39:41 on the club timer – which confirms I found this quite a tricky one – with one error, in which I don’t think I was alone, to judge from comments on the Club forum. Not sure if this was because I was out of practice, or off the setter’s wavelength, or simply because it was a tough puzzle…
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 |
CATHARTIC – CATH |
6 |
ALRIGHT – |
10 |
CHOIR – 0 in CHIR |
13 | OMNIBUS – NIB in (SUMO)rev. |
14 | SWING – double def. with a DBE indicated with a question mark. |
15 |
TRUE BLUES – T |
17 |
BISHOP – B |
18 | BOOTLESS – BOOTLE + S.S. |
19 |
ARTISTE – ART (as in the pianist) + IS T |
22 | OVERSTRAIN – OVERS (today’s cricket reference) + TRAIN. |
23 | ACHILLES HEEL – SHE in [A CHILL EEL]. |
29 | FLEMING – Now then. Obviously my view is coloured by the fact that I plumped for FLEEING, but the – not entirely clear? – parsing seems to be: “Belgian (def) novelist (2nd def) before change of heart would be running away (this word is FLEEING with the middle letter changed)”. I think I was confused, presumably intentionally, by the odd use of two consecutive definitions which require a lift-and-separate. Am I wrong to say that the way this is phrased allows both answers, as well as being a little ungainly? |
30 |
EPISCOPE – S |
32 |
ELEVATED – V.A.T. in [E |
39 | UNASSAILABLE – UNA’S + [AIL in SABLE]; proof against non-weather storming, of course. |
44 |
PASTE-UP – PASTEU |
46 |
TAFFRAIL – A F,F |
54 |
SALVE – (L |
55 |
GLASGOW – [AS(=say), |
57 | EARHART – (ARATHER)*; the famous aviatrix. |
Down | |
2 | TENNESSEE WILLIAMS – TENNESSEE, WILL + (SIAM)*. |
3 |
ALBATROSS – A L |
5 | COSMOPOLITE – (POLEMICSTOO)*; another word I wasn’t familiar with, but easily deduced from context and wordplay. |
7 | RAGTIME – RAG (daily paper) + (EMIT)rev. |
9 |
THUMBNAIL – (H |
10 |
CABARET – C |
11 |
OCULI – (COUL |
12 | RESIGNEDLY – SIGNED in RELY; it must be three years since I signed a cheque. |
20 | SLEEPING CARRIAGES – cryptic def. |
21 | PROFIT – PRO (player) + FIT (match). |
24 | COGENT – pleasing play on words, suggesting that a businessman could be a CO. GENT. |
25 |
SUCRE – (U.S.)rev. + CRE |
31 |
IDEATE – I’D EAT + |
33 |
DRAFT DODGER – DRAFT + DODGE (City) R |
35 | EMOTIONLESS – (LIMESTONESO)*. One of those anagrams which suddenly emerges from the most unlikely looking source material. |
43 |
BROOKLET – R |
47 | FREESIA “FREEZE” + (A1)rev. |
49 | LEAGUE – double def. |
51 |
ANTON – T |
I sympathise re the Belgian novelist, but the clue cannot really be read in two ways..
ada).