The traditional Sunday Times jumbo contained lots of thematic answers and came with the usual cringeworthy grid which I hope will see retirement soon. I thought the difficulty level was low, but I slowed down near the end and was particularly held up by 49ac (MARINIERE) and 36dn (OSTRACODA), an anagram which I didn’t know and got wrong (the same was true of URODELA at 10dn, and for the same reasons – my new year’s resolutions really ought to be to learn some marine biology and some Greek). There were some very nice clues, with the cryptic definitions at 40ac (ALBATROSSES) and 12dn (RUBIK’S CUBE) perhaps my favourites. It was a shame that the usual errors cropped up (e.g. a cock-up at 54ac and incorrect enumerations for those clues spanning two entries).
Some news: this will be my last blog for TftT, at least for now. This is for a multitude of reasons, one being that I rarely have Internet access at weekends so often can’t respond to comments in a sensible time frame (not to mention the problems of actually getting the blogs up on time). So I’d just like to offer some thanks, first and foremost to Peter Biddlecombe for having started this blog many years ago and built it into what I’m sure is now an invaluable resource for many up-and-coming solvers and old hands alike. I’d also like to thank all who have commented on the ST blogs over the last few years or so and corrected my mistakes, with extra thanks for those that have helped me by blogging or posting by proxy on the all-too-regular occasions when I’ve had problems with Internet access. Finally, thanks to Dave Perry who will take over the ST blogs from the next puzzle.
A very merry Christmas to all and best wishes for the new year.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | WATER BOATMAN; (OTTAWA BARMEN)* – one of these. |
| 13 | NINEVEH; [statio]N + (I’VE HEN)* |
| 14 | CONCURRED; CON (= ‘prisoner’) + CUR (= ‘dog’) + RED (= ‘some wine, perhaps’) |
| 15 | ODOUR; [lo]O + DOUR (= ‘grim’) |
| 16,8 | BRUSSELS SPROUTS; BRUSSELS + S.P. (= starting prices = ‘odds’) + ROUTS (= ‘packs’, according to Chambers) – this seemed an enormous clue for an 8-letter word, but I eventually realised that the length should have read (8,7). |
| 18 | S + WINE |
| 19 | PLACEBO; PLACE (= ‘Spot’) + B.O. (= ‘offensive odour’) |
| 22 | U(L)NA |
| 24 | PAR + SNIPS |
| 25 | RAG TRADE; (ART GRADE)* – not convinced by ‘moderate’ as an anagram indicator. It might work as an imperative but then the grammar of the clue doesn’t work because of the word ‘required’. |
| 29 | TINSELLED; TIN (= ‘Money’), + SEED around LL |
| 30 | SAUCE; “SOURCE” – a nice clue, with ‘well’ actually a noun in the cryptic reading. |
| 31 | ELEGANT; (TEN GALE)* |
| 33 | CRANBERRY; C + RAN (= ‘managed’), + ERR in BY |
| 34 | ECHO CHAMBER (cryptic definition) |
| 40 | ALBATROSSES (cryptic definition) – I liked this a lot, with ‘birdies’ (another golfing term) cleverly worked into the surface. |
| 44 | CARTLOADS; (ACTOR’S LAD)* |
| 46 | PRUDISH; P (= ‘Quiet’) + R.U. (= rugby union) + DISH |
| 48 | C + HAIR – the musical is Hair. |
| 49 | MARINIERE; MARINER around 1, + E[uropean] – my penultimate entry, when I finally thought of ‘mariner’ having spent a while trying to do something with ‘rating’. I’d heard of the sauce (‘cooked in white wine with onions and herbs’, apparently, and named after the French for ‘bargeman’s wife’) but would never have remembered it without the wordplay. |
| 51 | STUFFING (2 defs) |
| 54 | AGAR; AGA (= ‘stove’) + R[uns] – it looks like the second half of the clue to 60ac has accidentally been appended to the end of this clue, which I think should have stopped after ‘stove’. |
| 58 | LIBERAL; LIBER (= Latin for ‘book’) + A + L (= ‘student’) |
| 60 | GREIG; RE in GIG – I can’t believe this took me so long, even with the initial ‘G’ in place: I tried Gooch, Gower and Grace before finally getting the right captain. |
| 62 | BARNACLE (2 defs) – the barnacle-goose took me a while to remember. |
| 65 | CIRCA (hidden backwards) |
| 66 | BARGEPOLE; rev. of (ELOPE + GRAB) – this took me longer than it should have! |
| 67 | BROMIDE – this can mean a platitude, from the use of bromides as sedatives. |
| 68 | TROTTER – which is the ‘leg end’ of a pig. Hmmm. |
| 69 | LEADING LIGHT (1 def, 1 literal interpretation) |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | WINE; “WHINE” |
| 2 | TEND(R)ON |
| 3 | RAVISH; RASH (= ‘Spots’) aroUnd V,I |
| 4 | OCHRE; (CHORE)* – this might have caused problems for overseas solvers because ‘ocher’ is the American spelling. |
