Jumbo 924 – May 7 2011

Author   7dpenguinPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
A mostly easy solve with lots of giveaway anagrams and probably the easiest clue ever to be seen in a Times crossword (11d). I say mostly easy as the first 56 clues got thrown in in about 24 minutes but the last 6 took me another 9. The problematic ones were (in order of solving) 12d, 21d, 9d, 18a, 5d and 16a. I have no complaints about easy puzzles, in fact I welcome them as both a way to help the more inexperienced solvers get up and running and a way to allow old hands like me to go for a quickie.  However I reckon that if you’re going to make it easy, you may as well make it all easy.

Across
1 DIVINED – VINE (trailer) inside DID (used to do)
5 ORDERED – [h]ORDE + RED
9 TRAUMAS – (SUMATRA)*
13 SPRING CLEAN – (PENCILS GRAN)*
14 THE VERY IDEA – THIEVERY with the I moved to the end then DEA[d]
15 A,DIEU
16 SOCKEYE – my last in. I’d considered sockeye earlier but couldn’t see why SOCK = CLOCK. Then I realised they can both be hits. It’s a type of salmon.
17 SCINTILLA – sounds like “SIN TILLER” if you ignorethe R, which I don’t. This is the standard treatment for scintilla, I groaned when I saw it.
18 TAKE TIME BY THE FORELOCK – having never heard of this phrase (meaning to act quickly and decisively) or a cowlick (one of those unruly curls at the front of your head that you just can’t get rid off), this proved a bit of a tricky one. I needed most of the checkers and a huge gust of inspiration.
23 ABLUTION – ABSOLUTION without SO
25 STABLE – two meanings, a punch being a type of horse
27 DRASTIC – CARD (spade, perhaps) around ITS all reversed
30 STAMP – two meanings
32 GEHENNA – GEN (dope) around HEN (woman) then A. The destination of the wicked in Jewish and early Christian writing.
33 REMEMBERS –  Sappers is the nickname of the Royal Engineers and are therefore RE MEMBERS
35 ARISTOTLE – ARISTO the 1st letters of Take Lessons Employing
36 BY HEART – BART (Simpson) around Y (unknown) + HE (male). Bart was 10 when the series first aired in 1987 and is still 10 now. I could do with a bit of what he’s got!
37 SUOMI – reversed and hidden in unanIMOUS. It’s the Finnish word for Finland, or should that be the Suomish word? Never heard of it before but easily gettable once a checker was in.
38 ENGLISH – NG (No Good) in ELISH[a], a prophet
40 LAYMEN – (NAMELY)*
41 SHEEPDOG  – SHE (woman) EP (Extended Play record – who remembers those?) DOG (chase)
44 SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE – (UNIQUE ORPHANAGE RESOLD)*
48 OBSERVANT – SERVANT after OB (Old Boy)
50 NEST EGG – GEN (information) around GETS (gathers) all reversed. The second use of GEN so far.
53 CURSE – CURS (scoundrels) then misbehavE
54 RAILROADING – ROAD inside RAILING
55 ORANGE STICK – O[ld] + RANGES + TICK. A stick if orangewood (surprisingly enough) used for various manicurage
56 DANGLED – D (duke) + ANGLED
57 GINGHAM – hidded in staGING HAMlet. I’m useless at spotting hiddens!
58 SADIRON – (ROADS IN)*. An iron with a pointy bit at both ends. Here’s a picture of one – <ooo>
 
