Jumbo 895

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Solved in 16:50 online but with a classic overhasty solver’s cock-up which you’ll be reading about soon.

Across
1 CHAT = talk, HAM = act extravagantly – William Pitt was the First Earl of Chatham, and no PM has ever been the Earl of CLAPHAM!
5 C(U,T(o)AD)ASH
9 GROCER = “grow, Sir” (grow = increase business) – he says, just after deleting absurd grumblings about the meaning of gross in “gross, Sir”
13 INDUS = river, TRIAL = test, E = English, STATE
17 (debat)E, RECTOR – an erector is “a muscle which maintains an erect state of a part of the body or an erect posture of the body”
22 TREWS – strew = spread, with the S moved to the other end
25 T(END = aim, E.R. = “top lady”)EST – with test=game nicely timed just before the Ashes series
27 GAV(OTT = too extreme)E – here is a gavotte
31 CONTRA(BAND,I)ST – duty = taxes
34 TAKE ABACK = surprise, (missu)S, EAT = have a bite
35 SPIL = rev. of lips,LOVER
43 T(o),READ
45 DECIBEL = rev. of (le, B, iced)
49 I’M, MI = rev. of I’m, GRANT = permit (vb.)
54 PR. = pair, ON, TO(o)
56 DO = bash = party, TA = thanks, RD = rev. of Dr.
57 DEAD BEAT = “what could make copper bored”, as well as “wanting to retire”
 
Down
2 (b)ALDER
3 H = henry, OS = outsize, ANNA = girl – the henry is an SI unit and therefore spelled with a lower case letter, so has to be at the start of the clue to look like a personal name.
4 MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL – T S Eliot’s play about Thomas à Becket, with “see leader” meaning the leader of a cathedral/diocese
8 (Edith) S(IT)WELL – “It” = Italian vermouth, i.e. wine flavoured with herbs. Here is some of Edith’s poetry in its best-known form
11 CON = study, DIME = money, NT = books – “condiment” as a verb is Chambers-only but easy enough to imagine
15 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI = (transliterates big ode)*
26 TO,RUS(t) – as well as a topological donut, a torus is “a large convex moulding, typically semicircular in cross section, especially as the lowest part of the base of a column”
28 V(A,N)ILLA
32 NAT(qUeRy)AL – “illegitimate” being an archaic meaning of “natural”
34 TIGHT = drunk, LI(PP)ED
36 RIGHT-ANGLED = “wry, tangled” = twisted and complicated
38 DREAMBOAT = (met abroad)* – I think last time she met him “aboard” in a slightly different holiday setting
44 DOG STAR = Sirius – rev. of “Rat’s God”
46 CATHODE = “Kath owed”, with owed = expected
48 TERPENE – hidden word
51 (s)TROVE
53 SPICA – PIC = illustration, in S.A. = sex appeal = “oomph”.

7 comments on “Jumbo 895”

  1. Mostly solved in 2 weeks… As 19A and 20D are two of my missing 4, I’ll wait for Saturday to find out what will doubtless then prove to be blindingly obvious!
    Got 53D by definition but would never have realised SA = sex appeal: is there no limit to how obscure initials can be??? What is the limit of what is acceptable?
    Equally stumped by It = italian vermouth… If you say so, but I’d never have got there, although again I found the answer otherwise. Overall, a minor success for a real tyro.
    1. There is a limit. If the abbreviations are in a reasonable dictionary, they are acceptable. If you follow the link on the right to the “Oxford Dictionary of English”, it has both of these. You might have heard this version of “it” in the drink called “gin and it”.
  2. 27:16 which is probably one of my fastest ever. (16:50 is amazingly quick). Biggest struggle was DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI having to eke it out from the obvious anagram and then lots of checkers. I’m sure he must be famous, but ROSSITER was looking good for a while. Last in were the pair at 18a and 8d.

    For the benfit of the anonymous tyro above, 19 needs another abbreviation- A RR (right reverend) in NATIVE. I think you will kick yourself on 20d…it’s RAN (managed) then SACK (fire). You may never have realised that SA=sex appeal and It = italian, but remember them – they will crop up again, and again ang again,again. By coincidence IT can also be sex appeal, as in “if you’ve got it, flaunt it”. Only in crosswords!

    1. I should have given you a link to Rossetti – better known as a painter, but a poet too – fortunately for the setter. I can’t say that his Wikiquote entry contains anything I remember.
  3. I forgot to ask….is it me or is this the 3rd time in a very short time that DREAMBOAT has been clued as (MET ABROAD)*

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