Hello once again. I think we’re in average Jumbo territory here in terms of difficulty. The usual smattering of GK needs and advanced vocab are here, along with trademark Times well-disguised definitions, but none of the wordplay was over-hard, despite some clever use of non-obvious meanings in wordplay elements.
First in was ANEASTHESIA and last was DENATURES.
If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.
The technical stuff:
Clues are in blue (unless you’re in dark mode) 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 B[ishop]
| Across | |
| 1 | Man United stew about a possible pen? (4,4) |
| MUTE SWAN – (man U[nited] stew)*. A pen is a female swan, of course. | |
| 5 | Way a long tooth cut finds place (6) |
| STATUS – ST[reet] A TUSk | |
| 9 | Resident scholar Ginger knocked over by wild pig (7) |
| BOARDER – RED reversed by BOAR | |
| 14 | Sails across ocean and far away? Hardly (5,2,4) |
| CLOSE AT HAND – CLOTH around SEA, AND | |
| 15 | Corrupt Senate has excellent backing that puts one out (11) |
| ANAESTHESIA – (senate has)*, A1 reversed | |
| 16 | Genesis performing selected songs? (5) |
| ONSET – ON, SET | |
| 17 | Bishop presses son to become writer (7) |
| BURGESS – B[ishop], URGES, S[on] | |
| 18 | Doctors set out at night to cover area (9) |
| DENATURES – DENTURES around A[rea]. “Set out at night” is very good. | |
| 19 | Such a fish as sinks beneath the waves? (7) |
| TORPEDO – CD I guess, or maybe a DDCDH. A TORPEDO is a particular kind of fish as well as a sub-aquatic weapon. | |
| 20 | Up north, pastiche irritated primitive sort (15) |
| PITHECANTHROPUS – (up north pastiche)*. Fair play if you got all the letters in the right places without checking the spelling somewhere. | |
| 22 | Journeys to the bar and back? (5,5) |
| ROUND TRIPS – pub-based CD | |
| 23 | Commercial rubbish about one being skilled (6) |
| ADROIT – AD[vertisement], ROT around I | |
| 25 | Shorten extract from poet: Rimbaud (4) |
| TRIM – hidden | |
| 28 | Hopping mad, presumably? (3,1,5,5) |
| NOT A HAPPY BUNNY – I expected to find that this was peculiarly British idiom but it appears that Happy Bunny is a US cartoon character. Are the two linked? Answers on a candy wrapper. | |
| 30 | Singular craft needed to produce epigram? (3-5) |
| ONE-LINER – DDCDH | |
| 32 | Plant pots not carelessly buried (8) |
| ENTOMBED – EMBED around (not)* | |
| 34 | Man’s expert knowledge about artist in border region (6-8) |
| ALSACE-LORRAINE – AL’s, ACE, LORE around R.A. IN. | |
| 37 | Pub needs introduction to drummer and rhymer (4) |
| BARD – BAR, D{rummer} | |
| 38 | Unpleasant smell in small ditch rook must escape (6) |
| STENCH – S[mall], TRENCH missing R[ook]. | |
| 39 | What might be asset with mice spreading — answer welcomed? (7,3) |
| SIAMESE CAT – (asset mice)* around A[nswer]. A partial &Lit? The definition could stop after “spreading” but then you’d be a letter short, but the extra bit makes the definition a little odd. Maybe the definition is just “What might be…?” Regardless, the answer is pretty obvious once you’ve worked out what’s going on. | |
| 43 | Stage at which drinkers may drink no more? (10,5) |
| SATURATION POINT – CD | |
| 45 | Candidate turning on explosive energy (7) |
| NOMINEE – ON reversed, MINE, E[nergy] | |
| 47 | Weller? He needs to change to receive greeting (9) |
| HEALTHIER – HE, ALTER around HI | |
| 49 | Recover from failed miracle (7) |
| RECLAIM – (miracle)* | |
| 51 | Weapon brought back before court causes bleed (5) |
| EXACT -AXE reversed before C[our]T | |
| 52 | John, Scots engineer holding monarch to his breast? (5,6) |
| WATER CLOSET – WATT around ER, CLOSE. | |
| 53 | Pope’s defender penning short quote about Keats scholar? (11) |
| ROMANTICIST – ROMANIST around CIT{e} reversed | |
| 54 | Hardly active, Mike enters rave after party (7) |
| DORMANT – M[ike] in RANT after DO | |
| 55 | Duke and daughter to occupy Manchester town land (6) |
| SADDLE – D[uke] and D[aughter] in SALE, Greater Manchseter town with a famous rugby union team. Enya’s next three RU fixtures: Sale (A), Sale (A), Sale (A) | |
| 56 | Top class batsman’s first to leave, and drive away (8) |
| ESTRANGE – bEST, RANGE. I think range might be verbal here. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Skilled solver’s brother in Scots farmland the writer owns? (7) |
| MYCROFT – MY CROFT. Sherlock’s bro. | |
| 2 | Steal hearts perhaps in such attire? (7,4) |
| TROUSER SUIT – TROUSER, SUIT | |
| 3 | Extremist eviscerated on Highland peak in hut? There’s a hitch (5,4) |
| SHEET BEND – ExtremisT on BEN all inside SHED. Knotty. | |
| 4 | Disturbed, our phobias great, we lay down our lives for others (15) |
| AUTOBIOGRAPHERS – (our phobias great)* | |
| 6 | Prime Minister gone to shake out hay on moorland (3,5) |
| TED HEATH – TED (to ted is to spread out mown grass to dry) + HEATH. | |
| 7 | Mystical Pole in dream has any number of teeth (14) |
| TRANSCENDENTAL – S (S[outh] pole) in TRANCE + N + DENTAL (of teeth) | |
| 8 | Photograph intimidating woman, one encountered in bed (10) |
| SNAPDRAGON – SNAP, DRAGON (flower bed) | |
