I haven’t got a solving time for this as I was watching football while solving. It struck me as being a puzzle of around average difficulty (albeit with a fair amount of General Knowledge being required, especially geography, plus some other literary and classical stuff that was beyond my ken) which was lifted by some lovely anagrams.
First in was GO BETWEEN and last was RIGOLETTO.
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 O[ld] B[oy]
| Across | |
| 1 | Moving against him, the writer succeeded in competition honouring Poseidon (8,5) |
| ISTHMIAN GAMES – (against him)*, ME, S[ucceeded] | |
| 8 | Negotiator in attempt to gamble? Small point (2-7) |
| GO-BETWEEN – GO, BET, WEE, N[orth] | |
| 13 | Cast of Brief Encounter (5) |
| FLING – DD | |
| 14 | Talk to an eccentric old goat periodically in city (11) |
| CHATTANOOGA – CHAT, (toan)*, O[ld] G{o}A{t} | |
| 15 | Goldfinger having sport among spooks from the East (5) |
| AURIC – Reversal of R[ugby] U[nion] in C.I.A. | |
| 16 | Fit pair to be worn by Latvian hunchback (9) |
| RIGOLETTO – RIG (fit with sails of fit up) then LETT in OO (two ducks if you like, hence a pair in cricket. I didn’t know RIGOLETTO was a hunchback so more or less bunged this in at the end from checkers. | |
| 17 | Nymph consorting with Zeus evoked memory (4) |
| ECHO – DD | |
| 18 | Name that is embracing artistic work? (8) |
| CALLIOPE – CALL, I.E. around OP[us}, &Lit, with Calliope being the muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry and that. | |
| 20 | Built with steeply angled sides, A&E accommodates female sheep (1-5) |
| A-FRAME – A E around F[emale] RAM | |
| 21 | Troublemaker co-partner at Vogue sacked (5,11) |
| AGENT PROVOCATEUR – (co-partner at Vogue)* | |
| 24 | Game’s instruction given to those who’d dump illegally? (3-3-3) |
| TIP-AND-RUN – DDCDH | |
| 26 | Modernist initially stranded in bog pushed back (1,1,5) |
| T S ELIOT – S{tranded} in a reversal of TOILET. Showing my ignorance again, I didn’t know Eliot was a “modernist” | |
| 27 | Tribesperson expresses disapproval with India (5) |
| TUTSI – TUTS, I[ndia] | |
| 29 | Semite near Moroccan location brought round by hospital in city (5,7) |
| SANTA BARBARA – reversal of ARAB RABAT next to SAN[atorium] | |
| 31 | One such as Caiaphas: when drunk he is right to keep quiet (4,6) |
| HIGH PRIEST – (he is right)* around P[iano]. I Had no idea who Caiaphas was so relied on wordplay. | |
| 33 | Maybe Van Gogh’s content with chronicle being scandalous? (10) |
| INCENDIARY – {v}INCEN{t}, DIARY. Clever. | |
| 35 | Carriage reserved for small charge? (12) |
| PERAMBULATOR – CD | |
| 38 | At first they were all nervy — finally showing pluck (5) |
| TWANG – T{hey} W{ere} A{ll} N{ervy} {showin}G | |
| 39 | Pasta strings, however many? Thousands! (7) |
| NOODLES – N, OODLES | |
| 40 | Man’s woman returned chart (9) |
| HISTOGRAM – HIS them MARGOT reversed | |
| 42 | Conservative turncoat in terribly miserable old political group (7,9) |
| LIBERAL DEMOCRATS – C[onservative] RAT in (miserable old)* | |
| 44 | Image of body shown in court, endlessly deficient (2,4) |
| CT SCAN – C[our]T, SCANt | |
| 47 | Prickly plant in a container like this (8) |
| ACANTHUS – A CAN THUS | |
| 49 | Addict taken in because reoffending (4) |
| USER – hidden | |
| 50 | Dramatic works from poetaster to be rewritten (9) |
| OPERETTAS – (poetaster)* | |
| 52 | Current hopelessness unending in White House (5) |
| IGLOO – I (current), GLOOm | |
| 53 | Forward striking idiot with supporters having invaded (4,2,5) |
| BOLD AS BRASS – BOLD ASS around BRAS | |
| 54 | Port bow turned on changeable current (5) |
| ACCRA – ARC reversed on A/C | |
| 55 | Having knowledge about lake, fish with line in Scottish valley (4,5) |
| GLEN GARRY – GEN around L[ake], GAR, R[ailwa]Y. Most sources appear to indicate that GLENGARRY is all one word. | |
| 56 | Conservationists in state bound to be heard (8,5) |
| NATIONAL TRUST – NATIONAL then a homophone of TRUSSED | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Headless maggot snaffled by young canary (9) |
| INFORMANT – wORM in INFANT | |
| 2 | Catching rook, Pooh’s feline friend makes start (7) |
| TRIGGER – R[ook] in TIGGER | |
| 3 | With which condition one doesn’t normally feel great? (11) |
| MEGALOMANIA – CD playing on abnormality | |
| 4 | Author having four sisters in family occupying rural cottage (6) |
