Times Cryptic Jumbo 1512 – 14th August

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

An interesting Jumbo with several unknowns for me and some chewyiness in places… which I enjoy in a Jumbo. I was slow getting started and never really on the wavelength. In all I thought it a  little trickier than average and it took me about 1hr. I was held up most in the NW corner and middle of the LHS. Last one is was 37A, which took rather longer to parse than biff. Quite a few question marks on my copy where I puzzled over the parsing, but also several ticks for clues that made me chuckle, including some rather sneaky definitions. Is it just me, or are there rather more deletion type wordplay elements than usual? Those I enjoyed most included the neat hidden at 21A, and the definitions at 1D and 6D. Thank-you setter. How did you all like it?

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

Across
1 Dig first for peat, a feature of Ireland (6)
PLOUGH – “First for” Peat, LOUGH (feature of Ireland)
4 For heathen, lawyer produces publicity (10)
PROPAGANDA – PRO (for) PAGAN (heathen) DA (District Attorney; lawyer).
10 Nobel author removing one line further on in the text (5)
BELOW – Saul BELloW (Nobel author) removing one L (line). Read about the author here. Literary Philistine that I am, I’ve not read any of his books.
14 More crazy to drop initial promise — end of story (9)
AFTERWORD – dAFTER (more crazy) losing it’s first letter, “drop initial”, WORD (promise).
15 Drop lifeless: for example, a coffin must follow (4,6,3)
DEAD LETTER BOX – DEAD (lifeless) LETTER (for example, a) BOX (coffin). I liked the deceptive wordplay for “LETTER”
16 Displacing son during excursion (7)
OUSTING – S (son) “during” OUTING (excursion). My Firts One In.
17 Golf club admitting West and North African (7)
RWANDAN – R AND A (St. Andrews Royal and Ancient Golf Club) “admitting” W (west) and N (north). No. Not a North African. Nice one.
18 At sea, declare how weather has improved (7)
CLEARED – (declare)* “at sea”.
19 OK to develop preparation for each task (8,10)
PLANNING PERMISSION – PLANNING (preparation) PER (for each) MISSION (task).
21 Key mistake admitted by party-pooper (4)
TYPO – Hidden in, “admitted by” parTY-POoper.
24 Hard, unresponsive, not feminine (5)
RIGID – fRIGID (unresponsive) without the F, “not feminine”.
26 In quarrel rod snapped off on top of head (8)
DOMESTIC – STICk (rod) “snapped off” “on” DOME (top of head). A bit sneaky, that definition!
27 Send for engineers to achieve objective (3,5)
GET THERE – GET THE RE (send for engineers).
29 Appear, since having resolved dangers (11)
EMERGENCIES – (appear since)* “having resolved”.
30 Sterile land treated and brought back into use (11)
REINSTALLED – (Sterile land)* “treated”.
32 Interior desperate for nourishment, introduced directly (11)
INTRAVENOUS – INT (interior) RAVENOUS (desperate for nourishment).
35 Doing nothing wrong, sample food that’s aesthetically pleasing (2,4,5)
IN GOOD TASTE – (Doing O)* “wrong” TASTE (sample food).
37 In short have half of gorge to cross (8)
TRAVERSE – “In” TERSE (short), “half of” RAVine (gorge). Easier to biff than to parse – I puzzled a while over how this worked. My Last One In as a result.
39 Not all were wrong to waste day in garden (8)
PARTERRE – PART (Not all) ERREd (were wrong) wasting the D (day).
40 Obstruct seat (5)
STALL – Double definition.
43 Comfortable with trigonometrical expression (4)
COSY – The second half a cryptic hint. COS (cosine) is the trigonometric exprission, so if something is with it, it could be COS-Y in the Uxbridge English Dictionary. I think that’s how it’s supposed to work, but I can’t say I like it. The trigonometric expresion is Cos(y)… ie COSY. Very clever. Many thanks  kapietro, Centralline and Jerrywh for setting me straight.
44 Journalist died, Times agree, in early spring? (5,13)
LOBBY CORRESPONDENT – OB (obit.; died) BY (Times) CORRESPOND (agree) “in” LENT (early spring). Blimey! That took a bit of untangling… and I didn’t know the phrase.
47 Most tedious journey, in a way (7)
ARIDEST – RIDE (journey) “in” A ST (street; way).
48 After meal, perform music, not serious (7)
TEASING – TEA (meal) SING (perform).
50 Wizard goes on curious search (7)
RUMMAGE – MAGE (wizard) “goes on” RUM (curious).
51 Holder of secure government post abroad (10,3)
DIPLOMATIC BAG – Neat Cryptic definition.
52 Lear’s companion offered to drink last of strong mineral (5,4)
