Hi all. A DNF for me due to 34d, ANATOLIA, for which I enlisted the help of a colleague. This is actually quite handy from a reporting perspective as I haven’t any real idea how long the rest took because I dipped into it sporadically. I think I can safely say I wouldn’t have broken any records. Of the answers I managed unaided, the crossing 2d/16a (MUTUAL/SEABIRD) were my two last in, and I smiled at the latter once I twigged. Overall I thought there was lots of good stuff here: some nifty definitions and intricately woven wordplay. Thanks setter!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Reverse carriage and damage wall (7) |
| RAMPART — Reverse TRAP (carriage) and MAR (damage) | |
| 5a | Saw guide with German about to fight (5,3) |
| MITRE BOX — MIT (with German) + RE (about) + BOX (to fight). Saw guide = a guide for a saw | |
| 9a | Singular characteristic difficulty (6) |
| STRAIT — S (singular) + TRAIT (characteristic) | |
| 13a | Naive and weak Tory responsible for visibly distressed male? (3,6,3,4) |
| WET BEHIND THE EARS — WET (weak Tory) + BEHIND (responsible for) HE in TEARS (visibly distressed male, cryptically) | |
| 14a | Plot is reconstructed for this part of Henry V (6) |
| PISTOL — An anagram of (… reconstructed) PLOT IS, giving this character | |
| 16a | A couple of such fliers can be downloaded from Internet (8) |
| SEABIRDS — A couple of SEABIRDS can be extracted (downloaded) from the final word of the clue thus: inTERNet and intERNEt | |
| 17a | Stout one’s included in arbitrary order (4) |
| FIAT — FAT (stout); I (one)’s included | |
| 18a | Easily win a fight in pedestrian appearance (9) |
| WALKABOUT — WALK (easily win) + A BOUT (a fight) | |
| 20a | Like voices raised in argument after brief tumble (8) |
| FALSETTO — SET–TO (argument) after FALl (tumble) without the last letter (brief …) | |
| 21a | Time to stop bad behaviour characteristic of French academicians (11) |
| IMMORTALITY — T (time) going into (to stop) IMMORALITY (bad behaviour). I wondered a little about the definition: I did think of the Académie Française but didn’t know – until now – that their members are called les immortels (the immortals) | |
| 24a | Give more details after English dog appears to speak (9) |
| ELABORATE — After E (English), LAB (dog) appears, followed by ORATE (to speak) | |
| 25a | Behaving badly about power in revolutionary movement (8) |
| SPINNING — SINNING (behaving badly) around (about) P (power) | |
| 26a | Crawl one of those babies does produce (4) |
| FAWN — Two definitions. I’m not usually misled by does for female deer, but this one took a while to see. As Homer and Lisa Simpson once said, d’oh! – a deer! | |
| 29a | In cruel way, call demanding attention traps innocent learner (11) |
| HEARTLESSLY — HEY (call demanding attention) contains (traps) ARTLESS (innocent) and L (learner) | |
| 31a | Awful thing one encountered in swamp, truly awful (11) |
| NIGHTMARISH — Anagram of (awful) THING + I (one) seen inside (encountered in) MARSH (swamp) | |
| 33a | Conversely, copies out what led to first dismissal (8,3) |
| ORIGINAL SIN — Opposites of (conversely) COPIES + OUT = ORIGINALS + IN. Or you could interpret it more holistically (as I did first): if copies (are) out, then conversely ORIGINALS (are) IN! | |
| 36a | Should, for example, state almost everything (11) |
| CONDITIONAL — CONDITION (state) + almost ALl (everything) | |
| 38a | Draw conclusions from Laurence Olivier portraying Othello so (4) |
| ERGO — Select the final letters of (draw conclusions from) LaurencE OlivieR portrayinG OthellO | |
| 39a | Slam, beat badly (8) |
| LAMBASTE — An anagram of (… badly) SLAM BEAT, &lit | |
| 41a | Combinations of sayings oddly selected about articles referenced (9) |
| SYNTHESES — Odd letters of (… oddly selected) SaYiNgS around (about) THESE (articles referenced) | |
| 44a | Partners securing success with arrest for nonviolent kind of crime? (5-6) |
| WHITE-COLLAR — WE (partners – in bridge) around (securing) HIT (success) + COLLAR (arrest) | |
| 45a | Cooked rice came for dessert (3,5) |
| ICE CREAM — An anagram of (cooked) RICE CAME | |
| 48a | How one sees things in struggle with head (9) |
| VIEWPOINT — VIE (struggle) with POINT (head) | |
| 49a | Attending promotion, recalled information (4) |
| DATA — AT (attending) and AD (promotion) reversed (recalled) | |
| 50a | Create diversion from Land’s End, with vehicles heading West in it (8) |
| DISTRACT — LanD’s last letter (end) + reversal of (… heading West) CARTS (vehicles) in IT | |
| 52a | Routine that’s central to spirituality (6) |
| RITUAL — Hidden in the middle of (central to) spiRITUALity | |
| 53a | Part of annual event in which some stand and face the music (9,7) |
| PROMENADE CONCERT — Cryptic definition | |
| 54a | Shed less light on rescue vessel in study (6) |
| DARKEN — ARK (rescue vessel) in DEN (study) | |
| 55a | Disturbed by result, becoming windy (8) |
| BLUSTERY — An anagram of (disturbed) BY RESULT | |
| 56a | Full of fight after goal in final part of match (7) |
