Apart from a couple of unknown words, I found this one of average difficulty, at least in terms of coming up with the answers, however some of the parsings were not immediately obvious and there were some well-hidden definitions, so a pleasing solve all round. 18m 57s
cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition
| Across | ||
| 1 | ARACHNOPHOBIA – cd where the “spinner” is a spider, with the surface reading a piece of cricket commentary. The “quite” seems to be just padding for the surface, unless I’m missing something. | |
| 8 | STOP PRESS – ST (way) + OPPRESS (to limit people’s freedoms), definition: “The latest” | |
| 13 | TWANG – TANG (Relish) around W (western) | |
| 14 | RADIOACTIVE – RADIO (Receiver possibly) + ACTIVE (running), definition: “hot” | |
| 15 | AMBER – {c}AMBER (curve in road missing key) | |
| 16 | MANIFESTO – (AIMS OFTEN)*, sort of an &lit | |
| 17 | DRIP – D (daughter) + RIP (split) | |
| 18 | WATER ICE – {co}W (Cow finally) + ATE (consumed) + RICE (grass) | |
| 20 | SETTLE – dd | |
| 21 | CANTANKEROUSNESS – CAN TANKER (Is ship able to) + O (round) + US (American) + NESS (head) | |
| 24 | ANNOTATOR – NO inside ANT (worker), + reversal of ROTA (list of duties) | |
| 26 | INEXACT – IN (at home) + EX (former partner) + ACT (move) | |
| 27 | AGREE – A + GREE{t} (welcome, mostly) | |
| 29 | GREENSLEEVES – GREEN (New) + SLEEVES (disc covers) | |
| 31 | AIDE-DE-CAMP – {m}AIDE{n} (Young woman stripped) + DECAMP (to run away) | |
| 33 | INFRASONIC – IN (Favoured) + FRA (monk) + S (small) + ICON*, definition: “too low to be noticed” | |
| 35 | FLAMETHROWER – (WEALTH REFORM)*, definition: “something of an incendiary issue” | |
| 38 | EULER – E (English) + {r}ULER (monarch beheaded), definition: “calculating foreigner”, i.e. Leonhard Euler, who made numerous contributions to the fields of mathematics and physics, not least Euler’s number e, often encountered in Crosswordland as a base. | |
| 39 | TRISTAN – T{annhause}R + IS + TAN (bronze), i.e. the hero of Tristan und Isolde | |
| 40 | FREESTYLE – FREES (Releases) + TYLE (tyre which has changed hands, i.e. change R (right) to L (left)) | |
| 42 | CROSS-POLLINATION – cd, where “plot” refers to a piece of ground and the “social workers” are, say, bees | |
| 44 | BEDBUG – BED (to have sex with) + BUG (enthusiasm). Having endured a couple of bedbug attacks in my time, I have a healthy respect for the little &*£$@%s. | |
| 47 | UNIRONIC – UNI (University) + R (queen) + ON IC{e} (nearly kept waiting) | |
| 49 | SPIT – reversal of TIPS (payments for services), where the definition is “Slaver” as in drool rather than slave-trading | |
| 50 | PROSTRATE – PRATE (talk freely) around (spread by) RO{a}ST (heartless cook), definition “Lying” | |
| 52 | THONG – H (heroin) in TONG (Chinese society), definition: “What offers little coverage” | |
| 53 | INSTITUTION – IN SITU (at the right place) around T (time), + reversal of NO IT, definition: “Starting” | |
| 54 | BUTTY – BUY (Purchase) around TT (dry) | |
| 55 | REMINISCE – RE + MINIS (dresses) + CE (in the last 2000 years or so, i.e. Common Era) | |
| 56 | TAKE TO ONES BED – (BOOK AND SETTEE)* | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARTEMISIA – MERIT* inside ASIA (eastern lands), definition: “Source of malaria drug”. I knew of the plant but not its connection with anti-malarials. | |
| 2 | AGAINST – A + ST (good man), around GAIN (profit) | |
| 3 | HIGHFALUTIN – HIGH (drunk) + FAULT* + IN (popular) | |
| 4 | ONRUSH – dd, the first suggesting that a dragonfly might alight on a rush | |
