I was wondering if we might get a more testing puzzle for the Bank Holiday, but no. This was rather a middle-of-the-road Jumbo and I completed it in about 45 minutes. I don’t think there were any unknowns for me, and a lot of the clues wouldn’t be out of place in the Quick Crossword. But there are quite a few gems in the wordplay. I liked 25a, 28a, 52a, 7d and 8d, but my COD goes to the poor english-as-a-second-language student friend at 50d. Thanks setter for the entertainment. How did you all like it?
Definitions underlined in italics, Abc indicating anagram of Abc, deletions like this and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Large rat goes around, one providing diversion (9) |
| DEFLECTOR – DEFECTOR (rat) [around] L (large). | |
| 6 | Publisher rebuffed piece of writing that’s rot (13) |
| DECOMPOSITION – ED (publisher) reversed [rebuffed] COMPOSITION (piece of writing). Is an editor a publisher? Well I suppose I am all of author, editor and publisher of this blog post, so I guess that’s OK. | |
| 13 | As some say, Dorothy or Charlie’s coat (5) |
| PARKA – Sounds like [as some say] Dorothy Parker (““I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”) or Charlie Parker, fabulous saxophonist. | |
| 14 | One’s repeated no fun getting drunk — as these are (9) |
| INFUSIONS – Anagram of I’s I’s (one’s repeated) no fun, giving us tea-like drinks. My second last one in. Goodness knows how I originally thought the answer might be INFURIOUS! | |
| 15 | Retired flier delaying one achievement (7) |
| EXPLOIT – A retired flier might be an EX-PILOT. With the I (one) being delayed (i.e. moved later in the word), we arrive at our “bold or daring feat”. | |
| 16 | Rascal adapts ancient game without hesitation in book (6,6,7,3) |
| TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY – You maybe didn’t need to, but I ought to explain the wordplay. TINKER (rascal) TAILORS (adapts) OLD (ancient) I-SPY (game) outside [without] (as in the hymn “there is a green hill far away”) ER (hesitation). The book in question, of course, being by John le Carré. | |
| 18 | Cricket side with test location for players (2-6) |
| ON-SCREEN – ON (cricket side) SCREEN (test). | |
| 20 | Worry about old figure producing plant hydrocarbon (8) |
| CAROTENE – CARE (worry) [about] O (old) TEN (figure). The inclusion of “plant” in the definition is a generous hint that this hydrocarbon is found in vegetables… specifically carrots, inter alia. | |
| 21 | Deliberately hands round a board game (5) |
| LARGO – L (left) and R (right) (hands) [round] A and GO (board game). Largo is a slow and deliberate tempo in music. | |
| 23 | Seat in empty gallery likely to snap? (6) |
|
GRUMPY – I liked this. RUMP (seat) [in] [empty] (i.e. with middle letters removed) G |
|
| 24 | One’s charged for not retreating (6) |
| PROTON – PRO (for) TON (not, backwards) [retreating]. | |
| 25 | Dog circles stallion dropping head in fatigue (9) |
|
LASSITUDE – The famous dog LASSIE [circles] |
|
| 28 | What distracts ruddy husband, misbehaving (3,7) |
| RED HERRING – RED (ruddy) H (husband) ERRING (misbehaving). | |
| 29 | Nation‘s first person sought office (4) |
| IRAN – I (first person, grammatically) RAN (sought office). | |
| 30 | Scrap books with divine pieces inside (7) |
| ODDMENT – OT (old testament, books) with DD (Doctor of Divinity, divine) MEN (pieces) [inside]. | |
| 32 | Conservative admitted to fondness for defeat (7) |
| LICKING – A topically entertaining surface. C (Conservative) in [admitted to] LIKING (fondness). | |
| 34 | In the auditorium, didn’t catch film (4) |
| MIST – Sounds like [in the auditorium] MISSED (didn’t catch). | |
