Times Cryptic Jumbo 1406 – Grandmaster Flash and the hot-tempered five

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
What ho you lot (if lot is the right word in the tumbleweed-strewn ghost town that passes for the Jumbi bloggage environs)

I managed to knock this off in a slightly-slower-than-average 40 minutes, despite quite a high count of unknowns which we’ll get to in the blog.

Rather pleasingly I started at 1a with AUTOBAHN and finished up in the opposite corner with SCARCELY, but that’s not to say it was a steady top-to-bottom, left-to-right solve.

Clues are in blue with the definition undelined.  Anagram indicators are in bold italics.

Notation:

DD: Double definition

CD: Cryptic definition

DDCDH: DD/CD hybrid where a straight definition is combined with a cryptic hint.

&Lit:  “all in one” where the entire clue is both definition and wordplay.

(fodder)* denotes an anagram of the letters in the brackets.

Rounded brackets are also used to add further clarity

Squiggly brackets {} indicate parts of a word not used

Deletions are struck out

Square brackets [] expand an abbreviation or shortening like N[orth]


Across

1
About an hour changing motorway (8)

AUTOBAHN – (about an H[our])*

5
Author on the right put off about vote (6)

DEXTER – DETER around X and unusually there are two definitions, Colin what wrote Morse, and a heraldic thingummyjig.

9
Order to purchase gemstone reportedly for cyborg technology (7)

BIONICS – Sounds like BUY ONYX.  With the B and the I in place I was trying to think of a word where BIO sounded like it does in BIODIVERSITY etc. but we were in Steve Austen territory.  We have the technology.

14
Fiery and extreme English politician in present day (3-8)

HOT-TEMPERED – O[ver] T[he] T[op] E[nglish] M[ember of] P[arliament] in HERE, D[ay]

15
Alas, your pic is spoiled as gannets take food (11)

RAPACIOUSLY – (alas your pic)*

16
Europe’s capital resides in wealthy German state (5)

REICH – E{urope} in RICH

17
Poisonous mushroom mother’s fed to girl (7)

AMANITA – MA in ANITA.  I didn’t know this and had too look it up to confirm what I took the answer to be based on wordplay.  Looking at the Wikipedia entry I feel I should have been familiar with it.  Here’s the first bit: The genus Amanita contains about 600 species of agarics, including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide, as well as some well-regarded edible species. This genus is responsible for approximately 95% of the fatalities resulting from mushroom poisoning, with the death cap accounting for about 50% on its own. The most potent toxin present in these mushrooms is α-amanitin.

18
Ireland in round are initially one up on points? (9)

BALLERINA – ERIN in BALL A{re}

19
Rupees southern India discovered in drug island (7)

CORSICA – R[upees], S[outhern], I[ndia] in COCA.  I was on the verge of saying I was unaware that SI was a recognised abbreviation for Southern India but of course it doesn’t have to be.

20
Perhaps Oscar is number two (6-2-7)

SECOND-IN-COMMAND – O for Oscar is the second letter in the word COMMAND

22
Not let Anne Dutten out (10)

UNTENANTED – (Anne Dutten)*.  There was a poet called Anne Dutton but if you Google Anne Dutten the first few entries reference this clue.  I know some people get annoyed about random first names in puzzles.  They must be going spare at this.

23
Give Spanish noblewoman note (6)

DONATE – DONA, TE (a drink with jam and bread).

25
Once more throwing away a win (4)

GAIN – aGAIN

28
Putting longer, I developed a brassy technique (6-8)

TRIPLE-TONGUING – (putting longer I)*

30
Ale month shifted alcohol (8)

METHANOL – (ale month)*

32
Soldiers protecting heads of Asian trade mission (8)

LEGATION – LEGION around A{sian} T{rade}

34
Headless rat in eggs and cheese pastries? Take any remedy (6,2,6)

CLUTCH AT STRAWS – rAT squeezed between CLUTCH and STRAWS.  Are cheese straws peculiarly British or are children in other countrioes forced to make them in home economics (now food tech)at school?

37
Pint puller needs no help to get froth on liquor (4)

BARM – BARMaid.  Another unknown I had to check.

38
Note hint about card game (6)

ECARTE – E TRACE reversed

39
3-D art of changing hands in clock-making (10)

HOLOGRAPHY – HOROGRAPHY with the R[ight] swapped for L[eft].  I used to love holograms when they first became an art form.  Don’t see them these days except as security features on cards, tickets etc.

