This was mostly straightforward but there were a few unknowns and “barely remembereds” that required a bit of careful piecing together and subsequent checking.
First in was NEPHEW and last was SHAKO.
If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.
The technical stuff:
Clues are in blue (unless you’re in dark mode) with the definition underlined. 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 L[eft]
If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.
The technical stuff:
Clues are in blue (unless you’re in dark mode) with the definition underlined. 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 FRI[day]
| Across | |
| 1 | Stop early input behind fighting (3,2,3,3) |
| NIP IN THE BUD – (input behind)* | |
| 7 | Registered offender wrote for cast? (11) |
| CONSCRIPTED – CON, SCRIPTED (as in wrote a script for the cast of a play, say). | |
| 13 | Immobilised soldier left before large town overthrown (9) |
| PARALYTIC – PARA, L[eft] | |
| 14 | Faint opportunity for action publicity man ultimately plugs (7) |
| SYNCOPE – SCOPE plugged by {publicit}Y {ma}N. A type of fainting fit. | |
| 15 | Plant hire periodically covered by advance payment (5) |
| SHRUB – H{i}R{e} in SUB (common shortening of subsistence money). | |
| 16 | European Union starts to entice Norway, or so it seems (6) |
| ENOSIS – initial letters. It’s the political union between Greece and Cyprus. I hadn’t heard of it but the wordplay was kind. | |
| 17 | Yes, Silicon Valley giant circumvents American gall (3,5) |
| OAK APPLE – OK, APPLE around A[merican] | |
| 18 | Unexpected U-turn on train (7) |
| NURTURE – (u-turn)*, RE | |
| 20 | Coward’s work terribly slammed in vacuous ding-dong with Ogden Nash (3,4,3,10) |
| MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN – (slammed in D{ing-don}G ogden nash)* | |
| 23 | Stupid person fled over high range (7) |
| SOPRANO – SOP, RAN, O[ver] | |
| 24 | Axeman’s curse has a hold on doctor in the Province (7) |
| HENDRIX – HEX around D[octo]R in N[orthern] I[reland]. Axe as in guitar. | |
| 26 | Old army division of men receiving small amount of spirits (7) |
| MANIPLE – MALE (of men) around NIP. A company of foot soldiers in the Roman army. | |
| 28 | Little island’s hallucinogen-yielding cactus out of bounds (4) |
| EYOT – {p}EYOT{e}. I didn’t know the cactus so inferred EYOT from def and checkers and had to assume that ?EYOT? was such a thing. | |
| 29 | Goes fishing in outskirts of Flanders, unable to get a bite? (8) |
| FANGLESS – ANGLES in F{lander}S | |
| 32 | Reference book sign she unfortunately breaks (9) |
| THESAURUS – TAURUS around (she)* | |
| 35 | University official checks judge’s case for presentation aid? (9) |
| PROJECTOR – PROCTOR around J{udg}E | |
| 36 | One way to make strong beer be distinctive (5,3) |
| STAND OUT – You can make STOUT out of ST and OUT | |
| 37 | Fit is loose, but not very (4) |
| AGUE – VAGUE minus V[ery] | |
| 39 | Perhaps courtyard’s prisoners finally free, seemingly? (7) |
| SUNTRAP – {prisoner}S, UNTRAP | |
| 41 | Feel less enamoured? Caught John backing away (4,3) |
| COOL OFF – C[aught], LOO reversed, OFF | |
| 44 | Retailer wickedly smuggles port in Scotland (7) |
| LERWICK – hidden | |
| 45 | Novel clever story had lately spread (4,11,5) |
| LADY CHATTERLEYS LOVER – (clever story had lately)* | |
| 49 | Tax I stop in New York City (7) |
| VATICAN – VAT, I, CAN (US lingo for to stop something) | |
| 50 | Measure of resistance shown by broadcaster hosting king’s caricaturist (8) |
| BEERBOHM – OHM next to BEEB (nickname for the BBC) around R[ex]. Max Beerbohm, 1872-1956, nowt to do with our ‘favourite” actor. | |
