Times Jumbo 1114

Author   helenoughamPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Great to see so many of you at the Times Championship last Saturday – congratulations and/or commiserations to all participants.

I thought this was another medium-difficulty Jumbo, but witb some answers that solvers may have found obscure (e.g. VATIC, ALEWIFE, MAILLOT, CHOKO) and one or two (SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, SPENCER) that probably favoured UK-based solvers.

As usual, * indicates an anagram.

Across
1 FASHIONISTA – (is this a fan o)*
7 BASTARDISED – A STAR D IS, in BED
13 BARBARISM – IS M, after BAR twice
14 YARDAGE – (eg a dray), reversed
15 VATIC – VATICan
16 AIRMEN – AMEN around IR
17 ABROGATE – A GATE around BRO
18 TERMITE – TEaR + MITE
20 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – cryptic indication
23 PAINTED – PAIN + TED
24 EFFENDI – E + FF (‘female and twin’, i.e. f twice) + END + I
26 SYNAPSE – (naps yes)*
28 KIDS – skid, with the initial s moved to the end
29 DOGMATIC – DOG (‘man who is unpleasant’) + MAT + IC
32 LIBERATED – Love + I BERATED
35 STANCHION – ST (saint) + ANON, around CHI
36 SHOP TALK – STALK, around H + OP
37 SHIP – sip, as it might be pronounced by someone a little drunk
39 ALEWIFE – A LIFE, around last letters of ‘the minnow’
41 CAST OFF – ‘acts’ could be CAST ‘off’, i.e. an anagram of CAST
44 SPENCER – double definition
45 VAN DE GRAAFF GENERATOR – (a god afar fervent anger)*. Takes me back to school physics lessons!
49 ENCHANT – hidden in FrENCH ANTHEM
50 DRAINAGE – Day + RAIN + AGE
51 TICKER – sTICKER
53 HOICK – HICK around O
54 ANALYST – sounds like annalist
55 TERMAGANT – (Target man)*
56 TRENDSETTER – T + REND + SETTER
57 CODE-BREAKER – (career’d be OK)*

Down
1 FABIAN – FAB + IAN
2 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE – (scarred fair skin)*
3 INADEQUATE – (A quiet dean)*
4 NAIF – hidden in deFIANce, reversed
5 SEMIBREVE – B, + ever (reversed), after SEMI (semi-detached house)
6 ANY MORE – AN + YORE, around M
7 BORN-AGAIN – (no bargain)*
8 STATE – eSTATE
9 ADEPTNESS – A + DEPT + NESS
10 DIVERSIONARY – VERSION in DIARY
11 SITTING – SpITTING
12 DECREE – DECREasE
19 GLADIOLI – (a dog ill I)*
21 MAILLOT – MAIL, + LOT (‘man with a wicked wife’)
22 FELDSPAR – FE (chemical symbol for iron is Fe) + SPAR, around L + D
23 PAKISTAN – K + IS, in PAT, + A + N
25 FATES – set a f, reversed
27 PUT THE CLOCK BACK – double definition
30 MENACER – MEN, + (care)*
31 CHOKO – CHOKe + O (‘egg’)
33 BALUSTER – BUSTER, around AL (Capone)
34 ACTION-PACKED – definition, and cryptic indication – attrACTIONs will appear to be ‘packed with ACTION’
38 DECAPITATE – (ace + had), reversed, + PI + TATE
40 EVENTUATE – EVEN, + ATE (Greek goddess of mischief or ‘trouble’), around TU (trades’ union)
42 SEA LAWYER – SEAL, + AYER (philosopher) around W
43 FREIGHTED – FRED around EIGHT (cube of 2)
45 VACCINE – sounds like vac (short for vacation; ‘holiday’) + seen
46 FANATIC – F + ANTIC, around A
47 RED HAT – hatred, with the first and second halves switched
48 CRATER – CRATE + Rust
50 DRAFT – Drawings + RA, + FT (Financial Times) – an ‘&lit’ clue where the wordplay is also the definition
52 CRAB – RAB (Rab Butler, the British Conservative politician; died 1982, hence ‘of yesteryear’) preceded by C

12 comments on “Times Jumbo 1114”

  1. 34 mins. I didn’t make many notes so I must have found this one fairly straightforward. CHOKO was my LOI with fingers crossed, and I was pleased to see it existed when I checked my Chambers post-solve.
  2. Like Andy, CHOKO was my LOI and went in with no great confidence, though it looked likelier than either closo or croao, which I also considered.

    Small amendment, Helen – the puzzle number is 1114.

    1. Many thanks – I’ve amended the puzzle number and picked up a typo in my preamble at the same time.
  3. 38m, which indicates something slightly harder than usual. Like Andy and mohn2, CHOKO was my last in and I didn’t think much of it. It looked likelier than CROAO or CLOSO but it’s not the clearest of clues.
  4. I found it harder than average, though not really hard, mainly because of some unfamiliar words. But there are no ? marks on my paper, so the clues were clear and precise.. thanks, setter and also blogger – well done last weekend too, Helen. Must be difficult being a token female…

    Edited at 2014-10-25 02:01 pm (UTC)

    1. well done last weekend too, Helen. Must be difficult being a token female… – thanks jerrywh. Sadly it’s not the first time I’ve been the token female, but fortunately that’s by no means always been the case.
  5. Took me a long time to remember Rab Butler, a name I barely know anyway; I was long tempted by ‘grub’, but fortunately resisted the temptation. DNK CHOKO, but couldn’t think of anything else. I’m not fond of words like 30d, which have no independent existence (so far as I know, anyway) but are simply formed for puzzle purposes on the basis of English grammatical rules; some who enjoys is an enjoyer, etc.

    Edited at 2014-10-26 04:02 am (UTC)

  6. Crossword setters need all the words they can lay their hands on! MENACER is marked in the OED as rare but the word goes back a few centuries there are two citations from the past 30 years. This is most definitely NOT a word invented by the setter — and if it is fairly clued it is the sort of word that should cause no bother.
  7. Wrote red hot,grub(food),but got the rest.How did you fare against M.G.Hellen?
    C.ONG’ARA
    KENYA.
    1. I got through to the final, where I came 8th (better than my placing last year). M.G. finished a long time before the rest of us!
  8. I don’t understand this clue. ‘Long gone’ is No MORE not ANY MORE -or am I missing something?
    1. The definition is ‘still’, not ‘long gone’.’An era long gone’ indicates AN + YORE, part of the wordplay, and ‘still’ is a synonym of ‘any more’; for example, ‘we don’t still buy a newspaper’ is equivalent to ‘we don’t buy a newspaper any more’. Hope that helps.

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