This trundled along quite nicely until the end, where I spent several minutes on the 43A and 44D intersection. Liked the inventor/pasta incident at 7D.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DECKCHAIR – I inside DECK (floor) + CHAR (cleaner) | |
| 6 | MALLARD – M{e}AL (meal that needs energy) + LARD (fat) | |
| 10 | NIGHT – NIGH (Almost) + {dayligh}T (end of daylight) | |
| 13 | SWEDISH – ED (News chief) inside SWISH (impressively smart) | |
| 14 | SORT OUT – OR (men) inside STOUT (strong beer). The definition is “Group”, as a verb. I initially thought that OR was “Group of men”, leading to the clue apparently having no definition. | |
| 15 | LET-DOWN – DOWN (Depressed) after LET (hindrance) | |
| 16 | BETTER LATE THAN NEVER – (THREATEN + VETERAN + BELT)* | |
| 17 | NIL – hidden in PenNILess | |
| 18 | EXCEED – E (English) + XC (ninety) + reversal of DEE (river) | |
| 20 | FAILED – F (Female) + AILED (was ill) | |
| 21 | STRETCHED – STR (strait) + ETCHED (engraved) | |
| 23 | ORNAMENTAL – ORIENTAL (In the east) but with NAM (Vietnam) instead of I (one) | |
| 25 | DREADNAUGHT – dEmAnDiNg (regularly demanding) inside DRAUGHT (depth). I would probably have spelled this with an o but that wouldn’t have fitted the wordplay. | |
| 29 | ORIEL – OR (Gold) + IE (that is) + L (left) | |
| 30 | GO NATIVE – (N (new) + TOGA + I’VE)*, and a reference to the phrase “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” | |
| 31 | ICE LOLLY – I (One) + CE (church) + LOLLY (money) | |
| 34 | TURN AWAY – homophone of TERN, + AWAY (the opposite of present) | |
| 36 | STONE-AGE – TONE (character) inside SAGE (Wise man). The definition is “from a long time ago”, hence the hyphen. | |
| 37 | MUNRO – RUN* inside MO (second). Ben is a Scottish word for a mountain peak, and Scottish mountains above 3,000 feet in height are called Munros, hence the definition “Big Ben”. | |
| 39 | RAPESEED OIL – APES (monkeys) in REED (grass), + reversal of LIO{n} (Lion mostly). A slightly odd definition (“something edible”), I thought, though maybe other solvers like nothing better than to tuck into a bowl of the stuff. | |
| 41 | INDUSTRIAL – {F}IND + {G}US + {a}T + {t}RIAL (Find Gus at trial never starting) | |
| 43 | MILD STEEL – MILD (Beer) + STEEL (strength). Mild steel is workable, hence the definition “something easily beaten”. I carelessly flung in milk stout early on without really reading the clue, and even once I’d realised that had to be wrong I couldn’t get milk out of my mind. | |
| 45 | HIDING – H (hard) + I + DING (ring) | |
| 47 | MOROSE – MO{b} (rabble shortly) + ROSE (staged a revolt) | |
| 49 | NUN – homophone of NONE (no person) | |
| 50 | IT AIN’T NECESSARILY SO – (SOCIETY + INSANE + TRIALS)*, for the song from the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. On getting the initial I, I was worried that this was going to be some obscure Italian aria beginning with IL, but fortunately not. | |
| 52 | MUSTANG – MUST (Should) + NAG* | |
| 53 | PIONEER – PION (subatomic particle) + EER (always) | |
| 54 | BLATANT – B (bishop), + reversal of T (time) + NATAL (of nativity) | |
| 55 | LEASE – L (large) + EASE (facility) | |
| 56 | LINCTUS – C (key) in LINT (Bandage cloth), + US (American) | |
| 57 | PROFESSOR – PRO + FOR (doubly in favour of), around E (English) + SS (steamship) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | DISABLED – DID (Worked at) around SABLE (antelope) | |
| 2 | CLEFT – C (Note) + LEFT (one shoe, in the sense that a pair of shoes has a left and a right) | |
| 3 | CHINESE WALL – CHINES (Mountain ridges) + E (east) + W (west) + ALL (wholly), for the set of protocols that restrict sharing of information between certain departments within (say) an investment bank to supposedly prevent conflicts of interest | |
| 4 | AWHILE – A + WILE (devious scheme) around H (husband) | |
| 5 | ROSETTA STONE – (START + TO + SEE + ON)*. Not the smoothest surface. | |
| 6 | MARITAL – MAR (Spoil) + I (one) + TAL{e} (short story) | |
| 7 | LEONARDO DA VINCI – (DO + CANNED + RAVIOLI)* Nice! | |
| 8 | ASTONISHED – (A + DISHONEST)* or A + DISHONEST* | |
| 9 | DELIVER – reversal of REVILED | |
| 10 | NATURE TRAIL – NATURE (Kind) + TRAIL (dog) | |
| 11 | GROUNDHOG – G (good) + ROUND (plump) + H (hard) + reversal of GO (run) | |
| 12 | TANGLED – T{wisted} (Twisted, primarily) + ANGLED (not straight), kind of an &lit | |
| 19 | CARRIER – C (caught) + {b}ARRIER (obstacle, destroying its bow end), i.e. an aircraft-carrier | |
| 22 | BELGRADE – B (British) + E (European) + L (line) + GRADE (level) | |
| 24 | LET IT ALL HANG OUT – (NO + LITTLE + LAUGH + AT)* | |
| 26 | DECREASE – AS (even though) in DECREE (order) | |
| 27 | TOY BOY – TOY (Perhaps rattle) + BOY (my, as an interjection) | |
| 28 | BOATER – double definition | |
| 32 | LONG AGO – LON{don} (half of capital) + GAG (choke) + O (little oxygen) | |
| 33 | LANDING STRIP – {B}LANDINGS TRIP, a reference to Blandings Castle being the seat of Lord Emsworth in various PG Wodehouse books | |
| 35 | ASSASSINATE – ASS + ASS (two fools) + homophone of IN EIGHT (rowing) | |
| 37 | MIRROR IMAGE – MIRROR (newspaper) + IMAGE (public face) | |
| 38 | ROLLING PIN – ROLLING (Very rich) + PI{e} (pie lacking finish) + N (new) | |
| 40 | POLYNESIA – (SPINY + ALOE)* | |
| 42 | SEA OTTER – SETTER (one like me) around bAcOn (even bits of bacon) | |
| 43 | MINIMAL – MA (Mother) inside MINI (short skirt) + L (length) | |
| 44 | EVANGEL – reversal of LEG (on) + NAVE (axis of church – hmm). Not a word that exactly sprang to mind, though its derivatives are familiar enough. | |
| 46 | DICKENS – KENS (knows) after reversal of CID (hero) | |
| 48 | BAMBOO – BAMB{i} (Young deer going short) + {f}OO{d} (stripped food). I think Salten’s book traces Bambi’s life through to old age, so the “Young” is maybe slightly misleading here. | |
| 51 | YEARS – YEAR{n}S (Pines dropping needles, at first) | |
MILD STEEL was new to me too, and I never did quite fathom the wordplay at 34ac.
I’m not sure that CID for “hero” is quite fair, assuming it refers to “El Cid”, any more than “Greco” would be valid if one was required to come up with the name of an artist.
Edited at 2015-09-12 05:17 am (UTC)
The only meaning I found when I looked it up was “Lord”, but I didn’t try more than one source.