Times Cryptic Jumbo 1426 – Rebel without a clue

19 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1426 – Rebel without a clue”

1. I’ve been waiting for an explanation of TINY, but it certainly looks as if the setter simply goofed. LOI RASCALS: DNK ‘tinker’ in the required sense. Also DNK DIVER. COD to EGREGIOUS.
   1. See my explanation in the comments below.
2. I think DIVER in 46dn is a reference to Jenny Diver, née Mary Young (1700 – 18 March 1741) a notorious Irish pickpocket. A character of the same appeared in Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera later adapted by Brecht and Weill as the Threepenny Opera (in translation) and she gets a name-check in the song Mack The Knife, from which perhaps most people will know of her name.

   I liked this puzzle and had the same query as others over TINY.

   I parsed 26ac as {c}RAS{s} (thoughtless), CAL{l}S but would accept that reduced is more likely to mean one letter off the end rather than one off at each end, and ‘rash’ is perhaps a better fit for ‘thoughtless’.

   Edited at 2020-03-07 08:27 am (UTC)

   1. Thanks Jack. Diver is in my Chambers app as slang for a pickpocket so I didn’t consider that there might be an eponymous example.
      1. Yes, it’s in the SOED too as archaic slang from the late 16 century so it predates Jenny. And now having looked further into it it seems that Mary Young was given the nickname Jenny Diver because of her skill as a pickpocket. So what you wrote was entirely correct and one didn’t need to know about Jenny, but my info about her adds interest I hope.
3. I suspect you might have it the wrong way around, Jack, and she was named after her habit, rather than giving it her name .. the first quotation for diver = pickpocket in the OED is from 1608

   .. although on edit, that is what you said, sorry!

   Edited at 2020-03-07 09:21 am (UTC)

4. Having found time to do this puzzle, I carelessly entered SUPERSTIONS at 12d, thus rendering my efforts null and void. Just over the hour. Thank setter and Penfold.
5. I left a polite word about 17a over on the Club general forum but no one in a position to do anything about it seems to have noticed.
6. Just over 38 mins for me, so I didn’t find it harder than usual. I too can only think there was an error for MUTINY. No problem with ALTO CLEF as I played viola for while. There is also a TENOR CLEF used for the upper ranges of the bassoon, cello, euphonium, double bass, and trombone. I see I failed to parse RASCALS and ULTRAMARINE, but I dare say I’d have got there if it was my turn to blog.
7. Nothing to add on TINY, though apparently Tiny Rebellion is an advertising agency, which may mean it was a clever, if ultimately ineffective way of bring it to public notice. Um, thought not.

   Can I put in a claim for an alternative to 2 down. I essayed SCAMBLE, a dialect alternative for SHAMBLE according to Chambers, and while I will take that sham is better for feign than scam, the latter is not impossible. One of those where if you put it in, you’ve no real reason to revisit?

8. Interesting for me to see how a professional setter dealt with CHICAGO which was the ST clue setting task from a couple of weeks ago.
9. I haven’t commented for ages because I only do the weekend and occasional Monday puzzle due to work commitments, and there never seemed to be much I could add by the time I got around to doing them. I’ll make an exception in this case to join the chorus of disapproval about 17 across. I thought I’d come here and find I’d missed something I should have seen, and I was pleased to see some excellent solvers didn’t have a clue what was going on either.
10. Not just me then with TINY.
11. I went back and looked at my solution to discover I “finished” this with 17a left blank since I could only fit TINY and that was clearly not justified in any way I could see. So here I am…but none the wiser, of course. Well, TINE and TINT and maybe some others after multiple alphabet trawls, which seemed even less apt.

    Edited at 2020-03-07 07:07 pm (UTC)

12. I did all the rest but also had blank squares at 17a. And I thought that it was just me.
13. I also struggled with 17a. I eventually concluded that it must be TINY: MUTINY (= rebellion) with its first two letters removed. But the clue still lacked a definition.

    Today I discovered (from a very reliable source) that the clue, as originally printed, was incorrect. It should have read “Small-scale rebellion, deposing leading pair (4)”.

    Hope this helps.

    1. Thanks. So the clue as printed was incorrect? Just as we all thought. It should have read in such a way as to be correct? That makes sense. If your source has any connection with the setter or editor, perhaps he could explain what went on?
       1. He does have a connection with the paper, though to safeguard his privacy I’d rather not say exactly what that is.

          But his exact words in his reply to me were:

          “The clue should have read

          17 Small-scale rebellion, deposing leading pair (4)

          I have no idea how the published clue slipped through!

          Many apologies.”

14. Thanks Sue! Enlightenment at last!

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