Times Bank Holiday Cryptic Jumbo 1457 – 31st August

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

I found this Bank Holiday entertainment a little on the easy side finishing in under 38 minutes despite being held up for quite a while by my last 4, but it is enlivened by some neat bits of wordplay. 1 clue (7D) is a bit odd, otherwise there was nothing very tricky. Can anyone remember a clue with fewer letters in it than 54A?  COD to the clever wordplay at 13D, but I liked 18D and 27D too. I see on checking that I have an annoying pink square having mistranscribed from my paper copy to spell the Northern city RIPEN. Grr! How did everyone else get on?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Go away, packing some current toiletry (7)
SHAMPOO – SHOO (go away) [packing] AMP (some current).
5 Show sheet of stamps left ready (5,4)
PANEL GAME – PANE (sheet of stamps) L (left) GAME (ready; as in up for it).
10 A lot of well-rounded fruit (4)
PLUM – {a lot of] PLUMp (well-rounded).
14 Nice jumper, perhaps needed for game (6,7)
FRENCH CRICKET – FRENCH (from Nice) CRICKET (jumper; jumping insect).
15 South American owl’s cries, communicating in concealment (2,7)
IN CAHOOTS – INCA (South American) HOOTS (owl’s cries).
16 Peacekeepers with move to East Darfur — initially not costed (10)
UNBUDGETED – UN (peacekeeprs) BUDGE (move) To East Darfur [initially].
17 Again plan to improve university gets behind schedule (11)
REFORMULATE – REFORM (improve) U (university) LATE (behind schedule).
18 All-female church — for this reason (5)
HENCE – HEN (all female) CE (church).
19 Dogfish is tender, Harry (10)
NURSEHOUND – NURSE (tender) HOUND (harry). I didn’t know this name for a dogfish.
21 Indian Statesman with horse protected by soldier (6)
GANDHI –  AND (with) H (horse) [protected by] GI (soldier).
23 Overturned ruler, a distant one? (3,6)
RAS TAFARI – TSAR (ruler) [overturned] -> RAST,  A FAR (distant)  I (one) – His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, crowned in 1930 and deposed in 1974. An &lit clue.
25 What improves flow of southern wine from Spain (5)
STENT – S (southern) TENT (wine from Spain). A stent is a tiny tube that your doctor can insert into a blocked passageway to keep it open. The stent restores the flow of blood or other fluids, depending on where it’s placed. As for the wine – I’ve only ever come across the name in crosswords. A deep red sweet wine chiefly from Spain, used especially as sacramental wine.
26 Difficult Republican pair in Australia (7)
ARDUOUS – R (republican) DUO (pair) [in] AUS (Australia).
28 Easy, cheap bake cooked in area rich with seafood (10,3)
CHESAPEAKE BAY – (Easy, cheap bake)* [cooked].
31 Penny-pinching sets back head of Treasury’s check on finances (5,4)
MEANS TEST – MEAN (penny-pinching) SETS [back] -> STES [head of] Treasury.
33 Wrecks — and what might cause them? (9)
TORPEDOES – Definition and cryptic hint.
35 Position-finding in Lima, say calling to drop off Victor (13)
RADIOLOCATION – A bit of reverse cryptic here… RADIO L (Lima is the phonetic alphabet indicator for L, i.e. as heard on the radio) vOCATION (calling) without  [to drop off] the V (Victor).
37 Assorted charms seen around European border region (7)
MARCHES – [Assorted] (charms)* [about] E (European).
38 Expert at getting round odd parts of Dieppe (5)
ADEPT – AT (getting round) [odd parts of] DiEpPe.
40 Poor-quality trader hit badly (5-4)
THIRD-RATE – (trader hit)* [badly].
42 Organ installed in new empty baptistery not far away (6)
NEARBY – EAR (organ) [installed in] N (new) [empty] BaptistrY.
44 Female working to run large outfit in recession (6,4)
CAREER GIRL – CAREER (run),  L (large) RIG (oufit) [in recession] -> GIRL.
46 Some pyromaniac — Nero, perhaps (5)
ROMAN – [Some] pyROMANiac.He allegedly fiddled while Rome burned, but did he start the fire?
48 Get hold of the wrong end of the stick in row chasing male dog (4,7)
BULL TERRIER – ERR (get the wrong end of the stick) [in] TIER (row) [chasing] BULL (male).
50 Old writers have English with identical style of spelling (4,6)
OPEN SESAME – O (old) PENS (writers) E (English) SAME (identical).
52 Impression capital is a cause of fall in aviation industry (3,6)
AIR POCKET – AIR (impression) POCKET (capital). Hmm I thought POCKET for “capital” a bit of a stretch, but Chambers has “one’s personal stock of money”, so that’s OK then.
53 Empire’s in trim with stirring leader (5,8)
PRIME MINISTER -(Empire’s in trim)* [stirring].
54 Man cried (4)
CREW – Double definition. An 8 letter clue. The only one that short that I can remember is HIJKLMNO (5).
55 Make union once more upset centre about Conservative (9)
RECONNECT – [upset] (centre)* [about] CON (Conservative).
56 Cosmonaut a bit mad at urine being uncovered (7)
GAGARIN – GAGA (a bit mad) uRINe [uncovered].
Down
1 Some works of art in Chesterfield (4)
SOFA – Hidden [some] in workS OF Art.
2 Key coins used around northern Italian region (9)
APENNINES – A (key with 3 sharps in the signature) PENNIES (coins) [around] N (northern).
3 Work in concert to imagine the devil showing off (8,2,2,10)