| 35 | Litter in saloon for American President (5,5) |
| SEDAN CHAIR – SEDAN (saloon car to an American) CHAIR (president). | |
| 38 | Two strikes, one pushing back litres in kitchen vessel (5,4) |
| PUNCH BOWL – The two strikes are PUNCH and BLOW… [pushing back] the L (litre) to the end in the latter. to get the receptacle. | |
| 39 | Extract from Biblical figure quoted (6) |
| ELICIT – ELI (Biblical figure) CIT. (abbreviation of cited, quoted). | |
| 40 | Bug spies used to trap villain (6) |
| CICADA – CIA (spies) outside [used to trap] CAD (villain). Cicadas are made conspicuous by the courtship calls of the males. | |
| 43 | Oscar, in trouble, beginning to imbibe the sauce (5) |
| AIOLI – O (Oscar, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) [in] AIL (trouble) and the first letter of [beggining to] Imbibe. The sauce is, in essence, mayonnaise which has crushed garlic whisked in. Here‘s a recipe. | |
| 45 | Understood piece of pottery is reserved (8) |
| TACITURN – TACIT (understood) URN (piece of pottery). Neat surface. | |
| 47 | Enduring wish to be given name (4-4) |
| LONG-TERM – LONG (wish) TERM (name). | |
| 49 | Kind of speech by one still defending unusually realist aim, in theory (11,11) |
| DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM – DIALECT (kind of speech) I (one) CALM (still) outside [defending] an anagram of realist aim [unusually]. “The Marxist theory, (adopted as the official philosophy of the Soviet communists) that political and historical events result from the conflict of social forces and are interpretable as a series of contradictions and their solutions. The conflict is seen as caused by material needs.” | |
| 52 | Key expert‘s hint about wrong answer completely rejected (7) |
| PIANIST – Love the sneaky definition! Take TIP (hint) [about] SIN (wrong) and A (answer) and reverse it all [completely rejected]. | |
| 53 | Moving to Fair Isle, fixing sort of gate with even more reason (1,8) |
| A FORTIORI – Anagram of [moving] to Fair I (Isle) outside [fixing] OR (a sort of logic gate). A term used “to express a conclusion for which there is stronger evidence than for a previously accepted one“ | |
| 54 | In Djibouti, putting away every second mug (5) |
| IDIOT – Alternate letters [putting away every second] of In DjIbOuT.i | |
| 55 | Shyster, one who gives you a hand on horse (7,6) |
| WHEELER DEALER – DEALER (one who gives you a hand of cards) after [on] WHEELER (horse). A Wheeler is a term in horse driving for a horse pulling a carriage that is closest to the wheels. | |
| 56 | Drink with students, going over grim experience (9) |
| SUNDOWNER – Reverse NUS (National Union of Students) [going over] and add DOWNER (grim experience). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Swim with hot swimwear in sound (9) |
| DIPHTHONG – DIP (swim) H (hot) THONG (swimwear). | |
| 2 | Those who execute reverse if bike follows circles (6,5) |
| FIRING SQUAD – FI (if, reversed) RINGS (circles) followed by QUAD (bike). Pedantic, I know, but how can something that doesn’t have 2 wheels be a bike? But “quad bikes” is what they are called. | |
| 3 | Bill wearing woman’s skirt (5) |
| EVADE – AD (bill) inside [wearing] EVE (woman). Lovely surface. | |
| 4 | Frenzied rite thus engulfs ill-omened figure (8) |
| THIRTEEN – Anagram of rite [frenzied] inside THEN (thus). Lucky for some. | |
| 5 | After service lift provided by a basket-maker? (6) |
| RAFFIA – FI (if, provided) going upwards A all [after] RAF (Royal Air Force, military service). | |
| 6 | Being untrue is dashed silly today (10) |
