Jumbo 1290

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
This one was on the easy side from a solving point of view, apart from an old nemesis at 35D, but there are a couple of parsings that could do with a second opinion. I’ll be away for most of the weekend and I’m not sure whether I’ll have much in the way of Internet access, so it may well be that I won’t be able to deal with any questions until Sunday afternoon/evening – of course, other commenters are likely to chip in in the interim.

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

Across
1 Expose old pawnbroker hoarding books by Henry (8)
UNCLOTHE – UNCLE (old pawnbroker) around OT (book) + H (Henry)
5 What preserves time of ancient civilisation (3,3)
TIN CAN – T (time) + INCAN (of ancient civilisation)
9 Wow! Seaweed suppresses one muscular pain (7)
MYALGIA – MY (Wow!) + ALGA (Seaweed) around I (one)
14 Fake warnings shut branches east of Cornish river (5,6)
FALSE ALARMS – FAL (Cornish river) + SEAL (shut) + ARMS (branches)
15 Fool star occasionally during vocal session (6,5)
STRING ALONG – {s}T{a}R (star occasionally) in SINGALONG (vocal session)
16 Oxford college window (5)
ORIEL – dd
17 Mass still mostly interrupting sleep, sort of (7)
REQUIEM – QUIE{t} (still mostly) in REM (sleep, sort of, i.e. Rapid Eye Movement)
18 Frequency of events some might understand? (9)
INCIDENCE – homophone of INCIDENTS (events)
19 Smart guards note uranium isotope (7)
TRITIUM – TRIM (Smart), around TI (note) + U (uranium), to give an isotope of hydrogen
20 Small bee infects skin badly — apply for this? (8,7)
SICKNESS BENEFIT – S (small) + (BEE INFECTS SKIN)*
22 A new label is secured by a single needle (10)
ANTAGONISE – A + N (new) + TAG (label) + ONE (a single) around IS
23 Admits old winos burp now and then (4,2)
OWNS UP – O (old) + W{i}N{o}S {b}U{r}P (winos burp now and then)
25 Court beginning to denounce golf club (4)
WOOD – WOO (Court) + D (beginning to denounce)
28 Mum with obscure name designed tissue for body (6,8)
MUCOUS MEMBRANE – (MUM + OBSCURE NAME)*
30 Republican in affair with top female weapons expert (8)
ARMOURER – R (Republican) in AMOUR (affair), + ER (top female, i.e. the Queen)
32 Don’t offer enough foreign articles, book and papers (8)
UNDERBID – UN DER (foreign articles) + B (book) + ID (papers)
34 Filming remote area’s country seats? (8,6)
SHOOTING STICKS – SHOOTING (Filming) + STICKS (remote area), to give (Chambers): “A walking-stick with a two-part handle that opens out to form a seat”
37 European‘s son John (4)
SLAV – S (son) + LAV (John, i.e. toilet)
38 How many fitted in back of taxi? (6)
ELEVEN – xi (ELEVEN in Roman numerals) is fitted in the back of the word “taxi”
39 Where to stop running complete range (6,4)
FINISH LINE – FINISH (complete) + LINE (range)
43 Transforming gradual series of improvements in yeast (15)
REVOLUTIONISING – EVOLUTION (gradual series of improvements) in RISING (yeast). For rising, Collins has: “the yeast or leaven used to make dough rise in baking”.
45 Film rugby show from East Italian region — once (7)
ETRURIA – ET (Film) + RU (rugby) + reversal of AIR (show)
47 It’s over after start of game in tranquil plain (9)
SERENGETI – G (start of game) in SERENE (tranquil) + reversal of IT
49 Game holy man found in most of Promised Land (7)
CANASTA – ST (holy man) in CANAA{n} (most of Promised Land)
51 Study art in Paris, perhaps (5)
ESSAY – ES (art in Paris) + SAY (perhaps)
52 Family members ruin Phil’s skill in military command (11)
GENERALSHIP – GENERA (Family members) + PHILS*
53 Train coiffeurs to cover house in working day (6,5)
OFFICE HOURS – COIFFEURS* around HO (house)
54 Notice these smaller swarms (7)
SEETHES – SEE (Notice) + THES{e} (these smaller)
55 Remove obstruction in river (6)
DELETE – LET (obstruction) in DEE (river)
56 Lobby that’s new in café, area to the front (8)
ANTEROOM – N (new) in TEA ROOM (café) with the A (area) moved to the front
Down
1 Frank‘s awake on time to welcome brother (7)
UPFRONT – UP (awake) + ON + T (time), around FR (brother)
2 100 civilians worked up about team leader, Protestant (11)
