This entertaining Jumbo is the work of our Crossword Editor, Richard Rogan. If he hadn’t told me it was his (see here) I think I might have guessed from the characteristic style. A little trickier than your usual Jumbo, it took me, I think, about an hour. An abundance of wry definitions and clever wordplay, I had plenty of approving ticks on my paper copy, and several question marks (e.g. 42D) where I had to go back and work out the parsing. Favourites include the definition “putting one’s own away” at 13A, the surfaces for 16A and 17A, the sneaky definition at 52A, 24D, the clever 25D, the “establishment of relations” at 29D, the “good penalty” at 40D, the “cheeky” surface of 48D and, my favourite, 24D. Just my cup of tea. Thank-you Richard! How did you all get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Good to stay in after hours, far from fully fit (9) |
| HABITABLE – H (hours) A BIT ABLE (far from fully fit). | |
| 6 | New business set shoppers back (5-2) |
| START-UP – PUT (set) RATS (shoppers; informers) all reversed -> START UP. | |
| 10 | Not the sole hiker? (5) |
| UPPER – Double definition, both cryptic hints -the first being part of a shoe and the second someone who raises the price. | |
| 13 | Putting one’s own away in jail: note one sounding furious! (13) |
| CANNIBALISTIC – CAN (jail) N (note) I (one) BALISTIC [sounding] BALLISTIC (furious). | |
| 14 | Shocking, say, Number Ten confronting America (9) |
| EGREGIOUS – E.G. (say) REG (number; car registration number) IO (looks like 10; ten) US (America). | |
| 15 | Missile on singular curved trajectory that can wound (7) |
| SARCASM – S (singular) ARC (curved trajectory) ASM (Air-to-Surface Missile). | |
| 16 | Pitch needs grass, stupid! (7) |
| TOSSPOT – TOSS (pitch) POT (grass; marijuana). | |
| 17 | Husband gets passionate in suspenders (7) |
| HANGERS – H (husband) ANGERS (gets passionate). Entertaining surface. | |
| 18 | Civil engineering tip for grateful new aldermen (4-8) |
| WELL-MANNERED – ([tip for]{gratefu}l new alderman)*[engineering]. | |
| 20 | Victorian wedding party take trips across river (7,3) |
| KITCHEN TEA – (take)* [trips] outside ITCHEN (river in Hampshire). A Kitchen Tea party is an Australian (hence Victorian) type of bridal shower where the presents are things for the kitchen. | |
| 23 | Keep hold of fish, previously caught (5) |
| CLING – C (caught) LING (fish). Often appearing in crosswords, read about the fish here. | |
| 24 | Stop-go skill at hockey? (9) |
| STICKWORK –STICK (stop) WORK (go; be in working order). | |
| 25 | Wise using force mostly to contain it (7) |
| POLITIC – POLIC{e} (force) [mostly] containing IT. | |
| 26 | Concierge to hand old-fashioned empty pot back (5-6) |
| NIGHT-PORTER – NIGH (to hand), RETRO (old fashioned) P{o}T [empty] all [back] -> T PORTER. | |
| 28 | Argument and fights after pressure to provide viewing accessories (3-3,5) |
| SET-TOP BOXES – SET-TO (argument) P (pressure) BOXES (fights). | |
| 30 | Add contrary alternative, as one does summing up? (3,3,5) |
| DOT AND CARRY – (Add contrary)* [alternative]. I don’t remember having to use a dot when carrying. | |
| 32 | Alarmist medic, no good, entering second profession (11) |
| SCAREMONGER – MO (medic) NG (no good) in S (second) CAREER (profession). | |
| 34 | Film going into personal record on food intake (7) |
| DIETARY – ET (film) in DIARY (personal record). | |
| 36 | Make too much of old potato served in relish? (9) |
| OVERVALUE – O (old), ALU (also spelt aloo; potato) in VERVE (relish). | |
| 38 | Where to stay in Brighton after golf? (5) |
| HOTEL – Stands for H, the letter after G (golf) in the NATO phonetic alphabet. |
|
| 39 | Fetching parent of 27 for Children’s Corporation (5,5) |
| YUMMY MUMMY -Rhymes (27D) for TUMMY (children’s name for stomach; corporation). | |
| 41 | Appearing too smart repeatedly, not exactly what’s needed for purchase (6-6) |
| CLEVER-CLEVER – C (circa; not exactly) LEVER (what’s needed for purchase) [repeatedly]. | |
| 45 | Lots of courses teaching religion, history and science just starting (7) |
