Times Cryptic Jumbo 1492 – 10th April

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

A nice middle-of-the-road Jumbo, I thought, with plenty of straightforward clues to give you a foothold but a few chewier ones to make you think harder. FOI 15A and LOI 7A, where I was trying to get the first word to be GOLDEN, but in vain. A couple of unknowns for me, as usual, including “tow” as fibres and  “arioso” as song. A good few ticks on my copy, though, such as 26A, 39A, 49A, 7D 27D and my favourite 42D. Good stuff! Thank-you setter. How did everyone else get on?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and “” other indicators.

Across
1 Opening stairs for approach to higher regions? (11)
SPACEFLIGHT – SPACE (opening) STAIRS (flight).
7 Proof bar has brought in learner, one that’s overworked (6,5)
GALLEY SLAVE – GALLEY (proof) SAVE (bar) including L (learner).
13 Distribute vote to oust leader (5)
ALLOT – bALLOT (vote) losing it’s “leader”.
14 Appear in front and pressure soldiers to surrender (7)
PRECEDE – P (pressure) RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) CEDE (surrender).
15 Scented substance good in Morning Fruit (not ultimate in perfume) (9)
AMBERGRIS – G (good) in, AM (morning) BERRIeS (fruit) without the “ultimate” of perfumE.
16 Knight, beset by flies in sun resolved to take armour off (9)
UNHARNESS – A double inclusion in an anagram… N (knight in chess notation) “beset by” HARES (flies) “in” (sun)* “resolved”.
17 Radical not right about husband? It’s misleading information (3,7)
RED HERRING – RED (radical) ERRING (not right) “about” H (husband). Who else started by looking for Radical or a synonym without the R?
20 Fibres a touch hard in place for horses (7)
TOWPATH – TOW (fibres) [unknown to me] PAT (touch) H (hard).
22 Pasta dish, note, involved in US city story (7)
LASAGNA – N (note) “involved in” LA (US city) SAGA (story).
24 Beer conceals when one’s missing exams (1,6)
A LEVELS – ALE (beer) VEiLS (conceals) with the I (one) “missing”.
25 Regret backing drug element (8)
EUROPIUM – RUE (regret) “back” OPIUM (drug). The element, atomic number 63, is a ductile metal. It is very soft, very reactive and the rarest of the rare earth elements. Most applications of europium exploit the phosphorescence of europium compounds. So now you know.
26 Watch, taking in the fielder beginning to play game (4,3,7)
HUNT THE SLIPPER – HUNTER (watch) “taking in” THE SLIP (fielder) and “beginning to” Play.
28 Newspaper etc omitting indefinite number in statistical quantity (5)
MEDIA – MEDIAn (statistical quantity) “omitting” the N (indefinite number). If you didn’t know already, “In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution.” i.e. the half-way point.
29 Magician? Not the real article (6)
SHAMAN – SHAM (not the real) AN (article).
30 That chap, not very serious in promotions, beams (10)
HEADLIGHTS – HE (that chap), LIGHT (not very serious) “in” ADS (promotions).
33 Flower child about to snooze, faced with boring event (10)
SNAPDRAGON – SON (child), “about” NAP (snooze) DRAG (boring event).
35 Female underwear in small? That shows intelligence (6)
BRAINS – BRA (female underwear) IN S (small).
37 Bill loves what’s prohibited (5)
TABOO – TAB (bill) O O (0 0, loves).
39 Scientist with a small prize, thus first (14)
ASTROPHYSICIST – A S (small) TROPHY (prize) SIC (thus) IST (1st, first).
41 Warrior pre-empts responding when securing upland (8)
ACHILLES – ACES (serves winners at tennis; pre-empts responding) “securing” HILL (upland).
44 Composer dismissing a writer from Italy and a painter from further East (2,5)
EL GRECO – ELGaR (composer) “dismissing a” ECO (Umberto, writer from Italy). From Crete, but he moved to Toledo in Spain in his later years.
45 Rest admit following Schubert song? (3-4)
LIE-DOWN – LIED (Schubert song) OWN (admit).
46 Seaweed to move round avoiding old holiday region (7)
ALGARVE – ALGA (seaweed) RoVE (move round) “avoiding” the O (old).
47 Parliamentarian say is restricted by claptrap everyone recalled (10)
LEGISLATOR – E.G. (say) “restricted by”, ROT (claptrap) ALL (everyone) “recalled”.
49 Embarrassingly rude about line after deliveries disallowed (9)
OVERRULED – OVER (deliveries) “embarassingly” (rude)* “about” L (line)
53 Chords? Urge to follow piano in endless song (9)
ARPEGGIOS – P (piano) EGG (urge) “in” ARIOSo (song), “endless”. AKA broken chords.
54 No odd elements in party invite? Go (7)
ATTEMPT – “No odd elements” of pArTy, TEMPT (invite).
55 Foreign letter about popular zoo animal (5)
RHINO – RHO (foreign letter) “about” IN (popular).
56 Unethical behaviour: shaky camera clip capturing it at last (11)
MALPRACTICE – “shaky” (camera clip)* “capturing” iT “at last”.
57 Romantic atmosphere may be charming around lake (11)
CANDLELIGHT – CAN DELIGHT (may be charming) “around” L (lake). Nice one.
Down
1 Ends in the Government blocking law award? (9)
STATUETTE – “Ends in” thE GovernmenT “blocking” STATUTE (law).
2 Indication we’ll have to act when boarding coach after everyone (3,3,6,1,5)
ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE – AS (when) “boarding”, ALL THE WORLD (everyone) STAGE (coach). A bit tricky as “STAGE” in the solution is not the “STAGE” in the wordplay, which gets interrupted by AS.
3 Penetrate the heart of America, not the top (5)
ENTER – cENTER (alternative spelling of centre; heart) “american”, missing the C, “not the top”
4 Irish figures reel as punch is thrown (11)
LEPRECHAUNS – (reel as punch)* “thrown”,
5 Old King freely exhibiting unctuousness? (8)
GREASILY – GR (old king) EASILY (freely).
6 Author remains confused, having missed a statement from Pope (2,3,2,5)
TO ERR IS HUMAN – (author remains)* “confused” without “having missed” A. …to forgive is divine.
7 Guzzler decided to avoid opening variable bottle (6,4)
GREEDY GUTS – aGREED (decided) “to avoid opening” Y (variable) GUTS (bottle). Brilliant wordplay!
8 Permission to take off (5)
LEAVE – Double definition.
9 Nasty beard smears will make you self-conscious (11)
EMBARRASSED – “Nasty” (beard smears)*.
10 African ecosystem re-created as green site (9)
SERENGETI – (as green site)* “recreated”.
11 Enjoying the atmosphere? That’s risky in part of London (4)
AIRY – hAIRY (risky) where aitches are dropped (part of London, East End). Hmm. A bit loose, I thought.
12 What makes bone bony? Simple (4)
EASY – Lovely reverse cryptic. Start with BONE and take the E AS Y to get BONY.
18 Choose not to stop dance held by the wealthy below tower (4,3,4,7)
KEEP THE BALL ROLLING – KEEP (tower), then BALL (dance) “held by” THE ROLLING (wealthy)
19 European journalists tucking into very good coffee (8)
ESPRESSO – E (european), PRESS (journalists) “tucking into”  SO (very good).
21 Acclaim of the French: a record by old man climbing (7)
APPLAUD – DU (of, in French) A LP (record) PA (old man), all  “climbing”.
23 Sporting new hat, allowed in college at the outset (8)
ATHLETIC – “New” (hat)* LET (allowed) In College “at the outset”.
27 Caught taking turn on large fairground attraction (8)
CAROUSEL – C (caught) AROUSE (turn on) L (large). Ha ha.
28 Arab capital leading to upturn in the French grape variety (8)
MUSCATEL – MUSCAT (Arab capital) “upturn” of LE (the in French) -> EL. Not MUSCADET (which is a wine not a grape variety) as your idiot blogger carelessly entered without parsing. Grr.
31 Suggesting shifting hotel? It’s a popular idea (2-5)
IN-THING – HINTING (suggesting) “shifting” the H (hotel) -> IN-THING.
32 Mostly boring of philosopher to receive tons of privileged people (12)
ARISTOCRATIC –  This took me an age to parse thinking the philospher must be Aristotle… But it isn’t! It is ARId (boring) “mostly”, SOCRATIC (of philosopher) “to receive” T (tons).
34 One will turn on radio chap is altering (11)
APHRODISIAC – (radio chap is)* “altering”.
36 A Catholic when uplifted will get crazy about religious rite (11)
SACRAMENTAL – A RC (roman catholic) AS (when) “uplifted”, MENTAL (crazy).
38 Stress a lot of US cash is involved in move (10)
ACCENTUATE – CENt “a lot of” (US cash) “involved in” ACTUATE (move).
40 Too keen with regard to monarch? About time! (9)
OVEREAGER – OVER (with regard to) ER (monarch) “about” AGE (time).
42 What may be ending in drop to seabed after accident? (9)
SPEEDBOAT – Semi-&lit. “Endng in” dro(p to seabed)* “after accident”. Nice one!
43 A Parisian officer leading Frenchmen forward and out of the way (8)
UNCOMMON – UN (A in french; Parisian) CO (commanding officer) MM (Messieurs, Frenchmen) ON (forward).
48 Girl, going to capital of India, finding a drink there (5)
LASSI – LASS “capital of” India. An indian yoghurt based drink.
50 Artist breaking 60% of laws of the country (5)
RURAL – RA (artist) “breaking”  “60% of” (i.e. 3 of the 5 letters of) RULes (laws)
51 Prize money initially given to friend… (4)
PALM – PAL (friend) Money “initially”.
52 …after old gem (4)
OPAL – O (old) PAL (friend).