| 5 | HADROSAUR – HAD (kept) + initial letters of Round Original Site As Unusually Rare. Not a word I knew. Chambers has: “The name of a group of herbivorous, bird-hipped, Cretaceous dinosaurs of the ornithopod class, having webbed hands and feet, a duckbill-shaped jaw and a bony crest”. The first half of the word is from the Greek hadros (stout, thick, heavy), also seen in, say, hadron. | |
| 6 | BLOODSTAINED – (AT BOND SOILED)* | |
| 7 | AUCTIONEER – (EU CREATION)*, the definition referring to auction lots | |
| 8 | SUIT – SIT (Be in session) around U (university) | |
| 9 | ONE WAY OR THE OTHER – dd, the first semi-cryptic and referring to a road fork rather than a table fork | |
| 10 | PLANE – P (parking) + LANE (narrow street) | |
| 11 | EBB TIDE – {w}EBB (topless swimming captain, i.e. Captain Matthew Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel without artificial aids) + reversal of EDIT (to change) | |
| 12 | STREET SWEEPER – STREETS (Ways for a town) + WEEPER (crier). Nice usage of “lift and separate” here. | |
| 19 | GERANIUM – GER{m}ANIUM (Millions lost by semiconductor) | |
| 22 | SLAVE – SAVE (to put money aside) around (this wants stopping by) L (fifty) | |
| 23 | A TALE OF TWO CITIES – a kind of cd, in that Orwell’s Down and Out In Paris and London could be described as a tale of two cities, which also happens to be the name of a Dickens work | |
| 25 | NEEDFUL – HEEDFUL (Taking care) with the H (hospital) replaced by N (nitrogen), definition: “requisite” | |
| 28 | ROADWAY – {b}ROADWAY (Cotswold village hasn’t the breadth). To me, Broadway is either a street in New York, the theatres associated with same, or a word that follows Tooting/Ealing/Fulham, but Googling it gives first a cinema in Nottingham, and then the “Jewel of the Cotswolds” as referenced in this clue, neither of which I’d heard of. | |
| 29 | GEIGER COUNTER – (CURIE GOT ENERG{y})* | |
| 30 | ELIGIBLE – I (isle) + GIB (the Rock, i.e. Gibraltar), inside EL + LE (the Spanish from both sides, i.e. a word for “the” in Spanish written forwards and backwards) | |
| 32 | PLANET-STRUCK – PLANET’S (Orbiter’s) + TRUCK (vehicle). An astrology term I wasn’t familiar with. | |
| 34 | ARRAS – AR + RA (Artists going head to head, i.e. two RAs arranged so that their initial letters are next to each other) + S (society) | |
| 36 | RESPECTABLE – CREPES* + TABLE (food) | |
| 37 | STANDPOINT – STAND (pay for) + PINT (beer) around O (round), definition: “Take” as a noun, e.g. “What’s your take on this?” | |
| 40 | FOOTPRINT – FOOT (Bottom) + PRINT (picture), definition: “a very low impression”. An amusing surface. | |
| 41 | EAGLE-EYED – EAGLE (gold coin (of the US)) + homophone of I’D (I had) | |
| 43 | OVIFORM – O (egg), + FOR (since) inside VI (six) + M (medium). An extended definition. | |
| 45 | BRAN TUB – B (British) + RAN (raced) + reversal of BUT (though), definition: “this won’t guarantee a win”. I think the definition is suggesting that you won’t necessarily get a prize that you want out of a bran tub. I had that kind of experience recently when I won a raffle at my local barber – the prize was a small hamper of men’s grooming goodies, most of which were of no use to me, e.g. moustache/beard wax (I’m clean-shaven), hair gel (I’m thinning too much to need it), 60 styptic matchsticks (not much of a bleeder), etc. Fortunately the fact that it was Easter meant that the hamper was filled out with a selection of chocolate eggs, which just about made it a “win”. | |
| 46 | BORNEO – BORNE (given birth to) + {volcan}O (volcano at last) | |
| 48 | ORGAN – OR (men) + reversal of NAG (grumble) | |
| 51 | ISLE – hidden in KreISLEr, definition: “Key” (e.g. Key Largo) | |
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