Times Cryptic Jumbo 1361

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Happy New Year all.

On my barometer I’d say this was of average difficulty although there was one phrase I was totally unfamiliar with and I had to look it up to get it. I took me 55 minutes including parsing everything.

First in was OFF THE HOOK and last was COMMUNICATE whose definition took a bit of spotting.

Clues are in blue with the definition underlined.  Different brackets mean different things:

Square to expand a standard crossword abbreviation: L[eft]

Wiggly to denote letters not used:{afterthough}T

Rounded followed by a * to indicate anagram fodder: (forded)*

Rounded to add clarification: cool (as in trendy)

Anagram indicators in bold italics: supply

Deletions are denoted by strikeout

CD = cryptic definition, DD = double definition, I guess other stuff is spelled out for you.


Across

1
Close to the Dutch shore, not in any trouble (3,3,4)

OFF THE HOOK – Sort of DD with a straight definition and a cryptic hint.

6
Startling approach adopted by barber? (5,7)

SHOCK TACTICS – CD

14
Terrible months around zero Kelvin (7)

THOMSON – (months)* around O.  William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, after whom the temperature scale is named.  At least I assume it’s him, and not the obscure former Australian politician Kelvin Thomson.

15
May beauty defeat crowd circling around (7)

BLOSSOM – LOSS inside a reversal of mob.  It’ll be spring before you know it, unless you’re Kelvin Thomson in which case it will soon be autumn.

16
Concerned with walrus, revealing compassion (7)

REMORSE – RE MORSE.  I didn’t know morse was a word for walrus.

17
Able to hold glass at last, one’s ready for punch (4)

FIST – FIT outside {glas}S

18
Poor and simple, holding a grudge at the outset (6)

MEAGRE – MERE outside A G{rudge}

20
Going round meadows is unalloyed joy (8)

PLEASURE – Can we make it a hat-trick of insertion clues?  Yay!  PURE around LEAS.

24
What’s needed, as pharmacist, when ill? That’s rough justice (1,5,2,4,3,8)

A TASTE OF ONES OWN MEDICINE – At the risk of repeating myself, a sort of DD with a straight definition and a cryptic hint.

25
Man on board ship needs so much water? (7)

DRAUGHT – see above

26
In its turn it picks up loads regularly that trades, say, collect (8)

WINDLASS – L{o}A{d}S in WINDS

27
In no hurry to give one away, it’s plain (6)

PATENT – PATiENT

29
Ample librarian reinvented as athletic star (5,9)

PRIMA BALLERINA – (ample librarian)*  Did anyone else wonder if there was a Macedonian pole vaulter called BRIAN PARMIELLA?

31
Wander round trench, half quivering (8)

ATREMBLE – AMBLE roun TRE{nch}

34
Was dragged along by dogs and killed for crying out (8)

SLEIGHED – homophone of slayed

36
Penniless, short journeys by public transport convenient for gentleman booked (8,6)

TRISTRAM SHANDY – TRIpS, TRAMS, HANDY for him out of the books.  As eponymous literary characters go he seems to get more than his fair share of air time in crosswords.

39
Feeble Luddism a labourer embraces (6)

DISMAL – hidden in ludDISM A Labourer

41
Figure closely confined with endless pain (8)

PENTAGON – PENT, AGONy

43
In a way, keeping muscle in check (7)

INSPECT -PEC[toral] inside IN ST[reet]

46
Overreaching at law, estate lost — no one understood it (4,7,2,3,7)

TWAS CAVIARE TO THE GENERAL – anagram of everything before “lost”.  I’d never heard the quote from Hamlet or the expression so it was caviar (sic) to me ‘n’ all.

47
Great circle is right one to split in the middle (8)

MERIDIAN – R[ight] I in MEDIAN

48
Niggardly, parting with pound creates distress (6)

MISERY – MISERlY, L being pounds as in LSD / Pounds, Shillings and Pence

49
Dope back from the six counties (4)

INFO – OF N[orthern] I[reland] reversed

53
After sailor died, submariner’s return shows guts (7)

ABDOMEN – AB[le bodied seaman], D[ied], NEMO reversed

54
I despise small, cosy position (7)

SCORNER – S[mall] CORNER

56
As one in feud, I get stirred up (7)

UNIFIED – (in feud I)*

57
Having been sent to prison, going down very angry (12)

INCANDESCENT – IN CAN, DESCENT.

58
Villain with the Midas touch? (10)

GOLDFINGER – CD

Down

1
So get pet bird fed without delay? (3,2,4)

OUT OF HAND – See 1ac etc.

