Times Jumbo 762 (June 14)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
No solving time again, as I didn’t have time to do it in one sitting and actually took four or five short sessions to finish it. I found it quite tricky in places too, and there were two or three blocks of 4 or 5 crossing answers that I had to leave and come back to later.

Across

1 BUCK,TOO,TH(e)
13 A(B)REAS,T(eam) – B = breadth seems to me to be one of those single-letter abbreviations you wouldn’t expect to see in a Times puzzle. Maybe the Jumbo doesn’t have the same set of rules as the daily.
14 A1,R(H)OLE – but I don’t see a definition, unless there’s a verb ‘to airhole’, which Chambers doesn’t support.
15 TO(RN)AD,O
16 ARTIS(TIC TEMPERA,MEN)T – a very good &lit, with TIC + TEMPERA MEN = “habitual behaviour” and “painting chaps” inside (traits*), with the whole thing reading like a cryptic definition.
21 KIT,CHE(N)ER – he of the big moustache and the WW1 recruitment posters.
25 GERRYMANDER – “swap fronts” gives MERRY GANDER, and no mention of Spooner! The def. is “Redo edges of seats”, as this is the practice of changing voting boundaries in the interests of a particular party.
39 RECONNOITRE – that’s got to be one of the longest hidden reversals I’ve ever seen!
43 B(I)ODIES,EL – EL is short for elevated railroad, like in Chicago.
50 I VOW TO THEE, MY COUNTRY – another good &lit, (Hymn we try out, to voice)*, but I didn’t know the name of the hymn and only got this when I had most of the checking letters.

Down

1 BEAR ARMS – which could give you a bear hug! I prefer this sort of double definition to the two-word kind (e.g. 10A Clever sting = SMART)
3 TR(ANSF,ERF)EE – i.e. (ref,fans)* in TREE. For the surface reading, Forest refers to Nottingham Forest, the football team.
6 BERGMAN – G in (Mr Bean)*. I don’t think even he could have made Mr Bean into a good film though!
8 DIE,WALK,(s)URE – second opera of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
24 S,ALE,S RESI(rises*),STANCE
28 FO(DDE)R – DDE is Dwight David Eisenhower, lucerne is another name for alfalfa, a cattle fodder plant.
33 WAYS AND MEANS – this is “weigh”, SAND (unreliable base), MEANS (averages)
35 SENSIBILITY – IBIS rev inside (style in)*
40 COOK’S TOUR – Captain James Cook was the first to circumnavigate and map New Zealand, and his ship was HMS Endeavour. A Cook’s tour, however, is a rapid but extensive tour, as arranged by Thomas Cook.
44 STOKE UP – Stoke is at the centre of the Potteries area of the midlands.
46 PIER,ROT – aged, as according to some, the character has been around for over 4,000 years, originating in Asia Minor!
48 SCIPIO – O,I(=current),PICS all reversed.
51 T(R)U(R)O – very smooth surface for a tricky bit of wordplay. Truro is in Cornwall.

6 comments on “Times Jumbo 762 (June 14)”

  1. Not sure what happened there with the huge gaps, but for some reason I was logged out when I tried to post it, and when I logged back in the blog software had rendered my text into HTML (and done a pretty bad job of it, as you can see!)
    1. The DDE in 28dn seems pretty outrageous to me. It’s on Wiki as an alternative abbreviation to “Ike” but I’ve never heard of it before and I lived through his era as President. Are we to expect the present incumbent to turn up as GWB in 50 year’s time?
      1. I’ve never quite understood why, but a number of the presidents, with the exception of the last seven or so, are referred almost reverentially by their three initials – JFK, FDR, DDE, LBJ. Dwight ia the only letter combination likely to be insertion fodder.
        1. “Dwight ia the only letter combination likely to be insertion fodder.”

          Sorry, GL, I haven’t understood this.

          It just occurred to me the “DDE” might have been a popular abbreviation in the US, but in the UK, in my exprience at least, he was always “Ike”

          1. Sorry, I understand now; I was thrown by “ia” for “is” for a moment. FDR might turn up in HALF-DRUNK or SELF-DRIVE, for example.
            1. I’m sorry, early-morning typoing, that was meant to be Dwight D Eisenhower (DDE) is the most likely letter combination, but you’re right, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is a contender as well.

              It is a peculiar Americanism to put such an emphasis on the middle name. I had problems getting payment a few years ago for a student from Vietnam who had no “middle initial” to put on the payment form, and it couldn’t be accepted without a middle initial (I invented a middle name for him starting with “J”).

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