Times Cryptic Jumbo 1466 – Noddy goes to Princeton

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
This started out looking like it was going to be the easiest Jumbo I’d blogged, as I got about half way across the grid top left towards bottom right in a clean sweep.  But there were a few tricker clues lurking in the grid and I slowed down.  Nevertheless I still finished in about 30 minutes, parsing everything I went, so this was definitely as the easier end of the spectrum. First in was A TALE OF A TUB and last was MEN IN GREY SUITS, mainly because I hadn’t marked the word breaks clearly enough (see below).

Any lurkers give us a wave!

If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.

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 U[niform];


Across

1
Swift’s bathtime story? (1,4,2,1,3)

A TALE OF A TUB – CD

7
Young animal was taking food to effect a transformation (6)

PUPATE – PUP ATE

10
Gasper — holding new one in the mouth (4)

FANG – FAG (fag and gasper are UK slang for cigarette) around N[ew]

14
Suffer, and fail to reach destination? (7)

UNDERGO – DDCDH

15
Cows produce it: change the name (7)

METHANE – (the name)*.  Natural gas is methane, and it is becoming increasingly common for bio-methane made from cow “waste” to be injected into local gas networks.

16
Two big beasts clash for the gold (7)

BULLION – BULL and LION sharing an L

17
The coming Utopia makes one tense (6,7)

FUTURE PERFECT – er, FUTURE, PERFECT.  I’m not really sure how else to explain this.

18
Boring cricket? But it could lead to an explosion (4,5)

SLOW MATCH – DDCDH. If a cricket match were proceeding slowly it might be boring (except to purists).

19
Admirer unveils boxing programme again (5)

RERUN – hidden

21
Majority of ship separating two creatures (5,5)

LIONS SHARE – SS (according to taste SS can stand for SteamShip, Screw Steamer or Single-screw Steamship) in LION, HARE.

23
Source of energy, damming river flow (6)

STREAM – STEAM (you know, the stuff that powers single-screw steamships) around R[iver]

25
Bore behind pipe in US street (4,4)

MAIN DRAG – DRAG after MAIN (e.g gas, water).  I didn’t know main drag was an Americanism.  I’ve used it myself.

26
Designing to remove a Spanish king is fine by shadowy officials (3,2,4,5)

MEN IN GREY SUITS – MEaNING, REY, SUITS. I made this difficult for myself by marking the word breaks so that it looked like ?E? / I?G?E? / S?I?S.  What on earth could the middle word be? INGLES? INGRES?

29
Loathing one’s grot, removing decay, clean all around (7)

DISGUST –  I’S Grot in DUST

30
Twitchy movement in sweet grass skirt (9)

PETTICOAT – TIC in PET, OAT

31
Simpleton tending to drift into sleep? (5)

NODDY – DDCDH

32
Confines doctor in island (5)

AMBIT – MB in AIT

34
Half of college heads at school or university (9)

PRINCETON – PRINC{ipals}, ETON

37
After fast, no stomach to eat meat (7)

BRISKET – BRISK, EaT

39
Game of tennis wonderful practice for string player (6-8)

DOUBLE-STOPPING – DOUBLES, TOPPING.  Something to do with violins and that, presumably.

41
Small group of families America turned back at frontier (8)

SUBORDER – U.S. reversed, BORDER

43
Muddle up little shepherdess’s name: that amuses baby (4-2)

PEEP-BO – BO PEEP muddled up

44
Preacher concerned with order of candidates for examination (10)

REVIVALIST – RE, VIVA LIST

45
Alice is wounded in the guts (5)

ILEAC – (Alice)*

48
Feeling of revulsion as certain N American people spasm regularly (3,6)

THE CREEPS – THE CREE, {s}P{a}S{m}

49
Cabbage ordered since he doesn’t eat (7,6)

CHINESE LEAVES – (since he)*, LEAVES.  One of my abiding memories of Hong Kong is watching the locals eat pak choi with chopsticks.They very dextrously manage to fold it into a mouthful-sized parcel.

51
Returning home with a spring in one’s step? (7)

INBOUND – DDCDH

52
Rodents a horror in boarding school on winter nights? (7)

DORMICE – DORM ICE.  Brrrr.

53
Makes bigger uniform and boasts (7)

UPRATES – U[niform], PRATES

54
Good year evens out for artist (4)

GOYA – G{o}O{d}Y{e}A{r}

55
Encouragement to start fires (4,2)

LETS GO – DD

56
Emperor who condemns king he hangs (7,4)

GENGHIS KHAN – (king he hangs)*


Down

1
Supplier of water showing nerves maybe, receiving fine for missing volume (7)

AQUIFER – AQUIVER with F[ine] replacing V[olume].  When I worked for one of the big water companies “aquifer to tap” was essential jargon.

2
Documentary evidence of car time-lags (5,6)

AUDIT TRAILS – AUDI, T[ime], TRAILS

3
Prolonged hesitation with nothing to conceal is a mistake (5)

ERROR – ERRR around O

4
Hither and thither troops patrol and film freely (4,6,2,4)

FROM PILLAR TO POST – (troops patrol film)*.  When I spotted this one I was hoping for an Aztec Camera nina but it wasn’t to be.

5
Endless grave misery headed off for another day (8)

TOMORROW – TOMb, sORROW

6
Cutting water into stone arousing conflicting emotions (11)

BITTERSWEET – BITTER, WEE in ST[one].  Cheeky.  When I spotted this one I was hoping for an Everything but the Girl nina but it wasn’t to be.

