My favourites this time were 26ac for the oldie-but-goodie “Harry” as anagrind; 36dn for being ridiculously hard to parse yet satisfying when I finally did; 10dn for being a really fun literary clue in a not very literary puzzle; and of course the marvelous 39ac’s preposterous anagrist. I do love it when setters try to pull off such absurd feats of construction, especially when the resultant surface is so smooth. Kudos!
ACROSS
1 Unreliable old man nicks tune we added (4-7)
FAIR-WEATHER – FATHER [old man] “nicks” AIR [tune] + WE
7 Holland House fuel extract (6,5)
ORANGE JUICE – ORANGE [Holland House] + JUICE [fuel]
13 One daughter inspires tango performed on stage (5)
ACTED – ACE D “inspires” T
14 Risk grabbing Romeo’s ulcer (7)
CHANCRE – CHANCE “grabbing” R
15 Dodging a very old paper ball (9)
AVOIDANCE – A V O i DANCE [a | very | old | paper | ball]
16 Scary spinner‘s natural bent among reserves (9)
TARANTULA – (NATURAL*) “among” TA. Fascinating fact: tarantulas do not use webs to catch their prey. But they do spin silk to e.g. make a burrow to hide in, so this clue remains kosher.
17 One large boy struggled to suppress second rash (3-7)
ILL-ADVISED – I L LAD VIED, to “suppress” S
20 Right court for controlling scrap — thanks to this (4,3)
RIOT ACT – R CT “controlling” IOTA, semi-&lit
22 Leaves after wasted meal (4,3)
HIGH TEA – TEA [leaves] after HIGH [wasted]
24 European allowed to conceal crew’s hint (7)
ELEMENT – E LET to “conceal” MEN
25 Weakling must have very little money in principle (8)
RUDIMENT – RUNT must have DIME in
26 Harry Potter hurt nine, which drivers sometimes can do (5-5,4)
THREE-POINT TURN (POTTER HURT NINE*) [“harry…”]
28 What scouts do in playground before church (5)
RECCE – REC before CE
29 Trained pupil briefly to stop the old city slicker (6)
YUPPIE – (PUPI{l}*) [“trained”] to “stop” YE [the old]. I had YARDIE in here for a while for inexplicable reasons – probably indicative of the type of circles I personally move in.
30 Star Glaswegian recalled fine area around Halifax (4,6)
NOVA SCOTIA – NOVA SCOT + reversed A1
33 It helps in speech to emphasise saint (6,4)
STRESS MARK – STRESS [emphasise] + MARK [saint]
35 A sample of polar Canada’s secrets (6)
ARCANA – hidden in {pol}AR CANA{da}
37 Peace advocate captivates Republican horde (5)
DROVE – DOVE “captivates” R
39 Spreading scandal, excited at telling it three times (6-8)
TITTLE-TATTLING – (AT TELLING IT T T T*) [“excited”]
41 Archipelago short of popular pineapples (8)
GRENADES – GRENAD{in}ES
44 It’s a pride issue, working with copper in library (4,3)
LION CUB – ON with CU in LIB
45 Intended fund without name ending in failure (7)
FIANCEE – FI{n}ANCE + {failur}E
46 Cutting tree I found in British Columbia (7)
ACERBIC – ACER + I found in BC
47 Like some bread with jam and seeds (10)
WHOLEGRAIN – W HOLE [jma] + GRAIN [seeds]
49 Cleaner not able initially to charge about one pound (9)
NAILBRUSH – N{ot} A{ble} + RUSH “about” I LB
53 Send out light roasted course: fabulous being back to eat it! (9)
FLUORESCE – (COURSE*) [“roasted”], “eaten” by reversed ELF
54 Star gets into bed for a smoke (7)
CHEROOT – HERO gets into COT
55 Swimmer‘s about to perish, heading west (5)
EIDER – RE DIE [about | to perish], read east to west
56 Enthuses, perhaps evading gym and old dishes Henry left (11)
RHAPSODISES – {pe}RHAPS + O DIS{h}ES
57 Ditch tongue, heading off for Happy Eater? (11)
TRENCHERMAN – TRENCH + {g}ERMAN
DOWN
1 Note shorter, less singular person using flannel (9)
FLATTERER – FLAT [note] + TER{s}ER
2 Job for painter inside 8 (8,10)
INTERIOR DECORATION – INTERIOR [inside] + DECORATION [award]
3 Extra new stretch (5)
WIDEN – WIDE [(cricketing) extra] N
4 Story by some about constant profession (11)
ACCOUNTANCY – ACCOUNT by ANY “about” C
5 Each had awful athlete’s foot and pain at the other end (8)
HEADACHE – (EACH HAD*) [“awful”] + {athlet}E. At the other end of the body from the foot, that is.