2
Cool about holding box by broken side? Content here is not secure (5,8)

FOOLS PARADISE – ALOOF reversed around SPAR the (side)*

3
What signifies a number to chop up (4)

HASH – DD

4
The only organised man calls round in southern town (6-2-6)

HENLEY-ON-THAMES – (the only)* inside HE NAMES

5
Eye monk up (3)

ORB – BRO reversed

7
Urgently whisper part of this speech (4)

HISS – hidden in tHIS Speech

8
Appears to admit poetry’s beauty (10)

COMELINESS – COMES around LINES

9
Look likely to have small card briefly over a higher one (8)

THREATEN – THRE{e} on A TEN

10
Take a host from kibbutz, maybe, including one pet (11)

COMMUNICATE – COMMUNE around I CAT, take as in communion

11
Tribesman is artist, top drawer (9)

ISRAELITE – IS, R[oyal] A[cademician], ELITE

12
Rank particularly cherished by soldier at first on the up (4)

STEP – reversal of PET S{oldier}

13
Anticipated wood cut has been executed (8)

FORESEEN – FORESt bEEN

19
Presumably one properly left an intangible asset (8)

GOODWILL – Almost one of those straight/whimsical DD jobbies but you have to split GOOD and WILL into two words to get the first, quirky bit.

21
A mark, good? It’s the reverse — a bad one (6)

STIGMA – reversal of A, M[ark] G[ood] IT’S

22
Spirit of country seen in vacation (8)

HOLLANDS – LAND in HOLS.  Another name for Jenever.  They make pies too.

23
Tough article in early edition (8)

LEATHERY – THE in (early)*

28
Reason to support marking familiar territory (8,6)

STAMPING GROUND – GROUND underneath STAMPING

29
Stop immediate use of information on envelope (8)

POSTDATE – DD

30
One taking part in regimental ceremonies which don’t occur often (8)

RARITIES – I in R[oyal] A[rtillery] RITES

32
Being indisposed, doctor indelibly writing “overindulgence” (5,8)

BINGE DRINKING – (being)*, D[octo]R, INKING

33
Subsidiaries of British farms (8)

BRANCHES – B[ritish] RANCHES.  In the real world a branch is usually the physical presence of a business located away from the head office rather than being a subsidiary, which would make it a separate legal entity.

35
Appalling arrogance, in which old Frenchman is showing classical influence (6-5)

GRAECO-ROMAN – (arrogance)* around O[ld] M[onsieur].  I wasn’t familiar with the spelling with the E.

37
Washing down accommodation university’s not used (6)

HOSING – HOuSING

38
Ridiculously, grapes came a huge distance (10)

MEGAPARSEC – (grapes came)*. A parsec is 3.26 light years and the mega makes this a million of them so this is ceratinly a huge distance.  A lot further than Brian Parmiella can vault.

40
Detectives order fools to turn up in bursts (9)

SPASMODIC – reversal of C.I.D., M.O., SPAS

42
Look into playing on computer in the half-dark (8)

GLOAMING – LO in GAMING

44
Demand for giraffes perhaps that is hard to fulfil? (4,5)

TALL ORDER – see 1ac, 1dn etc.

45
Signs of drug depravity around where you would expect? (8)

EVIDENCE – E[cstasy] VICE around DEN

50
Dry course with a dull instructor, principally (4)

WADI – W[ith] A D{ull} I{nstructor}

51
A time to reflect, but not to change (4)

NOON – a time that reads the same backwards as forwards

52
A mouse is heard in vehicle (4)

MINI – sounds like MINNIE

55
Letter Cecil only half finished (3)

RHO – RHO{des}.  It took me too long to think of the right Cecil.  Step forward Messrs De Mille and Beaton.

6 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1361”

  1. I was helped by some biffing of a couple of the long ones: TRISTRAM SHANDY from the M and the def, CAVIARE… although it took a checker or both to get me TWAS. DNK HOLLANDS, my LOI. I liked SLEIGHED (rather gruesome clue, though), but COD to COMELINESS. 58ac must be the only cryptic clue ever sung by Shirley Bassey.
  2. TRISTRAM SHANDY has finally imprinted itself in my crossword memory and went in from definition and checkers. Didn’t know the TWAS expression, but managed to work it out as my LOI. The whole thing took a whopping 1:42:32, but at least I managed not to have any typos, so a result! Thanks setter and Penfold.
  3. I thought this was average difficulty too, taking 52:24. I’d never heard the Hamlet quote either (my SLOI). I had MALABO? on my paper copy for 39A before I saw I had used the wrong letters for the hidden. Doh! I worried about “den” for “where you would expect” in 45D until I thought of “den of iniquity” as somewhere depravity might happen. 12D my LOI. COD to MEGAPARSEC. By the way, I think the definition for 10D is “take a host”, rather than just take.
    1. A drugs den is a “thing” John so I was happy with that one. You’re right about 10d. I’ve obviously left “host” unaccounted for but I didn’t know that particular meaning of the word.
  5. 41:41. I am a bit out of the jumbo habit these days which may at least partly explain why I found this a bit of a joyless slog. Trying to piece together long anagrams to create unknown sayings isn’t the most fun sort of solving, and there were quite a few others that I just found very hard going.
    I had the same thought as you about 33: almost the defining characteristic of a branch is that it isn’t a subsidiary.

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