Jumbo 716 – A treat for all Potter fans

Across

1

BEATRIX POTTER (“BE A TRICK SPOTTER”) – at first I thought this clue was poor, interpreting it as “TRICKS” in BE A POTTER, but of course “finding” is no good as a containment indicator.  I then realized that the homophone was on the whole name.  I suppose that I was then a little disappointed that the homophone did not make reference to one of my favourite “WDYC” jokes… “What do you call a lady snooker player balancing two pints of bitter on her head?”  I now cannot decide which of these homophones is the more accurate – I suppose it depends how you pronounce “Beatrix”.  So we have our theme…

8

CRAFTSMAN (C + RAFTSMAN) – Mr Heyerdahl also made an appearance in the Times Concise puzzle this week.

15

MINER (“MINOR”) – a homophone that is a real chestnut.

17

EVEN (EVENt)

19

STILETTO (STILE + OTT rev.)

20

ICE AGE (E in I CAGE) – “number” as in “something that numbs”, and an ice age is one of the biggest numbers of all.

21

JEMIMA PUDDLEDUCK (JEMIMA + DUCK by PUDDLE) – our first thematic character.

24

TALL ORDER (LORD in TALE + R) – a neat definition here, well-disguised in the surface reading.

26

EIGHTHS (HEIGHTS with the initial H moving east)

27

LOCUS (LOCUSt) – I liked the way that LOCUST was defined.

29

JEREMY FISHER (MY in J + ERE + FISHER) – the bishop is most likely John Fisher, but there is also (for instance) Geoffrey Fisher who was an Archbishop of Canterbury.

31

CONCERTINA (CERT IN in CON A) – I am not convinced by CON = Conservative = Tories (plural).

33

BELL THE CAT (TH in BELLE + CAT) – the daring assignment comes from an old tale.  Useful to remember that “queen” is a cat.

35

PIGLING BLAND (PIG + LING + BLAND) – on the first read through I did parse this as PIG + LING , but thought “no, not a word”.  Kicked myself when the theme became apparent.  The running definition of “character” works well in the surface here.

38

CLICK (2 defs.) – it took a while for this one to click!

40

COSTLIEST (LIE in SCOTT’S*) – good deception here – I was looking for a 6-letter novel by Scott!

44

KYUSHU (U in HUSKY*) – nearly wrote in KYASHU, but U (upper class) is “a cut above”.

47

OPIUM DEN (I + UM + D in OPEN) – “let me see” = UM was nice.

50

ELOCUTION (EXECUTION with LO for X lane – tricky wordplay – last one entered.

52

TWIST (2 defs.)

53

IMPROVIDENT (I’M PRO + I.D. in VENT) – tricky wordplay again – ID = (identity) pass.

54

TRUED (TuRnUpEnDs)

55

RIGIDNESS (RED SIGN IS*) – excellent misleading definition.

56

FLOPSY BUNNIES (LOPS + BY rev. in FUNNIES)

Down

2

AMBROSE (A MB ROSE) – another clever definition – “handle for him” = “name for a man”.

3

READING ROOM (DIN in RE A GROOM)

8

CREW (2 defs.) – CREW being the past tense of CROW.

9

ALTITUDE SICKNESS (cryptic def.) – I liked this one a lot.

10

TAMIL (TA + MILe) – i.e. a member of a race, six furlongs = ¾ of a mile!

11

MANITOU (I + TO in MAN U) – MAN U being MAN UTD, that other football team in Manchester.

19

DUST BOWL (DUST + BOWL) – york meaning to use a Yorker.

22

EULER (“OILER”) – this mathematician’s pronunciation will be known to anyone who solves Oyler’s arithmetical puzzles in the Listener and elsewhere!

29

JOBS COMFORTER (FORT in JOBS + COMER)

30

STAGNANT (G + NAN in STAT)

34

TIKKA (A + K + KIT all rev.)

36

BELLY BUTTON (BUTT in BELL + YON)

40

COCKERELS (COCKER + ELSa) – the lioness is Elsa.

41

TOURNEDOS (TOUR + SO DEN rev.) – good deception in both the definition and wordplay elements.

46

HOT TUB (OTT in HUB) – the second usage of the abbreviation for “over the top” in this puzzle – isn’t that a bit OTT!?

48

MR TOD (MeeRkaTloOkeD) – slightly less regular places than in 54A.

51

OPUS (Of +PUSs)