This was the bonus May Bank Holiday Monday Jumbo. A pleasant solve and on the easier side, but, as usual, there were a couple of unknowns I had to check – in this case the unfinished Mozart opera and the plant species. There are also a couple of spicy bits (e.g. 1A, 29A, 45A and 28D) to add a bit of piquancy. In all it took me 36:55. Thank-you kind setter.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Realised what could be said of Scotland — but not home town (11) |
| CAPITALISED – Very devious. Scotland has a capital letter but home town doesn’t. Well that’s what I had originally, but Augustus commented… “I think 1 Across is possibly still more devious than the explanation above. I understood ‘what could be said of Scotland’ as CAPITAL IS EDINBURGH with IN BURGH (=’home town’) removed!”. Super clue! | |
| 7 | Doing fair by niece, one who will gain from will? (11) |
| BENEFICIARY – [Doing] (fair by niece)*. | |
| 13 | Check uranium found in part of mine (5) |
| AUDIT – U (Uranium) in ADIT (part of mine). ADIT (an opening or entrance into a mine) is a word I’ve only ever seen in crosswords. How about you? | |
| 14 | Persistent white tern always is around (7) |
| ETERNAL – Hidden in whitE TERN ALways. | |
| 15 | Boy I trick, say, over ending a race (9) |
| GENOCIDAL – LAD (boy) I CON (trick) E.G. (say) all reversed -> GENOCIDAL. | |
| 16 | Away without money and not inclined to drink (9) |
| ABSTINENT – TIN (money) in ABSENT (away). | |
| 17 | Disillusioned with meter debit out of control (10) |
| EMBITTERED – (meter debit)* [out of control]…. featuring a new anagrind on me. | |
| 20 | Invention of a cold snack (4,3) |
| PORK PIE – Double definition, the first as in Cockney Rhyming Slang for LIE (invention). | |
| 22 | American specialised soldier regularly leads (7) |
| MAJORED – MAJOR (soldier) and alternate letters of, [regularly], lEaDs. | |
| 24 | Ineffective medicine‘s rank smell (7) |
| PLACEBO – PLACE (rank) BO (Body Odour; smell). Commonly used in drug trials to compare with the drug being tested. | |
| 25 | Assess girl with stringed instrument keeping in key (8) |
| EVALUATE – EVA (girl), A (key) in LUTE (stringed instrument). | |
| 26 | Feat of splashing cash with compliment (14) |
| ACCOMPLISHMENT – Oh no! I had a typo here on transcribing my answers online with “II” instead of “LI”. Grrr! (cash compliment)* [splashing]. | |
| 28 | Old piece of key found in Tube (5) |
| DUCAT – Our key is, once more, A. This time in DUCT (tube). Piece as in coin. | |
| 29 | Did revolt spread beyond port? (6) |
| RIOTED – RIO (…de Janeiro; port) TED (spread grass for drying). That meaning of TED? No. Me neither. | |
| 30 | Toothpaste certified prepared without nitrogen (10) |
| DENTIFRICE – N (nitrogen) in (certified)* [prepared]. | |
| 33 | I’m pleased nice hero is pious (5-5) |
| GOODY-GOODY – GOODY (I’m pleased) GOODY (nice hero). | |
| 35 | At first believe old butcher’s lamb tender (2-4) |
| BO-PEEP – Initial letters of Believe Old, PEEP (butcher’s; CRS butcher’s hook – look). | |
| 37 | Visitor from east sheltering in wind (5) |
| GUEST – E (east) in GUST (wind). | |
| 39 | Where location of Portsmouth harbour entrance is irrelevant (6,3,5) |
| BESIDE THE POINT – Double definition. | |
| 41 | Diatribe‘s answer resounded in tone (8) |
| HARANGUE – A (answer) RANG (resounded) in HUE (tone). | |
| 44 | One dug out new underground room (7) |
| DUNGEON – (One dug)* [out]. N (new). | |
| 45 | Movement that’s annoyed feral cat taking time out (7) |
| FLOUNCE – A little tricky, this one… Take the ERA (time) out of F{era}L, OUNCE (cat). | |
| 46 | Wide area of plant endlessly filling river (7) |
| EXPANSE – PANS{y} (plant) without its last letter in EXE (river in Devon). | |
| 47 | Banning or backing me visiting pubs? (10) |
| EMBARGOING – Reverse ME -> EM, and a whimsical BAR GOING (visiting pubs). | |
| 49 | I am receiving treatment for itching (9) |
| IMPATIENT – I’M (I am) PATIENT ((one) receiving treatment). |
|
| 53 | Conductor‘s to study in Italy initially (9) |
