This gentle puzzle detained me for no more than 40 minutes including nailing down all the wordplay. Such unknowns as there were were gettable from wordplay and checkers. There wasn’t much anagrammage going on in the acrosses which might have made it tricky for some solvers to make a start. There were quite a few clues I class as DDCDH, where a straight definition is backed up by a cryptic hint that is a sort of secondary quirky definition. The setter carried these off very well.
First in was PESTLE and last was PRECENTOR.
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 G[ood]
| Across | |
| 1 | Pet at the chemist’s, the old story (4,2,5) |
| PUSS IN BOOTS – DDCDH. For the benefit of overseas solvers, Boots is the top high street chain of phaarmacies in the UK. | |
| 7 | He directed men and boys to conserve energy source first (5,6) |
| ORSON WELLES – O[ther] R[anks] (men), SONS around E[nergy] after WELL. | |
| 13 | Brandish gun, a fine specimen (9) |
| SHOWPIECE – SHOW, PIECE | |
| 14 | In brief ceremony almost nothing about one could be more richly stylish (7) |
| RITZIER – RIT{e}, ZER{o} around I | |
| 15 | Plague is to lessen after time (5) |
| TEASE – EASE after T[ime] | |
| 16 | Diver circles a good lake (6) |
| LAGOON – LOON around A G[ood] | |
| 17 | Chief bird showing off (8) |
| SWANKING – SWAN KING | |
| 18 | Cover where some dogs like to sprawl (7) |
| OVERLAP – DDCDH | |
| 20 | Don’t delay rushed, curt thank-you note? (2,4,4,3,7) |
| NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT – DDCDH. I liked this one. Shothand for something like “I haven’t got time to write a full note. I like the present” | |
| 23 | Wrongly suggesting eastern and southern area of US? (7) |
| MIDWEST – The middle of wESt is E[ast] S[outh] | |
| 24 | Wife no longer referred to as aroused (7) |
| EXCITED – EX, CITED | |
| 26 | Convertible option coming from the leader (3,4) |
| TOP DOWN – DDCDH (you could have the top down in a convertible car) | |
| 28 | Overcharge for plant (4) |
| RUSH – DD. I didn’t know the first meaning. | |
| 29 | Find one’s about to enter port (8) |
| DISCOVER – IS C[irca] in DOVER | |
| 32 | Tutor’s work with small son on sci-fi writer (9) |
| GOVERNESS – GO, S[mall] S[on] on VERNE | |
| 35 | Entering hotel, putting specs and card in receptacle (7,2) |
| BOOKING IN – OO (looks like a pair of specs), KING in BIN | |
| 36 | Check competitiveness, not initially courteous behaviour (8) |
| CHIVALRY – CH[eck], rIVALRY | |
| 37 | Swimmer’s blue with cold penetrating (4) |
| SCAD – SAD around C[old]. A fish. | |
| 39 | Buried away from home, with no confirmation of age (7) |
| UNDATED – INUNDATED missing IN (home) | |
| 41 | Plant college in favoured area (7) |
| PETUNIA – UNI in PET A[rea] | |
| 44 | A quiet reputation not at first given to dwarfs’ leader, Bashful (7) |
| ASHAMED – A, SH, nAME, D{warfs} | |
| 45 | Parliament put in a fix by a rigged photo: now there’s a story (3,5,2,4,6) |
| THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER – The only way I can make this work is if “THE CORNER” means “a fix”. Into that is inserted HOUSE, A, (photo)*. | |
| 49 | Look into swimming costume, a bit short for very large figures (7) |
| COLOSSI – LO in COSSI{e} | |
| 50 | Sort of love some tea with meals provided (8) |
| CUPBOARD – CUP, BOARD | |
| 51 | Following collapse close crew’s quarters (6) |
| FO’C’SLE – F[ollowing], (close)* | |
| 53 | Loaded information at end of magazine column (5) |
| SPINE – SPIN, {magazin}E | |
| 54 | Novice to shower wearing shirt (7) |
| TRAINEE – RAIN in TEE | |
| 55 | Piano, late alternative for leader of singing (9) |
| PRECENTOR -P[iano], RECENT, OR | |
| 56 | Digression as man interrupts two relatives (11) |
| PARENTHESIS – HE in PARENT SIS | |
| 57 | Refuse to deal with brawl: I had come in time for a bargain (5,6) |
| BLACK FRIDAY – BLACK then FRAY around I’D | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Pound and a penny: let’s start to eat out (6) |
| PESTLE – P[enny], (let’s E{at})* | |
| 2 | In great misery, God’s help found so transforming (6,2,7) |
