Times Cryptic Jumbo 1366

Author   penfold_61Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
Hello again.  A puzzle of average difficluty I’d say with enough in the way of unknowns to provide some education.

I’ll be en route to Tenerife for the best part of today (Saturday) so it will be a while before I can field any comments.

First in was MAN OF THE MATCH and last was HOME whose definition took a bit of spotting.

Clues are in blue with the definition underlined.  Different brackets mean different things:

Square to expand a standard crossword abbreviation: L[eft]

Wiggly to denote letters not used:{afterthough}T

Rounded followed by a * to indicate anagram fodder: (forded)*

Rounded to add clarification: cool (as in trendy)

Anagram indicators in bold italics: supply

Deletions are denoted by strikeout

CD = cryptic definition, DD = double definition, I guess other stuff is spelled out for you.


Across

1
Members bound to keep to themselves, even? (7)

HOGTIED – HOG, TIED, not an expression I knew

5
Gradually, Post Office couple refusing to serve grasping pensioner (4,1,4)

POCO A POCO – lots of initials here: P[ost] O[ffice] then two lots of C[onscientious] O[bjector] surrounding O[ld] A[ge] P[ensioner]. Another unfamiliar phrase.

10
Undergarment picked up for revel (4)

BASK – sounds like BASQUE to some people (not me though)

14
Groom footballer for award? (3,2,3,5)

MAN OF THE MATCH – DD, the first cryptic-ish

15
Smart men dressed down — one found in bed? (3,6)

FLY ORCHID – FLY, O.R., CHID

16
Depleted after too many catches dropped by some cricket girl (10)

OVERFISHED – FI, SHED by OVER

17
After skirmishing ok — the rest on stretchers (11)

TENTERHOOKS – (ok the rest on)*.  I’d never really considered what a tenterhook might be in the real world. It’s a hook used to fasten cloth on a drying frame or tenter.  So there you go.

18
With this tweet, mean to be heard? (5)

CHEEP – sounds like CHEAP

19
See tailless sloth’s burying its head in squalor (10)

SLEAZINESS – A bit complex this – LAZINESS is burying its head (L) in SEe

21
A month from Quebec to the Alaskan port (6)

JUNEAU – JUNE, AU (“to the” in French)

23
A way to colour match — with pronounced finish (3-3-3)

TIE-AND-DYE – TIE (e.g cup tie), AND (with) then a homophone for die.

25
Villain’s Irish accent putting off British (5)

ROGUE – bROGUE

26
Peter out of luck at first, if at races (4,3)

TAIL OFF – (OF L{uck} IF AT)*

28
Old single guys dig tarts bursting with pizazz in the East End (5,8)

ZIGGY STARDUST – (GUYS DIG TARTS {pizaz}Z)*.  It’s nice to see “in the East End” being used as something other than a Cockneyficator

31
After present, left watch for sculptor (9)

DONATELLO – DONATE, L[eft] LO.  Don’t you just love it when an arty answer is one of the Ninja Turtles?

33
In theory, little time to intercept an enemy, presumably (9)

NOMINALLY – MIN[ute] in NO ALLY

35
Baker in a suit (5,2,6)

QUEEN OF HEARTS – CD (think tarts)

37
She’s example of one backing demise of world body? (7)

PRONOUN – PRO NO U[nited] N[ations]

38
Roughly, American grabs one ancient jurist (5)

CAIUS – C[irc]A U[nited] S[tates] around I.  I can’t be bothered to research this but it’s something to do with some geezer from an ancient civilisation.

40
Pressing obsession to contain evil spoken of (9)

THRONGING – Soundalike for WRONG in THING (as in crosswords are my thing).

42
Son in light blue tee, crouching (6)

ASQUAT – S[on] in AQUA, T[ee]

44
Declare capital of Venezuela just the thing for royal assignment? (5,5)

STATE VISIT – STATE V{enezuela} IS IT

46
European champion missing out on gold is put out (5)

EVICT – E[uropean] VICTor

48
Confusion resulting from action of forge: what’s new? (3,3,2,3)

THE FOG OF WAR – (of forge what)*

50
That familiar person embraced by Tokyo, UK, now wholly (3-4-3)

YOU-KNOW-WHO – hidden

52
City once through hesitation allowing unknown enemy to enter (9)

BYZANTIUM – BY, UM around Z, ANTI

53
One providing a flavour of scripture lessons with Irish in school (9,4)

CORIANDER SEED – R{eligious] I[nstruction] AND ERSE in CO-ED

54
Had lilies regularly dropped round for girl (4)

ELLA – reversed alternate letters of  hAd LiLiEs

55
Crustacean’s shortened tongue put out, briefly (9)

LANGOUSTE – LANGU{e}, OUSTE{d}

56
Criticise “daft” clothes? They might (7)

NUDISTS – DIS in NUTS, semi &Lit

Down

1
In Ancient Greek, no end of grammar (4)

HOME – HOMER withour the last letter of GRAMMAR.  On of those hard-to-spot definitions that the Times setters pull off so well.

2
Lady jockey in the news, almost always (9)

GENEVIEVE – VIE in GEN EVE{r}

3
No half measures from lowdown artist, female, and lowdown artist-poet (2,3,1,5,2,3,1,5)

IN FOR A PENNY IN FOR A POUND – INFO, R[oyal] A[cademician], PENNY, INFO, R[oyal] A[cademician], (Ezra) POUND

4
Spanker, maybe, was made to pull up bloomers (7)

DAHLIAS – reversal of SAIL HAD.  To save you the embarrassment of Googling “spanker” I can tell you that on a square rigged ship the spanker is a gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sail set from and aft of the aftmost mast.

