Jumbo 1365

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
An even briefer blog than usual, I’m afraid, as my computer is on the blink and I’m hoping to get this published before it completely packs in. This one was of average difficulty, with a bit of luck required for 24A and 33D if you didn’t know the words.

FOI 1A, LOI 24A.


Oh – and here’s what Hamlet looks like on a B2 (70cm x 50cm) sheet:

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

Across
1 Toast to show support, perhaps, then drink (7,2)
BOTTOMS UP – BOTTOM (support, perhaps) + SUP (drink)
6 Scare makes close friend conceal identity (10)
INTIMIDATE – INTIMATE (close friend) around ID (identity)
12 Sketch by artist depicts hurly-burly of competitive work (3,4)
RAT RACE – RA (artist) + TRACE (Sketch)
13 Girl I love close by, not a type to preach at people? (9)
MISSIONER – MISS (Girl) + I + O (love) + NE{a}R (close by, not a), to give another word for a missionary
14 Nick turning a hundred, in need of companion (5)
NOTCH – reversal of TON (a hundred), + CH (companion (of honour))
16 Comprehensive cellar big man organised (3-9)
ALL-EMBRACING – (CELLAR BIG MAN)*
17 Avoid getting drunk with beer when entertaining university philosopher (2,8)
DE BEAUVOIR – (AVOID + BEER)* around U (university). Perhaps better known as a writer and feminist, though my knowledge of her is minimal.
19 Financial process (singular, not variable, internally) that makes some characters look big (14)
CAPITALISATION – I think this is saying that CAPITALIzATION (Financial process) needs to have its Z (variable, internally) changed to a S (singular) in order to become the definition, however Chambers seems to indicate that both the S and Z spellings are valid for either word
22 Supports British activity in court (8)
BRACKETS – B (British) + RACKETS (activity in court)
24 Dissonant composer is not consistent, leaving out one note (6)
VARESE – VAR{i}ES (is not consistent, leaving out one) + E (note), with the answer referring to Edgard Varèse, a French-born composer (1883-1965) with a mere 150,000 Google hits who described his own music as (Wikipedia) “organized sound”. If you had never heard of him, the wordplay would leave you picking one of Varesa, Varese, or Varesc.
25 Bitter speeches an encouragement to audience, accompanied by illustrations (10)
PHILIPPICS – homophone of FILLIP (an encouragement), + PICS (illustrations)
26 Fellow must keep quiet in wood (5)
MAPLE – P (quiet) in MALE (Fellow)
29 Man in game is cheat (4)
ROOK – dd
30 Headline: ‘Ship has crossed river’ (8)
STREAMER – STEAMER (Ship) around R (river), with the definition (Chambers): “A large bold headline (press)”
32 Identification of woman, ’orrible one, no relation (9)
DIAGNOSIS – DI (woman) + {h}AG (‘orrible one) + NO + SIS (relation)
34 Conservative politician hiding nothing and within the law or guilty with others? (9)
COMPLICIT – C (Conservative) + MP (politician) around O (nothing), + LICIT (within the law)
35 Importance of small foreign church (8)
SALIENCE – S (small) + ALIEN (foreign) + CE (church)
36 Artist of major importance making comeback (4)
MIRO – hidden reversed in majOR IMportance, and the definition referring to the Spanish painter/sculptor/ceramicist Joan Miró (1893-1983)
39 Excellence of top female in American university (5)
MERIT – ER (top female, i.e. the Queen) in MIT (American university – I sense nods of approval from Osaka)
40 One can detect a certain amount of bluster (10)
ANEMOMETER – cd, with the bluster not in the sense of anger or bullying but (Chambers): “A blast or roaring eg of the wind”
42 Sports official from West ’am’s annoyance and anger (6)
UMPIRE – {h}UMP (West ‘am’s annoyance) + IRE (anger)
44 Getting on, accepting the conclusions of proper debate? (8)
AGREEING – &lit, with the wordplay AGEING (Getting on) around the endings of {prope}R {debat}E
46 Number half-resigned after change offering words of reconciliation (2,4,8)
NO HARD FEELINGS – NO (Number) + HALF–RESIGNED*
48 What parliamentary candidate can lose almost? Politician maybe safe (10)
DEPOSITORY – DEPOSI{t} (What parliamentary candidate can lose almost) + TORY (Politician)
49 William and I broadcasting news periodically — we’ve made a packet? (12)
BILLIONAIRES – BILL (William) + I + ON AIR (broadcasting) + {n}E{w}S (news periodically)
53 Gentleman returning, greeting wise man (5)
RISHI – reversal of SIR (Gentleman), + HI (greeting), to give (Chambers): “A sage or poet”
54 This writer’s book of sayings — no book for those not yet perfect! (9)
IMPROVERS – IM (This writer’s) + PROVER{b}S (book of sayings – no book)
55 Anecdotes by this fellow full of energy in Californian city (7)
ANAHEIM – ANA (Anecdotes) + HIM (this fellow) around E (energy), to give the home of the erstwhile Mighty Ducks NHL team
