Times Jumbo 987

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
42 minutes (with a typo which I didn’t pick up before submission), though it felt like a lot longer. That feeling reinforces what I was thinking while solving, which was that I wasn’t really on the right wavelength, and was labouring where I probably shouldn’t have been. I don’t think it was a horribly difficult test (though there were certainly a few clues which presumed knowledge I don’t have) but I think we all have those days where we feel we just aren’t getting it.

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
6 WINSLOW HOMER – WINS + LOW HOME + River. Presumably he sprang much more quickly to the mind of transatlantic solvers, but I have to confess my ignorance.
14 AILANTHUS – AN in [AIL THUS]. Likewise this particular ornamental plant.
15 RATIO – administRATIOn. Good disguised definition.
16 FOLDING – Female + GOLDING. Without the checkers, I started by trying to think of a novelist who would fit AILING…
17 CATHERINE OF ARAGON – (INCARTHAGEONRFORAeneas)*. Obviously impossible not to be distracted by thoughts of Dido as the potential queen, so it’s a clever anagram: unfortunately, as so often happens with the long ones, the enumeration gave me the sort of hint which obviated the need to work it through.
19 TIPPETT – TIPPET + Town. The first of several lift-and-separates required today.
24 RENFREW – FatheR in RENEW. Historic town now somewhat absorbed by Glasgow.
27 PONCHO – (TOPNOTCH)* without the two Times.
30 EMANCIPATOR – (TOPAMERICAN)*; nice surface, though if you want a piece of trivia for future use, the actual play President Lincoln was watching on the fateful day was Our American Cousin.
32 MUTAGENESIS – aMoUnT + A GENESIS. I wonder if the setter prefers the Gabriel-era prog albums or the later, mainstream stuff?
33 MODERATIONS – MODERATION + Succeeded. The wiki article claims that Classics mods are the hardest exams in the world. I don’t know if that’s true, but I still have anxiety dreams about them 25 years later…
35 MOULIN ROUGE – MOULD + IN ROUGE. famous as the home of the can-can.
38 DRAGLINE – (REGINALD)*. One of those very big ones.
39 MARTIAL – despite his name, the Roman poet had no connection with the military or any sort of unarmed combat.
44 STOOKS – TOOK in bruSSels. Old word for a sort of hay bale.
46 EXPORTS – cryptic def. For those unfamiliar with the English south coast, both places are historic Cinque Ports, but have ceased to be ports at all today, thanks to the changing coastline in that part of the world.
48 MAIZE =”MAY’S”.
49 ENDANGERED SPECIES – [ANGERED SPECIE] in ENDS. Specie is a fairly obscure word referring to hard currency or coinage.
51 RELAPSE =”REAL APPS”. I think people who are fussy about homophones, and certain that “real” is not pronounced as “reel”, won’t like this one.
52 IBERT – I(=current, in scientific notation) + BERT. Afraid I must confess my Philistnism, in that I’ve never heard of the composer, but remembered Dick van Dyke, and his unique take on Bert’s Cockney accent in the film. Gorblimey, guvnor.
53 CONNEMARA – CON(=do) + (MEN)rev. + ARAB.
54 HYPERBOREANS – HYPER(extremely active) + [OR in BEANS]. One for the classicists.
55 PRIESTHOOD – (HOTPERIODS)*.
 
Down
1 CHARCUTERIE – CHAR + CUTER + I.E.
2 OWLET – LE in OWT. It occurs to me that non-UK solvers might not be familiar with the Yorkshire term, seen in such phrases as “Never do owt for nowt”. As I am even now listening to the wise words of Geoffrey Boycott on Test Match Special, I needed no reminding.
5 CISTERN – CISTERCIAN minus the CIA. Obviously mention of federal agents usually leads to the FBI rather than the CIA, but even though it’s not in the name, the latter is just as much as federal entity, of course.
7 INTERREGNUM – (MENRINGTRUE)*. A positively poetic surface.
9 OFFENDER – two sorts of people referenced here, those who commit an offence, and those who cause it.
10 HOLE AND CORNER – (CHEERONLANDOR)*. I was delayed at first because I had a vague idea that the phrase was “hole in corner”, though I don’t know why.
11 MOIDORE – ImproveD in MOORE. I got there after speculating about the ROIDDIN and the RODIDIN for a while.
13 PROFOUNDER – PRO(one who is paid) + FOUNDER(to go down, as in shipping). Another lift-and-separate.
20 PANHANDLE – PA + New HANDLE. American term for a part of a state or country which juts out of the main body, most notably in Florida, though others are available.
23 PROTRUDE – PRO(for) TRUDEAU minus the AU. I suspect Pierre Trudeau remains the most memorable Canadian PM to a British survey sample, even 30 years after leaving politics (not that I expect many British people could name a lot of Canadian PMs. I don’t think it would work as a round on BBC1’s Pointless, anyway).
25 WAPITI – Pacific in WAIT + Island. More good lifting and separating.
31 CARPET SWEEPER – i.e. CARPETS WEEPER. If finders are keepers, the losers are weepers, of course.
33 MIDDLEMARCH – (RAM)rev. in [MIDDLE C] + Hardy. A further lift-and-separate required to stop you looking for Tess or Jude.
34 SIGHT UNSEEN – crytic double def.
35 MAISONETTE – [IS ON E.T.] in MATE (Cockney rhyming slang, China plate).
36 ELLIS ISLAND – [L,L + ISIS] in ELAND.
43 RUISLIP – Rugby Union, I SLIP. Metroland is the suburban area NW of London which was developed for housing by the Metropolitan railway in the early 20th century, thus allowing them to thrive on the commuter traffic in and out of central London which this development generated. Ruislip was a modest outlying village when the process started, and very much part of suburban London when it finished. The whole area was celebrated by John Betjeman in a superb TV travelogue, which I very much recommend.
45 SPENCER – I was again unfamiliar with the short jacket or coat; more so with the regular partner of Katherine Hepburn.
46 ESSENCE – ESSEN + CollegE. Nice way of interpreting a college vacation.

4 comments on “Times Jumbo 987”

  1. 25:30 for me, so I found it perhaps slightly harder than average, even though it was my sort of puzzle and there was nothing I wasn’t reasonably familiar with.

    If you haven’t come across Jacques Ibert before, you might like to try his Divertissement, originally composed as incidental music for the play The Italian Straw Hat. The ending in particular is great fun, reflecting a police chase.

    “If tha does owt for nowt, do it for thisen.” (At least that’s what they say round my part of Yorkshire.)

    John Diefenbaker is the other Canadian PM who springs immediately to mind, but I think you’re right that Pierre Trudeau is the best known. (I seem to remember that Private Eye referred to him as “Pierre Turdeau”.)

    Maths mods – oh dear, it was all such a long time ago!

    Edited at 2012-07-23 12:50 am (UTC)

    1. Hear all, see all, say nowt
      Eat all, sup all, pay nowt.
      And if tha does owt for nowt, do it for thisen..

      not one of our brighter sayings!

  2. I didn’t understand the reasoning for 21a (Nausea) and 41d (superego); can you explain please?
    1. USE(=benefit) in Northern Area, Area. Another lift-and-separate, so the definition is just “sickness”.

      The anagram (GROUPSEE)* gives SUPEREGO, which is the Freudian concept.

      Tim

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