I could have been a little quicker had I not entered 28dn as AVOGRADO, by false analogy to AVOCADO, which made things a little more exciting than they needed to be. Favourite clues included 49ac (Oscar Wilde is a hero of mine, for obvious floppy-haired Magdalen classicist reasons) and 22dn for managing to use the seemingly unpromising second largest town in Zimbabwe as part of the wordplay. Thanks setter! A gentle but fine Jumbo.
ACROSS
1 Opener from western Irish team? (9)
CORKSCREW – or CORK’S CREW. Is Cork “western” Ireland? I would’ve called it southern, but I guess it’s more west than east…
6 A Soviet trying to change the nature of an inquiry (13)
INVESTIGATORY – (A SOVIET TRYING*)
13 Staffs European minister’s residence (5)
MANSE – MANS E
14 Advanced tango composer was conducting (9)
TRAVELLED – T RAVEL LED [tango | composer | was conducting]
15 Your setter’s singular attempt to pen English puzzle (7)
MYSTERY – MY S TRY, “penning” E
16 Walk forward in organised protest unknown in the UK, say (14,8)
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY – CONSTITUTIONAL [walk] + ON [forward] in MARCH Y [protest | unknown]
18 Can king and queen take against spectator? (6-2)
LOOKER-ON – LOO K + E.R. take ON [against]
20 Free veteran beer finally does for publican (8)
TAVERNER – (VETERAN*) + {bee}R
21 Mallard, perhaps, departs with a string of carriages (5)
DRAKE – D + RAKE [a connected set of railway carriages or wagons, apparently]
23 Crops rye fields use in the middle (6)
YIELDS – {r}Y{e} {f}IELD{s} {u}S{e}
24 Expression of surprise after TV system’s lack of colour (6)
PALLOR – LOR! after PAL [Phase Alternating Line, big kudos if you knew what that stood for]
25 Interesting, a bishop leads service in west end of Glasgow (9)
ABSORBING – A B leads SORB [another word for the “service” or rowan tree!] IN G{lasgow}
28 Gallium in star’s taken by American plant (10)
ASTRAGALUS – GA in ASTRAL [star’s] by U.S.
29 Hit band (4)
BELT – double def
30 Books one gala wrongly — pain seated near the drum! (7)
OTALGIA – O.T. + (I GALA*). That’s the eardrum of course
32 Threatening palomino usually keeps it captive (7)
OMINOUS – hidden in {pal}OMINO US{usually}
34 Working fifty years at most (4)
ONLY ON L Y [working | fifty | years]
35 What schedules allow broadcasting screen epic? (10)
PRESCIENCE – (SCREEN EPIC*)
38 Device trapping a rodent in a power discharge (9)
APPARATUS – “trap” A RAT in A P PUS
39 Abandon waterway with an area being given over to carbon energy (6)
CANCEL – CAN{a->C E}L. Take CANAL [waterway] and replace its A [area] with CE [carbon | energy]
40 Stone knight in very good carriage (6)
STANCE – ST + N in ACE
43 Give a response on law that’s passed (5)
REACT – RE ACT [on | law that’s passed]
45 What batter could get used to cook eggs this way? (4,4)
EASY OVER – a cricket batsman will do well if his OVERs are EASY
47 Relating to an element of catholic church in Jerusalem, one with chapter (8)
ZIRCONIC – R.C. in ZION + I + C
49 Flat barge hailed gondola tangling lines on locking up on the Thames? (3,6,2,7,4)
THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL – (FLAT BARGE HAILED GONDOLA*)
52 Vigilantly team up to contain European right (7)
ALERTLY – ALLY “containing” E RT
53 Where one may melt things on the rocks (9)
INSOLVENT – or one may, of course, melt things IN SOLVENT
54 Girl introducing a dish from India (5)
RAITA – RITA “introducing” A
55 Additional paper and gold currency, unknown and very unusual (13)
