Times Cryptic Jumbo 1449: A Day At The Races

LOI was the very sneaky (by this puzzle’s standards) 36ac; COD goes to 6dn, which we’ve seen before but which is always a good one in my opinion. Thank you to the setter for a fun and painless Saturday (or Friday night in my case) diversion!

ACROSS
1 Short couple returning pawnbroker’s gem (9)
CARBUNCLE – reversed BRAC{e} + UNCLE

6 Including a feature with note passed across counter (6,7)
ADDING MACHINE – ADDING + A CHIN, with ME passed across

13 Rowed and yelled, losing head (5)
OARED – {r}OARED

14 Imagined names to cover old area one’s set in (11)
NONEXISTENT – N N to cover O, + EXTENT that I’S set in

15 Assign many, about 50 (5)
ALLOT – A LOT, about L

16 Love being in a strip club, dancing, hot and humid? (11)
SUBTROPICAL – O being in (A STRIP CLUB*)

17 One female detected hole in jug, a Paris icon (6,5)
EIFFEL TOWER – I F FELT O, in EWER

18 Alluring type in charge of cutting record (7)
ENTICER – I.C. cutting ENTER

20 Mole spotted everyone grabbing European (7)
SEAWALL – SAW ALL, grabbing E

21 A river by old US city yields gold ring (7)
AUREOLA – A URE by O L.A.

23 Implying convoluted legal nicety, maybe controversially engineered? (11,8)
GENETICALLY MODIFIED – reverse cryptic – (GENETICALLY*) [“modified”] could clue LEGAL NICETY

27 One who admires fine article (3)
FAN – F + AN

28 What some casual readers do? Take drugs (3-3)
DOG-EAR – or DO GEAR

29 Yell “Clear off!”, seizing tablet (6)
SCREAM – SCRAM seizing E

31 Actor’s exit stumped old men packing circle (5,4)
STAGE DOOR – ST. AGED O.R., packing O

34 Crossing lake, supports pale Oz bird (5,4)
BLACK SWAN – crossing L, BACKS + WAN

35 Muscle oil company’s used to guard diamonds (6)
BICEPS – BP’S used to guard ICE

36 With bottle of mineral knocked back, resultant sound going about? (6)
HEROIC – reversed ORE, HIC [resultant sound from knocking back a bottle!] going about

39 Community gathering endless drink (3)
BEE – BEE{r}

40 Everything under discussion I’ve used with our forensics nuts (8,2,9)
UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE – (I’VE USED + OUR FORENSICS*)

42 Popular teams showing guts (7)
INSIDES – IN SIDES

43 Playwright’s very large book, one gripping queen (7)
OSBORNE – OS B + ONE gripping R

45 Weeds grow wild, eaten by rodent (7)
RAGWORT – (GROW*) eaten by RAT

47 Second service stops religious breaking with tradition (11)
MODERNISTIC – MO + R.N. stopping DEISTIC

49 Title associated with range in US, I’d say? (11)
APPELLATION – homophone of APPALACHIAN

51 Hotel in Med resort designed for specific market (5)
NICHE – H in NICE

52 Encouraging cool strong drink in gallons (11)
INSPIRITING – IN SPIRIT IN G

53 Irish oddly acquit Arab (5)
IRAQI – IR + A{c}Q{u}I{t}

54 A girl into maths briefly disputed term in it (13)
ANTILOGARITHM – (A GIRL INTO MATH{s}*)

55 County dismisses charter (9)
YORKSHIRE – YORKS [as in, bowls out with a yorker] + HIRE

DOWN
1 Like relaxed Buddhist, thwarted touring large cell (5-6)
CROSS-LEGGED – CROSSED touring L EGG

2 Two groups of soldiers chewed toastie (7)
RAREBIT – R.A. + R.E. + BIT

3 Jack doesn’t start to shake milk container (5)
UDDER – {j}UDDER not started with J

4 Plot against second main crime (10)
CONSPIRACY – CON S PIRACY [crime committed on the main, i.e. at sea]

5 Sultan’s guards regularly return such bananas (7)
EUNUCHS – {r}E{t}U{r}N + (SUCH*)

6 Will should have three examples of this (9,4)
AUXILIARY VERB – cryptic def; will, should, and have are three examples of auxiliary verbs.

7 Outlaw some French and English in gallery (9)
DESPERADO – DES + E in PRADO

8 End fuel supply that’s essential (7)
NEEDFUL – (END FUEL*) [“supply” – as in, in a supple manner]

9 Rigorous man abridged inspiring article about subject (12)
MATHEMATICAL – MAL{e} inspiring A THEMATIC

10 Like some accountants about to be drafted outside (9)
CHARTERED – RE [about], with CHARTED [drafted] outside

11 Relative‘s trendy wife bagging French article (2-3)
IN-LAW – IN W bagging LA

12 Register English church composer without top performer (11)
ENTERTAINER – ENTER {s}TAINER [John Stainer, 1840-1901]

19 Trim copper heading to seize book (3,4)
CUT BACK – CU + TACK seizing B

22 Sick of quartet entertaining officer (3,6)
OFF COLOUR – OF FOUR entertaining COL.

24 Restricted zones in Genoa or Siena, extremely mysterious (2-2,5)
NO-GO AREAS – (GENOA OR S{ien}A*)

25 Permit fifty-one churches to keep name (7)
LICENCE – LI CE CE, to keep N

26 On reflection, sauce is not ideal at first, being tasteless (7)
INSIPID – reverse all of DIP IS N{ot} I{deal}

30 Grim CIA morons spread spore maybe (5-8)
MICRO-ORGANISM – (GRIM CIA MORONS*)

32 Spanish article about golf catches on soon (7)
ERELONG – EL ON G catches RE [on]

33 Hoping to drink German wine that’s sublime (3-9)
AWE-INSPIRING – ASPIRING, to drink WEIN

34 I’m in Bilbao crazily nursing a passion for shelfstacking? (11)
BIBLIOMANIA – (I’M IN BILBAO*) nursing A

37 Helm saves energy, anxious about four covering same length (11)
COEXTENSIVE – COX saves E, + TENSE about IV

38 Star analyst runs over diary penned by Daisy (10)
ASTROLOGER – R O LOG penned by ASTER

40 Waterproof submarine, second in Clyde (9)
UNDERSEAL – UNDERSEA + {c}L{yde}

41 Small number possibly needing to edit screenplay perhaps (9)
SUBSCRIPT – SUB [to edit] + SCRIPT [screenplay perhaps]

43 Less intelligent old boy beginning to transform addict (7)
OBTUSER – O.B. + T{ransform} + USER

44 Bronte sister admits exercising with no effect (7)
EMPTILY – EMILY admits P.T.

46 Ring friend abroad about kit for art in Tokyo (7)
ORIGAMI – O AMI about RIG

48 Old coin originally accepted in tube (5)
DUCAT – A{ccepted} in DUCT

50 Section of program is simply wrong (5)
AMISS – hidden in {progr}AM IS S{imply}