A lovely middle-of-the road Cryptic Jumbo for the Bank Holiday with a good mix of easy and harder clues. Points of delight included 27A, 36A, 8D and the “wonderful creation” at 33D. In all it took me 38:11. How did you all get on? Thanks to our setter for the entertainment.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Very much allowed to go to alternative provider of legal services (9) |
| SOLICITOR – SO (very much) LICIT (allowed) OR (alternative). | |
| 6 | Removes mention of prospector’s successes (7) |
| STRIKES – Double definition. | |
| 10 | Occult behaviour in women’s group account backed (5) |
| WICCA – WI (Women’s Institute; women’s group), ACC (account) [backed] -> CCA. | |
| 13 | Financial assessor reduced concrete supplied to railway (7) |
| ACTUARY – ACTUA{l} (concrete) [reduced], RY (railway). Coincidentally, as I compile this blog, my son has just had his first day as a trainee ACTUARY. | |
| 14 | Barely securing last place in judo tournament (5) |
| JOUST – JUST (barely) outside last letter in judO. | |
| 15 | Sad phase I encountered in each US state (9) |
| ELEGIACAL – LEG (phase) I, in EA (each) CAL (California; US state). | |
| 16 | Offer to participate in facilitating bowler’s participation in boxing? (5,4,3,4,3,4) |
| THROW ONES HAT INTO THE RING – Cryptic definition. Curious surface. How many (cricketing) bowlers have become boxers, I wonder? | |
| 17 | Sea creature? Quiet — disturbed part of sea is home to millions (6) |
| SHRIMP – SH (quiet), and M (millions) in RIP (disturbed part of sea). I DNK that meaning of RIP except as RIP TIDE, but it is in Chambers. | |
| 18 | Half-hearted physician with weapon (8) |
| LUKEWARM – LUKE (physician) W (with) ARM (weapon). | |
| 19 | Competent secretary blocking radio message (7) |
| CAPABLE – PA (secretary) in CABLE (radio message). | |
| 22 | Second rune translated in full (10) |
| UNCENSORED – (Second rune)* [translated]. | |
| 23 | Man in royal office replaced printer cable (6,6) |
| PRINCE ALBERT – (printer cable)* [replaced]. | |
| 27 | Medic describing their patients is a bore (5) |
| DRILL – DR (medic) ILL (describing there patients). Lol. | |
| 29 | Daughter put out about old Queen’s flaw (7) |
| DEMERIT – D (daughter). EMIT (put out), about ER (old Queen). | |
| 30 | Following London style, perhaps, welcoming King in eagerness (8) |
| ALACRITY – ALA CITY (following London style, perhaps) outside R (King). | |
| 32 | One mill at work, filled with high-class floor-covering (8) |
| LINOLEUM – (one mill)* [at work] including U (high-class). | |
| 34 | Passing through place after one has disembarked from coach (7) |
| TRANSIT – TRA{i}N coach without the I (one), SIT (place). | |
| 36 | Compulsion to ditch uniform or other clothes (5) |
| DRESS – D{u}RESS (compulsion) without the U (uniform in the NATO alphabet). Entertaining surface. | |
| 39 | Port sensibly distributed seafood (5,7) |
| SPINY LOBSTER – (port sensibly)* [distributed]. | |
| 41 | Bad weather in spring mostly does for attachment to mill (10) |
| WATERWHEEL – (weather)* [bad] in WEL{l} (spring) [mostly]. | |
| 44 | Poet, borderline dreadful, seen around University (7) |
| RIMBAUD – RIM (borderline) BAD (dreadful) about U (University). | |
| 46 | Seasonal flower I left out in the wind (8) |
| EASTERLY – EASTER (seasonal) L{i}LY (flower) without the I. | |
| 48 | Settlement overseas an unknown quantity after interruption to sentence? (6) |
| COLONY – COLON (interruption to sentence) Y (unknown quantity). | |
| 50 | Collection of clocks from across the country and across the years? (8,8,7) |
| NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY – Cryptic definition based on clocks = faces. | |
| 53 | Timekeeper encountered refusal to break into capital (9) |
| METRONOME – MET (encountered), NO (refusal) in ROME (capital). | |
| 54 | Old Duke getting worried by another Duke (5) |
| DATED – D (duke) ATE (worried) D (another duke). | |
| 55 | A good hit? Democrat gratified (7) |
| TOUCHED – TOUCHÉ (a good hit in fencing) D (democrat). | |
| 56 | No good straddling beam? On the contrary, very leggy (5) |
| RANGY – NG (no good) in RAY (beam), not RAY in NG. | |
| 57 | Warmer weather, mostly in the centre (7) |
| THERMOS – Hidden in weaTHER MOStly. | |
| 58 | Face recent backtracking about chapter covering local language (9) |
| DIALECTAL – DIAL (face) LATE (recent) [backtracking] -> ETAL. about C (chapter). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Viewpoint from street about computer network (5) |
| SLANT – ST (street) about LAN (Local Area Network; computer network). | |
| 2 | Assessment of artistic content: lyric items missing English criteria, sadly (8,9) |
| LITERARY CRITICISM – (lyric it{e}ms criteria)* [sadly] without the E (English). | |
| 3 | One who did without, swamped with delight on getting a note (9) |
| CHARWOMAN – WO (without) in CHARM (delight), A N (note). | |
| 4 | Work in the justice system is causing stress (6) |
| TRYING – Double definition. | |