| REPASTS – RE (religious education; teaching religion) PAST (history) S{cience} [just starting] – the courses not all being in the one meal. | |
| 46 | Record returns, having subject to steal from (7) |
| PLUNDER – LP (record) [returns] -> PL, UNDER (subject to). | |
| 47 | Preferred source of learning: a thing to be cultivated (7) |
| PETUNIA – PET (preferred) UNI (source of learning) A. | |
| 49 | Substandard work of setter, maybe, young and new, crossing line (4,5) |
| PULP NOVEL – PUP (young setter dog) NOVEL (new), about L (line). | |
| 50 | Pigment transformed a unit with time (8,5) |
| TITANIUM WHITE – (a unit with time)* [transformed]. | |
| 52 | Fine blossom, eg azalea, pruned (5) |
| OMEGA – Hidden in blossOM EG Azalea. I puzzled over the definition for some time before I realised it was the musical direction fine meaning end…. and OMEGA is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Very cunning. | |
| 53 | Whiskey you had, days earlier, with not a drop to be seen! (3-4) |
| DRY-EYED –D (days) RYE (American whiskey) YE’D (you had). | |
| 54 | Men hiding in tree: one had a flower (3,6) |
| BEE ORCHID – OR (other ranks; men) in BEECH (tree) I’D (one had). I’ve seen quite a few of these pretty flowers recently. We even had one appear in our garden! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Put up with dated tool (7) |
| HACKSAW – HACK (put up with, as in hack it) SAW (dated; was in a liaison). | |
| 2 | Rely on drunk for financing (11) |
| BANKROLLING –BANK (rely) ROLLING (drunk). | |
| 3 | New leaves elevated a huge area of forest (5) |
| TAIGA – A GIA{n}T (huge) without the N [new leaves], all [elevated] -> TAIGA. Tricky wordplay. | |
| 4 | Aussie famous for being in Republican villain’s clothing (7) |
| BRADMAN – R (Republican) in BAD MAN (villain). | |
| 5 | Every now and then, dialled up priest (3) |
| ELI – Alternate letters [every now and then] of dIaLlEd, [up] -> ELI. | |
| 6 | Sort of sailor cap drunk’s put on (2,2,5) |
| SO TO SPEAK – SOT (drunk) OS (Ordinary Seaman; sailor) PEAK (cap). | |
| 7 | Face up to what’s to be done about fungus (6) |
| ACCEPT – ACT (what’s to be done) about CEP (fungus). | |
| 8 | People are carefully considering including small piece of commentary (4,5,3,3,4) |
| THEY THINK ITS ALL OVER – THEY THINK IT ALL OVER (people are carefully considering) including S (small). The famous bit of commentary from the 1966 World Cup final. Followed by “It is now”. | |
| 9 | Unusually chirpy winner at the end, describing expensive victory? (7) |
| PYRRHIC – (chirpy {winne{r})* [unusually]. | |
| 10 | Lubricant heartlessly applied to fish is not refined (9) |
| UNGENTEEL – UNG{u}ENT (lubricant) [heartlessly] EEL (fish). | |
| 11 | Levy for ownership of image consultancy ruined Tory expat (8,3) |
| PROPERTY TAX – PR (image consultancy) [ruined] (Tory expat)*. | |
| 12 | Teacher turning up on our side for a laugh (5) |
| RISUS – SIR (teacher) [turning up] -> RIS, US (our side). | |
| 16 | Fictional biography adapted poorly to life’s rhythm (3,7,2,2,5) |
| THE HISTORY OF MR POLLY – (poorly to life’s rhythm)* [adapted]. This novel by H G Wells. I’m not sure how I knew of it. I didn’t know who it was by and I haven’t read it. | |
| 19 | Huge weight other than a stone may be lifted (7) |
| MEGATON – NOT (other than) A GEM (stone) [lifted]. | |
| 21 | Inherited revolutionary skills in javelin, cycling (9) |
| ANCESTRAL – ARTS (skills) [revolutionary] -> STRA, in LANCE (javelin) [cycling] -> ANCEL. | |
| 22 | Going places? Yes, heading off for launches (6) |
| LOOSES – LOOS (going places), {y}ES [heading off]. | |
| 23 | Nothing to stop rascal taking a year’s holiday abroad (6,3) |
| CANADA DAY – NADA (nothing) in CAD (rascal), A Y (year). | |
| 24 | “Like a slow dance?” — timid second officer’s opening (7) |
| SMOOCHY – SHY (timid) outside MO (second) OC (Officer-in-Command; officer). | |
| 25 | After weathering the op, Reg has left hospital ward (7) |
