Jumbo 971 – A real corker this one.

Author   fathippy2Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
This one seemed a step up from the usual saturday jumbo, and since there was not a great deal of obscure vocab, I guess that must mean some cleverly misleading cluing. Either that or old age is catching up.
No, having finished blogging the clues now, it was definitely a high quality offering, mainly from clever wordplay, attention to surfaces, and inventive definitions.

Across
1 PALELY – PAL=friend, ELY=see. Good example straight up of a cunning “see” thrown casually into the mix. Did not know the description of Keat’s knight.
4 HIS LAST BOW – H(ectic) (‘S A BIT SLOW)* – interesting twist here where the anagrist seems to include the ‘s at the end of another part of the clue. One half of me thinks that this is not quite cricket, but I guess the “never trust the punctuation” allows for this.
10 CAPED – APED=copied=did like, after C(hristianity). Def is “as crusader”, where the caped crusader was batman.
14 SPOON-FEED – SPOON = old golf club, FEED = paid for
15 KHAKI ELECTION – cryptic def, needed the checkers, especially the first K as I did not know the term. It is an election with a war as the main theme.
16 CUE BALL – sounds like QUEUE BAWL, where queue is the “series of waiters”. Nice clever surface read for white (wine/cue ball)
17 ANTACID – (t)AN(k), TA=army, CID=officers looking into case, whole is “medicine”
18 GROUCHO – (d)O (c)H(e)C(k) U(p) O(n) R(a)G – fairly easy from checkers without any wordplay
19 DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER – A REF=man in black, OR, EVE=girl in DIAMONDS=suit, R=right, for the picture.
21 ASKS – (t)ASKS for “time off work”. Even the simple clues have nice clever surfaces.
24 DENIM – reverse of MINED=dug up. Bit of an old chestnut this one.
26 CRAZIEST – AZ=extreme letters, I=one, in CREST=top
27 BENEDICT – EN,EDICT after B. EN is “Lorraine’s in” as in the french for in. There are a list of french towns or regions like NANCY or NICE, that nicely mislead in surfaces and are worth remembering.
29 HUNCHBACKED – HUNCH=feeling, BACKED=supported
30 DOVE COTTAGE – DO=provide, V=very, ECO=env friendly, TT=dry, AGE=period.
32 INTERREGNUM – INTERRE(d), (workin)G, NUM=national union of miners, def is “gap at the top”
35 CARAVAN SITE – (IN VAST SITE)* after C=speed of light. Def = Space travellers take. Another good misleading surface.
37 HUNG JURY – HUNGRY=keen to eat, outside of JU(ice)=cordial without ice. Def = Group undecided.
39 ASUNCION – CI=channel islands=jersey etc, inside A SUN=a star, ON=performing. Yet another superb surface.
40 CRAIC – (mar)C(h), RAC=motoring club, outside I(n), for the Irish term for a good time.
43 OWED – O=over, before the day=WED
44 LEANING TOWER OF PISA – (WE GO FOR A LATE SPIN IN)*
47 NOSTRUM – NO, ST=way, RUM=unusual
48 EXOCARP – EX=ex! CARP=bellyache, around O=old, for the fruit skin
50 CURRANT – CUR, RANT, both with slightly debatable definitions (one thats completely rotten/storm), but probably ok.
51 DRAUGHTSWOMAN – DRAUGHTS=swallows, WAN=pasty, keeping MO=second, reversed.
52 EXTRA TIME – cryptic def, where two sports teams who are tied “pairs of drawers”, get more time to resolve the outcome.
53 RISKY – (da)RI(ng), SKY=to put up, def is “with danger”. Note the lift and separate in “put up with”
54 CARTRIDGES – CARTS=conveys, around RIDGE=bank, for the containers.
55 BEFELL – BE=to live, FELL=mountain, def=happened.

