Times Cryptic Jumbo 1726 – Lynn, these are sex people!

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

This moderately challenging puzzle detained me for around 50 minutes, but some of the parsings needed a bit more work to figure out.

First in was ANTIC and last was ELSAN.

If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation. Unless there’s a particular reason to explain the definition I assume that any unknowns can be resolved with a dictionary check.

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 C[our]T

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

Across
1 Dec’s partner in charge for prank (5)
ANTIC – ANT (Ant and Dec are well-known TV prestenters in the UK), I[n] C[harge]
4 Champion has time for new accolade (7)
TRIBUTE – TRIBUNE with T[ime] replacing N[ew]
8 Dyed-in-the-wool conservative sacked around beginning of May (9)
CONFIRMED – CON[servative], FIRED around M{ay}
13 Lying in park with unfinished Brown books (9)
RECUMBENT – REC (short for recreation ground), UMBEr, N[ew] T[estament]
14 Pessimists finish unusual memo with Republican songs (4-9)
DOOM-MERCHANTS – DO, (memo)*, R[epublican], CHANTS
15 Acrimony, as Evita trip sold without any restrictions (7)
VITRIOL – eVITa tRIp sOLd
16 Chip on exquisite dish (7)
RAREBIT – BIT (I guess equivalent to CHIP in the sense of a small piece of something that has been chipped off) on (after) RARE
17 Bored, often smoking cannabis in audition (7)
ENNUIED – Sounds like ON WEED
18 Writer stops slagging off work by outspoken Renaissance artist and lens salesman (10,8)
DISPENSING OPTICIAN – PEN in DISSING, OP[us], homophone of TITIAN.
21 Called back to make growling sound (4)
GNAR – RANG reversed
23 American highwayman saying northern parts rubbish (4,5)
ROAD AGENT – ADAGE N[orthern] in ROT.
25 Time is money, primarily, for cross-dressing movement (6)
EONISM – EON, IS, M{oney}
26 Desire is focus of noted Britart pioneer (6)
THIRST – {no}T{ed}, (Damien) HIRST
28 Hungry and mischievous child ended with one drop (12)
IMPOVERISHED – IMP, OVER, I, SHED
30 Sensuous people’s article about boring contents of Auto Trader magazine? (10)
CARNALISTS – AN reversed in CAR LISTS
33 Staff use part of church reportedly for writing (10)
MANUSCRIPT – MAN, homophone of USE CRYPT
34 Central section of song about wife creates division (12)
MIDDLEWEIGHT – MIDDLE EIGHT around WIFE.  Nice.
37 Chocolate bar with no wrapper is £1 (6)
NICKER – sNICKERs.  A nicker is UK slang for a pound. ARATHO wouldn’t work.
39 Throw up pottery heartlessly (2,4)
BE SICK – BESwICK.  I had to look up the pottery to confirm this.
40 Flag victims essentially imprisoned by offensive member of House of Lords (4,5)
BLUE PETER – {vic}T{ims} in BLUE PEER
42 Originally, song entitled Kiss From A Rose was by him (4)
SEAL – A semi-&Lit (or at least some fraction thereof).  Popular music knowledge is required to solve this.  Soul singer SEAL sang Kiss from a Rose.  The initial letters of S{ong} E{ntitled} gives you SE.  You then need to know that AXL ROSE is a person (lead singer of rock band Guns ‘n’ Roses, not that it matters).  You then need to take the kiss (X) out of AXL (kiss from A Rose) to get the AL.  At least that’s how I saw it.  Less complicated parsings may be available.
43 Irritated top pupils improved after street sweeper finally removed garbage after vacation (3,4,5,2,4)
SET ONES TEETH ON EDGE – SET ONE, HONED after STREET without {sweepe}R, G{arbag}E
46 Gutted European politician finished level (7)
EMPTIED – E[uropean] M[ember of] P[arliament], TIED
47 Crowd solicitor carrying pot of tea (7)
TURNOUT – TOUT around URN
48 Men wearing bejewelled headwear, mostly backwards, and old clothes (7)
RAIMENT – MEN in TIAR{a} reversed
50 Sought-after individual reluctant to thank reduced staff working for broadcast (2,5,6)
IN GREAT DEMAND – sounds like INGRATE DE-MANNED
51 Protected dummies in crashes (9)
IMMUNISED – (dummies in)*
52 Dog Tycho Brahe? (5,4)
GREAT DANE – DDCDH.  Tycho was a famous astronomer I’ve never heard of.
53 Terribly angered (7)
ENRAGED – (angered) &Lit
54 Right to replace first portion of peculiar liquid (5)
RUNNY – R[ight] replacing the F in FUNNY

 

