Times Jumbo 907

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
36:41 according to the Club timer, which – I suspect rightly – suggests this was quite a bit tougher than usual. Certainly several clues went in without full understanding of why they were right, and were only confirmed after the event.

With Jumbos I generally confine myself to discussion of answers which I think might be a) less straightforward for inexperienced or non-UK based solvers, or b) especially elegant / questionable. However, as always, if a particular clue is not discussed, please feel free to raise it in comments.

Across
1 GARDEN WARBLER – WARBLE in (GANDER)* + River. First new thing I learned in this puzzle was that the larva of the warble-fly can just be known as a “warble”.
8 LANCASTER – [CAST in LANE] + Right, the House in question being the royal one which provided Henrys IV-VI.
13 ALFIE – A + [Following in LIE]. Twice a film, in fact, though if I were you I’d stick to the Michael Caine original, and not worry too much about what Jude Law brought to the remake.
17 ROLE – pROLE.
21 CONGESTION CHARGE – New in (STEERCOACHGOING)*. Most prominently seen in the UK in London; your territory may vary.
24 MYSTERIES – MY! (i.e I’m surprised) + Time in SERIES.
31 LITTLE JOHN – JOHN (Doe) and not a deer in sight, which was nice misdirection.
35 PITTER PATTER =”PITTA PATTER”.
40 RHAPSODIC =”RAPS” Overs + (C.I.D.)rev.
44 FRAPPE – FRA (short for ‘brother’ in italian) + P.P.E., which is what the Prime Minister read at Oxford. His Economics tutor must be holding his breath, wondering what will become of his reputation if things go wrong…
50 SLIP COVER – I know non-Commonwealth solvers always love the frequent cricket allusions. On the cricket pitch I tend to field well away from slip, where you need to be a great catcher, and cover where you need to be agile. Somewhere nearer the bar is my favoured position.
53 IDIOT SAVANT – (DepartsVIASTATION)*.
55 TURRET GUN – TURRET(=tower) + Grand U.N.: more new knowledge, when wordplay led me to believe, rightly, as it turned out that there must be a sort of pistol by this name. I like the optimism of gunsmiths who were prepared to persevere despite the flaw that there was always a live round pointing at the person armed with the weapon. Clearly they thought it added spice to the use of it.
56 ROYAL STANDARD – Regina in (ONLYADASTARD)* Also an &lit (if we ignore Westminster Abbey, which is apparently the only place allowed to fly the flag when the Queen isn’t actually there). One to remember for the pub quiz, when you’re asked what flag is flown at Buckingham Palace when the monarch is in residence.
 
Down
2 REFINED – i.e. “RE – FINED”.
3 ELECTRIC EEL – I was a little puzzled by this because, while I know the surface of any given cryptic clue doesn’t have to have any real meaning, this is just gibberish, isn’t it?
4 WOBBLE – W/HOBBLE without the Hospital. In a recent concise puzzle, the first letter of a similar (though obviously non-cryptic) solution was left unchecked so that a lot of people put WOBBLE instead of HOBBLE (or was it vice versa?). No such problem here.
6 LAND REGISTRY – Left AND Right E.G. 1’S TRY. Again, your territory may have a different name for the same organisation.
8 LILY – LILo with the ‘o’ replaced by ‘Y’. Not sure if I can put my finger on the reason, but I found this one a little clumsy in execution…
9 NOT BORN YESTERDAY – cryptic def. I spent a long time wondering what would mark out the “loving and giving” Friday’s child from other children. Then I remembered that this puzzle appears in its original version on a Saturday, so it’s not the setter’s fault if you happen to be solving it on a Thursday, and miss the point…
10 ANGLE – tANGLE; to begin with, I couldn’t choose between ALGAE (though I quickly decided there was no way “seaweed” could be parsed as the definition) and ANGLE. More new knowledge acquired, then, as I didn’t know the seaweed in question, “tangle”, or Laminaria digitata.
12 READY RECKONER – READY(=cash) RECKONER(=one who thinks”). Those of us who had any sort of life before home computers, or even scientific calculators, will recall these tables, designed to allow you to make a decently accurate stab at complex calculations involving, say, tax or compound interest.
22 HASTE – HAS TimE.
28 ADOPTED – A DO Power TED Heath. It could be the band leader, of course, if you like.
32 DIVERSIONARY – DIVERS + Inspectors + ON A RailwaY. Shakespeare often has “divers lords, attendants &c.” entering and exiting.
36 ABSTRACTION – ABS + TRACTION.
43 ELECTOR – cryptic / double def., referencing the placing of a cross on a ballot to vote (assuming you don’t only have the option of chads, hanging or otherwise), and the German princes. George I, for instance, was Elector of Hanover before he became King of Britain (a process which obviously didn’t involve any sort of election).
46 DIKTAT – (KID)rev. + TAT.
51 KILN – hidden, reversed, in oveN-LIKe &lit.

3 comments on “Times Jumbo 907”

  3. I can’t remember if I thought this was harder than other Jumbos, but it must have started well, since I actually timed myself, something I don’t usually do with Jumbos (81 minutes in this case). Surely 3d is a definition of ‘electric eel’? a wiggly thing that generates amp(ere)s. Not an entry for the Clue Hall of Fame, I grant you, but not gibberish. I had flagged 22d, and only just now twigged to the ‘time I’m going’; but ‘takes’=’has’?

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