This being published on New Year’s Day, it behoves me to wish you all the best for 2018, even though you wont get to read this until after the answers have been published on 13th January. Never mind. I wish you it anyway.
Now here’s a pretty pickle. A leisurely dawdle through some Mondayish clues as you try to stay awake after bringing in the New Year and celbrating with a proper dinner? We always have roast lamb. Yum. But no! Here we have a feast of a different kind, of tricksy, whimsical and downright clever clues. Quite possibly the most intricate Jumbo I’ve done, it took me over twice as long as a typical one and, I’m not ashamed to say, I ended up having to use aids to complete it having ground to a halt after rather more than 1 1/2 hours. Great stuff. Some lovely clues – I particularly liked 9a, 25a, 36a, 39a, 49a, 1d, 2d, 10d, 11d, and 44d, and how about TWAITE SHAD as a whacky name for a fish? So many delights.
So many thanks to our setter, and I hope you all enjoyed the challenge too.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bananas somewhat marked with spots (5) |
| DOTTY – This, at least, was a gentle intro and, perhaps, a bit of a chestnut of a double definition. In the days when I first was going out with my now wife, I gave her family presents of crackers and nuts for consecutive Christmases, but my (now) sister-in-law rumbled me so I didn’t get to follow up the next year with bananas. | |
| 4 | Art lover getting title confused in source of Italian verse (10) |
| DILETTANTE – If you put (title)* [confused] in the Italian poet DANTE, you get the dabbler in arts. So far, so good, and nothing to frighten the horses, yet… | |
| 9 | Hard as nails, having to eject Duke and arrest Harry (6) |
| HARASS – Now we’re getting serious… We have to take HAR{d} AS {nail}S and remove [eject] D for Duke and nail (arrest) and get to annoy. | |
| 14 | Old communication about Bengal’s borders spread to the West (9) |
| CABLEGRAM – If we go (about) CA B{enga}L’s [borders] and we add some MARGE (spread) reversed [to the West] we get an obsolete sort of message. Not something I ever sent or received. How about you? | |
| 15 | Wanting ideas, college meets wise men born here? (13) |
| UNIMAGINATIVE – UNI (college) + MAGI (wise men) + NATIVE (born here). I guess there may be more exciting ways to clue this word, but then we might get an oxymoron. | |
| 16 | Dull obsessive admitting editor’s over in German city (7) |
| DRESDEN – Take the Dull obsessive (NERD), insert [admitting] ED’S (editor’s) and reverse to get the city famous for its porcelain and its notorious firebombing in World War II; a subject of the renowned book Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, a favourite author of mine. | |
| 17 | Hairy giant has an unauthorised dwelling in school (9) |
| SASQUATCH – Insert A SQUAT (an unauthorised dwelling) into SCH (school) to get the Canadian name for the North American 6 – 15 foot tall primate reputed to inhabit wilderness areas. | |
| 18 | Adjust time without conviction (5) |
| TWEAK – Take your T (time) and add WEAK (without conviction) and you get some fine-tuning. | |
| 19 | Reactionary artists send blurry films across Czech river, north (14) |
| POSTMODERNISTS – Did you do as I did with this? I biffed the answer with the help of crossers and then had to retrofit the wordplay… you POST (send) MISTS (the blurry films) and insert ODER (Czech river) and N (north) to get the artist proponents of a movement that somewhat defies definition. Yes. Definitely a bit blurry! | |
| 22 | Length of broadcast of song bird (7) |
| AIRTIME – The wordplay is nicely misdirecting… It’s not “song bird”, but AIR (song) + TIME, as in a prison sentence (bird), to get how long a radio or TV programme lasts. | |
| 25 | Explains what to do when animal friends die? That’s about right (10) |
| INTERPRETS – Given my blogging manhandle, (pace 49a), I couldn’t fail to enjoy this! What do you do when your pet dies? You bury it, of course. So the advice (Explains what to do) is to INTER + PET and put it [about] R (right). And therein is a hint to the, as keriothe says, terrible pun that is my blogging name! Lovely jubbly. | |
| 27 | They could be flashing by accident (6,6) |
| HAZARD LIGHTS – A fairly straightforward cryptic definition. Well it was a write-in for me, anyway. | |
| 30 | Spiritual guide is holding belly back (5) |
| SWAMI – Take IS and insert [holding] MAW (belly) and reverse to get a Hindu religious instructor. | |
| 31 | Possibly Chanel a person had in protective wrapping (8) |
| COCOONED – This article calls her the most famous designer in history.. COCO Chanel, inventer of the ‘little black dress’ and the first to create an eponymous perfume. (A person had) ONE’D met her and became wrapped in a silky sheath. Now there’s a fashion statement! | |
| 32 | NY gallery’s retrospective on oddball seeds (8) |