11 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1492 – 10th April”

  1. Only 1 DNK, HUNTING THE SLIPPER. No standout clue today (well, SPEEDBOAT). 51/52d a rare case of suspension dots actually performing their function.

    Edited at 2021-04-24 06:22 am (UTC)

  2. Oh my goodness! Can this be right?
    A grid which begins with SPACEFLIGHT
    ASTROPHYSICIST too
    That’s a massive woo-hoo
    In a crossword that’s full of delight
  3. Enjoyed this one, we seem to have had quite a long run of good jumbos lately.
    Teeny typo in 44ac John, unless there really is a place called Toldeo
  4. While I don’t recognise any particularly tricky bits, this did take me 12 minutes short of the hour, so I must have been either savouring the many delights or blundering around densely.
    I do remember that I couldn’t spell, of all things, LASAGNA, which held things up a bit, but there were no unknowns – I’ve even played HUNT THE SLIPPPER, but not for a few hundred years.
  5. An excellent workout. 1:52:50 so well within my my two-hour target, but one pink square for 46ac ARGARVE. I didn’t get the wordplay so had to fit a holiday resort into the crossers. You’d have thought I’d have gone for a real one.
    Struggled to assemble ASTROPHYSICIST and ATTEMPT but liked them both and many others.
    Trying to learn as I go, the PDM that Frenchmen gives MM, led me to try (wrongly) to fit GG for gallons into a recent clue somewhere else. I just need to stay on my toes
    1. It’s CEN{t} (a lot of US cash) contained in ACTUATE (move). Definition: stress.

      Edited at 2021-04-24 08:16 pm (UTC)

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