Times Jumbo 930 (18 Jun 2011) – By the shores of Gitche-Gumee, by the shining Big-Sea-Water

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Time: 1:15:13 – Certainly my quickest for quite a while, if not ever. Thought I might finish under the hour but spent 15 minutes or so on the last 5 clues (9/10/12/27 & 52).

I think this was a pretty straightforward one today, but I was quite pleased with my time nonetheless. There were a few unknowns for me, and some that went in without full understanding.

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

Across
1 CHOCTAW = (ACT)* in CHOW – A Native American tribe from the southeastern US that I was only vaguely aware of
5 PSALTERY – SALTER in PastrY – another word I was only vaguely familiar with
9 B + LOT + TO
13 COME OUT IN THE WASH – dd – The River Welland rises in Northamptonshire, and flows out to the North Sea in The Wash, the large flat bay between Lincolnshire and Norfolk
14 IN VAIN = “IN VEIN”
16 LURCH – dd – the abandoned would be ‘left in the lurch’
17 OSMOSIS = SO rev + MO + SIS – I remember learning about osmosis in school science lessons
18 TRUCULENT = “TRUCK” + Unravel + LENT
19 SOUWESTER = (SWEET + SOUR)* – I liked this clue, good misdirection in the definition, and a neat anagram
21 LEA + NEST
22 RHINO = HaitiaN inserted at regular intervals into RIO
23 EMCEE = “M.C.” from Masterminding Countdown
25 H(ALLOW + E)EN – A ‘hen’ being a member of a hen party
27 OT + RAN TO – There are 39 books in the Old Testament. I hadn’t heard of the Italian port, so it took me a while to come up with the answer.
29 deLIVERYMAN – note the S on ‘heads’ implying that two letters are to be removed instead of just one.
31 S(shiP)INNING + JENNY – A Jenny is a female wren (or indeed donkey)
34 FORGET ONESELF = FORGE + (NOTES)* + ELF
35 NUT(R(I)ENT)S
37 R(E + ALTO)R
39 SAN MARINO = (MANORS IN A)*
42 SOL(Inflation)D
43 traineE + ST + OP
45 AT + INGLE
47 PROCONSUL = PROtoCOL about N + US rev
49 RO(QUE + FOR)T
50 A + BRIDGE
52 TORCH = Recognised in TOC H – A link is a type torch. I didn’t know this, and I hadn’t heard of Toc H either, but since TORCH was the only word I knew that fit, I guessed it right.
54 prescriptioN + AILED
55 SOLiD + D(OWN + THE)RIVER
56 ELYSEE – dd of the SEE of ELY in Cambs, a veritable chestnut, and the Élysée Palace
57 ETHYLENE = Lodged in (EYE THEN)*
58 RE + PULSE
Down
1 COCKLESHELL – dd
2 ORMER – hidden in poOR MERchants
3 T(ROC)HE + E – The Roc is a giant mythical bird that cropped up in the Arabian Nights – A Trochee is a foot of the poetic kind, specifically a pair of syllables where the first is stressed (as in the word ‘shadow’), as opposed to an iamb which is the same but with stress in the second syllable (as in the word ‘collect’). If both syllables are stressed it’s a spondee. Three syllable groups with stress on the first, second and third syllable respectively are known as dactyls, anapests and amphibrachs. Here endeth today’s lesson on poetic metrical terms!
4 WITHOUT RHYME OR REASON – dd – blank verse is the kind that doesn’t rhyme. Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha is a famous example of blank verse. It is also trochaic, i.e. composed of trochees, hence its inclusion in the header. It’s just a shame he wasn’t a Choctaw, then it would have been really appropriate!
5 PENUMBRAL = PAL about NUMBER with the E moved to the front
6 ATHOS – dd – One of Dumas’ Three Musketeers, and Greek mountain
7 TOWNSCAPE = (WE CAN STOP)*
8 RO(SET)TE
10 LANGU(O)R – I was thrown off for a long time by the spelling here. I’d always assumed it was spelt LANGOUR which didn’t fit.
11 TRAGEDIAN = (AT READING)*
12 ORNITHOLOGY – A hobby is a type of falcon. I didn’t know this so it wasn’t until I got the first O that I could work it out.
15 PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER – dd – Using the expression ‘Two’s company’
20 UNCOVER = (RUN)* about COVE
21 LO(OK)SE + England – To have a butcher’s is one of those expressions that many people don’t realise comes from Cockney rhyming slang. In this case, butcher’s hook = look.
24 E + ARNE’S + Tippett
26 NI + NON – a silky fabric
28 RE(JO)INS – 36 is a reference to the solution SADDLE HORSE
30 NEEDS = “KNEADS”
32 IN + FLAME
33 NONPLUS = PaLs in NON-U + S
34 FORBEARANCE = (A ROBE)* in FRANCE
36 SADDLE HORSE = (OSSA HERD LED)*
38 ANTI + QUIT + Y
40 NIGGARDLY = (DRAG + GIN) rev + LorrY
41 IMPUDENCE = I’M PUCE about DEN – this made me smile
44 PRECEDE = P + RE + “SEED”
46 INTROIT = INTO about maRtini + ITalian
48 OUT + CROP
51 RHONE – It took me a while to parse this one. A starboard example would be a ‘right-hand one’, hence R.H. ONE
53 RAVEL = R + tilL about AVE (a Latin greeting, or hail)