| 5 | UK’s juries with two months to reform Dutch institution (11) |
| RIJKSMUSEUM -(UK’s juries m m)* [to reform], M M = two months. | |
| 6 | Special forces holding operation leading to snags down under? (8) |
| SAUSAGES – SAS (special forces) holding USAGE (operation). New Oz slang for me. | |
| 7 | Soaks at home with a drink (7) |
| RETSINA – RETS (soaks) IN (at home) A. I’ve only ever seen RET meaning soak in crossword. | |
| 8 | Disorder for which you must take something (11) |
| KLEPTOMANIA – Cryptic definition. That raised a smile. | |
| 9 | Group seizing power, with line in excellent pageantry (9) |
| SPECTACLE – SECT (group) [seizing] P (power), L (line) in ACE (excellent). | |
| 10 | Auditor’s correct over completed report (5-2) |
| WRITE-UP – WRITE sounds like RIGHT (correct) UP (completed). | |
| 11 | Congreve’s initial opening scenes: they are naturally juicy! (5) |
| CACTI – Congreve [‘s opening] ACT I (opening scenes). | |
| 12 | Everyone is sorry to lose right to musical direction (10) |
| ALLEGRETTO – ALL (Everyone) {r}EGRET (sorry) without the R (right) TO. | |
| 17 | Sergeant’s foremost one of four in troop (5) |
| SQUAD – Sergeant [‘s foremost] QUAD (one of four). | |
| 20 | Traveller’s tale of experiences, maybe: “…then to Aberdeen and the upset” (4,5,4,4) |
| BEEN THERE DONE THAT – (then to Aberdeen the)* [upset]. | |
| 21 | Diamonds in Dorset resort? One follows the rich, perhaps (6) |
| POODLE – D (diamonds) in POOLE (Dorset town). | |
| 24 | Sailor spinning brown cane (6) |
| RATTAN – TAR (sailor) [spinning] -> RAT, TAN (brown). | |
| 25 | Sensational attraction closing early one day (5) |
| LURID – LUR(e} (attraction) without the last letter I (one) D (day). | |
| 26 | Twist horse being shoved into pen (6) |
| WRITHE – H (horse) in WRITE (pen). | |
| 28 | Returned fund with unknown amount without reason (5) |
| LOOPY – POOL (fund) [returned] -> LOOP, Y (unknown). | |
| 31 | Mike supporting articles identifying emotional song (6) |
| ANTHEM – AN THE (articles) M (Mike in NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
| 33 | Mother’s carrying second dessert: cake without filling, a wonderful creation (11) |
| MASTERPIECE – MATER (mother) [carrying] S (second), PIE (dessert), C{ak}E [without filling]. A wonderful creation indeed. | |
| 35 | Petty document written up about shops actually overlooking latest in evidence (5-6) |
| SMALL-MINDED – Harder to parse than to biff… MS (Manuscript; document) [written up} -> SM, about MALL (shops), IND{e}ED (actually) without the [latest in] evidencE. Phew! | |
| 37 | Pen penning a line with wit (5) |
| SALTY – A L (line) in STY (pen). | |
| 38 | Lunar expert? Moore, television’s ultimate star, possibly (10) |
| ASTRONOMER – (Moore {televisio}n star)* [possibly]. A nice tribute to the late Patrick Moore. | |
| 40 | Amount, say — a distinctive figure (3,3,3) |
| ODD MAN OUT – Nice reverse cryptic. AMOUNT is, of course, an anagram of MAN OUT, hence [odd] (man out)*. | |
| 42 | Court custom involving elevation of ancient crustacean (9) |
| WOODLOUSE – OLD (ancient) elevated, DLO, in WOO (court) USE (custom). | |
| 43 | Source of debris, it’s true, scattered? (8) |
| DETRITUS – (d{ebris} it’s true)* [scattered]. Lovely &lit. | |
| 45 | A chap playing sport ignoring United? A very poor example (7) |
| APOLOGY – A POLO G{u}Y. (a chap playing sport) without the U (United). | |
| 47 | Reversed approaches keeping French in slavery (7) |
| SERFDOM – MODES (approaches) [reversed] -> SEDOM, with FR (French) inside. | |
| 49 | Detective writer’s cry of discovery, holding label up (6) |
| AGATHA – TAG (label) [up] -> GAT, in AHA (cry of discovery). Agatha as in Agatha Christie. | |
| 51 | Giant upset at puncturing metal (5) |
| TITAN – AT [upset] -> TA in TIN (metal). | |
| 52 | Alpine herder’s call — way to lead cattle uphill, ultimately (5) |
| YODEL – Last letters of waY tO leaD cattlE uphilL. | |
Very easy. My only query was wondering if I was missing something in the cryptic at 50ac as ‘across the years’ seems unnecessary to me.
I think it is merely to add reference to the fact that the gallery holds portraits all the way from the 8th century to the present day and maybe misdirect you to think of a clock museum.
A failure for me with the impossible to spell RIJKSMUSEUM: only the Polish manage more creative tangles of high scoring Scrabble letters. Let’s not give the setters ideas!
Me too. All done and dusted in an hour and a quarter but with one pink square for a misspelled RIJKSMUSEUM. It was SAUSAGES I had been worried about. I liked KLEPTOMANIA
This felt a lot harder than my time (26:36) suggests. Lots of PDMs for me solving it. I had all the necessary knowledge, including (fortunately) how to spell the Dutch museum.
First time in ages that I’ve tackled a jumbo – even on holidays, I generally feel that life is too short for anything above 15×15. I was glad to complete this one, but now slightly saddened to find that it was ‘middle of the road’ or ‘very easy’.