Hello everyone. I try to delay as little as possible between solving and writing up, but failed to blog promptly this time. Now all I have is a note of my time (59 minutes) and the vaguest of recollections. My time suggests a medium level of difficulty, and the wordplay must have seen me through the couple of gaps in my knowledge, otherwise I’d have noted it. So all good – thanks setter!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Notice one entering great church to dispense rites (10) |
| ADMINISTER — AD (notice) + I (one) entering MINSTER (great church) | |
| 6a | Old Peruvian head touring a city almost put out of action (12) |
| INCAPACITATE — INCA (old Peruvian) + PATE (head) around (touring) A CITy almost | |
| 14a | Style artist recalled with Dail member and Green (3,4) |
| ART DECO — RA (artist) reversed (recalled) with TD (Teachta Dála: Dail member) and ECO (green) | |
| 15a | Old poem in book reversing virus misery? (7) |
| BEOWULF — B (book) + reversing FLU (virus) and WOE (misery) | |
| 16a | Stable American coin no longer used (7) |
| SOLIDUS — SOLID (stable) + US (American) | |
| 17a | Superb exterior to masculine perfection (4) |
| ACME — ACE (superb) outside (exterior to) M (masculine) | |
| 18a | Pale and sickly old rock-and-roller sought by police (6) |
| WANTED — WAN (pale and sickly) + TED (old rock-and-roller) | |
| 20a | Mackintosh from Scots own company in desert (8) |
| RAINCOAT — AIN (Scots own) and CO (company) in RAT (desert) | |
| 24a | Cause problems in new NHS strike: another war won about power? (5,1,7,2,3,5) |
| THROW A SPANNER IN THE WORKS — An anagram of (new) NHS STRIKE: ANOTHER WAR WON around (about) P (power) | |
| 25a | Warms up again and runs races to conserve energy (7) |
| REHEATS — R (runs) + HEATS (races) containing (to conserve) E (energy) | |
| 26a | Individual copies returned by judge (8) |
| SEPARATE — Backwards (… returned) APES (copies) by RATE (judge) | |
| 27a | Relative in brown sent back in time (6) |
| AGNATE — TAN (brown) reversed (sent back) in AGE (time) | |
| 29a | Alpine margay is out with small foxes? (5,9) |
| MOSSY SAXIFRAGE — An anagram (out) of MARGAY IS with S (small) FOXES | |
| 31a | Plover and otter eluded traps (8) |
| DOTTEREL — AnD OTTER ELuded contains (traps) the answer | |
| 34a | Office appointment: mark for later time (8) |
| POSTDATE — POST (office) + DATE (appointment) | |
| 36a | Literary faux pas Tom Sharpe suggests? (5,9) |
| MIXED METAPHORS — TOM SHARPE is an anagram of (MIXED) METAPHORS | |
| 39a | Stress at home with sibling tense (6) |
| INSIST — IN (at home) + SIS (sibling) + T (tense) | |
| 41a | Much appreciated bandana collected by short seller (5,3) |
| THANK YOU — HANKY (bandana) in (collected by) all but the last letter of (short) TOUt (seller) | |
| 43a | Sincere art making money? (7) |
| EARNEST — A whimsical second definition: thou art making money, thou EARNEST | |
| 46a | Last presentation with old puns dreadful in effect (2,3,7,3,8) |
| TO ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES — An anagram of (… dreadful) LAST PRESENTATION with OLD PUNS | |
| 47a | Perhaps Amazon Go at first is stocking stakes (8) |
| GIANTESS — Go at first + IS holding (stocking) ANTES (stakes) | |
| 48a | Disheartened songwriter and musician (6) |
| LYRIST — Without its middle (disheartened) LYRicIST (songwriter) | |
| 49a | Egyptian god restraining explosive goddess (4) |
| RHEA — RA (Egyptian god) around (restraining) HE (explosive) | |
| 53a | Champion one foreign people must embrace (7) |
| TRIBUNE — UN (one foreign) which TRIBE (people) must surround (embrace) | |
| 54a | Writer in fictional realm wanting start in Republic (7) |
| ARMENIA — ME (writer) in nARNIA (fictional realm) lacking the first letter (wanting start) | |
| 56a | Rapidly consumes cool hotel beers (7) |
| INHALES — IN (cool) + H (hotel) + ALES (beers) | |
| 57a | Special expert with a Liberal leader venturing forth from Atlantis? (12) |
| SPACEWALKING — SP. (special) + ACE (expert) + W (with) + A + L (Liberal) + KING (leader) | |
| 58a | Historic document: Reform Act with anagram! (5,5) |
| MAGNA CARTA — Make an anagram of (reform) ACT with ANAGRAM | |
| Down | |
| 1d | White dog ensnared by a plant (9) |
| ALABASTER — LAB (dog) in (ensnared by) A and ASTER (plant) | |
| 2d | Changes M&S trousers for spouse returning socks (13) |
| METAMORPHOSES — M&S holds (trousers) PRO (for) and MATE (spouse) backwards (returning) plus HOSE (socks) | |
| 3d | Vegetable energy upped swan absorbs (4) |
| NEEP — E (energy) which a raised (upped) PEN (swan) takes in (absorbs) | |
| 4d | Workers in store go among bizarre Insta hosts (4,10) |
| SHOP ASSISTANTS — PASS (go) among an anagram of (bizarre) INSTA HOSTS | |
| 5d | Close to mate, black bishop in decline (3) |