| 51 | Fool and half disregard delegate (6) |
| ASSIGN – ASS, IGN{ore} | |
| 53 | What’s hot country delivered? (5) |
| CHILI – Sounds like Chile | |
| 54 | Decrepit worker, say, eats dainty with guts turning (7) |
| ANCIENT – ANT around NICE with the middle two letters swapped. | |
| 55 | Outside front of theatre with sleuth, pound knocker (9) |
| NITPICKER – NICKER (slang for Pound sterling) around T{heatre} P[rivate] I[nvestigator]. | |
| 56 | Hint of error in small (very small) point about duke’s killer (7,4) |
| SWEENEY TODD – E{rror} in S[mall] WEENY, DOT reversed, D[uke] | |
| 57 | Bernard Crick somehow missing Republican connection? (7,4) |
| CARRICK BEND – (bernard crick)* without R[ebublican]. A nautical knot. I knew that a sheet bend was a knot so took that bit on trust and reassmbled the remaining fodder into the most likely comination. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Write up hack for relative (6) |
| NEPHEW – PEN reversed, HEW | |
| 2 | Maybe we spurn Napoleon or revolutionary (8,7) |
| PERSONAL PRONOUN – (spurn napoleon or)* | |
| 3 | Cover of NME list includes German song and English one (6,4) |
| NELLIE DEAN – N{m}E, LEAN around LIED | |
| 4 | Be repelled by odd characters among hearties (4) |
| HATE – H{e]A{r}T{i}E{s} | |
| 5 | Composer, older composer, uncovered problem in organ (9) |
| BACHARACH – BACH, {e}ARACH{e}. The fantastic BURT. | |
| 6 | Mark cleaned bottles in dump (7) |
| DISCARD – SCAR bottled by DID | |
| 7 | One takes off top first or second batsman after about noon (3-6) |
| CAN-OPENER – OPENER after C[irc]A, N[oon] | |
| 8 | Bill suppressing love shows restraint? (5) |
| NOOSE – NOSE around O | |
| 9 | Something eccentric surrounding male attached to extremely glamorous tight dress (9) |
| CHEONGSAM – CAM (from the technical sense of eccentric) around HE ON G{lamorous}. Thankfully I just about remembered this from previous crosswords. Incidentally, where does the U go when glamour becomes glamorous? | |
| 10 | Helpful piece for the orchestra? (12) |
| INSTRUMENTAL – DD | |
| 11 | Proud king traitor put up, one of five siblings (7) |
| TARQUIN – RAT reveresd QUIN[tuplet]. Tarquin the proud was King of Rome. | |
| 12 | Garden tool with ridges, its wrapper the wrong way round (6) |
| DIBBER – RIBBED with the ends swapped | |
| 19 | Uneducated Italian guy barely on top of tirade (8) |
| IGNORANT – {s}IGNO{r}, RANT | |
| 21 | Displaced adult, ex criminal (7) |
| LUXATED – (adult ex)*. DNK. | |
| 22 | Blair’s language borders on naïve and feeble when hiding information for the better (8) |
| NEWSPEAK – N{aiv}E, WEAK sround S[tarting] P[rice]. Blair as in George Orwell, of course. | |
| 23 | Embarrassed female on ecstasy — that’s contemptible (8) |
| SHEEPISH – SHE, E, PISH | |
| 25 | Having more of these, you’ll want more works on the radio (5) |
| NEEDS – sounds like KNEADS | |
| 27 | Literary hero in tricky situation beneath bird of prey (9,6) |
| PEREGRINE PICKLE – PICKLE under PEREGRINE (falcon). The adventures of Peregrine Pickle is a novel (NHO) by Tobias Smollett. | |
| 30 | Eg set up cycling chart and get out of here (7) |
| GERTCHA – EG reversed then CHART “cycled” with the RT moving to the front. Known to me from the Chas ‘n’ Dave song of the same name that was used in a TV ad for Courage beer. In 1979 I saw C n D as an unlikely support act for Led Zeppelin and they were terrific. | |
| 31 | Mostly unreliable old military cover (5) |
| SHAKO – SHAK{y}, O[ld]. Like the dress this plumed soldier’s cap was vaguely recalled from previous puzzles. A potentially nasty clue if you haven’t heard of it. | |
