A fairly typical Jumbo, I think, with a good mix of easy clues and chewier ones. i got 10 down clues in a row on my first pass and was nearly done in under 30 minutes but took another 10 minutes over the last 10 or so. A couple of unknowns as usual, but all readily gettable from the wordplay. I liked 6D, 33D and 48D best. A couple of MERs while solving were resolved by checking the dictionary, so all is good. Thank-you setter. How did you all get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics , ( Abc )* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Condemned one put in dock without resistance (8) |
| ACCURSED – ACCUSED (one put in dock) outside, [without], R (resistance). | |
| 5 | Good to move slowly in punt (6) |
| GAMBLE – G (good) AMBLE (move slowly). | |
| 9 | Strange items like lugs in the centre of Texas (7) |
| EXOTICA – OTIC (ear-like; like lugs) [in] [centre of] tEXAs. | |
| 14 | Working with excellent chaps in court custody (11) |
| CONFINEMENT – ON (working) FINE (excellent) MEN (chaps) [in] CT (court). | |
| 15 | Glutton, possibly, eating horse as a source of excess energy ? (11) |
| SUPERHEATER – SUPEREATER (glutton, possibly) [eating] H (horse). A word I didn’t know. “A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. ” I wondered about the validity of “excess” in the definition, but Chambers has “heat to excess” as the definition of superheat. | |
| 16 | Pressure press to be clear (5) |
| PURGE – P (pressure) URGE (press). My LOI. | |
| 17 | Wavering — or lot more disrupted (7) |
| TREMOLO – ( lot more )* [disrupted]. | |
| 18 | Doctor repeatedly runs round altering triages (9) |
| REGISTRAR – R, R (runs, repeatedly] round [altering] ( triages )*. | |
| 19 | Dismissive exclamation about mostly tasteless pepper (7) |
| POBLANO – POO (dismissive exclamation) about [mostly] BLAN{d} (tasteless). A mild chilli pepper originating in the state of Puebla, Mexico. It says here that they are “Universally mild” so maybe “mostly tasteless” is not a bad description if you are a real chilli fiend. | |
| 20 | Immediately passed headland, not favouring the port ? (5-10) |
| RIGHT-HANDEDNESS – RIGHT (immediately; as in right away or right now) HANDED (passed) NESS (headland). The cryptic definition refers to the seafaring name of Port for Left. | |
| 22 | What’s brilliant about nurse in brown? Presence (10) |
| ATTENDANCE – ACE (brilliant) about TEND (nurse) in TAN (brown). | |
| 23 | Down by the French Mediterranean city (6) |
| NAPLES – NAP (down) LES (the in French). I didn’t know the definition of NAP as “a downy surface”. | |
| 25 | Chap wanting five to win (4) |
| GAIN – GA{v}IN (chap) without the V (five). | |
| 28 | Continue to swell and enlarge injured head in medical care (7,7) |
| SURGEON GENERAL – SURGE ON (continue to swell), ( enlarge )* [injured]. | |
| 30 | Grain surrounds old Northwest Territories river city in Canada (8) |
| MONTREAL – MEAL (grain) about O (old) NT (Northwest Territories) R (river). | |
| 32 | A censer (empty) is in untidy room, here in church ? (8) |
| SACRISTY – A C{ense}R [empty] IS in STY (untidy room). | |
| 34 | Seeing in advance wealth having a significant effect (7-7) |
| FORTUNE-TELLING – FORTUNE (wealth) TELLING (having a significant effect). | |
| 37 | Unruly child getting right inside club (4) |
| BRAT – R (right) inside BAT (club). | |
| 38 | Found key in carrying case (6) |
| CREATE – E (musical key) in CRATE (carrying case). | |
| 39 | Henry finished with skill in vehicle (10) |
| HOVERCRAFT – H (Henry, the SI Unit) OVER (finished) CRAFT (skill). | |
| 43 | Very fat, must finally be looking embarrassed with bad posture (5-10) |
| ROUND-SHOULDERED – ROUND (very fat) SHOULD (must) [finally] bE RED (looking embarrassed). | |
| 45 | Master from Portsea misses going back (7) |
| MAESTRO – Reverse hidden [from… going back] in pORTSEA Misses. | |
| 47 | Rock festival activity with hits and mescal going around (4,5) |
| SLAM DANCE – ( and mescal )* [going around]. Never heard of it, but then I’ve never been to a rock festival. | |
| 49 | One no longer working on island (7) |
| RETIREE – RE (on) TIREE (this island). | |
| 51 | Note car approaching motorway (5) |
| MINIM – MINI (car) M (motorway). | |
