I felt this one was of about average difficulty but above average enjoyment, with a smattering of unknowns and some lesser-spotted wordplay devices (e.g. 19A, 39A, 4D) to keep the solver interested. However a misbiff at 21D led to no end of trouble with eventual LOI 36A, providing an umpteenth reminder that it is generally beneficial to square the answer with the wordplay as well as the definition, especially when time is not of the essence. FOI 1A (as no doubt for everyone?), COD 11D for the smooth surface and an anagram I don’t recall seeing before. Thanks, setter.
Definitions are underlined, * = anagram, {} = omission, dd = double definition
| Across | |
| 1 | Money made from gym in Parisian street (5) |
| RUPEE – PE (gym) in RUE (Parisian street) | |
| 4 | Rather lively warbler catching lake bird (10) |
| ALLEGRETTO – ALTO (warbler – in this case just another word for a singer), around L (lake) + EGRET (bird) | |
| 9 | Inhale smoke from flame-thrower (6) |
| DRAGON – DRAG ON (Inhale smoke, e.g. from a cigarette) | |
| 14 | Place with racing stable (9) |
| STEADFAST – STEAD (Place) + FAST (racing) | |
| 15 | MP stopping one royal bachelor going in rocket? It’s not allowed (13) |
| IMPERMISSIBLE – MP in I (one) + ER (royal), + B (bachelor) in MISSILE (rocket) | |
| 16 | Dancer getting hot in scorcher (7) |
| SHEARER – H (hot) in SEARER (scorcher), to give Moira Shearer, who Wikipedia describes as “an internationally renowned British ballet dancer and actress”. She was married to Ludovic Kennedy and her most famous acting role was in The Red Shoes, a film I tangentially knew of because it inspired a (poor, by her standards) Kate Bush album of the same name. | |
| 17 | Easy to cry when rebuffed — and glower (5,4) |
| LIGHT BULB – LIGHT (Easy) + reversal of BLUB (to cry). Nice deception where the surface reading implies glower is a verb but for solving purposes it’s a noun. | |
| 18 | Obliterate resistance encountered in facility (5) |
| ERASE – R (resistance) in EASE (facility) | |
| 19 | Content of oceans symbolised (in various cases) in barnacles (6,8) |
| SODIUM CHLORIDE – the chemical symbol for sodium chloride is NaCl, which can be found all in lower case in barnacles | |
| 22 | Child tucking into pork pies not the smallest, for example (7) |
| LITOTES – TOT (Child) in LIES (pork pies), to give an example of the rhetorical device defined in Chambers as: “1. Meiosis or understatement, 2. Esp affirmation by negation of the contrary, as in not a little angry (= furious)” | |
| 25 | Improve American energy with reversed oil price (10) |
| AMELIORATE – AM (American) + E (energy) + reversal of OIL, + RATE (price) | |
| 27 | Arched portal repaired in upgraded church (12) |
| PROCATHEDRAL – (ARCHED PORTAL)*, to give (Chambers): “A church used temporarily as a cathedral”. I was going to say that this was an unknown for me, but I then did a Google search and found that it appeared in a definition for SEE (the religious one) that I quoted in a Quick Cryptic blog last year, so I should more accurately state that I had forgotten it. | |
| 30 | Blind faith seen in one having puppies? (5) |
| DOGMA – one having puppies might be a DOG MA (mother) | |
| 31 | Stops things happening in Puerto Rico? (8) |
| PREVENTS – PR (Puerto Rico) + EVENTS (things happening) | |
| 32 | Always entertained by priest, German one giving latitude (4,4) |
| FREE REIN – EER (Always), in FR (priest) + EIN (German one) | |
| 35 | Blooming drink that’s said to be no favourite (8) |
| OUTSIDER – OUT (Blooming) + homophone of CIDER (drink) | |
| 36 | Clear note associated with my woodwind instruments (8) |
| CORNETTI – COR (my – as an interjection) + NET (Clear, in the sense of earning money) + TI (note), to give the plural form of cornetto, described by Chambers as: “A woodwind cornet”, which looks nothing like the cornets in the brass section. An unknown for me, but the answer derived from the wordplay seemed credible. | |
| 37 | Good and bad rounds start off rollicking quiz (5) |