EXTRAORDINARY – EXTRA [additional paper, as in “extra! extra! read all about it!”] + OR DINAR Y
56 Raced around clubs in Paris yesterday delivering uplighter (9)
TORCHIERE – TORE “around” C HIER
DOWN
1 Absurdly, company I ring is in the outskirts of Mandalay (9)
COMICALLY – CO + I CALL “skirted” by M{andala}Y
2 Meet society girl with time to overspend wildly? (3,4,4)
RUN INTO DEBT – RUN INTO [meet] + DEB + T
3 Perfume reportedly coming by mail order (5)
SCENT – homophone of SENT
4 Regular changing of crops to set up in allotment (8)
ROTATION – TO reversed in RATION
5 Artist entering accompanied by shadowy presence (6)
WRAITH – R.A. “entering” WITH
6 The Spanish port in Italy filled with cattle being raised is irresistible (10)
INEXORABLE – EL BARI [the Spanish | port in Italy] “filled” with reversed OXEN
7 Where cricketer may be revealing leg shockingly (7,5)
VILLAGE GREEN – (REVEALING LEG*)
8 Supporting band member I’d found among rising celebrities (7)
SIDEMAN – I’D “among” reversed NAMES
9 What limits disease running wild in some supermen (6,8)
IMMUNE RESPONSE – (IN SOME SUPERMEN*)
10 Confident fool heading university rose? (7)
ASSURED – ASS + U + RED
11 Dining to excess, swallowing horse and heading for inflation (11)
OVERHEATING – OVEREATING “swallowing” H
12 Toy boy’s taken up, abandoning tops? (2,2)
YOYO – {t}OY {b}OY reversed, &lit
17 Be left standing in foreign city (8)
BELGRADE – BE L GRADE
19 Try in speaking to finish at any time (9)
ENDEAVOUR – homophone of END EVER
22 Wonderful classic play mostly about Bulawayo, not elsewhere (8)
FABULOUS – FAUS{t} “about” BUL{away}O
25 Female gossip penning rubbish over lawyer (8)
ATTORNEY – YENTA “penning” ROT, the whole reversed
26 Is it clear — scrambled or hard-boiled? (9)
REALISTIC – (IS IT CLEAR*)
27 Source of sound fixed in pitch on record and film perhaps (8,6)
CASSETTE PLAYER – SET in CAST on E.P. and LAYER
28 Italian scientist is a very old doctor in prison endlessly (8)
AVOGADRO – A V O + DR in GAO{l}
31 Left west London area in Conservative seat shortly for Essex town (7-2-3)
CLACTON-ON-SEA – L ACTON in CON + SEA{t}
33 Unusually emphatic about workers charging (11)
IMPEACHMENT – (EMPHATIC*) “about” MEN
36 One in van going round with venison requiring no cutting (3-8)
NON-INVASIVE – I in (VAN + VENISON*)
37 Entirely popular gathering of sheep? (10)
INTEGRALLY – IN [popular] + TEG RALLY
41 Free from guilt, former partner left in vessel at the end of June (9)
EXCULPATE – EX [former partner] + L in CUP + AT {jun}E
42 Who goes to service cars on time, mostly (8)
MINISTER – MINIS on TER{m}
44 Girl wanting a change of habitat (7)
TABITHA – (HABITAT*)
46 In central Asia, keen about hard language (7)
SWAHILI – in {a}SI{a}, WAIL “about” H
48 Beware of waste regularly found at bottom of grotto (6)
CAVEAT – {w}A{s}T{e} under CAVE. Is “caveat” ever really “beware” or “beware of”? It’s more of a noun, or a “let him beware” kind of deal. Not sure…
50 Saddle band? Get it round the horse at first (5)
GIRTH – G{et} I{t} R{ound} T{he} H{orse}
51 British beer was something bad for one (4)
BALE – B ALE
I have a new MacBook Air, which until a few days ago was fine for doing the Times Puzzles online, but now I’m having difficulty putting letters into the grid.
It’s very frustrating, but I don’t know if there is a glitch on The Times’ site or whether there’s an issue with my laptop.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
If it’s not The Times’ website, perhaps it’s some Adobe thing?