| ALCOTT – hidden. There are four March sisters in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. | |
| 5 | Lovely keyboard instrument in county once (9) |
| GLAMORGAN – GLAM ORGAN | |
| 6 | Bloom reserving different name for female who knows best (6,6) |
| MOTHER NATURE – MATURE around OTHER N[ame] | |
| 7 | Grass skirts with jumper in an estuary (10) |
| SANDHOPPER – SHOPPER around AND. It’s a jumping crustacean | |
| 8 | Good hill climbing finds poet’s cave (4) |
| GROT – G[ood], reversal of TOR. | |
| 9 | Attend a match on sparsely settled land, or prevaricate? (4,5,3,4) |
| BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH – BE AT A BOUT, THE BUSH | |
| 10 | Follower crossing Republican’s path (5) |
| TRAIL – TAIL around R[epublican] | |
| 11 | Nobleman with award for organ piece? (7) |
| EARLOBE – EARL, O.B.E. | |
| 12 | Cold war aftermath? Tough to secure outright victory on retreating! (7,6) |
| NUCLEAR WINTER – NUT around CLEAR WIN then RE reversed | |
| 19 | Medic with a touring car in Caribbean island (8) |
| DOMINICA – DOC A around MINI | |
| 22 | Pioneering MP Nancy — minister powerless! (5) |
| ASTOR – PASTOR missing P[ower] | |
| 23 | Enigmatic librarian! Run to me! Hippasus’ discovery revealed? (10,6) |
| IRRATIONAL NUMBER – (librarian run to me)* | |
| 25 | What should get one well? Old man receives a card (7) |
| PANACEA – PA around AN ACE | |
| 28 | Social networker using rather cute, brief epithet, say (7) |
| TWEETER – TWEE, TER{m} | |
| 29 | Sign refurbished with lilac tint becomes brilliant (13) |
| SCINTILLATING – (sign lilac tint)* | |
| 30 | Secured loan without interest outside bank (8) |
| BORROWED – BORED around ROW | |
| 32 | Shopper in Cardiff perhaps eating fresh brie for snack (5,7) |
| WELSH RAREBIT – WELSH RAT around (brie)* | |
| 34 | On the drink heading to North Country (5) |
| NIGER – reversal of RE GIN | |
| 36 | Be in right gear, good enough to enter lot — centre includes parking (4,3,4) |
| LOOK THE PART – OK in LOT and HEART around P[arking] | |
| 37 | Evidence no longer in circulation wasted on tabloids (10) |
| BLOODSTAIN – (on tabloids)* | |
| 40 | Dish with Castro regularly causing tricky problem (3,6) |
| HOT POTATO – HOT POT, {c}A{s}T{r}O | |
| 41 | Boring people make this missile after bomb (9) |
| MINESHAFT – SHAFT after BOMB. Chambers has “a missile” (especially figuratively) as the 4th definition of SHAFT. | |
| 43 | Unwell when engaged by Scottish bank, touch-type? (7) |
| BRAILLE – ILL in BRAE | |
| 45 | Close the gap almost filled with eastern plant extract (7) |
| CATECHU – CATCH U{p} around E[astern] | |
| 46 | Hostess to an extent in short dress (6) |
| GEISHA – ISH in GEAr | |
| 48 | Band in hotel criminal society guards (5) |
| THONG – H[otel] in TONG | |
| 51 | Amuse very much in Hebridean island — no small island (4) |
| SLAY – ISLAY without I[sland] | |
Much of this was quite easy. Two unknowns were ISTHMIAN GAMES for which I resorted to aids, and CATECHU deduced from wordplay.
At 12dn I don’t understand how ‘tough = NUT’ and at 16ac I don’t think that ‘pair’ is sufficient a clue to 00 – if so, that would open the door to two of any letter possibly being clued as ‘pair’.
Hi John, thanks for dropping by.
In my Chambers app, definition 8 for NUT is “A hard-headed person, one difficult to deal with, a tough”.
As for the pair, in cricket if a batsman scores 0 in both innings that’s known as a pair.
Many thanks. I think the cricket pair may have come up before but I don’t follow the game and had forgotten it.
It has definitely come up, because that’s how I know about it! I think in cricket scoring notation a pair is actually recorded as 00, so it’s not as oblique as it may appear. I may just be making that up though.
Two ducks (scores of zero) are known as a pair (of spectacles) in cricket
After a very busy Christmas period I’m miles behind on my solving, and particularly my jumbos. I did this one because I saw the blog, I still have two previous and all the subsequent ones to do.
I found this quite tricky, and I thought the number of classical and otherwise rather esoteric references quite striking. I managed to get through unscathed, but confess that I checked the games before submitting.
Appreciate the blog. 35ac and 7dn great clues for me.
Thanks for the blog. A very rare occurrence for me here- a complete correct solve, I was lucky with my guess for the city!