56 No good territory for Scot to occupy — so he emigrates to here? (3,7)
NEW ENGLAND – NG (No good) + LAND (territory) around EWEN (Scot). Perhaps not the most common Scottish name, but the answer kind of jumps out from N?? ??GLAND.
57 Like some dates ending in kiss? Lacking style (9)
STONELESS – {kis}S (ending in kiss) + TONELESS (Lacking style), with the definition referring to the fruit
Down
1 Something risky — the Spanish people may chew on it (5)
BETEL – BET (Something risky) + EL (the Spanish)
2 What could make one irate: smut — a shock (10)
TRAUMATISE – (A (one) + IRATE + SMUT)* A bit of an indirect anagram but my eyebrow barely twitched.
3 Don’t allow botanical body to admit blunder (8)
OVERRULE – OVULE (botanical body) around ERR (blunder)
4 Tree French author climbs (5)
SUMAC – reversal of CAMUS (French author)
5 Job somewhere in Africa in a time of new life (9)
POSTNATAL – POST (Job) + NATAL (somewhere in Africa). Natal doesn’t officially exist now (the province is KwaZulu-Natal) but no doubt people would know what you were talking about if you mentioned it.
6 Two islands in river (4)
ISIS – IS (island) repeated twice, to give the name of several rivers in Australia (also one in Oxford)
7 Offer facility for steam train (6)
TENDER – dd
8 Car-makers there organised test of customers’ requirements (6,8)
MARKET RESEARCH – (CAR–MAKERS THERE)*
9 Knight about to enter final scene, saying something’s wrong (12)
DENOUNCEMENT – N (Knight) + C (about), in DENOUEMENT (final scene)
10 Walked with external support, a bit of electronic apparatus (7)
TETRODE – TROD (Walked) in TEE (support), to give (Chambers): “a thermionic valve with four electrodes”
11 Come out with holiday insurance (5,5)
BREAK COVER – BREAK (holiday) + COVER (insurance)
15 Troublesome types rush around a ship, taking risk regularly (9)
HARASSERS – HARE (rush), around A + SS (ship), + R{i}S{k} (risk regularly)
18 My friend entertaining soldiers is one of them? (8)
CORPORAL – COR (My) + PAL (friend) around OR (soldiers), with the “them” in the definition referring back to the soldiers
20 Agent set up yesteryear’s entertainer? (9)
PERFORMER – reversal of REP (Agent), + FORMER (yesteryear’s)
21 The crew is shipwrecked with last character aboard a theologian (10)
SCHWEITZER – (THE CREW IS)* around Z (last character), to give Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965). Perhaps better known as a doctor and humanitarian (though I see his Wikipedia entry also mentions his achievements as an organist, philosopher, and writer) but, like with De Beauvoir at 17A, I have little knowledge of him.
23 Leader of orchestra, one may surmise, is young and green (10)
FIDDLEHEAD – the leader of the orchestra might be the FIDDLE HEAD. The definition is (Chambers): “The edible coiled frond of certain ferns” and all the usual sources identify it as North American usage.
27 Rider to send wild beast across island (9)
POSTILION – POST (to send) + LION (wild beast), around I (island)
28 Thinking to act’s tricky — keep trying (5,2,7)
STICK AT NOTHING – (THINKING TO ACT‘S)*, to give an expression that means the same as “stop at nothing”
31 Big beast gets post keeping little old fellow under (8)
MASTODON – MAST (post) + O (little old) + DON (fellow)
33 Brats and the like spouting nonsense (12)
BLATHERSKITE – (BRATS + THE LIKE)*, to give (Collins): “foolish talk; nonsense”. My commiserations to anyone who had never heard of the word and came up with a credible alternative arrangement of the letters.
34 Arrive, having ditched English chap, to meet the German boss (9)
COMMANDER – COM{e} (Arrive, having ditched English) + MAN (chap) + DER (the German)
37 Key command in move against thieves (4,6)
OPEN SESAME – cd, referring to the phrase needed to open the cave in the tale Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
38 Mix in a Spanish city, having abandoned a friend (10)
AMALGAMATE – A + MAL{a}GA (Spanish city, having abandoned a) + MATE (friend)
41 Former French friend observed turning up — they’d have testing time (9)
EXAMINEES – EX (Former) + AMI (French friend) + reversal of SEEN (observed)
43 Move of company northwards noted in chronicle (8)
RELOCATE – reversal of CO (company), in RELATE (chronicle)
45 Ceremony embracing sailor’s swift comeback (7)
RIPOSTE – RITE (Ceremony) around PO’S (sailor’s – the lesser spotted Petty or Pilot Officer)
47 Spirit of good old man accepting modern style of music (6)
GRAPPA – G (good) + PA (old man) around RAP (modern style of music), to give (Chambers): “A spirit (orig Italian) made from the residue from a winepress”
50 What cowboy uses, see, for catching animal (5)
LASSO – LO (see) around ASS (animal)
51 Music-makers overwhelmed by greed sometimes (5)
REEDS – hidden in gREED Sometimes
52 Proceed with commercial that provides motivation (4)
GOAD – GO (Proceed) + AD (commercial)

