Times Jumbo 942

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Time not recorded accurately, as I left the puzzle unattended with timer running when I went to deal with other pressing weekend matters, so all I can guarantee is that it wasn’t more than 10h 16m 13s. General impression, however, was that this was harder than average, with several hard-to-spot definitions (the lift-and-separate was used regularly) and more than one thing I didn’t know in the first place, or couldn’t remember. Not a smooth solve, for me anyway, and as will be seen below, some very densely packed clues.

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 ISHERWOOD – 1 + SHERWOOD, the forest in Nottinghamshire where Robin Hood hung out, not to be confused with Nottingham Forest FC.
10 PILAF – Large in PIAF, who was famous for not regretting anything.
13 LEIPZIG – LE (“in France, the”, our first lift and separate) + 1 + [Z in PIG]; on British road signs, a lopsided ‘Z’ indicates a potentially dangerous corner.
14 MUZAK – froM impromptU jazZ orchestrA booK; “maybe lift notes” is the subtle definition.
15 EGON RONAY – EGO + NeaR borneO + NAY; as with, say, Baedeker or Bradshaw, the author becomes the book by metonymy.
22 BOOKKEEPER – BOOK(=reserve) + KEEPER (i.e. wicket keeper in a cricket team). Noteworthy, of course, for having three consecutive double letters, so it loooks very odd when written down.
23 HELIUM SPEECH – 1 in (MUCHSLEEPHE)*; have to admit I worked this out from wordplay, and twigged what was being described without realising it was a recognised expression.
27 DR WHO – [DReW minus Energy] + HO. For those who do not follow, we are at the 11th incarnation of the Doctor (information correct at least until the current series ends next Saturday, when anything could happen).
29 VOYAGER – OratorY replaces ILL (sick) in VILLAGER. Another misleading definition in “Hamlet character”.
30 ENTRY FEE – cryptic def., and I’m assuming the extra ‘d’ is a misprint (the online version, at least, has “Damaged” as the definition rather than “Damage”, as was presumably intended).
34 INSPECT – ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy) follows (“dogs”) (PSNI)rev.
41 UP IN THE AIR – cryptic def., but I’d have said skiers go up the hill, prior to coming back down, rather than up in the air (unless they’re ski-jumpers, of course)…
44 OCTOBER – i.e. O.C. TO BE + Rex.
46 YESHIVAS – YES + [IV in HAS]; all new to me, but worked out reasonably confidently from wordplay.
53 AGGRAVATE – A + [GRAVe in GATE].
54 SCREW – (C.S.)rev. + RE: + With; I suppose for the purposes of an &lit. we are being invited to envisage a gas cylinder with a screw top valve.
55 IMITATE – A in [1 MITT] + E (which is what follows C,D…).
56 DUNNO – (NO, NUDe)all rev.; “Informally, pass” being the definition i.e. how one might respond on “Mastermind” if not following the formal protocol.
58 YOU NAME IT – (AMOUNTIEY)*; “variable” in the mathematical sense leaves a choice of x, y, or z, but it’s usually not too hard to work out which is required.
 