| PROTEGE – (t{h}e op Reg)* [after weathering] without the H (hospital) [has left]. Crikey! Did you just biff this? Full marks if you managed to parse it! | |
| 27 | Some verse of Frost’s recited (6) |
| RHYMES – Sounds like RIME’S (frost’s). | |
| 29 | Establishment of relations with family member, not quite 50 (7) |
| BROTHEL – BROTHE{r} (family member) [not quite] L (fifty). Cheeky definition. I love it! | |
| 31 | Pass battle scene where Pole tangled with the army (11) |
| THERMOPYLAE – (pole the army)* [tangled with]. | |
| 33 | Fool, moreover joker, hard to take revenge on (3,4,4) |
| GET EVEN WITH – GET (fool) EVEN (moreover) WIT (joker) H (hard). | |
| 35 | State of old pit, alight and cracking up (9) |
| ABYSSINIA – ABYSS (pit) IN (alight; the fire is ‘in’), AI (cracking) [up] ->IA. | |
| 37 | Confirmed boxer’s wearing very old hat (9) |
| VALIDATED – ALI (Muhammed Ali; boxer) in V (very) DATED (old). | |
| 40 | At risk of retribution? What might a good penalty be? (7) |
| UNSAVED – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 42 | Be bursting with joy, close to you for a second (7) |
| RUPTURE – R{a}PTURE (joy) replacing the second letter A with [close to ] yoU. More trickery in the wordplay. | |
| 43 | Bring up object causing impact on the way? (4-3) |
| REAR-END – REAR (bring up) END (object). | |
| 44 | In a month’s time, Society coming up with reason (6) |
| JUSTLY – JULY (month), with T (time) S (society) [coming up] inside. | |
| 45 | Note someone paid for copy (5) |
| REPRO – RE (note after do and before mi) PRO (someone paid). | |
| 48 | Rear displayed by drag performer? (5) |
| TOWER – Double definition the second a cryptic hint. Tower as in loom over. Cheeky surface! (Did you see what I did there?) | |
| 51 | Meat roll is revolting (3) |
| NUB – BUN (roll) reversed, [revolting], -> BUN. | |
About an hour too; somehow all correct, which I have mixed feelings about – the previous run of jumbos I solved much quicker, but each had a typo. I wish our esteemed setter would review the way his website awards scores. Jesus.
I was hungover and did not enjoy all the 41a cluing as much as I would normally. And then weird answers like kitchen tea, they think…, and the HG Wells. Christ.
38a H also appears after the G in BriGHton
Aha! BriGHton. So it is. Thanks. Will update blog. I knew I’d missed something.
Isn’t BRADMAN an Aussie famous for being in?
Yes. I missed underlining the whole definition. Updated. Thanks.
Mind you, I didn’t know Bradman; had to look him up. Now I know two cricketers’ names.
DNF
And no wonder, with NHOs like KITCHEN TEA (also NHO ITCHEN), THEY THINK IT’S ALL OVER, STICKWORK. Biffed TAIGA, never parsed. I knew Wells’s book because it was in my childhood home; never thought to read it, but the title stayed in memory. I liked BROTHEL.
I noted this as being very hard as I was left with several clues unparsed or with definitions missed. I also found this morning that I had one answer wrong, RAPTURE instead of RUPTURE, where I had missed that a substitution was involved. The ‘fine / OMEGA’ thing (also missed by me) seems somewhat obscure, so well done John for spotting it.
I found this a hard one throughout. All done in just over two-and-a-half hours but with a typo (just too clevyr-clever).
NHO KITCHEN TEA as a wedding party and constructed it by starting in completely the wrong place. I assumed it had to have stag or hen in it. Putting HEN after the C crosser made the first word look like KITCHEN. This revealed the River Itchen, plus the K suggesting the anagram of “take”. Ta-da!
DNK RISUS, or ALU as an alternative spelling of aloo. I liked UPPER and SET-TOP BOXES
My comments at the time – ‘hard, inventive and varied cluing, enjoyable’. Thanks as ever.
This one took me three sittings at least but I really liked it.
I suspected RR as the setter – I praised the puzzle and made a facetious comment on Twitter a couple of days ago to say that Betfair had him at 3/1 as the setter! https://twitter.com/MichaelEllJay/status/1676908861419139076
There’s something distinctive about his love of pushing a definition to its limits.