Down
1 Romeo split during Erica Wild’s farewell (11)
ARRIVEDERCI – R[omeo] RIVED in (Erica)*
2 Silent old senator leaving America (5)
TACIT – TACITUS sans U.S.
3 Search three ravines desperately for farm equipment (7,9)
COMBINE HARVESTER – COMB, (three ravines)*
4 Framework for garden plant predominantly found on raised window shelf (7)
TRELLIS – TRE{e}, reversal of SILL.
5 Join together what Italian football team wears around noon (9)
INTERKNIT – INTER KIT aroun N[oon].  Another neat insertion clue.
6 We endured pro wrestling with not enough oomph (12)
UNDERPOWERED – (we endured pro)*
7 Battered boxer, six-footer, claiming sex is eye-watering (10)
EXORBITANT – (boxer)* ANT around IT.
8 Commanding officer encountered infrequent visitor? (5)
COMET – C[ommanding] O[fficer] MET
9 Toxic substance guts rabbit (5,3)
NERVE GAS – basic charade of NERVE, GAS
10 Chinese text desperate to dismiss Taiwan’s capital (1,5)
I CHING – ITCHING without T[aiwan]
11 Priest summons ignorant hosts (9)
MONSIGNOR – hidden
12 Sees entertaining English team end in near misses (11)
DESIDERATES – DATES around E[nglish] SIDE {nea}R
19 Touch up instrument in small space (7)
SHARPEN – HARP in S[mall] EN (printer’s space)
20 One yellow sauce or another, ten times smaller to begin with? (7)
CUSTARD – MUSTARD with the M (100) switched out for C (100)
22 Army veteran replenishes ocean waves (7,9)
CHELSEA PENSIONER – (replenishes ocean)*
24 Topless roguish character’s boobs (6)
ERRORS – tERROR’S
27 Naive man stops providing enumeration (6)
INGENU – hidden
29 Boss pours me rum (7)
SUPREMO – (pours me)*
31 Saw located over the phone (7)
SIGHTED – sounds like SITED
32 I’m allowed to enter second, further past it, after the drunk (6-6)
TICKET-HOLDER – TICK then OLDER after (the)*
33 Supplying small cord to secure base (11)
MINISTERING – MINI STRING around E (mathematical base)
35 In an anxious manner, mend lottery malfunctions (11)
TORMENTEDLY – (mend lottery)*
36 Allowing for variation of present options? (4,2,4)
GIVE OR TAKE – DDCDH
38 Result of phantom injury called for celebratory drink (9)
CHAMPAGNE – sounds like SHAM PAIN
40 Whispering around basking seals (9)
BREATHING – RE in BATHING
41 Stop visiting veteran; you shouldn’t have feud (8)
VENDETTA – END in VET[eran], TA
44 Once furious, has often reacted nastily, making awful din to begin with (4-3)
HORN-MAD – initial letters, “once” being your archaism indicator.
45 Instruct terrible court (6)
DIRECT – DIRE C[our]T
47 Area around Kent shows such things (5)
THESE – THE S[outh-]E[ast]
49 Realise aunt regularly scrubbed lavatory (5)
ELSAN – {r}E{a}L{i}S{e} A{u}N{t}

 

9 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1726 – Lynn, these are sex people!”

  1. No idea who Dec was, let alone his partner. DNK ELSAN. DNK EONISM (is this a movement?). DNK NICKER. DNK the pottery (and couldn’t find it in ODE). DNK MIDDLE EIGHT. NHO SEAL, Axl Rose, or ‘Kiss From a Rose’, which made 42ac less than a gimme. So “‘Kiss From a Rose’ was by him” would yield the same answer, only it wouldn’t be a cryptic clue. I’ve seen better clues.

  2. I have no idea now whether I found this particularly hard but I remember spending ages on the unknown intersecting couple, DESIDERATES and CARNALISTS, and I never fathomed what was going on with wordplay for SEAL and IN GREAT DEMAND. On reading the blog I realise I’d never have worked it out no matter how long I’d looked at them. HORN-MAD was another NHO.

  3. Don’t normally do the Jumbo but did this one.

    – Relied on wordplay for the unknown GNAR
    – NHO EONISM
    – BE SICK went in assuming there was a kind of pottery called Be?sick
    – Only vaguely remembered I CHING
    – Hadn’t come across DESIDERATES before
    – Not familiar with HORN-MAD
    – NHO ELSAN

    Thanks Penfold and setter.

    COD Vendetta

  4. 36:54 but I had to cheat to get SEAL. Never heard of the song and the wordplay is ridiculous. A terrible clue IMO, sour grapes no doubt!

    1. I agree about the wordplay but it’s a well-known song. It won 3 Grammys, was a No 1 hit in the US and Oz and top 10 in many other countries (4 in UK). It’s a very good song IMHO and was made famous by the Batman Forever soundtrack.

      The fact that I’ve got the (excellent) album it’s from on both CD and vinyl may have helped me with the answer!

  5. Memories of childhood caravan holidays in the 1950’s mean that ELSAN will always be remembered, with a shudder!
    SEAL, the clue is a brilliant example of a book that remains closed to me.

  6. Didn’t know that ennui could be a verb, or the American highwayman, or disiderate, horn-mad, eonism, elsan, Beswick.
    Worst clue: the pop trivia mangled mess at 42a.
    No favourite clue.
    Using Italian side or team to indicate ‘inter’ has been a setter’s cliche for some time now. Ditto: bury for inter.

  7. Echoing everyone else’s comments … too many archaic words, too many thin clues. We eventually pieced together Se and Al but didn’t really believe that could be the explanation.
    On the other hand, Great Dane was good and Mini-String.

Comments are closed.