An entertaining Jumbo crossword with some clever wordplay and neat surfaces but rather more unknowns (to me) than usual. Checking after completing the blog I counted 16 things I didn’t know! The cheese really took the biscuit! (Sorry I couldn’t resist that). But maybe I’m just ignorant and, after all, every day’s a schoolday in crossword land. Not too hard, though, and I finished in 41 minutes, which is just a little over average for me, albeit with a few uses of aids for the unknowns. Thank-you setter for the entertainment. How did you all get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Broadcasts in blimp (7) |
| AIRSHIP – AIRS (broadcasts) + HIP (in). | |
| 5 | AI not ready, for the most part, to overturn nation (7) |
| ESTONIA – AI + NOT + SE{t} (ready) without the last letter, [for the most part], all reversed. Fun surface. | |
| 9 | Eucalyptus currently faces round houses (4,3) |
| SNOW GUM – MUGS (faces) [round] -> SGUM. Insert NOW (currently). I didn’t know that high-altitude variety of Eucalyptus. | |
| 13 | Concealed chlorine can ultimately damage clothing range (11) |
| CLANDESTINE – CL (chemical symbol for chlorine) + TIN (can) + last letter of damagE including, [clothing], ANDES (range). | |
| 14 | Evaluation intended to protect stable setter (11) |
| MEASUREMENT – SURE (stable) + ME (setter) in [protected by] MEANT (intended). | |
| 15 | Large potato dish, but no starters, in northern home (5) |
| IGLOO – {b}IG (large) + {a}LOO (potato dish) without their first letters [with no starters]. | |
| 16 | Protein from eastern tip of Fife, latest to arrive (7) |
| ELASTIN – Last letter, [eastern tip] of FifE + LAST IN (latest to arrive). | |
| 17 | Celebrations in mountains welcoming new leader of Nepal (3,6) |
| HEN NIGHTS – N (new) + first letter [leader] of Nepal in HEIGHTS (mountains). | |
| 18 | I tape neurotransmitter to rock at which material change occurs (10,11) |
| TRANSITION TEMPERATURE – (I tape neurotransmitter)* [to rock]. | |
| 23 | Relaxed and performing well, walk out of bounds (8) |
| INFORMAL – IN FORM (performing well) + {w}AL{k} without the outside letters, [without bounds]. | |
| 25 | Consider proper payments to be returned before sex (3,3) |
| SEE FIT – FEES (payments) [returned] -> SEEF + IT (sex). | |
| 27 | Squeeze Quebec into Rough Guides (7) |
| SQUIDGE – Q (Quebec in the phonetic alphabet) in [rough] (guides)*. Another good surface. | |
| 30 | Many young men broken by love (5) |
| LOADS – O (0; love) in LADS (young men). | |
| 32 | At first, Ant and Dec’s follower accepting offer for capital (7) |
| ABIDJAN – First letter of Ant + JAN (January; Dec(ember)’s follower) including [accepting] BID (offer). the economic capital and largest city of Côte d’Ivoire. I didn’t know the name or where it is. | |
| 33 | Base rejected part of street arts business (9) |
| SUBSTRATE – Reverse hidden in [rejected part of] streET ARTS BUSiness. | |
| 35 | Anglo-American novelist found in legendary forest on island (9) |
| ISHERWOOD – I (island) + SHERWOOD (legendary forest). I’d vaguely heard of Christopher Isherwood but didn’t know he was Anglo-American or what he had written. | |
| 36 | Conclusion from lazy worker, perhaps someone wanting more (7) |
| YEARNER – Last letter of lazY + EARNER (worker). | |
| 37 | Businessmen essentially adopted by wealthy former republic (5) |
| REICH – Middle letter, [essentially], of businEssmen in, [adopted by], RICH (wealthy). | |
| 38 | Aims to store rubidium in part of Glasgow (7) |
| GORBALS – RB (chemical symbol for rubidium) in GOALS (aims). | |
| 40 | With a cold, reported someone giving evidence in Cheshire town (6) |
| WIDNES – Sounds like WITNESS (someone giving evidence) pronounced by someone with a cold. A bit of a novel type of wordplay. | |
| 41 | Potentially dangerous substance in leg? Learn with treatment (8) |
| ALLERGEN – (leg learn)* [with treatment]. | |
| 44 | Free intensive care at old hospital hall — thanks to this? (8,6,7) |
| NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE – [Free] (intensive care at o (old) h (hospital) hall)*. Quite an anagram. Phew! Of course, like me when solving, you probably biffed this with the help of the checkers, rather than work out the anagram fully, but someone has to do it. | |
| 48 | After reflecting, strip off, drunk, overindulging on vacation, and nod off (2,2,5) |
| GO TO SLEEP – PEEL (strip off) + SOT (drunk, the noun) + O{verindulgin}G [on vacation; emptied of letters] all reversed [after reflecting]. | |
| 50 | Faces six wise men (7) |
| VISAGES – VI (six in Roman Numerals) + SAGES (wise men). | |
| 53 | Rant when I evicted commercial customers (5) |
| TRADE – T{i}RADE (rant) with the I removed, [evicted]. | |
| 54 | Drinking the ordinary bubbly (11) |
| REHYDRATION – (the ordinary)* [bubbly]. Another fun surface. | |
| 55 | At first, bow tie night is awkward (2,5,4) |
| TO BEGIN WITH – (bow tie night)* [is awkward]. | |
| 56 | Decline stops parent’s sister listening (7) |
| AUDIENT – DIE (decline) in AUNT (parent’s sister). A new word for me. | |
| 57 | Try way to eat black cheese (7) |
| GJETOST – JET (black) in GO (try) + ST (street; way). What a name! I’ve never seen nor heard of this Norwegian cheese, but you can get it in Waitrose, apparently – see here. | |
| 58 | Stars from ancient Egyptian city are both short (3,4) |
| THE BEAR – THEBE{s} (ancient Egyptian city) + AR{e} with both cut short. One of the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Polar boat twinkling, it’s said (6) |
| ARCTIC – ARC sounds like ARK (boat) + TIC sounds like TICK (twinkling; moment, as in “just a tick”). | |
| 2 | Designate to someone else authentic patch of land (7) |
| REALLOT – REAL (authentic) + LOT (patch of land, mainly North American). | |
| 3 | Parks, maybe, kept most of river patrols for old lizard (9) |
| HADROSAUR – ROSA (Rosa Parks) in (patrolled by) HAD (kept) + UR{e}[most of] river in Yorkshire. That was tricky! An obscurity (the unknown dinosaur) clued by a (to me) obscurity (the unknown civil rights activist), random river without its final letter and an unfamiliar inclusion indicator. I needed aids for this one. | |
| 4 | Model cuddles small group (5) |
| POSSE – S (small) in POSE (model, the verb). | |
| 5 | Uneven growth of evergreen pruned in East Yorkshire’s capital (8) |
| EPINASTY – PIN{e} (evergreen) [pruned] in EAST + first letter, capital, of Yorkshire. Another unknown for me. | |
| 6 | Agreement to shorten free entertainment (5) |
| TREAT – All but last letter, [to shorten], of TREAT{y} (agreement). | |
| 7 | Idiot bishop interrupts mining and teaching groups (7) |
| NUMBNUT – B (bishop in chess notation) between NUM (National Union of Miners; mining group) and NUT (National Union of Teachers; teaching group). Another unknown word to me. The NUT became the NEU (National Education Union) in 2017 so the clue really needs to refer to it as a former teachers’ union, as most setters do these days. I was interested to see that, even thought the last deep mine in the UK was closed in 2015, the NUM is still functioning. | |
| 8 | Cursing obsessive, conceptual carols, each lacking a conclusion (14) |
| ANATHEMATISING – Another new word for me although I knew ANATHEMA. ANA{l} (obsessive) + THEMATI{c} (conceptual) + SING{s} (carols) each without their last letter. | |
| 9 | Wastes question probing colonel? (9) |
| SQUANDERS – QU (question) in (Colonel) SANDERS, founder of the fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. | |
| 10 | Wrestling champion from Australia with necktie ejecting odd characters (5) |
| OZEKI – OZ (Australia) + nEcKtIe [ejecting odd characters]. Yet another unknown for me. The second-highest rank in professional sumo wrestling, representing a champion-level competitor | |
| 11 | Criminal hurrying on caged animals competing against each other (9,6) |
| GREYHOUND RACING – [Criminal] (hurrying on caged)*. | |
| 12 | Artist’s friend concealing biases from time to time (7) |
