Times Cryptic Jumbo 1485 – 27th February 2021

9 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1485 – 27th February 2021”

1. Luckily, I’d learned from a recent cryptic that Tate was a sugar magnate, or 19d would have taken a lot longer. Also serendipitously had just read of COW PARSLEY in a Margery Allingham story. DNK WAHOO (POI), EXTREMA, OUT-TURN, GUNCOTTON. I did know GEWGAW, and I knew Grace (only cricketer name I know), but didn’t think of him when I biffed. I never did get SPLIT (LOI), which I put in faute de anything else; the past tense of ‘spill’ for me is ‘spilled’. WAPITI always reminds me of Ogden Nash’s poem:
   There goes the wapiti,
   Hippety hoppety

   Edited at 2021-03-13 07:12 am (UTC)

2. I missed the homophone explanation of PHIL (i.e. fill = line) at 33dn, and the full parsing of NOSTRADAMUS at 12dn, so thanks for those. I had memories of having a hard time with this one, but realise now that was 1486 not 1485 so I have to wait another week to vent my spleen on that one!

   Edited at 2021-03-13 07:16 am (UTC)

3. No recollection of particular difficulties with this one and the sheet is pleasingly free of scribbles..
   Vaguely know wapiti, in my mind I pictured it as similar to bambi, but doing a google image search now, I find they are a sort of elk and they are *huge.* Also, there seems to be a lot of opportunity for paying to shoot them in NZ.
4. I too had a bit of a desert in the bottom half after a first pass through or two. I thought I’d ground to a halt, but the last few all came in a rush at the end. Lots to enjoy – I have 7 ticks of appreciation on my copy, and the usual smatterings of ignorance – WATER MOCCASIN and WAHOO were both unknown, but derived from the wordplay. COD to SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. 47:30.

5. Another solid solve in a couple of hours. Sadly 1486 was a DNF, and 1487 today not looking too good.

   NHO WHOO, and probably several others

6. 24:09 but I managed to type WEITHTLIFTING and failed to notice when checking my answers. An error-free showing on the leaderboard remains elusive, although at least this one won’t be there for long.
   I think I may have checked the unlikely-looking WATER MOCASSIN and I didn’t know GUNCOTTON, MERCERISE or WAHOO.
   I don’t think I’ve come across OUT-TURN as a synonym for ‘output’ (rather than ‘outcome) before.
7. All correct, but I don’t remember anything…err…memorable. I got GEWGAW easily enough and then reverse-engineered the WG bit and clicked who this was referring to. I only know a handful of cricketers but luckily he is one. I think I’ve heard the word MERCERISE but I couldn’t have told you what it was (something to do with dry-cleaning, I’d have guessed).
   1. My mother used to buy mercerised cotton thread.. but I only found out yesterday what it meant!
8. I finished inside the allotted two hours with more than 7 minutes to spare (so already faster than today’s, which is still not finished). Vocab and general knowledge not too demanding. I knew GEWGAW and MERCERISE — M&S (used to) sell good stuff made of mercerised cotton — but struggled with the WAPITI, where the crossers weren’t that helpful. I think I must have dimly known it. DNK WAHOO but the crossers were much more helpful. Thank you kitty for the blog, filling in so much I hadn’t seen

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