7
Long line’s broken in factory (5)

PLANT – PANT broken by L[ine]

8
Recreation area suggesting super ale? (8,6)

PLEASURE GROUND – reverse clue whereby SUPER ALE could be clued as PLEASURE (fodder) GROUND (anagrind)

9
Also for kicking? (2,4)

TO BOOT – DDCDH

11
Anonymous informer’s short sentence (1,6,4)

A LITTLE BIRD – DDCDH.  A short prison sentence would be “a little bird”.

12
Travelling player short of nothing in dress material (7)

GINGHAM – GoING, HAM (actor)

13
Mark put in wedge is for climber (8)

CLEMATIS – M[ark] in CLEAT, IS

20
I am sure to bound excitedly (2,5)

NO DOUBT – (to bound)*

22
British out of custom found on one half of island (5)

HAITI – HABIT missing B[ritish], I.  Half in a loose rather than precise sense, with HAITI of course one of the two sovereign nations forming the island of Hispaniola (the other being Dominican Republic).

24
Attend boxing match? The president has to equivocate (4,5,3,4)

BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH – BE AT A BOUT, THE, BUSH

25
Motorway I would come down away from the coast (7)

MIDLAND – M[otorway], I’D, LAND

27
Hospital worker putting out one for extremely hungry swindler (7)

SHYSTER – SISTER with I replaced by H{ungr}Y

28
In vicious pitilessness, do roar (5,4,5)

SPLIT ONES SIDES – (pitilessness do)*

31
Oxygen needed for energy in elevated Spanish city (7)

NAIROBI – reversal of IBERIAN with O[xygen] replacing E[nergy]

33
Favourite son athlete watched over (4-4,3)

BLUE-EYED BOY – BOY after BLUE, EYED

35
About twenty-four days, possibly, in holiday island? (5)

CAPRI – C[irca], APRI{l} (four-fifths of a thirty day month)

36
Volunteers new short story I confess very gripping (11)

TANTALISING – T[erritorial] A[rmy], N[ew], TAL{e}, I SING

38
Organ voluntary’s beginning to cut into ladies’ fingers (6,5)

KIDNEY VETCH – KIDNEY, V{oluntary}, ETCH.  Aren’t there already enough names for this? OKRA, BINDI…

40
Wood supplier getting a blaze going in chimney (8)

LABURNUM – A BURN in LUM

42
Replacement cleric’s unusual deviance (4-4)

VICE-DEAN – (deviance)*

43
Looking sadly on ostensibly good drawing (7)

PITYING – PI, TYING

46
Play’s begun? Gets knitting (5,2)

CASTS ON – DDCDH

47
Buyer in French department (6)

VENDEE – DD

49
In Madagascar, God is a sort of cult (5)

CARGO – hidden.  A cargo cult is a type of religion in certain South Pacific islands.  New one on me.

50
Love pocketing initially unwanted coins (5)

EUROS -U{nwanted} in EROS

13 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1466 – Noddy goes to Princeton”

  1. A couple of DNKs: CHINESE LEAVES, NODDY (LOI), KIDNEY VETCH. I have “COD” in the margins by MEN IN…, PLEASURE GROUND, NAIROBI (I finally separated ‘Spanish’ and ‘city’ when I got the final ‘I’), CAPRI, & PITYING. 49d-type clues always annoy me: CARGO is not a sort of cult, the cargo cult is (lawn is not a kind of tennis, lawn tennis is, etc.).
  2. Straightforward for me too. My only two queries with parsing were REY as ‘Spanish king’ – something I simply didn’t know, never having studied the language – and I wondered about ‘damming’ as a containment indicator at 23ac. On reflection it seems to make sense but it hasn’t made it to Chambers’ long list.

    Edited at 2020-11-14 05:55 am (UTC)

  3. Kidney vetch isn’t the same plant; it’s a wayside English flower of the clover family
  4. Kidney vetch isn’t the same as okra. It’s an English wayside flower of the clover family
    1. My Chambers declares: kidney vetch n any plant of the papilionaceous genus Anthyllis, including lady’s fingers. I guess that’s where the confusion crept in, as lady’s finger(s) also translates to okra when you look it up.
    2. Thanks for that, just sloppy research on my part. So they didn’t decide to give one plant lots of names, they gave the same name to two different ones. Botanists eh?
  5. I found this quite easy too, but DNK the book by Swift at 1A. LOI REVIVALIST. COD to DORMICE for reminding me that we used to have that when I was at school in Barnard Castle. I didn’t much care for “fail to reach destination” for UNDERGO. 39:13.
  6. Mostly straightforward, initially daunted by the need to know the Swift canon, which I didn’t.
    I didn’t have an issue with CARGO cult, partly because it was an easy hidden, and because the two words go together pretty much instantly.
  7. the Jumbo is a great way to enjoy a Sunday morning before my children come to enjoy Sunday Lunch at our local, now a delightful but not sociable takeaway in our kitchen. If required, not this week, the residue punctuates a season of postprandial snoozing. Thanks so much to setter, blogger and commenters for keeping some sense of decency and sanity in this age of disorder. Gasman
  8. I didn’t know the Swift book. And I made things hard for myself by spelling him GHENGIS. I had no idea VENDEE was a buyer, I’d have guessed a female seller. But I knew the départment so it didn’t hold me up. SPLIT ONES SIDES held me up way too long. NAIROBI was clever, making you try and think of Spanish cities. I originally put PLEASURE GARDEN once I had the G, thinking that it was a pretty weak way of implying an anagram. PITYING was my LOI since I didn’t put the Y in because I was parsing the clue completely wrong and had filled in PO (on the basis of po-faced).

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