Times Jumbo 822 (Sat Jun 27th)

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
The usual Jumbo rubric: as the solution is available alongside (or indeed before) the blog, comment is confined only to references that might remain obscure to overseas / inexperienced solvers even with the answer visible, or anything I thought notably good or deserving a question mark; other clues happily discussed by request.

Mostly straightforward, and of good, even quality this week. I don’t think there was anything new to me in terms of either vocabulary or required background knowledge…

Across
9 DIPSTICK – double def., presumably the normal one is the same everywhere, though I’m not sure how Anglo-centric the secondary one is (possibly at its peak when Only Fools and Horses featured it as a regular catchphrase).
15 ASUNDER – AS UNDER, rather than “as above”.
26 ACADEMIA – A CADE + (AIM)rev; Kentish rebel Jack Cade makes regular appearances in the Times.
32 PARTY PIECE – “do a bit” as in perform a turn.
34 CROSS COUNTRY – COUNT In CROSS R(ailwa)Y took me a while to click with the definition of “COUNT” as “point for discussion”, as in the legal sense presumably, e.g. tried on one count of theft, and one count of assault.
38 INVESTOR – not really convinced that the most cunning way to clue IN is with the word “INWARD”.
50 THE ROLLING ENGLISH ROAD – as made by the rolling English drunkard: the text is here.
53 PUNTER – double def. Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting is known as Punter because he apparently likes a bet. Judging by the steam coming out of his ears today, he got bad odds on Anderson and Panesar surviving those last eleven overs…
 
Down
2 ISLAY – L(eft) in “I SAY!”; that subtle use of “my” in the wordplay might have gone unnoticed for longer if I hadn’t blogged it in a recent (daily) puzzle.
8 YIELD – Y(ears)+1+ELD; “Eld” meaning (old) age is an appropriately old word itself.
10 PATIO – occuPATIOn; “Spanish court”, of course, in that it’s a Spanish word for a court(yard).
12 CLEMENT – CEMENT round L(ucca). Sadly the surface isn’t accurate, as Lucius III apparently remains Lucca’s first and only Pope in reality, but you can’t have everything.
22 CHAPERON – CHAP + (NO RE)rev., requiring no great thought if you can remember the meaning of “duenna” (or have your wife demonstrate her vocabulary by pointing it out over your shoulder, as I did).
28 EGGPLANT – Orpingtons are a sort of egg-laying hen; normally any confusion in meaning is because Americans talk of “eggplant” where we would say “aubergine”, so the reverse might be true here.
31 ONSHORE – SHOR(t) in ONE (=sole); I started by thinking this was INSHORE, then obviously had trouble making it work.
34 CIVVY STREET – not sure if this phrase is an international one: civilian life as viewed from the military perspective.
42 LADETTE – DE in LATTE: I suppose “two helpings” of demerara can mean “two letters taken from the word demerara”, though that doesn’t seem especially precise or elegant.
48 SHINE – SHRINE without (wa)R(saw): subtle use of ‘Polish’ at the start so that the non-capitalised definition isn’t a giveaway, and the eye is drawn to the word Warsaw; with the result that the surface is very smooth and totally misleading.

6 comments on “Times Jumbo 822 (Sat Jun 27th)”

    1. Certainly, it’s HO(use)+MEAN(=unkind)+D(ied)+DRY – dry as in actors who have forgotten their words are said to “have dried”, with the whole phrase meaning “at the end”.
  2. 32A I’m not sure the blog makes it clear that do = PARTY, bit = PIECE, one’s good act = PARTY PIECE.

    22D Surely a duenna is a chaperone, not a chaperon who would be male (pace any dictionaries that don’t make this distiction clear).

    John in USA

    1. Turning to Dictionary Corner, OED has only (explicitly female) chaperon, Collins has “chaperon (now often chaperone)”; either way the alternate spelling doesn’t denote the gender of the person concerned. Might this be a transatlantic difference?
      1. Doubt that, as I am an expat Brit.

        Ignorance, Sir, pure ignorance.

        Thank you for the reply.

        John in USA

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