Times Jumbo 807 – A Game of Two Halves

Apologies for slight lateness – I went to post as usual earlier this week, then realised that the online solution wasn’t yet published, presumably because of a deadline extended over the Easter holidays, so held back. Then of course I forgot to return, until today when I thought “Ah, Jumbo day…now why does that make me feel I’ve got some unfinished business?”

The bottom half went in pretty quickly, but I had to come back to the top in a second sitting. Whether it was actually more difficult, I’m not sure. Perhaps the Jumbo is like a middle distance race compared to the sprint of the daily puzzle, and I just ran out of steam. Overall, slightly above average in terms of difficulty, and certainly in terms of entertainment, so Q0-E7-D6.

Either way, as is usual with a puzzle where I don’t blog until after the solution is published, comment is confined only to references that might remain obscure to overseas / inexperienced solvers even with the answer, or anything I thought notably good or questionable…

Across
15	INTRIGANT – last answer in, and not a word I knew before (one involved in intrigue=”I plot”). IN + TRIG(onometry) + A NT. I suppose the New Testament is a book in its own right, as well as containing individual books.
16	HEN-HEARTED – arcHENemy, i.e. having HEN at its heart. Again, an expression I wouldn’t regard as especially common, though the meaning is obvious.
17	WHITECHAPEL – WHITE CHAP + E + L; most famous as the area of London where Jack the Ripper operated.
23	ANGOSTURA – I thought I knew of this tree bark as the ingredient of Angostura bitters, but it turns out it’s one of those legendary family recipes that is apparently known only to a handful of people.
37	RED WINE – took a long time to see that the man was EDWIN not just ED, tunnelling into RE
46	SILAS – Eliot’s eponymous character is often used as a synonym for a miser rather than a weaver.
55	HALCYON DAYS – an explanation of how this expression arose, and why it’s midwinter, can be found here.
Down
1	PITT – =”pit”, ‘working’ being an old term for a mine.
6	UNTIDIEST – (STUDENT,I,I)* – always nice when student doesn’t automatically = L.
9	ESTHER – S(econd) in ETHER – as is often pointed out on this site, solvers of the Times need to remember that a ‘flower’ can be a river, and a ‘number’ an anaesthaetic.
12	LITTLE END – a ‘spot’ is a little amount, an end is an object, as in purpose; and I’d never actually realised there was such a thing, but I’d heard of the big end, so it followed there might well be a smaller counterpart.
18	CRASSUS – ASS in CRUS(h); Crassus was the least well-known member of the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey.
20	BIG SHOT – definition is short, “somebody”, the rock referred to is GIBraltar.
29	(l)IZARD – always a very handy animal in compiling a crossword.
43	PIP EMMA – may be unknown to younger solvers, but worth knowing that in the days before Zulu, Golf and Charlie, signallers distinguished easily-confused single letters such as T, B and P by using the words Toc, Beer and Pip.