Times Jumbo 1084

Author   helenoughamPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
I found this one on the tough side, though I did have several interruptions and distractions while I was solving it. What did others think? I may have been hampered by the number of sporting references!

As usual, * indicates an anagram.

Across
1 SO FAR SO GOOD – S, + OF A R, + SO (indicated by ‘true’, as in ‘that is so’), + O in GOD
7 LOCUM TENENS – (men consult e)*
13 OUIJA – OUI + JA (‘yes’ in French and German)
14 INEXACT – I, + NEXT round AC. The definition is ‘out’
15 HALF-CROWN – HAL, + FROWN round C
16 ESCHEWING – ES (ecstasy tablets) + CH + E WING (a prison could have an E WING)
17 GRUBBINESS – GRUB, + BusINESS
20 OVATION – O + VAT, + ON after I. Two cricket references in one clue: O is short for ‘over’ in the cricketing sense, and ‘on’ and ‘leg’ are apparently synonymous (don’t ask me why…)
22 OCTETTE – etc (indicated by ‘similar’; reversed) in OTT (over the top) + E
24 HOME RUN – cryptic indication, referring to baseball and its field or ‘diamond’
25 BAKERLOO – BAKER (‘producer of bloomers’, i.e. bloomer loaves) + LOO
26 HOUSEHOLD NAMES – (one should shame)*
28 FIFTH – FincH, around I FT (one foot, = twelve inches)
29 LIBERO – hidden in ‘bookstORE BILlboard’, reversed. A footballing term
30 CLEAR AS MUD – CD, around (slum area)*. Writing data to a CD is ‘burning’ it
33 UNHAMPERED – UNE (‘in paris, a’) + banD, around HAM (‘joint’) + PER (‘for’)
35 PRIEST – PR (proportional representation) + Id EST
37 AHEAD – HE (He is the abbreviation for the light gas helium), in A + AD. The definition is ‘up’
39 BOWLING AVERAGE – BOW, + (revealing a g)*
41 NEUTRINO – sounds like ‘new tree know’
44 LEISTER – STERn after LEI. A LEISTER is a fishing spear
45 DRY CELL – (c + yr), reversed, in DELL
46 ICINESS – ICI (the company) + NESS
47 STEERFORTH – STEER, + FORTH which sounds like ‘fourth’
49 MAGDALENA – MAG, + (a NE lad) reversed
53 CAMPER VAN – CAMPER (‘more theatrical’) + VAN (‘front’)
54 ORPHEAN – ORPHAN around housE
55 DEBAG – last letters of ‘held captive’, + BAG. The definition is ‘Strip of cords’, i.e. ‘remove the trousers from’
56 SCISSOR KICK – SICK, around I SS in CORK
57 YOU DIRTY RAT – (try try audio)*

