Times Cryptic Jumbo 1471 – The one where I can’t think of a clever title

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
I’m guessing this was of roughly average difficulty.  I was watching football on the telly at the same time as solving so my time of just over an hour isn’t really a reliable guide.  Writing up the explanations it struck me that there were rather a lot of insertion type clues.

I didn’t nail 1a on first pass meaning that CAMELOPARD was my first in and KAPPA my last.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

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
Bag deposited outside hotel building (5)

SHACK – SACK outside H[otel]

4
Old animal arrived with short stride by a road (10)

CAMELOPARD – CAME, LOP{e}, R[oa]D.  Not a camel / leopard cross (how would that work?) but an old name for a giraffe.

9
Stylish agent, one hiding with two females (6)

SPIFFY – slight odd cryptic grammar but it’s I F[emale] F[emale] “hiding” in SPY.  New word on me.

14
Stuff offered by singing family in G&S (9)

TRAPPINGS – TRAPP, IN, G (&) S.  It appears that the musically gifted members of the Von Trapp family, as immortalised in The Sound of Music, were known as the Trapp Family Singers.

15
Psychologist — he dances madly around showing a perverse delight (13)

SCHADENFREUDE – FREUD in (he dances)*

16
Sudden movement to overtake met with commotion (7)

PASSADO – PASS, ADO. PASSADO is fencing terminology, noted as obsolete in my Chambers app.

17
Dazzle done with, wife having taken commanding position (9)

OVERWHELM – OVER, W[ife], HELM

18
Showed unhappiness with two-wheeled vehicle (5)

MOPED – DD

19
Cheeky youngster? The person administering corporal punishment’s the head (14)

WHIPPERSNAPPER – WHIPPER’S, NAPPER the last bit being slang for bonce, (see Any Old Iron)

22
Speech from e.g. 10 Downing Street (7)

ADDRESS – DD

25
Proposed place for hospital facility (3,7)

PUT FORWARD – PUT, FOR, WARD

27
Edible spread in exceptionally neat pub, say (6,6)

PEANUT BUTTER – (neat pub)*, UTTER.  Jam, marmite or salad cream?  All delish, IMHO.

30
Country’s leader’s moving along showing sense (5)

TASTE – STATE with the leading S shuffling along a bit

31
Sage laid out an unrealistic scientific concept (5,3)

IDEAL GAS – (sage laid)*.  On Wikipedia I understood as far as “An ideal gas is a theoretical gas…” and then got lost.

32
Daughter facing school had to explode (8)

DETONATE – D[aughter], ETON, ATE

35
A sailor’s reported for acts of violence (8)

ASSAULTS – Sounds like “a salt’s”

36
A king facing west, king with Eastern maiden on old Japanese hanging (8)

KAKEMONO – A K[ing] reversed, K[ing] E[astern] M[aiden] ON O[ld].  A Japanese picture or peice of calligraphy on a roller.  We’ve probably all seen one but didn’t know it had a name.

37
What’s obvious all through time (5)

OVERT – OVER, T[ime].  Definition not at one end of clue alert!

39
Badge of knights or lesser mascot in new display (7,5)

MALTESE CROSS – (lesser mascot)*

41
Undersupplies damage places like London (10)

SCARCITIES – SCAR, CITIES

43
Painter of article discovered among church brass (7)

CHAGALL – A in CH[urch] GALL (gall as in cheek / brass neck).  If you want to see some Chagall stained glass windown for nowt nip along to All Saints’ Church in Tudeley, Kent.  I’m guessing Jerry has done so.  Worth a trip.

45
See folk in Parliament (5,9)

LORDS SPIRITUAL – CD.  Collective noun for Bishops who sit in the House of Lords, not a rendition of Swing Low Sweet Chariot from a group of rugby lads who’ve gone to the cricket.

48
Snooker feature in Christmas season (5)

MASSE – hidden.  For those of you watching in black and white it’s a sort of swerve shot.

49
Dry period unending in country with sierra (9)

WATERLESS – TERm in WALES, S[ierra]

51
Boys returning outside prison creating shocking incident (7)

SCANDAL – LADS reversed around CAN

53
Dreamy types in broadcast with intellectuals (13)

SCATTERBRAINS – SCATTER, BRAINS

54
Old party-goer, having no booze around, good mixer in company? (9)

EXTRAVERT – EX, RAVER in T[ee]T[otal]

55
Artist, top man working in garden? (6)

RAKING – R[oyal] A[cademician]. KING

56
Tricky to greet all in a brisk movement (10)

ALLEGRETTO – (to greet all)*, Ninja-turtled from The Wombles’ Minuetto Allegretto

57
Bishop in car somewhere en route to heavenly destination? (5)

LIMBO – B[ishop] in LIMO

Down

1
Exercises to get little girl holding position standing on head (3-3)

SIT-UPS – SIS[ter] around a reversal of PUT

2
Numbers working in hospitals (13)

ANAESTHETISTS – CD (a number being someone who numbs).  A few years ago when my elder daaughter, then 14, had to be “put under” the anaesthetist offered her a 3-way choice between gas, an injection and the big hammer.