| 52 | Hard task round table to plan moves (11) |
| CHOREOGRAPH – Plan dance moves, that is. CHORE (hard task) O (circular letter; round) GRAPH (table). I can’t see a table being a graph, but Collins has it as a synonym. | |
| 53 | One maybe into The Big Bang Theory sitcom’s logo, strangely (11) |
| COSMOLOGIST – ( sitcom’s logo )* [strangely]. | |
| 54 | Enzyme test succeeded in leg (7) |
| TRYPSIN – TRY (test) S (succeeded) in PIN (leg). An enzyme that helps us digest protein. I didn’t know that. | |
| 55 | Always I lay vacantly in a strange way (6) |
| EERILY – E’ER (always) I L{a}Y [vacantly]. | |
| 56 | Time your girl cut short Charlie’s bullying (8) |
| TYRANNIC – T (time) YR (your) ANNI{e} (girl) [cut short] C (Charlie in the NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Drink with a large policeman before work (7) |
| ALCOPOP – A L (large) COP (policeman) OP (opus; work). | |
| 2 | Trick teacher outside to tease writer for school mag ? (11) |
| CONTRIBUTOR – CON (trick) TUTOR (teacher) outside RIB (to tease). I was puzzled by “school mag”, but I guess the ? indicates definition by example. | |
| 3 | Cause trouble in lift? I can, unfortunately (5,4) |
| RAISE CAIN – RAISE (lift) ( I can )* [unfortunately]. | |
| 4 | Like certain motors chosen by traveller gent freshly in charge (15) |
| ELECTROMAGNETIC – ELECT (chosen; e.g. President elect) ROMA (traveller) ( gent )* [freshly] IC (in charge). Impressively Ikean. | |
| 6 | But health ought … ought to give one this (8) |
| ALTHOUGH -Hidden, [ought to give one this], in heALTH OUGHt. I think that’s how it works, although the “this” had me wondering if we had a semi&lit for a bit. | |
| 7 | Card game, drink and celebration — a historic event (6,3,5) |
| BOSTON TEA PARTY – BOSTON (card game) TEA (drink) PARTY (celebration). | |
| 8 | Fit to be sent abroad , former partner moved easily (10) |
| EXPORTABLE – EX (former partner) PORTABLE (moved easily). | |
| 9 | Often-married king at heart old and very angry (7) |
| ENRAGED – {h}ENR{y} (often married king) [at heart] AGED (old). Clever. I like it! | |
| 10 | Begins a series of golf championships (5) |
| OPENS – Double definition. | |
| 11 | Junior US medic, the reverse of kind English, harming both sides (11) |
| INTERNECINE – INTERN (Junior US medic) [reverse of] NICE (kind) -> ECIN, E (English). | |
| 12 | Broadcast Brief Encounter and remove parts of picture ? (8) |
| AIRBRUSH – AIR (broadcast) BRUSH (Brief Encounter). Clever wordplay. | |
| 13 | Fair time in charge (4) |
| FETE – T (time) in FEE (charge). | |
| 20 | Illegal scheme often seen in court ? (6) |
| RACKET – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 21 | Use a spade on the whole garden — almost not using hands ? (7) |
| DIGITAL – DIG (use spade) IT AL{l} (the whole garden) [almost]. I’m not sure I like the (cryptic) definition as digits are fingers so digital could equally be “using hands”. Perhaps. Whatevs. | |
| 22 | Help a relative in street (6) |
| ASSIST – A, SIS (sister; relative) in ST (street). | |
| 24 | Cause of forgetting brief time at school commemoration (5-4,6) |
| SHORT-TERM MEMORY – SHORT (brief) TERM (time at school) MEMORY (commemoration). Not a memorable clue. | |
| 26 | Runs after flying alder moth — true story ending tragically (2,5,7) |
| LE MORTE D’ARTHUR -( alder moth true )* [flying] R (runs). Read all about Alder moths here. I’m always forgetting that apostrophes in answers are not shown in the enumeration, so this took me a while to spot. | |
| 27 | Line in battle running away (6) |
| FLIGHT – L (light) in FIGHT (battle). This made me think of “flight or fight?” I’m sure there’s a more sophisticated clue in there somewhere. | |
| 29 | Issued leaders in English mainly involving The Times’ editor (7) |
| EMITTED – First letters of, [leaders in], English Mainly Involving The Times’, ED (editor). | |
| 31 | Go right round North London town that is becoming nought? (6) |
| ENFOLD – ENFIELD (Noth London Town) replacing the IE (that is) with O (nought). | |
| 33 | Always keep son out of circus lass’s story going round (11) |
| CIRCULATORY – CIRCU{s} LA{ss’s} {s}TORY removing all the S (son)s. Clever! | |
| 35 | Disregard pronounced inner tension (11) |
| INATTENTION – A groanworthy (hence excellent) homophone, [pronounced]. | |
