Solving time: 12:00
This was probably the easiest Jumbo I’ve seen – but for 51dn I’d finished in about 7:50. Unfortunately it took me another four minutes to spot the answer to that (and even then I wasn’t sure), so this wasn’t even a PB in the end.
Any clarification on the ‘Children’ at 43ac would be appreciated. Conversely, please shout if there are any other clues for which you’d like an explanation.
[I should have posted this on Friday – sorry for the delay, I’d mixed up the Jumbo blogging dates.]
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 14 | LANGU(O)R |
| 17 | WIND TURBINE – very nice cryptic definition. |
| 19 | WATER [closet] + LOO |
| 25 | CON + F + LATE |
| 26 | RE(TIRE + MEN + THO’)ME |
| 30 | P(E,P + PERM)INT |
| 35 | B + ATTLE[e] |
| 43 | ELEVATED – ‘Brought up’ = ELEVATED = ‘Railway’, but why ‘Children’? |
| 50 | GALLEY PROOF – I was fairly sure this phrase existed, but didn’t know what it meant, so wasn’t certain of the first letter of 51dn which was very unfortunate. |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 5 | SIN + GULAR |
| 7 | CORNWALLIS – General Charles Cornwallis fought in the Americal Revolutionary War. I didn’t know that but did know the name, and the reference to the Duchy of Cornwall. |
| 9 | SHORTCAKE – I believe this is a reference to the Chambers definition of ‘éclair’ as ‘a cake, long in shape but short in duration…’. |
| 22 | ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN; ‘YET I’ = ‘though one’ – well-worded clue. |
| 23 | STASI + S |
| 27 | CAR(L + IS + L)E |
| 31 | P(REF)IX |
| 37 | PACE (= ‘with due respect to’) + SETTER |
| 39 | OSTEOPATH; (A STOOP + THE)* – excellent anagram. |
| 45 | SALAAM; rev. of (MA + ALAS) |
| 51 | F + LAME – how very frustrating. I ended up going through the alphabet on ‘FLA?E’ and ‘FRA?E’, with lingering doubts that the ‘F’ might be wrong. On the second time through a small bell tinkled at FLAME, and I persuaded myself that ‘flame’ could be a colour and that LAME might have another meaning – and indeed it does, ‘lamé’ means ‘(of) a fabric in which metallic (usu gold or silver) threads are interwoven’. If I were in a grumbling mood, I might quibble about the link word ‘of’, but I really don’t think this made a difference here. |
Bill