Times Jumbo 1064

I solved this over three sessions so I’ve no idea what my time would have been, but I felt it was towards the tougher nd of the Times Jumbo spectrum, and there’s one clue (to 49ac) that I still haven’t properly understood.

As usual, * indicates an anagram.

Across
1 JUMBLE SALE – JUMBLES ALE
6 BOOBY-TRAPPED – P (quietly) in (baby torpedo)*
14 FORESAW – FORE (opposite of stern, in the nautical sense) + SAW
15 DROUGHT – DOUGHTy around R
16 INGESTS – sounds like ‘in jest’s’
17 ACHE – AC (alternating current) + HE (He is the abbreviation for helium)
18 BOO-BOO – BOO (to indicate disapproval), twice
20 GOLGOTHA – G, + (logo)*, + THAt
24 A HAIR OF THE DOG THAT BIT HIM – cryptic indication
25 EPITAPH – cryptic definition
26 ALL SOULS – ALSO around L, + L in US
27 ADJOIN – O (old) + IN, after ADJ (HADJ as it might be pronounced in the East End of London)
29 BLOW HOT AND COLD – BLOW, + HOT AND COLD (indicated by ‘a couple of taps’)
31 HAUNCHES – HUNCHES around A
34 CADUCEUS – DUCE (name used for Mussolini) in CAUSe. The staff of Hermes, the winged messenger in Greek mythology, was a CADUCEUS
36 CARRIAGE RETURN – CARRIAGE + RETURN
39 DISMAY – DIS (detecive inspectors) MAY, i.e. they ‘have a warrant to’
41 BERGAMOT – (got amber)*
43 RETREAD – RE + T + READ
46 WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION – (alone right to hold Nazi war)*
47 NOSEBAND – sounds like ‘noes banned’
48 IMPALA – I + MP (‘person who’s run successfully’ for Parliament) + A LA
49 STOA – I’m somewhat baffled by this. The definition is ‘Series of columns covered’ (or, possibly, just ‘Series of columns’), but I can’t really see how the rest of the clue works as the wordplay. The letters of STOA are concealed, jumbled, in ‘last of’. Alternatively, if you remove the last letter of ‘special’ you get ‘specia’, which could just indicate S TO A – but either way, I can’t fully work it out. Any thoughts?
53 HAMMIER – double definition. I originally thought this was going to be MEATIER, which I reckon would have fitted the clue even better
54 VILLAGE – hidden in ‘recalled regal living’, reversed
56 MAN-WEEK – MEEK, around AN + W
57 HUNGER STRIKE – HUNGER + S + TRIKE
58 WAIT AND SEE – (idea wasn’t)*, around E

Down
1 JAFFA CAKE – JAKE, around (a caff), reversed
2 MARSH MARIGOLD – MARS + (ham)* + RIG + OLD
3 LIST – hidden in (abasement, silently), reversed
4 SAWN-OFF SHOTGUN – (gown has stuff on)*
5 LED – sounds like lead (heavy metal)
7 ORGY – GORY, with first letter displaced downwards
8 BUTTONHOLE – double definition
9 TAILGATE – ‘so-called scandal’ indicates GATE, as in Watergate, plebgate etc.; ‘knife-wielding wife in nursery’ refers to the farmer’s wife in the nursery rhyme ‘Three Blind Mice’
10 ANGST-RIDDENcoalitioN in AG (Ag – silver), + STRIDDEN (past participle of stride)
11 PISTACHIO – (is apt)* + CH + IO (satellite of Jupiter)
12 DOSH – DO SH (i.e. do keep quiet!)
13 TOROIDAL – (in a lot or)*. I’m not sure why the setter chose to use the US contraction ‘donut’ rather than the usual English ‘doughnut’ in the definition – there’s nothing otherwise American about the clue
19 BAHRAINI – BAH + RAIN + I
21 ARMAGH – sounds (just possibly) like ‘our ma’
22 IGNOBLER – (girl on bronte)*
23 AMUNDSEN – UND (German for ‘and’) + S, in AMEN
28 CAREER DIPLOMAT – CAREER + Treasury, around DIPLOMA
29 BACK DOWN – BACK (defence position in various sports) + DOWN (to drink something)
30 CHANGSHA – HANGS in CHA. This showed up my ignorance of Chinese geography!
32 HOUSEMISTRESS – HOUr + SEMI-STRESS
33 LAST-GASP – double definition
35 CLANDESTINE – CLAN + DESTINEd
37 EXTRAS – yes, it’s the inevitable cricketing clue again. A bye in cricket can also be known as an EXTRA. R in (Texas)*
38 WELL I NEVER – WELL (indicated by ‘my’ in the sense of an exclamation), + IN + EVER
40 STRONGMAN – NG, in ST + ROMAN
42 MARZIPAN – ram (reversed), + ZIP (nothing, ‘not a sausage’) + A + N
44 DON’T ASK ME – a student could request ‘Don, task me!’
45 CERBERUS – sounds like Serb, + sure (reversed)
50 UH-OH – right-most letters of ‘you wish to quash’
51 FLAK – FAKe around L
52 IN ON – INN around O (i.e. containing nothing, therefore empty)
55 EVA – if turned upside-down, this would give Ave (as in Ave Maria)

5 comments on “Times Jumbo 1064”

  1. I interpreted STOA in the same way as your second suggestion, i.e. specia being described as the series S TO A, but I wasn’t massively keen on it.
  2. I never time the Jumbos but I agree that this one was on the tough side. I’m glad others had trouble parsing STOA, and if it is indeed Helen’s second/mohn2’s suggestion then it is a really poor clue IMHO.
  3. I am in a big sulk, because I had one error and on examining the solution I find it claims I wrote W.. H.. organiSation instead of organiZation at 46ac. I suppose it is right, but it is irritating because my written copy clearly does have a Z, so it got transposed somewhere when entering it online.. organisation is an acceptable alternative spelling, the one I would normally use in fact, but the wordplay does of course mean it must be z here.

    I can however proffer regarding STOA, that it is all but the last of “special” ie SPECIA which is a series from S TO A

  4. Could someone please explain 51d. I can see that cod is FAKE. Remove the E and pierce with L. But where’s the definition? Does FLAK mean ‘stick’ in some way? I only know it as anti-aircraft fire.

    There’s a little error in 22d above. The extreme characters should be taken from BRONTE and not IGNOBLER, which is, of course, the solution.

    Edited at 2014-01-16 04:20 pm (UTC)

    1. Many thanks for pointing out the error in 22dn – I’ve now corrected it. FLAK can mean ‘stick’ in the sense of giving someone a hard time, or as Collins puts it, ‘a great deal of adverse criticism’.

Comments are closed.