Jumbo 864 – 27 March 2010

Author   7dpenguinPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Jumping Jehosaphat ! Jumbo’s Jam-packed with Js!

It was also jam-packed with beautifully crafted clues. At 1:20 it took around twice as long as my average Jumbo but there were more A-ha moments than a 1980s Norwegian pop band tribute act convention.  It was one of those that, during solving, I thought to myself that I really hoped to complete it without aids. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be and I was left with 4, 5a and 33 unfinished (which I have complained about below)

If you haven’t attempted it, I advise you go and print it out and have a go – you’ll be hard-pressed to find better.

Thanks to the setter (if you’re looking in, what’s with all the Js then?)

Across
1 JUDAISM – What a lovely start. “Sixty percent of what your doing” = JUM[bo] around DAIS
5 FRABJOUS – (JOB)* in FRAU’S. A mixture of fabulous and joyous and the inclusion of this word is neither. Because Lewis Carroll invented it in Jaberwocky, it’s a word all of a sudden. I think I’ll just make a word up and see if that makes its way into next week’s Jumbo. Smoltigran – there you go
9 LOG,JAM
13 HONEST TO GOODNESS – This took some working out. It’s H[ospital] + (TEST ON)* + O[ld] + GOODNESS (=boy!)
14 RED HOT – another one which went in long before I understood it. It’s the last letters of “for the hand with no eight”
16 N,A,IN,SO,OK – a bit of a dictionary word but perfectly fair wordplay makes it ok by me. It’s a lightweight muslin. No, not Amir Khan!
17 VEIL –  V (against) then LIE rev
18 MOORLANDS – MOS (flashes) around  OR (golden) + LAND (light). Another tremendous clue
20 SEARCH ME – S+EAR+CH[-i]ME
21 FIN DE SIECLE – (LIFE, IE, C’S END)* . The end of the century
24 ANASTASIA – backwardly included in calAIS AT SANAtorium
25 BAVARIAN – B,ARIAN around AV (authorised version). If bible isn’t NT or OT, it’s probably AV
26 SMEW – MEWS rev. Look everybody, a straightforward clue
29 JAM, TOM,OR,ROW 
31 RAMBOUILLET – RAMBO,U,I + TELL rev . Never heard of it personally but again the wordplay makes it gettable. I think we had some 70s culture last time I blogged, now we’ve got something from the 80s. Look out for Lady Gaga in 10 weeks time
33 CASUISTICAL – (C,IS,IS,ACTUAL) I think this one oversteps the mark of fairness. An obscure word and not very obvious wordplay – One of the IS is to be got from “one’s” and the anagrind is “blunder”.
36 JUMP S,TARTED – JUMPS being the alternative to flat in horseracing
38 SPEC – double def
39 BALSAMIC – (A B’S CLAIM) – B’S being Bishop’s
41 AUSTRALIA – ST in AURA  then AIL rev. 
44 FIGURE OF FUN – two definitions, one slightly cryptic (statistic from sport)
45 ANISETTE –  A Northern Irish Sette[-r]
48 NINETIETH – (IN THE TIN + [cak]E)*
49 HAD,J – a pilgrimage to Mecca.
50 AS,PIRATE – def is “At first Eliza didn’t” referencing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady or Pygmalion, depending on your cultural preferences
52 CAR[-e]FUL – “Maybe packed saloon bars the centre of attention”” – marvellous!
53 JUVENILE OFFENDER – (ELEVEN INJURED)* around OFF
54 YELLED – LEY rev + L.E.D. LEY is an alternative spelling of LEA.
55 JEWELLER – WELL in JEER
56 LASAGNE – SAG in LANE