5
One doing handouts allowed in chap to feed baby (11)

PAMPHLETEER – A russian doll construction with “baby” used as a verb…  LET in HE in PAMPER

6
Nice area where young retire in western Europe: endless astonishment (4,5)

COTE D’AZUR – COT, EUR{ope} around DAZe. Complex stuff.  I just biffed it and worried about the parsing afterwards.

7
Dish when warm emits aromas at the outset (5)

ASHET -AS HEaT.  An ASHET is a Scottish word for a large plate or dish, possibly a corruption of assiette

8
Switch positions with English girl: promotion wasted (3,4,4)

OFF ONES HEAD – OFF, ON (switch positions), E[nglish], SHE, AD.  Loved the switch positions device.

9
It’s a gas using axes to slice melon! (6)

OXYGEN – XY (graph axises) in OGEN

11
Pay to have hotel for vacation in Irish town (7)

ATHLONE – H{ote}L in ATONE

12
Issue pack that’s easily handled (4,5)

KIDS STUFF – KIDS, STUFF

13
Out-of-tune shepherd-tenor would ruin opera (7,2,3,10)

ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD – (shepherd-tenor would ruin)*

18
Native of Channel Islands, note, descending on Japanese school (7)

CITIZEN – C.I., TI, ZEN

20
Skimpy attire Keith gingerly covers up (7)

NIGHTIE – Reverse hidden

22
Remain behind brook (5,3)

STAND FOR – DD

24
Journalist’s heading to court on business (8)

DATELINE – DATE, LINE

27
One staring too long: will he disappear, finally? (5)

OGLER – last letters clue

29
Patois of old boy one had easily picked up (5)

GUMBO – reversal of O[ld] B[oy] MUG

30
Restless energy in reverse kicking action? (7)

UNQUIET – E[nergy] in UNQUIT, a sort of cryptic opposite of quit (as in smoking)

32
Hosting plays at time of presentation (2,5)

ON SIGHT – (hosting)*

34
Sailor on watch may start to sleep, outrageously (11)

YACHTSWOMAN – (ON WATCH MAY S{leep})*

36
Alternative to banger, maybe displaying zip (3,1,7)

NOT A SAUSAGE – straight def with cryptic indication, maybe tricky for overseas solvers with scant knowledge of Brit foodie slang.

37
Proposal by board that can be put to bed? (9)

PLANTABLE – PLAN, TABLE

39
After short taste of Broadway, courts certain opera lovers (9)

SAVOYARDS – SAVO{r} (American spelling), YARDS

41
Flag Nazi’s stolen originally now national property (9)

IRISHNESS – IRIS, HESS around N{ow}

43
Bright bird one missed from different late quiz shows (7)

QUETZAL – (latequiz)* less I.  A colourful bird from the Americas.

45
Departs from New Zealand port after time, having found the station? (5,2)

TUNED IN – T+ {d}UNEDIN

47
Cheerful girl, by and large (6)

JOVIAL – JO, VIA, L[arge]

49
No leaves left? Park closed (5)

RECTO – REC, TO

51
The likelihood of only smaller bras being available? (4)

ODDS – Straight def and cryptic hint based on cup sizes

12 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1366”

  1. A careless SLEEZINESS ruined my 1:45:32 of blood sweat and tears. Bah humbug! Still I learned that Juneau is an Alaskan port. Thanks setter and Penfold.
        1. Yes, isn’t it? Wiki articles about American places & things are always bigger then anywhere else ..
  2. I had a half-dozen clues unsolved for the longest time, and since one of them was evidently ZIGGY SOMETHING, I seriously considered just throwing in the towel. But finally I remembered, if that’s the word, STARDUST. (When David Bowie died, there were a number of eulogistic comments here; my comment was that I couldn’t name a single title of his. Now I can.) That gave me DATELINE. The two 1’s came to me almost simultaneously, and I decided that there must be an undergarment called a Basque. This left 7d, where I toyed with ASHOT, but couldn’t see how the ’emits…’ part worked. Finally I did throw in the towel, and went to the dictionary. CODs to 1ac and 1d.
    1. “I decided that there must be an undergarment called a Basque” .. bless you Kevin; clearly you are not reading the wrong sort of books 🙂
    1. I took it as saying there were no DD cup sizes available, hence only A to D.
  4. I gave up keeping completed crosswords with notes on them on grounds of life being too short, which makes commenting three weeks later rather tricky. However I distinctly remember thinking this was a better-than-average jumbo. I see I have one wrong though, apparently I couldn’t quite spell Genevieve correctly. Bah

    Edited at 2019-02-23 08:02 am (UTC)

  5. Best clue for me HOME, brilliant. Would never have parsed OXYGEN though l got it from def and checkers. LOI SAVOYARDS.
    ONG’ARA,
    KENYA.
  6. I don’t solve jumbos regularly these days, and when I do it tends to be late. I only just got around to this and I found it decidedly tricky. Lots of unknowns and I got badly stuck on a few at the end: HOME, BASK, ATHLONE, JUNEAU.

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