Times Jumbo 1261

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

Greetings, earthlings, and welcome to another Jumbo Blog.

Here we have yet another puzzle of average difficulty IMHO, with just a smattering of unknowns that (or is it which?) precipitated a flurry of t’internet research.   First in was FULL OF BEANS, last TELAMON.  If the clue that had you bemused isn’t among those I’ve elected to explain then do pipe up, won’t you.


Across

7
FIDDLE-DE-DEE – ED in FIDDLE then (river)DEE.  Not the first expression I use if I want to alert someone to the fact that they’re talking bo**ocks.

13
PER CONTRA– (co-partner)*.  Latin legalese, innit?

14
URANIUM – U (posh) + RANI + U(ses) M(ains).  Whilst the RANI/princess link crops up fairly regularly in the crossworld the dictionaries appear to point to a rani being, in Hindu, a queen rather than a princess

17
PETERSON – E.T. in PERSON, with “musical Oscar” being the definition.  I didn’t know Oscar Peterson was Canadian.  My parents certainly had some of his records (until he came to ask for them back).

18
TELAMON – This was a tricky one for sure (and hence my last in).  I was totally unfamiliar with the father of Ajax (a sort of ancient Barry Scott) which made it hard to spot the def.  It was tempting to lift & separate Old Greek King but the whole is what was needed, constructed by putting L(ake) in TEAM ON.   

23
PATIENT – I in PATENT

24 
NANKEEN – NAN + KEEN. Nankeen is a kind of pale yellowish cloth, originally made at Nanjing, China from a yellow variety of cotton, but subsequently manufactured from ordinary cotton that is then dyed

26
STATION – TAT in SION

28
ROAD – BROAD without (saa)B

29
BARBICAN – (rabbi)* + CAN

32 
BELLE ISLE – BELL + ELSIE reversed. I knew this as a rather unattractive area of Leeds and not the island between Labrador and Newfoundland

35
DETRACTED – TRACT in DEED

36
EXPOSURE – DD.  The setter may well have been thinking of risk in a financial sense where, for instance, exposures to interest and exchange rates represent risks to a business.

37
SLAT – (in)L(ay) in SAT for positioned, which comes up again later…

39
SINGLET – SINGLE + (bough)T

41
VANILLA – reversal of ALL IN A V(erse) for another meaning straight out of the bankers’ songbook.

44
CLANGER – lift and separate needed here – CLAN for family then GER(man) equating to “from Munich, say, man leaves”

45
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM – terrific clue with the neatly executed anagram of “TV consumers earnestly” blending seamlessly with the spledid definition “sensational network” 

49
CHAGRIN – CHA + GRIN

50
ARSENIDE – (seedrain)* not a compound I’m familiar with (it’s a a binary compound of arsenic with a metallic element) but once you hit on the right sort of compound it’s easy enough to figure our something feasible-looking from the well-signposted anagram.

51
HECKLE – HECK + LE.  Heckler to Jimmy Carr: ‘My mum died of cancer.’ Jimmy: ‘What?’ Heckler: ‘I only mentioned it because it was funnier than this.’

54
UFOLOGY – {g}UY around F.O. LOG

55
NEW LABOUR – “left brand” is the def (UK politics for the benefit of overseas solvers) made from NEW (recently introduced) and LABOUR (employees)

56
NECROMANCER – CE in (cranmer on)*

57
ELECTIONEER – L(iberal) in EEC then ONE in TIER


Down

1
FIPPLE – FILE (crocodile as in group of schoolchildren walking to the swimming baths) around PP for twopenny.  A new one on me but what a lovely word. A fipple is a constricted mouthpiece common to many end-blown flutes, such as the tin whistle and the recorder. These instruments are known variously as fipple flutes, duct flutes, or tubular-ducted flutes, the latter being the working title for Mike Oldfield’s debut album.

2
LORD MOUNTBATTEN – LO RD MOUNT BATTEN

3
ON ONES TOES – O then another O in an anagram of (shakespear)E SONNETS

4
BATE – B(lack) ATE

5
AGAMEMNON – Pretty much a write-in for an inveterate classics enthusiast like me (chortle).  Well, it helps that I was force-fed Troilus and what’s-her-name at skool.  GAME M in ANON

6
STUDENT – D{osshous}E in STUNT with “maybe fresher” as the definition

7
FLAGSTONE – FLAG (standard) + STONE (imperial measure of weight).  I only knew it as a generic paving slab but it’s also a form of a sandstone composed of feldspar and quartz  

9
LIMITLESS – IT L(ength) in LIME S.S.

10
DOUBLE HEADER – HEAD in (rebelduo)*.  Here’s another one I only knew with a different meaning.  For me a double-header means back-to-back sporting fixtures against the same team but, logcally I guess, it can also mean a train with a loco at either end.

