Times Cryptic Jumbo 1496 – pardon me boy, is this the bodega?

Author   penfold_61Posted on Categories Jumbo Cryptic
The fates decided to throw me a second consecutive bank holiday jumbo (this time I haven’t barged in front of Kitty) and once again I was kept entertained for somehwere over an hour.  The bank holiday weekend was squidged in between my 60th birthday and my elder daughter’s 25th so my solving ability may have been affected by the after (and/or during) effects of the auld booze.  The fact that I forgot to note down my last entry tends to support that hypothesis.

First in was SOUNDING BOARD and last was, er,…

If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.

Clues are in blue with the definition undelined.  Anagram indicators are in bold italics.

Notation:

DD: Double definition

CD: Cryptic definition

DDCDH: DD/CD hybrid where a straight definition is combined with a cryptic hint.

&Lit: “all in one” where the entire clue is both definition and wordplay.

(fodder)* denotes an anagram of the letters in the brackets.

Rounded brackets are also used to add further clarity

Squiggly brackets {} indicate parts of a word not used

Deletions are struck out

Square brackets [] expand an abbreviation or shortening like S[iste]R


Across

1
Sensible directors gathering in good source of feedback (8,5)

SOUNDING BOARD – SOUND, BOARD around IN, G[ood]

8
International group: evil or promoting happiness? (9)

EUDEMONIC – E[uropean] U[nion], DEMONIC.  New word on me.

13
Explode and utter “about time!” (5)

ERUPT – PURE reversed, T[ime]

14
Supply help to cynic in college (11)

POLYTECHNIC – (help to cynic)*.  A college like what I went to.

15
Dressing in uniform, look around (5)

GAUZE – U[niform] inside GAZE

16
Telegraph, say, to shorten piece of wire (5,4)

PAPER CLIP – PAPER, CLIP

17
Serving monarch in the resistance? (4)

OHMS – This is kind of a DD I think.  O[n] H[er] M[ajesty’s] S[ervice] would probably have to be clued (1.1.1.1.) so maybe that’s just a cryptic hint, and OHMS are a measure of resistance rather than being resistance itself, and the “the” is a bit superfluous other than to help the surface reading.  It seems the question mark is hiding a multitude of almost-but-not-quite-sins.

18
Tailor has fur with gold for her indoors (8)

HAUSFRAU – (hasfur)*, AU.  I enjoyed the definition.

20
Decree a home’s located east of ring road (6)

ORDAIN – A, IN to the right of O R[oa]D

21
Drunk person arriving without purpose, top official (4,12)

HIGH COMMISSIONER – HIGH (drunk), COMER (person arriving) around MISSION.

24
Damage from French wine crossing lip (9)

DETRIMENT – DE, TENT around RIM.  In crosswords the only wine you need to know is TENT.

26
Woman given lick, one who keeps the peace (7)

SHERIFF -SHE, RIFF

27
Scottish style nationalist party (5)

PLAID – DD, I assume PLAID is a legitimate contraction of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party.

29
Producer of iron or slate: container with dial outside (5,7)

BLAST FURNACE – BLAST (slate as in heavily criticise), URN inside FACE

31
About to clean up kinky kind of art (10)

CONCEPTUAL – C[irca], (tocleanup)*

33
Wine single lady drinks in new decorative glass (4,6)

ROSE WINDOW – ROSÉ, WIDOW around N[ew].  In crosswords the only wines you need to know are TENT and ROSÉ.

35
Kid clutching old penny supplying dancers’ gear (4,8)

BODY STOCKING – BOY around D (abbreviation for a pre-decimal penny or pence), STOCKING

38
Group captured by Philoctetes (5)

OCTET – hidden

39
Salt receptacle returned before ceremony (7)

NITRITE – TIN reversed, RITE

40
Stone on shore is spread widely (9)

PROPAGATE – AGATE after PROP

42
Government crackdown can come together in safe area (8,8)

PETERLOO MASSACRE – LOO (can / toilet) & MASS, in PETER (slang for a safe) & ACRE.  A somewhat euphemistic definition.

44
Increase exercise in places to the west (4,2)

STEP UP – reversal of P[hysical] E[ducation] in PUTS

47
Sent back desserts provided with unknown layer (8)

STRATIFY – TARTS reversed, IF, Y

49
Inflammation given by which end of shoe? (4)

SORE – S OR E (the ends of the word ShoE)

50
Back certain to defend Rangers’ lead, a single ball off target (9)

ERRONEOUS – SURE reversed around R{angers’}, ONE, O

52
In the majority, not half unfaithful (5)

ADULT – ADULTerous

53
Iron put in bar — it’s for dummy (11)

COUNTERFEIT – FE in COUNTER, IT

54
Some balls heading for tennis open (5)

OVERT – OVER, T{ennis}

55
This person blocks a helper off in passing (9)

EPHEMERAL – ME in (a helper)*

56
Ride boat on ocean wave? (6-7)

ROLLER-COASTER – COASTER after ROLLER

Down

1
Pen novel, record and throw cards in (9)

SHEEPFOLD – SHE, E[xtended] P[lay], FOLD

2
Criminal pursued and violently seized (7)

USURPED – (pursued)*

3
Scare off car on street allowing no freedom (11)

DETERMINIST – DETER, MINI, ST[reet]

4
Weapon, and where it was used around China (6)

NAPALM – [Viet]NAM around PAL (China (plate) = mate in CRS). Clever.

