Another luxury Jumbo for a second week in a row – a class above the ordinary with more richly flavoured wordplay and entertaining surfaces in places, but still not too difficult. A couple of MERs at a dodgy definition and some clunky surfaces didn’t spoil the fun. It took me just over 42 minutes. Held up at the end by SLOI RELISH and a couple, SMOOTH OVER and IN THE CLEAR, were parsed only afterwards. 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 | Civic dignitary heads off skinhead from Berlin? (8) |
| ALDERMAN – Lose the first letters, [heads of], {b}ALD (skinhead) {g}ERMAN (from Berlin). Nice one to start. | |
| 5 | Toy found in swag we got back (6) |
| GEWGAW – Reverse hidden in sWAG WEGot. | |
| 9 | Tabled item is linked to western corporation in outskirts of Bath (7) |
| BISMUTH – IS, TUM (corporation) reversed [to western] -> MUT in outside letters [outskirts] of BatH. Cunning definition for an element in the periodic table. | |
| 14 | Habitual criminal on trial pinches passage from mine (11) |
| TRADITIONAL – ADIT (passage from mine) in [criminal] (on trial)*. | |
| 15 | Quarrel about stopping change (11) |
| ALTERCATION – C (circa; about) in, [stopping], ALTERATION [change]. | |
| 16 | Means of transport briskly withdrawn (5) |
| TRAMS – SMART (briskly) reversed, [withdrawn], -> TRAMS. Hmm. MER at this as SMART is an adjective and the answer to be reversed should be the adverb SMARTLY to match “briskly”. | |
| 17 | Persecute, but not round Red Square (7) |
| HUNDRED – Nice misdirection. You have to separate Red Square… H{o}UND (persecute) without the round letter, o, [not round], RED to get ten squared. | |
| 18 | Vehicle puts cattleman on network (4,5) |
| LAND ROVER – LAN (local area network) DROVER (cattleman). | |
| 19 | Church primate wants gold hat (7) |
| CHAPEAU – CH (church) APE (primate) AU (atomic symbol for gold). | |
| 20 | Remote UK area had stillness and storms (8,7) |
| SHETLAND ISLANDS – (had stillness and)* [storms]. | |
| 22 | Ease debate when pressed by pushy person (6,4) |
| SMOOTH OVER – MOOT (debate) in SHOVER (pushy person). This one was only parsed afterwards with a lot of head-scratching. | |
| 23 | Confess little nonentity will shrug off defeat (6) |
| SQUEAK – {pip}SQUEAK (little nonentity) without the PIP (defeat). | |
| 25 | Husband staying inside can slim (4) |
| THIN – H (husband) in TIN (can). | |
| 28 | One capable of putting away foil? (5-9) |
| SWORD-SWALLOWER – Cryptic definition – a foil being a type of sword with a button on the end used for fencing. | |
| 30 | Tart regularly scoffed by individual in pain — port required (8) |
| MONTREAL -A double inclusion… Alternate letters of TaRt in ONE (individual) in MAL (pain). MER at the rather clunky surface. | |
| 32 | Stock phrases nailed by boxer, last to leave Mediterranean seaport (8) |
| ALICANTE – CANT (stock phrase) in ALI (Muhammed Ali; boxer) and last letter of leavE. | |
| 34 | Obscure documentaries about Nuremberg ultimately causing despair (14) |
| DISCOURAGEMENT – Last letter of NuremburG [ultimately] in [obscure] (documentaries)*. | |
| 37 | Fish, millions the same (4) |
| IDEM – IDE (fish) M (millions). | |
| 38 | Enjoy Orwell periodically, to some extent (6) |
| RELISH -Alternate letters of oRwElL [periodically], –ISH (to some extent). I needed a wordfind to get this. | |
| 39 | Out of danger, sailors avoiding drink completely (2,3,5) |
| IN THE CLEAR – {abs}INTHE (drink) without the sailors (ABs), CLEAR (completely). It was tricky to find the drink to complete the parsing. | |
| 43 | Snubbed gogo dancer opens a drunken event (3-3-5,4) |
| EGG-AND-SPOON RACE – (gog{o} dancer opens a)* [drunken], with gogo losing the last letter, [snubbed]. Entertaining surface, and you have to separate “drunken event”. Nice one. | |
