Times Cryptic Jumbo 1721 – when Buddy met Ozzy

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

A decent puzzle with a handful of tricky bits ands some pleasing definitions.

First in was EPHEMERAL and last was APERCUS.

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 E[nglish]

If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.

Across
1 Passing English pub by green? Days lost! (9)
EPHEMERAL – E[nglish] P[ublic] H[ouse] EMERALD minus D[ays]
6 Drink in short time artist knocked back, like punch (10)
MARASCHINO – In MO put a reversal of R[oyal] A[cademician] and AS CHIN
12 Found inside cake, note needing no decryption (2,5)
EN CLAIR – N[ote] in ECLAIR
13 Pain where one probes abnormal lung area (9)
NEURALGIA – I in (lung area)*
14 Stop the Alsatian chasing sheep? On the contrary! (3-2)
LET-UP – not the Alsation chasing sheep but TUP chasing LE (French for the)
16 Mean sort most petty of thieves? (5-7)
PENNY-PINCHER – DDCDH
17 Italian educator most senior going to pieces (10)
MONTESSORI – (most senior)*
19 An environmental problem we hear? (5,9)
NOISE POLLUTION – CD
22 Railway Children like TV after school (5,3)
TRAIN SET – SET after TRAIN.  Nice definition.
24 Black material and brown material? (6)
TARTAN – TAR, TAN
25 You could pick this pair of idiots in pub around university (4,6)
BASS GUITAR – U[niversity] in ASS GIT in BAR
26 Long for introduction from Ricetti to enter grotto (5)
CRAVE – R{icetti} in CAVE
29 Spelling master in revolutionary English school (4)
MAGE – reversal of E[nglish] GAM (a school of Whales)
30 Two notes interrupting calm musical piece (8)
SERENADE – A D in SERENE
32 Artless acts in North America with which this writer’s linked? (9)
NAIVETIES – N[orth] A[merica], I’VE TIES
34 Account with great weight and beauty read out in Anne Brönte’s name (5,4)
ACTON BELL – AC[count], TON, homophone of BELLE
35 Surpassed in guile — by a Murdoch company? (8)
OUTFOXED – DDCDH, referencing Murdoch’s involvement with Fox Corporation
36 Room for experimentation involving maiden as Easter sacrifice? (4)
LAMB – LAB around M[aiden]
39 Run to avoid large snake (5)
ADDER – LADDER without L[arge]
40 Wager involving question put to everyone after second-rate game (10)
BASKETBALL – BET around ASK, ALL after B
42 Dramatist on vacation taking in legendary show (6)
DEPICT – D{ramatis}T around EPIC
44 Athens ruinously allows in obtrusively religious actor (8)
THESPIAN – (Athens)* around PI
46 Romanian garden potentially yields fruit (8,6)
MANDARIN ORANGE – (Romanian garden)*
48 Goon, Mad Dan, old fool making pastry (6,4)
ECCLES CAKE – ECCLES (the Spike Milligan character’s full name is Mad Dan Eccles), CAKE (archaic slang for a madcap or fool).  I put this in from the definition and Goon and had to look up the other elements to make sense of the clue.
49 Old European’s say-so left Brunei reeling (12)
BYELORUSSIAN – (say so L Brunei)*
53 Elegy dreadful, Gray initially admitted (5)
DIRGE – DIRE around G{ray}
54 Desperate character, northern drunk lying about winemaker? (9)
DANDELION – (Desperate) DAN, reversal of N[orthern] OILED.  I can’t say I’ve ever had dandelion wine.  It sounds like something Reggie Perrin’s son-in-law would concoct.
55 Advanced study almost containing 100 insights (7)
APERCUS – A[dvanced], PERUS{e} around C
56 Gullible Romeo has waited, drinking whisky, outside (6-4)
STARRY-EYED – R[omeo] in STAYED containing RYE
57 Sprinter runs to get hold of singlet one gathers (9)
HARVESTER – HARE R[uns] around VEST

 

