Times Jumbo 867

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, please comment if required.

I found this a pleasant solve of a very serviceable puzzle, with nothing that caused me to resort to the dictionary shelf. One thing which did strike me was that a daily puzzle last week (Times 24,523) had as 11 down and 18 down the solutions which are 1 down and 25 down in this puzzle – presumably coincidence, and not a coded message.

Across
1 TOWN CRIER – cryptic def.: the town crier in days of yore would advertise market days as well as making other official pronouncements.
13 KNOWN – NOW in KN(ots). Apparently KT is also used as an abbrev.
14 TOBACCONIST – (double) cryptic def.
17 SATIN STITCH – SAT INST(ant) ITCH; as I was blogging I unpicked that it wasn’t SAT IN 1’S with an unexplained T.
20 CLOSE ON – LOSE in CON = “nearly”; another topically political clue.
27 ORE – fOREign; 1/100th of the various Scandinavian krone.
31 RIGHTEOUS – (THISROGUE)* is an easily spotted anagram but I thought the surface was commendable.
34 SISYPHEAN – SI(s)SY + [HE in PAN]; possibly as obscure as this puzzle got in terms of expert knowledge, but I think most people will have come across the myth of Sisyphus…
35 TOECAP – TO (PACE)rev.
39 RUE – (t)RUE.
42 ALLEGRO – ALLEG(e) + (O.R.)rev., a word familiar to musicians everywhere, and in the UK as the name of a car never noted for its speed, despite the name.
45 UNCOUTH – UNCO + (HUT)*; the handy Scots word “unco”, meaning “remarkable” or “uncanny”, is probably verging on barred crossword territory, but memory (…and a quick search of this site) reveal it comes up regularly in the normal Times puzzles as well.
47 SAFETY FIRST – cryptic def. i.e. both “net” and “catch” can have the word “safety” before them to make new expressions.
53 PRO AM – PRO A M(inute); sporting events (usually golf) where pro(fessionals) and am(ateurs) compete together.
55 RED SALMON – (LANDSMORE)*; a much less obvious anagram, requiring one to lift and separate; I was certainly looking for something which was going to end “ODDER”.
 
Down
1 TAKE HOME PAY – TAKE HOME P.A. Y(es); a much less controversial construction than the one in the daily last week.
2 WHOPPER – W(eight) HOPPER; Proust like, I found the word “hopper” bringing back memories of studying the life cycle of locusts in an early biology lesson.
5 ROBOTIC – (BRIC[k]TOO)*.
6 ENCYCLOPEDIST – (PLOTISDECENCY)*; as Wikipedia now appears to be the 6th most popular site on the internet, there’s no disputing the “widely-read” tag.
7 TROUSSEAU – cryptic def.; i.e what is worn by one about to get hitched.
8 MOISTEN – MO IS 10.
10 GREATNESS – (SENT A ERG)rev + S(pades).
11 STOAT – TOAST (i.e. brown bread) with the S(on) brought forward.
12 SHEPHERDESS – cryptic def., one who tends this sort of Cotswold. When suffering from insomnia, my wife, who is keen on wool and knitting, counts breeds of sheep rather than actual animals, and claims it works.
22 PROKOFIEV – PRO + [O(ld)F(ollowing)] in KIEV; in the days when we used to vote for our Clue of the Day round here, I think a similar variation on this (“Composer of lines for Soviet city”) was voted Clue of the Month, possibly even Year.
24 CLAMSHELL – i.e. CLAM’S HELL – other chowders are available, but clam is the one I suspect everyone would think of first. Clamshell packaging would be the sort of hinged box from which one might eat a Big Mac…if one was hungry enough.
30 GREAT SALT LAKE – once you clock the “mere = lake” reading, you realise this isn’t in fact a slur at “mere Americans”.
33 PETTY OFFICER – [P(arking)FEEFORCITY]* round T(axi) reveals the rank.
38 MANUMITTED – [N.U.M. (National Union of Miners)+1] in MATTED; the noun “manumission” is much more common, but the verb easily deduced.
40 BAGATELLE – “BAG A TELL” + E(at); how quickly you get this presumably depends on your knowledge of Swiss folklore, in which Gessler was William Tell’s arch-enemy.
43 MORELLO – MORE + (a)LLO(w).
46 UNIFORM – as in the radio alphabet, Tango, Uniform, Victor etc.
50 ALPHA – ALOHA with the O replaced by a P.

2 comments on “Times Jumbo 867”

  1. I guessed EMOTE, but why? E (starting every) MO (second) T (time), but then what?

    I never hear of SATIN STITCH or MORELLO, and LIGHTEN UP was quite hard to see, but I got there!

    Thanks for the puzzle, and for the blog.

    John in USA

    1. John

      I was scratching my head on that after the first skim, but instead of the more typical T=time, it’s TIME with the I’M ‘going’, i.e. T(im)E, and the definition is the more basic “cry, perhaps”.

      Tim

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