A nicely crafted puzzle of only moderate difficulty but great entertainment value. I particularly liked 10dn and 28dn for general ingenuity married to great surfaces, but COD to the originality of cryptic device displayed by 37ac.
Many thanks to the setter! I blogged this day of, so I’ll have forgotten I wrote any of this in two week’s time, but right now I am very appreciative.
ACROSS
1 Introductory letters end articles? That’s wrong (11)
CREDENTIALS – (END ARTICLES*)
7 Former treasurer to provide football stadium (3,8)
OLD TRAFFORD – OLD TR. AFFORD [former | treasurer | to provide]
13 City guides on audio (5)
LEEDS – homophone of LEADS [guides]
14 Weapon, right for unknown minor noble (7)
BARONET – BA{y->R}ONET
15 Broody hen at home getting youngster area to run
INCUBATOR – IN [at home] + CUB A TO R [youngster | area | to | run]
16 Goat, perhaps, caught up in meadow plant (9)
BUTTERCUP – BUTTER [as in, one that butts] + C + UP
17 What’s eaten until turning rank (10)
LIEUTENANT – (EATEN UNTIL*)
20 Rum solo or old dark sherry (7)
OLOROSO – (SOLO OR O*)
22 Fool includes a parliamentarian in satirical attack (7)
LAMPOON – LOON includes A M.P.
24 Feeling section of opera perhaps must cut slab (7)
TACTILE – ACT must cut TILE
25 Book about one double-cross for Smiley? (8)
EMOTICON – reversed TOME + I CON [one | double-cross]
26 Lower number Swiss canton cast off starved (14)
UNDERNOURISHED – UNDER NO. URI SHED. You may not have known that Uri was one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland before now. But hopefully it proved little impediment to solving this clue.
28 Constant atmosphere round capital (5)
CAIRO – C AIR O [constant | atmosphere | round]
29 Expensive importing French article? One might find it so (6)
DEALER – DEAR importing LE, semi-&lit
30 Conclusion of Hamlet? (10)
SETTLEMENT – double def; Hamlet as in village
33 Fabric is one easily taken in by Sibyl, perhaps (10)
SEERSUCKER – a SUCKER is one easily taken in, and Sibyl was a SEER
35 Sins go after getting renewed spiritual knowledge (6)
GNOSIS – (SINS GO*)
37 Port has its fans — I must be the latest to be included among those (5)
HAIFA – HA{s} I{ts} FA{ns}, where any letter subsequent to I in the alphabet has been removed
39 Effect of exposure turning to such hue of tan? (1,5,2,3,3)
A TOUCH OF THE SUN – (TO SUCH HUE OF TAN*)
41 Looking embarrassed, abandon West Midlands town (8)
REDDITCH – RED [looking embarrassed] + DITCH [abandon]
44 A second copy — experts initially make attribution (7)
ASCRIBE – A S CRIB E{xperts}
45 Cautious driver and passengers keeping safe, ultimately (7)
CAREFUL – CARFUL [driver and passengers] keeping {saf}E
46 Newspaper interrupting key web operation by police (7)
DRAGNET – RAG interrupting D NET
47 Illicit trader in Merseyside town cell backing resistance (10)
BOOTLEGGER – BOOTLE + reversed EGG + R
49 Adorn rice — needs to be chopped herb (9)
CORIANDER – (ADORN RICE*)
53 Carry on Sergeant perhaps currently showing (7,2)
SOLDIER ON – SOLDIER [Sergeant perhaps] + ON [currently showing]
54 Parisian inn needs time accepting taxi firm (7)
AUBERGE – AGE accepting UBER
55 Calico, plain, regularly used for dressing (5)
AIOLI – {c}A{l}I{c}O {p}L{a}I{n}
56 Stick around restaurant by large lake and mountain (7,4)
SCAFELL PIKE – SPIKE around CAFE by L L
57 Venerable chap in English society is quite well- balanced? (4-7)
EVEN-STEVENS – VEN. STEVE in E S
DOWN
1 Caught a sailor locked up in lax jail (9)
CALABOOSE – C A + A.B. locked up in LOOSE. “From Cajun French calabousse, from Spanish calabozo”, so probably not much used in British parts to be fair.
2 What wave power generates shortly found in Bloemfontein? (13,5)
ELECTROMOTIVE FORCE or the EMF you can find in {blo}EMF{ontein}
3 Follow nurse Susan (5)
ENSUE – EN SUE
4 Distributed coca to broad in novel of poor Americans (7,4)
TOBACCO ROAD – (COCA TO BROAD*) By Erskine Caldwell and about Georgia sharecroppers.
5 After a key game, pint emptied lustily and rapidly (8)
ABRUPTLY – after A B R.U., PT L{ustil}Y
6 One cared for obsessive (6-6)
SINGLE-MINDED – SINGLE [one] + MINDED [cared for]
7 Some Hellespont hero, pessimistic and near defeat (2,3,5)
ON THE ROPES – hidden in {hellesp}ONT HERO PES{ssimistic}
8 State of indecision is Democrat fault (5)
DRIFT – D RIFT
9 Shocking cost with current fashion again (11)
RECONSTRUCT – (COST + CURRENT*)
10 Series creator coming up with some Wiccan obi fantasy (9)
FIBONACCI – hidden reversed in {w}ICCAN OBI F{antasy}
11 Obscenity is old hat, unfortunately (4)
OATH – O + (HAT*)
12 Gently featured in detective fiction, a dagger (4)
DIRK – double def with Dirk Gently, of Douglas Adams’ Holistic Detective Agency fame. What is this, the TLS puzzle?
18 Brilliant device Liberal European Democrat may be confused with? (5-8,5)
LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE – or L.E.D. (but not the same one)
19 Examine volunteers injected with last bad blood (8)
VENDETTA – VET T.A., injected with END [last]
21 Extremely worrying when some fine house gets stripped (7)
OMINOUS – {s}OM{e} {f}IN{e} {h}OUS{e}
23 Bunk, not a single one, in which briefly to dispatch son (8)
NONSENSE – NONE, in which SEN{d} S
27 Most impressive crack I found in waterproof coat (8)
MAJESTIC – JEST I found in MAC
28 Perhaps Crusoe’s reason for putting nothing on? (8)
CASTAWAY – our if your CAST is AWAY you can’t put on a play
31 Spiny anteater concealed in tangled cane (7)
ECHIDNA – HID in (CANE*)
32 Too much is coverable without following fine English (12)
INSUFFERABLE – INSURABLE “without” F F E
34 School banning son about boy offering harmful substance? (11)
CHOLESTEROL – {s}CHOOL about LESTER
36 Absence of large figure from small building society head? (11)
SLENDERNESS – S LENDER NESS [small | building society | head]
38 Backing note about Leningrad formerly removing leader (10)
RETROGRADE – RE about {p}ETROGRAD
40 Credit one number with style for female garment (9)
CRINOLINE – CR I NO. with LINE
42 Casual greeting to Royal Marines on one steam ship (3-2-4)
HIT-OR-MISS – HI TO R.M. on I S.S.
43 Like item in restaurant with a fabric covering design (1,2,5)
A LA CARTE – A LACE covering ART
48 Seen insulin regularly used for tiredness (5)
ENNUI – {s}E{e}N {i}N{s}U{l}I{n}
50 Precious stone and silver bolted down? (5)
AGATE – AG + ATE
51 Time of difficulty, not leading pair to find goddess (4)
ISIS – {cr}ISIS
52 Florida invaded by European parasite (4)
FLEA – FLA invaded by E
Edited at 2020-10-31 06:27 am (UTC)