Times Jumbo 927 – May 28, 2011

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Time not recorded (accurately at any rate) as I was solving while the Test match was on, and got distracted. However, my recollection is that it was far from the most straightforward, and coming to write the blog, I find lots of good material.

(It’s obvious from the relative numbers of comments that Jumbos attract much less interest on this blog than daily puzzles, and I often wonder if this is just us, or whether it reflects the actual number of solvers for each. If the latter, it’s a shame when good puzzles like this don’t get the audience they deserve…)

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 for explanation or discussion.

Across
1 CHOCTAW – dd, the skating turn named after the American Indian tribe, whose male members might be braves.
10 TALC – continenTAL Climate.
15 WOMENS LIB – (LINES)* in WOMB; an &lit. when you read the surface with the alternative meaning of organ.
16 ALCHEMICAL – ALuminium + [Mark in (CHALICE)*].
17 DETRIMENTAL – TRIM + E.N.T. in DEAL. I guess that even without wanting to make overt political comment, setters find the rhythms of their surfaces matching the sort of things we hear in everyday conversation..
18 BERYL – moneY in BERLlin.
25 SOBER – SO BEER.
28 CHANTILLY LACE – ANT(soldier) in CHILLY + LACE(spike as in drinks).
31 HANSOM CAB – (MANSO)* in (BACH)rev.
33 ECCENTRIC – (ENTIRE CCC)* [CCC=300 in Roman numerals].
35 OUTER MONGOLIA – possibly the only clue in this puzzle that verged on the playful, M__A being one way to suggest the outer layer of MONGOLIA.
37 AUTOCUE =”AUTO QUEUE”.
40 GODDAMNED – (DEN + MAD DOG)all rev. is this still a possibly controversial word to anyone?
42 CRIMBO – CRAMBO with 1 instead of Answer. I’m sure I noticed with approval the “present day = Christmas” device recently, but can’t find it in a search.
44 LIVERWURST – LIVE (as it happens) + RaW + bURST.
46 SEVER – SEVERe.
52 NEEDLE GUN – NEE + [LEG in DUN]. I suppose the definition “sharp shooter” is chosen as a pun rather than for strict accuracy, though obviously any sort of rifle can reasonably be so called on the grounds of being an accurate weapon.
54 SIDE – double def.
55 ROY ROGERS – (SORRYGORE)*. Despite his heyday being 50 years ago, still a common reference in popular culture (viz. the popular supporting character in Only Fools and Horses – “Why is he called Trigger, does he carry a gun?” “No, he looks like a horse”.)
 
Down
1 CHAT – double def.
3 THE WHOLE KIT AND CABOODLE – (TODOWITHDEALCANBE)* around HOLE + King.
6 TRELLISES – (SILL)rev. in TREES, the acceptable face of definition by example.
7 NO END – i.e. “de-tailed”.
9 GAMBIT – Good + AMBIT, perhaps an opening move in chess.
11 ALL STAR – L Seconds in ALTAR; nicely disguised definition in “celebrities only”).
18 BICYCLE – BE outside [ICY Cold Lake]; another subtle definition in “one’s saddled”.
20 NOBLEST – NO (certainly not) + BLEST (lucky).
27 LOCAL – LO! (look) + CALm without Motorway.
34 CONSISTENCY – double def.
36 RIGOR MORTIS – RIG + OR M.O. + RighT + 1’s.
39 DOWNSTAGE – [Daughter OWNS TAG] above Eisenstein.
43 INSTEAD – (SAINTED)*. If you started out with STAINED, you are not alone.
51 AGED – (DEGAs)rev.

5 comments on “Times Jumbo 927 – May 28, 2011”

  1. Though I rarely check in down here, I am most appreciative of the Jumbo blogs. I read them every week, and almost always find my questions answered before I’ve had to ask them. Many thanks to the team!
    1. Very kind of you, Jon! I’ve always assumed that this site is like most places online, i.e. many more readers than commenters, so I never regard a blog as wasted even if the written response is minimal. It just struck me that there’s no way of knowing what the real relative interest in the puzzles is, and it’s a shame for everyone if good weekend puzzles are simply never seen by a lot of weekday-only solvers (I expect those people can get along quite happily without my comments on those puzzles 🙂
  2. One possible reason so few of us comment on the weekend blogs is that so much time has passed, one forgets what one wanted to say. Anyway, I’m grateful for these blogs whatever the day. In today’s case, I discovered how to parse 35ac, which I had flagged. Also flagged 37ac, which was my one error;put in ‘article’, for want of anything better. Well, the correct answer would have been better, wouldn’t it? But I didn’t know ‘autocue’–in the States, it’s a teleprompter. All in all, though, it was a speedy one for me –under an hour, except for 42ac, which held me up for ages, until ‘crambo’ surfaced from somewhere in my memory, and I then looked up ‘crimbo’ to see if it existed.
  3. Thanks for the blog, Tim. I do generally check in, even if as Kevin says one has forgotten most of the talking points. I have avoided looking at this blog until now because I thought it was for the 4 June puzzle, which I have only just got round to doing!
    I found this one pretty straightforward, but fell at the final hurdle, putting in CHOKTAW. I had no idea about the figure skating move. Crambo was also new to me, but CRIMBO was familiar. As discussed earlier you only need to understand half the clue!
  4. Count me among those who don’t comment much on Jumbos – I think with it being so long between solving and reading the solution, there’s not a great deal to say. I do find it easier to check my answers on here, since I do the jumbos on a printout, usually at a coffee shop or bar, rather than checking it at the Crossword Club.

    The standard of jumbos has been really good though, and usually they’re a nice 30 minutes to an hour distraction.

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