Times Cryptic Jumbo 1636 – one song to the tune of another

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

I’d put this on the harder side of average, taking 50 minutes to sort everything out.  There were a few quiblettes / minor eyebrow raisers but nothing too heinous.

First in was GUESSED (unaccountably I missed the easy anagram at 1ac on first pass) and last was EXPOSE.

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 underlined.  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[achcelor]

Across
1 Sat before fantastic Sunday lunch? (5,4)
ROAST BEEF – (satbefore)*
6 Defiant bachelor: nothing can stop what he is! (7)
UNBOWED – B[achelor] O in UNWED
10 One next to do lively dance for a change (5)
REJIG – RE (the note after DO), JIG.  Tricky to parse.
13 Fancied rogue’s seductive embraces (7)
GUESSED – hidden
14 Start a fight (3-2)
SET-TO – DD (one can set to a task, for instance)
15 Make portent involving youth predicting disaster (4-5)
DOOM-LADEN – DO OMEN around LAD
16 Old PM was familiar with pop song (5,6,4,2,6)
LLOYD GEORGE KNEW MY FATHER – Old PM = L.G., was familar with = KNEW, pop = FATHER.  I’ll let WIikiredia explain: “Lloyd George Knew My Father” is a 20th-century English schoolboy folk song. The simple lyrics consist of the phrase “Lloyd George knew my father/Father knew Lloyd George” sung to the tune of “Onward, Christian Soldiers”. In the song, the two lines referring to Lloyd George are repeated incessantly, until boredom sets in. There are no lyrics other than those two lines.
17 Hamper: medium one, not large, is in fashion (6)
STYMIE – M[edium] I in STYlE.  I’m not convinced that the deletion of L[arge] quite works in the cryptic reading.
18 Rambler getting stick before run (8)
WANDERER – WAND, ERE, R[un]
19 I note there’s little room outside section of glacier (7)
ICEFALL – I, FA in CELL
22 Bath for one to lie in really after one’s dropped temperature (10)
UNIVERSITY – SIT in VERY after UNIT missing T[emperature].  I don’t suppose it really matters but the institution in question is University of Bath rather than Bath University.
23 Stories being spread of a coup, ultimately baseless (6,6)
AESOPS FABLES – (of a {cou}P baseless)*
27 When turning blue, tip of tongue was hanging out (5)
DWELT – LEWD reversed, T{ongue}.  Is dwelling the same as hanging out?
29 Tune that’s simple and sweet — a heaven-sent relief? (7)
AIRDROP – AIR (simple tune), DROP (sweet like a pear drop).
30 Worn out after month dealing with excavation (8)
DECREPIT – DEC(ember) beforee RE PIT.
32 Despot’s wife moving a way back (8)
TSARITSA – Reversal of ASTIR A ST[reet].  cf TSARINA
34 Chapter in St John, maybe, one moving men to great effect (7)
FISCHER – C[hapter] in FISHER, giving us the American chess grandmaster Bobby.  All the RC children from our village go to high school at St. John Fisher in Harrogate so that helped.
36 Can’t wait beyond day for scrap (5)
DITCH – ITCH after D[ay]
39 Annoys head that Pole’s put in for redundancy (12)
NEEDLESSNESS – NEEDLES NESS around S (South pole)
41 Misery and scandal after blackguard has gone out (10)
CURMUDGEON -MUD after CUR, then (gone)*
44 Increasingly wary of strange opening hands (7)
LEERIER – EERIE in R[ight] & L[eft]
46 One making 29 yard bursts no fan of hard toil (8)
SKYDIVER – Y[ard] in SKIVER.  29a is AIRDROP.
48 Old court to make a fool of as it were? (6)
ASSIZE – ASS-IZE, i.e. make an ass of.
50 Hit song from Il Trovatore head disliked, somehow (5,6,3,5,4)
VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR – (Il Trovatore haed disliked)*.  The Buggles’ 1979 number one.
53 Missing uniform marred retinue fit for a queen (9)
NEFERTITI – (retinue fit)* without U[niform]
54 Daily charge hitting the roof? (5)
IRATE – I (newspaper) + RATE
55 Change ending of popular film — oddly shocking treatment! (7)
INFLECT – IN F{i}L{m} E[lectro]C[onvulsive] T[herapy]
56 Fancy putting answer forward without digressing (2,3)
AD REM – DREAM with the A moved to the front.  Latin for “to the point”.
57 Finally taking a very short vacation, acquiring fuel (7)
GASOHOL – {takin}G, A, SO, HOL[iday]
58 Uncle Sam pauses to drop one off on time (3,6)
THE STATES – HESiTATES on T[ime]
Down
1 Ply that’s cut very fine (5)
REGAL – REGALe.  I need convincing that ply and regale can mean the same.
2 One that could — or couldn’t? — bring to mind a riddle? (1,6,4,1,5)
A MEMORY LIKE A SIEVE – A rather convoluted CD
3 Shot played by Ashes batter, maybe, evaluating spin (4-5)
TEST-DRIVE – DDCDH
4 Quickly twisted sad news from journal’s head office? (6)
EDDIED – ED(itor) DIED
5 Energy provider, very good one, in food: ham, perhaps (4,7)
FAST REACTOR – S[ain}T in FARE, ACTOR
6 New Year turned lively in square (8)
UNTRENDY – (N[ew] Y[ear] turned)*
7 There’s a case for butter, and one having more chocolate? (7)
BROWNER – B{utte}R, OWNER
8 Being left by Dutch with passport, maybe, one in red headpiece (11)
WIDOWERHOOD – W[ith], I.D., OWER, HOOD
9 Old tyrant’s sins you and I’d laid out (9)
DIONYSIUS – (sins you I’d)*
10 Centre for trek, facility across lake, is free (7)
RELEASE – {t}RE{k}, EASE around L[ake]
11 You must stop pilgrimage after upsetting ancient tribe (5)
JUDAH – U in HADJ reversed
12 Facts are put up on register — for polymath? (10)
GENERALIST – GEN, ARE reversed, LIST
17 Group heading for Scotland Yard (5)
SQUAD – S{cotland} QUAD
20 Hitch or take plane home, stopping at hotel on time — ten — surprisingly (1,3,2,3,8)
A FLY IN THE OINTMENT – FLY, IN in AT H[otel], (on time ten)*
21 Inclined unfortunately to promote surfing primarily before books (6)
ASLANT – ALAS with S{urfing} moved to the front, N[ew] T[estament]
24 Old flame put out (6)
EXPOSE – EX, POSE.  OUT as a verb.
25 Each to come up (5)
AHEAD – A HEAD
26 Clues roughened up for the solver originally show the setter can win! (6)
CRUFTS – initial letters (originally) of the first six words
28 High state of versatility — role-player’s content! (5)
TYROL – hidden
31 Car’s exterior showing this off? (6)
CHROME – A sort of &Lit with C{a}r being the chemical symbol for Chromium
33 Targets relatives and friends (4,7)
AUNT SALLIES – AUNTS, ALLIES
35 Sacked a user, others being kept in one’s place (5,6)
HOUSE ARREST – (a user others)*
37 It follows bloke around enclosure (5)
HENCE – HE around ENC
38 Reflecting indeed after Victor’s involved in foul play (5,5)
UNCLE VANYA – AY reversed after V[ictor] in UNCLEAN
40 Trying hard to conceal aim with tweet (9)
STRAINING – TRAIN in SING
42 Dance with married tailor to cause embarrassment (9)
DISCOMFIT – DISCO, M[arried], FIT
43 Angle to follow in aeroplane manoeuvre (8)
FISHTAIL – FISH, TAIL.
45 One’s awful blunder on drive, making line on map (7)
ISOGRAM – I’S, O[wn] G[oal] RAM.  A line drawn on a map showing all points which have an equal numerical value with respect to a given climatic or other variable.
47 Shy? Did wrong to hold one’s tongue (7)
YIDDISH – (shy did)* around I
49 Tip trailer, needing something to grip (6)
ADVICE – AD, VICE
51 Ruin suit (2,3)
DO FOR – DD
52 Legal permission to broadcast ceremonies (5)
RITES – Homophone of RIGHTS