| TOSCANINI – TO SCAN (study) IN Italy [initially]. I’m a little surprised to see this conductor in a crossword as he died in 1957, but I guess his name is still known. | |
| 54 | Country road Tim found in car with never an end (7) |
| CROATIA – ROA{d} TI{m} in CA{r}, all without their last letters. | |
| 55 | Without protection Zunis and Utes stick together (5) |
| UNITE – Remove the outside letters, [without protection], of {z}UNI{s} and {u}TE{s}. Fortunately you don’t need to know anything about the Zuni or Ute people to solve the clue. | |
| 56 | Harmonises decorations in a make-over (11) |
| COORDINATES – (decorations)* [in a make over]. | |
| 57 | Business listing has unnerved hotel workers (6,5) |
| YELLOW PAGES – YELLOW (cowardly; unnerved) PAGES (hotel workers). Do hotels still have page boys? | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fruit nipper peeled, marked with spots (4,5) |
| CRAB APPLE – CRAB (nipper), {d}APPLE{d} (marked with spots) [peeled]. | |
| 2 | What gets one over uninspiring Atlantic voyage? (10,8) |
| PEDESTRIAN CROSSING – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 3 | Time two notes to be played together (5) |
| TUTTI – T (time) UT TI (two notes). | |
| 4 | Polygraph machine — electrode’s involved with it (3,8) |
| LIE DETECTOR – (electrode it)* [involved] | |
| 5 | It seemed about the season to plant corn? (8) |
| SEEDTIME -(It seemed)* [about]. | |
| 6 | Coat put on essential lifting device taking little energy and time (6,6) |
| DONKEY JACKET – DON (put on) KEY (essential) JACK (lifting device) E (little energy) T (time). | |
| 7 | Hungarian composer‘s band accepting a piece of music very well (4,6) |
| BELA BARTOK – A BAR (a piece of music) in BELT (band), OK (very well). | |
| 8 | What’s black chess piece (not king) (5) |
| NIGHT – {k}NIGHT (chess piece) without the K (king). | |
| 9 | Handle issue in characteristic style (11) |
| FINGERPRINT – FINGER (handle) PRINT (issue, say, a magazine). | |
| 10 | Track events repeated regularly and aptly hard (5,4) |
| CYCLE PATH – CYCLE (events repeated regularly) PAT (aptly) H (hard). | |
| 11 | Assistant dropping unknown from lead of Mozart opera (4) |
| AIDE – {z}AIDE (Mozart Opera) without the leading Z. I’d never heard of the opera, but I see he never completed it, so that’s maybe why. Well that’s my excuse, anyway. | |
| 12 | I agree about large dog’s cry of pain (4) |
| YELP – YEP (I agree) about L (large). | |
| 18 | Enticing green genie to work life-altering change (7,11) |
| GENETIC ENGINEERING – (Enticing green genie)* [to work]. | |
| 19 | Most noble of connections garnered by elite regularly (8) |
| LOFTIEST – OF TIES (connections) in alternate letters of eLiTe. | |
| 21 | Birds in City of London street (7) |
| POULTRY -Double definition. No 1 Poultry is a famous postmodern building. | |
| 23 | Exhausted and wiped out, broken by pressure (8) |
| DEPLETED – P (pressure) in DELETED (wiped out). | |
| 27 | Good ancient arable land fine for valuable cover (4,4) |
| GOLD LEAF – G (good) OLD (ancient) LEA (arable land) F (fine). | |
| 28 | One who works hard to reveal remains of cairn? (8) |
| DOGSBODY – The remains of a dead cairn terrier would be a DOG’S BODY. | |
| 31 | What helps one see travelling dandy going round well-dressed (3,4) |
| FOG LAMP – FOP (dandy) around GLAM (well-dressed). | |
| 32 | Reportedly lamenting parrot eating grand Ipomoea (7,5) |
| MORNING GLORY – G (grand) in MORNING sounds like MOURNING (lamenting), LORY (parrot). I’d never heard of the plant species so looked it up. | |
| 34 | Show Belgian port’s terminus perhaps exporting diamonds and sulphur (11) |
| OSTENTATION – OSTEN{d} {s}TATION (Belgian port’s terminus) | |
| 36 | Instrument‘s power level is over quiet (6,5) |
| PLAYER PIANO – P (power) LAYER (level) PIANO (quiet). A bit of a meh surface even if you put a hyphen between over and quiet (which would be, I think, a bit unfair on the solver but might appear in crosswords in other publications). | |
| 38 | Obtained work that is having reduced tax and lose it (2,2,6) |
