Another gentle Jumbo on my watch, done and dusted in about 30 minutes, so probably a good puzzle for less experienced solvers to have a bash at. A couple of things might be unfamiliar to overseas solvers, but a bone is thrown to Canadians.
First in was ORBIT and last was NEWFANGLED.
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 R[epublican[
| Across | |
| 1 | Ending piece about Republican revolution (5) |
| ORBIT – OBIT(uary) around R[epublican] | |
| 4 | Victoria’s help with delivery from new coal depots (6,4) |
| POSTAL CODE – (coal depots)*. What we call a postcode is known as a postal code in other parts, including Victoria, B.C., Canada. | |
| 9 | People not taking away snakes (6) |
| ADDERS – DDCDH | |
| 14 | Two articles of clothing for baseball player (9) |
| SHORTSTOP – SHORTS, TOP | |
| 15 | Smug Tories ultimately sad if lefties hammered (4-9) |
| SELF-SATISFIED – ({torie}S sad if lefties)* | |
| 16 | Cool guy declared this is how to reach for the stars? (3,4) |
| FAN MAIL – FAN (verb) then a homophone of MALE | |
| 17 | Back door badly broken by back of steel barrier (9) |
| ROADBLOCK – (back door)* around {stee}L | |
| 18 | Duke abandoning port city (5) |
| URBAN – DURBAN missing D[uke] | |
| 19 | Executive chap beset by widespread rage, unfortunately (7,7) |
| GENERAL MANAGER – MAN in GENERAL (rage)* | |
| 22 | Patent medicine is in no way odd (7) |
| NOSTRUM – NO, S[tree]T, RUM | |
| 25 | Driving force baffled poor, heartless Polonius (10) |
| PROPULSION – (poor Polonius)* | |
| 27 | Experienced four seasons in one day, perhaps? (5-7) |
| BINGE-WATCHED – CD | |
| 30 | Drop, having no power to thrust forward (5) |
| LUNGE – PLUNGE minus P[ower] | |
| 31 | Equality is true thing that sticks out (8) |
| EVENNESS – EVEN, NESS (geographical feature) | |
| 32 | Increasingly arrogant eccentrics losing face over row (8) |
| SNOOTIER – I think the first part is a reversal of lOONS, and that’s followed by TIER | |
| 35 | Nonchalant attempt to disregard the second person suffering (8) |
| CASUALTY – CASUAL, TrY | |
| 36 | Make new modifications to study with lack of partiality (8) |
| READJUST -READ, JUST | |
| 37 | “Top 10 Musicians” possibly featuring unknown composer (5) |
| LISZT – LIST with Z in it | |
| 39 | The way in which you’d ideally see some cricket? (6-6) |
| TWENTY-TWENTY – DD | |
| 41 | Key instrument briefly identified by GP? (5,5) |
| GRAND PIANO – separately, G gives you GRAND and P gives you PIANO | |
| 43 | Muscle aiding flexibility that goes in both directions? (7) |
| ROTATOR – palindrome | |
| 45 | Itch regularly occurring in front section, usually (3,3,4,4) |
| FOR THE MOST PART – {i}T{c}H in FOREMOST PART. Neat. | |
| 48 | Quiet, ill-mannered fuddy-duddy (5) |
| PRUDE – P[iano], RUDE | |
| 49 | Get the jitters about eg your eulogy (9) |
| PANEGYRIC – PANIC around EG Y[ou]R | |
| 51 | A race contest with penultimate round withdrawn now and then (2,5) |
| AT TIMES -A, T[ime] T[rial] then a reversal of SEMI (the penultimate round of a knockout tournament would be the semi-final stage. | |
| 53 | Lights requiring large amounts of current on street and a road (8,5) |
| STANDARD LAMPS – L[arge] AMPS on S[tree]T AND A R[oa]D | |
| 54 | Lowly employee finally quitting after endless stress (9) |
| UNDERLING – {quitting}G after UNDERLINe | |
| 55 | Go too far in dealing with party (6) |
| OVERDO – OVER, DO | |
| 56 | A DJ neatly arranged to tour clubs contiguously (10) |
| ADJACENTLY – (a dj neatly)* around C[lubs] | |
| 57 | Music producer involved in Latina group’s retrospective (5) |
| ORGAN – reverse hidden | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Become inflexible whenever restricted by leaderless authoritarian (6) |
| OSSIFY – IF in bOSSY | |
| 2 | Reward cake with characteristic features (7,6) |
| BROWNIE POINTS – BROWNIE, POINTS. Is this peculiarly British? Chambers defines it as “a notional good mark or commendationfor doing well”. From experience it’s normally something you try and earn from a spouse. | |
| 3 | Fish caught in grate, tragically (5) |
| TETRA – hidden | |
| 4 | Bone from last bit of meat found in rice dish (7) |
| PATELLA – {mea}T in PAELLA | |
| 5 | Put on another thing believed to cover mess up (12) |
| SUPERIMPOSED – SUPPOSED around MIRE reversed | |
| 6 | A book with blotches remains dry (8) |
