Times Jumbo 1012

49:36 on the club timer – this puzzle is only a fortnight old, but it feels like ancient history after a Christmas break in which there were all sorts of bonus puzzles as well as the usual holiday Jumbos. That time suggests a puzzle of greater than usual difficulty, but after reviewing it for this blog, I have a suspicion I solved it while watching the second India vs. England T20 game, so was possibly just distracted by Eoin Morgan’s astonishing repertoire of shots.

With Jumbos, which attract a far smaller audience than daily puzzles, I generally confine myself to discussion of answers which I think might be a) less straightforward for inexperienced or non-UK based solvers, or b) especially elegant / questionable. However, as always, if a particular clue is not discussed, please feel free to raise it in comments for explanation or discussion.

Across
6 ABSENT MINDED – [BASE in ANT] + MINDED(=tended).
14 IMPLOSION – (OxygenIS)rev. in SIMPLON.
15 OPTIC – Pressure in OTIC; inventive way of indicating the insertion with “disruptive”.
16 WALLOON – (LAW)rev. + LOON. I can see some people not agreeing that “repealed legislation” equals LAW backwards but I liked it. The Walloons are the Francophone Belgians.
17 OVERHEAD PROJECTOR – double nesting, PROJECT(“outstanding undertaking”) inside DO(“accomplish”), all then inside OVERHEAR(“catch”).
22 JEWS HARP – (WE J.)rev. + SHARP
24 LAPPETS – LAP(“round of course”) + PETS(“favourites”). This came entirely from wordplay for me, as I was unfamiliar with the decorative headwear.
26 GOURMAND – [UR MAN] in GOD; Ur was an ancient city of Sumeria and appears frequently in crosswords.
30 DODECAHEDRA – DO(party) + (ACED)rev. + (HEARD)*. Nice use of tennis terminology to misdirect.
32 NITTY GRITTY – Simple clue, but nice surface if you are familiar with The Simpsons.
35 HUNDREDFOLD – HOUND + RED (as in “in the red”) + FOLD.
39 SOFFITS – OFF(“misaligned”) in SITS(“places rear”). Soffits are the underside of the projecting bit of a roof; I’m sure I’m not alone in being plagued by doorstep salesmen who have a fervent desire to replace mine.
44 SYZYGY – SillY ZanY GoofY. Lovely word, syzygy; the alignment of celestial objects as they travel in their orbits.
46 CROUTON – OUT in CRONY.
48 AMIGO – easy to spot the answer, less easy to parse. “Are you calling me X?” = “AM I X?”, even if the X here is “a phrase meaning GO” rather than an actual name.
49 BICARBONATE OF SODA – rather hard to spot at first sight, but on unravelling, an anagram of (ABITBADFORONES) and OCA (heart of AVOCADO.
52 NONET – NO. + NET(score, as in football).
53 NURTURING – (RUN)rev. + (Alan) TURING, the code-breaking genius of Bletchley Park. I’ve toured the museum and can highly recommend it, if you like that sort of thing.
54 RETURN TICKET – RETURN(“answer”) + TICKET(as in “just the ticket”).
 
Down
3 TOOTHSOME – [Old x2, THIS without I(=current)] in TOME.
5 CANOPUS – CAN(=”might”) + OPUS(“work”). Is can a synonym for might? I guess it must be. Nothing to do with black eyes, but a notably bright star.
7 BITTER LEMON – BITTER(“cold”) + LEMON(“turkey”, as in a failure).
10 ILL CONSIDEREDBILL(“nose”) Cold ON SIDE(“face”) RED(“evidently sore”).
11 DIORAMA – [1, Oberon] in DRAMA.
13 COLORATURA – (TOUR,A,CAROL)*.
20 EXPEDIENT – EX(“former”), P.E.(“exercise”), [vacatioN in DIET(“regimen”)].
25 SPHINX – [Public House in SIN], X(“it’s wrong”); the Riddle of the Sphinx was solved by Oedipus, in the days before we had crosswords to test our solving capabilities.
26 GADABOUT – A DAB in GOUT; I’d always thought of a gadabout as more of a Bertie Wooster type character than a tramp, but the definition includes all manner of people who are not tied to one place or occupation, so “vagrant” is fine.
28 TATTOOIST – (O.T.T.)rev. in TAOIST; playful definition.
31 CUSTARD POWDER – (WORDSCAPTURED)*. Tremendous anagram.
34 EMILY BRONTE – (LIME)rev. + (Right,BY)rev. + (NOT)* + Energy.
35 HOITY TOITY – IT in HOY, IT in TOY. To go with the nitty gritty.
40 FOOT FAULT – cryptic def. Regrettably I’d already solved 30ac, so I wasn’t fooled at all by the “court” reference, which I think meant it was wasted here.
47 ICONIC – 1 + CHRONIC after losing the HouR.
50 OUIJA – “Yes” in French and German. Trivial fact for today; the ouija board was originally marketed as a toy, and is still a registered trademark of Hasbro alongside Monopoly and Cluedo.

10 comments on “Times Jumbo 1012”

  1. I’m afraid I need a little bit more than – . !! “Salt a bit bad for one’s heart in avocado, when prepared?”
    1. In the words of Captain Mainwaring, “Well done, men, I was waiting to see who’d be the first to spot my deliberate error”. Now amended.
        1. Have to admit I left it blank at first because I had to work it out again, and it took me just as long second time round!
  2. 86′; I’ve been having trouble the last few weeks getting in under an hour. LOI (and DNK) 39ac. I’m not sure I’d take ‘speak at length’ (18ac) as a definition of ORATE–the Gettysburg Address? And what do Taoists (28d) worship? Certainly not the tao. COD to 42ac.
    1. I sympathise Kevin, but the ODO says for orate: ” to make a speech, especially pompously or at length.” and for Taoism: . “The religious aspect of Taoism developed later, circa 3rd century ad, incorporating certain Buddhist features and developing a monastic system.” So I suppose we must allow them..
  3. Another crossword which got a bit lost in the Xmas rush. All I wrote at the time was “average,” and a ? next to 49ac!
  4. I’d appreciate an explanation for 17a (answered as “overhead projector” without knowing why)
  5. I wouldnt attribute too much to the cricket,as I scrawled “above average” across the top of my page when I did this. I find that it is rare for a jumbo to differentiate itself from its peer group in a way that the dailies do, – perhaps the extra volume of clues dilutes the impact of the variety. This one definitely seemed noticeably harder.

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