7 comments on “Jumbo 1365”

  1. My average for Jumbos is around 90 minutes, but this one only took 65:27, so I guess it was a bit easier than most. I had to construct M. Varese from wordplay, but more or less knew BLATHERSKITE. RISHI was unknown but easily constructed, as was Mme. De BEAUVOIR. An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Mohn2.

    Edited at 2019-02-16 03:14 pm (UTC)

  2. Yes,it was nice to see MIT’s university status recognized by a setter. I didn’t understand the UMP part of UMPIRE, and I didn’t know FIDDLEHEAD, but they weren’t much of a problem. STICK AT NOTHING to me means, to quote ODE “allow nothing to deter one from achieving one’s aim, however wrong or dishonest”; rather different from the definition in 28d. My one error was my LOI, 57ac, where in desperation I put in SCORELESS; well, if you come from a date with nothing but a kiss to show for it, you haven’t scored, no? On edit: I took the parenthesis in 19ac as simply indicating the required spelling, so as not to mislead the solver as to 20d. If this had been a concise puzzle, the setter would have just said “(S not Z)”.

    Edited at 2019-02-16 09:11 pm (UTC)

    1. I didn’t really think about the STICK AT NOTHING definition but yes, it’s more in line with sticking at something rather than nothing. Your explanation for 19A would be a helpful gesture from the setter, though as the difference occurs in a checked letter it wouldn’t be strictly necessary. Unfortunately we only rarely get comments from the setters so we’ll probably never know the rationale behind either of these clues.

      Edited at 2019-02-16 10:11 pm (UTC)

  3. ….PHILIPPIC. Unlike Simon and Garfunkel, I wasn’t McNamara’d into submission, although I did rather plod through this. Three sittings, and the SW quarter slow to yield. I’d guess at around 75 minutes. Must try to time this week’s, if only for my own interest.

    DNK FIDDLEHEAD, had vaguely heard of VARESE.

    FOI BOTTOMS UP
    LOI RISHI
    COD ANEMOMETER

  4. Thanks for the excellent blog and also to the setter. About average difficulty and the words I did not know I was able to guess from wordplay and verify afterwards. Favourite clue: DE BEAUVOIR though I’d not have thought of her (primarily at any rate) as a philosopher but it seems she is.
  5. 47:40 with a note that the NE corner held me up most… and 1 pink square for MILLIONAIRE instead of BILLIONAIRE. Stupid boy! I even had ?? in the margin, but didn’t check before entering my paper-based solution online (without leaderboard, unlike the neutrinos). Didn’t understand 19A, so thanks for explaining that. I enjoyed the semi &lit LASSO best. Thanks Mohn and setter.
    P.S. Loved the Hamlet pic!

    Edited at 2019-02-16 04:49 pm (UTC)

    1. Hamlet looks almost manageable when it’s squeezed onto a poster, but the print is really small – my contact lenses can’t focus that close so I have to put my glasses on to read it. It’s a toss-up whether that’s more convenient than digging out my Complete Works, which weighs a ton, but so far I’m leaning towards the poster.

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