| GO TO PIECES – GOT (obtained) OP (opus; work) I.E. (that is) CES{s} (tax) [reduced]. Cess has come up a few times before but I’ve only looked it up now to see what sort of tax it is. See here. | |
| 40 | Man Dr Dale treated for state of unconsciousness (9) |
| DREAMLAND – (Man Dr Dale)* [treated]. | |
| 42 | Chosen Republican regularly teases voter (9) |
| ELECTRESS –ELECT (chosen) R (Republican) and alternate letters of tEaSeS. | |
| 43 | Hand in money in Brazil for pardoning (8) |
| REMITTAL – MITT (hand) in REAL (Brazilian currency). | |
| 48 | Ground corn‘s right stuffed into marrow (5) |
| GRIST – R (right) in GIST (marrow). I didn’t know marrow could mean “The inner meaning or purpose“. | |
| 50 | Trick’s beginning with bottom card of winning suit (5) |
| TRUMP – First letter of Trick, RUMP (bottom). | |
| 51 | Somewhat exotically having a shell-like nature? (4) |
| OTIC – Hidden in exOTICally. Shell-like… ho ho. | |
| 52 | Very large centre in Toulouse city (4) |
| OSLO – OS (over-size; very large) and the middle letters of TouLOuse. | |
I’d left this half-finished and only remembered it when I came here, so I rushed to finish over lunch. Failed to get PORK PIE (didn’t think of that invention) and POULTRY (NHO the building). I had a ? at AIDA, never having heard of Zaide. I don’t see a problem with IMPATIENT: I am receiving treatment=I’m [a] patient, itching=IMPATIENT. I would think TOSCANINI is still well-known, or should be; and he’s shown up here a number of times.
Reading it aloud I think you are right about I’M PATIENT not needing “one” in “I am receiving treatment”. Thanks.
Just the Jumbo puzzle for a Bank Holiday Monday after the ordeal of Saturday’s. My only query was the Mozart opera which as a former student and teacher of music I am amazed has managed to escape my attention all these years. Perhaps as he evidently abandoned it unfinished some 11 years before his death he didn’t think much of it himself.
I think 1 Across is possibly still more devious than the explanation above. I understood ‘what could be said of Scotland’ as CAPITAL IS EDINBURGH with IN BURGH (=’home town’) removed!
I think this is a more satisfying parsing (although I never arrived at either!)
I didn’t record a time for this, done in bits and pieces. Steady solving until left with a couple. Had no idea about 21d since NHO of the “famous modernist building”. Oops. And NHO of PLAYER PIANO at 36d. And 3d baffles me, two notes UT & TI? Are we talking music? Thanks, all.
Yes the notes are musical. UT is the old name for DOH, the first note of the scale, and TI is the seventh. As for Player Piano, Wikipedia says “A player piano, also known as a pianola, is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home pianos increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sales peaked in 1924 and subsequently declined with improvements in electrical phonograph recordings in the mid-1920s.“
Ah, I see. I’d figured TI maybe but I’ve never heard of UT for DOH. Will try to remember since it’s bound to crop up again somewhere sometime! Thanks.
Pleasant middle-of-the road sort of puzzle. I posited the existence of the opera but I confess I checked before submitting.
Can someone explain to me how ‘realised’ means CAPITALISED?
I did wonder that myself but, from Chambers…
Realise-
7 To convert into real property or money, esp to convert (an asset) into cash by selling
Capitalise –
2 To convert into capital or money
…looks good enough to me.
Actually OED (I only checked Collins) also has ‘to compute or realize the present value of such a payment for a definite or indefinite length of time’. I have absolutely no idea what that means but it gets the setter off the hook!
That 1a is a great clue, too good for me.
That meaning of TED in RIOTED bemused me as well.
UT = Do, DOH! I’ve never liked those notes that keep coming up in crosswords, and haven’t been used by serious musicians, or even children learning to sing, in decades. The fact that there are not just alternative spellings TE/TI but whole new ones makes it worse.
Couldn’t figure out AIDA, now I see that it was wrong.