Jumbo 696 – medium difficulty

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Solving time 25:43

Quite a few clues to explain here. Grid is pangrammatic, but for a jumbo that should almost be compulsory…

Across
1 UPKEEP = (peek,pu(t))<=
5 CU(e)S HI(d) ON(e) – deleted letters being “parts of dee”.
13 QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM – the Q.E.D. at the end of maths proofs. (RAT,DEMON,STRAND) in Qu.,ODEUM
14 BEL(I,TT)LE – easy enough, but let’s just note in passing that “Tourist Trophy” is the Manx event normally indicated by “races” or similar.
29 LAISSE = (as lies)*,Z(F)AIRE
43 TWO-YEAR-OLD – Y in (Waterloo’d)*
44 ST LUKE – ULT rev. in content of 45 = (e)SKE(r)
50 STEAK AND KIDNEY PUDDING – (Giddy aunt’s kneaded pink)*
53 EUNUCH – initial letters
 
Down
6 SEDUCER – “reduces” with head and tail swapped.
8 (te)NANCY
10 WRA(i)TH
11 RODOMONTADE = (doormen do at)*
21 IGNORAMUS – MU in (SARONG,I)<=
25 CRIME WAVE, &lit. – me in (raw vice)*
27 ESSENTIAL – (la(w) (w)itness) (w)e)<=
31 C,HORIZO(n)
34 CH,R,IS,TEND,OM = the final sacred word being borrowed from Asian religions
35 REFORMATION – presumably just a cryptic def., or am I missing something? Incidentally, a Penguin Book of the same name by Diarmid McCulloch is good for explaining some religious history in which we Brits rather exaggerate the importance of Henry VIII.
42 AR(T)IS(T)E – the inserted T’s being ‘ends of trumpet apart’
45 ESKER – hidden – easy enough clue, but a tricky word that gets used from time to time and gives fromer A-level students a chance to show what they can remember from Principles of Physical Geography by F J Monkhouse. It’s a low ridge formed from a glacial moraine – the sort of thing that keeps those Finnish lakes in the right place.
47 TO KEN – answers a question I pondered the other day – whether “verb-word” in a clue can indicate the infinitive form “to verb-word” in an answer. Clearly it can for this xwd ed.

The “feedback” article on about p. 78 of the paper today (19 May) includes the second of two bits about themes in Times crosswords. This time its about ones in the cryptic and jumbo puzzle. It confirms that the current xwd ed. isn’t terribly keen on themes, and fortunately doesn’t mention any recent themes that we failed to identify here.

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