Times Jumbo 1162

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Solving time of 35:36, which on the face of it puts this at the high end of “normal” without being outlandishly difficult. However, now I cast my mind back two weeks, I can’t remember how much of that time I spent trying to work out what was going on with 18ac: for those who solve on paper, the clue in its on-line version appeared simply as “R”, which obviously makes no sense at all, though I only came to that conclusion after a certain amount of time thinking “A one letter clue? This must be amazingly clever, even if I can’t see it yet…” After Googling, I discovered what the correct version should have been, i.e. the actually very straightforward “Road to go down, crossing river”, giving the answer DRIVE, so presumably was cut off by accident somewhere in the editorial process (should anyone editorial happen to be reading this, it still hasn’t been corrected, should you wish to do so).

Anyway, aside from the typo, this was a pleasant and smooth solve, with some first-class surfaces, and enough interesting vocabulary to provide a tougher than normal challenge.

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
1 PEWIT – WI(=West Indies) in PET(“something like a budgie perhaps”). In reality, a pewit would not be mistaken for a budgie by most ornithologists.
15 GLORIA SWANSON – GLORIA(=”hymn”), SWANSON{G}. Most famous for Sunset Boulevard, though the full definition (“old actress largely silent”) reflects the fact that her career was at its height some years earlier in the pre-talkies era.
16 ASTARTE – A, [TART in S.E.]. Phoenician equivalent of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
17 GRAND TOUR – [D(=500) in GRANT], OUR.
18 DRIVE – See note in my introduction. A less testing clue than you may have first thought.
19 DOUBLE ENTENDRE – L{ine} in (NEEDNOTBERUDE)*. As the saying goes, if you want a double entendre round here, just ask and someone’ll give you one.
25 NIGHTSHIRT – NIGH T{ime}, SH(quiet), [R{ight} in IT]. A satisfyingly compiled &lit.
30 LET ON – LEPTON is the particle, minus P{ower}.
31 VOUCHERS – translate “you” and “dear” into French to get VOUS and CHER, insert one into the other.
32 BROUGHAM – BROUGH{t}, A.M. One of the several horse-drawn carriages which exist today only in crosswords and the works of Georgette Heyer.
36 GERM CELL – GERM{any}, CELL(=room).
37 THRUM – HR. digested by TUM; easily deduced from the wordplay, a secondary meaning which is a tuft of woven cloth apparently.
41 PRODUCTION – PROD(=stimulus), {A}UCTION.
43 NACELLE – more French required (indicated by Orly, which is the old airport in Paris). (CAN)rev. + ELLE(=”she” in French)
48 TIARA – 1 in TARA, the hill in Meath where Irish kings were once crowned.
51 STATELY – ST. AT ELY, Ely being the crossword compiler’s favourite cathedral.
53 COMPASSIONATE – COMPASS(=limit), 1 ON ATE(mischievous goddess of the classical world).
55 SCREED – S{aint}, CREED.
56 DEFEATISTS – (FATE)* in DEISTS.
 
Down
1 PAMPAS – PA in PAM’S.
3 TASER – (RESAT)rev.
4 OVERGENEROUS – VERGE in ONEROUS.
8 CLINOMETER – (NICEMERLOT)*. I liked this surface as it describes me quite well.
9 HOARDER – 0 in HARDER, another clever &lit.
11 MUSTINESS – [U.S. TIN] in MESS.
13 A SHROPSHIRE LAD – (HARDSHIPSOREAL)*, the key work of A.E. Housman.
20 BOTANISTS – BOT(=maggot, one of those things I have acquired entirely from crosswords), [IS in ANTS].
21 DIAGRAMS – (AID)rev., GRAMS. I wasn’t entirely sure of “physics”, but I suppose there has to be a word there for the surface, and it relates to physical properties of matter.
23 DECAMPMENT – A.M. and P.M. inside DECENT.
24 ENGLISHMAN – (LONGISHNAME)* without the 0.
26 HAVE A TILE LOOSE – not a turn of phrase I was familiar with, so it was an educated guess as to which word was part of a building and fitted _I_E to form an equivalent to “have a screw loose”.
28 MOUSTACHE – O in MUST ACHE, i.e. “can’t be pain-free”.
29 SHEEPDOG – cryptic def. with apparently Biblical overtones, but which actually demands you know about the breed of sheep called Jacob.
38 MEDDLESOME =”MEDAL SUM”.
40 DECLAIMER – DEC{ember} [1 in LAMER].
47 WYVERN – V{ide}=”see”, in WYE, R.N.
48 TACKS =”TAX”.

9 comments on “Times Jumbo 1162”

  1. Thank you for the blog, but you’ve missed the one clue which was bugging us, ie 18ac. You’ve given Gloria Swanson as the answer to 18ac instead of 19ac
    1. Ah, I see I gave the clue as it should have been printed in my pre-amble but not the solution DRIVE, so I’ve added that.
      1. Very sorry – careless of me not to have read the whole of your blog. I just dived to look for the answer to the “very clever clue”
        1. PS Comment from spouse: ‘It’s the old thing, isn’t it: “Read the rubric before you begin”‘
          1. Ha! I have a vague memory that once upon a time I reached the end of an exam which seemed unexpectedly demanding, then re-read the rubric which said “N.B. Only answer one of these three questions”. I’ve edited it for emphasis anyway, as I suspect you’re right to suggest that it’s the one thing likely to have been puzzling people.

            Edited at 2015-08-23 05:39 pm (UTC)

  2. 46′, quite fast for me. DNK THRUM & NACELLE, but wordplay made them fairly unproblematic. I was one of many trying to figure out what the hell R was a clue for; put in DRIVE from checkers and the vague idea that there was some play on auto gears, with R being ‘reverse’ and the reverse of ‘drive’. Or something. Biffed 5d, then finally figured out the parsing.
    1. It’s a cryptic definition: the hurricane lamp is so called because (amongst other features) it stayed alight in windy conditions, unlike a candle or simple lamp with an exposed wick.

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