Hello again. This Jumbo I worked through steadily in one session, never racing but never getting stuck either. There were some neat definitions, eg 4dn, 35dn. What did you think?
Please, do feel free to ask questions or comment as required.
I use the standard TfTT conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy
| Across | |
| 1 | Solicitor‘s oil painting satisfies the sitter at last (9) |
| CANVASSER – CANVAS (oil painting) + the last letters of satisfieS thE sitteR. | |
| 6 | Dimwit in clutches of drink, a kneeler in church? (7) |
| HASSOCK – ASS (dimwit) in HOCK, a drink, specifically a German white wine of variable, often lamentable, quality. | |
| 10 | Stared, adding a final letter to end of heading (5) |
| GAZED – headinG, + A ZED, a final letter. a rather neat clue I thought | |
| 13 | Officer caught in passage with body (5,8) |
| LANCE CORPORAL – C(aught) in LANE (passage) + CORPORAL, for which Collins has “of or relating to the body.” A lance corporal is the lowest rank that could be called an officer. | |
| 14 | Mutt, for one is unhappy with basic food, we’re told (9) |
| CROSSBRED – CROSS (unhappy) + BRED, sounds like “bread.” A mutt is a mongrel dog. | |
| 15 | Decorator gets fluid for marking sports surface (3,4) |
| ICE RINK – ICER (decorator, eg of a cake) + INK, fluid for marking. | |
| 16 | Cover on press department’s IT equipment (7) |
| DESKTOP – I suppose this is TOP (cover) on DESK, which can be a part of a press department. A news desk perhaps, or a foreign desk.. | |
| 17 | Charge for retaining ship‘s seniority on list (7) |
| KEELAGE – KEEL (list, as in keel over) + AGE, seniority. A NHO for me, but confidently entered when the K emerged. Collins says “a fee charged by certain ports to allow a ship to dock” | |
| 18 | Muse here, slipping my line back into stage work (5,7) |
| MOUNT OLYMPUS – MY + L(ine), rev. in MOUNT (stage) + OPUS (work). Mt Olympus stocks a total of nine muses, of which several (especially Erato) crop up in crosswords from time to time | |
| 20 | Insists on one turning up with learner in USA (10) |
| STIPULATES – L + UP I rev: “one turning up with learner” inside STATES | |
| 23 | Compound in cowboy film eschewed by banks (5) |
| ESTER – (w)ESTER(n) | |
| 24 | All investments the responsibility of minister (9) |
| PORTFOLIO – a DD given that most (but not all) government ministers have a portfolio. I have always thought that “Minister without portfolio” must be a happy thing to be.. | |
| 25 | Sly deserter originally rooting for GI (7) |
| FURTIVE – FUGITIVE, a deserter, with the GI replaced by R(ooting) | |
| 26 | Somewhat bent vicar in rule breaking (11) |
| CURVILINEAR – *(VICAR IN RULE) | |
| 28 | Ignoring cheers, entertain cast hugging elderly actress (11) |
| TRAGEDIENNE – AGED (elderly) in *(ENTER(ta)IN, ie the Ta or cheers is ignored. Elderly is part of the wordplay, but I dare say a tragedienne might be elderly. Can’t see Keira, Kate or Rene Z being a tragedienne, can you? | |
| 30 | Footer about right, with live commercials you can count on? (6,5) |
| PRAYER BEADS – R(ight) in PAYER, one who foots eg a bill, + BE (live) + ADS, commercials. Bit missing from the definition, perhaps? | |
| 32 | Revised version of internet ode undertaken (7,4) |
| ENTERED INTO – *(INTERNET ODE) | |
| 34 | What might afflict company during flood? (7) |
| SCOURGE – CO in SURGE (flood) | |
| 36 | Blue fashion in decline (9) |
| DOWNTREND – DOWN (blue, sad) + TREND (fashion). One has to be forever ON TREND, does one not? | |
| 38 | One doesn’t recall drinking here? (5) |
| LETHE – a CD. The Lethe, river of forgetfulness, is one of the five rivers of Hades. It flows through the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep, and around the borders of Elysium. So they say, not been there myself.. | |
| 39 | Forces chap to maintain island (10) |
| SERVICEMAN – SERVICE (maintain) + MAN, the Isle of. | |
| 41 | Contraceptive taken after love to mitigate harsh treatment (5,3,4) |