 

14 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1636 – one song to the tune of another”

  1. The harder side of average? Certainly that! It took me several days during which I accumulated three and a half hours on the clock. And then one pink square, for misspelling ASSISE (relying perhaps too much on the verb “to assise” constructed from the wordplay which, if it existed, I wouldn’t spell with a z).

    Struggled throughout, eg with a choice of two NHOs at 19ac; ICEWALL looked more likely as a feature of a glacier but I went with ICEFALL because it parsed. Still can’t figure out AHEAD (to come up) where the definition could just be “up” but then what’s the rest doing? I won’t go on.

    I liked RE as “one next to do”. And CRUFTS and LEERIER. Nice to see Lloyd George again. Last time he was elderly go-go dancing.

    I didn’t think I knew the words to the Lloyd George song but it seems I do. Thanks for that and the whole much needed blog

      1. Thanks John, that’s exactly how I saw it, ahead or to come up in the sense of in the future.

  2. I wrote Very Hard on my print out but I have no recollection now of how long I needed to complete the grid. Certainly over several sessions though. I had a few parsing queries along the way and didn’t bother to return to them, so thanks for clearing them all up today, Penfold.

    LLOYD GEORGE KNEW MY FATHER was also the title of a 1972 play, a black comedy written by William Douglas-Home, brother of the late Prime Minister. It was very successful in the West End and is (or was) constantly revived by amdram groups.

  3. Thanks for the blog. This was quite tricky and took me 1:35 over a beer and a cheese sandwich.

    According to Collins, “ply” and “regale” both mean “to prove with abundant food or drink”. Such as a beer and a cheese sandwich perhaps.

      1. You’re welcome. And obviously I meant “provide” not “prove” (rolly eye smiley).

  4. This required dogged determination and 1.16.20, loads of it trying to justify AESOPS FABLES and completely thrown by the baseless bit of the clue. Couldn’t see the anagram fodder.
    Fischer was an odd clue: St John Fisher is not big in the cast list of saints, possibly because the incipient Anglican Church (or at least its terrestrial head, Henry VIII) had a significant role in making him a saint by shuffling off his mortal coil with an axe. I was thrown a bit also because chapter is so often CH.

  5. Late to this, came here to find out how CHROME worked, so thanks for that. A tricky one, and I found it a bit of a slog. That may be attributable to my hangover though.

Comments are closed.