Times Jumbo 1039

Author   helenoughamPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
I definitely found this the toughest of the Times Jumbo puzzles I’ve blogged about to date. I spent 37 minutes on it – apart from 13dn, which took me another 12 minutes at least to work out properly! I’ll be interested to hear whether others found this clue especially challenging, or whether I was just being thick! There was also an unusually high proportion of idiomatic UK English phrases among the longer answers.

As ever, * indicates an anagram.

Across
1 ADJUTANT – AD + JUT + ANT. The ‘one with large bill’ definition refers to the ADJUTANT Stork
5 WIND UP – double definition
9 THROWER – HR (Human Resources, = Personnel department) in TOWER
14 INK BLOT TEST – (kit n bottles)*
15 GET CRACKING – double definition – CRACKING is used here as an informal term for brilliant or excellent
16 TONTO – hidden in ‘got nothing’ (reversed). TONTO – faithful companion of the Lone Ranger
17 OLD BEAN – BEgAN after OLD. OLD BEAN is a somewhat antiquated way of saying ‘Dear fellow’
18 SHOWPIECE – S, + PIECE (= firearm), around HO + W
19 CLAUDIA – CIAo round LAUD (defined by ‘talk up’)
20 BEACH VOLLEYBALL – (bellyache)* around V O, + BALL
22 QUADRILLES – QUA + DR + I, + sell reversed
23 EMETIC – last letters of side, calm and mice, + TIC. Definition is ‘Getting to cat’, i.e. causing to vomit
25 WIMP – Weather + I + MP (member of Parliament, indicated by ‘one returned to chamber’)
28 OUT FOR THE COUNT – double definition (‘on canvas’ refers to the boxing usage)
30 G-STRINGS – double definition
32 EGG-TIMER – EG (indicated by ‘for one’), + GT, + ‘IM + ‘ER (him, her, as they might be pronounced by Cockneys)
34 A FLEA IN ONE’S EAR – double definition. References are to flea circus; ‘shell-like ear’; and rocket in the sense of a telling off, also known as A FLEA IN ONE’S EAR
37 KILO – KO (knock out) around IL (second and fourth letters of ‘bills’)
38 YAOURT – (Ray out)*
39 SALAMANDER – alas (reversed), + MeANDER
43 MAD AS A MARCH HARE – MADAM around A S, + ARCH + HARE
45 DEPARTS – EP in DARTS
47 INELASTIC – (since tail)*
49 WAY TO GO – WAY, + TO GO (as in takeaway food)
51 ABEAM – EA in ABM (anti-ballistic missile)
52 GIANT-KILLER – GI, + ANT KILLER. In (UK) football, a GIANT-KILLER is a team that unexpectedly wins and thus puts a major team out of a competition
53 OBSOLESCENT – OB (old boy), + SOLE + SCENT
54 DWELLER – D, + WELLER (which would be the comparative form of ‘well’ if the English language were constructed entirely regularly)
55 IODIDE – sounds rather like ‘I owe’ and ‘died’
56 EX GRATIA – (A-reg taxi)*

