Times Jumbo 1092

Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Clock stopped at just under the half-hour mark, which means I continue a sequence where nearly every Jumbo I’ve blogged for months seems to have been in the category “mostly straightforward puzzle, about average time”, while other people have copped the occasional difficult ones in between. I shan’t complain about the lack of variety, of course, because you should be careful what you wish for…

With Jumbos, which attract a far smaller audience than daily puzzles, I generally confine myself to discussion of answers which I think are a) less straightforward for inexperienced or non-UK based solvers, or b) especially elegant / questionable. In other words, unless it’s an exceptionally interesting puzzle, the coverage is unlikely to be 100%; however, as always, if a particular clue is not discussed, please feel free to raise it in comments for explanation or discussion.

Across
13 LEMON – Maiden in LEON. At first I thought I’d got this from the signs on the outskirts of Oxford, which constantly remind me that it’s twinned with Leon; then I remembered that one is actually the Nicaraguan Leon, but the idea was the same (the Spanish Leon is a provincial capital in the North, and some way from being the best known city in Spain, I’d say).
14 THEATREGOER – a cryptic def., I suppose, but the trouble is that I only ever saw the one which was supposed to be disguised, and it was only on long reflection that I realised I was presumably meant to think of stage coaches first and theatre stages later; when I did it the other way round, it meant the clue was a bit non-cryptic, to be honest.
15 PAPAL – PAPA (‘P’, the first letter of Programme, as it is described in the NATO/radio alphabet) + Line.
18 WHELPED – Wife HELPED, the litter being one of puppies rather than some rubbish.
21 HEATHER – both a girl’s name, and a plant that covers the Scottish moors.
23 MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT – (BLAMEMENFROMPARTIES)*. One of the joys of the Jumbo is that it allows excellent anagrams of a length that the daily cryptic can’t support.
29 BRAHMS – A(random musical note) inside BRitish H.M.S. “Half-drunk”, of course, because the full phrase referred to is “Brahms and Liszt”, which is Cockney rhyming slang for piszt.
34 NEAR THING – Not EARTHING.
35 RIALTO – cryptic def. which cunningly misdirects on first reading, as the capital letter is purely for the start of the sentence, rather than indicating a Shakespearean allusion; the Rialto is the old business quarter of the city, so it’s the place where any (non-fictional) merchant would do his trade, and not just Antonio.
36 APOLLO – A, O outside POLL; took a while to stop myself thinking he had to be Adonis.
40 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL – ROTARY(revolutionary) INTERNATIONAL(test); association of businesspeople who want to do good while doing business. Seen in the UK, at least, I think, as an indicator of solid respectability.
45 DOGTROT – DOG(follow) TROTskyite. We seem to have had a lot of DOGTROTs and FOXTROTs lately.
47 TOUCH-TYPIST – cryptic def. describing the complete opposite of me and my two-fingered pecking.
49 PEACEKEEPER – [ACE(one) KEEP(tower)] in PEER(noble).
51 SEPIA – [Poseidon,1] in SEA (Poseidon’s natural habitat). Sepia tint for drawing comes from cuttlefish, so also comes from the sea, I suppose.
53 TAINT – Temperature AIN’T.
54 NON-ATTENDANCE – this must be the longest hidden word I’ve seen all year – great effort!
55 RED HANDED – inside RD. we have EDited and H AND E, which represent the constituent letters of HE. Easier to spot the answer than parse it.
 
Down
4 OUTLANDISH – OUTLAW with the West changed to North, DISH.
5 SHERIFF – SHE, RIFF.
6 PATENT LEATHER – A TENT inside PLEA, THE Right; the tent must be a big top, I guess.
7 OVERSPILL – OVER(one of the mandated 90 a day in Tests), Second PILL.
8 ECONOMY – cryptic def. based on the apparent convention that on boarding an airliner, you turn left for first class, right for cattle class. I’m sure we’ve had this before and I wondered aloud if that means the doors are only ever used on one side of the plane (answer: yes, so heading left always means going towards the pointy end).
10 REPUGNANT – (UP)rev. in REGNANT.
11 HIPPOSHIP, PO(the setter’s favourite Italian river).
12 PALINDROMES – Daughter in (IMPERSONAL)*. Nice example of a smooth surface distracting from the true meaning.
22 HOBGOBLIN – GO in HOBBLINg.
24 MADHATTER – (DREAMTHAT)*; it didn’t stop me solving the clue, but I can’t find any authority for this being all one word. Anyone care to enlighten me, or is the enumeration just wrong?
26 AVIATOR – 1 in [A VAT OR].
30 STARTING PRICE – (RACINGTIPSTER)*; very good anagram.
33 BIRTHDAY CAKE – cryptic def.; when you get to my age, having the correct number of candles on a cake might be seen to constitute a fire hazard…
34 NONPARTISAN – North, ON, Pressure, ARTISAN.
38 BALD-HEADED – double def., one of which I only vaguely found familiar.
43 CLIMBED – CLIMe, BED.
44 TRACTOR – (CART)rev., TO Right
46 REPLIED – REP, LIED(number as in the German song).
48 UNPIN – New inside UP IN.

5 comments on “Times Jumbo 1092”

  1. So that’s how BRAHMS works! Had no idea about the CRS. I also didn’t know BALD-HEADED in that sense, and I’m a bit relieved to see it was at least not well-known to you. MADHATTER is simply wrong.
  2. I wrote CRIBBED for this,otherwise got the rest correct.Did not realise 54a was hidden.Also thought 24d as a single word odd.
    Chadwick Ong’ara,
    Kenya.
    1. Edit: ignore (nearly) simultaneous post.

      2dn MINE(explosive device) in (ONE)* = NOMINEE i.e. “somebody put up”.
      3dn New inside RAGE, as in “all the rage”, def. = “span”.
      13ac is definitely there…

      Edited at 2014-06-29 05:03 pm (UTC)

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