CALVINISTIC – C (100) + CIVILIANS* around T (team leader)
3 Finished telling stories at higher level (9)
OVERLYING – OVER (Finished) + LYING (telling stories)
4 Pious Caesar’s domain, or Charlemagne’s (4,5,6)
HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE – HOLY (Pious) + ROMAN EMPIRE (Caesar’s domain)
6 Feeling cold during hot spell (8)
INSTINCT – C (cold) in IN (hot, as in fashionable) + STINT (spell)
7 Irish traitor, bereaved lady, hiding new 16 perhaps? (8,6)
CASEMENT WINDOW – CASEMENT (Irish traitor, i.e. Roger Casement) + WIDOW (bereaved lady) around N (new). From the dictionaries, I can’t see anything that oriel windows (the answer to 16A) and casement windows have in common, but no doubt there are some windows that are both, hence the definition.
8 Some regularly supporting blooms, displaying vanity (10)
NARCISSISM – NARCISSI (blooms) + S{o}M{e} (Some regularly)
9 Taxi‘s almost returned in one minute (7)
MINICAB – I’m assuming that this is meant to be a reversal of BAC{k} (almost returned) + IN + I (one) + M (minute) but there seems to be a reversal indicator missing. I can’t really buy “returned” doing double duty, especially in the middle of the clue, or am I missing something?
10 A minor prize (5)
AWARD – A + WARD (minor)
11 Tutor fell where lift starts? (6,5)
GROUND FLOOR – GROUND (Tutor) + FLOOR (fell). I don’t know how often people use ground in this sense, but it’s quite common to say that someone has a grounding in a subject.
12 Tiger ate ornate headdress of feathers (8)
AIGRETTE – (TIGER ATE)*, to give (Collins): “a long plume worn on hats or as a headdress, esp one of long egret feathers”
13 Country artist cracks one question (4)
IRAQ – RA (artist), in I (one) + Q (question)
20 Learn about US uncle’s source of oil (6)
SESAME – SEE (Learn) around SAM (US uncle)
21 Amphibian crosses two rivers in US resort (7)
NEWPORT – NEWT (Amphibian), around PO R (two rivers), to give the town in Rhode Island famous for its colonial architecture
22 All you can grasp sounds hazardous to some (6)
ARMFUL – homophone of ‘ARMFUL (hazardous)
24 Replacing of erne, changed for bird of prey (9,6)
PEREGRINE FALCON – (REPLACING OF ERNE)*
26 Young Archibald, devout Scot, mostly friend of primate (14)
ARCHIEPISCOPAL – ARCHIE (Young Archibald) + PI (devout) + SCO{t} (Scot, mostly) + PAL (friend). This word had not appeared in a Times cryptic for at least 10 years, but has cropped up three times now in less than two months.
27 Fish with idiot on banks (6)
WRASSE – W (with), + RE (on) around (banks) ASS (idiot)
29 Make sense of a French composer (7)
UNRAVEL – UN (a French) + RAVEL (composer)
31 Engaged in affair, I will get office job (6)
FILING – FLING (affair) around I
33 Rescue English organ during caper (11)
DELIVERANCE – E (English) + LIVER (organ), in DANCE (caper)
35 Choir worked with Caruso in contrasting work (11)
CHIAROSCURO – (CHOIR + CARUSO)*, to give (Chambers): “A painting in black and white”. This word is always “helpfully” clued via an anagram – my suggestion for how to remember the vowel order is that the last six letters are the Italian word for dark or obscure.
36 Ruined protest and was dishonest, quietly hiding (10)
DEMOLISHED – DEMO (protest) + LIED (was dishonest) around SH (quietly)
40 Lucky charm that protects frog (9)
HORSESHOE – dd, the second referring to the following definition of frog (Chambers): “A V-shaped band of horn on the underside of a horse’s hoof”
41 Iron Age introduced omens (8)
PRESAGES – AGE in PRESS (Iron)
42 Initial letters giving help to travellers (8)
SIGNPOST – SIGN (Initial) + POST (letters)
44 Inform island about right climber’s aid (7)
TRELLIS – TELL (Inform) + IS (island) around R (right)
46 Ignoring Washington, constantly charge plant (7)
ALYSSUM – AL{wa}YS (Ignoring Washington, constantly) + SUM (charge – presumably in the sense of a quantity of money)
48 Old PM‘s point (5)
NORTH – dd, the first referring to Frederick North, PM from 1770 to 1782
50 Liberal very pink paper (4)
SOFT – SO (very) + FT (pink paper, i.e. the Financial Times)

