Solving time of 28:52, so we’re back to something like my average solving time. This was a welcome holiday puzzle, very elegantly clued and enjoyable to solve.
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 | |
|---|---|
| 4 | WOODCUTTER – WOO(=seek support of), D.C.(Washington), UTTER(=say). |
| 14 | RECONDITE – REC(=recreation ground=playground), ON-DIT(a word meaning “rumour” which is obscure in normal terms, but has appeared more than once in puzzles in the last few months), {tru}E. |
| 15 | ABERDEEN ANGUS – US in (BEENADANGER)*. Breed of cattle which is a byword for excellence, something which isn’t always said of the steak restaurants of the name. |
| 16 | SIDEARM – DEAR in SIM(card); in a country other than the UK, of course. |
| 18 | DOTTY – take POTTY, change the new penny (P) to an old penny (D). |
| 19 | INTERNATIONALE – “left to play this”, i.e. the anthem of international socialism; INTERNATIONAL(=match), E(=compass point). |
| 27 | WEIRD SISTERS – i.e. “resists” is an anagram (i.e. a WEIRD version of) SISTERS. One of those types of clue which should have a snappy name, where you effectively write your own wordplay to see the answer. |
| 31 | FLORENCE – LOR{d} in FENCE. |
| 32 | DENARIUS – ([I RAN] in SUED)all rev. |
| 36 | MODERATO – M.O.D.(Ministry of Defence) ERATO(the Muse of lyric poetry and this various writers’ inspiration). |
| 37 | RECTO – take the R{ailwa}Y away from the RECTO{ry} to get the right hand side of a bound book, opposite to the verso. |
| 43 | TINAMOU – (IMOUNTA)*; a bird I always think ought to be from New Zealand from the name, but is in fact South American. |
| 48 | RUFUS – R{ugby} U{nion}, FUS{s}. William II of England, known as Rufus because of his ruddy complexion. |
| 49 | TWENTY-TWO – If you’re a sports fan, this is very straightforward; if you aren’t, potentially baffling. There are eleven in a cricket team, and the “twenty-two” is a line 22 metres from the goal-line in rugby which is important for various laws of the game, though they need not detain us here. |
| 53 | PENNY DREADFUL – PEN(=writer), N{ew}, Y(=unknown), DREADFUL(=very bad). The penny dreadful was a cheap (obviously) form of sensational fiction, a sort of comic, though far from comic in tone. |
| 54 | PRIME TIME – double def., prime time being when most people (or at least their TVs) are turned on, and prime being the first service of the day in church hours, happening at daybreak. |
| 57 | DANDY – i.e. the last two letters of “meloDY” are D AND Y. |
| Down | |
| 4 | WHITMAN – W{ife}, HITMAN. Despite the surface, Walt Whitman died of lung disease, and was not bumped off by his wife; not least because, as obituaries used to say in coded fashion in less enlightened times, “he never married”. |
| 5 | ONE FOR THE POT – the cannibal being the one beloved of cartoonists of a less PC age, also featuring the stereotypical European explorer/missionary, invariably in a pith helmet, and sitting in a large cooking pot. More literally, the extra spoonful of tea (traditionally there should be one spoon for each cup to be served, plus the extra “one for the pot”). |
| 6 | CO-AUTHOR – [A in COUTH], O{ther} R{anks}(=men). COUTH is one of those words that really only exists in the negative, see also “kempt”, “gainly”, “stinting”. |
| 7 | TWEAK – WEAK is after (i.e. not before) WEAK; the weak nuclear force is one of the fundamental forces, along with the strong nuclear force, gravity and electromagnetism. |
| 11 | BAGATELLE – GATE in BALLE{t}. |
| 12 | RISKY – R{hode} I{sland}, SKY, the occasionally controversial satellite TV company. |
| 13 | PEASANTS REVOLT – (OVERSTATEPLANS)*; very clever &lit. anagram. |
| 20 | EARTHLING – L{ine} installed in EARTHING(=making a connection). |
| 23 | DUST STORMS – DUST(=wipe), [(ROT)rev. in SMS]. SMS is the more formal name for a text message |
| 28 | STAIRWELL – [T{emperature} and AIR] in SWELL. Clever definition in “flight area”. |
| 29 | DENOUNCE – ENO (English National Opera) inside DUNCE. |
| 33 | INCARCERATION – (CICERONIANART)*. More cleverness in the semi &lit., as Marcus Tullius Cicero was prominent as a lawyer, alongside his philosophising and political ambitions. In fact, his most prominent client as a defendant faced far worse than incarceration as a prospect if convicted. |
| 42 | FLOTILLA – F{ine}, LOT(=condition), ILL(=badly) A{rranged}. I was unconvinced by “lot”=”condition”, but the ODO definition “a person’s luck, situation or destiny in life” seems to cover it. |
| 44 | MISTYPE – MISTY(=unclear) P.E.(physical education). As a two-fingered typist, this struck a chord with me. |
| 46 | HERRING – punning suggestion as to how a female fish might indicate that she’d become engaged, though how would a fish wear an engagement ring in the first place, and fish don’t even get engaged, and I’m over-analysing this, aren’t I? |
| 47 | SNEEZY – as in one of the Seven Dwarfs who whistled while they worked. |
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