Hello again. 1688 was the year of the “Glorious Revolution,” though not so glorious of course if you happened to be catholic.
I liked this jumbo, a fraction on the harder side I thought and requiring more Latin than most of us have, but with some very neat clues. What did you think?
Please, do feel free to ask questions or comment as required.
I use the standard conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy
| Across | |
| 1 | Also chasing university place in Pennines? (6) |
| UPLAND – U(niversity) + PL(ace) + AND, ie also. From recent experience I can confirm that the Pennines go up a lot. And also down, to be fair. | |
| 5 | Hurried to gobble crackers before a fasting period (7) |
| RAMADAN – MAD (crackers) + A, in RAN (hurried) | |
| 9 | Mushroom where batter needs to stand? (8) |
| INCREASE – batters need to stand IN the CREASE. Though actually I don’t think they do. Though they risk being stumped if they don’t, they get quite a bit of leeway. | |
| 13 | Flying squadron tutored madmen that needed proving (4,4,13) |
| QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM – *(SQUADRON TUTORED MADMEN). “That was to be proved.” I am taking the setter’s word for the anagrist! Good anagram though | |
| 14 | Money in undefined amount MI6’s obsession? (8) |
| NEUROSIS – N (undefined) EURO (money) + SIS, aka MI6. I was told that MI6s main obsession is with itself: its funding, its image, its government standing, its staff and their true allegiances.. | |
| 15 | SLR shot captures wingless bird and those lingering (7) |
| LURKERS – (t)URKE(y) inside *(SLR) | |
| 16 | This was capital offence — leader denied motive (6) |
| REASON – (t)REASON. Treason still is a capital offence in numerous jurisdictions, but not in the UK. | |
| 17 | Circle of PC gurus may form research panel (5,5) |
| FOCUS GROUP – *(O + OF PC GURUS). A focus group is a means companies use, to have their own views confirmed. | |
| 20 | Liquid gold is enough for private home (7,5) |
| LODGING HOUSE – *(GOLD IS ENOUGH). Is a lodging house a private home? According to Collins it is indeed: “a private home providing accommodation and meals for lodgers” | |
| 23 | German foundation leaving bishop millions (4) |
| OTTO – (b)OTTO(m). Lots of Ottos are German, or Austrian, but quite a few aren’t. Including for example the inflatable autopilot in the film Airplane, and one of my own grandchildren.. | |
| 24 | Solidly-built pupils lacking in academic promise? (5-3) |
| THICK-SET – I suppose a thick set of pupils would do less well than most | |
| 26 | Gold found in crazily loaded place invading Spaniards sought (2,6) |
| EL DORADO – OR (gold) in *(LOADED) | |
| 29 | Cheered about one touch from the right for United (12) |
| CONSOLIDATED – I + DAT (TAD reversed), in CONSOLED. Tad being a touch, a small amount, a smidgen, a speck, a trace. | |
| 30 | Artist returned with long face, related to structure close to the heart (10) |
| EPICARDIAL – EPIC (long) + RA (artist) rev., + DIAL (face). Not my area of knowledge, as I have to have a sit down if I catch sight of blood, especially my own.. but the word looked plausible. | |
| 32 | Short story involving short Scottish prosecutor: that’s appropriate (10) |
| CONFISCATE – FISCA(l) inside CONTE, a short story or tale. I had heard of the Scottish Procurator Fiscal, or public prosecutor. | |
| 34 | For whom getting back to work should be a professional priority? (12) |
| CHIROPRACTOR – A CD. Not an &lit, since there is no wordplay, but the whole clue is the definition. For full understanding, insert “your” between getting and back .. | |
| 36 | Articles drawn from Cairo and Tehran reversed artificial expression (8) |