5
Writer‘s party drink with nothing in (9)

BALLPOINT – BALL, PINT around O

6
Hit spy across bum for discipline (12)

ASTROPHYSICS – (hit spy across)*

7
After month, old and new mopeds broken down (10)

DECOMPOSED – DEC[ember], O[ld], (mopeds)*

8
Wise, perhaps, to release one bird (4)

ERNE – ERNiE (Wise), late funny man with short fat hairy legs what wrote plays.

9
Making public act of worship, including students (16)

DECLASSIFICATION – DEIFICATION around CLASS

10
Time perhaps upsets heartless old priest (5)

MAGUS – MAG[azine], UpsetS

11
Convict at last in cell, one not charged (7)

NEUTRON – {convic}T in NEURON.

12
How one may pay, given warning sign in race (9,4)

CHEQUERED FLAG – CHEQUE, RED FLAG

19
Eating everything common, regularly with cream (8)

OMNIVORY – {c}O{m}M{o}N, IVORY

22
Where drinkers are mostly parking, about to drop litter (2,3)

IN PUP – IN PU{b}, P[arking]

23
On stopping working, cake-maker is one announcing results (9,7)

RETURNING OFFICER – RE, TURNING OFF, ICER.  An electoral official.

25
Feature about pair of Poles in shipping, say (7)

TRANSIT – TRAIT around N[orth], S[outh]

28
Former student ingesting one white powder (7)

ALUMINA – ALUMNA around I

29
Sentence from father’s wise for a migrant (4,2,7)

BIRD OF PASSAGE – BIRD (prison sentence), OF, PA’S, SAGE

30
Punctual after number twelve (8)

NOONTIME – ON TIME after NO.

32
A cold redhead in disguise, having many faces (12)

DODECAHEDRAL – (a cold redhead)

34
Idler putting away small drink (5)

WATER – WAsTER

36
Speak with a thug at northerly US city (11)

CHATTANOOGA – CHAT on A, GOON, AT reversed

37
After pastries, drink wine (10)

PIESPORTER – PIES, PORTER.  In crosswords the only wines you need to know are TENT, ROSÉ and PIESPORTER.

40
A Spartan is to display determination (9)

PERSEVERE – PER, SEVERE

41
He explains old model has bad clothing (9)

EXPOSITOR – EX, SIT in POOR

43
Dropping ecstasy, bad place to be after driving by (7)

THROUGH – THe ROUGH (golf)

45
Object‘s round — try putting spin, perhaps, on it (7)

PROTEST – O, TEST with P[ublic] R[elations] on top.

46
Freezing cold in large vehicle (6)

ARCTIC – C[old] in ARTIC[ulated lorry]

48
Symbolic artefact filled scripture the wrong way (5)

TOTEM – Reversal of MET, O[ld] T[estament]

51
Back off cow or its mate (4)

BULL – BULLy

3 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1496 – pardon me boy, is this the bodega?”

  1. I thought this was a really good one. I completed it (with one silly pink square that I shall ignore) in a most enjoyable 1:48:47. I liked that it did not need arcane vocab or obscure GK, just close attention to some good clues.
    DNK EUDEMONIC (the exception…) but with the wordplay and the crossers I was bold enough to go for it. Kept coming back to 10dn which had to be MAGUS but I got stuck on “time possibly” being M(inute) EG, giving the most unlikely megus. The PDM was seeing Time=mag, possibly a chestnut but I liked it.
    I liked lots. PAPER CLIP, PROPAGATE, SORE (which end of shoe — neat) and HAUSFRAU (requiring a MER? or is the foreign words rule as mythical as the brand names rule?)
    LOsI SHEEPFOLD and ERUPT. Joint COD to BALLPOINT and CHATTANOOGA

    1. Hi, thanks for commenting. Foreign words and phrases are fair game if they’re in sufficiently common usage in “English” that they make it into the dictionaries. E.g sangfroid, schadenfreude. Hausfrau is in my Chambers app.
  2. Don’t forget Asti, the other one besides tent that nobody drinks any more..

    Enjoyed this one, which I thought hard but not too hard. I wrote PDM! next to 49ac, the shoe clue..

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