Hi everyone. I will have to be brief as I’ve had a millionty things to do.
My solve looked at first like it would be pretty brief too (for a kitty), but alas it was not to be. Several answers held out much longer than the rest, and eventually I had to look a few things up to finish. I’d be interested to hear how you found it.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, [deletions] in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
| Across | |
| 1 | Successful entertainer bursts out with energy in rush (3,4) |
| POP STAR — Starting with POPS (bursts), we are then instructed to remove (out with) the E (energy) in T[e]AR (rush) | |
| 5 | Novel about Churchill’s bunker? (3,6) |
| THE WARDEN — Novel by Anthony Trollope. THE WAR DEN might also describe Churchill’s bunker | |
| 10 | House warming’s ending with a fine foxtrot (4) |
| GAFF — We take warminG’s last letter (ending) with A (from the clue), F (fine) and F (foxtrot) | |
| 14 | Put off edited satanic report (13) |
| PROCRASTINATE — An anagram of (edited) SATANIC REPORT | |
| 15 | Two toys are nearly maximum price (3,6) |
| TOP DOLLAR — TOP and DOLL (two toys) plus ARe without the last letter (nearly) | |
| 16 | Outfit with green energy (3-2-3-2) |
| GET-UP-AND-GO — A charade of GET-UP (outfit), AND (with), and GO (green) | |
| 17 | No time for sexy poetry after hard alexandrines (6,5) |
| HEROIC VERSE — ERO[t]IC (sexy) without T (no time for …) and VERSE, all after H (hard). I should have got this from the wordplay, but it was one of my fails and I needed to look up alexandrines | |
| 18 | Wife aggressively masculine, daughter not born (5) |
| DUTCH — [b]UTCH (aggressively masculine) with D (daughter) in place of (not) B (born) | |
| 19 | Hatred of how much senior management take (10) |
| EXECRATION — EXEC RATION might be how much senior management take | |
| 21 | Sea wall gone extremely rapidly in a storm (6) |
| GROYNE — GONE and the outer letters of (extremely) RapidlY, anagrammed (in a storm) | |
| 23 | Chief steward brought round tea for customer (9) |
| PURCHASER — PURSER (chief steward) around (brought round) CHA (tea) | |
| 25 | Girl half rejecting modern times (5) |
| DONNA — Half of ANNO Domini (modern times), reversed (rejecting …) | |
| 26 | Piled up, a sea enveloping a ship (7) |
| AMASSED — A (from the clue) plus MED (sea) around (enveloping) A (also from the clue) and SS (ship) | |
| 28 | What some loose women had on highly embarrassed landlord? (7,6) |
| SCARLET LETTER — SCARLET (highly embarrassed) + LETTER (landlord) | |
| 31 | Poet‘s good book very cheap? (4,5) |
| EZRA POUND — EZRA (good book) + POUND (very cheap?). Ezra is a book of the so-called “Good Book”, but I can’t see that “good book” really works to clue it, whereas just “book” would be fine. So maybe I’m missing something … | |
| 33 | Flag officer goes by state during round of duty (9) |
| TRICOLOUR — COL (officer, colonel) goes next to (goes by) RI (state, Rhode Island) inside (during) TOUR (round of duty) | |
| 35 | Sympathetic as firm friend admits strong agitation (13) |
| COMPASSIONATE — CO (firm) + MATE (friend) contains (admits) PASSION (strong agitation) | |
| 37 | A number working across one’s back for stiffness (7) |
| TENSION — TEN (a number) and ON (working), around (across) I’S (one’s), reversed (back) | |
| 38 | Affair takes one out of office work (5) |
| FLING — Our answer removes I from (takes one out of) F[i]LING (office work) | |
| 40 | Think about where to move: coast (9) |
| FREEWHEEL — FEEL (think) around (about) an anagram of (… to move) WHERE | |
| 42 | Lock up enclosure ahead of time (6) |
| ENCAGE — ENC (enclosure) before (ahead of) AGE (time) | |
| 44 | Piles on underclothes one may get down to (5,5) |
| BRASS TACKS — STACKS (piles) next to (on) BRAS (underclothes) | |
| 46 | Very much gas around — died (2,3) |
| NO END — NEON (gas), reversed (around), plus D (died) | |
| 48 | One will go for a spin, churning up terrible mud (6,5) |
| TUMBLE DRIER — An anagram of (churning up) TERRIBLE MUD | |
| 50 | Soldier at attention; Marlowe, for example (7,3) |
| PRIVATE EYE — PRIVATE (soldier) next to (at) EYE (attention) | |
| 52 | Angry reaction engulfing small character (9) |
| BACKSLASH — BACKLASH (Angry reaction) surrounding (engulfing) S (small) | |
| 53 | Said to have gone out wearing fleece, unlikely to change? (4-2-3-4) |
| DYED-IN-THE-WOOL — Sounds like (said) DIED (to have gone out) + IN THE WOOL (wearing fleece) | |
| 54 | Austen novel’s central characters take a step back for another woman (4) |
| ELLA — E[MM]A (Austen novel), where the central letters (central characters) change to the letter one place earlier in the alphabet (take a step back): LL | |
| 55 | Frightfully secretive after short retreat (9) |
