Super puzzle with some lovely definitions. My favourites were 15ac (‘leaving mark’ for EXIT WOUND), 33ac (‘Missing dope’ for UNINFORMED), 52ac (‘Devotional base’ for PRAYER MAT), 9dn (‘[…pub] crawl nude’ for SKINNY-DIP) and most of all, 12dn (‘Was Spooner’ for LADLED). On the other hand, there were several clues with less than helpful wordplays (see 40ac!), and I was not surprised to get a couple of answers wrong as there were at least five or six I was unsure of, including 21ac and 35ac for both of which I’d welcome better explanations.
Even better than the clueing, though, was the theme (asterisked clues), which I missed while solving (despite knowing all the thematic references, unless I’ve missed any – please point out any I have!). I only spotted it when blogging the clue for 5dn, and if it hadn’t been for my travails on 35ac, which caused ATHENS to stick in my head, and an R.E.M. concert from there I recorded off Radio 1 about 10 years ago, I might have missed it completely. A great tribute to a brilliant band, and my favourite Times Jumbo to date.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| *1 | R + EMISSION – a hidden name-check. |
| *6 | MU + SIC |
| 18 | METH(INK)S |
| 21 | DEADLY (double definition?) – the clue is “No small bore sniper aspires to be”. I suppose a ‘deadly bore’ is the opposite of a small bore, but the first three words seem to require a noun as the answer. |
| *35 | ATHENS – clue: “European city that stag weekend’s not targeted?”. Some pun on ‘hen’, I suppose, but I can’t make this work. It’s definitely right though, as R.E.M. were formed in Athens, Georgia. |
| 40 | RENMINBI; (M + IN BRINE)* – I’d guess that 90%+ of solvers who didn’t know this word would (like me) have guessed ‘berminni’. Apparently the renminbi is the same as the yuan, the currency of China. |
| 42 | AS + MAR + A – the capital of Eritrea, which I didn’t know, but got right because I couldn’t think of anything other than ‘MAR’ for ‘ruin’ = ?A?. |
| 47 | CHURCHGOING – which makes ‘match’ become ‘mat’ (= ‘dull’). |
| 53 | ABDOMEN; BAD OMEN with the ‘head switched’ – as in ‘one for sorrow, two for joy’ etc. One of a pair which I was very slow on, the other being 46dn. |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| *1 | ROCKS (double definition) – because you might repeatedly rock a child to make it go ‘off’, i.e. asleep. I had been primed that this was a very subtle clue, and so it proved, though while solving I wrote in the answer from ‘cocaine?’ without worrying too much about the rest of it. Put this together with 6ac to get ‘ROCK MUSIC’. |
| *2 | MICHAELMAS DAISIES; (ISLAMICISED A SHAME)* – hidden in this clue and the next… |
| *3 | ST + I PEN DIARY – …is the name of R.E.M.’s lead singer, Michael Stipe. |
| *5 | (NOV for R.E.M.)EMBER – the only direct mention of the theme band. If you don’t think you’re familiar, try listening to some of their songs: Losing My Religion, The One I Love, Electrolite, Shiny Happy People, The Great Beyond, or the ones linked to in the thematic clues below. |
| *6 | MAN ON THE MOON – I initially put ‘man in the moon’ but it has to be ‘ON’ because of Man On The Moon. |
| *7 | SIDEWINDER; rev. of 1’S, + WIND in DEER – references The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite. |
| 8 | CHEER (double definition) – as in ‘hip, hip, hurray’. |
| 11 | A(RUB)A – I didn’t know the island Aruba and was unsure about ‘major difficulty’ = RUB. It seems to work better reading ‘major’ as ‘main’ rather than ‘big’. |
| 18 | STORM (= force ten, on the Beaufort Scale) + CUFF + S |
| 22 | LAUGH UP ONE’S SLEEVE (double definition, split between ‘this’ and ‘joke’) – and I can’t help but wonder if the setter is doing just that at the (surely deliberate) ambiguity in 6dn; the lyrics to that song include: “If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon,/If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool“. |
| 24 | ON A PAR WITH; hidden backwards in ‘weight I wrap an ounce’ – brilliant. |
| *32 | OTHERWORLDLY; THE in (LORD LOWRY)* – perhaps a nod to It’s The End Of The World As We Know It? I remember this classic being played on Radio 1 during the 1999 total solar eclipse in Cornwall. |
| *37 | STAND GUARD; AND in (AT DRUGS)* – subtly hidden here (or perhaps coincidental?) is Stand (by their standards, a bit of a mediocre track). (I know what you’re thinking – the 49dn sounds just like Going Out by Supergrass.) |
| *39 | O + RANG + EMAN (= rev. of NAME) – is this a reference to Orange Crush? Probably not. |
| 46 | NARNIA; (AN)* + (RAIN)* – not sure about ‘an awful’ = ‘anagram of AN’, but ‘territory of Lewis’ is lovely, though shouldn’t have fooled me for as long as it did. |
| 49 | INT(R)O |
Further hats off for realising that OTHERWORLDLY and ORANGEMAN were, believe it or not, based exactly on END OF THE WORLD and ORANGE CRUSH, being the closest I could get to the originals in the grid.
On the other hand, UP MY SLEEVE was entirely subconscious (:-) )
One thing which alarms me is your comment on the answer to 6 down, which should be MAN IN THE MOON, as MAN ON THE MOON is not actually a recognised phrase. I realised that anyone spotting the REM connection might decide on the latter and offered to write a different clue.
Re other queries:
21ac: Something which is “no small bore” might be “deadly” and there is a “which” understood.
35ac: Stag weekends aren’t targeted AT HENS
RENMINBI: I guess a weekday puzzle might have demanded more helpful wordplay, but for a Saturday prize puzzle I assume people will be able to look things up.
http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times/35001.html
Looks like there are references to “Packt like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box”, “Pyramid Song”, “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors” and “Knives Out” – have I missed any?
Very impressive – let me know if you get round to doing a puzzle around “Kid A”.
As for Jumbos, given their size, I think it should be a rule that all Jumbos have a theme;) Not only does it create double “Oh!” moments – the first on getting the answer, the second when you realise it’s connected to the theme – but it also educates in what is probably a setters area of interest.
Has there ever been a puzzle where all the down clues dropping from the top were themed – or even better read a sentence?
Never got 46d, but not disappointed on having seen the answer as it’s a lovely little twist that I should have spotted.
— Smillsy