| DISLOYALTY – Anagram of [dashed] silly today. My LOI, but I don’t know why it took me so long. | |
| 7 | Something indicating Kiss title track is running (5-7) |
| CROSS-COUNTRY – CROSS (something indicting kiss) COUNT (title) RY (railway, track). Nothing to do with the music of the American hard rock band, of course. | |
| 8 | White part of gazelle, somewhat towards the top (7) |
| MOSELLE – Reverse [towards the top] hidden [part of] gazELLE SOMewhat, referring to the white wine produced alongside the river of the same name. | |
| 9 | Unsophisticated trash is in no lemonade (3-11) |
| ONE-DIMENSIONAL – Anagram of [trash] is in no lemonade. | |
| 10 | Like some rulers dismissing a risk (7) |
|
IMPERIL – Some rulers are IMPERI |
|
| 11 | Counterpart right to block popular tune that’s mistimed (11) |
| INOPPORTUNE – I thought this a bit clunky. OPPO (counterpart) R (right) inside [blocking] IN (popular) TUNE (er.. tune, why not e.g. melody?). | |
| 12 | Mark in college raised (4) |
| NOTE – ETON (college) [raised]. | |
| 17 | Guide Europeans over pitch (8) |
| POLESTAR – POLES (Europeans) [over] TAR (pitch). | |
| 19 | Retailer, quiet about poor line, is to stock up again (9) |
| REPLENISH – REP (retailer, hmm) SH (quiet) [about] anagram of [poor] line. | |
| 22 | Family member left complaint involving attacks (5,3) |
| GRAND MAL – GRANDMA (family member) L (left). An epileptic fit, called, these days, tonic-clonic. | |
| 25 | Garments of swimmer on lake (8) |
| LINGERIE – LING (swimmer) [on] ERIE (the south-easternmost of the Great Lakes). | |
| 26 | Accusing Punjabi’s group can end in snag (9) |
| INDICTING – INDIC (Punjabi’s group) TIN (can) and last letter of [end in] snaG. | |
| 27 | One predicting development of giant root crops (14) |
| PROGNOSTICATOR – Anagram of [development of] giant root crops. In case you were wondering what the biggest potato ever is, see here. | |
| 28 | Look around in theatre, place for acting (4,4) |
| ROLE PLAY – Put LO (look) reversed [around] in REP (theatre) and add LAY (place). | |
| 31 | Plant extract which art collector has to have? (9,3) |
| ESSENTIAL OIL – Double definition, second cryptic. | |
| 33 | Make firm study works for one partner (11) |
| CONSOLIDATE – CON (study) SOLI (works for one player, plural of solo) DATE (partner). | |
| 36 | A rebel here in France engaged by servant for painter (11) |
| ACADEMICIAN – A CAD (rebel) and ICI (here in French) inside [engaged by] MAN (servant) to get a member the Royal Academy of the Arts. | |
| 37 | More confused with metric gauge (10) |
| MICROMETER – Anagram of [confused] More [with] metric. | |
| 41 | Old lady overwhelmed by change, being old school (4,5) |
| ALMA MATER – MAMA (old lady) inside [overwhelmed by] ALTER (change). | |
| 42 | Force Cicero to wriggle about (8) |
| COERCION – Anagram of Cicero [to wiggle] ON (about). | |
| 44 | Dislike current lines by bard (3,4) |
| ILL WILL – I (current, as in V=IR), L L (line, line = lines) WILL (Shakespeare, The Bard). | |
| 46 | Bends stick broken by Roman here (7) |
| CHICANE – CANE (stick) including [broken by] HIC (…haec, hoc = this in Latin, here). | |
| 48 | When climbing, wears bits of leather (6) |
| STROPS – Reverse of [when climbing] SPORTS (wears). The only bit of leather I might wear when climbing is my belt as my boots are made from synthetic materials. | |
| 50 | Foreign ally questioning whether he can proceed? (5) |
| AMIGO – If he wanted to know if he could proceed, he might say in his broken English AM I GO? Very droll. | |
| 51 | Expel from school’s front bench (4) |
| SPEW – School [‘s front] PEW (bench). | |
Edited at 2019-05-04 08:19 am (UTC)
Ong’ara, Kenya.