| 5 | TACOS; C[hilli] in (OATS)* – a sort of semi-&lit, I think. I’m never wholly convinced by first-letter indicators such as ‘bit of’, ‘hint of’ etc. |
| 6 | AG(N)ES – I was slightly confused by ‘Centre part of’ at first, but although it’s not really necessary I think it’s intended to indicate exactly where the ‘N’ goes. |
| 7 | TURKEY (3 defs) – I was sure this was the answer, given the cross-references in 51ac and 61dn, but couldn’t explain first part of the clue (‘Flop down on one…’) when solving. Having looked it up, I now see that ‘Flop’ (as in a failure) and ‘down on one’ are two further, separate, definitions (but are turkeys really covered in down? I don’t think I’d want a sleeping bag stuffed with turkey feathers). |
| 8 | SIDE PLATE; (PLEASED IT)* – this clue would have been much improved if ‘dishes’ had read ‘dish’: the definition would arguably have been more accurate and the ‘it’ in the surface reading would have made sense. |
| 9 | RIOJA; RIO + JA[r] |
| 10 | URODELA; (ROULADE)* – a lovely anagram. I was fairly sure of ‘uroleda’, but my confidence was misplaced: delos is Greek for ‘clear’ and this is a class of largely colourless amphibia. |
| 11 | SCROOGE; ROO (= ‘Bouncer’) in SC[ene] + rev. of E.G. |
| 12 | RUBIK’S CUBE (cryptic definition) – another very nice cryptic definition, with two misleading games included in the surface reading. |
| 17 | LARCENERS; (R[uns] + CLEANER’S)* |
| 20 | AUSTEN; AU (= ‘gold’) + STEN (= ‘gun’) – the Sten gun was designed by Shepherd and Turpin and named after their initials and by analogy with a Bren gun (which was manufactured in Brno and Enfield). |
| 21 | INN; IN + N[eed] |
| 23 | AUSTR[al]IA |
| 24 | PILSNER; (N,S + PILE)* + R[equest] |
| 26 | THETA; TT (= ‘Dry’) around H.E. (= high explosive) + A – one of those ‘x y in’ constructions. |
| 27 | DINNER; rev. of RED around INN |
| 28 | MESH; rev. of HEM around S |
| 32 | TREE; odd letters of TARGETED |
| 35 | C + RAM |
| 36 | OSTRACODA; (COD’S AORTA)* – this was my other option, after ‘octradosa’, but I guessed wrongly. It would have helped if I’d known the Greek ostrakon, meaning ‘shell’. |
| 37 | HOODIES; HOOD + I.E.’S |
| 38 | MADEIRA; (I DREAM)* + A |
| 39 | CLAR[in]ET |
| 41 | THIEF; THE around I, + F – I think Raffles, the ‘gentleman thief’, might have been retired from the Times’s daily puzzles – can’t recall seeing him for a while. |
| 42 | SACK (2 defs) |
| 43 | SWAMP FEVER; F[ellow] + EVER after SWAMP (= ‘slough’) – the first word here took some work and I nearly went for ‘scalp fever’ in desperation. |
| 45 | SH(ERR)Y |
| 47 | HANDLE BAR |
| 50 | BAT; odd letters of BEAST |
| 52 | SO + LICIT |
| 55 | GOLDING; GOLD + (GIN)* – author of Lord of the Flies. |
| 56 | AGARIC – curiously, this is both the noun (i.e. the fungus itself) and the related adjective. The phrase ‘not changing’ seems superfluous. |
| 57 | GAS OIL; SOIL after G[eorgi]A |
| 59/53ac | ROAST POTATOES; ROAST (= ‘Criticise’) + rev. of (A TOP) + TOES (= ‘members’) – another incorrect enumeration, but I was wise to this by now having already seen 16/8ac. |
| 61 | GOOSE (2 defs) – apparently to ‘goose’ someone means to poke them in the buttocks from behind. |
| 62 | BREAD; BRA around E[ngland] + D (= ‘Germany’) – as in bread sauce. I think this is another faulty clue: ‘English’ is a common indicator for E (and this abbreviation is given in most dictionaries), but ‘England’? You could argue that ACE, for example, stands for ‘Arts Council (of) England’, but this is a specious justification (‘Arts’ clearly wouldn’t be allowed to indicate ‘A’). But perhaps ‘England’ is listed under ‘E’ in some dictionary? |
| 63 | ROBIN; rev. of OR (= ‘gold’) + BIN |
| 64 | FELT (2 defs) |
Chambers gives E = English but not England. Perhaps the clue should have said “Spain” since E = Espana is OK!
And, thank you Neil for your many blogs.. I know how much time they take to do, but as Peter used to say, it is not meant to be a life sentence..
The rest of it was a mostly enjoyable Christmas-dinner-themed Sunday treat. Shame about the grid, which they seem to save up specially for the ST Christmas Jumbo every year, and which we have a grumble about every year!
I’m not sure when Neil sent this blog entry to Pete for posting, but he only forwarded it to me late last night, and I posted it as soon as I noticed. I’ll add my thanks to Neil for putting up with the difficult blogging conditions for so long, and wish you all the best for the future. Hope to see you at the Magpie party later in the month.
(Neil sent me the puzzle about two weeks ago, and I forgot to pass it on to anyone else while waiting for the closing date.)