Hi everyone. I feared this would be a toughie when my first pass of the across clues yielded little. However, I’m often just a bit slow to get going and the downs proved more fruitful. Things went smoothly from there, only the musketeer keeping my beyond 45 minutes. (The musketeers live in that I-know-it-if-I-see-it-but-can-never-recall-it place in my brain, where it has to be said they have good company.) Found him in the end, I just had to think beyond name being N. With AMIGO also in the grid I wondered if there were any other single things from famous groups of three, but can’t see anything. All in all, an excellent enjoyment/time ratio – 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 | Mix during school days, linger endlessly about (11) |
| INTERMINGLE — IN TERM (during school days) + an anagram of (… about), LINGEr without its last letter (endlessly) | |
| 7a | Knowledgeable former fairy close outside church (11) |
| EXPERIENCED — EX (former) PERI (fairy) + END (close) outside CE (church) | |
| 13a | Country friar getting God involved in the community (9,8) |
| DOMINICAN REPUBLIC — DOMINICAN (friar) + RE (god) + PUBLIC (involved in the community) | |
| 14a | Unit of fighting Aussies? (5) |
| GAUSS — The CGS unit of magnetic flux density is part of fightinG AUSSies | |
| 15a | Continue without key speaker initially — one with sponsor? (6) |
| GODSON — GO ON (continue) outside (without) D (key) and Speaker initially | |
| 16a | Check concerning injury (8) |
| RESTRAIN — RE (concerning) + STRAIN (injury) | |
| 17a | Conductor of energy in transmitter radio’s covering (7) |
| MAESTRO — E (energy) in MAST (transmitter) + RadiO’s outside (covering) | |
| 19a | Great wolf running in late light (9) |
| AFTERGLOW — GREAT WOLF anagrammed (running) | |
| 21a | Besotted admirer of procrastinator’s credo? (8) |
| IDOLATER — A procrastinator’s credo might be I DO LATER. | |
| Regrettably I do (later): though I have two weeks to prepare these posts, fellow bloggers can see that they seldom appear backstage before Friday | |
| 23a | Horrible-sounding textile worker? (4) |
| DYER — A DYER soundalike: the answer is DIRE (horrible)-sounding | |
| 25a | Ram eating half of lily flower (5) |
| TULIP — TUP (ram) taking in (eating) half of LIly | |
| 27a | Run miles, taking a long time (6) |
| MANAGE — M (miles) + AN AGE (a long time) | |
| 28a | Way to get over fence being protected by coppers in corruption (10) |
| PESTILENCE — STILE (way to get over fence) surrounded by (being protected by) PENCE (coppers) | |
| 30a | Unknown longing to seize time boating (8) |
| YACHTING — Y (unknown) + ACHING (longing) holding (to seize) T (time) | |
| 31a | Big rock concealing grounds is basalt outcrop (6,8) |
| GIANTS CAUSEWAY — GIANT (big) + SWAY (rock) around (concealing) CAUSE (grounds) | |
| 34a | Unsatisfied brick carrier in charge of colleague as if not organised (14) |
| UNMETHODICALLY — UNMET (unsatisfied) + HOD (brick carrier) + IC (in charge of) + ALLY (colleague) | |
| 35a | Badly focused with name unclear (8) |
| CONFUSED — An anagram of (badly) FOCUSED with N (name) | |
| 38a | Fence put round a quiet cove (10) |
| EQUIVOCATE — Make an anagram of (put round) A QUIET COVE | |
| 40a | God’s not started in incomplete heathen temple (6) |
| PAGODA — gOD’s missing its first letter (not started) and found in PAGAn (heathen) without its last letter (incomplete …) | |
| 41a | City guides reported (5) |
| LEEDS — LEADS (guides), homophone (reported) | |
| 43a | Proper sort of number, one short (4) |
| PRIM — PRIMe (sort of number) without the last letter (one short) | |
| 44a | A nice gal? Could be (8) |
| ANGELICA — An anagram of (… could be) A NICE GAL | |
| 45a | Musketeer’s name not available during reinforcement (9) |
| DARTAGNAN — TAG (name) and N/A (not available) in (during) DARN (reinforcement) | |
| 48a | Sailor abandoned seafood (7) |
| ABALONE — AB (sailor) + ALONE (abandoned) | |
| 49a | Insect found in straight banana (8) |
| PLANTAIN — ANT (insect) found in PLAIN (straight) | |
| 50a | Way to precede lowlife with A levels (6) |
| STRATA — ST (way) to precede RAT (lowlife) with A | |
| 53a | Sound of hooter enveloping one (5) |
| NOISE — NOSE (hooter) enveloping I (one) | |
| 54a | Way of changing people’s profession following party (6,11) |
| SOCIAL ENGINEERING — ENGINEERING (profession) following SOCIAL (party) | |
| 55a | Function can end in red getting drunk (6,5) |
| DINNER DANCE — CAN END IN RED anagrammed (getting drunk) | |
| 56a | Scene’s first in sci-fi movie in weird set which lights up regularly (11) |
| STROBOSCOPE — Scene’s first letter in ROBOCOP (sci-fi movie) all in an anagram of (weird) SET | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Reconstructed tiny landing in mad style (11) |
| INDIGNANTLY — An anagram of (reconstructed) TINY LANDING | |
| 2d | Nervous retiring slow information technology (5) |
| TIMID — Reversed (retiring), DIM (slow) and IT (information technology) | |
| 3d | Controlled endless royal household bitterness (7) |
| RANCOUR — RAN (controlled) + endless COURt (royal household) | |