3
Greek character not completely Greek, apparently (5)

KAPPA – hidden

4
Northern half of country — region for song (7)

CANZONE – CAN{ada}, ZONE

5
Must consider changes, being taken amiss (12)

MISCONSTRUED – (mustconsider)*

6
US city girl hugging star (3,5)

LAS VEGAS – LASS around (hugging) VEGA

7
I’ve no time for that quiet little wood (5)

PSHAW – P[iano], SHAW

8
Embarrassed over hotel making mistake that detracts from the main issue (3,7)

RED HERRING – RED, H[otel], ERRING

10
Fire stemmed in the middle of historical construction (7)

PYRAMID – PYRe, AMID

11
Celebration curtailed — bit left inside being most dull (9)

FRUMPIEST – FIESTa around RUMP

12
End of July, crop-growing area — farmer’s beginning to go out for produce (5)

YIELD – {jul}Y, then FIELD without F{armer}

13
Like people calling, maybe — after time becoming serious threat (5,2,3,4)

ENEMY AT THE DOOR – AT THE DOOR after (time is the) ENEMY.  I needed checkers before I decided on DOOR over GATE

20
Established action to get around editor (9)

PROCEDURE – PROCURE around ED

21
Piano, working again, perhaps, I must leave ready (8)

PREPARED -P[iano], REPAiRED

23
Audition centres arranged with new set (6,4)

SCREEN TEST – double anagram, (centres)*, (set)*

24
It’s about a pupil and much more (10)

OPHTHALMIC – CD

26
Reporters in time crossing street, meeting fans (7-7)

WHISTLE-BLOWERS – WHILE around ST[reet], BLOWERS

28
Medical specialist’s diary is found in old city book collection (9)

UROLOGIST – LOG IS in UR, O[ld] T[estament]

29
With this, spray lens with care? (8)

CLEANSER – (lens care)*.  Definition not at one end of clue alert!

33
Dire cameraman misrepresented Hollywood’s ideal? (8,5)

AMERICAN DREAM – (dire cameraman)*

34
Agree right away — very good perfume makes one lustful (12)

CONCUPISCENT – CONCUr, PI[ous], SCENT.  Great word.

38
Having three parties in vexatious situation brought around in due course (10)

TRILATERAL – TRIAL around LATER

40
Financial dealer has no bucks, taken in by mischievous action (4,5)

LOAN SHARK – (has no)* in LARK

42
Examiner of idiots not totally kind (8)

ASSESSOR – ASSES, SOR{t}

44
King James Bible established a new language, now outdated (7)

AVESTAN – A[uthorised] V[ersion], EST[ablished], A, N[ew].  The language of the Zoroastrian scripture.  I wonder how you say “my hovercraft is full of eels”.

46
German gentleman served up cooked dish (7)

RISOTTO – reversal of OTTO, SIR

47
Legendary spinner of cotton maybe getting old (6)

CLOTHO – CLOTH, O.  Some Greek mythology nonsense.

48
Male employer — a thoughtful type (5)

MUSER – M[ale], USER

50
One river or another offering current for duck (5)

RHINE – RHONE I’m very careful about the RHINE / RHONE distinction having come a cropper once in the championships.  Without the crossing middle vowel it’s not trerribly obvious which way round this is supposed to work, but RHONE gives up its O (crossword classic duck) for I (crossword classic current).

52
“Use a face covering” — that’s what we hear (5)

AVAIL – sounds like A VEIL.  Topical.

16 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1471 – The one where I can’t think of a clever title”

  1. I wrote in KAKEMONO from the def, and only then looked at the clue, which I thought was rather ugly (I have ‘feh’ in the margin), but then it’s not a word widely known (to say the least), as Penfold says, and probably needed some easy cluing. ON EDIT: Not that easy, as Keriothe’s comment says: the K could just as well have been an R.) Is ‘What’s’ serving any purpose in 37ac other than moving the definition away from the beginning of the clue? ‘Obvious all through time’ seems to me to work fine. And I wouldn’t have thought that SCHADENFREUDE was perverse; not an admirable feeling, mind you, but a widespread one. Liked PEANUT BUTTER (still do).

    Edited at 2020-12-20 02:16 am (UTC)

  2. Fairly new to the Cryptics, but I didn’t understand 11d why “bit left inside” is RUMP, or where “bucks” appears in 40d, and the explanation of 12d seems to be unfinished.
    1. 1) it’s ‘bit left’ not ‘bit left inside’; ‘bit left’=RUMP, which is inside FIEST.
      2) ‘bucks’ is in italics, which, as Penfold says, here indicates an anagram indicator. ‘has no’–H,A,S,N,O–bucks, is to be rearranged. Penfold slipped here; it should read (has no)*
      3) And he did forget part of the analysis. IELD is FIELD, ‘crop-growing area, farmer’s beginning [F] to go out’=deleted
  3. I made a note that I found this quite easy and completed it in two straight sessions. I never set a timer for Jumbos and normally I nibble away at them in dribs and drabs over a couple of days.

    My only completely unknown word was PASSADO which I might have thought was something in cookery if there’d been the slightest suggestion of that in the clue.

    I didn’t know SPIFFY but it was near enough to the more familiar ‘spiffing’ to remove any doubts.

    I knew the word CONCUPISCENT but not what it meant.

    The checker provided by AVAIL prevented me biffing EXTROVERT at 54ac which is how I would have spelt it otherwise.

  4. No time for this, I seem to have left the timer running: pretty sure it didn’t take me five and a half hours.
    I’m crying foul on 36ac, which could have been KAREMONO or RAKEMONO (RAREMONO looked unlikely admittedly). Poor show.
    1. This one being a gimme for me, I didn’t think much about the actual clue; your point is, of course, well taken. You’ll no doubt be highly uninterested to learn that the three possibilities you mention are none of them words in Japanese.
  5. Thanks for the blog;
    liked 53A SCATTERBRAINS;
    puzzled by Penfold 61’s comment to 44D “I wonder how you say “my hovercraft is full of eels””

    1. He imagines that in Avestan, you would stuggle to say that. He is probably wrong. French also likes not to adapt itself but has all sorts of ingenious ways to say things like computer, fridge etc.
  7. I failed at the CAMELOPARD putting …PERD instead. I don’t think it is a word I remember seeing before. A few other words I’d never seen before but I got them OK from the wordplay.

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