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION – PICTURE (imagine) SATAN (the devil) EXHIBITION (showing off). The piano piece by Modest Mussorgsky sumptuously orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. My favourite version is this electronic interpretation by IsaoTomita.
4 Reason for growth projection in unit over November (7)
ONCOGEN –  COG (projection, like one of the bits sticking out from a gear wheel) [in] ONE (unit) N (November]. A bit of a tricky one, this; I had to check it before submitting as I hadn’t heard of it. Not to be confused with oncogene “a gene having the potential to cause a normal cell to become cancerous” an oncogen is “a substance or agent causing oncogenesis“
5 What publisher uses to improve look about reset insert (8,3)
PRINTERS INK – PRINK (improve look, as in “prink and preen”) [about] [reset] (insert)*.
6 Snakes end writhing, having shed skins? (9)
NAKEDNESS – (Snakes end)* [writing].
7 Roofer starting late and after some time (5)
LATER – sLATER (roofer) without the first letter [starting late]. I had a MER at this – it is odd to have part of the answer in the wordplay direction when it’s not a hidden word. I think I’d have made it “Roofer not starting until some time after”
8 A noise, loud one, mostly rising up to the furthest distance (2,9)
AD INFINITUM – A DIN (noise) F (forte; loud) I and MUTINy [mostly] (rising)  [up] -> NITUM.
9 Space centre’s to give work once more (6)
ENCORE – EN (printer’s space) CORE (centre). I have crosswords to thank for knowing EN and EM
11 Man running in open land and road (7)
LEONARD – ON (running) [in] LEA (open land) RD (road).
12 Tons in row following my puzzles? (9)
MYSTERIES – T (tons) [in] SERIES (row) [following] MY.
13 A suggestion of “misrobing”? This might go with green items (8,6,8)
THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING – A reverse cryptic [a suggestion of] “misrobing” is m (THOUSAND) is (ISLAND) robing (DRESSING) . Very clever!
18 Bin last trio of artichokes and cook another vegetable (7)
HARICOT – [bin last trio of] ARTICHOkes and rearrange [cook] (articho)*.
20 Unable to appreciate stereo unit, watch end of DVD (3-4)
ONE-EYED – ONE (unit) EYE (watch) [end of] DVD.
22 Lover of fine dressing for pasta (8)
MACARONI – Double definition, the first being an 18th century term for a dandy from the Neapolitan dialect.
24 Mike leaves fraternity residence for pub (8)
ALEHOUSE – A fraternity dressing might be a mALE HOUSE. Lose the M [Mike leaves].
27 Signs of dodgy passages round Bethel, I have article stolen (5)
OBELI – O (round) BEtheL without the “the” [have article stolen] I. Another neat novel bit of wordplay.
29 Fear losing first letter in misprint, perhaps (5)
ERROR – tERROR (fear) [losing first letter – literally!].
30 See Brum’s obscure language (7)
BURMESE – (see brum)* [obscure]
32 Can bird feature in Wordsworth poem? (7)
TINTERN – TIN (can) TERN (bird). A reference to the poem Tintern Abbey.
34 Bogus article is stripped stick of a witch doctor (11)
SHAMANISTIC – SHAM (bogus) AN (article) IS, STICk wihout the last letter [stripped].
36 Revealed team went for a winger (7-4)
OUTSIDE-LEFT – OUT (revealed) SIDE (team) LEFT (went).
37 A lot of March, say, mostly clear and cold for skiing area? (4,5)
MONT BLANC – MONTh [a lot of] (March, say) [mostly] BLANk C (cold).
39 King with gold I sheltered in brief scare (9)
TERRORISE – My LOI. R (King) OR (gold) I [sheltered in] TERSE (brief).
41 Old school needs to adjust about a couple of degrees (4,5)
ALMA MATER – ALTER (adjust) [about] MA MA (a couple of degrees).
43 Belted earl with tag on the run (2,5)
AT LARGE – [belted – a new anagrind to me] (earl tag)*.
45 Author with official approval, not British (7)
LESSING – bLESSING (official approval) without the B (not British). Yet another deletion. The author is, of course, Doris Lessing, who died in 2013 aged 94. I’ve not read any of her books though. Have you?
47 Runs after ruined trader (6)
BROKER – R (runs) [after] BROKE (ruined).
49 Rent concerning for northern city (5)
RIPON – RIP (rent) ON (concerning). Not by any means a big city, but Ripon has a nice cathedral.
51 Land in the centre of Albania’s capital (4)
IRAN – [centre of] tIRANa (Albania’s capital).

4 comments on “Times Bank Holiday Cryptic Jumbo 1457 – 31st August”

  1. Yes, easier than the one two days before, thank heaven. Bank holidays always make me panic, especially the ones at the beginning of a month that give you a club monthly on top of everything else..
    DNK oncogen but friendly wordplay. Also DNK that Chesapeake Bay was good for seafood, but most places are, outside poor old fished-out Europe.
  2. The definition is ‘signs of dodgy passages’; this obelus is (- or ÷), marking a spurious passage.
    While I’m here, I imagine the shortest clue ever was Dean’s To? (answer: MANX CAT)
    1. Thanks. So it is. I missed that in my rush to get the blog done. As for To?. Nice one. I’ll remember that.
  3. Many thanks for excellent blog on a puzzle that I held over tackling until today because of other commitments. Agree it was perhaps a little on the easy side: very enjoyable puzzle. Doris Lessing won Nobel Prize for Literature pretty late in life.

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