Down
1 One who’s had cooler experience in City on receiving kiss? (2-3)
EX-CON – E.C. ON around X
2 Lead singers growl in this context (5,5)
HEAVY METAL – DDCDH
3 Mike slow to return after year working as henchman (8)
MYRMIDON – M[ike], reversal of DIM after Y[ea]R, ON. A new one on this non-classicist so I had to construct it painstakingly from wordplay
4 Mysterious force that was guarding territory it patrolled? (5)
RUNIC – R[oyal] U[lster] C[onstabulary] around N[orthern] I[reland]
5 Rule at sea revised for eminent poets (9)
LAUREATES – (rule at sea)*
6 Scottish Thomas needs elevation when crossing over deep ditch (4)
MOAT – reversal of TAM around O[ver]
7 Right to replace the 50 leading multitude in sector (6)
REGION – LEGION with R[ight] for L
8 Irresponsible broadcast about intelligence (14)
SCATTERBRAINED – SCATTERED around BRAIN
9 Manhattan location: down there, son joins percussion section (5,7)
HELLS KITCHEN – HELL, S[on], KITCHEN
10 Coming before Society, upstanding character’s entertained by unthinkable ideas (7)
NOTIONS – NOT ON around I, S[ociety]
11 Is one sly-looking gent with pipe, wayward old male? (7,3)
PEEPING TOM – (gent pipe)*, O{ld] M[ale].  I wasn’t entirely sure what to underline as it’s a sort of semi-&Lit.
15 Waste of time without beer? Get round in! (9)
POINTLESS – PINTLESS around O
18 Memorial of significance featuring Greek character (8)
MONUMENT – MOMENT around NU
20 Washed out: I considered ringing doctor (9)
IRRIGATED – I RATED around RIG
21 No editor — and no editorial? (10)
LEADERLESS – DD
23 Some stiffness evident in this colonel with rat given whipping (4,6)
ETON COLLAR – (colonel rat)*
27 Excitement? Yours truly’s in a state! (9)
ANIMATION – I’M in A NATION
28 Occasion for wreath-laying made mercenary angry with bishop (11,3)
REMEMBRANCE DAY – (made mercenary B[ishop])*
31 Better than expected? Certainly not at Sunningdale! (5,3)
ABOVE PAR – DDCDH with Sunningdale being a golf course
33 Image-building included in course taken by new European tycoon (12)
ENTREPRENEUR – P[ublic] R[elations] in ENTREE, N[ew] EUR[opean]
34 Scots head supporting a role in discriminatory system (9)
APARTHEID – HEID under A PART
37 Resentment of female living in the Fens? (10)
BITTERNESS – DDCDH. A female bittern might be a bitterness.  Boom boom (do you see what i did there?)
38 Priam’s city under-represented in particular view of the past (10)
RETROSPECT – TROy in RESPECT
41 Jazz musician‘s American friend and lush (5,4)
BUDDY RICH – BUDDY, RICH
43 Where batter needs to stand to rise? (8)
INCREASE – DDCDH (in cricket the batter stands in the crease, sort of)
45 Selected comments from lawyer at last admitted to bar? (7)
EXCERPT – {lawye}R in EXCEPT
47 Seemingly wanting meal from bar in Heaven (6)
SKINNY – INN in SKY
50 Solitary individual such as Shylock, did you say? (5)
LONER – sounds like LOANER
51 Suffer as a result of hot dog that’s rather unpleasant (5)
INCUR – IN (hot as in fashionable) CUR
52 Rude wife showed the way to guards (4)
LEWD – W[ife] guarded by LED

 

10 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1721 – when Buddy met Ozzy”

  1. I biffed ECCLES CAKE; could make nothing of the clue, and now I see why: I know nothing of the Goons, and CAKE =fool is something for a Mephisto. DNK Sunningdale. Penfold, you’ve got the wrong notes in SERENADE,

  2. Sadly I still don’t get HEAVY METAL. I know lead and the name of the type of music but not what ‘growl has to do with anything.

    I got the Goons reference at 48ac (Eccles, not Mad Dan) but I never heard of CAKE as a fool. ‘Fruit cake’ perhaps, although I’m not sure that has quite the same connotations.

    I had no idea how BITTERNESS worked but thanks to the blog I now see how devious it was, and rather amusing.

    1. Hi John. Heavy Metal music is often characterised by growling vocals. I think that’s what the setter was getting at.

  3. Nice one. I had to take great care over the anagram for BYELORUSSIAN, and got a bit stuck in the NE corner.
    Thanks for explaining BITTERNESS. Boom boom indeed. And the finer points of ECCLES CAKE.

  4. Many thanks for the explanations, I’ve about 3/4 of puzzle completed when the jumbo blogs are published.

  5. Thanks for the blog.
    Favourite clue: 15d, nice surface. Worst: 48a. Like others, I didn’t understand it. Also didn’t understand 9d, not helped by the fact I haven’t heard of the Manhattan location – can kitchen mean percussion section?
    I felt there were some dodgy synonyms – scatterbrained meaning irresponsible at 8d (I thought it was more disorganised and forgetful), and tycoon meaning entrepreneur at 33d (tycoon indicates wealth and power, entrepreneurs can be impoverished).

    1. Hi Andy, thanks for reading and commenting.

      Yes, kitchen can mean percussion section (the 5th definition in the Chambers app is “the percussion section of an orchestra”). It comes up every so often in Times puzzles as it’s a useful bit of misdirection for the setters. Example from a 15×15 puzzle from last year:

      Male keyboard player releasing current for one in kitchen (9)*
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      * TIMPANIST

  6. Same as Andy, I really liked Pointless. But then I also liked Eccles Cake (despite the archaic word for fool).

    Tartan was neat. But not keen on Myrmidon, just seems too obscure.

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