Times Jumbo 952

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
No meaningful time available; my submission threw up the dread Error 503 first time, and failed again when I tried later that day; third time lucky some time later, by which time I had forgotten what my original time was, and was frankly just glad to be rid of the thing. Anyway, if memory serves, this was a decent puzzle which was on the straightforward side of the street, in solving, if not necessarily parsing.

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 SLOWER – Line in SOWER, as per three of the Gospels.
5 HOT SPOT – Son in HOT POT, and a surface guaranteed to bring to mind Betty’s hot-pot at the Rover’s Return.
9 JOCOSELY – JO + COS + ELY, the only episcopal “see” which ever actually appears in crossword land.
15 STUDDED =”STUDIED” presumably. Assuming I’m right about the intended homophone, then hang on…I generally err on the side of generosity in this sort of clue, but there’s a distinctly sounded extra ‘I’ in there! When I’m saying them, these words definitely don’t sound the same. Is it just me?
17 CHAMBERPOT – CHAT around M.B.E. + R.P.O. Nicely constructed bit of toilet humour.
20 TECHNOBABBLE – TECHnical college NOB + rABBLE.
26 EXCHANGE – as pre-decimal currency is no longer used, any coins you had, including a half-crown, would therefore be ex-change.
32 MARBLE ARCH – MARch + [Right in BLEACH]. With the possibility of cleaner=”CHAR” in my mind, this took a little time to work out the parsing.
38 INTAGLIO – (GIANT)* + (OIL)rev.
39 BLAG – L(=pounds as in L$d) in BAG; a word heard a lot at the Leveson Inquiry, where various people would like their actions to be categorised as harmless “blagging” rather than “deception” or “criminal misrepresentation”.
41 NATIONAL DEBT – (ABANDONTITLE)*; horribly topical.
43 CHEESECAKE – double def., though I don’t think the second one has been in common use since it was Diana Dors or Jayne Mansfield who were pictured.
46 ODDBALL – ODD (=additional) + (LAB)rev. + Line. Took me ages to work out the parsing, but a check on ODD indicates that when we we refer to say “thirty-odd pounds”, the “odd” means “extra”, just as one might say “thirty-plus”.
50 FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT – SHOD + (SON in [Grand STREAM]) all in [FRANCE + EsTaTe], phew. As it happens I spotted it just from the word lengths and a couple of checkers without doing that complicated construction first. Authoress best known for The Secret Garden.
52 SATISFY – SATurday IS FridaY.
53 TITIAN – TIT + [Area in IN]. The particular shade of red associated with the painter, who favoured redheads as his models.
 
Down
3 WILLIAM TELL – WILLIAM(the conqueror) + TELL (=order), and a nicely disguised description of the rebellious archer.
6 TRANSIT – TRANSmIT without Millions.
7 PUT OUT TO SEA – (SO)rev. in PUT OUT TEA.
9 JOHN DONNE =”JOHN DONE”. No homophone-based arguments here. And nothing to do with John Dunn, or any of the other men who share the name.
12 LEG PULL – Double def. with “traction” as in the oft-portrayed man in hospital bed with a plastered leg held up by a cord to the ceiling, beloved of cartoonists and comedy scriptwriters.
19 PLOTTER – Line in POTTER.
21 CODIFYING – CO. + [IF in DYING], “IF” being a noun, as in “There are a lot of ifs and buts in this debate”.
22 BACKBONE – BACK(=footballer) + BONE (as in “having a bone to pick”).
25 PUNCHLINE – a row of puppets would be a PUNCH-LINE.
27 GANGPLANK – GANG (=Scots “go”) + PLAN + wicK. It’s not an &lit., of course, but Wick being a Scottish port makes for an excellent surface.
28 UNPERSON – i.e. U.N. PERSON; term coined by George Orwell in 1984 and widely used since, especially in reference to the Soviet Union’s purges.
31 REPTILE – Penny in ELITER. Is ELITER (=choicer) a real word? If it is, it’s a horrible one.
35 REBECCA WEST – REBEC + [WE in CAST]. Prolific author and Dame.
42 AQUIFER – IF in [A QU.+ ER]. Different use of IF this time.
43 CALLOUS – ALL in COUSCOUS.
45 TACHE – snouT + ACHE. An appropriate clue just after Movember.

5 comments on “Times Jumbo 952”

  1. 24:42 for me, with the last couple of minutes spent trying to see if there might be a better alternative to STUDDED. Like you, I’m normally fairly tolerant of dodgy homophones, but I felt this was just a bit too dodgy. Apart from that, a nice puzzle.

    Nice blog as well, BTW. Thanks.

  2. It’s a kind of misery-loves-company consolation to find someone else unable to submit; I’ve been having trouble for the past couple of weeks, and the Times help people have been not particularly helpful. (Not returning messages, for instance, strikes me as less than helpful.) Hopefully, with help from Jerrywh, things are OK now. Anyway, I took forever and couldn’t get 28d. I also cringed at STUDDED, but where does one draw the line? As a practiced rhoticist I also dislike sepia/seepier homophones, but I’m willing to yield on that one. On the other hand, there’s one in Jumbo 954 that I do hope I’m not alone in objecting to.
    I do believe there was a see other than Ely a few months ago, but of course I can’t remember it.
  3. Thanks for the blog.

    I have 36A as I DARE SAY, 51A as ARBORETA and 10D as CLUMP, but I can’t work out the wordplay for these. Could you explain them? (I’m still learning)

    1. No problem. First two correct, viz.

      36ac: ARES (Greek god of war) in I’D…AY
      51ac: A gardeneR + BORE + Territorial Army

      Third one is one letter out

      10dn: Caught + RUMP

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