I am blogging as a substitute today. I am not a fan of the Jumbo crosswords, and don’t usually do them. I have found the Jumbo world often takes us back to the pre-Ximenean days of vague and rather lame clues, which is not appealing to solvers who like to solve entirely from the wordplay. Admittedly, it is hard to write genuine cryptic clues for some of these gigantic answers, but it could be done. Glancing at the blogs for other Jumbos, I see a lot of higher-quality clues than the ones I had to deal with.
I managed to solve this one readily enough, spread out over several sessions. The second long answer is not used in the USA, and I had to get a number of crossers before concluding what the answer must be.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Toast! (5,5) |
| BROWN BREAD – A feeble cryptic definition. | |
| 6 | Ace answer for clue to follow? (7,5) |
| LEADING LIGHT – Either an unbelievably feeble cryptic hint, or I don’t get it all. | |
| 14 | Best time to bed different culinary plant (7) |
| POTHERB – P(OTHER)B, where PB = personal best. | |
| 15 | Cooler, where constable visits a prune (7) |
| ALCOPOP – A L(COP)OP. | |
| 16 | Lively fashion designer meeting character from Greece (7) |
| PIQUANT – PI + QUANT. You had to be there in the 60s, Mary Quant was the miniskirt queen. She lived until 2023. | |
| 17 | Island of Scotland National Banks (4) |
| IONA – Hidden in [Nat]IONA[l]. | |
| 18 | Mature child of Neptune? (6) |
| SEASON – SEA SON, a bit of a chestnut. | |
| 20 | When turning, is cross with line and length, getting opener’s edge? (8) |
| DOORSILL – IS ROOD backwards + L + L. | |
| 24 | Financial advice implying that, if everything wrong equals four, two could be necessary? (5,2,3,4,2,3,4) |
| MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL – Yes, money is the square root of all evil, hahaha. | |
| 25 | Itch for passion ahead of bar, with one scratched every five years (7) |
| LUSTRAL – LUST + RA[i]L. | |
| 26 | Card on order for reading group (4,4) |
| BOOK CLUB – CLUB on BOOK. | |
| 27 | Nest builder bound for NI county (6) |
| ANTRIM – ANT + RIM. Bound in the sense of boundary. | |
| 29 | Don’t stop reading novel, treasure spilling onto page (6,4,4) |
| PLEASE TURN OVER – Anagram of NOVEL, TREASURE on P. | |
| 31 | A right hand welcomed by poorer veteran (8) |
| WARHORSE – W(A,RH)ORSE. | |
| 34 | Train too busy for cycle (8) |
| ROTATION – Anagram of TRAIN TOO. | |
| 36 | Ballet crashed, then rose (8,6) |
| SLEEPING BEAUTY – SLEEPING + BEAUTY, a rose in the sense of a flower. There is an American Beauty Rose. | |
| 39 | Whip attending a Catholic function (6) |
| ARCTAN – A R.C. + TAN. | |
| 41 | Opposite sides referencing poetry (8) |
| REVERSES – RE VERSES. | |
| 43 | Strategy is pretence, masked by eccentricities (7) |
| TACTICS – T(ACT)ICS. Traditionally, strategy and tactics are opposites, but not here. | |
| 46 | I’d love to draw particular Monopoly card — it probably won’t happen! (6,5,2,1,4,5) |
| CHANCE WOULD BE A FINE THING – A bit of a cryptic hint. | |
| 47 | He, say, is a gent that’s upset: that’s about right (5,3) |
| INERT GAS – Anagram of IS A GENT around R. The old chemical symbol trick – I, He, and As are the most popular ones. | |
| 48 | Two brewed tea for good morning! (6) |
| WOTCHA – Anagram of TWO + CHA. | |
| 49 | Irish county where official ultimately found wanting (4) |
| MAYO – MAYO[r]. | |
| 53 | Make deal having started late in spring (7) |
| REALISE – R([d]EAL)ISE. | |
| 54 | Where items are purchased on the way (2,5) |
| IN STORE – A bit of a cryptic hint. | |
| 56 | I undo knots in cry for attention — did I? (7) |
| HOUDINI – H(anagram of I UNDO)I. | |
| 57 | Rest day essential for primate (6,6) |
| SPIDER MONKEY – SPIDER + MON + KEY. The rest on a billiards table. | |