| 36 | Restore evejar tune for broadcasting (10) |
| REJUVENATE – ( evejar tune )* [broadcasting]. Evejar? Never heard of it. A word for ‘nightjar’, the dictionary tells me. You can hear its odd tune here. | |
| 40 | Drink a large quantity stored in passage at the end (5,4) |
| CREAM SODA – REAMS (a large quantity) in CODA (passage at the end). | |
| 41 | Film editor’s technique annoyed hack (8) |
| CROSSCUT – CROSS (annoyed) CUT (hack). | |
| 42 | Professional person exploited without key official record (8) |
| PROTOCOL – PRO (professional) TOOL (person exploited) outside C (musical key). I didn’t know that meaning of the word. | |
| 44 | Piece from worker, good one (7) |
| HANDGUN – HAND (worker) G (good) ‘UN (one). | |
| 46 | Gradually going through old sitcom being remade? (7) |
| OSMOTIC – O (old) ( sitcom )* [being made]. | |
| 48 | Liquid remains unused for three long days finally (5) |
| DREGS – UnuseD foR threE lonG dayS [finally]. | |
| 50 | Perhaps spots rook on tree (4) |
| RASH – R (rook in chess notation) ASH (tree). | |
NHO SLAM DANCE, DNK TRYPSIN, POBLANO. I didn’t care much for ‘master’ cluing MAESTRO, or ‘pronounced inner tension’ cluing INATTENTION. All in all I didn’t care much for the puzzle.
I never time Jumbos but I noted I completed this in one session which suggests to me I found it easy. Like our blogger I noted that there were two words unknown to me and wrote on my printout that they were ‘gettable from wordplay’. They were POBLANO and TRYPSIN. I enjoyed the dodgy homophone of INATTENTION.
54:06. Wow, a new PB, so it must have been an easy one, although it still felt tricky in places. I noted many of the same things as Johninterred in the blog.
DNK POBLANO so I relied on the crossers and wordplay, despite feeling uneasy about pooh without its H. I don’t think I knew TRYPSIN either, but the wordplay was kind and the result had the right look about it. I liked FORTUNE TELLING and ENRAGED (starting with the often-married king at heart). At 33dn, losing every S to reveal CIRCULATORY was very clever. But COD to AIRBRUSH for Brief Encounter cluing BRUSH.
In 44dn HANDGUN there is a second recent appearance of un for one. A good ‘un. The first one was the first time ever for me, and for others I think. I recall someone saying they hoped it wouldn’t catch on. They will be disappointed
Enjoyed this one, a steady solve with a hitch or two as already mentioned; trypsin, poblano both nho.
I don’t like ‘un = one much; but un = one in French, so I will settle for being a polyglot instead ..
I found this pretty straightforward, done in just over 15 minutes. NHO POBLANO but TRYPSIN rang a vague bell.
Never done a jumbo in 15 minutes… don’t you get writer’s cramp or something?!
I solve online so the problem if I had one would be RSI! I expect I would be slower if I solved on paper.
Wow! Impressive time. That’s like 3 x 5 minute 15x15s in a row! I don’t think I can get through reading and trying all the clues once in that time.
This jumbo has 60 clues, which is about double a normal 15×15, so it’s not quite that quick! I’m frequently under 20 minutes but rarely under 15.
I’m not sure why I thought there were 90 clues… although it feels like it when writing the blog! But still.. 2 x 7 1/2 minutes per 30 clues is pretty impressive.
I also think that jumbo clues are on average a bit easier, just because longer (particularly multi-word) answers tend to be a bit easier to spot.
There’s 23 x 23 = 529 squares in a jumbo, which is well over twice what’s in a regular 15 x 15. And with the longer clues we’re not so likely to have seen them in a previous crossword – so they’ll only be easier if we’ve actually encountered them irl
My own statistics show that in the last year I’ve solved 361 15x15s, at an average of 15:58, compared to 59 jumbos at an average of 39:40
Not to mention the higher likelihood of an error in a larger puzzle
Jumbos are definitely harder
Yes you may be right. I don’t know what my average is but my fastest jumbo solves (about 15 minutes) are three times as long as my fastest 15×15 solves (about 5 minutes).
My thinking about the Jumbo – which is my favourite crossword – is that it’s so big there’s always a ‘way in’ somewhere !