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 – M |
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) + L |
18 |
WHELPED – W |
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 BR |
34 |
NEAR THING – N |
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) TROT |
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 – [P |
53 |
TAINT – 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 ED |
Down | |
4 |
OUTLANDISH – OUTLAW with the W |
5 | SHERIFF – SHE, RIFF. |
6 |
PATENT LEATHER – A TENT inside PLEA, THE R |
7 |
OVERSPILL – OVER(one of the mandated 90 a day in Tests), S |
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 |
HIPPO – |
12 |
PALINDROMES – D |
22 |
HOBGOBLIN – GO in HOBBLIN |
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 – N |
38 | BALD-HEADED – double def., one of which I only vaguely found familiar. |
43 |
CLIMBED – CLIM |
44 |
TRACTOR – (CART)rev., TO R |
46 | REPLIED – REP, LIED(number as in the German song). |
48 |
UNPIN – N |
Chadwick Ong’ara,
Kenya.
2 and 3 down and 13 across
2dn MINE(explosive device) in (ONE)* = NOMINEE i.e. “somebody put up”.
3dn N
ewinside RAGE, as in “all the rage”, def. = “span”.13ac is definitely there…
Edited at 2014-06-29 05:03 pm (UTC)