Times Jumbo 788 (Dec 6th)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Do we still blog these? The last ones I can find were 784 by 7dpenguin, my own 783, then 7dpenguin’s for 779 with Pete’s blog for 780 underneath it! Come on guys, the Google calendar has blog assignments for every Jumbo on a 5-week rotation (having said that, I’ve missed my own fair share over the past year or so).

This one was a bit of a slog for me, and I haven’t recorded a time. It must have been 45 minutes plus though, over two or three sittings. I made one mistake, putting SARI in unexplained at 23A, although while writing up the blog I realised what the correct answer was.

Across
1 TRIPOD – TRIP + OD
5 AFFICHE – (FA chief)*. French for a notice or placard – should we be expected to know that? Still, it’s in Chambers and easy enough to work out from the anagram.
9 MISSHAPE – MISS + HA(s) + P.E.
13 THROW ONE’S WEIGHT AROUND – double def, one of them cryptic.
14 GLASSFUL – G(iven) + LASS + flu*
15 HARLECH – (c)HARLE(s) + CH. I put this in long before I figured out how it worked!
16 TREVOR – hidden reversed in “WebeR OVERTure”.
17 LEGISLATOR – LEG + IS + “later”
20 HUGGER-MUGGER – “hug a mugger”, one for Jimbo to frown on!
23 MAXI – MAXI(m), “gnome” meaning a pithy saying here. That came up in my blog last Saturday too.
24 BARM CAKE – BAR + C(hef) in MAKE. Last one I got, by brute force from the wordplay. A dialect name for a soft bread roll. Never heard of it.
26 SURENESS – RENE inside SUSS (slang for suspicious).
29 WEIGHTLIFTER – (get fit while)* + R(uns). Not really &lit, but a very apposite surface reading.
30 SUBMISSIVE – i.e. MISSIVE from SUB.
32 FLASHLIGHT – LASH in FLIGHT. Cleverly deceptive wording.
34 SLOANE SQUARE – LOAN in S(af)E + SQUARE. More deceptive wording, as it’s actually a very fashionable part, but you have to ignore the surface reading.
36 PROMOTED – PROM + O + TED. Not the former PM, but another Ted Heath was a bandleader in the 1950’s.
38 NAILED-ON – NO DELIAN reversed.
39 DINE – D(iv)INE
41 MADEMOISELLE – O I SELL inside MADE ME.
43 TALK TURKEY – or English cooks around Christmas, presumably!
44 KNOCKS – sounds like “Knox“
46 ECHIDNA – (locate)D inside E + CHINA. Note that China is clued just by “country” here, not “oriental country”.
48 HEADCASE – HEAD CASE. I’d always thought that it was two words, but Chambers backs the setter.
50 LIKE A CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF – ref the play by Tennessee Williams.
51 TRUSTIER – TRUS(s) + TIER
52 ABYSMAL – (lamb say)*
53 REDCAP – D(ebate) inside RECAP. MP is Military Policeman.

Down
2 RATEL – hidden in “delibeRATELy”.
3 PARASAILING – PARAS + AILING.
4 DOWNFALL – double definition.
5 ANNAL – alternate letters in “cAnNoNbAlLs”.
6 FISCHER – SCH inside FIER(y). American chess champion.
7 CLEAR THE AIR – double definition.
8 EAGLE – another double def, the Eagle was a comic, probably best known for the Dan Dare stories.
9 MATCHLESS – cryptic def, which I’ve seen in very similar form somewhere else recently.
10 SPRAT – traps*
11 HOUSE AGENTS – (shotgun, ease)*
12 PADRONE – AD in PRONE.
18 ENAMELLER – NAME + LL inside EER.
19 TRACING – T(ime) + RACING
21 GREYSTOKE – in the original books, Tarzan was Lord Greystoke. Stoke is a city in the midlands.
22 MERRIEST – (trireme’s)*
25 MATUTINAL – TUT (young ruler) inside MAIN AL.
27 SEVERANCE – REV rev. in SEANCE.
28 STILETTO – LIT rev. in SET-TO
31 BONE OIL – ONE in BOIL. What you get by distilling bones.
33 SIMNEL CAKES – (make slices + n)*. Sickly fruit cakes covered in marzipan, usually eaten at Easter (not by me though!)
34 STIPENDIARY – ST + “I PEN DIARY”
35 UNDER A CLOUD – “four” referring to the answer to 4D, DOWNFALL. The print version probably gave it as a digit 4.
37 DISREPAIR – S(on) in DIRE PAIR
40 STRAINER – RAIN inside STER(n)
42 ANNULAR – A + N(ew) + lunar*. Actually a solar eclipse where a ring-shaped part of the sun remains visible.
43 TEA ROOM – (d)EAR inside (TO + O.M.)
45 SWAZI – A,Z (extremists) inside SW1 (the postal district of 34A).
47 HOO-HA – HO + OH (back-to-back houses) + A(re)
48 HOTEL – O.T. in HEL(l)
49 SOFIA – I in SOFA. Capital of Bulgaria.

2 comments on “Times Jumbo 788 (Dec 6th)”

  1. Officially, we still do blog them – and I’ve had one or two e-mails about the lack of blogs, so there are some readers out there. The Christmas season probably meaqns a couple of extra ones to deal with on Christmas Eve3 and New Years Eve or Day, too. I’ll chase up current Jumbo bloggers to try to get a more regular rota going…
  2. I liked this one, I solved it by sneaking naughty peeks at a seminar where I’m sure I was meant to be paying attention. Really liked 34 down.

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