 
Down
1 JOHANN – H in JOANN[a]
2 DAN,ZIG[-zag]
3 INSISTENT –  INTENT around S[on],IS
4 MATTO GROSSO – MATT,O (disc) ,GROSS,O (nothing). An area of Brazil and a too hard clue!
5 FOGG – “poor visibility prolonged” is FOG with an extra G. 
6 ATONES,ELBOW 
7 JUNGLE FEVER – JUNG then EF in LEVER. EF = couple after CD – superb
8 URSA MINOR – unless I’m missing something this is just a (poor) cryptic def. “Bear up, if not in such great form”. Ursa Minor and Ursa Major (aka the plough) are both constellations
10 OVERLAID – OVID the poet around (REAL)*
11 JOHNNY COME LATELY – JOY around H,NN (news)  then LATE in COMELY
12 MATISSE – M[-ake] + A TISS[-u]E (a horseshoe out of paper)
15 MOD,ERATO 
19 T,HEAT,RIC[-h]
22 CARJACKS – “commandeers estate” is brilliant
23 PAYMASTER GENERAL – (PLAYER MANAGER SET)*
27 WITHDRAW – WIT, H[el]D, RAW
28 VIVA – double def – “do well in Italian” & “exam” 
30 OMIT – no idea how this works. I think it’s TIMO rev. Any offers?
32 MAMMALIA – Mamma Mia! with L for the last M. This made me laugh
34 TEA T,O,WEL[-l]
35 LEMON CHEESE – almost but doesn’t quite work for me. “things on lips to make you grimace and smile”. Lemon on your lips would make you grimace and CHEESE on your lips (ie spoken) would make you smile
36 JACK AND JILL – “tumblers carrying water” One of those that looks like it should be a chestnut, but I haven’t seen it before and think it’s utterly brilliant.
37 SUSPENSEFUL – P in (UNLESS FUSE)*
40 SAFE HOUSE – EH (what) in SA (sex appeal) FO (foreign office) USE
42 RAT,TINE,SS – “rat” here means to split on someone 
43 PROTRUDE – PRO then D in TRUE
44 FINICKY – IN in F (loud) + ICKY (revolting)
46 LAPDOG – more smiles here with “overambitious encouragement to greyhound”
47 GEORGE – E in GORGE
51 HEAR – sounds like “HERE”

8 comments on “Jumbo 864 – 27 March 2010”

  1. ‘frabjous’ not a word? It hasn’t reached the ‘chortle’ level yet, certainly, but I’ve seen it from time to time. (Which is more than I can say for ‘joanna’!) Had it been ‘brillig’, say, I’d go along with the objection.
    4d should have been a toughie, but once MATT came to mind, the rest followed as the night the proverbial. Pity, in a way, since it was such a nice clue.
    And I never thought of Jack and Jill as actually succeeding in carrying any water.
  2. Agreed, a superb and unusually challenging Jumbo.

    It was only marred by the unreasonable MATTO GROSSO, which was hard to solve even with on-line aids.

    Paul S.

  3. I third the motion – one of the best Jumbos for some time, if not all time; full of devilish cunning and majestically constructed clues. Strangely, the three clues you mention were some of the easier ones for me (in a relative sense), having heard of casuistry (it sounds like a word James Joyce would use), the Matto Grosso and read Carroll (which also helped at 29ac). RAMBOUILLET & NAINSOOK on the other hand were pure guesses; the former causing much angst. Much of the rest were a struggle, as morning turned into night and the JEWELLER finally arrived. I’ve got ticks all over the place. JACK AND JILL & JOHNNY-COME-LATELY were superb and MOORLANDS is worthy of Wordsworth on his deathbed.
  4. I agree that this was a slower solve than usual and much more enjoyable than the previous one, for which I was the responsible blogger.

    I don’t believe 8 is such a poor clue. Ursa Minor is the Little Bear (as opposed the Great Bear) and both are bears up in the sky.

  5. Thank you for the kind words about this puzzle, I must say.
    I can’t remember there being any particular reason for all the Js. Sometimes (and this is particularly the case with Jumbos perhaps) one is stuck for what to put in the grid (at least I certainly often am!) so I suspect I chose a few words with J in them simply because it narrowed down the choice!
    FRABJOUS, in fairness, IS in most normal dictionaries, but I agree that SMOLTIGRAN is an excellent word and I look forward to using it in due course 🙂
    CHEESE, I agree, doesn’t, probably, actually make you smile if you say it, but it is used figuratively in the expression “Say cheese” to get people to smile for a photo.
  6. This was a brilliant puzzle – I agree that OMIT is a hidden reversal, that was the last I understood. Solving time, 1 hr 45 mins, and v pleased to get to the end without consulting anything at all including getting that MATTO GROSSO from the wordplay. Favourites (in grid order) FIGURE OF FUN, CARFUL, MODERATO, THEATRIC, MAMMALIA, LEMON CHEESE.
    1. Hi John,

      A “fancy Dan” is a flashy, ostentatious dresser, so the setter was being specific as to which fellow we were looking for.

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