| 58 | District Attorney who’s in favour of heathen spreading partisan information (10) |
| PROPAGANDA -PRO PAGAN D.A. You have to take the whole noun clause as the cryptic. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Slap a bit rough, grabbing head for makings of an early bath? (9) |
| BAPTISMAL – Anagram of SLAP A BIT around M[akings]. | |
| 2 | American’s punch drunk while promenading? (3,2,4,4) |
| OUT ON ONES FEET – Another feeble cryptic hint. | |
| 3 | Holiday, reason to be cheerful, ultimately? (4) |
| NOEL – Last letters of [reaso]N [t]O [b]E [cheerfu]L. Not Part 3! | |
| 4 | Requirement after making error over answer that’s sticky! (6,8) |
| RUBBER SOLUTION -RUBBER + SOLUTION. Can solution mean requirement? Discuss. | |
| 5 | Old Turkish commander entertained by Greta Garbo (3) |
| AGA – Hidden in [Gret]A GA[rbo]. | |
| 7 | See second sight second in Mykonos (4) |
| ESPY – ESP + [m]Y[konos]. | |
| 8 | Dinosaur in party occupying lower place (10) |
| DIPLODOCUS – DIP LO(DO)CUS. I was looking for a cattle barn, but you need to life and separate lower and place. | |
| 9 | Some raised broken AI rep, another from a Scottish mathematician (8) |
| NAPERIAN – AN upside-down + anagram of AI REP + AN. | |
| 10 | Alcoholic meal — or soup? (6,5) |
| LIQUID LUNCH – Another cryptic hint, this time a good one. | |
| 11 | Might one find first or second article lost by someone who’s forgotten clothes? (4,5) |
| GEAR LEVER – GEAR LE[a]VER. | |
| 12 | Old king with uniform for archbishop (4) |
| TUTU – TUT + U. | |
| 13 | Case thus packed with care in moving (8) |
| SCENARIO – S(anagram of CARE IN)O. | |
| 19 | He scored header for Sunderland, guaranteed winner where centre’s netted (8) |
| SCHUBERT – S[underland] + C(HUB)ERT. | |
| 21 | Great Persian housing project originally in country north of Egypt (6) |
| CYPRUS – CY(P[roject])RUS. | |
| 22 | Building material set in stone (8) |
| CONCRETE -Cryptic hint, again pretty loose. | |
| 23 | Brown trousers I say in flannel (8) |
| FLUMMERY – F(LUMME)RY. The slang meaning of flannel is required here. | |
| 28 | Taken by surprise — as trapped bunny may have been? (6,2,3,3) |
| CAUGHT ON THE HOP – Yet another vague cryptic hint. | |
| 29 | Phraseology cut below normal value (8) |
| PARLANCE – PAR + LANCE. | |
| 30 | Production of diesel in very big source of fuel, perhaps (8) |
| OILSEEDS – O(anagram of DIESEL)S, where O/S = oversized. | |
| 32 | A unit in force I disbanded coming together again (13) |
| REUNIFICATION – Anagram of A UNIT IN FORCE I. | |
| 33 | Serpentine scene? (5,3) |
| HISSY FIT – Cryptic definition, tricky but not particularly brilliant. | |
| 35 | Conservative, perhaps leader of Tories embraced by the aforementioned Blair? (11) |
| THATCHERITE – THAT CHERI(T[ories]E. A brilliant clue – they should all be like this. | |
| 37 | Gate passed through by 100, electronic charge (6) |
| EXCITE – EX(C)IT + E. | |
| 38 | Amount of food including cold slider brought up for management (10) |
| REGULATION – RE(LUGE upside-down)ATION. | |
| 40 | Much noise from vicar with hair that’s restyled (9) |
| CHARIVARI – Anagram of VICAR + HAIR. | |
| 42 | Chase beyond river into cabin in forest (8) |
| SHERWOOD – SHE(R,WOO)D. | |
| 44 | Son snubbin’ a girl (9) |
| SIGNORINA – S + IGNORIN[g] + A. | |
| 45 | Crack squad with powerful unit in stitches (4,4) |
| SWAT TEAM – S(WATT)EAM. | |
| 50 | Rainbow nation detailed (4) |
| IRIS – IRIS[h]. | |
| 51 | Muck for example first wiped from cotton thread (4) |
| ISLE – [l]ISLE. | |
| 52 | Pay-off closer? (4) |
| BUNG – A very neat double definition. | |
| 55 | Discrimination admitted by reprobate, a racist (3) |
| EAR – Hidden in [reprobat]E A R[acist]. | |
DNF
Money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is–radix malorum est cupiditas.