| CARDAMOM – I think it was the plural ‘seeds’ that confused me… and a lack of knowledge of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) that made this one of my last ones in. You take CARD (oddball) and add a reversed MOMA to get CARDAMOM, the seed capsules of several plants of the ginger family. | |
| 35 | Part of data listing taking little space in thread with quarter deleted (8) |
| FILENAME – Select the printer’s EN (little space) and insert in FILAME{nt} (thread) losing the last quarter of its letters [quarter deleted] to get what you might find listed in a directory. Hmm. A slightly odd definition I thought, | |
| 36 | Productive result with willow’s seed dispersal helper? (5,3) |
| FRUIT BAT – We had the plural version of this recently clued via a neat reverse cryptic not unrelated to 1a. This is a more conventional charade of FRUIT (Productive result) + BAT (willow) – as in cricket bat. A bit of devious definition here too! | |
| 37 | Slow music in key featured in film (5) |
| LARGO – The musical speed direction is also the second half of the name of an island in the Florida Keys, the setting for the famous 1948 film. | |
| 39 | One million pound regeneration of Ebury? I’ll ignore spending plans (7,5) |
| IMPULSE BUYER – This was a sneaky one… I (One) + M (million) + PULSE (pound – ha ha) + (Ebury)* gives you what Mrs Interred is like when I let her do the supermaket shop. Consequently I don’t let her do that very often! | |
| 41 | Miserly with pounds I invested in gas, a Labour target? (6,4) |
| NEMEAN LION – My last one in… and I needed aid for it. I must bone up on my Greek Mythology! The devious definition didn’t help. I could see NEON as the gas and MEAN as Miserly, but I failed to follow the instructions to assemble the latter in the former with L (pounds) + I as I’m afraid I didn’t know the first labour of Hercules. But I do now! | |
| 43 | Not regular fried rice when there’s rodent in it (7) |
| ERRATIC – Not a very appetising culinary offering. We fry the (rice)* and insert a RAT (rodent) to get what I hope is not a regular dish in anywhere you or I eat. | |
| 45 | And here he is now to make Nick’s ears burn? (4,2,3,5) |
| TALK OF THE DEVIL – Cryptic definition. A nice bit of whimsy. | |
| 48 | Contribution for dementia raising maybe half a crown (5) |
| TIARA – Hidden [Contribution for] in {demen}TIA RA{ising} we get a richly jewelled semi-circular head adornament. | |
| 49 | Haul or maul Paul or Saul, say? (9) |
| MANHANDLE – The misdirection of the quadruple rhyme certainly confused me! But it’s a lovely triple definition – Paul and Saul being men’s names, and hence MAN HANDLEs. Very clever indeed, and my Clue of the Year! (Yes I know it is only the 1st of January). | |
| 51 | Servant consuming too much soup (7) |
| POTTAGE – Let them eat soup. The servant, PAGE, has OTT, i.e. Over The Top, (too much) inside [consuming]. | |
| 53 | Leaky, damaged pump one considered too soft (8,5) |
| BLEEDING HEART – BLEEDING (Leaky, damaged) + HEART (pump) to get the do-gooder. I went up the sign-posted garden path with this, with ‘damaged’ making me think we were in anagram territory. Anyone else fall for that? | |
| 54 | Old priest, derided endlessly about final reckoning (9) |
| SCORELINE – Another devious definition that left me struggling. ELI, of course, is the old priest and we put him in SCORNE{d} (derided) [endlessly] to get the football result. | |
| 55 | Opening exposes film (6) |
| OUTSET – OUTS (exposes) + E.T. (film) takes us back to the beginning… as in 26d. | |
| 56 | Show a little vegetable in spring (10) |
| APPEARANCE – A + PEA (little vegetable) inside PRANCE (spring). And, if it’s something you fancy trying, here is some advice on growing peas for exhibition. | |
| 57 | Nothing added into beer or wine (5) |
| PINOT – Put O (Nothing) into your PINT (beer) to get the wine grape family, which comes in serveral varieties – Blanc, Gris, Meunier, Noir and Noir Précoce. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Choose to reduce by a tenth, halved and quartered (6) |
| DECIDE – This is another clever one. To reduce by a tenth is to DECIMATE. Take the first half DECI and add the first quarter DE, and… you get to choose. | |
| 2 | Propose to settle dance where kicks are all above board (5,8) |
| TABLE FOOTBALL – TABLE (Propose) + FOOT (settle – as you do a bill) + BALL (dance), to get the minature version of the game on a board… and where no player can foul another! Nice one. | |
| 3 | Agricultural unit capped below variable size of crop (5) |
| YIELD – Y is the variable. Put the [capped] {f}IELD (agricultural unit) below it to see how much wheat or barley, etc. you get. | |
| 4 | Chihuahua neighbour organised a dog run (7) |
| DURANGO – (a dog run)* [organised] gives us a Mexican State I confess I’d never heard of. | |
| 5 | Beats I suggest we broadcast for small plant (5,7) |
| LAMBS LETTUCE – A homophone. LAMBS – sounds like lams (beats) + LETTUCE – sounds like let us (I suggest we). Small plant as a definition doesn’t give much away! | |
