Jumbo 996 – Saturday 1st September

[ SAT 15th ] Slightly caught out by the sneaky bank holiday jumbo – was away when 996 came out, did it on the tuesday, but didnt make any notes, now I cant find it! So give me a while to print out the grid, re-do it and then blog it. ETA sometime tomorrow !!

[ SUN 16th circa 13:30 ] Rattled this one off on a train on the Tuesday in about 45 mins. There was no obscure vocab that wasnt easily guessable. AGAMA, RAMA and TAGALOG were examples, but didnt pose much of a problem. There were not many well hidden definitions either, which often add difficulty, although there were a few good surfaces and nicely worked wordplays.
What is interesting is how bad my memory is over two weeks. I would have expected almost to write in all the answers on a blank grid, but there were many a clue that required a bit of re-thought. I suppose that if you do enough grids, the likelihood of remembering run of the mill clues is minimal.

o

Across
1 SECOND RATE – def=poor, time=second, scold=rate
6 CLOCK WATCHER – def=slacker, slightly tongue in cheek with CLOCK and WATCH being timers, and I guess the question mark gives the liberty with the -ER.
14 OBVERTING – (veto bring)*
15 HELLO – HELL=nightmare, O=duck, slightly cryptic def of opener in the conversational sense. This works well for the cricket surface.
16 ACRONYM – A(lien) M(onster) around CRONY=friend. TARDIS is an example of an acronym although I couldnt tell you it off the top of my head – something about Time and Relative Dimensions In Space at a guess ??
17 GET THE BALL ROLLING – double def, where the kick off in football would involve getting the ball rolling. It may not do so in a rugby game though!
18 IDLER – somewhat inverted word play with (win)E (cella)R, after L(ooking), after (“at”) ID=papers. Def=lounger
19 SPARROW – SPAR=fight, ROW=fight
21 GROOVE – double def where routine=groove, in a slightly negative way “stuck in a groove”
22 SEAHORSE – (fish roe)* after S(om)E, and an &lit definition.
24 ONE EYED – O=old, NEED=requirement, around YE=you. Polypheus was the cyclops in the Odyssey.
26 SENORITA – ONES reversed, then RITA (educated from the film/play) whole=young lady.
27 POUFFE – PUFF=smoke around O=round, then (sette)E
30 DOUBLE BOGEY – (blue goodbye)*
32 DENTAL FLOSS – (and left a)* then LOSS=gaping hole. The word play works especially well with the surface in continuing the theme of the definition.
33 OIL PAINTING – IL=one line in OP=work, AIN’T IN G, suggests (as a piece of music) it must be in one of the other keys. Whole is the work of art!
35 STRIP SEARCH – STRIPE=mark of authority, ARCH=required, around (drug)S.
37 SAYING – YIN=something negative (as in YIN/YANG) in SAG=sink. def=saw.
38 PSALTERY – SALTER=one that preserves, inside P(rior)Y
39 EPSILON – (plies)* then ON
42 LAVENDER – REAL=genuine, reversed, around VEND=sell.
44 SETTER – In that jelly sets. Good to see this clued without saying “me” or “I”, or “yours truly”.
46 PFENNIG – F=strong, in PEN=pound, GIN=mothers ruin, reversed, for the former german currency.
48 SONIC – SO NIC(e)
49 ON THE CREST OF A WAVE – double def “surfer so” and “successful”
51 ENLARGE – (green al)* where al is b(AL)l.
52 PAGAN – GA=georgia=state, inside PAN=god.
53 DOCUDRAMA – DO=produce, CUD=something to chew on, RAMA=avatar, for the TV programme. I did not know RAMA, but apparantly it is the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu. I hope it is not necessary to know all of these to complete future grids!!
54 TRAJECTORIES – (lates)T then EC=european community inside RAJ=government, TORIES=politicians. Whole is “courses”
55 DECELERATE – (machin)E, CELER(y)=sticks, but not entirely, in DATE=time. Whole is “Slow”

Down
1 SMORGASBORD – S=second, MOR(e)=extra short, GAS=talk, BOD=man, around R(otter), for the Scandi food.
2 COVET – CO-VET=fellow doctor !
3 NORTHERLY – THE R=right inside N=new, ORLY=airport.
4 RAINBOW – RA=artist, IN BOW=part of east london.
5 TAGALOG – TAG A LOG=ensure wood is labelled, for one of those words I only ever come across in xwords.
7 LILY LIVERED – LILY=blooming thing, LIVE=to be, RED=shade
8 CHOPIN – CHOP=hack, IN=popular.
9 WRANGLES – R=resistance, in WANGLES=engineers (as in the verb)
10 TURKISH COFFEE – (risk chu)* inside TOFFEE, for the drink.
11 HANDLER – AND L=accompanying learner, inside HER, for the trainer.
12 REMORSELESS – MORSEL=bite, inside REES=Welshman, S(tomach) for “savage”
13 CHARDONNAY – DONNA=italian woman, CHARY=hesitant around it. Whole is just “white” for the french white wine, so dont get confused by the italian part.
20 ASEXUALLY – AS=like, EX=old, U=university, ALLY=friend.
23 STINGRAY – STINGY=mean, outside (b)R(e)A(m)
25 DEBUNK – DEB=society girl, (p)UNK = topless delinquent. A clue that may have been topical had it been a few weeks later!
26 SOGGIEST – SO=well, (egg is)*, T=time.
28 FLOORPLAN – FLOOR=puzzle, L=left, in PAN=toilet.
29 MAGPIE – MAG=issue, PIE=food
31 LEARNING CURVE – cryptic def
33 OBSOLESCENT – (coblestones)* [only one B]
34 GOLDEN EAGLE – (gone alleged)*
35 SWELTERING – SING=pipe, around WELTER=roll around
36 HAND GRENADE – HAND=worker, GRENADINE=cordial, less IN.
40 SKEDADDLE – (a)SKED, requested after scalping, ADDLE=turn, whole is “to run off”
41 REDOLENT – took a while to get this but it is RE-DO LENT. quite amusing when you see it!
43 VANILLA – VAN=vehicle, ILL, A, for “plain”
45 RESIDUE – U=uranium, inside RESIDE=live.
46 POOL CUE – sounds like POOLE, Q. Whole is “potter”. I had no-idea about POOLE pots and had to look it up. Still not entirely confident!
47 STUPOR – UP=awake, inside STOR(m)
50 AGAMA – hidden word – didnt know it, had to use checkers.

4 comments on “Jumbo 996 – Saturday 1st September”

    1. Just checked the crossword club site and this is the grid they have there for 996. As per previous comment, dont have the paper version any more so reliant on the online archive being correct. I suspect I would have noticed though if it was a different one to the one I originally solved.

Comments are closed.