43
US determination to change inadequate rating (15)

UNDERESTIMATION – (US determination)*

45
Vet meeting requirements given time (7)

INSPECT – IN SPEC[ification], T[ime].  Would you really say “in spec” rather than “to spec” or “on spec”?

47
Vandyke perhaps knowing about English illustrator (9)

BEARDSLEY – BEARD, SLY around E[nglish].  Aubrey, 1872-1898.

49
Mixture of aluminium in molten rock on the turn (7)

AMALGAM – AL[uminium] in MAGMA reversed

51
Country concerned with peace after Conservative loss (5)

REALM – RE cALM

52
Diplomat needs suit as cover for briefs (7,4)

ATTACHE CASE – ATTACHE, (legal) CASE.  I had one when I fisrt went to secondary school.  They were all the rage at the time.  James Bond wannabe or briefcase w****r?

53
Evil American is into careless faker of images (11)

ILLUSIONIST – ILL, U.S., (is into)*.  I had a bit of word blindness here and invented ILLUSSITION. Yeah I know.

54
Sleeping — something not to do around Sandhurst (7)

DORMANT – DON’T (as in DOs and DON’Ts) around R[oyal] M[ilitary] A[cademy]

55
Dangerous element runs for street in sports venue (6)

RADIUM – R[uns] replacing ST[reet] in STADIUM

56
Hardly daunting storing film material (8)

SCARCELY – SCARY around CEL[ulloid].  I wasn’t aware of that abbreviation.


Down

1
Steam haricots with some tongue inside (7)

AMHARIC – hidden, not a word I knew but easy enough to divine once you’ve got a checking letter.  An uncommon instance of the definition lurking somewhere other than at the beginning or end of the clue.

2
All playing on grass put up with half time ice cream (5-6)

TUTTI-FRUTTI – TUTTI (music notation), TURF reversed, TI{me}

3
Writer’s from German right, one limited by injunction? (9)

BRECHTIAN – RECHT I in BAN

4
US comedian’s internal struggle to be eternally optimistic? (4,7,4)

HOPE AGAINST HOPE – Bob-based DDCDH

6
Ghostly tingling follows tree emitting echo (8)

ELDRITCH – ITCH following ELDeR

7
Orientating car badly in unfamiliar area (5,9)

TERRA INCOGNITA – (orientating car)*.  If you a) don’t have a classics background, b) aren’t terribly familiar with this particular term and c) don’t pay careful attention to the wordplay, it’s very easy to put incognito as the second word.  *Waves sheepishly*.

8
Politician managed to take in English people (10)

REPUBLICAN – RAN around E[nglish] PUBLIC

9
Rural bus curtailed — a severe pain (7)

BUCOLIC – BUs, COLIC

10
Old unit containing unknown toxic gas (5)

OZONE -O[ld] ONE around Z

11
Where train stops around one with good reason to get going (11)

INSTIGATION – IN STATION around I G[ood]

12
Heavens! NHS bed places going up? (8)

SKYWARDS – SKY, WARDS

13
Killer beheaded Spanish poet (4)

ORCA – lORCA.  One of those clues where you don’t know whether to knock the fist letter off A to get B or vice versa. The poet is Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca.  Why don’t our poets have cool names like that? The closest we’ve got is Pam “I wish I’d looked after me teeth” Ayres.

20
Queen’s put up in Italian city (6)

SIENNA – I can only assume this is a reversal of ANNE I ‘S, as in Anne the first.  Any other suggestions?

21
Picture reason for dropping coffee? (7)

MUGSHOT – MUG’s HOT.  Boom boom.

22
Indescribable hunt hold topless meet (6)

UNTOLD – hUNT hOLD.  Nice.

24
The food of love, perhaps with chips? (10,5)

ELECTRONIC MUSIC – CD, and a nod to the Kraftwerk song at 1a

26
Treats cloth on side with a napper as quickly as possible (4,5,5)

FULL STEAM AHEAD – FULLS, TEAM, A HEAD.  A couple of tricky elements here.  To full is to scour and beat wollens to cleanse them.  Napper is slang for head.  If you’re young and/or non-British you probably won’t be familar with this line from the 1911 Harry Champion song Any Old Iron: “You look so dapper from your napper to your feet”. You may have got lucky and recalled the word from a previous puzzle.

27
Flamboyant wood used in old carriage (6)

FLASHY – ASH in FLY

29
The French on watch, perhaps for English martyr (7)

LATIMER – LA on TIMER

31
Disconcerted wife in large crowd losing key (6)

THROWN – W{ife} in THRONg

33
Piano virtuoso, expert at moving pieces (11)

GRANDMASTER – GRAND, MASTER.  I like the way the clever definition is seamlessly woven into the suface reading.