‘

Down
1 ASIATIC – A STICk around I A
2 JOKING APART – JO + daleK + IN + GAP + ART
3 TALL ORDER – LORD in TALE + R. Here ‘Request to tax’ is the definition of TALL ORDER (challenging demand)
4 NATIONAL LOTTERY – (Italy on alert not)*
6 IN THE BAG – IN, + THE (article), + BAG (unflattering term for an unattractive female)
7 DOG IN THE MANGER – IN THE MAiN, in DOGGER (bank)
8 PUT A STOP TO – U + TASTe, in POP + TO (not from)
9 TURMOIL – TURM (sounds like term), + OIL
10 RECAP – A + P next to REC (short for recreation ground)
11 WHITE VAN MAN – (Walt) WHITMAN, around nave (reversed). Drivers of white vans are sometimes (not always fairly!) described as selfish and inconsiderate road users
12 RUGGEDLY – (ugly red)* round lookinG
13 VEND – this is the one that caused me so much trouble. It works out as V (Roman numeral version of 5, the third prime number), + tEND, with ‘offer for change’ defining VEND (as in sell from a vending machine)
20 BEEZER – BEE (gathering of people to sew etc.) + ZERo. Like ‘top hole’ (the definition here), BEEZER is an obsolete English slang word meaning excellent
21 YEW-TREE – alternate letters of ‘by sea-water here’. I wouldn’t have indicated YEW TREE as being hyphenated
22 QUOTED – QED, around U + OT (Old Testament)
24 CASTOR AND POLLUX – (PR alas could not)*, + X (used to indicate a vote)
26 NOT FOR THE WORLD – ton (defined by ‘load’; reversed), + FORTH, + E + W (East and West in the game of bridge), + OLD around R
27 USURER – if I have this analysed correctly, it’s RU (Rugby Union), reversed, around SURE – a ‘banker’ is a ‘SURE thing’, i.e. a certainty
29 OMINOUS – poleMIcist in O NOUS
31 PIRATE – P + IRATE
33 GRIDDLE CAKE – RIDDLE (defined by ‘pepper’, as in pepper or riddle with bullets), + CA, in (keg)*
35 ENDORSEMENT – double definition (second definition refers to an endorsement on a driving licence)
36 TORRICELLI – TORRId + CELL + I
40 APPRAISER – A PuP RAISER
41 IMPINGED – impeding, with ‘ed’ moved to the end
42 MANYFOLD – MAN, + (do fly)*
44 MOTHIER – I in MOTHER
46 SUMATRA – hidden in ‘start a museum’, reversed
48 ARTEL – cARTEL
50 OMSK – last letters of ‘bleak winters seem to’, reversed

8 comments on “Times Jumbo 1039”

  1. 13D did for me – I couldn’t get away from “third of Rome = M”, so gave up and put in MEND. I didn’t find the rest of it that much harder than usual though, about 40 minutes altogether.
  2. I never time my Jumbo solves and I can’t recall whether or not this was a very difficult one, other than the horrible 13dn.

    Thanks for putting me out of my misery with 13dn. I knew that VEND fitted the definition of “offer for change” but I couldn’t parse it. The other alternative I came up with from the wordplay was MEAD, which was the third letter of Rome followed by (h)ead as a headless Prime Minister, but MEAD obviously made no sense from a definition perspective. I didn’t think of (t)end for topless minister because of the capitalisation of Minister, and I’m not sure whether that is a little too sneaky or not, and ‘v’ for the third Roman prime number is clever but possibly a little too obscure for a Jumbo, although I’d like to think I won’t be caught out like that again.

  3. I’ve been carrying a piece of paper with the clue written on it around with me all week. Although I thought VEND was the likely answer, I couldn’t work out why. Thank you for the explanation.
  4. I just now noticed that I never finished this, with 20d left with empty unches. I never would have got it, as I’d never heard of BEEZER; had the BEE part, though. I also gave up on 13d and put in MEND, so it was pretty much a disaster. (My first look at yesterday’s Jumbo suggests more trouble ahead.)
  5. Thanks everyone. It’s a relief that I wasn’t the only one to be challenged by 13dn!
  6. I generally only tackle Jumbos when they get a good rap from the blogger and wasn’t disappointed by this one. Considered VEND from the literal but went for ‘mend’ – thought the clue was quite fair, if devilish! A number where the laterals yielded but the wordplay remained resistant, so thanks to Helen for several explanations. The NW was especially tough, with the literal for 1a so recondite.
  8. Very very hard and very very good. My time would be in hours rather than minutes and my last answer was VEND and, reading this, am rather pleased I eventually worked it out with a penny-dropping moment. Maths background helped just a little, I’d say. I’ve seen a clue in one of the themed puzzle series including “in prime positions” in the wordplay part. This was telling the solver to take the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th letters etc and ignore the others.

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