| RHETORIC – so, we reverse Cairo and Tehran, and remove the articles A from Cairo, and AN from Tehran: (na)RHET ORI(a)C. Tricky! As for the definition, Collins has “speech or discourse that pretends to significance but lacks true meaning,” which seems close enough. | |
| 38 | Letters central to belief in tract showing faith (8) |
| RELIGION – (be)LI(ef) in REGION, a tract of land. | |
| 39 | Weak husband opening airtight container (4) |
| THIN – H(usband) in TIN, a (hopefully) airtight container | |
| 41 | Former empire’s vulgar riches? (12) |
| COMMONWEALTH – COMMON (vulgar) + WEALTH (riches). | |
| 43 | Go to bed with upper-class lodger — army officer (10) |
| LIEUTENANT – LIE (go to bed) + U + TENANT (lodger) | |
| 44 | Initially sober, then learning about solid alcohol (6) |
| STEROL – S(ober) + T(hen) + LORE, or learning, rev. I had no idea that sterols, such as cholesterol, are alcohols. I had thought of them as lipids, or fats. But it turns out that alcohol is quite a wide term, going much further beyond white wine than I had appreciated.. | |
| 46 | Sat after collapse in a wine store, choose not to drink (7) |
| ABSTAIN – *(SAT) in A BIN, a wine store | |
| 48 | Goddess to protect party associated with NEC — that’s the narrative (8) |
| ANECDOTE – NEC + DO (party) in ATE, Greek goddess of mischief and ruin | |
| 50 | Let shadow cabinet prove corrupt — anxious waiting has no effect (1,7,3,5,5) |
| A WATCHED POT NEVER BOILS – *(LET SHADOW CABINET PROVE). Another anagram I shall trust the setter with, I biffed it from the enumeration once a couple of checkers turned up. The statement is so demonstrably incorrect that it always surprises me to see it used. | |
| 51 | News boss indeed entering marshy land sees Arab fighters? (8) |
| FEDAYEEN – ED + AYE (indeed) in FEN, marshy land. Nho fedayeen, but I ninja-turtled it from the sci-fi novel Dune, which has feydakin, death commandos.. | |
| 52 | An eminent Florentine’s unhurried pace? (7) |
| ANDANTE – AN + DANTE, one of very few eminent Florentines I actually knew. Eminent he may be, but it did not stop Florence from sending him into permanent exile. According to Wikipedia, his sentence was rescinded in 2008! | |
| 53 | Bear in river following death (6) |
| ENDURE – END (death) + URE, the river of Wensleydale. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Offence taken: Greek character quite expressing it (5) |
| PIQUE – PI, (𝛑) + QU(it)E. I liked this clue… “quite expressing it,” very neat | |
| 3 | Duck, upon removing tail, is around right weight (11) |
| AVOIRDUPOIS – R(ight) in AVOID (duck) + UPO(n) + IS. Oh, that sort of weight! Why the name of a system based upon a pound of sixteen ounces should be derived from Old French, I have no idea. | |
| 4 | Groom on time as horse moves? (8) |
| DRESSAGE – DRESS (groom) + AGE, time. I dislike dressage. | |
| 5 | Studies concerned with first note from the sign (5) |
| READS – RE + A DS. I discover that DS stands for dal segno: “D.S., or Dal Segno, means “from the sign.” It directs the player to return to a spot earlier in the score that’s marked by the symbol.” I did not know this .. | |
| 6 | Spooner’s tide guide that reduces deposits on estate? (7) |
| MUDFLAP – “Flood map” (tide guide) as rendered by Spooner. Unlike some I like Spoonerisms, though I often find them tricky, especially when the spelling changes radically, as here. | |
| 7 | Dispirited? Practical lesson one’s put into action (11) |
| DEMORALISED – MORAL + I’S in DEED, an action. | |
| 8 | Present time, or at some time after noon (5) |
| NONCE – N(oon) + ONCE, at some time | |
| 9 | Some guts needed to help win Test in England (9) |
| INTESTINE – hidden, rather well I thought, as above | |
| 10 | Key locks office (5) |
| CHAIR – C, a key, + HAIR, locks, as in goldilocks. | |
| 11 | Doctor Evadne rued nothing — made determined effort (11) |