Down
1 POSTCODED – POST=after, ODE=poem inside CD “record-breaking”!
2 LOOSE CANNON – (ALSO ONCE)* on N(ewsweek)
3 LONG AGO – (GANG)* inside LOO(k), def is “way back” which again is nicely hidden by the surface.
5 INDIA – afrAID NIghtwatchman, reversed hidden
6 LIKE THE WIND – LIKED=admired, around THE=article, WIN=victory, def = fleet
7 STAR CROSSED – CROSS=”puzzles missing words”, inside STARED=”looked hard” for cursed.
8 BRINDLED – BRIDLED around (lagoo)N for streaked.
9 WILD GEESE – GEES=spurs, inside WILDE=Irish “playmaker”, def=wingers=birds. Good continuation of the football theme through all parts (bar the answer)
10 CUCKOO – double def, cuckoo from the clock and for the madman.
11 PRINCESS IDA – PRESS ID=journalists credentials, INC=incorporated, inside, then A, for the musical work.
12 DUNNO – DUO=pair, around N(atio)N, for the slang (rough) spelling for dont know (search me).
13 WELL I DECLARE – WELL=fine, (ALE, CIDER)*
20 ALASKANS – ALAS=sadly, KANS(as) = another state without AS=like.
22 SO THERE – SOT=alcoholic, ERE=before, around H=hard.
23 TECTONIC – TEC=busy investigating, TONIC=type of water, def=associated with earths crust.
25 MAHARAJA – reverse of AJAR=turning, A H=hospital, AM=before noon. Apparently ajar originally meant turning before the more common idea of partially opened.
28 OVERVIEW – OVER=concluded, VIE=jockey, W=weight. Def = summary
29 HEIGH HO – HEIGH(t), HO(use) = accomodation useless!!
31 COVENTRY CITY – COVEN=witches, TRY=trial, IT=appeal in C(elebrit)Y. The definition is just “Eleven”, which would normally be a little unfair, but seemed to be perfect
33 TENNESSEANS – SEN=senate, NET=catch, reversed, SEANS=Irishmen
34 MISINFORMER – M=mass, I SIN=confession of wrongdoing, FORMER=old, whole is “unreliable source”
35 CONSTRAINED – CONS=prisoners, TRAINED=exercised,
36 IMAGINATIVE – MAGI=wise men, NATIVE=associated with birth, all after I. Whole is “original”
38 RHEUMATIC – (HURT I CAME)*
41 CHARTWELL – CHART=”be hit”, WELL=fit, for Churchills house.
42 INTERWAR – sprINTER WARned. Def “conflict bounds”
45 FORGAVE – R=run, inside FOG=mist and AVE=hail (in the sense of greet)
46 GROGGY – G(renadie)R, O(rderin)G, G(u)Y, def “spaced out”
47 NADIR – NR=near, outside AD=promotion, I=one
49 PIECE – sounds like PEACE(still)

7 comments on “Jumbo 971 – A real corker this one.”

  1. 29:24 for me. A half-hour of sheer delight – or more, since I needed extra time to savour all the finer points. It’s because of crosswords like this that I stick with The Times. I only wish I knew who the setter was so that I could buy him or her a drink next time we meet. There are so many brilliant clues to choose from, but I particularly like 35ac (CARAVAN SITE) so I’ll choose that as my COD.

    Your explanation of MAHARAJA can’t be right because you’d need “up” to apply to both “turning” and “a hospital before noon”, which it can’t do because it comes between them. In any case this bit about AJAR = “turning” sounds to me to be too far-fetched for this setter. I think the definition of “to” that s/he’s relying on is the one in the Sykes edition of the COD: “(of door) just not shut” which equates to AJAR. I don’t know if this really stands up – is it still in the latest edition of the COD? – but I’m pretty sure it’s been used in Times puzzles in the past. Perhaps Sykes himself explained it at some time.

    1. I wholeheartedly agree with your assesment of that clue. One of the troubles of not leaving any notes on the grid and blogging two weeks later is that some things are almost like a new solve. Plus this was always a clue that would go in easily from checkers without an exact understanding of the word play.

      I think you have done yourself a dis-service by not being happy with your version. I think “to” as ajar is fair for most people, even if it has scant reference in the dictionaries. It is yet another example in this grid of cunning setting, whereby a seeming conjunction or padding offers more than you think at first.

      For what it is worth, I did not know the “turning” part of ajar, but having looked it up it came up with :

      [altered form of obsolete on char, literally: on the turn; char, from Old English cierran to turn]

      Barking up the wrong tree, but co-incidental!

      1. Sorry for the delayed response, but I’ve only just got round to visiting my local Waterstone’s today.

        They didn’t have a COD sitting there on the shelf for me to look at, but both the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Pocket Oxford Dictionary give “so as to be closed or nearly closed”. That at least is an improvement on the Sykes COD definition which left the door open, but I wonder if in another 20 years, they’ll omit “or nearly closed”. I’ve only ever come across it meaning “(so as to be) closed”, and I assume the same goes for the setter of No. 24,966, who clued AJAR as “Not to back Asian ruler could be a shock (4)”. What’s more, none of the OED citations seems to support “or nearly closed”!

  3. My habit with jumbos is to leave them to one side, and then use them to fill in the odd spare few minutes here and there; so it is hard to say how long they take me. But this one definitely took me quite a while.. I agree with the blogger and with Tony, this was a cracking effort.
    Sad that it has attracted so little other comment!

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