Times Jumbo 910 (5 Feb 2011) – I love it when a plan comes together

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Solving time: 1h 57m spread over three sessions. The first session of about 25 minutes got me through most of the top half, then I picked it up again the next day and spent a full hour on it which left me with 10 unsolved. I went back again an hour or so later and finished it off in about another 20 minutes.

Quite an enjoyable one, overall, with no major complaints. A few good misleading surfaces, and the odd bit of clever wordplay, but nothing particularly outstanding. Santa Monica raised a smile and a groan so I’ll give that my COD.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 PA’S + TRY
4 SALMAGUNDI = (AMUSING LAD)* – This was a new word to me, and I had to check it in the dictionary before I put it in as there were several plausible possibilities for the anagram. One of my final 10.
10 PR(O)OF – Does the head of a faculty necessarily have to be a professor?
14 PIN(S + TRIP)E – Run = TRIP is another synonym that I’m not convinced about, but a nice misleading surface
15 GENERAL + STRIKE – Another nicely misleading surface with a well-disguised definition
16 REAL + IS + E
17 MACBETH = (MATCH + BE)*
18 M(ISLE)AD
19 LOOK AFTER + NUMBER ONE
21 STAB = BATS rev
24 PRIM + Original – I didn’t know the word but got it from the wordplay
26 WELL-BRED = “WELL-READ” about B
27 ADELAIDE – My last one in and it took me a while to untangle the wordplay. Queen is the definition – Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV, after whom the Australian city is named. ‘is taken’ = LED, ‘aback’ = reversed, assistant = AIDE, then ‘upfront with answer’ puts an A at the start.
29 GRAVE + DIGGER – Once I’d remembered what a sexton was it was easy enough
30 DOUBLE + DUTCH
32 ARTICULATE + D
35 CLIFFHANGER + (FRENCH FLAG I)*
37 MOBIL(IS)E – The Alabama coastline is very short and only really consists of the Mobile river estuary and the port of the same name that sits inside it.
39 SVEN + GAL + Identify – Svengali was originally an evil hypnotist in George du Maurier‘s novel Trilby.
40 SO + NICe
43 REEL = “REAL”
44 YOU + CAN + SAY THAT AGAIN
47 ICEBERG = I + C + GREBE rev
48 AERATES = SET AREA rev
50 THERMAL – hidden
51 PINK CHAMPAGNE = (PEKING CHAP MAN)*
52 SNARED + RUM
53 TA(Security)TE
54 STRATHSPEY = (PRETTY SASH)* – Another angram that was one of my last 10. I think I had heard this before, but it took quite a bit of untangling to discover it.
55 lASSES + S
Down
1 PAPER + CLIP
2 SANTA MONICA = SANTA (sacked man, groan) + “MONIKER”
3 RETSINA = (NASTIER)* – a definite old chestnut this one, it’s a combination of letters well-known to Scrabble players for having the most 7-letter words that can be made from them – 9 of them. If you’re interested they are: ANESTRI, ANTSIER, NASTIER, RATINES, RETAINS, RETINAS, RETSINA, STAINER & STEARIN. Replace the S with a blank tile on your Scrabble rack and the number of anagrams goes up to a whopping 53.
5 A + sTEAM – It took me a while to spot STEAM = force, although the answer was fairly clear. In the US it’s a military unit composed of 12 Special Forces soldiers. It’s also, of course, a crack commando unit sent to prison in 1972 by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire them. Cue the music
6 MAGIC + NUMBER – You gotta love those agent nouns masquerading as something else. A bit of a reversal this time, where the agent noun is in the answer not the clue.
7 GINGER + BREAD – Sandy = GINGER? I would have thought sandy was more yellow than red.
8 NOR(THE + R)N – The Norns were Norse equivalents of the Fates in other mythologies.
9 ILL-OMENED = (OLD LIE)* about MEN
10 POTASH = POT + (HAS)*
11 OLIVER + TWIST – Nice misdirection in the use of Hardy, implying Thomas, but intending Laurel &
12 FI(E)ND – Another of my last ones in. A tricky little clue, with neither Addict = FIEND nor judge = FIND jumping readily to mind
13 GIVE IT A WHIRL – dd – Whirling Dervishes are middle eastern dancers who just spin around on the spot. I remember seeing one once in Cairo – it made me dizzy just watching!
20 R + E + LEGATE
22 B + LET + HER – I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this word before without it being suffixed by ‘ing idiot’
23 G(LAD + R)AGS
25 OVER + CALL – It looks like the ‘extra’ is doing double duty here, but I guess the definition could just be ‘bid’
28 JUBILANT = (UNTIL JAB)*
29 G(teacheR)AMMA + R – The ‘In’ at the start threw me for a while, and it took a long time for the ‘third class’ = GAMMA to register. One of my last 10, which in turn stopped me getting 29, 32 or 37.
31 LEFT IT AT THAT = LEFT + THAT about TATI rev – That favourite film director of crossword compilers – Jacques Tati
33 TABLE + TEN + N + IS
34 RIGHT after DIVINE
35 CONTACT + LE(N)S
36 GEND(ARM)ER + I + aislE
38 SNODGRASS = S + DON rev + GRASS – Augustus Snodgrass is one of the central characters in The Pickwick Papers. I’ve never read it, so I needed to work it out from the wordplay.
41 CANDLE(MA)S – Tried to justify CHRISTMAS for a while, until the ‘wicked’ = ‘having a wick’ penny dropped.
42 S(CR)APPER
45 A + LEVEL + Sit
46 RESCUE = (SECURE)*
47 IN + PUT – ‘Say’ can be used in so many ways in cryptic clues, that it always throws me when the most obvious one, i.e. speak, is used.
49 SUSIE – hidden

4 comments on “Times Jumbo 910 (5 Feb 2011) – I love it when a plan comes together”

  1. You had to blog this one too, after yesterday’s? I think this is what in the Catholic Church they call a work of supererogation. I took 3 sessions, too, plus 2 minutes when 14 and 54 finally, and suddenly, yielded themselves; total 58′. I must have come across Strathspey in an earlier cryptic, or I don’t see how I could have got it.
    1. I’ve had this one ready to go for a week or so, though, just waiting for the solution to be published.
  2. I read somewhere, perhaps on the crossword website, that this was easy and so polished it off in one session, perhaps 45-50 minutes. In hindsight I’m not sure if it really was easy or if it was just the power of suggestion.. though definitely not over-hard.
  3. 22:31 for me, which is about average I suppose. I was pleased to see a bit of physics creeping in at 6dn, and hope it goes some way to satisfying those who grumble about the lack of science in the Times puzzle. (That meaning of MAGIC NUMBER doesn’t seem to have made it into the 2003 edition of Chambers, but perhaps it’s there in the 2008 edition?)

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