| EBB — The last letter of (close to) matE + B (black) + B (bishop) | |
| 7d | Part of speech: verb, adverb or adjective say (4) |
| NOUN — The words “verb”, “adjective” and “adverb” are all examples of NOUNs | |
| 8d | Reactionary character in flagrante dancing tango? (3,7) |
| ALF GARNETT — FLAGRANTE anagrammed (dancing) + T (tango) | |
| 9d | Seaman to fall from grace with the drink (8) |
| ABSINTHE — AB (seaman) + SIN (to fall from grace) + THE | |
| 10d | Part of Britain lies at sea with fog swirling (4,2,5) |
| ISLE OF WIGHT — LIES anagrammed (at sea) + WITH FOG anagrammed (swirling) | |
| 11d | Check old song over for concert halls (9) |
| AUDITORIA — AUDIT (check) + O (old) + AIR (song) turned over | |
| 12d | Peter Sellers holding tongue (4) |
| ERSE — PetER SEllers is holding the answer | |
| 13d | Fish around loch bite in sudden wintry spell (4,4) |
| COLD SNAP — COD (fish) around L (loch) + SNAP (bite) | |
| 19d | Spy boss blocking route to send out signal (8) |
| TRANSMIT — M (spy boss) inside (blocking) TRANSIT (route) | |
| 21d | Moist after toil, clothing finally discarded in debauched place (6) |
| SWEATY — Minus its last letter (… finally discarded) WEAr (clothing) in STY (debauched place) | |
| 22d | Suspend player who’s paid villain (8) |
| PROROGUE — PRO (player who’s paid) + ROGUE (villain) | |
| 23d | In addition to a balloon, a second (2,4,2) |
| AS WELL AS — A + SWELL (balloon) + A + S (second) | |
| 28d | Suggest union quite honest, restructured following report (3,3,8) |
| POP THE QUESTION — QUITE HONEST anagrammed (restructured) following POP (report) | |
| 29d | Infernal type came together with Greek characters in love (8) |
| MEPHISTO — MET (came together) with PHIS (Greek characters) in + O (love) | |
| 30d | Again, light period of power couple losing millions (8) |
| REIGNITE — REIGN (period of power) + ITE[m] (couple) losing M (million) | |
| 32d | Exceptional academic modelled Loch Ard shores (6,7) |
| RHODES SCHOLAR — An anagram of (modelled) LOCH ARD SHORES | |
| 33d | Burn, start to smoke, turn to dust (8) |
| SMOULDER — The first letter of (start to) Smoke + MOULDER (turn to dust) | |
| 35d | Senior detectives excuse certain offence (11) |
| DISPLEASURE — DIS (senior detectives) + PLEA (excuse) + SURE (certain) | |
| 37d | Red stone your Roman Catholic leader keeps (6) |
| PYROPE — YR (your), which POPE (Roman Catholic leader) contains (keeps) | |
| 38d | This to shorten line that woman records with Marvin? (10) |
| SHEEPSHANK — SHE (that woman) + EPS (records) + HANK (Marvin?) | |
| 40d | Place in Hilton Hotel involved in wine: litres imported (7-2) |
| SHANGRI-LA — H (Hotel) involved in SANGRIA (wine) with L (litres) also inserted (imported). Shangri-La comes from the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton | |
| 42d | One from Glasgow hosts peer, good runner (8) |
| YEARLING — YIN (one from Glasgow) hosts EARL (peer) followed by G (good) | |
| 44d | Main brew pulls in crew aboard carrier? (6,3) |
| TASMAN SEA — TEA (brew) pulls in MAN (crew) inside (aboard) ASS (carrier?). | |
| Thanks to Andy below for pointing out my error (I had SS as the carrier) and to Raffles for supplying the correct parsing | |
| 45d | Curse a boring song — Sabrina’s last (8) |
| ANATHEMA — A going into (boring) ANTHEM (song) + SabrinA’s last letter | |
| 50d | Old husband fleeing this person giving us a lift (4) |
| OTIS — O (old) + T[h]IS with H (husband) fleeing. Elisha Otis, founder of the Otis Elevator Company | |
| 51d | Lady wife leaves for the country (4) |
| OMAN — [w]OMAN, W(wife) leaves | |
| 52d | Stylish welcome received in clubs twice (4) |
| CHIC — HI (welcome) received in C C (clubs twice) | |
| 55d | Ottoman officer edges away from infidel (3) |
| AGA — Outer letters (edges) taken away from pAGAn (infidel) | |
NHO MOSSY S. NHO Hank Marvin. Is sangria a wine?
No.
Thanks for the blog. I might have missed something but the parsing for 44d seems to account for only eight of the nine letters: TEA (brew) pulls in MAN (crew) inside SS. It is the first ‘a’ of Tasman Sea that seems to be unaccounted for, I think.
Didn’t know Dail member = TD, agnate, ain = own, tribune = champion, sheepshank, the Hilton reference at 40d.
Favourite clue: 8d conjured up a fun image.
Worst clue: 29a by some distance.
I think that the Carrier(?) is a DBE and is referring to an Ass not a ship.
Aha, thanks – yes, that makes sense. I’ll correct the blog.
Not too difficult. Some really nice clues, like Isle of Wight and Wan-ted. But I thought the hanky tout was stretching things a bit far.
Managed this in 2 sittings. Glad of the clear instructions on how to spell MEPHISTO and METAMORPHOSES. LOI was the alpine with fingers crossed once I’d seen what the anagram was and what the straight bit was! Pleased to get a correct solve.
Thanks to the blogger and setter.