‘Tis the season to be jolly… I’m getting to rather enjoy blogging the Jumbo. Yes, it’s a lot of clues (and a lot of work for the setter!), but I get two weeks to do it which gives me the opportunity to savour the art of our setters and meander through some by-ways, smelling the roses as I go. I thought this was a fine specimen, with a good mix of fairly straightforward clues to get you going and some trickier teasers that make you scratch your head and then smile when the penny drops. Some great examples today, such as 12a, 29a, 49a, 57a, 9d, 21d, 23d and 37d. An embarassment of riches, indeed! But best of all was 10d. On y danse! Thank-you to our setter for a lot of fun.
Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Jazz pianist includes worthless ideas in bland stuff (9) |
| WALLPAPER – This didn’t quite work for me. Yes, we have the incomparable Fats WALLER as the jazz pianist and insert [includes] PAP (worthless ideas). But it is wallpaper paste that is the bland stuff to me rather than the wallpaper itself. Or have I missed something? [Edit: Yes I have. As mohn points out below, think of wallpaper music] | |
| 6 | Old buffoon unknown outside capital is let-down (10) |
| ANTICLIMAX – The capital here is of Peru – LIMA. Old buffoon is ANTIC and we add X for unknown and assemble [outside] to get a less than satisfactory clue-solving experience. Just kidding. Good clue! | |
| 12 | Something sent down sewer produced (7) |
| MAILBAG – My last one in. Cryptic definition. And quite a beaut. Our “sent down sewer” might be a jailbird who has to do some work… making mailbags. Nice one. | |
| 13 | One script to be revised for Morse? (9) |
| INSPECTOR – (One script)* [revised] to give a favourite TV detective. Well I rather enjoyed the slow pace of the episodes even if you didn’t. | |
| 14 | Temperature raised as this is revealed? (5) |
| THIGH – Lol. T (temperature) + HIGH (raised) leading to what a short skirt might show. Would it raise my temperature? Does that count as harrassment? I don’t dare say for fear of impeachment (or whatever one does to sack a delinquent blogger). | |
| 16 | Abuse from corrupt little rat taking people in (12) |
| ILLTREATMENT – Are you ready? Follow the instructions… Take (little rat)* [corrupt] with MEN (people) inside [taking in] to get some bad language. | |
| 17 | Druid regularly enters to calm an American tragedy (10) |
| CORIOLANUS – {d}R{u}I{d} (alternate letters of druid) [regularly] COOL (calm) collected [enters] + AN + US to get today’s Shakespearean reference. Not a play I’ve ever seen, I confess. | |
| 19 | As — for example — landlords going after assets? (7,7) |
| CAPITAL LETTERS – LETTERS (landlords) after CAPITAL (assets). The letters in question being AAAAAAAAA….. Nothing to do with Arsenic, as I initially thought. Maybe the S should have been capitalised too, but that might look odd. | |
| 22 | Heartless Havana spies bringing death inside ranch house (8) |
| HACIENDA – H{avan}A [heartless] + CIA (spies) with END (death) [inside]. This somehow conjures up unwanted images of drug wars in my mind. | |
| 24 | Use English tactic trapping Frenchman (6) |
| EMPLOY – E (english) + PLOY (tactic) with M (monsieur) inside. Neat. | |
| 25 | Strong pressure gets supplier on track (5,5) |
| GOODS TRAIN – GOOD (strong) + STRAIN (pressure). Nice definition and smooth surface. | |
| 26 | Relaxed when carried in river that flows west (5) |
| EASED – AS (when) [carried in] DEE (river) going backwards.. or westwards, this being an across clue. | |
| 29 | Seaman beginning to appreciate northern vale (2-2) |
| TA-RA – TAR (seaman) + A{ppreciate} – Vale being Latin for goodbye. Cheeky! But OK for those who know their amo,amas,amat etc. like me and everyone else here? | |
| 30 | Bumpkin in rush gets smack round head (5,3) |