| ENDEAVOURED – *(EVADNE RUED O). Evidently a reference to the talented and late lamented Dr Evadne Hinge, who died last year. | |
| 12 | Problem with battle order (7) |
| SUMMONS – SUM (problem) + MONS, first major British engagement of WWI | |
| 18 | Theodoric, perhaps ridiculously short, having to go back inside (9) |
| OSTROGOTH – TO GO rev.. in *(SHORT). Theodoric the Great, who managed to fight the Romans as king of the Ostrogoths, and also be a Roman consul and army commander. Simultaneously, pretty much, those were confusing times. I happen to know this since I have been listening to an audiobook of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, as effective a cure for insomnia as you will find. | |
| 19 | Snakes concealed in ideal state as Roman leaves (7) |
| OPHIDIA – HID (concealed) in (ut)OPIA, the ideal state. Apparently Ut is Latin for “as.” But I expect you all knew that .. I did not, but I had heard of ophidian as meaning snakelike. | |
| 21 | Indecisive People’s Princess meeting the syndicate (9) |
| DITHERING – DI (Princess Diana) + THE RING | |
| 22 | Spirit died, endlessly blessed in churchyard (4,4) |
| GODS ACRE – GO spirit, as in “Get up and..” + D(ied) + SACRE(d). A cemetary, attached to 25dn perhaps. | |
| 25 | Church medic visiting animal to restore to good condition (9) |
| CATHEDRAL – CAT (animal, a noble one) + DR (medic) in HEAL. | |
| 27 | Harsh one with no heart maybe brought up a name (9) avoiding repetition of (9) |
| DRACONIAN – I + NO CARD (one with no heart, perhaps) + AN. I am assuming all after the first (9) is erroneous. | |
| 28 | Penny possibly closing the show devours rook and turtle part (8) |
| PLASTRON – P(enny) + R(ook) in LAST ON. Plastron sounds like what Imperial Stormtroopers armour was (wil be?) made from – but no, it is the underside of a turtle’s shell. The upper part being the carapace. | |
| 31 | Elemental form is uppermost in Phoebe’s heart (7) |
| ISOTOPE – IS, + TOP (uppermost) inside (ph)OE(be). | |
| 33 | A small horse gypsies reared under substantial illusion (4,7) |
| FATA MORGANA – FAT (substantial) + A NAG ROMA rev. The gypsies are Roma, and a NAG according to Collins is “a small riding horse.” A fata morgana is a mirage, occurring at the point where the sea and sky meet. | |
| 34 | Electra and Priscilla are so unsympathetic (4-7) |
| COLD-HEARTED – the middle letter of both names is C(old) | |
| 35 | Two things hair stylist did as arranged (3,3,5) |
| CUT AND DRIED – A DD | |
| 37 | Section‘s second district in French city (9) |
| CAESAREAN – S + AREA in CAEN, a very nice French city, one of my favourites | |
| 40 | Maiden in a high-pitched voice, quavering lyrically (8) |
| ATREMBLE – M(aiden) in A TREBLE | |
| 42 | Old Tuareg sullied in scandal (7) |
| OUTRAGE – *(O TUAREG). I hardly even notice anagrinds as a rule, but I don’t remember seeing “sullied” before.. | |
| 43 | Large insect regularly nearing light (7) |
| LANTERN – L(arge) + ANT + nEaRiNg | |
| 45 | Philosopher‘s topless fellow outside clubs (5) |
| LOCKE – C(lubs) inside (b)LOKE, a topless fellow. I know nothing about Locke, except that he was a contemporary of Sam Pepys at Westminster school, and later in the Royal Society. | |
| 47 | One among parrots ascending displays reddish-brown shade (5) |
| SEPIA – I in APES rev | |
| 48 | Alpine ridge periodically observed in fair weather (5) |
| ARETE – from fAiR wEaThEr | |
| 49 | Boomerang was tested again? Shocking weapon (5) |
| TASER – RESAT, rev. | |
I was enjoying this and did rather well on about three-quarters of it, but I became bogged down with a bunch of clues LH towards the bottom of the grid. Several answers were unknown or forgotten and others were familiar words with tricky wordplay that had to be worked through to get to the answer.
