Times Cryptic Jumbo 1646 – Hip-to-lazed crazed abstractionists

17 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1646 – Hip-to-lazed crazed abstractionists”

1. JUNE was my LOI, too. A fairly humdrum Jumbo, I thought. Except for WORN/WORE. I don’t submit my Jumbos for the leaderboard, so it’s no skin off my nose, but it’s really shocking that both setter and editor missed this.

2. I think in the parsing of HORATIO the H comes from the first letter of his, not Hamlet.

   1. Thanks for the comment but that can’t be the case.

      Something like “his first”, “the first” or “our first” wouldn’t be used in a Times puzzle to clue H, T or O. That doesn’t work cryptic grammar wise, it would have to be “first of his” or whatever.

      So in this case “his” has to refer back to the “he” in question, being Hamlet. So “his first” = Hamlet’s first, = H.

      1. I was going to make the same comment as you: but couldn’t e.g. “Bob’s first” (not “Bob first”) indicate B? And if so, why not ‘his’ or ‘our’ (but not ‘the’)?

         1. I don’t know 🙁

         2. “Bob’s first” can mean “the first letter of Bob”. “His first” can’t mean “the first letter of his”: it would have to be “his’s first”.

3. Another one session job, so evidently I found it reasonably straightforward.

   Add me to the list of solvers who had JUNE as their LOI but I’m not sure now whether I ever understood the cryptic.

   I don’t recall seeing LIMN before but an archive search reveals a number of previous appearances.

   On the HORATIO debate I’d say either interpretation is fine if it gets you to the correct answer but H{amlet} is far neater than H{is} so I’d guess that’s what our skilled setter intended.

   1. I saw the H coming from his as neater because that gave a clear separation between definition, ” Character from Hamlet” and wordplay, “seen in his first speech, mainly”. To take the H from Hamlet seems to muddle the two parts of the clue. Oh well, if the “his first” giving H is not done, as Penfold says, then of course I stand down.

      1. I see what you mean, but setters often use a reflexive construction in wordplay (‘his’ in this case, referring back to Hamlet) that makes the clue as a whole more coherent.

4. 28ac IMHO there’s no maybe about WORE being the better answer.

   1. I hadn’t noticed I had that “wrong”. I can’t believe it’s not a Times error.

5. 1 hour 22 minutes. Pretty good for me. NHO PASTERN but the wordplay was clear and I was more confident with it than with LIMB where i’d never heard of the paint needed for the homophone. No problem with KISMET although I can’t quite see that “achieves satisfation” actually gives “is met”. And I thought “somewhat reduced” was a bit odd for clueing the CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST.

   I had WORN because I saw it first and didn’t pursue it any more. If I had seen WORE I would have gone for it. I agree it’s better.

   I struggled with AGRIMONY with the definition and two sets of wordplay. There just seemed to be too much going on. A device that is impressive but perhaps rather more annoying. I also struggled with DEFENCE, INSPECT and JUNE but enjoyed all three when the answers clicked.

   So mostly straightforward but nothing wrong with that. Many thanks for the blog

6. Straightforward 20-minuter but with WORE. Irritating, and I’m also surprised this wasn’t noticed.
   Penfold definitely has it right about H for Hamlet. You’ll never see ‘his first’ indicating H in a Times crossword.

7. Another WORE, which is definitely a much better answer, but I was a bit over my target 40 mins so I wasn’t too fussed.

   Does KISMET, HORATIO and a clue base on Admiral constitute a mini-nina? Probably not.

   You have a typo at 40a Penfold, although your meaning is clear. Thanks as always for the blog.

   1. …and a typo at 40d. What are the chances?

      Fixed, thanks. 🙂

      1. Ah yes, down, not across. I always get those mixed up 😊

8. l also had WORE

Comments are closed.