless I seem to have coped with the rest of it. Some nice clues here. Didn’t know the colour, but the wordplay and crossers were a big help. OLD ENGLISH SHEEPDOG gave me an Ah, so it is! moment. Thanks for the parsing of RAY OF SUNSHINE. I just couldn’t see it, so biffed it anyway. Thanks setter and Mohn.
  6. Many thanks for the excellent blog. While I did solve it correctly though I had to look at a list of Japanese cities to get NAGOYA, I needed your explanation of wordplay in quite a few cases. These were OKRA, REINFORCED CONCRETE, TINTINNABULATION, THESAURUS. From memory though, I think I did not find the puzzle too difficult by normal Times Jumbo standards.
  8. A bit late but I thought I’d put my oar in,seeing as I do the Jumbo every week but have never contributed on here, as I have forgotten the whole thing by the time it gets discussed. If I remember rightly, it was SALAD DODGER that threw me – I have never been one of those! My new October 1st resolution is to be more active here…
    1. Welcome! Feel free to create a LiveJournal account (it’s easy and there are no downsides) or sign off with a name, so that your comments can be distinguished from those made by the other anons. However if your name is John then please choose an alias, as we already have a confusing number of Johns. We’re also a bit short of contributors from South America (pretty much every other continent apart from Antarctica is represented here), so it would be great if you were living in maybe Brazil or Argentina. Of course, if you are simply John from Scunthorpe then you will still be welcome 😉

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