35
Amentia treated with hemp drug (11)

AMPHETAMINE – (amentia hemp)*.  In looking up amentia (not that it’s needed to solve the clue) I discovered the interesting phenomenon known as the euphemism treadmill, whereby euphemisms for taboo words eventually turn into taboo words themselves.

36
Novel sin — just (6,4)

VANITY FAIR – VANITY, FAIR

40
Stock film boxers perhaps avoided? (9)

RESERVOIR – RESERVOIR DOGS with the dogs (boxers perhaps).  I think it’s that, unless there’s a film called Reservoir Undies.

41
Store directors chasing award (8)

CUPBOARD – BORAD after CUP

42
Unfortunately, it is a rum dessert (8)

TIRAMISU – (it is a rum).  If it does have booze in it’s usually Marsala, left over from the zabaglione one supposes.

44
Note way to remove fumes making acetone? (7)

SOLVENT – SOL (a needle pulling thread), VENT

46
Grass’s book (7)

TIMOTHY – DD, a grass and either of two books in the New Testament.

48
Russian’s home in Moscow, yes, before tea (5)

DACHA – DA, CHA

50
Day record set up for top prize (4)

GOLD – D[ay], LOG reversed

8 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1406 – Grandmaster Flash and the hot-tempered five”

  1. A couple of DNKs as usual: NAPPER for one (where I threw in FULL SPEED AHEAD, putting a couple of acrosses out of reach for a while), TRIPLE-TONGUING, AMANITA, and IN SPEC, which I think I still don’t know. Also didn’t know Colin DEXTER (LOI). Although CEL is derived from ‘celluloid’, I don’t think it’s an abbreviation; it’s a frame of film (not necessarily celluloid) for drawing for an animated film. I liked 3d, in that Brecht was far from the German right. Does UNTOLD mean ‘indescribable’? Not in my book, my book being ODE.
    Your greeting at the beginning reminded me of when the singer Johnny Ray stepped on to the stage at the huge Fox Theater in San Francisco, to be welcomed by a rather tepid ovation from a small crowd; “Thank you,” he said, “for your kind applaw.”
  2. Yes, I’m sorry I so rarely contribute anything to the Jumbo discussions despite having taken to solving them every week for some time now. The truth is that by the time 2 weeks have elapsed I hardly remember a single thing about the puzzles, and glancing through the answers to this one it’s literally as if I’ve never seen them or the clues before.

    It’s rather worrying but at least the failing memory means I can re-read books and re-watch films etc regularly.Thank you for your noble efforts and please keep up the good work!

  3. Yes, thanks for loyally blogging away regardless. I never make any notes about puzzles, so it’s a struggle to remember how it went at the time. I do now tend to leave the Jumbos for a few days before sallying forth, so it’s not quite 2 weeks that have passed. I remember having to confirm AMANITA, and TIMOTHY defeated me too. Claps hand to forehead when answer revealed! I managed to finish Terra wotsit with an A so I must have checked the anagrist. AMHARIC was familiar from previous puzzles. 63:56, so not a monster. Thanks setter and Penfold. Keep up the good work:-)
    On edit: I should’ve seen TRIPLE TONGUING quicker than I did as all 3 of my grandchildren play in Kirkbymoorside Brass Band!

    Edited at 2019-11-02 12:12 pm (UTC)

  4. I was away walking in Spain so never got round to doing this one, otherwise I’d have commented on the puzzle. As a fellow Jumbo blogger I empathise with the sensation of a desolate landscape. But today you’ve now got more than 3 comments… which is as many as I ever get. Which reminds me… I haven’t started adding to the bones of my blog of last week’s yet.
  5. And thank you from me too. I have a go at the Jumbo every week, but have a similar problem to Jack! I always mean to keep the paper for checking but it always ends up in the recycling 😊 Anyway, I think I did mostly ok with this one apart from three or four – the mushroom definitely foxed me. Also I remember being quite puzzled over Sienna – the Italian city only has one N. Is this perhaps an old English version of the spelling? I tend to think of the double N form as either a pigment or an actress. Enjoy the rest of your weekend 😊
  6. Six comments now 🙂
    I do the daily cryptic religiously but for the rest, I treat them as optional and didn’t get round to this one .. I can tell you that yesterday’s was very easy, though!

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