| 4d | Move carefully in check (4) |
| INCH — IN + CH (check) | |
| 5d | Complain audibly after spirit in drink (6,4) |
| GINGER WINE — WINE, which sounds like (audibly) WHINE (complain), after GINGER (spirit) | |
| 6d | Gibson perhaps very tense over axe? (8,6) |
| ELECTRIC GUITAR — ELECTRIC (very tense) above (over) GUITAR (axe) | |
| 7d | Register of names, rough but not right, written up for teacher? (8) |
| EDUCATOR — In reverse (… written up), ROTA (register of names) plus C[r]UDE (rough) but not R (right) | |
| 8d | Hippy Londoner partly observed temple gateway (5) |
| PYLON — Hidden in (… partly observed) hipPY LONdoner | |
| 9d | Bicycle that’s unusual around city taken by criminal (9) |
| RECUMBENT — RUM (unusual) around EC (city) + BENT (criminal) | |
| 10d | English allow catching silver bird (6) |
| EAGLET — E (English) and LET (allow) taking in (catching) AG (silver) | |
| 11d | People with film music (7,3,7) |
| COUNTRY AND WESTERN — COUNTRY (people) + AND (with) + WESTERN (film) | |
| 12d | Slight daughter and I are abrasive with others regularly over years (11) |
| DISCOURTESY — D (daughter) and I + SCOUR (are abrasive) with alternate letters of (… regularly) oThErS over Y (years) | |
| 18d | Bird’s bright red with head of orange (8) |
| FLAMINGO — FLAMING (bright red) with the initial letter of (head of) Orange | |
| 20d | Culminate with emoticon designed for sending a signal? (17) |
| TELECOMMUNICATION — CULMINATE with EMOTICON anagrammed (designed) | |
| 22d | Opposed states beginning to engage (6) |
| AVERSE — AVERS (states) + the first letter of (beginning to) Engage | |
| 24d | British composer almost entirely joyous (8) |
| BLISSFUL — BLISS (British composer, Arthur) + almost FULl (entirely) | |
| 26d | Turning up shoddy stuff I have alleged (8) |
| PUTATIVE — Reversing (turning) UP + TAT (shoddy stuff) + I’VE (I have) | |
| 29d | Unattractive quality of paleness destroyed with suntan (14) |
| UNPLEASANTNESS — PALENESS anagrammed (destroyed) together with SUNTAN | |
| 32d | Physicist Dave Fogg made prof, giving up external positions? (8) |
| AVOGADRO — Removing outer letters (… giving up external positions), dAVe fOGg mADe pROf | |
| 33d | Goodness one’s seen in Queen Victoria over a day (6) |
| VIRTUE — I (one)’s seen in VR (Queen Victoria) + TUE (a day). | |
| I think I initially saw this as VIR over TUE, and indeed it almost works that way, but you’d have to jump through hoops to justify the “one’s” | |
| 34d | University want to include x-ray patent that’s not yet illustrated (11) |
| UNEXPLAINED — U (University) + NEED (want) containing (to include) X (x-ray) and PLAIN (patent) | |
| 36d | Free day I got off to fish (11) |
| DISENTANGLE — D (day) + I + SENT (got off) + ANGLE (to fish) | |
| 37d | What was produced by Midas touch is novel (10) |
| GOLDFINGER — GOLD (what was produced by Midas) + FINGER (touch). | |
| Thanks to Kapietro below for prompting me to separate the parts of the clue | |
| 39d | Admitted being knocked out with iron, not copper (9) |
| CONFESSED — CON[cu]SSED (knocked out) with FE (iron) instead of (not) CU (copper) | |
| 42d | Immorality surrounding a kid minister’s housing (8) |
| VICARAGE — VICE (immorality) surrounding A and RAG (kid) | |
| 46d | Lacking map missing church is simple (7) |
| ARTLESS — [ch]ARTLESS (lacking map) without CH (missing church) | |
| 47d | Agree man’s breaking heart (6) |
| COHERE — HE (man)’s going into (breaking) CORE (heart) | |
| 49d | Empty pie tin which could be used for a pie (5) |
| PECAN — Without inner letters (empty) PiE + CAN (tin) | |
| 51d | One mum served up good old china? (5) |
| AMIGO — I (one) and MA (mum) reversed (served up) + G (good) + O (old) | |
| 52d | Cut cakes up (4) |
| SNUB — BUNS (cakes) going up in the grid | |
DNK PYLON, RECUMBENT in the relevant senses. I remembered DARTAGNAN all right, but couldn’t parse it. 29d was rather infelicitous: ‘ness’ being part of the anagrist of UNPLEASANTNESS. I didn’t like ‘corruption’ as the definition of PESTILENCE, or ‘nervous’ as the definition of TIMID
Possibly the easiest Jumbo ever for me.
About an hour and a half, so pretty straightforward but still about double my PB so not, for me, the easiest Jumbo ever.
At 37dn I felt I needed to lift and separate Midas touch, giving GOLD (what was produced by Midas) FINGER (touch). I liked CONFESSED and VICARAGE, for a run of three consecutive down clues.
I can’t add to your groups of three, but there is a four. In some versions, PESTILENCE is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I don’t think we have the makings of a Nina.
Thank you Kitty for the blog
37d – yes, that is much better, thank you. I’ll update the blog.
This looked rather imposing with all those long words, but turned out to be easier than expected. Raised eyebrows for 56a because, for the first time ever, there was a sci-fi movie that was not ET!
21a was my favourite – idle later.
Thank you Kitty!
All correct with the unheard of RECUMBENT my LOI. Always nice to correctly complete a jumbo so much thanks to the setter and blogger for their efforts.