FOOLS GOLD – FOOL (King Lear’s companion) SOLD (offered) outside, “to drink”, “last of” stronG. Aka Iron pyrites.
53 Indicate approval, having cleaned out dirty seabird (5)
NODDY – NOD (indicate approval) DirtY without its middle letters, “cleaned out”.
54 In barrel, see brewing gallons — of these? (5,5)
LAGER BEERS – (barrel see)* “brewing” outside G (gallons). A semi-&lit. I don’t think there are any lagers on at the East Anglian Beer Festival, where you can find me today and Monday.
55 Like some kings to take power ahead of time (6)
PEARLY – P (power) EARLY (ahead of time). As found in London -read abiut them here.
Down
1 Veg sounding wonderful, but we see nothing in it? (3-6)
PEA-SOUPER – PEA (vegetable) SOUPER sounds like, “sounding”, SUPER (wonderful). One of my favourites.
2 Stupid view? It’s more than right (6,5)
OBTUSE ANGLE – OBTUSE (stupid) ANGLE (view). An angle greater than 90 degrees (a right angle).
3 Proceed with angular measure ignoring a sort of knot (7)
GORDIAN – GO (proceed) RaDIAN (angular measure) “ignoring” the A.
5 Less polished diamonds accepted by king perhaps for pounds (5)
RUDER – RUlER (king perhaps) with D (diamonds)  inside, “accepted”, instead of L (pounds).
6 Footmen work over time to get covered by chroniclers (11)
PODIATRISTS – OP (opus; work) “over” -> PO, T (time) “covered by” DIARISTS (chroniclers). I wasn’t fooled by the definition.
7 Old prime minister that is twice introduced to supreme king (5,6)
GRAND VIZIER – VIZ (that is)  I.E. (that is) “introduced to” GRAND (supreme) R (Rex; king).
8 In drowsy state, daughter gives way to new invalid condition (8)
NULLNESS – dULLNESS (drowsy state) with D (daughter) -> N (new). I was a little surprised by dull=drowsy, but it fits with “sluggish or slow-moving” as a definition.
9 Are you one to have problems eating this? (9)
ARTICHOKE – ART (are you) I (one) CHOKE (have problems eating). Another semi-&lit. Nice one.
10 Supplier of pub provides empty bar with jug (6)
BREWER – “Empty” BaR, EWER (jug).
11 Cheek ring, a symbol of independence (7,4)
LIBERTY BELL – LIBERTY( cheek, as in taking a liberty) BELL (ring).
12 Having grown, wood’s first to be cut down (5)
WAXED – Wood’s “‘first” AXED (cut down).
13 Fuss, having to swap foot-and-mouth activities (4,3,5)
SONG AND DANCE – Double definitiopn, the second a cryptic hint to swap DANCE AND SONG. Ho ho.
20 Page unfinished judge takes on to work out (4,4)
PUMP IRON – P (page) UMPIRe (judge) “unfinished” ON.
22 Old vegetation river leaves behind (7)
OVERDUE – O (old) VERDUrE (vegetation) without the R, “river leaves”.
23 At length, opponents destroyed continent (8)
ATLANTIS – AT L (length) ANTIS (opponents).
25 Shabby magistrate read poorly (3-5)
DOG-EARED – DOGE (magistrate) (read)* “poorly”.
28 Clothes hang on one end of line (8)
LINGERIE – LINGER (hang on) I (one) “end of” linE.
29 Typical — only the second half is quarrelsome (7)
ERISTIC – CharactERISTIC (typical) “only the second half”. A new word on me. Tricky!
31 Sponsor keeps changing representative (12)
SPOKESPERSON – (Sponsor keeps)* “changing”.
33 Put into new vessel, stuck, having broken shin inside (11)
TRANSHIPPED – TRAPPED (stuck) with “broken” (shin)* “inside”.
34 Court formality, a warning sign (4,7)
STAR CHAMBER – STARCH (formality) AMBER (a warning sign). Oh no! I had a typo here with an N for the M. Grr!
35 Blend is endless, good for a book (11)
INTERMINGLE – INTERMINabLE replacing A B (book) with G (good) -> INTERMINGLE. Very clever.
36 It doesn’t pay to divert a bus, overall (5,6)
SLAVE LABOUR – “to divert” (a bus overall)*. Another cheeky definition. Did anyone else spend some time trying to find a crime as the answer?
38 Deficiency the result of extended summer? (9)
SHORTFALL – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint.
41 Modern sort of saint? (6-3)
LATTER-DAY – Double definition. Read about the Latter-day Saints here.
42 Being right up close, a knocking of heads (8)
ABUTTING – A BUTTING (knocking of heads).
45 Greeting famous person, receiving answer, extremely short (7)
NAMASTE – NAME (famous person) “receiving” A, “extremely” ShorT. Somehow I remembered this – not sure how.
46 Venture money to win unknown plant (6)
BETONY – BET ON (venture money to win) Y (unknown). Was it an unknown plant to you? I remembered it even though it doesn’t grow around here, according to this, but didn’t know what it looked like. So I looked it up.