Down
1 IGLOO – (G.I.) rev. + LOO; the &lit. is irresistible when you think of the smallest room, but has been used as recently as April, when it was “Soldier turned back, little room for a packed house”, so went straight in on this occasion.
2 HAIL FELLOW WELL MET – OW! in [HAIL FELL(=bad weather report) + WELL(=spring) +MET.
3 RAZORBACK =”RAISER BACK”.
4 PARTIES – tOuRaGuIdEiS. “Parties” seems a tame way to describe it, but your mileage may vary.
6 MUZZIEST – MUZZLES with the fifth (letter) replaced by 1, + Time.
8 OPENING TIME – (ProblemIMENTIONEG)*. Yet again a lateral approach to the definition in “When admitting to drink”.
9 TROUT FARM – cryptic def. based on “rainbow” being a species of trout.
12 FLY BY NIGHT – FLY(“race”) + BY(“times”) NIGHT(sounds like “knight”, unarguably).
20 THEREBY HANGS A TALE – (BYrAGHASNT)* in THE RE: ALE.
21 DERVLA – ER in DVLA.
28 OLDEN – “or” in the heraldic sense of “golden”, “below the peak” meaning “everything after the first letter”.
33 SEE EYE TO EYE – Second + E,E,E + YE TOE YE. I like a playful charade-style clue as much as anyone, but this just felt tortuous, I’m afraid.
35 EXPLAIN AWAY – EX (“lover who’s gone”) + PLAIN + AWAY.
38 IDIOT BOARD – IDIOT + BOAR + Departs.
42 HIROSHIMA – HI! + (OR)rev. + [Married in SHIA]. Another geographically-centered lift and separate.
43 JIGGERED – JIGGER + hEaD. The “for” is just for surface, I guess, but seemed to get in the way.
45 BUFFALO – BUFF (“in the buff”=”in the altogether”) + A Large Old.
51 LOG ON – LOG (part of a Kon-Tiki style raft) + ON (as in cricket’s leg-side).
52 EXERT – X in (TREE)rev.

8 comments on “Times Jumbo 942”

  1. I tend only to do Jumbos when they get a good write-up and I was glad I essayed this one. Lots of good stuff, with my COD going to the homophonic boar at 3dn. I needed Bradford’s/online aids for 3 or 4 towards the end in the left half, as well as for 10dn, where I missed the reverse hidden. One gets so used to alphabetic characters that I didn’t even consider the psychological one, before resorting to aids with ‘pergola’ the best I could come up with. Had ‘Idaho’ at 1dn at first and all sorts of things at 6d (e.g. ‘muddliest’) before that one fell after I got MUZAK. YESHIVA known from reading I’ve been doing ahead of a fortnight in Israel in November.

    Thanks to the setter and to Tim for clarifying the wordplay of a couple of clues.

  2. 1:18:11 on the club timer for this. Definitely tricky.
    Several I didn’t understand, so thanks to Tim for the explanations. I couldn’t quite believe MUZZIEST was a word.
  3. Aargh! 48:20 for me. I assumed on a first reading that 18ac was going to be an anagram of “sweating”, which wasn’t contradicted when I bunged in a half-remembered PAK-CHOW for 7dn. (Ruddy foodie clues!) Those two must have cost me 5-10 minutes at the end.
  4. What do people think about “gingered” for 43d – Ginger (Rodgers = Dancer) + E&D out of Head.
    1. No problem with the wordplay (pretty sure Ginger has appeared in the crossword before, though I can’t provide a reference right now); but I can’t square “gingered” with any definition of “whacked” that I can see, I’m afraid…
  5. Great puzzle, great blog. Thanks for explaining the one (OLDEN) that I did not (eventually) understand. Took me ages and ages to solve – all v enjoyable.
  6. Unfortunately, topicaltim has omitted several clues where I need help. Can anyone assist, please.

    I still don’t have the answer for 18a (?G?S?I?G). tony_sever confirms it’s not an anagram of SWEATING and Chambers online has no word that fits the letters. What have I done wrong?

    I think 11d must be LINDA, but I don’t know why. I can only see (NIL)rev.

    I’m annoyed that 30a was unsolvable because of a misprint. But I still don’t fully understand it. I know damage=fee as in “what’s the damage”. Is the rest just a weak cryptic definition? Or is it something to do with TRY=shot?

    And talking of weak cryptic defs, I though 9d (TROUT FARM) was rather poor.

    At 41a you have to read it as “where SKYERS go” (cricket term). Apparently, both spellings, SKIERS and SKYERS, are acceptable.

    It’s worth noting that omitted clues 19a and 10d are both hidden words, one in reverse.

    1. 18ac EGESTING – E.G. (GETSIN)*

      11dn ‘AD NIL – the dropped H being characteristic of all Cockney speech in crossword land.

      30ac – I read simply as a CD based on the assumption that, as for instance in the Times Crossword Competition, one entry (shot) to a competition incurs one entry fee.

      41ac – you appear to be right about the variant spelling; obviously I’d only ever previously seen the one with a Y previously used in a cricketing sense.

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