| THICK EAR – Not BLACK EYE as I initially biffed but couldn’t parse. The correct answer, of course, is HICK (bumpkin) [in] TEAR (rush) One of these from sir on committing some misdemeanour was common enough when I was a lad, but no longer condoned. | |
| 32 | Protest and moan about bill in country such as ours (9) |
| DEMOCRACY – DEMO (protest) + CRY (moan) [about] AC (bill), giving somewhere subject to rule of the people. A good idea assuming they are properly informed, and not influenced by propaganda and fake news from those plotting to undermine it…. I’d better say no more, remembering who hosts our blog! | |
| 34 | Rocks broken on way to Mardale strewn about (4,5) |
| ROAD METAL – (to Mardale)* [strewn about]. I’ve always thought this an odd term. What metal? It’s just broken rocks (as our clue helpfully informs us). | |
| 35 | Sailor having cracked is released from duty (8) |
| ABSOLVED – AB (sailor) + SOLVED (cracked). It may be the weekend before Christmas, but I’m not released from blogging duty. | |
| 36 | Capital generated in two American states (4) |
| RIGA – The states being RI (Rhode Island) + GA (Georgia) giving us the capital of Latvia. I did think of LIMA, but there is not state abbreviated as LI, and we’ve already been there in 6a. | |
| 39 | Joint leader of radicals in anger dismissed (5) |
| ANKLE – This is {r}ANKLE (anger) losing the R [leader of] radicals. | |
| 40 | Bit is served with sauce cooked as morsel for crew (3,7) |
| SEA BISCUIT – (Bit is + sauce)* [cooked] giving a less than tasty snack for sailors… and a famous racehorse. | |
| 42 | Household gods around to protect one in row (6) |
| SERIAL – You need to know your roman spiritual life to put LARES backwords [around] I (one) to get a sequence. If your row is of tones, you might be a proponent of serialism, a somewhat bizarre (to my mind) composition technique that Alban Berg managed to subvert into his famous and rather wonderful Violin Concerto, “in memory of an angel”. Es ist Genug…. stop rambling, John. | |
| 44 | Relative admits unknown transgression where lawyers congregate (5,3) |
| GRAYS INN – Our favourite relative, GRAN, includes [admits] Y (unknown) and SIN (transgression) giving one of the four Inns of Court. | |
| 46 | Mr Handel, neat in composition, meets an old cave-dweller (11,3). |
| NEANDERTHAL MAN – (Mr Handel, neat in)* [composition]. Hallelujah! But I’m not a great fan of his Messiah – my favourite bit of Handel is from Israel in Egypt .. “the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea“, when it’s almost irresistible to avoid subdividing the final note to add “Splosh!” at the end. | |
| 48 | Team playing fashion house (5,5) |
| ASTON VILLA – AS (playing) + TON (fashion) + VILLA (house) giving the formerly quite successful (better tread carefully here to avoid offence) midlands football team… and blogging name (when they are winning) of one of our fraternity in this community. | |
| 49 | Writer cast two ogres successfully (6,6) |
| GEORGE ORWELL – A bit sneaky this one, but not too difficult with the checkers – (ogre ogre)* [cast] + WELL (successfully) to give a famous native of my adopted home county. There’s a marvellous graffiti mural of him at Southwold pier. 1984 is a favourite book of mine. What would Newspeak do to the Times Crossword, I wonder? | |
| 53 | Doctor put love before sex in legal claim (5) |
| DROIT – DR (doctor) + O (love) + IT (sex). As in Dieu et mon… | |
| 54 | Dogmatic type thought record should be broadcast (9) |
| IDEOLOGUE – IDEO + LOGUE, which sounds like [should be broadcast] idea (thought) + log (record). I originally had IDEALOGUE here, which seemed good at the time, but that would have been clued as “Fanciful type” rather than “Dogmatic type”. | |
| 55 | Fails to notice Italian man pushing leader to the back (7) |
