Quite a straightforward Jumbo on the whole this time with just a couple of chewy bits and the usual smattering of unknowns. It took me 36:29, which is just under an average time for me, I think. I’ve never heard of nor read the book at 32A, and didn’t know the words at 33A, 53A, 20D and 22D. COD to the French soup. Thanks setter. How did you all get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Robust compilers are going to do our job (4-3) |
| WELL-SET – WE’LL SET (compilers are going to do our job). Ho ho. | |
| 5 | Mixed drink prior to winning fight (5-2) |
| PUNCH-UP – PUNCH (mixed drink) UP (winning). | |
| 9 | Kelly, in films, gets a lot of credit dealing with make-up (7) |
| GENETIC – GENE (Gene Kelly, the film star) and all but the last letter of TIC{k} (credit). | |
| 13 | Eating around 6, party first in restaurant sent back staff to find water (8,3) |
| DIVINING ROD – VI (six) in DINING (eating), DO (party) and first letter in Restaurant, reversed -> ROD. Nice surface. | |
| 14 | Place for rolls of cash head of bank takes out (11) |
| BREADBASKET – BREAD (cash) first letter of Bank, (takes)* [out]. Not “rolls of cash“, of course. | |
| 15 | Match about to occupy a long time (5) |
| AGREE – RE (about) in AGE (long time). Topical with Wimbledon in progress. It’s a shame they’ve introduced tie-breaks in the deciding set now. The 70-68 final set in this match which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes will never be surpassed. | |
| 16 | Under most stress, and kind of cross before ordeal (7) |
| TAUTEST – TAU (T-shaped kind of cross) TEST (ordeal). | |
| 17 | Embroider an accessory worn by son after little drink (9) |
| DRAMATISE – DRAM (little drink), S (son) in A TIE (an accessory). | |
| 18 | Player who, to resolve a pay dispute, made the issue vanish? (3,4,5,2,7) |
| THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN – Cryptic definition. The rat-catcher who wasn’t paid and stole the children – see here for the full story. | |
| 23 | Periodically scratched, plain carpet is free (8) |
| LIBERATE – Alternate letters of pLaIn, BERATE (carpet). | |
| 25 | Is it wrong to oust leaders in firm? (6) |
| STRONG – {i}S {i}T {w}RONG, without their initial letters. | |
| 27 | Make invalid discern changes (7) |
| RESCIND – (discern)* [changes]. | |
| 30 | Accountants beside old tree (5) |
| CACAO – CA CA (chartered accountant twice; accountants) O (old). The first of 3 usages of the device of a plural in the wordplay translating to the same thing appearing twice in the answer | |
| 32 | From Virginia, book somewhere to stay in Florida (7) |
| ORLANDO – This book by Virginia Woolf. I DNK this, but I remembered there was a book called ORLANDO written by someone. | |
| 33 | The writer’s letter has no information — it may provoke a defensive reaction (9) |
| IMMUNOGEN – I’M (the writer’s) MU (Greek letter) NO GEN (information). A new word for me. | |
| 35 | Doctor loves catching European opera (9) |
| RIGOLETTO – RIG (doctor), LETT (European) in O O (love twice; loves). The second plural X = X X. | |
| 36 | One helping criminal venture featured in 18 letters? (7) |
| ABETTOR – BET (venture) in A TO R (18 letters). | |
| 37 | Punch yobbo roughly to start with (5) |
| CLOUT – C (circa; roughly) LOUT (yobbo). | |
| 38 | Making fast run beset by sound of farm animals (7) |
| MOORING – R (run) in MOOING (sound of farm animals). | |
| 40 | Car in front of Escort, say (6) |
| ESTATE – First letter of Escort STATE (say). Sneaky. It’s easy to think “say” is to indicate “Escort” is a definition by example. | |
| 41 | Somewhere sailors may be, smuggling ecstasy and crack (3-5) |
| ONE-LINER – E (ecstasy) in ON LINER (somewhere sailors may be). | |
| 44 | Child holding new suit strangely ends cartoon film (4,6,3,8) |
| KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS – N (new) in KID (child), HEARTS (suit), (ends cartoon)* [strangely]. | |
| 48 | Feeling less energy after playing hit song (6,3) |
| NUMBER ONE – NUMBER (feeling less) ON (playing) E (energy). | |
| 50 | Fought in ring, asked to absorb pressure (7) |
| OPPOSED – O (circular letter; ring), P (pressure) in POSED (asked a question). | |
| 53 | Targeting property of popular American rock band (2,3) |
| IN REM – IN (popular) REM (American rock band). A legal term I didn’t know “Against a thing or property, used of a proceeding, an enforceable right, etc against all persons or against property, such as the arrest of a ship in the enforcement of a maritime lien“. | |
| 54 | Court winner being successful in attempt (7,4) |
| PASSING SHOT – PASSING (being successful in) SHOT (attempt). | |
| 55 | Vague insinuations heard — they get harder to hear (11) |
| DIMINUENDOS – DIM (vague), INUENDOS sounds like INNUENDOS (insinuations). | |
| 56 | London university splitting gas particle (7) |
| NUCLEON – UCL (University College London; London University) in NEON (gas). | |
| 57 | Arrive earlier than partner, gutted by online assignation? (7) |
| PREDATE – P{artne}R [gutted], E DATE (online assignation, whimsically based on lots of things online being E somethings). | |
| 58 | Flamboyant winger and token supporter of match (4,3) |
| BEST MAN – BEST (George Best; flamboyant winger) MAN (token in e.g. draughts). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | 1980s band welcoming a day in Oxford college (6) |
| WADHAM – A D (day) in WHAM (1980s band). | |
| 2 | Small, fast runner always obstructed by obstacle (7) |
| LEVERET – EVER (always) in LET (obstacle). A young hare. | |
| 3 | Location of websites grasped by visionary poet (9) |
| SONNETEER – ON NET (location of websites) in SEER (visionary). | |
| 4 | Doctrine unaffected by revolution? (5) |
| TENET – A palindrome. | |
| 5 | Coax salesman over petition to limit publicity (8) |
| PERSUADE – REP (salesman) [over] -> PER, AD (publicity) in SUE (petition). | |
| 6 | Jog, say, with horse heading north (5) |
| NUDGE – E.G. (say) DUN (horse) all reversed -> NUDGE. | |
| 7 | Colour lines somewhat regular (7) |
| HABITUÉ – HUE (colour) outside, [lines], A BIT (somewhat). | |
| 8 | Point legal duty out — one may do so in court (5,3,6) |
| PLEAD NOT GUILTY – (Point legal duty)* [out]. | |
| 9 | Rising mist round delta area by the River Don (9) |
| GODFATHER – FOG (mist) [rising] round D -> GODF, A (area) THE R (river). Nice deception in hiding the definition. | |
| 10 | Nearly ignoring nobleman recalling sight seen on safari? (5) |
| NYALA – N{earl}Y without the EARL (nobleman), A LA (like; recalling). Tricky if you didn’t know the antelope, but fortunately I did. | |
| 11 | Swallow vermouth, dishonest over drink? Don’t object (4,2,5,4) |
| TAKE IT LYING DOWN – TAKE (swallow) IT (vermouth) LYING (dishonest) DOWN (drink ,the verb) | |
| 12 | Caught heron hiding head in wooden box with strings (7) |
| CITTERN – C (caught) {b}ITTERN (type of heron) without its first letter. I never new a bittern was a sort of heron. The cittern is a stringed instrument dating from Renaissance times. Not a very flattering definition! | |
| 19 | One books trio playing religious music (7) |
| INTROIT – I (one) NT (books) (trio)* [playing]. | |
| 20 | Official not losing heart after mean answer (9) |
| INTENDANT – INTEND (mean) A (answer) N{o}T without its middle letter. A new word on me. | |
| 21 | Like some lodges with family members in charge (7) |
| MASONIC – MA SON (family members) IC (in charge). | |
| 22 | Return strange material for jewellery (8) |
| ELECTRUM – ELECT (return) RUM (strange). | |
