Times Jumbo 1291

Author   PenfoldPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic

Sorry this blog is so late folks.  I didn’t get a chance to finsih the solve until I was on the train back from the Championships the weekend after publication.  Last weekend was hectic and every time I’ve tried to get an hour on the computer either daughter number 2 is doing homework and/or watching youtube videos on make-up, or Mrs Penfold has decided to run an update, or I’ve decided to replace the mouse batteries and the darned thing hasn’t synched.

This took me a little over an hour so I’d say it was on the trickier side of average.  To save blogging time I generally omit clues which I think are straightforward enough to require no explanation but in this puzzle there were very few I didn’t mark.

First in was IDENTICAL, last was SHIRTSLEEVE.


Across

6
SEDUCTIVENESS – (deceivesstuns)*

13
VEERY – V(iper) + EERY.  This was very nearly my last in as I didn’t know the alternative spelling of EERIE or the North American thrush species.

14
BATTLESHIPS – B + (spilt + haste)*

15
DHOTI – HOT (as in stolen) in D.I. for the traditional “long loincloth” worn by Hindu men on the Indian sub-continent

16
SHIRTSLEEVE – (S{oldie}R theselive)*.  It took until the end of my solve to stop pratting around looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition here (arm’s casing).

17
OBSOLESCENT – OB SOLE SCENT.  The Ob, in Western Siberia, is the world’s seventh longest river.  I’d never heard of it and I bet Robson Greene has never been fishing in it.

18 
INCUBUS – CUB inside U.S.

20
SIT DOWN – I in ST[reet] then DOWN as in sad.

21
BIOFUEL – O[xygen] in (blueif)* with “sporting” as the anagram indicator

23
A BLESSING IN DIGUISE – One of those “the clue is in the solution” type constructions, i.e. “a blessing in disguise” could be an anagramatic clue to “lass binge”.

27 
ISA – A nice bit of lift & separate with the definition, “where to save”, blending seamlessly with the rest of the clue wherein “lives with centre FOR malaria” gives you IS + A

28
EOCENE – {h}E{r}O{i}C{m}E{n}N{e}E{d}. This epoch lasted from 56 to 33.9 million years ago, is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch, as the old song goes.

29
MAQUIS – MARQUIS without R for king for the French Resistance groups named after the terrain in which they hid.  Good moaning.

31
ENUNCIATE – E[uropean] + NUNCI{o} + ATE

34
DALLIANCE – ALLIANCE after D[aughter]

36
HEREOF – HER then FOE reversed

39
UZI – reverse hidden in seIZUre.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t see that word without thinking of Arnie.

40
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED – BRIDES HEAD then IT in REVISED

42
LEE TIDE – EDIT EEL reversed.  I hadn’t heard of a lee tide but it wasn’t too much of a stretch to accept that such a thing might exist.

43
SCARCER – SCAR + REC reversed

45
RADICAL – RADIAL around C{he}

47
SUBDISTRICT – ID reversed + STRICT all following SUB(editor)

49
INTRAVENOUS – INTO around RAVEN preceding U.S.

52
BUTTERBEANS – UTTER BE(eetroot) in BANS

53
LATHI – LATHING without N[ew] G[olf]

54
KNUCKLEDUSTER – LED in (nukestruck)*

55
SIDETRACK – SIDE + TRACK


Down

1
INVESTIGATE – INVEST + I + GATE as in WATERGATE etc

2
ELEGIAC – LEG & AI reversed in EU

3
TRYST – TRY + S{ui}T

4
CABALISTIC – BIC around A-LIST all after C{irc}A.  I don’t recall seeing BIC used before.

5
LITTERS – LITTER + (walkie)S

7
DISCOBOLI – DISCO then I LOB reversed.  More lovely L&S (“people throwing party”).  Discus throwers.  You’ll have seen pictures of the Discobolus of Myron without knowing that’s what it was called.  I like to think the model for the sculpture was nicknamed old disco bollocks.

8
CRIMSON – CRIM{e} SON 

9
INSALUBRIOUS – (snub us oil air)*

10
ENDOSCOPE – END O.S. COPE

11
EMOTE  – E-TOME reversed

12
SCINTILLATE – SCINTILLA + T{hird-rat}E

19
BASENJI – BASE then J[udge] in N[orthern] I[reland]

22
UNIVALENT – (evil aunt)* with N for knight (chess) thrown into the mix

24
LOCAL TIME – LO-CAL TIME (porridge as in time in prison)

25
GLADEYE – GLADE YE

30
SOCIAL CLIMBER – C[onservative] in SOCIAL LIMBER.

32
CREASED – C[ouncillo}R EASED.  “In need of an evening out” was a lovely definition.

33
INDIGESTIBLE – IN DIGEST {b}IBLE.  IBLE isn’t one of those obscure books of the Bible that Keriothe doesn’t know, it’s the Bible itself without B[ook].

34
DOUBLESPEAK – DOUBLES PEAK

37
FIDDLESTICK – FIDDLES TICK

38
OVERPASSED – OVERPASS E{nfiel}D

40
BAILIWICK – BAIL (money to liberate) + WICK after I[sland].  Wick is an archaic term for a village or hamlet.

41
HEARTFELT – R[ight] in HEAT then FELT

43
SHIATSU – SHIA {a}T{i}S{s}U{e}

44
RATTANS – reversal of TAN in STAR

50
ECLAT – C in TALE reversed

 

6 comments on “Times Jumbo 1291”

  1. I can’t remember if this was particularly difficult, although I do remember taking forever to get my LOI HEREOF. DNK VEERY. Liked INTRAVENOUS, CABALISTIC, SHIATSU, & ISA, which I had to look up afterwards to make sure it was what I was thinking of.
  2. I found this a bit of a challenge, taking over 2 hours (2:07:13) to finish it. Even then I only completed it with assistance from reference sources. DISCOBOLI and VEERY were 2 of my unknowns. I think I can safely say I was bleary eyed by the time I got to the end. Thanks for the blog Penfold.
  3. VEERY took me forever to crack.BASENJI now a chestnut in jumbi,loved it’s surface.
    Ong’ara,
    NRB.
  4. Found this one of about average difficulty. I didn’t know VEERY/EERY or LEE TIDE, didn’t really get the definition of EMOTE at first (though Collins and ODO mention acting), and had not come across GLADEYE as one word (it’s not in any of the usual dictionaries either). DISCOBOLI came up in a finals puzzle a few years ago with part of the wordplay being something about COBOL, which helped make it stick in this ex-programmer’s mind. COD to ISA for the nice surface and lift-and-separate.

    Re INCUBUS, I’m sure that in the (distant?) past the editor used to monitor which words appeared as answers, so that the situation wouldn’t arise where similar answers cropped up in two puzzles on the same day, but that practice seems to have fallen by the wayside. In this case, though, at least the clues were fairly dissimilar so it wasn’t a write-in.

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