Times Jumbo 1279, and a farewell

Author   helenoughamPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Apologies for the late posting – I’ve been away, with very limited internet access.

Here it is: my final blog on the Times Jumbo. It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s time for someone else to take over. Many thanks to all who’ve commented over the past six years, and best wishes to all solvers, setters and bloggers.

As always, * indicates an anagram.

Across
1 SCRUMP – P after SCRUM. “Nick” here indicates “steal”
5 OCELLUS – O + US, around CELL
9 MILEPOST – LE + PO, in MIST
13 UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE – (Unwed hero one regretted)*
14 GLASS EYE – G + LASS, + EYE (sounds like “I”)
15 AYE-AYES – double indication
16 ERSATZ – ER + SAT + Z
17 SWORD DANCE – (Coward ends)*
20 EXPLORATIONS – EX + PL + ORATIONS
23 LIVY – LIVerY
24 PREDATOR – A TORy, after P + RED
26 EASINESS – hidden in AenEAS IN ESSence
29 SLEDGEHAMMER – EDGE + H, in SLAMMER
30 DRAWSTRING – sward, reversed, + TRING
32 CRUSTACEAN – (Tuna scarce)*
34 LIGHTNING ROD – LIGHTNING + ROD
36 HEDONIST – DON in HEIST
38 TO BE SURE – (Our best)* + inadequatE
39 AHAB – A HABit
41 NEW ENGLANDER – (green lawn)* around (den)*
43 TRESPASSER – TRES, + PASS (“attempt to seduce”) + ER
44 PROLES – R in POLES
46 SHALLOT – ALL in SHOT
48 PIN MONEY – PIN, + ONE in MY
50 HAVE A FINGER IN EVERY PIE – cryptic indication, referring to the nursery rhyme character Little Jack Horner, who “put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum, and said ‘What a good boy am I!'”
51 ENTRANCE – double definition
52 DISTANT – DI’S + TA + NoT
53 SPRATS – another nursery rhyme reference, this time to Jack Sprat, who “could eat no fat”, and his wife, who “could eat no lean”

Down
2 CRUEL – sounds like “crewel”
3 UNDESTROYED – (Eden’s duo try)*
4 PORTENDS – PORT + ENDS
5 OCHRE – CHORE, with O moved to the beginning (= top, as this is a down answer)
6 ENGRAVE – sidE + NG + RAVE
7 LIE DETECTOR – cryptic indication
8 SONNY – sounds like “sunny”
9 MOONSTONE – MO + ON + ST + ONE
10 LEDGE – LEDGEr
11 PARISHIONER – PARIS + HI + ONER
12 SLEPT IN – LEaPT in SIN
18 WRIT LARGE – indicated by the clue being in block capitals
19 NOR GATE – anagram of “Operating” minus the p and the i
21 PARADIGMS – PAR + A DIG + MS
22 ASSASSIN – AS + SAS + SIN
25 DOMINATED – DATED, around OM + IN
27 SYNCOPATE – (pacy notes)*
28 BERATING – BEING around RAT
31 ASTARTE – ATE around STAR
33 STONE PLOVER – O in (nest)*, + Peck + LOVER
34 LIBERAL ARTS – ART – old form of “are”, as in “thou art”, in LIBERALS
35 GRASSHOPPER – SHOP in GRASPER
37 THAT’S LIFE – (hell it’s fate)*
40 UP IN ARMS – (Puritanism)*
42 EARTHEN – hidden in hEAR THE News
43 TITANIA – TITAN + I + A
45 SPAWN – S + PAWN. “To pop” is slang for “to pawn”
47 ALGID – (dig LA), reversed
48 PIVOT – (to VIP), reversed
49 EVENT – EVEN + T

18 comments on “Times Jumbo 1279, and a farewell”

  1. Thank you for all your hard work Helen! It’s always been a source of great sadness to me that, a week later when the blog goes up, I’ve always forgotten anything I had to say about a Jumbo Puzzle. Hope to see you at the annual showdown in November?
  2. Thank you for all your efforts Helen. I always look at the Jumbo blogs and although like Verlaine I can’t usually think of much to say, I do appreciate them.
  4. Thanks for all your blogs. Like others, I expect, I often look at them but without commenting and have been grateful for the explanations!
    Linda Lofthouse
  5. Thanks for those blogs, Helen, which I’ve found very useful on many occasions. Nice to meet you again at the Inquisitor 1500 celebration in Manchester in July.
    Niall MacSweeney
  6. Thanks for all the blogs Helen. Sorry to see you go. As has been said already, I often read without commenting as I can’t remember much about the puzzle by the time the answers come around. I solved this one in 76:08 apparently with all correct, but as usual I can’t get access to my completed grid.
  7. Thanks for the blogs, Helen. Were you lured away by a better remuneration package at fifteensquared or Big Dave’s blog?!
  8. Sorry to learn of your departure Helen, thanks for all the blogs, probably see you in the George.
  9. Many thanks to the blogger for her long innings. I seem to recall that 23a has been discussed elsewhere, but it’s worth noting that ‘Livy’ generally refers to Titus Livius, a historian, not, as per the clue, a poet (I wonder if the setter had the poet Ovid somewhere in his/her mind?). fourlegger
  11. Thank you so much for your blogs. Same as others in finding my memory too deficient to comment after the 2 week lag. For the last year-and-a-half your fellow bloggers of the TLS puzzle have been in the same boat (3 week lag) and we mostly ended up talking to each other! Perhaps you will return to a more rewarding readership here after a suitable hiatus.
  13. The setter apologises for the LIVY clue and is glad that amidst all the social chitchat soemone has commented on the puzzle itself!
  14. Thanks everyone for your kind comments. I hope to see at least some of you at various crossword events around the UK!
  15. It seems churlish to grumble about a clue in the midst of all the thank-yous and farewells, so let me join in with those before I harrumph and, indeed, cry fowl. Anyone who knows anything about birds will tell you that nobody ever uses this, that it’s obscure beyond belief, never had any regular usage, etc. It would be fair enough in the Club Monthly. I know that if it’s in a dictionary somewhere it’s fair game, but because we’re birders we have lots of reference books and it turns out that it’s so folklorish that it can mean not only the stone-curlew but also the little ringed plover and the bar-tailed godwit, so there. Rant over.
    1. I’m something of a bird enthusiast myself, and completely agree – ‘stone plover’ is pretty obscure, variable in meaning and rarely used. However the Saturday cryptic Jumbo does tend to throw in obscure terms from time to time, and at least this one is in Chambers as well as numerous other dictionaries, including the OED which says that another meaning is the whimbrel! So yes, fair game in this context.

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