Times Cryptic Jumbo 1459: “When The Moon Is A Ghostly Galleon, Tossed Upon Cloudy Seas…”

ACROSS
1 Liberal’s comic — phoney person who leaves the less well-off behind? (6,7)
SOCIAL CLIMBER – (LIBERAL’S COMIC*)

8 Sign of unity between partners in business, say (9)
AMPERSAND – cryptic def, referring to what you’ll find in, e.g., “Marks & Spencer”

13 Dog rescuers on the road carrying equipment (5)
AKITA – A(utomobile) A(ssociation) “carrying” KIT

14 All decline perversely to accept large invention of physicist (7,4)
DANIELL CELL – (ALL DECLINE*) “accepting” L

15 Celebrate outside with jazzy music (5)
SWING – SING “outside” W

16 Spiritual band? (3,6)
DOG COLLAR – cryptic def for the “band” around a cleric’s neck

17 Danger when last character comes forward presenting dagger (4)
KRIS – take RISK [danger] and move the last character to the front

18 A job had for one leaving the fold (8)
APOSTATE – A POST ATE [a | job | had]

20 Least known artist ahead of others (6)
RAREST – R(oyal) A(cademician) ahead of REST

21 Given a chance to do business favourably where customers come in? (2,3,6,5)
ON THE GROUND FLOOR – double def

24 Computer software has changed, right? We are mad (9)
SHAREWARE – (HAS*) + R + (WE ARE*)

26 Loveless city wanting end to crime — it’s hairy (7)
BRISTLE – BRIST{o}L + {crim}E

27 Beliefs of left-winger disrupting firm (5)
CREDO – RED “disrupting” CO(mpany)

29 Once again tackling study with relish? (12)
READDRESSING – READ with DRESSING

31 Woman, 51, wanting man? Lady losing heart should be taking care (10)
DILIGENTLY – DI LI + GENT L{ad}Y

33 Academic Scotsman maybe joining club in European country (10)
MACEDONIAN – DON IAN joining MACE

35 Elements of opera, ballet or pantomime? (4,3,5)
SONG AND DANCE – an element of opera is SONG, an element of ballet is DANCE, put them together to get a to-do

38 Poet giving answers to binary question (5)
NOYES – NO + YES. The Highwayman is a good poem but I fear Noyes’ name may mostly be living on in crosswords these days.

39 Role of singer that comes in last bit of Idomeneo (7)
SECONDO – the last bit of “Idomeneo” is its SECOND O

40 Happy one, a politician mostly the combative type (9)
GLADIATOR – GLAD I A TOR{y}

42 High-level words of wisdom for disciples (6,2,3,5)
SERMON ON THE MOUNT – cryptic def

44 What sounds like Cockney’s ascent of mountain in a little bath! (6)
EYECUP – homophone of ‘IKE UP

47 One praising international community — record is excellent ultimately (8)
EULOGIST – E.U. LOG IS {excellen}T

49 Some aliens of Universe to go around in these? (4)
UFOS – hidden reversed in {alien}S OF U{niverse}, semi-&lit

50 No cure sadly — time to offer support (9)
ENCOURAGE – (NO CURE*) + AGE

52 Noise of family beginning to gather (5)
CLANG – CLAN + G{ather}

53 Needless description of someone left in the lurch? (8-3)
UNCALLED-FOR – double def. If nobody CALLS FOR you, you’ve been stood up

54 Wind to go suddenly, backing east (5)
TRADE – reversed DART + E(ast)

55 Possible colour of water, surprisingly subtle, hiding fish (5,4)
STEEL-BLUE – (SUBTLE*) “hiding” EEL

56 Troublemaker and others come down in street — sort of control needed (4-9)
SELF-RESTRAINT – ELF + REST + RAIN, in ST(reet)

DOWN
1 Flags code of behaviour (9)
STANDARDS – double def

2 First of children to hang around, one holding on to mum maybe? (7)
CLINGER – C{hildren} + LINGER

3 Terribly sad poet, alone, powerless, not sure what to do (2,1,5,3)
AT A LOOSE END – (SAD {p}OET ALONE*)

4 Old king engaging divine cook (6)
CODDLE – COLE “engaging” D(octor of) D(ivinity)

5 I travel around north European country, heading off in state of bliss? (9)
IGNORANCE – I + GO “around” N(orth) + {f}RANCE

6 Use far too much bread? (5,3,4)
BREAK THE BANK – cryptic def

7 Rich Greek character has new kitchen device (7,3)
ROLLING PIN – ROLLING (in it) + PI + N(ew)

8 Church music ignoring scripture? Excuse me! (4)
AHEM – A{nt}HEM, ignoring the N(ew) T(estament)

9 Pre Napoleon’s win, a terrible historical conflict (13,3)
PELOPONNESIAN WAR – (PRE NAPOLEON’S WIN A*)

10 Cunning plans soldier finally employs (5)
RUSES – {soldie}R USES

11 Disturbed, thanks to being led by a soldier (7)
AGITATO – TA TO, being led by A G.I.

12 Old illustration of tragedy with Europe being torn apart (13)
DAGUERREOTYPE – (TRAGEDY + EUROPE*)

19 See an object bringing detestation (8)
LOATHING – LO, A THING!

22 Record poem about cult hero (5)
FICHE – reversed IF (by Kipling) + CHE (Guevara)

23 Perform digital operation to cause somebody delight or embarrassment? (4,4,4,4)
MAKE ONE’S TOES CURL – double def with a frankly unsettling literal operation on the pedal digits

25 Lots without leader would embrace roguish state of disorder (7)
ANARCHY – {m}ANY “embracing” ARCH

28 Old lover with money, oddly cute and gone for ever (7)
EXTINCT – EX with TIN and C{u}T{e}

23 Anecdotes consisting of touching little episodes — about a hundred (13)
REMINISCENCES – RE [touching] + MINI SCENES “about” C

30 Big town faced with damage — lack of provisions (8)
SCARCITY – CITY “faced” with SCAR

32 King’s indication of approval perhaps for something in garden? (8-4)
SOLOMON’S-SEAL – double def with the literal image conjured up by the flower name

34 Party music, something that’s found very lacking (5)
DISCO – DISCO{very}

36 Girl possibly destined to travel by bicycle and boat to deliver bomb (5,6)
DAISY CUTTER – DAISY (from the song “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)” + CUTTER [boat]

37 Divine being descends from heaven in watery South American location (5,5)
ANGEL FALLS – double def with literal meaning of a place dear to every quizzer’s heart, the world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall, in Venezuela

40 Sad end of gnu and end of tiger sought by killer? (6,3)
GUNNED FOR – (END OF GNU + {tige}R*)

41 Play in which one type of theatre is meeting with grudge (9)
REPRESENT – REP is meeting with RESENT

43 Announcement about rental agreement (7)
RELEASE – RE LEASE [about | rental agreement]

45 Fellow at lunchtime maybe gets a bit of food (7)
CHAPATI – CHAP AT 1 (a civilised time for lunch)

46 Lots of heart binding saints (6)
SCORES – CORE “binding” together S and S

48 Energy and ambition having no place for a Russian author (5)
GOGOL – GO + GO{a}L

51 Top celebrity enthralling millions (4)
ACME – ACE “enthralling” M