Thank you!
The sources I checked when solving all had NAPIERIAN rather than NAPERIAN but I see that Chambers chooses to sanction the omission of the first ‘I’.
Re 50dn, how does ‘nation’ = ‘Irish’?
I enjoyed the puzzle but it’s a little annoying that I gave myself the extra time allowed over Christmas to complete it in the paper and find that when I go to the Club site to enter the competition (non-leaderboard!), the solution is already there. The newspaper says the deadline is Dec 29th.
Vinyl1, the puzzle number is 1764 if you’re able to correct it. Thank you for the review and thanks to the compiler. Nice to see neither of the ultra-long lights using an anagram.
Don’t worry, the admins are all-powerful. My blogs would not be complete without a silly mistake!
Thank you vinyl for producing this blog for us despite not liking Jumbos. Your distaste for this one is clear. Dare I toss in my pennyworth? Yes, why not, just two points.
1ac TOAST earned a tick from me, so I was dismayed that you dismissed it as a feeble cryptic definition. I thought it was a cunning one-word double definition where (a) TOAST is bread that has been browned, so brown bread, and (b) brown bread and TOAST both mean dead. Nice one.
At 4dn you even invite us to comment. I don’t think solution needs to mean requirement. It is RUBBER (Requirement after making error) + SOLUTION (answer).
And, yes, THATCHERITE was brilliant
I think the confusion is because it is cockney slang so perhaps not so obvious to those outside of London.
I found this rather tricky, and didn’t enjoy some of it. I found a number of the clues a bit convoluted and some of the references a bit oblique. That may just be sour grapes.
Having said that kapietro got there first with his explanation of 1ac but I will add my vote of approval for this clue – it’s rather brilliant!
In 6ac a LIGHT is (for some reason) the answer to a clue in a crossword, so the leading one would be the one to follow. I’m not sure if this is helpful, or perhaps just explaining the obvious!
Beaten by FLUMMERY – couldn’t see fry as the word needed for brown and I would not have spelt lumme without a y! I enjoyed the challenge provided by the rest of the puzzle.
Thanks to the blogger for stepping in
We started at the bottom-left corner which was probably the hardest bit! Several really nice clues, even though some were tough to crack.
We particularly liked Toast (but you do have to know rhyming slang to appreciate the pun), also Spider Monkey, Hissy Fit (possibly another jolly English idiom) and Thatcherite (like everyone else). Honourable mention for S-ignorin’-a.
Mild objection to 50d … an archaic word needing a dictionary hunt (I agree with you Vinyl) … and is Irish a nation?
DNF. Obscurities unknown to me: lustral, arctan, the phrase at 2d, charivari, and rainbow being a type of iris (if that’s what 50d is getting at). I don’t understand 15a, is cooler a synonym of alcopop?
I think 9d is just the answer reversed inside the clue, no anagram involved.
Favourite clue: 11d was moderately amusing.
Least favourite: 2d.
Thank you for the explanations.