| HIDEOUSLY — SLY (secretive) after HIDEOU[t] (retreat) without the last letter (short) | |
| 56 | Tried to get help after letter read out (7) |
| ESSAYED — A homophone of (… read out) AID (help) after ES (letter) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Immature creature raised in a year (4) |
| PUPA — UP (raised) in PA (per annum, a year) | |
| 2 | One in favour of street rioting? (9) |
| PROTESTER — PRO (one in favour of) plus STREET, anagrammed (rioting), &lit | |
| 3 | Story in the Mirror? (7,3,7,5) |
| THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS — “in the mirror” could be a literal interpretation of the title of this story | |
| 4 | Deer’s round bottom, reddish (7) |
| ROSEATE — ROE (deer) is around (‘s round) SEAT (bottom) | |
| 5 | What master mason has leads to serious questioning (5,6) |
| THIRD DEGREE — A master mason is a freemason who has attained the THIRD DEGREE | |
| 6 | Besotted with slinky demeanour (9) |
| ENAMOURED — An anagram of (slinky) DEMEANOUR | |
| 7 | Drink at pub for leading character (5) |
| ALEPH — ALE (drink) by (at) PH (pub) | |
| 8 | Go off outside, denied kiss during tryst (11) |
| DETERIORATE — E[x]TERIOR (outside) without (denied) X (kiss) inside (during) DATE (tryst) | |
| 9 | A need for baby, so sleep with cousin (6) |
| NAPKIN — NAP (sleep) with KIN (cousin). Hmm! | |
| 11 | Good to move down exhibition hall showing sensitivity (7) |
| ALLERGY — G (good) is to move towards the end (to move down, in a down answer) in GALLERY (exhibition hall) | |
| 12 | Police perhaps paid to break hunger strike? (5-4) |
| FORCE-FEED — FORCE (police perhaps) + FEED (paid) | |
| 13 | Having run down, rare warmth envelops players (13,9) |
| WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS — An anagram of (having run) DOWN RARE WARMTH ENVELOPS | |
| 18 | Start to type one’s newspaper article up, to put by for later (7) |
| DEPOSIT — The first letter of (start to) Type, I’S (one’s) and OP-ED (newspaper article), all reversed (up, in a down answer) | |
| 20 | So much French booze leads to furious scene (7) |
| TANTRUM — TANT (so much, in French) + RUM (booze) | |
| 22 | Around part of eye, note the foreign pattern of stitches (4,4) |
| FAIR ISLE — Around IRIS (part of eye), we have FA (note) and LE (the, foreign) | |
| 24 | Arrange fielding position for critical moment of match (3,5) |
| SET POINT — SET (arrange) + POINT (fielding position) | |
| 27 | One bowing to audience in Buddhist shrine (5) |
| STUPA — Sounds like (… to audience) STOOPER (one bowing) | |
| 29 | Chinese perhaps like Scotsman? (5) |
| ASIAN — AS (like) + IAN (Scotsman) | |
| 30 | Alarms heard when no poisonous gas remains in cans (7) |
| TOCSINS — O (no) + CS (poisonous gas) is inside (remains in) TINS (cans) | |
| 32 | Fought — as road was widened — to be heard? (7) |
| DUELLED — A homophone of (…to be heard) DUALLED (as road was widened). I couldn’t quite believe that a road could be “dualled”, but it’s there in the dictionary | |
| 34 | Judge vase one to discard, house being this? (11) |
| REFURNISHED — A charade of REF (judge), URN (vase), I (one), and SHED (to discard) | |
| 36 | Power to arouse emotion when one collapses fifty and active (11) |
| AFFECTIVITY — The answer can be formed when one makes an anagram of (collapses) FIFTY and ACTIVE | |
| 37 | Soprano suppresses a tear regularly, not beyond recovery (9) |
| TREATABLE — TREBLE (soprano) contains (suppresses) A + alternate letters of (… regularly) TeAr | |
| 39 | Obtained work on ship to produce magazine perhaps (2,2,5) |
| GO TO PRESS — The combination of GOT (obtained), OP (work), RE (on), and SS (ship). Very smooth charade, I thought | |
| 41 | All energy, extremely desirable at first in youth (9) |
| EVERYBODY — E (energy) and VERY (extremely) followed by the first letter of (… at first) Desirable in BOY (youth) | |
| 43 | Throw speaker’s aid into burner, causing scream? (7) |
| COMICAL — Put (or throw) MIC (speaker’s aid) into COAL (burner) | |
| 45 | To keep off alcohol, mostly locked away port (7) |
| SEATTLE — SEALEd (locked away) without the last letter (mostly) containing (to keep) TT (teetotal, off alcohol) | |
| 47 | Sorcerer initially hated terrible old curse (6) |
| ‘SDEATH — Sorcerer’s first letter (initially) plus HATED, anagrammed. Another surprise that this was a thing, only this time I didn’t get the answer unaided. Curses! | |
| 49 | Travelled over for round-up (5) |
| RODEO — RODE (travelled) + O (over) | |
| 51 | Happy to wander round lake (4) |
| GLAD — GAD (to wander) around (round) L (lake) | |
Re 31ac, I think the setter thought just “book” might be a bit too broad and wanted it narrowed down to a biblical one .. Ezra being a part of the good book, it seemed close enough to me
Love your avatar, Kitty! 🙂