11
DREAMER – ME in DREAR

12
ENDING – hidden in friEND IN Grenadier with guards as the rather pleasing containment indicator

19
PORTRAIT – PORT R.A. IT

21
OMNIBUS – DD

22
ANCESTOR – AN + (escort)*

23
PARADISE – IS in PARADE. I couldn’t find any direct linkage between or quotes about paradise being a “sensual garden” but it’s close enough for jazz

25
NACRE – N(ew) ACRE

27
IT’S ALL GREEK TO ME – a CD of sorts I guess

30
BEDEVIL – BE DEVIL.  I knew the phrase “Satan Bug” from an Alistair MacLean book and there was also a fillum loosely based on it.

31
NEPAL – N.E. + PAL (China plate / mate).  Of course Nepal is SW of China, and a country in its own right.

33
LYRICIST – C{avall}I in LYRIST.  Francesco Cavalli (14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period.  

34
MARLON BRANDO – MAR + N(ew) BRA in LONDON{n}

38
SAN STEFANO – FAN in (notesas)* for the place whose eponymous treaty ended the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish war

40
TARANTULA – RANT in TAU then L.A. with “web architect” as the lovely def

42
NIELS BOHR – (nhsboiler)* for the Danish Nobel Prize-winning physicist

43
ABUNDANCE – DD, the whist variant in question being Solo

45
CLASSIC – another DD, the 5 English horse racing classics being The Derby, The Oaks, the Guineas things and the other one, and you’ll have to ask a TLS blogger if you want to know what makes a literary work a “classic”

46
VAN DYKE – ANDY K(ing) (probably not the former Everton footballer) in V(ery) E(nglish).  Apparently a Van Dyke specifically consists of any growth of both a moustache and goatee with all hair on the cheeks shaven. The singer of a band I saw last night (Hayseed Dixie if you must know) suggested that today’s hipster beard is tomorrow’s mullet.  I hope he’s right.

47
ACUMEN – CU for copper in AMEN.  The definition is just “judgement”, with “forming” a sort of front-loaded link word.

48
TERROR – ERR in TOR

50
AZOIC – OZ in CIA all flipped.  New one on me, derived from something Greek with -IC slapped on the end.

52
SWAT – there’s SAT for positioned again, this time around W(ife) 

 

10 comments on “Times Jumbo 1261”

  1. I always read the jumbo blogs but don’t often comment because I’ve usually forgotten my experience of the crossword by the time the blog comes round but I just wanted to stop by and thank you for the “sort of ancient Barry Scott” definition. Pure gold, Penfold, pure gold. Many thanks and much appreciation for the blog.
  2. Lots of DNKs, like FIPPLE (I toyed with ‘fiddle’ until 13ac made me switch to modern currency), BATE, SION, BELLE ISLE. And AZOIC, my LOI, which came only after a lot of tinkering with the alphabet until I finally saw the light (A- being the negative). 24ac and 47d are unusual in not having the definition at the very beginning or end of the clue. Doesn’t a DOUBLE-HEADER (another DNK) have 2 locomotives at the front? COD to 45ac.
    1. Hi Kevin,

      Yes you’re right about double-header and it certainly makes more sense that both locos are at the front. Lazy research on my part. Good spot re definition placement too.

  3. Thanks for a wonderful blog, Penfold. Ajax, Oscar and Carr had me laughing out loud.

    As to CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM ……. my feelings entirely. Quite literally.

  4. My very first completed Jumbo! Thank you for the blog.

    Incidentally, you’re missing:

    53 MASON – Hidden in WilMA’S ONe, indicator giving sanctuary.

    1. I’m missing a few Matt, I only explain clues that I think some solvers might not have understood or are otherwise worthy of comment.

      Congrats on the completion.

        1. Ah, gotcha! Oddly, 53 was one I had a question mark next to, so I skipped down to find it without reading your explanation. Sorry! As it turned out, it was one of those where a few days off made the parsing instantly apparent…
  5. 7a took me ages to get,not to mention TELAMON.The beauty of cryptics is that you can figure out the answer even if you don’t know a word .You also omitted UPEND Penfold but l guess it’s pretty simple with the checkers and def.
    Ong’ara,
    Kenya.

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