FEDAYEEN was one I managed to construct eventually but it really belongs back in Mephisto territory where it has appeared only once in the TfTT era.
I used aids to find FATA MORGANA which has appeared only twice before and I note that on the first occasion back in 2010 it passed without comment from me despite the clue being identical apart from one word: A horse gypsies reared under substantial illusion (9). Before discovering that, I already had in mind to say I thought ‘small horse’ was a little unfair as the clue was quite difficult enough without that distraction even if it is justified in some dictionary definitions.
PLASTRON was unknown, again with distracting wordplay – why ‘possibly’? – and
STEROL had a tricky definition as mentioned in the blog.
CONFISCATE had two difficult wordplay elements (FISCAl as Scottish prosecutor and CONTE as story). I’d heard of one vaguely and knew the other for sure but neither was a word that came to mind when solving so I just bunged the answer in as something that fitted the checkers and the definition.
OPHIDIA and OSTROGOTH also required aids. The second being unfortunate because I only intended to look up the unheard-of ‘Theodoric’ but the dictionary entry gave me the answer.
I didn’t notice the ‘small’, but it certainly is superfluous at best, not to mention wrong; a nag is a horse, especially an old or unfit one. I’m sure it’s been clued here as ‘horse’.
Oh yes, most definitely, but sadly the setter is supported by Collins: nag –
1. often derogatory – a horse
2. a small riding horse:
Never come across it with that meaning; I suppose I should have said ‘gratuitous’ rather than ‘superfluous’. (I see ODE has ‘(archaic) a horse suitable for riding rather than as a draught animal’.)
An unremarkable Jumbo, I thought. Like Jerry, I took the anagrist of the two long acrosses on trust, although I had to look a bit closer when my DEMONSTRATUM came up short. DNK GODS ACRE. A MER at LURKERS=lingerers.
It took me just over an hour to get through this one and I needed a bit of help with FEDAYEEN and FATA MORGANA. AVOIRDUPOIS was held up by a misremembered QUAD ERAT etc… Thanks setter and Jerry.
I found this mostly quite straightforward but a few clues needed some painstaking unpicking at the end, most notably the crossing EPICARDIAL and GODS ACRE. And then I had a silly typo.
I don’t think 36ac works. The grammar of the clue requires us to remove articles from a reversal of CAIRO TEHRAN, or NARHETORIAC, but NA isn’t an article.
Articles removed, then reversed?
That’s what the clue obviously wants you to do, but the grammar doesn’t work.
To clarify what I mean: for the grammar to work the word ‘reversed’ has to apply to ‘the thing you get if you remove the articles from Cairo and Tehran’. But ‘articles drawn from Cairo and Tehran’ doesn’t mean that. Grammatically the word ‘reversed’ must apply either to the articles or to ‘Cairo and Tehran’, but not both.
I’m probably just overthinking this but for me it doesn’t make grammatical sense.
Fair enough, although I’m afraid I can’t see why ‘reversed’ has to be applied as you describe so I don’t have a problem with the clue myself. I would agree that if one puts your interpretation on it (as I think Jerry has done in his blog) then the clue doesn’t work.
Sorry – I should have commented sooner, but I was prompted to do so by seeing today that I have won the prize for this one – my first prize for a Jumbo after doing every week’s since I started blogging them 7 years ago. This one took me about 39 minutes, so about average for me, although I did need aids to finish. Mostly quite straightforward but with some pleasantly chewy bits. I needed aids to find FEDAYEEN and PLASTRON and had to look up what Theodroic meant to solve 18D. I remembered “Dal Segno al fine” from piano music I used to play. As Jerry said, a batter doesn’t have to stand in his/her crease and many stand out of it to mitigate the swing of the ball. Nice puzzle. Thanks Jerry and setter.
Ooh, congratulations John!
More to come I hope, although one can only cope with so many Bradfords or atlases. I am going through a bit of a drought prizewise, but also have not been submitting as often as I should, which may explain it.