Down
1 DISMAY – YAMS I’D reversed
2 VERDICT – VERDI + CT (court)
3 NANTUCKET –  NAN (granny) + (friar) TUCK + E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial
4 DOCKS – two meanings and a very neat clue, “Cuts down weeds”
5 OVERCOME – another double def though I reckon to hammer is to give a thrashing to rather than merely to overcome.
6 DANCE – N (name) in DACE (a fish). A Paul Jones is an old-time dance which involved lots of partner swapping, so probably a precursor to swinging.
7 RETREAT – two def one that maybe should be hyphenated (re-treated)
8 DRESS REHEARSAL – (SHARE DEALERS + R[un] + S[ucceeded])*
9 TREBIZOND – BIZ (business) + O (old) in TREND (fashion). Trebizond was a medieval empire in Asia Minor but, in this clue, is an uncommon name for the Turkish seaport Trabzon, home of my favourite Turkish footy team Trabzonspor
10 AS YET – Y (year) in A SET
11 MIDDLE OF THE ROAD – two meanings one slightly oblique. When I solved this I thought it was the easiest crossword clue I’d ever seen. I tested out my theory by showing the clue to my wife (who has no interest whatsoever in crosswords) and asked her if she could solve it. She could. Here it is: Unexciting white line often put here (6-2-3-4)”
12 SEAMARK – SEAM (join) + ARK (vessel). Another “never heard of it” word but it’s just a generic term for buoys, beacons etc used as navigational aids in the sea.
19 THOUGHT – THOUGH + T
20 BOTANY BAY – (A BABY TONY)*. Lovely definition, “it’s embraced by Sydney”
21 ERASMUS – ERAS (times) + MUS (plural of the Greek letter µ ). Let’s hear it for this week’s statutory obscure literary reference – in 1509 Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote an essay entitled In Praise of Folly. Course he did.
22 RAMSGATE – RAMS (sheep) + GATE (entrance)
24 LEADING QUESTION – (NEAT LIQUIDS GONE)*
26 BEACHWEAR – (WHERE A CAB)*
28 CO,STINGS
29 SHEET LIGHTNING – (ENGLISH GET THIN)*
31 POTTIER – POTTER around I
34 MATCHED – MAT (Matthew) C (caught) HE’D. Doesn’t Matthew’s short form have 2 Ts?
39 HAPHAZARD – PAH reversed + HAZARD
42 EXORCISED – OR inside EXCISED
43 LUKEWARM – LUKE (man) W (with) ARM (weapon). W for WITH always catches me out
44 SCOURED – 2 meanings
45 NONAGON – NAG (badger as a verb)  in NOON (12). Note to beginners – the Times rarely (but not never) cross reference other clues, so any numbers in clues should be first considered as just a number, as here.
46 EARLIER – EARL + i.e. R (that’s right)
47 JERKIN – JERKIN[g]
49 RURAL – RA (men with guns – Royal Artillery) after RU (game – Rugby Union) then [kil]L
51 SLOTH – SH! around LOT
52 GAGES – G (good) + AGES. A gage is a something given as a security. The word MORTGAGE derives from “death pledge”

3 comments on “Jumbo 924 – May 7 2011”

  1. This might be the easiest Times crossword I remember, certainly in recent times. There were words I was unfamiliar with – sadiron, seamark and gage – but the wordplay was straightforward.. had the whole thing done in one sitting, 1/2 hour or a bit less, which is unusual for me
  2. I quite like it when the jumbos are easy. When I get the chance to solve them it’s always on a Sunday evening so I’m always exhausted and in the mood for something gentle. This one fitted the bill perfectly, with a good smattering of unfamiliar words to keep the interest level up.
    I know of ERASMUS from the EU exchange programme for students. This comes up before the man himself on google so he can’t be very well known!
  3. This was indeed an easy one; 61′ for me, just about as fast as I’ve ever done a jumbo. It helped that the four long clues were all easy. The only clue I flagged was 25ac, but assumed ‘punch’ referred somehow to a horse. SOCKEYE was my LOI; I didn’t know that meaning of ‘clock’, and until I finally looked it up, wondered how to justify using a sock decoration to stand for the sock.
    Erasmus, folks, was one of the major scholars of the Renaissance, the quintessential humanist, an important figure in the Reformation, a friend of Thomas More, and all in all a pretty nice guy, evidently. (He’s also supposed to be the one who first said, ‘In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.’) GK material, in short. Now, if it had been Melancthon,…. Clue 21d–I grant you, really a TLS clue, but still–having the phrase ‘praised folly’, was a giveaway.

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