| ABSTAINS – A, B[ook], STAINS | |
| 7 | To begin with, can everybody list everything by name? (5) |
| CELEB – initial letters | |
| 8 | Record bonus periodically leading to anger and dismay (10) |
| DISCOURAGE – DISC, {b}O{n}U{s}, RAGE | |
| 10 | Kick around entrance to station after outdoor event (7) |
| DISCUSS – S{tation} after DISCUS | |
| 11 | Hired gun deployed to protect British city (9) |
| EDINBURGH – (hired gun)* around B[ritish]. There’s a bit of a double bluff going on here. With British being part of the wordplay you expect the city to be non-British. | |
| 12 | South of France, an Arab League nation (5) |
| SUDAN – SUD, AN | |
| 13 | Kittens now gone astray somewhere in North London (5,9) |
| STOKE NEWINGTON – (kittens now gone)* | |
| 20 | Enthusiastic former taxi company worker? (9) |
| EXUBERANT – EX, UBER, ANT | |
| 21 | Smooth movement of legs said to need manipulation (8) |
| GLISSADE – (legs said)* | |
| 23 | Method helping self-control (10) |
| MODERATION – MODE, RATION | |
| 24 | One administering software left in charge and set up schedule (10) |
| APPLICATOR – APP, L[eft], I[n] C[harge], ROTA reversed | |
| 26 | Magazine’s short metaphor, possibly about football? (9,5) |
| SPECTATOR SPORT – SPECTATOR’S, reversal of TROP{e} | |
| 28 | Bags very nearly start to putrefy sitting in dump for so long (6-3) |
| TOODLE-PIP – OODLE{s}, P{utrefy} in TIP | |
| 29 | Outlet plugged into one new gold Tesla? (8) |
| INVENTOR – VENT in I, N[ew], OR | |
| 33 | Fashionable male with striking social media activity? (13) |
| INSTAGRAMMING – IN, STAG, RAMMING | |
| 34 | Computer user cracked the highest level of authority? (7,5) |
| SUPREME COURT – (computer user)* | |
| 38 | Ostentatiously modern bubbly few in England drunk (10) |
| NEWFANGLED – (few)* in (England)*. I’d always thought this was two words. | |
| 40 | Attendants from part of hospital in the same cohort as us? (9) |
| ENTOURAGE – E[ar] N[ose and] T[hroat], OUR, AGE | |
| 42 | Sanctimonious sort is pompous at heart and mostly tough? That makes sense! (8) |
| PHARISEE – {pom}P{ous}, HAR{d}, I SEE | |
| 44 | Was inclined to accept resistance, and became popular online (7) |
| TRENDED – TENDED around R[esistance] | |
| 46 | Tolerate extremely busy, low-cost air travel option (7) |
| STANDBY – STAND, B{us}Y | |
| 47 | Figure it seems initially futile to head north (6) |
| ISOGON – I{t} S{eems}, reversal of NO GO | |
| 48 | One creating a nuisance over something saucy? (5) |
| PESTO – PEST, O[ver] | |
| 50 | Third best grade from school graduate (5) |
| GAMMA – GAM (school of whales), M[aster of] A[rts] | |
| 52 | At first, teams of rescuers scour one core area (5) |
| TORSO – initial letters | |
Fairly straightforward. I think there’s an equal possibility of {g}OONS reversed at 32ac, although it’s of no consequence.
I had no idea what Victoria was doing in 4ac. At first I assumed it had something to do with Queen Victoria in that it was during her reign that the first stamps were introduced and bore her image, but then POSTAL CODES were not introduced until decades after her demise.
Following on about 32ac – when I wrote it in, I was thinking of {m}OONS. Happy to accept either goons or loons though. As jackkt says, it makes no odds.
I agree this one was pretty gentle. My LOI was BROWNIE POINTS, not sure why, really as it wasn’t hard. My POI was ORBIT, which I couldn’t work out as i was stuck on BIT for piece, so thanks for the explanation on that one, P.
Somehow I remembered GLISSADE (or maybe I constructed it from the anagrist), I think I had GLISSANDO in my mind at the time because “smooth movement” made me think of one of those annoying musical directions clues. Not sure where I got PANEGYRIC from. As I re-read the clue I can see it was pretty generously clued, especially with the checkers in place.
Not too difficult, although I didn’t fully understand Spectator Sport or At Times (thank you trusty Penfold!).
Several good clues. Especially liked Binge Watched and Entourage.
Didn’t get 32a, could parse 31a or 51a, hadn’t heard of 21d.
Couldn’t see why ‘characteristic’ was in 2d, seemed to work fine without it.
Favourite clue: 39a, which is saying something as I normally hate cricket clues.
Worst clue: 14a, because it needed knowledge of an American ball game.