34:32 on the club timer, which suggests this wasn’t too high on the difficulty scale. My suspicion is that it was also quite distinctive, which normally translates to it being one of those “wavelength” puzzles which people either get or don’t get. On reflection after blogging, I think the distinctiveness comes from the very terse clues; and I know that some solvers are very keen on that sort of economy, while others like a more discursive style. Let us see.
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 | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MONOSYLLABLES – exactly as the clue says. I can’t decide if this is brilliantly cunning or really weak. |
| 14 | CHARGE SHEET – cryptic def, relying on the fact that “accusatory” is almost always the variation used in normal speech. |
| 15 | LOVER – I can’t for the life of me remember (if I ever knew) how this is parsed – assuming “opposite of hateful type” is the definition, how does the rest work? It’s reversed in one word, as per 34dn, of course, but nothing else indicates this is how one reaches the solution. All suggestions gratefully received. |
| 17 |
TEAM – TEA + M |
| 20 | GALWAY – GAL(“miss”) + WAY(“correct path”). |
| 21 | UNDERNOURISHMENT – yoU in (DINNERSHORTMENU)*. Somewhat convoluted surface, but a fine anagrammatical &lit. clue |
| 24 |
TRUST FUND =”TRUSSED” FUN + D |
| 29 | CENTREPIECES – when they are on a chessboard, of course. |
| 33 | TIMELINESS – LINES in TIMES. The F.T. gets a look in occasionally, but Times setters like to leep it close to home. |
| 35 | CURTAILMENTS – CURT, AILMENTS. Nice economy of language. |
| 39 | IVANHOE – (IHAVENO)*. Historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. |
| 40 | PRECLUDED – C, and later on D, in PRELUDE. This took me far longer to parse than to solve, as I started from the assumption that “first half of record” was REC; a CD is certainly a disc, but is it a record? I wouldn’t say so, but then I am an old-fashioned sort, who needs some way to distinguish between the albums he owns on vinyl and CD. Before we even get to cassettes, minidiscs and mp3s, of course. |
| 42 | ENVIRONMENTALIST – IRON(“strength”), MENTAL(“of mind”) in (INVEST)*. Lift and separate required on a smooth surface. |
| 44 | ANOMIE – NO in AMIE. The simple term rang a vague bell, but appears to involve some hardcore sociology to be understood as a concept. |
| 47 |
TELEMARK – L |
| 52 | ROAST – triple definition. |
| 54 |
LITHO – LIT + HO |
| 55 |
AMENDMENT – MEN replacing the 2nd and 4th letters of A |
| Down | |
| 1 | METHOUGHT – gaME THOUGH Tired. |
| 2 | NEW DEAL – double def., one from the card table, one from American political history. |
| 3 | SELF-STARTER – cryptic def. One of those phrases one sees on job descriptions; I always wonder if it’s a euphemistic way of saying “Do not expect any training or support of any kind from your new employers.” |
| 4 | LOCKED – LOCKE, D; I suppose this is what we sometimes call a semi &lit. |
| 5 | ABANDONED – DONE in A BAND. |
| 8 | PEEK – I don’t think I’ve seen a device like this before, and it’s very clever: four definitions, which lead to four homophones, i.e. PEEK(“look”), when said out loud (i.e. “repeatedly”), sounds like PIQUE(“annoy”), PEAK(“top”) and PEKE(“dog”). |
| 9 | RETURNING OFFICER – cryptic def.; for those who have different electoral vocabulary in their part of the world, in the UK the returning officer (or his representative) is the official in each Parliamentary and council consituency who oversees the count and announces the result. |
| 29 |
CATCHMENT AREA – |
| 30 | ENSNARES – SN(tin)ARE inside E,N,S. I never care much for clues which involve variations on “an unspecified number of the letters N,E,S,W in some order”, but I guess a setter must be allowed something of the sort to fall back on occasionally. |
| 32 | SUPERLATIVES – i.e. most superlatives end in “EST”, in the same way as “honest” and “priest”. This is another 1ac, I suspect |
| 34 |
LOSER – half of RESOL |
| 40 | POSTDATES – POST(appointment) DATES(more than one appointment). |
| 41 | DRESS DOWN – double def. depending on whether it’s transitive or intransitive. |
| 45 |
MAESTRI – (RA |
| 46 | GANDHI – I, following G, AND H. |
| 48 | MATED – back to the chessboard for some possible lese-majeste. |
| 51 |
PANT – PANT |
Dave, LOVER is 15ac not 16, and 16ac OVERSPEND is missing: O + VERS(E) + PEN + D. Author = pen, in the verb sense. I can’t parse lover either, there doesn’t seem to be a reversal indicator unless revolution is somehow doing double duty.
I am not v. keen on directions/NSEW or note/key/ABCDEFG clues either, but since I can’t find any other reason against them, I just put up with them