| SLOUGH OF DESPOND – (God’s help found so)* | |
| 3 | Better holding is made up (10) |
| IMPROVISED – IMPROVED around IS | |
| 4 | Bowled, do you agree? Not if these result (4) |
| BYES – B[owled], YES. Byes in cricket arise when runs are scored without the batter hitting the ball. You can’t score runs from a ball that bowls you out. | |
| 5 | Compose in too ornate a style, but finished properly, we hear (9) |
| OVERWRITE – OVER the homophone or RIGHT | |
| 6 | Not the usual way to classify (7) |
| STRANGE – ST[reet] (a way), RANGE | |
| 7 | Don’t hold back Lady Macbeth’s feeling about her spot? (3,4,2) |
| OUT WITH IT – DDCDH. Lady M says “Out damned spot” in the Scottish play wot Shakespeare wrote. | |
| 8 | Big band music be hanged (5) |
| SWING – DD | |
| 9 | Most precise projectile fired into sniper’s lair (9) |
| NARROWEST – ARROW in NEST | |
| 10 | Dangerous activity for the most gentlemanly competitor (7,5) |
| EXTREME SPORT – DDCDH | |
| 11 | Brochure made from the tiniest bit of tree? (7) |
| LEAFLET – DDCDH. In a whimsical way a tiny leaf could be a leaflet. | |
| 12 | Oozing round one side of lid, about to drop off (6) |
| SLEEPY – SEEPY around L{id} | |
| 19 | Observe diluted gallon coming to the boil (8) |
| SEETHING – SEE, THIN, G[allon] | |
| 21 | Gang regularly taken in school run a pain (7) |
| PODAGRA – {g}A{n}G in POD R[un]. Gout. | |
| 22 | Unbalanced, I am helped to avoid area (3-5) |
| ONE-SIDED -ONE’S aIDED | |
| 23 | Muslim hermit is around after a month (8) |
| MARABOUT – ABOUT after MAR[ch] | |
| 25 | Senior commander arrests one very unmilitary (5) |
| CIVIC – C[ommander] I[in] C[hief] around I V[ery] | |
| 27 | Not quite get the better of author, more than satisfied with extravagant fee (15) |
| OVERCOMPENSATED – OVERCOM{e}, PEN, SATED | |
| 30 | Tin with dreadful soup — just one star (7) |
| CANOPUS – CAN, (soup)* | |
| 31 | Be in charge and come down to speak (5) |
| REIGN – sounds like RAIN | |
| 33 | In dispute, referee’s assistant intended to ignore fine (8) |
| VARIANCE – V[ideo] A[ssistant] R[eferee], FIANCE without F[ine] | |
| 34 | Philosopher isn’t tweeting nonsense (12) |
| WITTGENSTEIN – (isn’t tweeting)* | |
| 38 | Applause welcoming a huge success for racing driver (10) |
| CHARIOTEER – CHEER around A RIOT | |
| 40 | Supernatural creature I found in gutter, a source of irritation (5,4) |
| DHOBI ITCH – HOB I in DITCH | |
| 42 | Taking principal piece last, fastening up paraphernalia (9) |
| TRAPPINGS – STRAPPING with the S moved to the end | |
| 43 | Novel approach, collecting unknown religious literature (9) |
| APOCRYPHA – (approach)* around Y | |
| 45 | Counter Reformation composer shortly to meet his monarch (7) |
| TALLIER – (Thomas) TALLI{s}, E[dward] R{ex]. Tallis served as a composer and performer for four monarchs including Edward VI. | |
| 46 | Second demonstrator’s moral lesson (7) |
| PROVERB – if the first person demonstrating something is PROVER A then the second demonstrator is PROVER B, as it were | |
| 47 | Law on drink performs badly (4,2) |
| ACTS UP – ACT, SUP | |
| 48 | Settle to repair what’s unravelling? (6) |
| DEFRAY – our final DDCDH | |
| 50 | Blokes’ fortune in type of gas (5) |
| CHAPS – HAP in CS (gas) | |
| 52 | Sparingly eat a measure of grain (4) |
| PECK – DD | |
DNF: NHO DHOBI ITCH. DNK PODAGRA, but that was solvable. I figured 23ac was MIDWEST, but couldn’t see why. I biffed THE HOUSE …, but I’ve never seen ‘the corner’, only ‘a corner’.
I had DHOTI ITCH (not literally)! Silly me.
I think 45A is THE HOUSE (Parliament), and CORNER (put in a fix) by A + PHOTO*, with both the first two equivalences supported by Chambers.
Ah of course, thanks John. I did consider “The House” but hadn’t thought of corner as a verb.
I thought of that, but thought, not having Chambers, that there are two houses.
I didn’t find this at all easy but got there eventually with one resort to aids re SLOUGH OF DESPOND. I kicked myself afterwards as I should have got it but was distracted by ‘In’ which I assumed was in the defintion so I was looking for a different part of speech as the answer.