A trickyish puzzle for me to blog this time around, taking the thick end of 55 minutes or so. There do appear to be some oblique meanings of words used which may account for the trickiness. I’m not sure why the OUP appears in full in row 17.
First in was MOURN and last was STEADY ON
If any of my explanations don’t make sense then feel free to ask for further elucidation.
The technical stuff:
Clues are in blue 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 a symbol, abbreviation or shortening like N[ew]
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Brings about changes after company drills new men (11) |
| ENCOMPASSES – PASSES after CO[mpany] in (men)*. Our first two slightly out there definitions (encompass / brings about & pass / change, albeit both are in the dictionary, just not too near the top). | |
| 7 | Effective type of voice (6) |
| ACTIVE – DD | |
| 10 | Revolutionary religious adherent shortly becomes despot (4) |
| TSAR – RAST{a} reversed | |
| 14 | Computer-generated pictures essentially spread quickly via social media crowds (7) |
| VIRTUAL – {pic}TU{res} “crowded” by VIRAL | |
| 15 | Secret member of military personnel (7) |
| PRIVATE – DD | |
| 16 | Collapsing on trek with group of like-minded people? (7) |
| NETWORK – (on trek W{ith})* | |
| 17 | Stonecutter is shaping forms again (13) |
| RECONSTITUTES – (stonecutter is)* | |
| 18 | Loaded photo app briefly before major computer supplier withdraws (9) |
| INSTALLED – INSTA{gram} before DELL reversed | |
| 19 | Nick cannot choose trousers … (5) |
| NOTCH – hidden | |
| 21 | … flares, maybe easily taken up with minimum amount of stitching (4,6) |
| VERY LIGHTS – VERY LIGHT, S{titching} | |
| 23 | At last, stock breaks failing walling (6) |
| DYKING – {stoc}K in DYING | |
| 25 | Knock over Welsh girl pressing one EU “capitalist”? (8) |
| PARISIAN – RAP reversed & SIAN around I | |
| 26 | Famous sergeant with my name split nominal payment (10,4) |
| PEPPERCORN RENT – (Sergeant) PEPPER, COR, N[ame], RENT. “nominal payment” and (10,4) is a bit of a giveaway (see also 5d). | |
| 29 | Harsh Republican couple interrupts two types of American (7) |
| ARDUOUS – R[epublican] DUO in A[merican] U.S. | |
| 30 | Denounces administration costs? (9) |
| EXECRATES – EXEC[utive] RATES | |
| 31 | European flower spotted in Seddon, Australia (5) |
| DONAU – hidden. A river. The second longest in Europe, in fact. | |
| 32 | Useless unknown poet (5) |
| DUFFY – DUFF, Y. Presumably Dame Carol Ann of that ilk, Scottish former Poet Laureate. | |
| 34 | An allergy wrongly associated with part of body (9) |
| LARYNGEAL – (an allergy)* | |
| 37 | Relish placed alongside half of cheese roll (7) |
| BRIOCHE – BRIO, CHE{ese} | |
| 39 | Mo nevertheless trashes vacuous revised opinion (6,8) |
| SECOND THOUGHTS – SECOND (mo), THOUGH, T |
|
| 41 | Bobstopper? Prohibit eating smooth mass (8) |
| BRAKEMAN – BAN around RAKE, M[ass]. Member of a bobsleigh team. | |
| 43 | Fine gold and diamonds on neat men’s shirt fabric (6) |
| OXFORD – F[ine], OR, D[iamonds] on OX | |
| 44 | Brown perhaps requires amusement and variety, but neither initially (10) |
| UNIVERSITY – |
|
| 45 | Squeeze media workers (5) |
| PRESS – DD | |
| 48 | Theatre to contend against bingo (9) |
| PLAYHOUSE – PLAY (as in Leeds play West Ham on the last day of the season), HOUSE. | |
| 49 | Lacking resources, pupils endured suffering (13) |
| UNDERSUPPLIED -(pupils endured)* | |
| 51 | Almost nothing kept in containers and tanks (7) |
| PANZERS – ZER{o} in PANS | |
| 52 | Teem with energy, replacing core element of The Apprentice (7) |
| TRAINEE – RAIN, E replacing the H in THE | |
| 53 | Carrier, primarily heavy and unwieldy, that is held by both hands (7) |
| HAULIER – H{eavy}, U{nwieldy}, I.E. in L[eft], R[ight] | |
| 54 | Brook runs with difficulty (4) |
| RILL – R[uns] ILL. “With difficulty” is the 8th adverbial definition of Ill in Chambers. | |
| 55 | Hollow style engages noble illustrator (6) |
| SEARLE -S |
|
| 56 | Having fixation about sitting on outside broadcast (11) |
| OBSESSIONAL – SESSIONAL on O[utside] B[roadcast] | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Borders of eiderdown with very smooth surround (7) |
