Times Cryptic Jumbo 1486 – Jumbo bucket

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
I thought this was a brilliant puzzle, jam-packed with clever definitions and original, witty, crafty wordplay.  Those two elements meant it took me somewhere over an hour to get to grips with everything.  I hope you enjoyed it too.  If the setter is looking in, thank you very much for the entertainment.

First in was ZOMBIE and last was HONITON.

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 L[arge];


Across

1
Relish large thing sold dishonestly? (3,2)

LAP UP – L[arge], A PUP.  I’m not sure how peculiarly British the concept of being sold a pup is

4
Male boss with this foolish ritual (5,5)

MUMBO JUMBO – M[ale], UMBO (the boss on a shield), JUMBO (this as in this puzzle)

9
Girl visited by doctor — one stiff walking? (6)

ZOMBIE – MB (Batchelor of Medicine) I in ZOE.  Superb definition.

14
Note rubbish bags keep Cockney’s hat (3,3,3)

TIT FOR TAT – TI, TAT around FORT.  It’s not often that a CRS expression provides the answer.  More usually truncated to titfer.

15
Eccentric solver cut long hair, displaying an old head (10,3)

NUTCRACKER MAN – NUT, CRACKER, MAN. A new one on me but this is a particular hominid.  The head reference refers to the fact that it was the skull that was found.

16
Cocktail of note, two rupees a shot (7)

FARRAGO – Fa, R[upee] x2, A GO

17
De la Mare’s wild gypsy heroine (9)

ESMERALDA – (de la mare’s).  I’d always thought she was ESMERELDA but the fodder put me right (although ESMARELDA was tempting.

18
Gongs eclipsing old woodwind instruments (5)

OBOES – OBEs around O[ld]

19
Where something sweet’s to be had between flights, or less pleasant after one? (7,7)

PANCAKE LANDING – DDCDH based around flights of stairs and aeroplane flights.  To be honest I didn’t really know what to underline as the definition.  It’s what happens when your undercarriage doesn’t work.  Fnaar.

22
In texts, you and I would add one last letter, enlarged (7)

UPSIZED – U (in texts you), PS (Post Script / I would add), I, ZED

25
Man United playing without a single female (6,4)

MAIDEN AUNT – (man united)*.  Boo.

27
Fancy piece of filming remains — I land Oscar (4,1,5,2)

TAKE A SHINE TO – TAKE, ASH, I, NET, O[scar]

30
Joints: cats need one to move back (5)

LOINS – LIONS with the I shifted one letter to the right

31
Join trail east to find body of fighter? (8)

FUSELAGE – FUSE, LAG, E[ast]

32
German and Irish article, deep, in the main? (8)

UNDERSEA – UND, ERSE, A

35
Container, not exactly small, I made smaller (8)

CASSETTE – C[irc]A, S[mall], SETTEr. As well as being a music medium closely associated with pencils a cassette is a film container.

36
Capital that’s not for investing in cereal product (8)

SANTIAGO – ANTI in SAGO.  How do you start a pudding race?

37
Shower that’s needed after washing? (5)

AIRER – DD

39
Steam bath, say, being prepared? Perhaps (5,2,3,2)

THATS AS MAY BE – (steam bath say)*

41
This corn one twice cooked with ham? (10)

HISTRIONIC – (this corn I I)*.  Ham as in acting.

43
Turning off at sideroad, avoiding some stick (7)

DISTAFF – Reverse hidden.  I got into all sorts of bother thinking STICK was STAFF and got nowhere trying to justify DI based on what remained of the clue.

45
Fish, spare, kept in reserve outside, to be in a pickle? (5,2,4,3)

SKATE ON THIN ICE – SKATE, THIN in ON ICE.

48
Cancel a year’s events, for a university (5)

ANNUL – I think the cryptic grammar here is Yodaesque but it’s ANNAL with A replaced by U[niversity]

49
Plaything that’s half dots, and lines on other half? (5,4)

DUTCH DOLL – DO{ts}. L[ine] x2, on (after in an across clue) DUTCH, slang for wife (of uncertain etymology).  I never had one of these so I don’t know what it is.

51
Carp egg with cream (3-4)

NIT-PICK – NIT, PICK

53
Writer got out of bed — time to nurse very sick sheep (9-4)

SACKVILLE-WEST – SACK (bed) T[ime] around V[ery], ILL, EWES

54
Not appreciated in UK, and then abroad (9)

UNTHANKED – (uk and then)*

55
Mate appearing before judge is sorry (6)

PALTRY – PAL, TRY

56
Writer dear to the French when French is in fashion (10)

CHESTERTON – CHER aropund EST, TON

57
Dance that one watches as one pales? (5)

TANGO – DDCDH.  As you get paler you watch your tan go.  Boom-boom.


Down

1
After check, turned to make excuse (3,3)

LET OFF – LET (as in “without let or hindrance”, OFF (as in milk)

2
Safe to differ with impartial head of household (13)

PATERFAMILIAS – (safe impartial)*

3
A brief mea culpa after upsetting Indian community (5)

POONA – Reversal of AN OOPs.  It’s called PUNE now but there’s no indication here that we’re dealing with the old name for somewhere

4
English town, one often conveying a welcome security (7)

MATLOCK – (welcome) MAT, LOCK.  It’s still called Matlock.

5
Taking good care to accept different punishment in writing (12)

MOTHERLINESS – OTHER, LINES in M[anu]S[cript].  I will not call Pune Poona, I will not call Pune Poona…

6
Rub out start of interview not intended for broadcast (8)

OINTMENT – (not I{nterview})*, homophone of MEANT.  Or you may prefer jackkt’s parsing: O[ut], I{nterview}, N’T (not), homophone of MEANT.  Both are plausible but neither seems perfect.  “Out” as an anagram indicator preceding the fodder feels a little clumsy, and I don’t recall seeing “not” cluing NT in a Times cryptic before.