| 33 | Topped Daliesque rubbish to settle score? (8) |
| EQUALISE – (daliesque)* | |
| 34 | Copy electronic reminder to stop uproar (12) |
| REPRODUCTION – E[lectronic], PROD in RUCTION | |
| 38 | Part of cleaner space secured by, primarily, bargaining power (10) |
| BROOMSTICK – ROOM in B{argaining}, STICK. I’m afraid I’m at a loss to explain why POWER = STICK. Maybe something to do with joystick and the throttle on an aeroplane? Give it a bit more stick. | |
| 40 | Incur PAYE changes — fiscal (9) |
| PECUNIARY – (incur paye)* | |
| 42 | Improving working idea with no date (2,3,4) |
| ON THE MEND – NOT (idea no date)* as I first had it, but ON, THEME, N[o] D[ate] (with thanks to Kevin). | |
| 43 | New student nurse cracks means to enhance atmosphere? (9) |
| FRESHENER – FRESHER around E[nrolled] N[urse] | |
| 45 | Network of parasites drinking blood group dry (7) |
| LATTICE – LICE around A T{ee}T[otal} | |
| 46 | Unemotional City bore endlessly reflected about nothing (7) |
| ROBOTIC – CITy BORe reversed around O | |
| 47 | Turns out orders, second of which reduced by 99 per cent (6) |
| EVICTS – EDICTS with the D (500) reduced to V (5) | |
| 48 | Caught churchmen propped up outside back of boozer (6) |
| SNARED – DEANS reversed around {booze}R | |
| 50 | Young Irishman to resist old (5) |
| BUCKO – BUCK, O[ld] | |
| 52 | Case made by European travel company (4) |
| ETUI – E, TUI (self-proclaimed leading gloabal tourism group). | |
DNF
Didn’t get SYNCOPE, OAK APPLE. DNK NELLIE DEAN, GERTCHA, CARRICK BEND, TUI. Max Beerbohm was Beerbohm Tree’s much younger half-brother.. 42d isn’t an anagram, Pootle: ON THE MEND–> working=ON, idea=THEME, no date=ND. Also typos at 37ac and 50ac.
Thanks Kevin, typos corrected.
Re on the mend, the perils of being a speed solver.
I used aids for the NHO SYNCOPE as my LOI, CHEONGSAM (which has come up before but I didn’t remember it) and for PICKLE in 27 where I had bunged in PEREGRINE FALCON with fingers crossed but had to revisit later when NITPICKER arrived eventually and they clashed. I NHO the literary character.
I also failed fully to parse SWEENEY TODD and ON THE MEND.
Think I completed this but I forgot to keep a record.
– Relied on wordplay for the unknown SYNCOPE, ENOSIS, OAK APPLE, CARRICK BEND, CHEONGSAM and LUXATED
– NHO peyote but had heard of EYOT
– Didn’t know BEERBOHM the caricaturist
– NHO PEREGINE PICKLE but the wordplay was kind
Thanks Penfold and setter.
COD Mad Dogs And Englishmen
Small correction: 9d is CAM around HE ON G{lamorou}S.
Not too tricky, in spite of a large number of unknown or somewhat unfamiliar terms.
I was puzzled by power/STICK too but you have it right: Collins says ‘physical power, force (esp in the phrase give it some stick)’.
Too many obscurities for my liking – turns into a joyless hunt through the dictionary. But I did like ST-and-OUT.
A turgid waste of time, weighed down as it was by so many obscurities – syncope, maniple, King Tarquin (who he?), Peregrine Pickle (ditto), enosis, pish, bucko, etui, and what on earth is carrick bend and cheongsam? Does anyone still call a guitarist an axeman? Worst of all was Nellie Dean, a song that almost no one still alive can have heard of.
Couldn’t parse On the mend, or stick for power.
Also not a fan of clues such as 45a, consisting of a definition so broad it’s almost useless (‘novel’), followed by a 20-letter anagram.
Sorry, not my cup of tea at all.
DNF- about 6 away. Not able to make anything of clues for 5, 6, 9 to cite just 3. Glad I conceded when I did. A lot of esoteric words here I feel!