| 24 | What creates atmosphere in stadium: header for Man United saved by defender thus (10,5) |
| BACKGROUND MUSIC – GROUND (stadium), [header for] M{an} U (united), all in BACK (defender) SIC (thus). Clever wordplay and neat surface. | |
| 26 | Solo number coming up — do badly with notes (2,4,3) |
| ON ONES TOD -ON (number) [coming up] -> ON, (do notes)* [badly]. I had an unparsed ON ONES OWN initially, but ESTATE at 40A fixed that. | |
| 28 | Alter tune – dare to get a remix (8) |
| DENATURE – (tune dare)* [get a remix]. | |
| 29 | After a couple of litres, that man’s in public dance in a state (3,4,3,4) |
| ALL OVER THE SHOP – A L L (couple of litres), HE’S (that man’s) in OVERT (public) HOP (dance). I think our setter’s been to IKEA for inspiration. And here’s our third same thing twice in the wordplay. | |
| 31 | Time off work for Otto I, hosting king with great natural resources (3-4) |
| OIL-RICH – R (rex; king) in {t}OIL (work) without the T (time), ICH (German for I; for Otto I) | |
| 34 | Battle knight — try to follow horse (7) |
| MARENGO – MARE (horse) N (knight in chess notation) GO (try). Read about the famous battle here. Napoleon later named his horse after it, which was how come I knew the name. | |
| 39 | Type of rock with gold and jade around Welsh area (9) |
| GLAMORGAN – GLAM (type of rock) OR (gold), NAG (jade) reversed -> GAN. That meaning of nag is Shakespearean. No I didn’t know it already but looked it up when parsing for the blog. | |
| 42 | Large, unnerving character showing caution (9) |
| LEERINESS – L (large) EERINESS (unnerving character). | |
| 43 | Eating tonnes occasionally, like French soup (8) |
| CONSOMMÉ – Alternate letters in tOnNeS in COMME (like in French). The answer is, of course, a French soup. Nice one. | |
| 44 | Maybe one’s bowled over family doctor with case of indigestion (7) |
| KINGPIN – KIN (family) GP (doctor) and outside letters of I{ndigestio}N. | |
| 45 | Job secured by potentially stout supporter (7) |
| APOSTLE – POST (job) in ALE (stout, potentially). | |
| 46 | Bondage deforms elastic (7) |
| SERFDOM – (deforms)* [elastic]. | |
| 47 | Smoke swirling over new elementary particle (1-5) |
| K-MESON – N (new) in (smoke)* [swirling]. Sadly, the surface for this is a bit nonsensical in physical terms. | |
| 49 | English team upset the Spanish one away from home (5) |
| EXILE – E (English) XI (eleven; team), EL (the in Spanish) [upset] -> LE. | |
| 51 | Vow to turn up dressed in secretary’s platforms (5) |
| PODIA – I DO (marriage vow) turned up -> ODI, in PA (secretary). | |
| 52 | Star turn keeping finale of routine up (5) |
| DENEB – Last letter of routinE in BEND (turn) all reversed -> DENEB, the blue supergiant. Read about it here. | |
Lots of DNKs: ELECTRUM, BEST, K-MESON, IN REM, that a bittern was a heron. I liked ‘for Otto I’, and HABITUE.
I thought the PIED PIPER clue was excellent.
DENEB and IN REM were unknown to me but I worked them out.
I wondered about the parsing of HABITUE as to my mind something that lines (a drawer for instance) goes inside rather than outside.
I’m pretty sure we’ve had DENEB before, and I’m sure the question of lining came up, years ago. I think I had parsed something with outside lining, and wiser ones took your, ah, line. Which I do, too; but today didn’t notice anything. ODE sv line 2: cover the INSIDE surface of (a container or garment) with a layer of different material.
Thanks. Yes, DENEBE had turned up two or three times over the years but if the wordplay was easy (as here) I don’t always remember new words.
Correction: I don’t always remember new words.
Not too hard but I thought HAMELIN was spelled HAMELYN. Drat.
12dn is a bit of a mean clue, requiring esoteric knowledge of either birds or ancient musical instruments.