| SUGAR THE PILL – SUGAR (love, dearie, etc) + THE PILL, what helped to make the 1960s such a great decade.. | |
| 45 | Nearly all petrol with free charging is legal (7) |
| JURIDIC – RID (free) inside JUIC(e), nearly all petrol. NHO juridic but had heard of juridical, essentially the same thing | |
| 46 | Retired Tyneside councillor stopping people’s crime (7) |
| LARCENY – NE CR (Northeastern councillor) reversed in LAY, people’s as opposed to clerical, for example. My local church has a lay reader.. | |
| 47 | Mix of seaweed within a couple of miles (7) |
| AMALGAM – ALGA (seaweed) inside A MM, a couple of miles. A word that always makes me think of dentists. | |
| 49 | Was recoiling after holding one’s own blade (6,3) |
| COPING SAW – COPING (holding one’s own) + SAW (was, recoiling). Saws have blades, as well as knives.. | |
| 50 | Take off support for arm I waved (5,4,4) |
| SLING ONES HOOK – SLING (support for arm) + ONE (I) + SHOOK, waved | |
| 52 | Byes at any time reflected part of score (5) |
| BREVE – B(yes) + EVER, rev. A musical note, quite a long one I believe | |
| 53 | Indeed yearn to follow Democrat for twenty-four hours (7) |
| DAYLONG – D(emocrat) + AY (indeed, yes) + LONG (yearn). Personally I would have said “all day” was different from 24 hours, which is a day and a night; but if a day is taken as a 24 hour period, it is clearly an OK usage. | |
| 54 | Mounted contests here — and others in court (9) |
| BADMINTON – DD. The Badminton Horse trials, held on the Duke of Beaufort’s estate, Badminton Park. And the indoor court game. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Metal with almost all carbon I stored (7) |
| CALCIUM – AL(l) + C(arbon) + I, all inside CUM (with). Calcium is an alkaline earth metal, and the commonest in the human body. | |
| 2 | Question jockeys in race upset, reaching illogical conclusion (3,8) |
| NON SEQUITUR – *(QUESTION), in RUN (race) reversed. | |
| 3 | Asian taking part in kamikaze ritual (5) |
| AZERI – hidden, in kamikAZE RItual. A native of, um, the Republic of Azerbaijan. | |
| 4 | Part of sub in Albanian currency returned and not included (7) |
| SNORKEL – NOR (and not) inside LEKS, Albanian currency, returned. There are currently 136 Leks to the £1, or 118 to 1USD. | |
| 5 | Popular music standard going up (3) |
| RAP – PAR, standard, rev. I question the “music” part of the definition 🙂 | |
| 6 | Set jam that’s available in bars (4,5) |
| HARD STUFF – SET (hard) + STUFF (jam, as in jam full) | |
| 7 | Determined to forget about what may be in the water? (6) |
| SOLUTE – RESOLUTE, with the RE (about) missing | |
| 8 | Restorative policy of work mate, only one left accepting blame (12,7) |
| OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY – OCCUPATION (work) + AL(l)Y containing THE RAP, blame. | |
| 9 | Get in the club and prepare for game (5,2) |
| KNOCK UP – a DD, the first meaning get with child. I remember my daughter informing me that she was “Up the duff,” because she had “A bun in the oven.” An area rich in euphemism. | |
| 10 | Oriental game wizard, one spreading the word (9) |
| GOSPELLER – GO, the game of oriental origin, now unfortunately solved forever by computer, + SPELLER, a wizard that casts spells. | |
| 11 | Duff razor is not a Parsee’s (11) |
| ZOROASTRIAN – *(RAZOR IS NOT A). A follower of the Persian prophet Zoroaster (aka Zarathustra). | |
| 12 | Duck‘s subterfuge (5) |
| DODGE – a DD | |
| 16 | Maud’s friend arranged permit in colourful border region (8,3,8) |
| DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY – *(MAUD’S FRIEND) + ALLOW (permit) in GAY (colourful). A pleasant area of Southern Scotland | |
| 19 | Rotary motor showing strain, with inner rib broken (7) |
| TURBINE – *(RIB) inside TUNE (strain) | |
| 21 | Port worker’s first wife died in supermarket (9) |
| STEVEDORE – EVE (first wife) + D(ied), inside STORE (supermarket). | |
| 22 | Bishop flexible, like Sunday’s children? (6) |
| BLITHE – B(ishop) + LITHE.