From Rotary Botanical Garden
47 Incompetent teacher has mislaid book supplement (3-2)
ADD-ON – bAD (incompetent) DON (teacher) without the B (book).
49 Achieve much travel with reduced ticket price (2,3)
GO FAR – GO (travel) FARe (ticket price) “reduced”.

12 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1512 – 14th August”

  1. As always, some DNKs: PLANNING PERMISSION (didn’t think it was a lexical item, but it’s in ODE), LOBBY CORRESPONDENT, LOI ERISTIC. Thought of DEAD LETTER BOX early on, but it took me ages to account for LETTER. I liked OVERDUE.
  2. A steady and enjoyable solve completed without resorting to aids. My two unknowns, actually NHO’s, were ERISTIC and NAMASTE but both had clear wordplay.
    1. Didn’t you never hear of NAMASTE recently? I knew it, but it rang a bell at the time; I could swear it was in a recentish 15×15.
  3. ….which had just one unknown (my LOI), and one parsed afterwards (INTRAVENOUS). I shared John’s enjoyment of TYPO, but it narrowly failed to win COD.

    FOI PLOUGH
    LOI ERISTIC
    COD RWANDAN
    TIME 38:13

  4. I got through this in 85:27 but was beaten by 43a where all I could think of was COSH. Had to check ERISTIC. BETONY was LOI. Thanks John.
  5. Too hard. I called it a day after 45 minutes with 32 percent done. I wondered if the trigonometrical expression might be: the cosine of an unknown value, ie cos y
  6. I though the trigonometric expression would be cos(y) – pronounced cos y leading to COSY.
  7. Enjoyed this, agree it was on the harder side of average but managed to work through it without getting too stuck.
    NHO eristic. Did however know betony, a medicinal herb. Wikipedia says it was considered “Effective against sorcery.”
  8. 27:30. Medium difficulty, with most of the difficulty concentrated in a small number of clues including the unknowns ERISTIC and BETONY.

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