| GRILL – G (Good) + ILL (bad) around R{ollicking} (star off rollicking) | |
| 39 | Smash dish in the fireplace — not hard at all (12) |
| DISINTEGRATE – DIS{h} (dish) IN T{h}E GRATE (fireplace), without any h’s (hard). Interesting wordplay, but I would imagine most solvers only saw it via reverse-engineering. | |
| 41 | Sorting out bandage applied to hand regularly (10) |
| ADDRESSING – {h}A{n}D (hand regularly) + DRESSING (bandage) | |
| 43 | Unusually good mouthful — that’s cheese on toast! (7) |
| RAREBIT – RARE (Unusually good) + BIT (mouthful) | |
| 45 | Procedural rules not applicable to sittings? (8,6) |
| STANDING ORDERS – cryptic hint contrasting standing and sitting, to give us (Chambers): “regulations for procedure adopted by a legislative assembly”. I knew this expression in a military context but I think the meaning is slightly different there. | |
| 48 | Piano, not in time, backing viola’s piece (5) |
| PETAL – P (Piano) + reversal of LATE (not in time), with the instrumental viola in the surface reading needing to be converted to the floral version for the definition | |
| 49 | Item about comedian caught in nervous state? (9) |
| TWITCHING – THING (Item), around WIT (comedian) + C (caught) | |
| 51 | Woman in swim, making turn, is wondrous thing (7) |
| PYRAMID – reversal of MARY (Woman) in DIP (swim). I’m assuming the “wondrous” is referring to the pyramids at Giza being one of the Seven Wonders of the World. | |
| 53 | Voices — not rare — trained in music school (13) |
| CONSERVATOIRE – (VOICES NOT RARE)*. For future reference, this also anagrams to OVERREACTIONS. | |
| 54 | Shoots soldier with sawn-off gun in SAS, unusually (9) |
| ASPARAGUS – PARA (soldier) + GU{n} (sawn-off gun), in SAS* | |
| 55 | Some content in de Regnier’s inflammatory stuff (6) |
| TINDER – hidden in contenT IN DE Regnier. Though it’s irrelevant to solving the clue, the most famous de Regniers appear to be Henri (a French symbolist poet) and his wife Marie (a novelist and poet). | |
| 56 | Print worker‘s firm may initially locate in deprived environment (10) |
| COMPOSITOR – CO (firm) + M{ay} (may initially), + SIT (locate) in POOR (deprived). The “environment” bit appears to just be an additional indication (with the “in”) of containment, though it also helps the surface. | |
| 57 | Receive knowledge from learner and bring home bacon? (5) |
| LEARN – L (learner) + EARN (bring home bacon). An unfortunate inclusion of essentially the answer in the wordplay, for which the setter and/or editor deserve a light-to-medium spanking. I’m guessing the clue was rewritten at some point and an early draft was mistakenly included here. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fight is in the balance (6) |
| RESIST – IS in REST (the balance, i.e. the remainder) | |
| 2 | Cash once generated from an octet’s compositions? (6,2,5) |
| PIECES OF EIGHT – an octet’s compositions could be an eight’s pieces, or PIECES OF EIGHT | |
| 3 | Worker at seam giving up whiskey for church official (5) |
| ELDER – {w}ELDER (Worker at seam giving up whiskey) | |
| 4 | Whereof an old-time song here can be Moonlight Serenade? (7) |
| ANAGRAM – tricky one requiring the solver to spot that AN OLD-TIME SONG HERE is an anagram of MOONLIGHT SERENADE | |
| 5 | Fascist piglet? (6,6) |
| LITTLE HITLER – I’m assuming that if Hitler is regarded as a fascist pig then a LITTLE HITLER would be a fascist piglet, though I could be missing something | |
| 6 | Shenanigans in making exit with boy (6-2) |
| GOINGS-ON – GOING (making exit) + SON (boy) | |
| 7 | Times in bind over presenting an American in Paris? (5) |
| EXPAT – X (Times) in reversal of TAPE (bind) | |
| 8 | Cause of martyrdom at Canterbury an unruly State? (10) |
| TURBULENCE – I”m assuming this is a reference to Henry II’s purported cry “Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest?” in relation to Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was subsequently murdered | |