10 comments on “Jumbo 1290”

  1. I guess it was comparatively easy for me; I have few notes or ?s in the margins of my copy, anyway, and AIGRETTE was my only DNK. I did wonder about ‘tutor’, which still seems stretched. ORIEL and HRE struck me as gimmes. This is the first time I’ve seen CHIAROSCURO defined as a painting in black and white; but then it’s Chambers. It’s the use of light and shade, not black and white, in a painting (‘clear, dark’). I realize this is a UK puzzle, but defining Roger Casement as an Irish traitor does strike me as a bit tendentious.

    Edited at 2017-11-04 01:59 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, I’d also encountered chiaroscuro more with the “use of light and shade” meaning but, as you say, the presence of this other meaning in Chambers must presumably reflect some real-life usage somewhere. I did think about mentioning the one-sided Casement definition but decided it had too much worm-can-opening potential.
      1. Actually, what I meant by “it’s Chambers” (NB: not “it’s in Chambers”) was that Chambers often seems to have odd-man-out definitions. It’s not, for instance, in ODE. I was a bit surprised that no one commented on Casement, but then it’s been 100 years.
        1. Ah – I see the distinction. I don’t know why Chambers has a tendency to contain definitions that aren’t found in other dictionaries but I’m (naively?) assuming that there’s a good reason for it.
  2. This must have been on the easier side as I scraped in under the hour with 59:49. A few unknowns were conjured up from the wordplay, such as CHIAROSCURO and AIGRETTE, otherwise an enjoyable puzzle. Nice to see ARCHIEPISCOPAL put in another appearance to reinforce it in my brain. Thanks setter and Mohn.
  3. Thanks for the blog. There were quite a few that went in without parsing, including 14a and 27d (there’s a typo in your explanation of the latter by the way, although the meaning is clear).

    19a had me scratching my head until I finally twigged that uranium wasn’t part of the definition.

    In 9d, I wondered if it’s Taxi doing the double duty, as both definition and the indication that it “takes round” the rest of the clue? Not sure if that works any better.

    1. Thanks for pointing that out – corrected now!

      Still not happy with 9D but unfortunately it’s rare that the Jumbo setters chime in on what their thought process was.

  4. 26d and 35d have appeared in recent jumbi,so no problem for me.Got AIGRETTE as l filled it in a past DT puzzle.An above average jumbo for me.
    Ong’ara,
    Nairobi,
    Kenya.
  5. 26d and 35d have appeared in past jumbi,so no problem there,an above average jumbo for me.
    Ong’ara,
    Nairobi,
    Kenya.

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