8 comments on “Times Jumbo 930 (18 Jun 2011) – By the shores of Gitche-Gumee, by the shining Big-Sea-Water”

  1. 18:28 for me, so the easiest in the last few months (though not perhaps the easiest this year). I think I must have seen the neat SWEET and SOUR anagram before, but I’m afraid I didn’t recognise it immediately this time. I first came across OTRANTO from reading Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto many years ago. (I somehow doubt whether many people read it these days!)
  2. 47′, a rare sub-hour result. I also misspelled LANGUOR, making TRUCULENT harder to solve. I had to verify Toc H, but I knew it had to be TORCH. I also slowed down over 9ac & 27ac over the definitions: for me, ‘blotto’ means seriously drunk, and I didn’t see the equation of ‘ran to’ and ‘were sufficient’. But my LOI was PROCONSUL, and that’s my COD, although I also liked 34d and 5d. Isn’t this our second CHOCTAW?
    Dave, a typo at 44d.
  3. Just wanted to pass this on.
    Our French and Russian teacher at school (many years ago) was quite a tyrant. One of his oft used phrases was “you’re as dim as a Toc H lamp”.
    Sorry – this has nothing to do with the crossword but I have never had the opportunity to share this with anyone (outside school friends) until now!
    Regards and thanks for all the help,
    Adrian Cobb
  4. 20:53 for me, which is probably my fastest ever. If anywhere, the top right held me up the most with LANGUOR also wrongly spelt and a severe case of brain freeze not allowing the word ORNITHOLOGY to leave the tip of my tongue. I’ve been beaten previously by not knowing TROCHEE and was pleased that this time the word was readily available.

    Definitely at the easier end but still a most enjoyable solve. SOUWESTER was probably my pick of the bunch.

    A small fact on the hobby which you really don’t need to know and probably wished you never did – the inventor of the table football game Subbuteo wanted to name it “Hobby” but wasn’t allowed. Instead he gave it the latin name for the hobby falcon, falco subbuteo.

  5. Forgot to say…I couldn’t work out how RHONE worked till coming here, so thanks for that
  6. An hour and a quarter for this, but an inordinate amount of time spent trying to work out how on earth 52ac could be TORCH. Eventually I just bunged it in. I suppose it couldn’t really be anything else but I don’t like being forced to guess like this and the intersecting obscurities in this one struck me as a little unfair.
    We have indeed had CHOCTAW recently. This time I managed not to spell it CHOKTAW!
    1. kevingregg recently wrote in response to an admittedly rather OTT comment from anonymous: “I would like to know where on this blog anyone has ‘moaned’ about never having heard of this word or that name.” Well your comment sounds to me pretty much like a moan about not having heard about “link” meaning TORCH and/or about TOC H – and perhaps about the intersecting “obscurities”: OUTCROP (really?), the composer RAVEL (oh, for Pete’s sake!) and SADDLE HORSE.

      I’ve no idea how old you are or how long you’ve been doing crosswords, but if you’re comparatively young and inexperienced I can offer you the encouragement that by the time you reach my age you’re likely to find all these words thoroughly familiar. And I take encouragement from the fact that you now know how to spell CHOCTAW. But in the meantime, please don’t moan too much 😉

      1. I have of course heard of these other words. Even I’m not that thick.
        It is my understanding that it is the aim of the editor(s) of the Times crossword that an ordinary solver should be able to solve the puzzle without referring to a dictionary. I’m not sure what they have in mind as the ordinary solver but I don’t think these puzzles are written exclusively for championship winners.
        In my view 52ac is unfair based on this principle. To get the answer with confidence you have to know either an archaic word for torch, or the name of a small and shrinking christian movement. If you don’t you have to just guess based on the checkers. I don’t like clues like this.
        The day people no longer express their opinions freely on this blog I will stop visiting. And a discussion between Pollyannas would be very dull indeed. So I will continue to express my opinions, whether positive or negative. You are of course entitled to disagree with me but please try to be a little less patronising.

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