| 6 | Binding of small slip in gardener’s basket (8) |
| TRUSSING – Another of my last few in. I had forgotten that TRUG was a gardener’s basket. You put S (small) + SIN (slip) in it to get a way of getting tied up. | |
| 7 | Gold-edged stamp is so long (5) |
| ADIEU – The stamp is a DIE and you plate it with AU (gold) to get a reminder, with Auf Wiedersehen and Goodbye, of the Sound of Music song. Ha ha. Have you now got that as an earworm like me? | |
| 8 | Fish heads rotting after time delay (6,4) |
| TWAITE SHAD – What? A most unlikely looking answer, I think, if, like me, you are not a fisherman and had never heard of it. We take T (time) + WAIT (delay) + (heads)* [rotting] to get the smaller species of the fish related to a herring. | |
| 10 | Plug fitting better — because of this? (7) |
| ADAPTER – A neat clue. AD (Plug) + APTER (fitting better) gives us a way of putting a European round prong in a British square hole. | |
| 11 | Full of evil, what I must change (5,4) |
| ALIVE WITH – Another nicely deceptive clue, with a hard to spot definition. (evil what I)* [must change] gives us a bucketful of 8d in water. | |
| 12 | Is he in some way king? (5) |
| SHEIK – (Is he)* [in some way] + K (king) to get the Arab chief. | |
| 13 | One of these could be lower in the Trossachs (8,6) |
| HIGHLAND CATTLE – Cryptic definition… a lower being a one of those animals that go Moo, and the Trossachs being the start of the scottish highlands. | |
| 20 | Trunk catch, one being lifted with a twist (9) |
| TORSIONAL – TORSO (Trunk) + NAIL (catch) and you lift the I to get twisty. | |
| 21 | Rain lightly covers most of bare, hostile environment (8) |
| SNAKEPIT – I took a while to see this one… It is SPIT (Rain lightly) with NAKE{d} inside. I remember seeing one of these full of mambas at a zoo in South Africa. Keep out! | |
| 23 | MP does wrong and has a place in Surrey (5,5) |
| EPSOM DOWNS – (MP does)* + OWNS (has) to get the site of the famous Racecourse. | |
| 24 | A reviving blow in the face? (4,2,4) |
| KISS OF LIFE – Cryptic definition. Blow in the face. Ha ha. | |
| 26 | Following sports ground chant, blokes stick together for a fresh start (14) |
| RECOMMENCEMENT – Let’s start from the beginning… REC (sports ground) + OM (chant) + MEN (blokes) + CEMENT (stick together). Om mani padme hum. Go back to 55a. Do not pass go and do not collect £200. | |
| 28 | Laziness of couple evacuated after benefit goes in pub (9) |
| INDOLENCE – Put DOLE (benefit) into INN (pub) and add C{ouple}E [evacuated] to get the dislike of activity. | |
| 29 | Cause of a ding-dong when visitor arrives? (8) |
| DOORBELL – Cryptic definition. Is anybody home? | |
| 33 | A comfort in it? I must be mistaken (13) |
| MORTIFICATION – (A comfort in it? I)* [mistaken]. An &lit, I think. If you are mortified you are vexed or ashamed, not comfortable. | |
| 34 | Don’t complain so much about instructive example (6,6) |
| OBJECT LESSON – OBJECT LESS (Don’t complain so much) + ON (about) to get an experience you should remember. | |
| 38 | Cut hair on only one side of the face? (6,4) |
| MUTTON CHOP – [Edited: Thanks, Adrian] What you might have for dinner and a whimsical cryptic definition of the facial hair-style. If you have only one mutton chop it will be on one side of your face, | |
| 40 | For each male, ten suffering on a full-time basis (9) |
| PERMANENT – PER (For each) + MAN + (ten)*. Not going away any time soon. | |
| 42 | Big dictionary, the thing carried by my partner in publishing? (8) |
| COEDITOR – OED (Big dictionary) + IT (the thing) inside COR (My!) to get someone to help find the typos. I’ve not got one, which is my excuse if you find any here. | |
| 44 | Cobblers at last correct awkward gait (7) |
| TWADDLE – Don’t think of shoemaking, or an anagram of gait. It’s {correc}T [at last] + WADDLE (awkward gait). What a load of rubbish! | |
| 46 | Pop by place featured in English poem (7) |
| EXPLODE – X (by) + PL (place) inside E (English) ODE (poem). Bang! | |
| 47 | Quick to admit each trouncing (6) |
| DEFEAT – Another inclusion. DEFT (Quick) with EA (each) inside. I hope you didn’t have to admit defeat with this rather excellent crossword! | |
| 48 | Disapproved of denouement, a book’s essential part? (5) |
| TABOO – Hidden word in {denouemen}T A BOO{k’s}. “Steer clear of expressing opinions on religion or politics “, I was told when I joined the blogging team. Sound advice. | |
| 50 | Conscious reverence when a queen enters (5) |
| AWARE – Nearly there, and still awake… AWE (reverence) including A R (queen). | |
| 52 | Things nearer to hand debased piano player (5) |
|
THESP – Another little devious definition to finish with… it’s player not piano player. THES{e} are the things near to hand [debased] + P (piano).
Phew! Got there in the end. Did you? |
|
Ong’ara,
Nrb.
Regarding 38d: isn’t the definition actually just the word “cut”?
Edited at 2018-01-14 01:47 pm (UTC)