| 45 | Bad US city anything old inhabits (7) |
| NAUGHTY – AUGHT (anything) in NY (US city). | |
| 47 | They’re expected to resolve bitter-sweet discrimination (5,4) |
| TASTE BUDS – Cryptic definition. | |
| 49 | Gentleman recoiling too much over dish (7) |
| RISOTTO – SIR (Gentleman) reversed, [recoiling], -> RIS, OTT (over the top; too much) O (over). | |
| 51 | Single covered by right backing singer (5) |
| TENOR – ONE (single) in RT (right) all reversed, [backing] -> TENOR. | |
| 52 | Cold muse dons slips for horny old sort (11) |
| TRICERATOPS – C (cold) ERATO (muse) in TRIPS (slips). | |
| 53 | Instability due to failure of final cutout (11) |
| FLUCTUATION – [failure of] (final cutout)*. | |
| 54 | Instrument possesses clear semicircular panel (7) |
| LUNETTE – NET (clear) in LUTE (instrument). | |
| 55 | Quiver, losing heart in lofty range (6) |
| TREBLE – TRE{m}BLE (quiver) without its middle letter. The male voice with the highest range. | |
| 56 | My sentimentality beginning to disgust head (8) |
| GOODNESS – GOO (sentimentality), first letter of Disgust, NESS (headland; head). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Moving account in which singular French director is involved (7) |
| ASTATIC – S (singular) TATI (Jacques Tati; French film director) in A/C (account). | |
| 2 | Brown bread made of 50% oats kneaded with added soda (4,2,1,4) |
| DEAD AS A DODO – (oa{ts} added soda)* [kneaded]. Rather inventive! we lost the TS from OATS , keeping the first 50% in the anagrist. The definition is CRS for dead, and “dead as a dodo” is well and truly dead! | |
| 3 | Again examine checks on muscle, not near the mouth (9) |
| REINSPECT – REINS (checks) PECT{oral} (muscle) without the ORAL (near the mouth). Another clever bit of wordplay. | |
| 4 | Perhaps flounder on deck, identifying one not in comfort zone (1,4,3,2,5) |
| A FISH OUT OF WATER – Double definition, the first a cryptic hint. | |
| 6 | Bumper in scrap blown up (8) |
| ENLARGED – LARGE (bumper) in END (remnant; scrap). | |
| 7 | Pompous speech from Kinky Colin, drag queen (14) |
| GRANDILOQUENCE – [kinky] (Colin drag queen)*. An entertaining anagram that made me smile. | |
| 8 | Spoiler not written on Tweet about hosts (3,7) |
| WET BLANKET – BLANK (not written on) in (tweet)* [about]. | |
| 9 | Friend from US holds race on island republic (7) |
| BURUNDI – RUN (race) in BUD (US word for friend), I (island). | |
| 10 | Move across entrance to aisle in part of flight (5) |
| STAIR – First letter of Aisle in STIR (move). | |
| 11 | Lacking originality, college opening should be seen in new vein (11) |
| UNINVENTIVE – UNI (college), VENT (opening) in [new] (vein)*. Another MER here. I’m not sure what the surface reading means. | |
| 12 | Eg Diana’s horse, initially given a Parisian plait (8) |
| HUNTRESS – First letter of Horse, UN (a in French; a Parisian) TRESS (plait). | |
| 13 | Soon clergymen will be defrocked (4) |
| ANON – {c}ANON{s} (clergymen) without the outside letters [defrocked]. Nice one. | |
| 20 | Crossing massive empty lake, fly high (6) |
| SMELLY – SLY (fly) outside outside letters of MassivE [empty] and L (lake). Another neat misdirection – you need to separate “fly high”. | |
| 21 | Song of bird born in shelter (3,2,2) |
| LET IT BE – TIT (bird) B (born) in LEE (shelter). | |
| 22 | Remains in state parade (6) |
| SASHAY – ASH (remains) in SAY (state). | |
| 24 | Be shrewd — work at noting who struggles (4,1,5,2,3) |
| KNOW A THING OR TWO – (work at noting who)* [struggles]. | |
| 26 | Jack for one held up by gang, well spoken in novel (8,6) |
| ROBINSON CRUSOE – ROBINSON (Jack for one; “before you can say Jack Robinson”), CRUSOE sounds like CREW (gang) SO (well) [spoken]. My LOI. | |
