Times Jumbo 1124, December 20

Author   helenoughamPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Happy New Year, everyone!

I didn’t find this puzzle too difficult (apart from – as usual in my case – the cricket-related clues). There were one or two somewhat obscure answers, such as the American architect at 39ac,and a few where I wasn’t entirely convinced by the definition, so I’d love to hear other people’s views on 23ac, 31ac and 46dn (and indeed, of course, on any others!).
As always, * indicates an anagram.

Across
1 SYNTHESISER – SYN (sounds like ‘sin’) + THESIS + ER
7 CACHET – ACHE (‘long’) in CT
10 MEWS – double definition
14 LEARNER – LEAR + NERo
15 AILERON – AILER (‘one suffering’) + ON (‘working’)
16 CHATEAU – ‘pet drink’ could be CHAT (cat) + EAU (water) in Champagne, France
17 DADDY-LONG-LEGS – DADDY, + LONG LEGS – the latter is apparently a cricketing term
18 INSPECTOR – IN SECTOR, around P
19 STRUT – STRUTh
21 OPEN SECRET – (pretence so)*
23 NIMROD – (dorm in), reversed. Can’t help thinking that just ‘variation’ isn’t enough as an indication of NIMROD, one of Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’
25 BEHEMOTH – BE HE MOTH (as a question)
26 MAN IN THE STREET – double indication
29 CALZONE – CAL (California) ZONE
30 OVERDRAFT – OVER-DRAFT (‘impress too many soldiers’)
31 BATHE – BAT, + eh (reversed). Cricket fans – does BAT = ‘innings’
32 RIFER – RIFt, + odd-numbered letters of ‘earl’
34 ON THE BALL – double indication
37 BARN OWL – BAR NOW, + L
39 MIES VAN DER ROHE – (ever more Danish)*
41 SUNDRESS – SUNDRiES + S
43 REDACT – RED + ACT
44 ANTECEDENT – ANT + E + (decent)*
45 MEDIC – MED (short for Mediterranean) +ICed
48 PAVAROTTI – PARt + around V + A, + OTT + I
49 DREW A VEIL OVER – D + RE + WAVE + I + LOVER
51 DONEGAL – GAL after DONE
52 HELLENE – alternate (even) letters of ‘Leander’, after HELL
53 UPSILON – (no lisp), reversed, after U
54 NASH – san (sanatorium), reversed, + H
55 MARSHY – MARS + HillY
56 TEACHER’S PET – (cheater pest)*

Down
1 SOLIDUS – SOLID + US
2 NEANDERTHAL – (near the land)*
3 HONEY – noh, reversed, + ye, reversed
4 SERMON ON THE MOUNT – cryptic indication
5 SPANGLED – SPAN + eveninG + LED (light-emitting diode)
6 ROLLER SKATE – ROLLERS + KATE
7 CERES – hidden in scarCE RESources
8 CONFIDENTIALLY – (Identify call on)*
9 EXCESS – sounds like last letters of ‘sex games’
11 EJECTOR SEAT – cryptic indication
12 SQUARED – triple definition
13 FACELIFT – (fact file)*
20 TAMBOUR – A MB in TOUR
22 CHILD – CHID around meaL; an ‘&lit’, where the whole clue is the definition
24 BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH – BE AT, + (house bathtub)*
25 BUCKRAM – (mark cub), reversed
27 THE ALPS – T + HEALS, around P
28 NORTHERN LIGHTS – NORTHERN (London Underground line) + LIGHT + S
31 BOREDOM – BOOM around RED
33 FIELD EVENTS – (self-evident)*. Another ‘&lit’ clue
35 EERIE – sounds like (Lake) Erie
36 ACHIEVEMENT – A CHIT, around EVEr + MEN
38 OVERDEVELOP – O, + (Cape) VERDE, + (love)* + P
40 VICARAGE – A RAG in VICE
42 DE VALERA – laved, reversed, + ERA. Eamonn DE VALERA was head of the Irish government for parts of the 1930s, 40s and 50s
43 ROPED IN – definition plus cryptic indication
46 CORONET – O in CORNET. Musicians – does a CORNET (player) strictly equate to a ‘trumpeter’?
47 STELLA – TELL (‘count’) in SA
49 DOLLY – DOLLY – double definition, one of them a cricketing term, alas
50 LOSER – cLOSER; here, ‘executed’ indicates having the ‘head’ cut off

4 comments on “Times Jumbo 1124, December 20”

  1. Hi Helen, Happy New Year.

    For me, 23ac was a write-in as I knew NIMROD was that sort of variation, and it didn’t bother me. 31ac, also fine – Chambers has “a turn at batting (cricket)” as one definition of BAT, which is very close to the definition of “innings”. 46ac, as a non-musician it seems ok to me, but trumpeters would probably be seething!

    PS can you add a title please? Something like “Jumbo 1124 (20th Dec)”

  2. Most trumpeters will play cornets too.. I did.. just as most flautists play piccolos when required.
  3. I seem to struggle to get through a Jumbo without some sort of careless error these days. This time it was EYRIE, which is a homophone of Erie so works just fine, apart from the fact that it’s not referred to in the clue in any way.
    I didn’t have any problem with the other things you’ve queried, Helen. Elgar’s variations are sufficiently archetypal in my book, and I took ‘trumpeter’ to indicate a thing that trumpets. A cornet sounds more like a trumpet than an elephant does.
  4. 23ac was my LOI, but I see that I scribbled in the margin, “DNK–Elgar?” so maybe it was a K after all. Definitely didn’t know the cricket connection to DOLLY. I spent a good deal of time thinking ‘going flying’ at 11ac indicated that g-o-i-n-g was anagrist for something

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