6 Relax here, startling boss (7,5)
ROCKING CHAIR – ROCKING [startling] + CHAIR [boss]
7 Expose what’s in envelope that’s given to the press (4,6)
OPEN LETTER – OPEN [expose] + LETTER [what’s in envelope]
8 Place for nursing trophy (5)
AWARD – or A WARD [place for nursing]
9 I love angler somehow catching large marine creature (11)
GLOBIGERINA – (I O ANGLER*) “catching” BIG [large]. Because everyone loves super-obscure words clued by (partial) anagrams!
10 Reason obscure hero hoards brilliant books? (9)
JUDGEMENT – JUDE [(eponymously) “obscure” hero] “hoards” GEM [brilliant] + NT [books]
11 Where to find barmen of different types? (4)
INNS – be they of drinking or of Court.
12 River’s banks eroded constantly (4)
EVER – {s}EVER{n}
18 Quirky odd bureaucrat is almost silent proof of falsehood (8,2,8)
REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM – (ODD BUREAUCRAT IS*) + DUM{b}
19 Very old joke packs theatre (5,3)
STONE AGE – ONE [as in “good one!”] “packs” STAGE
21 Idle, the writer’s tucking into drink with sons (7)
AIMLESS – I’M “tucking into” ALE + S S
23 Software run at cricket ground’s OK (8)
APPROVAL – APP R at OVAL
27 Impressionist, perhaps one able to lift drink (8)
APERITIF – APER + I + reversed FIT
28 Engineers resolve to move (8)
RESETTLE – RE SETTLE [engineers | resolve]
31 Measure port imbibed by conservative Anglicans (7)
CADENCE – ADEN “imbibed” by C CE
32 Sublime climb across middle of liner in river (12)
TRANSCENDENT – ASCEND “across” {li}N{er}, in TRENT
34 Broken down? Police stopped, after spending hours (11)
METABOLISED – MET ABOLIS{h}ED
36 Answer cut from article about avoiding “hippy” type of language (4-7)
AFRO-ASIATIC – A [answer] + FRO{m} + A [article] + S{c}IATIC [C = about “avoiding” a word for “pertaining to hips”]
38 150 eastern experts accepting smuggled licences (10)
CLEARANCES – CL E ACES “accepting” RAN
40 Do battle to secure instruments (4,5)
LOCK HORNS – LOCK [secure] + HORNS [instruments]
42 Cash in car interpreted as sweetener (9)
SACCHARIN – (CASH IN CAR*)
43 Head man from Krakow’s supporter in plot (8)
BEANPOLE – BEAN [head] + POLE [man from Krakow]. That’s a plot as in vegetable patch.
48 Fancy patrons wasting time! (5)
GUESS – GUES{t}S
50 Part of speech backed up English note (5)
BREVE – reversed VERB [part of speech] + E
51 Starts to approach from access road a long way off (4)
AFAR – A{pproach} F{rom} A{ccess} R{oad}
52 Each year involves leading intermediate stage (4)
PUPA – P.A. [each year] “involves” UP [leading]
I got a pink square anyway but that’s because my Latin spelling isn’t up to snuff and I didn’t pay close enough attention to the wordplay: I put in ABSURDAM.
Edited at 2020-03-28 05:34 pm (UTC)
Ong’ara,
Kenya.