| IGNORES – Buongiorno. In case you failed to notice, this is SIGNORE (Italian man) with the first letter relegated to last. | |
| 56 | Port in case carried by ferryman (10) |
| CHARLESTON – CHARON is our classical ferryman taking LEST (in case) across the river Styx, presumably, to the South Carolina coastal city…. from Hell perhaps? Surely not. | |
| 57 | Clean girl’s really sounding posh (9) |
| DISINFECT – Our girl’s is DI’S, and if you talk posh you might pronounce IN FACT (really) IN FECT. A good clean joke, this. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Try this Viennese cake (5) |
| WHIRL – Double definition. If you want to try something, you might give it a whirl. But are Viennese whirls a cake or a biscuit? Who cares? They look delicious in this recipe. | |
| 2 | Drink-offering to secure monarch’s release (10) |
| LIBERATION – The drink-offering is a LIBATION. Imprison her majesty ER [secure monarch], and, 1-2-3-4-5, let her go again. | |
| 3 | Locks arrangement from unpleasant people keeping dog (3,5) |
|
PIG TAILS – PIGS (unpleasant people) surrounding [keeping] TAIL (dog) gives us the |
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| 4 | Wheeled carriage fuelled by current brings dad to Paris (5) |
| PRIAM – PRAM (wheeled carriage) including [fuelled by] I (current) to give us the King of Troy. | |
| 5 | Struck chord having read notes wrongly (9) |
| RESONATED – (read notes)* [wrongly]. I can relate to that. | |
| 6 | Bankers from Prague in chopper almost coming to peak (4) |
| APEX – No financiers involved in this… P{ragu}E [bankers from] inside AX{e} (chopper) [almost]. Top clue! | |
| 7 | Design that takes some beating? (6) |
| TATTOO – Double definition, second cryptic. Get yourself inked and you might turn off the taps.afterwards.. | |
| 8 | Say one church dignitary’s less sensitive (8,6) |
| CARDINAL NUMBER – (CARDINAL) (church dignitary) + NUMBER (less sensitive) to get the first integer. | |
| 9 | You might say I wait in line for some measure of this (12) |
| INTELLIGENCE – Lovely cryptic definition. I + Q [you might say] for queue (wait in line), giving the measure we seek. | |
| 10 | A Côtes-du-Rhone? Good little number kept here? (7) |
| AVIGNON – My clue of the day. A + the french wine VIN (Côtes-du-Rhone) including G (good) and NO (little number) to get the famous french town with an incomplete bridge… which is, of course, on the river Rhone. Brilliant! Boogy on – or should I say “On y danse“? | |
| 11 | Seeing it all, I’m on meandering track round island (10) |
| OMNISCIENT – (I’m on)* [meandering] + SCENT (track) [round] I (island). But you know it all already, don’t you? | |
| 15 | Management having American bar alcohol-free after hours (9) |
| HUSBANDRY – Just follow assembly instructions… US (American) + BAN (bar) + DRY (alcohol-free) [after] H (hours) and care for your resources. | |
| 18 | Luminous discharge with constellation losing alpha star (8) |
| ARCTURUS – ARC (Luminous discharge) + T{a}URUS (constellation) [losing] A (alpha), to give the star “also designated Alpha Boötis (α Boötis, abbreviated Alpha Boo, α Boo), is the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes, the fourth-brightest in the night sky, and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere.” So the Australians have the brightest stars at more than cricket? | |
| 20 | Thesis returned for publication (9) |
| PAPERBACK – PAPER (Thesis) + BACK (returned) to get an archaic form of distributing the written word… perhaps (looking back from, say, 2050). Save the trees! | |
| 21 | Nancy’s also working with Nick to produce school folder (4,6) |
| ETON COLLAR – I read this clue and thought “what?”. Yes you can biff it from checkers, but doing this blog some time after solving I had to work it out all over again. It’s ET (also in french), as you would say in Nancy, + ON (working) + COLLAR (Nick) – as in “feeling one’s collar” to get an item of schoolboy uniform. Tricky stuff! | |