7
Express being closer, no longer quiet (5)

UTTER – shUTTER

8
Wearing shorts, perhaps, in Tube half-heartedly encouraged (10)

BARELEGGED – BARrEL, EGGED

10
Cats you can see round church often (7)

OCELOTS – O (round), C[hurch of] E[ngland], LOTS

11
Young deer mostly left going through mud floor (9)

BAMBOOZLE – BAMB{i}, L[eft] in OOZE

12
Strayed, without ending up in Irish town (5)

ENNIS – SINNEd reversed

13
Shun coca served with nougat — the response? (1,6,3,4)

A CHACUN SON GOUT – (shun coca nougat)*

20
Lots of pieces first of all removed from revolutionary’s property (5,4)

CHESS SETS – CHE’S ASSETS without A{ll}

21
I called, worried, making a scandal (8)

IRANGATE -I, RANG, ATE

23
Speak out of turn, letting a dependable person down? (4,1,5)

DROP A BRICK – DDCDH

24
A party to act, having suggested involving whip (10)

IMPLICATED – IMPLIED around CAT

26
Like a blooming con? (2,3,2,1,6)

AS FIT AS A FIDDLE – CD, kind of.

28
Antiriot force finally deployed, getting done over (9)

ITERATION – (antiriot {forc}E)*.  I’m not entirely happy that the definition is the right part of speech but I think it works better my way (gerund?) than with “getting” as a link word.

29
Palace supporter, not born in Balham to start with! (8)

ALHAMBRA – BRA after BALHAM without B{orn}

33
Young one from betting syndicate in Bluegrass State (6,7)

SPRING CHICKEN – I tried in vain to make this work with some kind of KFC association and it took a while to spot that it’s SP (betting), RING, CHIC (in), KEN[tucky]

34
Not the flat we’ve been searching the country for? (8,4)

NATIONAL HUNT – DDCDH.  National Hunt in the UK is racehorses jumping over fences rather than on the flat.

38
Mock set repetition of echo in high voice, endless hours (5,5)

FALSE TEETH – Another lovely definition. E[cho] x2 in FALSETTo H[ours]

40
As related, in charge of getting in weapons (9)

ARSENICAL – I[n] C[harge of] in ARSENAL.  As = arsenic.  Clever!

42
Exile with feet tied up, but force not used (8)

DEPORTEE – fEET ROPED reversed

44
Quite the gangster’s moll? (3,4)

ALL OVER – AL (Capone) LOVER

46
Stumble upon trapping leg in lace (7)

HONITON – HIT ON around ON (leg side in cricket)

47
Winter vehicle taking second child round and round (6)

SKIDOO – S[econd], KID, O, O

48
Proust, eg, an oddly uplifting story-teller (5)

AESOP – alternate letters of Proust eg an reversed

50
For audition, gets better tips (5)

HEELS – sounds like HEALS

52
Drink to spot on round dresser, in centre (5)

TOAST – TO A T around {dre}S{ser}

11 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1486 – Jumbo bucket”

  1. As always, some DNKs: sell a pup, PANCAKE LANDING (had LANDING immediately from ‘between flights’, needed the K), NUTCRACKER MAN, NATIONAL HUNT, SKIDOO, HONITON. Some very nice clues, like MUMBO JUMBO, SANTIAGO, ANNUL, TOAST, but COD to ARSENICAL.
  2. I really struggled with this, and progress was desperately slow right from the start. And in the end I failed because I didn’t know NUTCRACKER MAN and failed to work it out from wordplay.

    I also failed to parse DISTAFF, completely missing the reverse hidden, and ANNUL.

    I think you have an error at 6dn, penfold as there’s no anagram involved. Mind you, I’m not entirely sure of my version which is:

    O (out – cricket), I{nterview} [start], N’T (not), MENT (sounds like “meant” etc).

    Edited at 2021-03-20 04:32 am (UTC)

    2. Ah, I meant to put “not” in brackets as part of the fodder rather than “out”. I think both parsings are plausible. I’ll edit when I’m at a computer. Too fiddly on phone.
      1. Thanks. On reflection I’m sure your intended parsing was what the setter had in mind.
  3. Well beaten on this one. And a shame as for many years I lived at house number 1486.
  4. 48:06, but the fodder didn’t put me right so I had ESMERELDA. I’m sure I’ve been caught out by this before, too. Overall quite a tricky one, with various unknowns. I found NUTCRACKER MAN particularly hard to, um, crack.

    Edited at 2021-03-20 09:18 am (UTC)

  5. Another good one, I thought. Setting (or blogging)a jumbo is always a labour of love so thank you, both.
    I see I wrote “Esmaralda,” then fortunately corrected it. A rather thoughtless act imo, naming someone Esmeralda.
  6. I’m another who took over an hour on this, the challenge and difficulty coming from the consistent deviousness of the clues. I knew neither NUTCRACKER MAN nor DUTCH DOLL, but the wordplay was precise enough.
    And yes, ESMblurLDA was kindly anagrammed. I had a hunch.
  7. I was all correct except I fell into the ESMERELDA trap, not looking carefully enough at the fodder. It took me far too long to realize the A CHACUN SON GOUT was not English along with some other clues in that area. But LOI was CASSETTE, with the “setter” thing going right past me so I wasn’t sure it was correct.
  8. I enjoyed this too, completing the SW corner first. DNK NUTCRACKER MAN or DISTAFF = stuck. Lots of lovely clues and clever wordplay that I had to painstakingly disentangle. I parsed OINTMENT like our blogger. COD, from a juicy bunch goes to TANGO. Thanks Penfold and setter. 54 1/2 mins.

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