Solving all the clues and parsing everything pushed me over the hour for this one putting it in the harder category on my personal scale. There were a number of very pleasing clues.
First in was ARBORETUM and last was FISHERMAN’S RING.
If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.
The technical stuff:
Clues are in blue (unless you’re in dark mode) with the definition underlined. Anagram indicators are in bold italics.
Notation:
DD: Double definition
CD: Cryptic definition
DDCDH: DD/CD hybrid where a straight definition is combined with a cryptic hint.
&Lit: “all in one” where the entire clue is both definition and wordplay.
(fodder)* denotes an anagram of the letters in the brackets.
Rounded brackets are also used to add further clarity
Squiggly brackets {} indicate parts of a word not used
Deletions are struck out
Square brackets [] expand an abbreviation or shortening like K[ing]
| Across | |
| 1 | Reply unexpectedly, with solution to defend (6,4) |
| ANSWER BACK – ANSWER (solution), BACK (defend) | |
| 6 | Quick tongue, yet serpentine, in two parts? (7-5) |
| LICKETY-SPLIT – LICK, (yet)*, SPLIT. I think I knew this term from Mary Poppins. | |
| 14 | Children’s animation featuring popular kids (7) |
| BAMBINI – BAMBI around IN. Great clue. | |
| 15 | Creative type, one filling hot dog? (7) |
| PAINTER – I in PANTER and another good one. | |
| 16 | Role model‘s pain of having missed birdie, coming up short? (7) |
| PARAGON – PAR AGONy. Three in a row! | |
| 17 | Exquisite red (4) |
| RARE – DD | |
| 18 | Evidence of painful experience in banging performance? (6) |
| TATTOO – DDCDH | |
| 20 | European chap in battle that is uglier on the flanks (8) |
| MONSIEUR – MONS, I.E., U{glie}R | |
| 24 | Eccentric Wars of the Roses lot, queen and king, proving this? (6,4,2,5,2,4) |
| THERES NOWT SO QUEER AS FOLK – (wars of the roses lot queen K[ing])* | |
| 25 | Sage parent admits something going to her head? (7) |
| MAHATMA – MAMA around HAT | |
| 26 | Vehicle for hire, a racer not cleared of old rubbish (4-1-3) |
| RENT-A-CAR – (a racer not)* without O[ld] | |
| 27 | Sailor married to girl in sci-fi film (6) |
| AVATAR – TAR with AVA | |
| 29 | Gather enthusiast confronting family is an impertinent riddler (8,6) |
| SQUIRREL NUTKIN – SQUIRREL (gather as a verb), NUT, KIN. According to WIKI, as part of the plot “Nutkin… dances about impertinently singing a silly riddle”. | |
| 31 | Democrat, national leader once (8) |
| DISRAELI – D[emocrat], ISRAELI. Chestnut alert. | |
| 34 | Bull or cow? Horse close (4,4) |
| GREY SEAL – GREY (horse), SEAL (close as a verb). | |
| 36 | Caught in bombardment, general’s sacred object (10,4) |
| FISHERMANS RING – FIRING around SHERMAN’S. I didn’t know the term. | |
| 39 | King spotting game likely to crack? (6) |
| CRISPY – C[harles] R[ex], I-SPY. “Spotting game” is very good. | |
| 41 | Cook with waiters at hairdressers in conversation? (8) |
| BARBECUE – Sounds like (ish) barber queue. Did this immediately follow CRISPY on purpose? | |
| 43 | Act nine or younger, daughter! (7) |
| PRETEND – PRE-TEN (ho ho) D[aughter] | |
| 46 | Unfortunate position, awaiting platform alteration? (3,5,4,2,3,6) |
| THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS – DDCDH | |
| 47 | Very soon gold chain added to kitty (8) |
| TOMORROW – OR, ROW on TOM (cat) | |
| 48 | Longchamp favourite hurdling as racehorse (6) |
| CHASER – CHER around AS | |
| 49 | Setter, ‘orrible character (4) |
| AGAR – Hagar the Horrible is a comic strip / cartoon character. | |
| 53 | Bit of a shock? Incorrect exclusion of workforce (7) |
| LOCKOUT – LOCK (a bit of a shock of hair), OUT. | |
| 54 | Where shopper may be brewing (2,5) |
| IN STORE – DD | |
| 56 | Either way, it’s exalted (7) |
| DEIFIED – Palindrome | |
| 57 | Traveller across the sky: path’s shown up in height… (7,5) |
| HALLEYS COMET – ALLEY’S COME in H[eigh]T | |
| 58 | … trail on which I am transported, shimmering with light! (10) |
| IRIDESCENT – SCENT on I RIDE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Botanical garden a nuisance, corporation bringing in bulldozer finally (9) |
| ARBORETUM – A BORE TUM around {bulldoze}R | |
| 2 | Pile on the Thames in use, a few others scattered to the north (8,5) |
| SOMERSET HOUSE – I think this is USE, SOME around (others)*, but in reverse order (to the north). Somerset House is a large Georgian pile on the north bank of the Thames in London. | |