“And the child that is born on the Sabbath day Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.” Mind you, Monday’s child is supposedly fair of face, and since that would include me, either my parents got the date wrong or the whole rhyme is severely undermined thereby. |
|
| 23 | Those who’d get away from opponents at table drink up in Queens, perhaps (9) |
| ESCAPISTS – ES (East and South, opponents at a bridge table) + PIS (SIP rev.) inside CATS, queens perhaps. My pedigree Maine Coon girl had a litter of six kittens, a few months ago. Four weeks later we took her to be neutered, only to be told that they couldn’t, because she was already pregnant again … just a tramp, that girl is. That is she, in my avatar picture. The second lot are just seven weeks old now, but we have found homes for them all. They are very, very cute indeed. | |
| 24 | Elastic producer initially under obligation (7) |
| PLIABLE – P(roducer) + LIABLE (under obligation) | |
| 25 | Nuclear component it’s said not many will measure, historically (4,3) |
| FUEL ROD – FUEL, sounds like FEW’LL, + ROD, an unusual measure in that it can be both a linear and an area measure. My allotment, when I had it, was 7 rods in size, meaning 16.5 sq.ft x 7. | |
| 27 | Engineers meeting second individual dispersed again (6) |
| RESOWN – RE (Royal Engineers, Corps of) + S(econd) + OWN (individual). | |
| 29 | Spoil trendy borders of lining during fitting (7) |
| INDULGE – IN (trendy), + L(inin)G inside DUE, fitting or apt. | |
| 31 | Ego, what sustains us in morning routine when exhausted (5,6) |
| AMOUR PROPRE – OUR PROP, that sustains us, in AM (morning) + R(outin)E. A more posy equivalent to saying pride, or self-esteem. | |
| 33 | Love bird gets round duck, no problem (7,2,2) |
| NOTHING TO IT – NOTHING (love) + O (duck) inside TIT, a bird. Not a clue that would appeal to Astro_Nowt | |
| 35 | Steps with purpose in and out, blocking people (4,5) |
| RAIN DANCE -IN + *(AND), in RACE (people). A clever clue.. | |
| 37 | Model eating nut increasingly tense (9) |
| TAUTENING – *(EATING NUT). A strange surface, and I am not certain if it quite works, grammatically speaking. “Increasing tension,” is that the same as “Increasingly tense?” | |
| 40 | Relieved partner once damned runs away (7) |
| EXCUSED – EX (partner once) + CU(r)SED, damned without the runs | |
| 42 | Focussed, like those under instruction (7) |
| TRAINED – a DD | |
| 43 | Mistakenly ban milk for young 45 down? (7) |
| LAMBKIN – *(BAN MILK). Jacob is a rather attractive breed of polycerate, piebald sheep. | |
| 44 | Rising man with master takes care of painting (6) |
| FRESCO – SERF (a man with a master) rev., + CO, care of and not company, for once | |
| 45 | Patriarch shot protecting firm (5) |
| JACOB – CO (this time it is company) in JAB, a shot, which most of us will have had several of in recent years | |
| 48 | Very like sailor — not half (5) |
| ASSAI – AS (like) SAI(lor). A musical term meaning “very.” Also a species of palm tree, I discover | |
| 51 | Trap in swamp after capsizing (3) |
| GOB – BOG, swamp, rev. A rather vulgar term for one’s mouth | |
DNK SLING ONES HOOK; I evidently biffed it from checkers, since I only parsed it post-submission. DNK BADMINTON horse trials. I had no problem with TAUTENING, assuming it was inchoative not causative: becoming tenser not making something tenser. I did have a problem, however, with PRAYER BEADS; I’ve got “def?” in the margin. Liked FURTIVE & RAIN DANCE. [on edit:] I was surprised to see KNOCK UP, a coarse phrase (where I come from, anyway) I wouldn’t dream of using.
In my delicate way I tried to imply that I would not use it either. But my daughter, well bred and well brought up, was quite happy to use that and similar phrases to indicate her own condition.
I think it is one of a rapidly increasing number of situations where it is OK for *them* to use the phrase, but not you or me. Now I am over 70, I at last understand that being offended is something you do only to yourself, so I don’t worry as once I would have. Worse things happen at sea, as my Grandma used to say, not that she had ever actually been to sea..
My grandmother used to say, ‘Well I’ll go to sea!’ And she did – taking a liner to America – just after the Titanic disaster.
My attempt has not been “marked” yet, and the club site has not published the solution. Is it just me? or has the blog appeared too soon? I know it took me 2 hours 20 minutes
According to the T&Cs on the print-out of this puzzle the competition closing date was 23:59 on the second Wednesday after publication (i.e. 7th September), so it’s legitimate to post the blog today. As this was a Bank Holiday puzzle it’s possible that the solution will not be published in the newspaper or available online until two weeks after the puzzle appeared, i.e. next Monday
Good question … Jackkt has done better than me, I looked but could not find the official closing date but I think we are past it, as he confirms.
We now have the solution. I’m not sure when it was published – perhaps Monday as Jackkt suggested – but I shouldn’t have waited. I thought I had a successful completion; now I find two pink squares. I put OR at the end of NON SEQUITUR. Fair enough, it’s a difficult spelling. But then I put a Y in the middle of BLITHE, for which there’s no excuse. I liked RAIN DANCE and FRESCO
The blog heading includes the publication date.