| MATISSE – Another alternate letter wordplay – bIaSeS [from time to time] in MATE (friend). | |
| 19 | Really bored by About A Boy, climb over wall (7) |
| SCALADO – SO (really) [bored by] C (about) A LAD (boy). Unknown to me. The dictionary says “An escalade” which is also a word I didn’t know, but it apparently means “The scaling of the walls of a fortress by means of ladders”. | |
| 20 | Delighted Scottish sweetheart blocking “extremely” entering dictionary (9) |
| OVERJOYED – A double inclusion… JO (Scottish sweetheart, which I DID know) in VERY (extremely), all in OED (Oxford English Dictionary). | |
| 21 | I own property next door — area with goat? (7) |
| ABUTTER – A (area) + BUTTER (one that butts, e.g. a goat, with a ? to indicate the definition by example). | |
| 22 | Female giving in, ignoring yen for magistrate and satirist (8) |
| FIELDING – F (female) + {y}IELDING ignoring the Y for Yen. I didn’t know who this was but it would appear that Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English writer and judge known for the use of humour and satire in his works, so I suppose the clue must be referring to him. | |
| 24 | Collected skirts in that woman’s home; time I did embroidery (15) |
| FEATHERSTITCHED – AT HERS (in that woman’s home) + T (time) + I, all in FETCHED (collected). Another unknown for me. | |
| 26 | Enjoyable collection of books about lady’s buttocks (9) |
| FUNDAMENT – FUN (enjoyable) + NT (New Testament; collection of books) about DAME (lady). | |
| 28 | Footballing legend backing Chinese team, initially, for big game (8) |
| ELEPHANT – PELE (footballing legend) [backing] -> ELEP + HAN (Chinese) + Team [initially]. | |
| 29 | Casually browsing very big boxes in sailing vessels (6-8) |
| WINDOW SHOPPING – IN + DOWS (sailing vessels) in WHOPPING (very big). | |
| 31 | Bruiser ran over carrying ham (7) |
| SERRANO – Hidden in bruiSER RAN Over [carrying]. | |
| 34 | Thief knocked back food, mostly animal fat (7) |
| BURGLAR – GRUB (food) [knocked back] -> BURG + LAR{d} (animal fat) [mostly]. | |
| 39 | Ready replacement set to retain standard at equal intervals (5,4) |
| SPARE PART – Nice wordplay. It’s PAR (standard) inserted twice in SET… S + PAR + E + PAR + T. | |
| 42 | Being bigoted for this reason, without any introductions (9) |
| EXISTENCE – {s}EXIST (bigoted) + {h}ENCE (for this reason) each without their first letter. | |
| 43 | Liberal has idle talk with a principal from Turkmenistan in their home? (8) |
| ASHGABAT – [Liberal] (has)* + GAB (idle talk) + first letter of Turkmenistan. I’d not heard of it, but it is, of course, the capital of Turkmenistan. Clever. | |
| 44 | Country, one with Africans, primarily (7) |
| NIGERIA – A neat &lit. NIGER (country) + I (one) + first letter of African. | |
| 45 | Notice vice-president is offensive (7) |
| ADVANCE – AD (notice) + VANCE (JD Vance, vice-president of the USA). Hmm. I’d better not comment on the surface. | |
| 46 | Run away from uncle, perhaps, in case (7) |
| ELATIVE – {r}ELATIVE (uncle, perhaps) without the R (run). (Of a noun case) expressing place ‘from which’, as e.g. in Finnish. My superficial study of Finnish when I had a summer job there didn’t get me as far as this piece of grammar. | |
| 47 | Policemen hired to guard standing stone (6) |
| MENHIR – Hidden in, [to guard], policeMEN HIRed. I knew this from Asterix the Gaul – In Asterix, a menhir is a large, ancient, upright stone frequently carried, delivered, and used as a blunt weapon by Obelix. | |
| 49 | Unhappy man’s letter to Israeli (5) |
| SADHE – SAD (unhappy) + HE (man). Never heard of it, but then I’ve never studied Hebrew. It is apparently the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. | |
| 51 | Fight in part of tennis match if wife leaves (3-2) |
| SET TO – SET T{w}O (part of tennis match) without the W (wife). Nice wordplay, but the surface is a bit mysterious. | |
| 52 | Auditor’s to refer to appearance (5) |
| SIGHT – Sounds like [auditor’s] CITE (refer to). | |