| ENVIRON – E{iderdow}N, V[ery], IRON. Not a word in daily use for most, I suspect. | |
| 2 | Cruelly misrepresented curate slammed in uncovered scary documents (11) |
| CARICATURED – (curate)* in |
|
| 3 | Miss minute vessel (5) |
| MOURN – MO[ment], URN | |
| 4 | Latin construction, awfully tabu, violates expert checks (8,8) |
| ABLATIVE ABSOLUTE – (tabu violates)* in (checked by) ABLE. I looked up what it meant and still don’t get it. | |
| 5 | Street safe in front of entrance to secure Vatican building (2,6) |
| ST PETERS – ST[reet] (or is it S[tree]T?), PETER (slang for safe as in strongbox, S{ecure} | |
| 6 | County arresting regulars in tussle the day before army case? (11) |
| SHIRTSLEEVE – SHIRE around T{u}S{s}L{e}, EVE. Nice quirky definition. | |
| 7 | Ace service’s collect (5) |
| AMASS – A[ce], MASS | |
| 8 | Enter with terribly hackneyed play (3,7,4) |
| THE WINTERS TALE – (enter with)*, STALE | |
| 9 | Disappear à la goods vehicle? (6) |
| VANISH – DDCDH straight out of the Uxbridge. | |
| 11 | Ungulate surrounded by waste matter, the last to forage on grass (5,6) |
| STOOL PIGEON – PIG in STOOL {forag}E ON | |
| 12 | Swedish house’s fancy skirting boards shunned by foolish Britons (7) |
| RIKSDAG – (skirting boards)* less (Britons)*. Sweden’s parliament. | |
| 13 | Regular partner, saving skin, won’t keep calm (6,2) |
| STEADY ON – STEADY, {w}ON{‘t}. “Keep calm” in its imperative usage. For the record, if I see a mug, tea towel, cushion of whatever with “Keep calm and carry on” on it, it just makes we want to smash the place up. | |
| 20 | Henry I ultimately precedes reactionary King John? (7) |
| HISTORY – H[enry], I, {precede}S, TORY. You don’t often see Tory used to mean reactionary. Presumably the setter is referring to the Shakespeare play in the def, it being a “history play”. | |
| 22 | Mollusc in cleft on banks of Ember (5) |
| GAPER – GAP on E{mbe}R. Not a mollusc I knew. | |
| 24 | Related presidents supporting unwanted party’s repeated growth? (10,6) |
| GOOSEBERRY BUSHES – BUSHES (George W and the other one) under GOOSEBERRY, in Uk sland at least a “third “wheel”, i.e. unwanted person in the company of a couple. Why “repeated growth” though? | |
| 25 | Afterthought with question in the end brings things to mind? (2,3,2) |
| PS AND QS – P.S., AND, Q[uestion], {bring}S. Is this a peculiarly British expression. “Mind your Ps and Qs” is a warning to be attentive to etiquette etc. The origin is unclear. | |
| 27 | Concerning sign of crystalline compound found in wallop (7) |
| TAUREAN – UREA in TAN | |
| 28 | Costly bathroom chased by landlord in message that bond’s been lost (4,4,6) |
| DEAR JOHN LETTER – DEAR, JOHN, LETTER | |
| 31 | Empty glass resulting from overturned dessert containing much ice? (5,2) |
| DRINK UP – PUD{ding] reversed around RINK. | |
| 33 | Cloth to deal with evasive talk (4,7) |
| FACE FLANNEL – FACE, FLANNEL | |
| 35 | Desert negative gentleman, somewhat stuck up (5) |
| NEGEV – Reverse hidden. It’s in Israel. | |
| 36 | Sympathetically understood communist isle limited by international agreement, mostly over (7,4) |
| ENTERED INTO – RED I[sle] in ENTENT{e}, O[ver]. Again we’re into uncommon usage. Def 4 in Chambers and not a usage I can ever recall coming across. | |
| 38 | Contest 50 per cent of common prayer (11) |
| COMPETITION – COM{mon}, PETITION | |
| 40 | Finally exhausts another crude oil source? (5,3) |
| NORTH SEA -({exhaust}S another)* | |
| 42 | Hawks row with disheartened spy groups (8) |
| TIERCELS – TIER, CE |
|
| 43 | In theory, Pulp inspired by remarkable person (2,5) |
| ON PAPER – PAP in ONER | |
| 46 | Sweaty explorer of children’s TV feeds most of brood (7) |
| SUDORAL – DORA (The Explorer) in SUL{k} | |
| 47 | Go after union’s leader, cutting funds (6) |
| PURSUE – U{nion} in PURSE | |
| 49 | Gossip about stopping universal European custom (5) |
| USAGE – GAS reversed in U[niversal] E[uropean] | |
| 50 | Physicist son of Catherine II (5) |
| PAULI – DDCDH. Wolfgang Pauli is your physicist. Paul I of Russia was the son of Catherine the Great (wh0 didn’t die under a horse). | |