| 10 | Admire group keeping quiet after scripture lessons (7) |
| RESPECT – RE (scripture lessons) + SECT (group) around P (quiet) | |
| 11 | Girl at bar ordered port (9) |
| GIBRALTAR – (GIRL AT BAR)* | |
| 12 | Inheritance finally claimed by particular relative (5) |
| NIECE – NICE (particular) around {Inheritanc}E (Inheritance finally) | |
| 13 | Depression over centre having row about stray dog (3,4,7) |
| PIT BULL TERRIER – PIT (Depression) + BULL (centre – on an archery target or dartboard, say) + TIER (row) about ERR (stray) | |
| 20 | Bogus check allowing fifty to escape (9) |
| IMITATION – {l}IMITATION (check allowing L (fifty) to escape) | |
| 21 | Trouble girl to make entry in old tax office books (8) |
| IRRITANT – RITA (girl), in IR (old tax office) + NT (books). I inexcusably whacked in IRRITATE at first and didn’t bother to actually parse it until its checking letter with 36A proved problematic. | |
| 23 | Moon study transforming lonely egos (10) |
| SELENOLOGY – (LONELY EGOS)* I couldn’t have told you what this meant, but it jumped out from the anagram fodder so quickly that I had to trust that my intuition knew what it was doing. Chambers: “The scientific study of the moon” | |
| 24 | Light fitting needed for tenant (4-6) |
| LAND-HOLDER – LAND (Light) + HOLDER (fitting). Another unknown but it seemed reasonable. | |
| 26 | Typical traveller (14) |
| REPRESENTATIVE – dd | |
| 28 | Ready for anything — seeing red when disturbed (9) |
| ENERGISED – (SEEING RED)* | |
| 29 | Gambling game in meadow calls for drink (5,3) |
| LEMON TEA – MONTE (Gambling game) in LEA (meadow) | |
| 33 | Memorial again vandalised in Italian region (6-7) |
| EMILIA-ROMAGNA – (MEMORIAL AGAIN)*, to give the region of Northeast Italy with a rich culinary heritage | |
| 34 | Upkeep? (7,5) |
| STUDENT GRANT – tough cryptic definition, relying on the solver to mentally split upkeep into up and keep (presumably justified via the question mark) and then realise that being “up” means being at university | |
| 38 | Starter in cup cooked with risotto (10) |
| PROSCIUTTO – (CUP + RISOTTO)* | |
| 40 | Choking river endlessly, rubbish ahead gets regulator in mood (9) |
| SEROTONIN – SEIN{e} (river endlessly), around ROT (rubbish) + ON (ahead), to give (Wikipedia): “a monoamine neurotransmitter … primarily found in the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract), blood platelets, and the central nervous system (CNS) of animals, including humans. It is popularly thought to be a contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness.” | |
| 42 | Revised design in case of emissions prompts anxiety (8) |
| EDGINESS – E{mission}S (case of emissions) around DESIGN* | |
| 44 | Swallow sees insect holding position and velocity (7) |
| BELIEVE – BEE (insect), around LIE (position) + V (velocity) | |
| 46 | Person right to consume trivial entertainment, in theory (2,5) |
| ON PAPER – ONE (Person) + R (right) around PAP (trivial entertainment) | |
| 47 | Inventor‘s time at Twickers recalled (6) |
| EDISON – reversal of NO-SIDE, which is (Chambers): “The end of a rugby match”. Twickers is an affectionate name for Twickenham, the home of English rugby. | |
| 48 | Ornament ancient Briton carries round (5) |
| PICOT – PICT (ancient Briton) around O (round), to give (Chambers): “A loop in an ornamental edging” | |
| 50 | X marks place at the start for primate (5) |
| CHIMP – CHI (X – in Greek) + M (marks) + P{lace} (place at the start) | |
| 52 | Run length around area after sport in country (5) |
| RURAL – RU (sport) + R (Run) + L (length) around A (area) | |
johninterred, I envy your warbler walk.
Bravo, or brava, and many thanks for mohn2’s delightful and extremely accurate blog.
Ong’ara,
Nairobi.
E inside NICE
I am not sure that “particular” can really clue “NICE”.
“there is a nice distinction between self-sacrifice and martyrdom”
is not quite the same as
“there is a particular distinction between self-sacrifice and martyrdom”
“a nice point” is not the same as “a particular point”
etc