| 9 | Helmet has function opener perhaps admits (7) |
| BASINET – SINE in BAT (cricketer). A basinet is a medieval European, open-faced combat helmet. | |
| 10 | Maybe drawing around leader of Hindus — a Buddhist monk (5) |
| ARHAT – ART around H{indus} A | |
| 11 | Eastern hand one detected in academic account (11) |
| DESCRIPTION – E[astern] SCRIPT I in DON | |
| 12 | Blockheads among others curtailed check again (8) |
| REASSESS – ASSSES in RESt | |
| 13 | Fine horse lost to Barnet’s travelling show? (4) |
| FAIR – F[ine] hAIR | |
| 20 | Tropical fruit old man consumes always (6) |
| PAPAYA – PAPA around AY | |
| 21 | Venomous American upset Republican (7) |
| RATTLER – RATTLE R[epublican] | |
| 22 | Some player in Germany who knows the ropes? (6) |
| RINGER – hidden | |
| 24 | Soldiers under charge detained in camp in holy orders (3,12) |
| TEN COMMANDMENTS – MEN under COMMAND in TENTS | |
| 26 | Charitable and well-known ghost writer in chief? (6-8) |
| PUBLIC-SPIRITED – PUBLIC, SPIRIT, ED (writer-in-chief) | |
| 27 | Forest with walnut finally burning (6) |
| ARDENT – ARDEN, {walnu}T | |
| 29 | Cigar box cast from rhodium (7) |
| HUMIDOR – (rhodium)* | |
| 31 | Singular to be so politically incorrect? (6) |
| SEXIST – S[ingular], EXIST | |
| 33 | Good health professional warm and adept? (11) |
| TOASTMASTER – TOAST, MASTER (adept can be a noun too, folks) | |
| 35 | Old Peruvian people accepting time for magical words (11) |
| INCANTATION – INCAN NATION around T[ime] | |
| 36 | Some wines laid down in this pleasant situation? (3,2,5) |
| BED OF ROSES – DDCDH, (bed of rosés) | |
| 40 | French banker runs to embrace porky waiter (9) |
| SOMMELIER – SOMME R[uns] around LIE (pork pie is CRS for lie) | |
| 41 | Avoided middle in test ground (8) |
| ESCHEWED – {t}ES{t}, CHEWED | |
| 42 | Gut scar with evil twists (8) |
| VISCERAL – (scar evil)* | |
| 44 | Hallucination allowed in some rhyming verses (7) |
| TRIPLET – TRIP, LET | |
| 46 | Diminutive singer in Henley’s content to show style (7) |
| ENTITLE – TIT in {h}ENLE{y} | |
| 48 | Legally land chelonian reptile missing leg (5) |
| TERRA – TERRAPIN without PIN (leg). Chelonia is the order of reptiles that icluces tortoises and turtles. | |
| 50 | Month in service that’s perfect culminating point (4) |
| ACME – M(onth) in ACE. “service that’s perfect” is very neat. | |
I never time Jumbo solves but I think this was pretty easy and I may have completed it in a single session, which is rare fore for me.
My only query was 56 where I don’t quite see where RANGE comes from. Maybe some connection with driving ranges at golf clubs? In any case to avoid something doing double duty I guess the clue has to be &lit or semi.
This puzzled me, too; I figured that RANGE=class, because otherwise it’s not accounted for. ODE sv ‘range’: ‘ 2) a set of different things of the same general type’
Ah yes, that makes sense. Well spotted!
Hi all. The reason I said I thought range was probably verbal is because range as a verb can mean to classify as can class. It’s a bit of a dictionary 3-point turn but just about gets us there.
if first = best then class = range which works, I think, if you move on quickly. Then remove “batsman’s first”. I’m afraid I just assumed Mr L’Estrange must be a first class cricketer.
On edit. Ah. You just beat me to it, of course
FOI 5ac STATUS, LOI 38ac STENCH of all things; had it early enough on, couldn’t see how it parsed. DNK TORPEDO, SHEET BEND. NHO the bunny, and never came across the expression; camper, yes, bunny, no. I was puzzled by ‘gone’ in 5d; is it necessary? It would have to be a dead PM in any case. ‘Weller’ in 47ac made me think of Sam, and I stuck with that thought for far too long. COD to DENATURES.
It looks like “gone” is there to help the surface and doesn’t invalidate the definition. I’m not sure that the dead person rule applies to Jumbi.
‘Gone’ is good for the surface. I smiled at the thought of the old curmudgeon expecting to have ‘gone to join the ethereal choir’ (or whatever the expression is) but instead finding himself consigned to shaking out hay on moorland for the rest of eternity. Very unkind, but there we are!
As far as I’m aware the same ‘rules’ apply to the 15x15s, QCs and Jumbos and only the Sunday Times is different.
I didn’t time myself. Done on paper, just left lying around to dip into from time to time. So fairly slow, enjoying its trickiness: I liked land = saddle, bleed = exact, and even pen = swan. If I’d kept the pennies from all the PDMs…. I’d have a pocketful of loose change.
A MER at 43ac SATURATION POINT, but my O-level chemistry is far too long ago for me to challenge it.
LOI ALSACE-LORRAINE. COD ROUND TRIP
On the easier side this one, I thought. Still I was a happy bunny.
anaesthesia is spelt right in the blog but wrong in the intro..
30:59 but with BORDER at 17ac. ORDERS seemed good enough for ‘presses’ and the fact that it didn’t fit any other aspect of the clue seems to have passed me by.
I remember the TORPEDO FISH (or ray) from Octonauts, where it appeared in the same episode as the humuhumunukunukuapua’a.