A great Jumbo for the Bank Holiday weekend with some entertaining clues including a super 21 letter anagram. I was a bit slow getting started but the Down clues got me going and I finished in just over 40 minutes, which is just over average for me, I think. Thank-you setter. How did you all like it?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Reptile one Zulu coated in fat (6) |
| LIZARD – I (one) Z (Zulu in the phonetic alphabet) in LARD (fat). | |
| 5 | Charge thieves caught in capital city (7) |
| PHOENIX – Sounds like FEE (charge) NICKS (thieves, the verb). | |
| 9 | Fraud in the writer’s online chatter? (8) |
| IMPOSTER – I’M (the writer’s) POSTER (online chatter, the noun ). | |
| 13 | Such places as mitigate bubbly problem among those striving to escape the drink? (13,8) |
| DECOMPRESSION CHAMBERS – Cryptic definition. To avoid ‘the bends’. | |
| 14 | Bananas packed by French company with a landed estate (8) |
| HACIENDA – CIE (French abbreviation for “company”) in HAND (of bananas) A. | |
| 15 | Green veg all but fresh in dish served cold? (7) |
| REVENGE – (Green ve{g})* [all but], [fresh]. | |
| 16 | Maybe Smiley’s percussion instrument heard (6) |
| SYMBOL – Sounds like CYMBAL (percussion instrument). | |
| 17 | Renovated Sacré-Coeur better accommodated here? (10) |
| RACECOURSE – [Renovated] (Sacré-Coeur)*. | |
| 20 | Virtuosic musician’s note in harmonica playing very loud (12) |
| RACHMANINOFF – N (note) in (harmonica)* [playing], FF (fortissimo; very loud). | |
| 23 | Atahualpa say almost eaten by lion? (4) |
| INCA – IN CA{t} (eaten by a lion) [almost]. | |
| 24 | Wild logo surprisingly an asset in business (8) |
| GOODWILL – (Wild logo)* [surprisingly]. | |
| 26 | Submarine burning uranium makes turn in N Australia (8) |
| NAUTILUS – LIT (burning) U (chemical symbol for Uranium) reversed, [makes turn], -> UTIL, in N AUS (Australia). | |
| 29 | Copper with quality succeeded joining force to gain experience (3,4,5) |
| CUT ONES TEETH – CU (chemical symbol for copper) TONE (quality) S (succeeded) TEETH (force; sufficient power to be effective). That last element seems a bit of a stretch to me. | |
| 30 | Where one finds Port Talbot on maps below (10) |
| UNDERNEATH – Double definition. | |
| 32 | Study centre’s spoken for Stateside development agency (5,5) |
| PEACE CORPS – Sounds like PIECE (study; musical piece) CORE (centre) [spoken for]. | |
| 34 | Principal bank in the main initially set standard (5,3,4) |
| STARS AND BARS – STAR (principal) SANDBAR (bank in the main) [initially] S{et}. Flag of the Confederate States of America. | |
| 36 | Turnover abroad: politician charging each nothing (8) |
| EMPANADA – MP (politician) inside, [charging], EA (each) NADA (nothing). | |
| 38 | Test beer: unknown quantity old crowd drinks (4,4) |
| ORAL EXAM – ALE (beer) X (unknown quantity) in O (old) RAM (crowd into). | |
| 39 | Depot in Enfield incorporates picking-up point (4) |
| TINE – Hidden in DepoT IN Enfield. Point of a fork. | |
| 41 | Bats further along Serpentine Road? (5,3,4) |
| ROUND THE BEND – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 43 | Pressure to come on stage, keeping dull line Bard favoured? (10) |
| PENTAMETER – TAME (dull) in P (pressure) ENTER (come on stage). | |
| 44 | Tailored shirt worn by a goddess (6) |
| ISHTAR – A in [tailored] (shirt)*. The Phoenician goddess of love. | |
| 46 | Owl’s wings gripped by golden brown bunting (7) |
| ORTOLAN – O{w}L [‘s wings] in OR (golden) TAN (brown). | |
| 48 | Clever horse moves long time after groom (8) |
| DRESSAGE – DRESS (groom) AGE (long time). | |
| 50 | In which various countries go on TV — one is finally victorious? (10,4,7) |
| EUROVISION SONG CONTEST – [various] (countries go on TV one is [finally] {victoriou}S)*. Brilliant anagram and semi-&lit. | |
| 51 | Judge again swore as session is absorbing (8) |
| REASSESS – Hidden in swoRE AS SESSion. | |
| 52 | Creator, energy exhausted, introducing Sabbath at last (7) |
| GODHEAD – Last letter of SabbatH in GO (energy, the noun) DEAD (exhausted). | |
| 53 | Fine writing associated with some evocative catalogue (6) |
| LITANY – LIT (literature; fine writing) ANY (some). | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Subcontinental XI after hotel? (5) |
| INDIA – INDIA (Subcontinental cricket team; XI) which comes after Hotel in the phonetic alphabet. | |
| 3 | Key chain? (11) |
| ARCHIPELAGO – Cryptic definition – a chain of islands or keys. | |
| 4 | Something spotted circling island linked to Northern Territory (8) |
| DOMINION – DOMINO (something spotted) outside I (island), N (Northern). | |