| ENDGAME — GAME (full of fight) after END (goal) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Red or green in the extreme (6) |
| RAWEST — Cryptic definition, or perhaps two intertwined double definitions, referring to two meanings of “raw” | |
| 2d | Laid up most of season, left and returned (6) |
| MUTUAL — Most of AUTUMn (season) reversed (laid up …) + L (left) | |
| 3d | On camera, broadcast about one kind of coffee (9) |
| AMERICANO — ON CAMERA, anagrammed (broadcast) around (about) I (one) | |
| 4d | Common people in one way contained by the government (5,6) |
| THIRD ESTATE — I (one) and RD (way) in (contained by) THE STATE (the government) | |
| 5d | Kind of skirt from part of France (4) |
| MIDI — Two definitions | |
| 6d | Musical great has tea put out — covered by television channel (11) |
| TCHAIKOVSKY — CHAI (tea) and KO (put out) in (covered by) TV (television) + SKY (television channel) | |
| 7d | Expert on current issues amended nice article (11) |
| ELECTRICIAN — An anagram of (amended) NICE ARTICLE | |
| 8d | Females with pulling power in shell company? (9) |
| OARSWOMEN — Cryptic definition (a shell is a type of rowing boat) | |
| 10d | Smart kind of knitwear for boat (8) |
| TRIMARAN — TRIM (smart) + ARAN (kind of knitwear) | |
| 11d | Dictatorial approach that I confused with our heresy (16) |
| AUTHORITARIANISM — An anagram of (… confused …) THAT I with OUR + ARIANISM (heresy) | |
| 12d | Author revised lots in play (7) |
| TOLSTOY — Anagram of (revised) LOTS in TOY (play) | |
| 15d | Restructured recital around new instrument (8) |
| CLARINET — Anagram of (restructured) RECITAL around N (new) | |
| 19d | Disbelieving people present during robberies (8) |
| ATHEISTS — Present during robberies = AT HEIST | |
| 22d | Remove power from shirker shielding the drunk (8) |
| DETHRONE — DRONE (shirker) around (shielding) an anagram of (… drunk) THE | |
| 23d | Boss I had upset with university head following older fellow? (8,8) |
| MANAGING DIRECTOR — Reversal of (… upset) I’D (I had) + RECTOR (university head) all following MAN AGING (older fellow?) | |
| 27d | Totally unprincipled type in part of UK greeting problem for crew (8) |
| NIHILIST — NI (part of UK) + HI (greeting) + LIST (problem for crew) | |
| 28d | Garment necessarily trimmed more on left than right (4) |
| SARI — A hidden answer: necesSARIly is trimmed more on left than right | |
| 30d | Change of heart for beginner in crowd, supposedly (4) |
| TRIO — A swap of the central letters in (change of heart for) TIRO (beginner), referencing “two’s company, three’s a crowd” | |
| 32d | Bad person that’s good? Awfully strange (8) |
| GANGSTER — G (good) + an anagram of (awfully) STRANGE | |
| 34d | A Western team turned up trouble in part of Asia (8) |
| ANATOLIA — A + NATO (Western team) + reversal of (turned up) AIL (trouble) | |
| 35d | Prophet holding crazy skills the wrong way in mind (11) |
| NOSTRADAMUS — MAD (crazy) ARTS (skills) reversed (the wrong way) inside (holding … in) NOUS (mind) | |
| 36d | Peaceful kind of life one can never have (11) |
| COEXISTENCE — A cryptic definition: it takes more than one to coexist! | |
| 37d | Part of target set in board for exclusive group (5,6) |
| INNER CIRCLE — Two straight indications; the second is the dictionary meaning | |
| 40d | Both left and right, at historical time, covered by draft law (9) |
| BILATERAL — AT and ERA (historical time) covered by BILL (draft law) | |
| 42d | Be told by nurse about drug that’s given boost (9) |
| HEARTENED — HEAR (be told) + TEND (nurse) around (about) E (drug) | |
| 43d | Quickly look up drink in personal aide-memoire (8) |
| KEEPSAKE — PEEK (quickly look) up + SAKE (drink) | |
| 44d | Hesitated to get married outside state (7) |
| WAVERED — WED (to get married) surrounding (outside) AVER (state) | |
| 46d | Means of producing pictures appeared before recognized artist (6) |
| CAMERA — CAME (appeared) before RA (recognized artist) | |
| 47d | Figure in law passed, apart from third time (6) |
| STATUE — STATU[t]E (law passed) without (apart from) the third T (time) | |
| 51d | It’s not stress-free, being avant-garde (4) |
| EDGY — Double definition | |
I know I needed more than one session for this but can’t recall if I found it particularly difficult.
I missed the parsing of SEABIRDS and never got round to looking up what IMMORTALITY had to do with French academicians, so thanks for clearing those up for me, Kitty. My only unknown was MITRE BOX, but the answer had to be.
And yet I put in ‘row’.
My LOI was ANATOLIA, which I only put in because it fit, and nothing else I could think of did; never parsed it.
Oh dear, such a shame to have only two comments on the Jumbo today! I hope that many more read your fine blog, Kitty, and enjoyed it as I did.
Thank you, Jackkt. 🙂
A fine blog indeed, not least for the link to probably the best ever Simpsons episode!
I finished in around 1:08 with four unparsed, so many thanks for the explanations Kitty. ANATOLIA was an easy one for me as I know at least three Turkish restaurants with that name.