Hello, and Happy New Year! Our seasonal bling is cleared away but there is still a plentiful supply of chocolate to polish off – just how I like it.
This was, I’m sure, the first time I’ve ever done a Jumbo in less than half an hour. So thank you very much, setter, for that welcome gift.
I can’t remember my last in, but at the end I had two entries with a square unfilled (my indication of a half-parsed answer): ONE-SIDED and A DIME A DOZEN. I was wondering whether to allow myself to stop the clock and sort those out at leisure, but happily no need.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Exploits swimmer to get drink (9) |
| MILKSHAKE — MILKS (exploits) + HAKE (swimmer) | |
| 6a | Foundation of building at first unchanged (5) |
| BASIS — The first letter of (… at first) Building + AS IS (unchanged) | |
| 9a | Conductor from West, say, with brief tantrum (7) |
| MAESTRO — MAE (West, say) + STROp (tantrum) without the last letter (brief …) | |
| 13a | Racket game for Australian native (5) |
| DINGO — DIN (racket) + GO (game) | |
| 14a | Street surrounded by vigour near large city (7) |
| BRISTOL — ST (street) surrounded by BRIO (vigour) + L (large) | |
| 15a | Flat maybe wanting fish without a fridge ultimately (3,2,4) |
| OUT OF TUNE — OUT OF TUN[a] (wanting fish) without A + the last letter of (… ultimately) fridgE | |
| 16a | Intense questioning of PhD often (5,6) |
| THIRD DEGREE — Often a PhD is a THIRD DEGREE | |
| 17a | Dessert with price oddly selected following prohibition of payment (8,3) |
| BANOFFEE PIE — Odd letters of (with … oddly selected) PrIcE following BAN (prohibition) + OF + FEE (payment) | |
| 18a | Everyone cries for permits (6) |
| ALLOWS — ALL (everyone) + OWS (cries) | |
| 19a | Biased person is identified without masque, finally (3-5) |
| ONE-SIDED — ONE’S (person is) + ID’D (identified) around (without) masquE finally | |
| 21a | Entire skill of a diplomat found here? (6) |
| INTACT — A diplomat’s skill can be said to be found IN TACT | |
| 25a | Some letters from fellow read aloud on ship (4,4) |
| JUNK MAIL — MALE (fellow), homophone (read aloud) next to (on) JUNK (ship) | |
| 26a | Ports, say, protected from attack by dictator’s drones (9,5) |
| FORTIFIED WINES — FORTIFIED (protected from attack) + a sound-alike of (dictator’s) WHINES (drones) | |
| 28a | Cutting cake initially, one clasped by boy (5) |
| SCION — Cake initially and I (one) inside (clasped by) SON (boy) | |
| 29a | Fish I found in home (6) |
| PLAICE — I found in PLACE (home) | |
| 30a | Cold place to store food — that’s a profound relief, reportedly (4,6) |
| DEEP FREEZE — DEEP (profound) + FRIEZE (relief), homophone (reportedly) | |
| 33a | Turbulent situations disturbed most realms (10) |
| MAELSTROMS — An anagram of (disturbed) MOST REALMS | |
| 35a | Lady, perhaps, eats a northern cheese (6) |
| PANEER — PEER (lady, perhaps) surrounds (eats) A and N (northern) | |
| 36a | Rock band do as I say, in part (5) |
| OASIS — The answer is contained in (… in part) dO AS I Say | |
| 38a | Child’s punishment maybe includes working with unknown old vase? No chance! (3,2,4,5) |
| NOT ON YOUR NELLY — NO TELLY (child’s punishment maybe) contains (includes) ON (working) with Y (unknown), O (old) and URN (vase) | |
| 40a | Stealthily ripped into poet (2,6) |
| ON TIPTOE — An anagram of (ripped) INTO POET | |
| 42a | Naval explosive placed around a river (6) |
| MARINE — MINE (explosive) placed around A and R (river) | |
| 43a | Idle joke about money? (8) |
| LOLLYGAG — A joke about money might be a LOLLY GAG, lolly being slang for money. I had come across lollygagging somewhere just recently and had looked it up to remind myself of its meaning – it’s nice when that happens | |
| 44a | Arranged to get going (3,3) |
| SET OUT — Two definitions | |
| 47a | Common period of time, that is, to grab nap (1,4,1,5) |
| A DIME A DOZEN — AD (period of time) + I MEAN (that is) holding (to grab) DOZE (nap). The DOZE was clear, but I took a bit longer to see the rest | |
| 50a | Calamity as the captor collapses (11) |
| CATASTROPHE — AS THE CAPTOR is anagrammed (collapses) | |
| 52a | Court controversy with solar winds? (4,5) |
| SHOW TRIAL — WITH SOLAR is anagrammed (winds) | |
| 53a | Sucker‘s anger after beginning to value a politician (7) |
| VAMPIRE — IRE (anger) after the first letter of (beginning to) Value, A and MP (politician) | |
| 54a | Family member returning home with teacher regularly (5) |
| NIECE — Reversed (returning), IN (home) + tEaChEr regularly | |
| 55a | Island we hear was windy: shade provided (3-4) |
| SKY-BLUE — We hear that SKYE (island) BLEW (was windy) | |
| 56a | Injured capturing small wood (5) |
| HURST — HURT (hurt) taking in (capturing) S (small) | |
| 57a | Defence for Boxing Day — smile and hug freely at first! (9) |
| GUMSHIELD — D (day), preceded by (… at first) SMILE and HUG anagrammed (freely) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Thick fog covers roof of dome (5) |
| MIDST — MIST (fog) surrounds (covers) the first letter of (roof of) Dome | |