| 5 | Old man covering chest in jacket (5) |
| PARKA – ARK (chest, as in ark of the covenant) in PA (old man). | |
| 6 | Alumnus to satisfy witness (7) |
| OBSERVE – OB (Old Boy; alumnus) SERVE (satisfy). | |
| 7 | Polish cop to disappear crossing river (4,7) |
| NAIL VARNISH – NAIL (arrest; cop) and R (river) in VANISH (disappear). | |
| 8 | Gas inside cannon exploding backwards (5) |
| XENON – Reverse hidden [inside … backwards] in caNON EXploding. | |
| 9 | I munch snakes with one serpent’s nemesis? (9) |
| ICHNEUMON – I (munch one)* [snakes]. The Egyptian mongoose. I only knew of the fly of that name. | |
| 10 | Persistently questions politician mired in unpleasant matter (5) |
| PUMPS – MP (politician) in PUS (unpleasant matter). | |
| 11 | Horse endlessly carrying people in a trap — it was Savery’s idea (5,6) |
| STEAM ENGINE – A double inclusion. MEN (people) in A GIN (trap), all in STEE{d} (horse) [endlessly]. | |
| 12 | Declared MDMA unavailable? Don’t be so intense (4,3) |
| EASE OFF – sounds like E’S OFF (MDMA unavailable). | |
| 18 | First man to consume sodium and do drugs all too often? (2,7) |
| AD NAUSEAM – NA (chemical symbol for sodium) USE (do drugs), all in ADAM (first man). | |
| 19 | Chicken and egg in roll? (7) |
| ROOSTER – O (round letter; egg) in ROSTER (roll). | |
| 21 | Reckon California copper behind schedule (9) |
| CALCULATE – CAL (California) CU (chemical symbol for copper) LATE (behind schedule). | |
| 22 | Sapling Ken picked up, something free of charge (8) |
| NEUTRINO – Sounds like NEW TREE (sapling) KNOW (ken). | |
| 25 | Rules as to what might be an acceptable habit? (5,4) |
| DRESS CODE – Cryptic definition. | |
| 27 | Complete nonsense at the beginning in one statement (9) |
| UTTERANCE – UTTER (complete) and first letter of Nonsense in ACE (one). | |
| 28 | Right Charlie, detective in London force, one dealing (8) |
| MERCHANT – R (right) CHAN (Charlie Chan the fictional detective) in MET (London police force). | |
| 31 | Democrat is elected, beneath his lawyer’s contempt? (7) |
| DISDAIN – D (Democrat) IS, DA (Democrat’s, i.e. US, lawyer) IN (elected). | |
| 33 | Cashiers not bad in retail outlets (5,6) |
| CHAIN STORES – (Cashiers not)* [bad]. | |
| 34 | Shocked glance over surrealist’s couch, being topless (11) |
| SCANDALISED –SCAN (glance) DALI’S (surrealist’s) {b}ED (couch) without the first letter [topless]. | |
| 35 | Beer taken before dessert for ambiguous flavour (11) |
| BITTERSWEET – BITTER (type of beer) SWEET (dessert). | |
| 37 | Boozers see a lush unusually getting round in (9) |
| ALEHOUSES – O (round letter) in (see a lush)* [unusually]. Great surface. | |
| 40 | Protective secretary bird calls out regularly (8) |
| PATERNAL – PA (Personal Assistant; secretary) TERN (bird) and alternate letters [regularly] of cAlLs. | |
| 42 | Repellent episode follows outside broadcast (7) |
| OBSCENE – OB (outside broadcast) SCENE (episode). I was slightly dubious about this at first, but Chambers has “episode” as the 13th definition of “scene”. | |
| 43 | Fourth character in Cornish town expelled in punishment (7) |
| PENANCE – PEN{z}ANCE (Cornish town) without its 4th letter. | |
| 45 | Show regret about Tesla? (5) |
| REVUE – EV (electric vehicle, e.g. Tesla) in RUE (regret). | |
| 47 | Host’s run out revealing underwear (5) |
| THONG – TH{r}ONG (host) without the R (run). | |
| 48 | Dessert originally frozen and cut into cubes (5) |
| DICED – D{essert} [originally] ICED (frozen). | |
| 49 | Board in grand school near Windsor (3,2) |
| GET ON – G (grand) ETON (school near Windsor). | |
DNK the mongoose (like John, I only knew the fly), EMPANADA, Port Talbot, Savery. I couldn’t see how to get PEACE from ‘study’. I liked PHOENIX, REVUE, & EUROVISION SONG CONTEST.
Didn’t get hacienda (didn’t know ‘cie’ was French company), Peace Corps (what that?), hadn’t heard of empanada, ortolan, ichneumon, Savery.
Best: 30a, though I can understand anyone not familiar with the small town in South Wales not liking it.
Worst (other than the obscurities mentioned above): 28d, hated using Charlie to indicate the letters ‘chan’.
Thank you for the blog.
One session but two resorts to aids. I was annoyed I didn’t get LITANY, but EMPANADA was beyond me despite a couple of appearances in 2015 and 2018 when I also didn’t know it.
Several good inventive clues made this enjoyable, though slightly spoiled by too many obscurities.
We got Thong without spotting the clue used ‘throng’. Doh! Obvious now you’ve explained it (thank you).
Top marks for Eurovision Song Contest. I also especially liked Phoenix and Racecourse.