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 – [B |
14 |
IMPLOSION – (O |
15 |
OPTIC – P |
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 I can see some people not agreeing that “repealed legislation” equals LAW backwards but I liked it.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 – H |
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 – S |
46 |
CROUTON – OUT in CRON |
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 |
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 – [O |
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 CONSIDERED – |
11 |
DIORAMA – [1, O |
13 | COLORATURA – (TOUR,A,CAROL)*. |
20 |
EXPEDIENT – EX(“former”), P.E.(“exercise”), [ |
25 |
SPHINX – [P |
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. + (R |
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 + C |
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. |
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