‘

Down
1 SMOKE-BOMB – SMOKE (indicated by ‘joint’, as in cannabis cigarette) + BOMB (large amount of money)
2 FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP – FAIR (‘light’) + CRACK OF THE WHIP (‘humour from Parliamentarian’)
3 READE – REmADE
4 OPINION POLL – PI, in (pool in London)*
5 OVERGROW – O + VERGe + ROW
6 DRAUGHTBOARD – DRAUGHT + BOARD
7 LITMUS TEST – hidden in ‘TriaL IT MUST ESTablish’
8 COHAB – alternate letters of ‘brash coach’, reversed
9 MELANCHOLIA – (in hall came)* around O
10 EXCISEMAN – NAMES ICE, around X, all reversed
11 EBON – last letters of ‘ensemble club to retain’. ‘Linesman’ here indicates a poet
12 SINK – sounds like ‘sync’, indicated by ’cause to work with another’. The definition is ‘Founder’, i.e. sink like a ship
18 I REMEMBER I REMEMBER – IRE MEMBER, twice in succession. It’s the first line of a poem by Thomas Hood
19 ONE-SIDED – ONE (indicated by ‘I’) + SIDE (indicated by ‘camp’, in the sense of ‘faction’) + December
21 IBRAHIM – lIBRA + HI + M
23 ETHELRED – ET, + HELD around RE
27 OBSERVED – jOB + SERVED. The definition is ‘with witnesses’
28 FOURBALL – FURBALL around Open
31 ACANTHI – ANT in A CH, + I
32 TRIGGER-HAPPY – TRIGGER (‘generate’) + HAPPY (‘content’) – ‘piece’ here indicates a weapon
34 EAGER BEAVER – EVER, around (a g beer)* + A
36 THE KING AND I – cryptic indication (the middle two letters of ‘skit’ are K and I)
38 PRAYER-BOOK – (opera by Lehar)* + OK
40 IN TATTERS – NATTERS {‘gases’) around T, after I. Nice bit of misdirection – ‘sewer’ here indicates ‘someone who sews’
42 ONSLAUGHT – ON (‘possible’), + LAUGH in ST
43 FLAMBEAU – F + Lady + AM BEAU
48 FUNGI – FUN + GI
50 AUDIT – plAUDIT
51 ACTS – Cats (the musical), with the first two letters reversed
52 IMPI – MP (‘member returned’) surrounded by II

9 comments on “Times Jumbo 1084”

  1. Well I found it an absolute pig. I struggled for over a week with this and still had a good dozen or so unanswered.
    There were too many obscure words and tortuous and tenuous clues which I couldn’t fathom out for my liking.
    So well done Helen for lifting the veil from my eyes with a lot of them.
    It was a sobering experience.
  2. Helen, I thought this was on the tricky side as well. My notes say that I thought the puzzle was chock-full of some absolutely top-quality cluing and well-disguised definitions. I didn’t time it exactly but it took me about an hour with READE my LOI after ESCHEWING.
  3. I found this difficult too: it took me an hour. It was very satisfying though, with a number of unknowns that had to be teased out from the wordplay: LIBERO, LEISTER, STEERFORTH, SCISSOR KICK, COHAB, and lots of other clues that were difficult without ever being unfair. Good stuff.
  4. Hmm.. four comments for a jumbo. Is this a record? 🙂

    I too found this tricky, it seemed to me the setter was, well, setting, out to be a bit difficult. Some very nice clues, but some tricksy vocabulary. Libero? Leister? Still i suppose on reflection two isn’t bad in a whole jumbo

  5. Around an hour of enjoyable stuff, although without parsing every one so thanks, Helen. The toss came down on the wrong side with BATTING AVERAGE but all sorted in the end. Tough but fair.
  6. DNF; like deezzaa, I kept at it for over a week, but the NW was too much, with 8 clues unsolved. Looking at the explanations, I see that I’d never have got BAKERLOO, not knowing ‘bloomer loaves’; and I can’t say much for IBRAHIM. DNK LIBERO, LEISTER, but was able to get them without much pain.
  7. Hello,Hellen,I am Chadwick Ong’ara in Kenya,a xword buff.I enjoy doing the jumbo every Saturday in the Times paper.This one was a stinker as i completed it after 3 days.My COD was 17a.Why member returned at 52d as there’s no reversal?
    1. Welcome, Chadwick. Having unspammed your comment (why don’t you get an LJ account – it’s very easy), the ‘returned’ is indeed not strictly necessary but not errant either, as Members of Parliament are of course returned (ie elected). The presence of the word here helps make the surface better.
  8. Terrific puzzle – I fell short on ICINESS, of all things , thought I believe ICI is moe defunct so a ‘former ‘ would have done the trick. Thanks to the setter and to Helen for more than a couple of parsings.

    PS It’s appreciated when the Jumbo bloggers flag their puzzles as tricky, interesting or good, as then I will typically take them on!

    Edited at 2014-04-14 03:49 pm (UTC)

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