| 2d | Idling adolescent mixed a cocktail (4,6,4,3) |
| LONG ISLAND ICED TEA — IDLING ADOLESCENT anagrammed (mixed) + A | |
| 3d | Lady fighting Society over an argument with country (11) |
| SWORDSWOMAN — S (society) + WORDS (an argument) + W (with) + OMAN (country) | |
| 4d | Wearing new medal, bachelor strolled around (6) |
| AMBLED — Inside (wearing) an anagram of (new) MEDAL is B (bachelor) | |
| 5d | Put out about relative, one who’s leaving (8) |
| EMIGRANT — EMIT (put out) around (about) GRAN (relative) | |
| 6d | Make a mess of eating complete box of synthetic sweet (12) |
| BUTTERSCOTCH — BOTCH (make a mess of) around (eating) UTTER (complete) and the outer letters of (box of) SynthetiC | |
| 7d | Deadline for shifting steel badly slipping (4-2,4) |
| SELL-BY DATE — STEEL BADLY anagrammed (slipping) | |
| 8d | Pick up my mistake with new piece of cutlery (5) |
| SPOON — Reverse (pick up) OOPS (my mistake) and add N (new) | |
| 9d | Forecasters got together and cancelled weather warning? (3,6) |
| MET OFFICE — MET (got together) + OFF (cancelled) + ICE (weather warning?) | |
| 10d | Monument‘s lower fee fit for changing (6,5) |
| EIFFEL TOWER — LOWER FEE FIT is to be anagrammed (for changing) | |
| 11d | In secret, hum Prince hit (5) |
| THUMP — The answer is found in secreT HUM Prince | |
| 12d | Test quantity of oxygen? (1,5) |
| O LEVEL — The O LEVEL could mean the quantity of oxygen | |
| 18d | Notice no women finally resist change (10) |
| ADJUSTMENT — AD (notice) + JUST MEN (no women) + finally resisT | |
| 20d | Disagreed with detective and FBI agent imprisoning upstanding whistle-blower (8) |
| DIFFERED — DI (detective) and FED (FBI agent) around (imprisoning) the reversal of (upstanding) REF (whistle-blower) | |
| 22d | Opposite church, outside smashed in patio? That’ll get people talking! (12,5) |
| CONVERSATION PIECE — CONVERSE (opposite) and CE (church) outside an anagram of (smashed) IN PATIO | |
| 23d | Compensated over this baby product (6) |
| DIAPER — REPAID (compensated) reversed (over) | |
| 24d | Fools, with son, intended to skip a test (10) |
| ASSESSMENT — ASSES (fools) + S (son) + ME[a]NT (intended) missing (to skip) A | |
| 27d | Castle dog upset by minute exam (8) |
| BALMORAL — LAB (dog) reversed (upset) + M (minute) + ORAL (exam) | |
| 31d | Trimming top of pearl on a piece of jewellery (6) |
| PARING — The first letter of (top of) Pearl + A + RING (piece of jewellery) | |
| 32d | Regular visitor hurrying primarily over paths to arrive on time? (7,5) |
| HALLEYS COMET — Hurrying primarily + ALLEYS (paths) + COME (to arrive) + T (time) | |
| 34d | Dispatched north of India, intellectual is nostalgic (11) |
| SENTIMENTAL — SENT (dispatched) above (north of) I (India) + MENTAL (intellectual) | |
| 36d | Peace offering playing havoc with Berlin (5,6) |
| OLIVE BRANCH — An anagram of (playing) HAVOC with BERLIN | |
| 37d | On good terms continually? Blimey! (4,1,5) |
| WELL I NEVER — WELL IN (on good terms) + EVER (continually) | |
| 39d | Heightened activity due to parking place (9) |
| OVERDRIVE — OVER (due to) + DRIVE (parking place) | |
| 41d | Learner breaking in and fighting (8) |
| BATTLING — L (learner) inside (breaking) BATTING (in) | |
| 45d | State of king heading an elite group (6) |
| KANSAS — K (king) + AN + SAS (elite group) | |
| 46d | Runs into European heading north to get treasure (6) |
| ESTEEM — MEETS (runs into) and E (European), all written upwards (heading north) | |
| 48d | Key material alternatively found in plant? (5) |
| IVORY — OR (alternatively) found in IVY (plant) | |
| 49d | Elizabeth erected church for nothing (5) |
| ZILCH — LIZ (Elizabeth) raised (erected) + CH (church) | |
| 51d | Correct the setter, in conclusion (5) |
| EMEND — ME (the setter) in END (conclusion) | |
NHO the cocktail, which sounds awful. Pretty meh sort of Jumbo.
The cocktail is actually pretty good (and doesn’t contain any iced tea, it just looks like it). But it is very strong since it contains pretty much everything (gin, vodka, tequila, rum, and more). It was apparently invented in a different Long Island from the one in New York.
It took me 75 minutes to finish this but I was all correct. LOI BATTLING
One session, which is rare for a Jumbo. NHO LOLLYGAG and I may have used aids to find it as the only clue that gave me any trouble. I thought I detected an American feel to the whole procedure.
1 hour and 9 minutes. I romped through this one. Great fun. Some were quickly BIFD, then slowly parsed, esp NOT ON YOUR NELLY and A DIME A DOZEN. I enjoyed MAESTRO (with MAE cllued by West), just men in ADJUSTMENT, MILKS/HAKE and OUT OF TUNa. COD to O LEVEL
Completed in about 2 hours, which is about as fast as I can go.
Liked Childs Punishment = No Telly !
LOI PARING
Good time, Kitty – it took me 33 1/2 minutes. Spoilt on entering online by a typo. Grr. I’m another who DNK LOLLYGAG. SCION = cutting was new to me too. COD to NOT ON YOUR NELLY, a phrase my Dad used to use. Thank-you Kitty and setter.