| 3 | Unholy fiend wiping brow (4) |
| EVIL – dEVIL | |
| 4 | Terminal a bit erratic, containing an alloy (9,5) |
| BRITANNIA METAL – (terminal a bit)* around AN. A Britannia metal is a specific type of pewter alloy | |
| 5 | Nick and Bobby (3) |
| COP – DD | |
| 7 | Halfwit forgetting ID, a Greek character (4) |
| IOTA – idIOT, A | |
| 8 | Hark! A berk! Empty orchestra playing, hard to ignore — here? (7,3) |
| KARAOKE BAR – (hark a berk O{rchestr}A)* without H[ard]. Semi &Lit | |
| 9 | Nailed by judge, a blighter hanging (8) |
| TAPESTRY – TRY around A PEST | |
| 10 | Show superhero, say, in image on computer (11) |
| SCREENSAVER – SCREEN (show) SAVER (superhero, say as in a saver of lives). | |
| 11 | Delinquent criminal has worked to rule (5,4) |
| LAGER LOUT – LAG, (to rule)* | |
| 12 | Defeat war machine (4) |
| TANK – DD | |
| 13 | Undercarriage scratched in luxury car, being lower (8) |
| LIMOUSIN – LIMOUSINe | |
| 19 | Huge cable at the back: pull loop to secure it (8) |
| TOWERING – {cabl}E in TOW RING | |
| 21 | High treble producing great number (6) |
| BELTER – (treble)*. Great number as in really good song. | |
| 22 | Fruit stuffed with half of rice — quite like a regular meal is it? (8) |
| SQUARISH – SQUASH around RI{ce}. Is the term “square meal” peculiarly British? | |
| 23 | Alongside cocktail, smart bottles (8) |
| SKIRTING – KIR in STING | |
| 28 | Girl, briefly detained, got the wrong idea (14) |
| MISAPPREHENDED – MIS{s}, APPREHENDED | |
| 29 | Wisdom in place of heroic stories? (8) |
| SAGACITY – SAGA CITY | |
| 30 | Wind best dispersed for couple in boudoir? (4,4) |
| TWIN BEDS – (wind best)* | |
| 32 | Top advisor hopeless in emergencies (8,5) |
| EMINENCE GRISE – (in emergencies)*. Neat anagram. | |
| 33 | Sickly character called out for drink (5,3) |
| GREEN TEA – GREEN (sickly) plus homphone of the letter T. | |
| 35 | Set on reversing unpleasant situation: think about that (11) |
| SUPERIMPOSE – MIRE reversed in SUPPOSE | |
| 37 | Drop a brick into modest drink (6) |
| SHERRY – ERR (to drop a brick) in SHY | |
| 38 | Old musician has piece to play after lifting of short stick (4,6) |
| FATS DOMINO – DOMINO after STAF{f} reversed | |
| 40 | Differing in citadel — or not? (9) |
| IDENTICAL – (in citadel)*, with “or not” referring back to “differing” | |
| 42 | Train that’s amazing loaded with liquor (4-4) |
| CHOO-CHOO – COO around HOOCH | |
| 44 | Shame seeing recording, evidently blushing over it (9) |
| DISCREDIT – DISC, RED, IT | |
| 45 | At the crease, openers bagging runs — people unlikely to applaud? (8) |
| INGRATES – IN (batting, at the crease in cricket), GATES (openers) around R[uns] | |
| 50 | Expression of contempt about Liberal nonsense (4) |
| BLAH – BAH around L[iberal] | |
| 51 | Man say brought up in Helsinki (4) |
| ISLE – reverse hidden | |
| 52 | Beer voucher turned over (4) |
| PILS – SLIP reversed | |
| 55 | First of all, euphonium and reed organ (3) |
| EAR – initial letters | |
D’OH! I was convinced that the anagram at 14ac was a misprint or something because I had an O left over and too many As. I was equally convinced the phrase was “There’s nowt as queer as folk”. Not sure why I didn’t Google the phrase!
I found this very hard, especially getting going in the first place.
If I’ve understood my annotations in the margins correctly I used aids for RARE at 17, which looking at it now seems inconceivable.
I didn’t understand the parsing of AGAR but biffed the answer from ‘setter’. Ditto SCREENSAVER biffed from ‘image on computer’.
I too found this harder than average taking 55 1/2 minutes., of which about 9 minutes was taken over the last 7 answers and I got all the way to 41A until I got an answer at the start. LOI the witty CRISPY and I also liked SCREENSAVE , AGAR and FATS DOMINO. I tried SUBTEND for 43A at first but 28D showed me my misapprehension. Thank-you Penfold and setter.
Just over 57 minutes but using the on-line ‘check’ button. I wonder if others make use of it because I can’t remember seeing any mention in getting on for a year of daily on-line solving. Very handy for confirming a good guess and moving on.
On a separate point – and this may not be the right forum – I do find it a bit tedious to have to re-calibrate with the blogger-of-the-day’s nomenclature. Being comfortable with mathematical symbols I do like Penfold’s.