| 27 | Lecherous type lowers large coat (6) |
| ULSTER – LUSTER (lecherous type) moving the L (large) down -> ULSTER. | |
| 29 | Empty bottles, for Michelin, from publicity agents (4,3) |
| DEAD MEN – DE (from in French; from for Michelin) ADMEN (publicity agents). It’s along time since I’ve heard that expression for empties. | |
| 31 | Sister embracing leader of African church — it’s subtle (6) |
| NUANCE – First letter of African in NUN (sister), CE (Church of England; church). | |
| 33 | Vogue synopsis, the first to reflect complaint (11) |
| INDIGESTION – IN (vogue) DIGEST (synopsis), NO I (number 1; first) reversed [to reflect] -> ION. | |
| 35 | Huge soccer legend, keeling over, cut hand on sharp point (11) |
| ELEPHANTINE – PELE (soccer legend) reversed, [keeling over], -> ELEP, HAN{d} [cut], TINE (sharp point). Great charade. | |
| 36 | Fox hunting, for example, mostly damned before last of sabs left (5,5) |
| BLOOD SPORT – BLOOD{y} (damned) [mostly], last letter of sabS, PORT (left, on a ship). I don’t know why our setter didn’t use “saboteurs” – I’d NHO the abbreviation, but it was obvious enough. | |
| 40 | Try to obtain cart lifted in enclosed area (9) |
| COURTYARD – COURT (try to obtain), DRAY (cart) [lifted] -> YARD. | |
| 41 | Duck stuffed with beetroot, intermittently dry (8) |
| TEETOTAL – Alternate letters of bEeTrOoT [intermittently], in TEAL (duck). | |
| 42 | Tendon damage, maybe following accordion’s intro, interrupting friend’s musical drama (8) |
| PARSIFAL – RSI (repetitive strain injury; tendon damage, maybe) first letters of Following Accordion, all in PAL (friend). | |
| 44 | Brace taken from salvaged custom banger (7) |
| SAUSAGE – First two letters, [brace taken from] SA{lvaged], USAGE (custom). | |
| 46 | Old lady picked up smallest things in litter, reportedly pants (1-6) |
| Y-FRONTS – Sounds like WIFE (old lady) RUNTS (smallest things in litter). Another laugh out loud clue. | |
| 48 | Permission to leave half-completed test to get lunch, say (5) |
| EXEAT – EX{am} (test) [half completed], EAT (get lunch, say). | |
| 50 | Tough time — squeeze (4) |
| THUG – T (time) HUG (squeeze). | |
DNF
I didn’t get SMELLY or MONTREAL. I took ’empty lake’ to be LE, but there’s no LE in SMELLY; I think it’s ‘m[assiv]e, empty’=ME. (And M isn’t an abbreviation of ‘massive’, so far as I know.)
With MONTREAL, MAL isn’t in ODE or Collins at all, let alone meaning ‘pain’.
Oops. My slip up in compiling the blog. Yes it’s “massive” that’s empty in SMELLY. Blog corrected – thanks. As for MAL, it is in Chambers – “MAL mal /mal/ (French) noun- Pain, sickness” so our setter is OK using that. I only checked there when blogging, and was surprised to see, as you said, that it’s not in ODE or Collins with that meaning.
So a foreign word (not marked as such, as in ‘in French’=en) is OK if it’s in Chambers? The only use of ‘mal’ in English that I can think of is grand/petit mal, which don’t mean ‘pain’.
I found the top half easy but down below was more tricky.
YF seems outrageous as a homophone of ‘wife’ but in the context of the clue it works perfectly and is very amusing.
I think we had MAL as pain quite recently, but if not here it may have been in The Guardian. Anyway I didn’t think twice about it this time.
Yes I was a bit uneasy about that. The structure of the clue kind of requires YF to be a standalone homophone. I decided not to worry about it.
Not difficult, this one, but very enjoyable.
Im confused at PARSIFAL.. where did the F come from?
ah i think ive seen it:
RSI (tendon damage, maybe) FA (Following According’s intro) all inside PAL (friend)
Thanks. My mistake. Blog updated.
Like you, didn’t like 30a Montreal but did enjoy 46d Y-Fronts.