| 23 | Poet stashing gold and diamonds in LA suburb, close to Glendale (10) |
| BAUDELAIRE – Here we jet across the pond to derive the 19th century french poet‘s name. We take AU (gold) and D (diamonds) and put them inside [stashing… in] BEL AIR (LA suburb) + {Gendal}E [close to]. Glendale is, of course, also a suburb of LA. Another lovely clue. | |
| 27 | Animists originally taking line in totalitarian ideology (9) |
| STALINISM – (Animists)* [originally] including [taking in] L (line) to give the ideology of our blog hosts’ Uncle Joe. | |
| 28 | Affected by exposure in The Sun — camera-shy maybe? (5-9) |
| PHOTO-SENSITIVE – Is it still page 3? Double definition. | |
| 31 | Possible divorcee and rumbustious maiden investigated (8) |
| EXAMINED – EX (Possible divorcee) + [rumbustious] (maiden)*. An anagrind I’ve not seen before – not that I’ve investigated all the options. | |
| 33 | Commander cages young male ape (12) |
| IMPERSONATOR – IMPERATOR (Commander) including [cages] SON (young male), to get one of the cast of Dead Ringers, a favourite radio show of mine, that is currently on air again. | |
| 34 | Defence stern given by rail employee (9) |
| REARGUARD – REAR (stern) + GUARD (rail employee). A bit of a gimmee, but I love that we get these QC level clues to get us going in the Jumbos. | |
| 37 | Making shoes for Sasquatch, maybe, after much delay (2,4,4) |
| AT LONG LAST – Lol. Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, might need the cobbler to work AT a LONG LAST for his shoes. | |
| 38 | Rules accepted by dramatist, soldier and diplomat (1,1,8) |
| T E LAWRENCE – Historical Celebrity Watch here… TERENCE is our dramatist, who [accepted] LAW (Rules) to get the famous archaeological scholar, military strategist, and author best known for his legendary war activities in the Middle East during World War I. | |
| 41 | Joined Corps Diplomatique circling round at roadside? (9) |
| CONVERGED – Take CD (Corps Diplomatique) and put it round [circling round] ON (at) VERGE (roadside). Are we all together now? | |
| 43 | Three articles about Northern Ireland — in Greek! (8) |
| ATHENIAN – A + THE + AN [about] NI. I wonder how many tourists the province gets from Greece? We had our family summer holiday in Northern Ireland this year. What a lovely place! | |
| 45 | Opponent taking over church and Christian centre (7) |
| ANTIOCH – ANTI (opponent) + O (over) + CH (church) to give us “the cradle of Christianity“. | |
| 47 | Einstein‘s link to time? (6) |
| ALBERT – Double definition. I don’t know if Einstein had one, but I do – a chain with a charm attached linked to a pocket watch. Inherited from my grandfather, I use my pocket watch only at formal occasions. | |
| 50 | Sways like drunk in fast dance with son (5) |
| REELS – REEL (fast dance) + S (son). Staggering, | |
| 51 | Introduction taken to heart would make this leggy bird welcome (5) |
| EGRET – You take GREET (welcome) and put the first letter in the middle to get the type of heron. | |
| 52 | Intend to get litres into bowl (4) |
| PLAN – PAN (bowl) including L (litres), is what our setter means. | |
And the answers to today’s seasonal conundrum? It’s behind you! Oh no, it isn’t! Oh yes it is!….
Cinderelphant, of course.
I’ll get my coat.
Re 1A, Chambers has for WALLPAPER: “Something of a bland or background nature, lacking originality or noteworthiness, etc”, with Collins giving the example of wallpaper music (of which I’ve not heard).
I would have expected a hyphen in 16A and maybe also in 12A (i.e. sent-down sewer), though the latter would have given the game away for what was an excellent cryptic definition. Also chuckled at 37D.
Edited at 2017-12-23 08:31 am (UTC)
Chadwick Ong’ara,
Nairobi.